He chuckles as he starts flipping switches. “We can’t do this right now.”
“Do what?” I ask innocently, even as my cheeks burn. How the hell does he know what I’m thinking? And what is wrong with me? I’m not normally needy like this.
He peers up at the daunting ridges and the wisps of cloud hovering around them. “We’re going to go through the pass to look for the Lannerds.”
Thoughts of climbing onto Jonah’s lap fade as real life takes over. “We can’t land up there, can we?”
“Not likely, but we should at least look.”
I should have known Jonah would want to do that. He doesn’t seem the type to be able to report a missing person and then simply move on with his day. I sigh with a hint of trepidation. “Okay. If you say it’s fine.”
“It is. Trust me.” Jonah smooths his hand over my thigh, and my blood begins to race. “We can revisit that other conversation later. But for right now, I need your focus. And your eyes.”
“And they definitely said they were going up into Rainy Pass?” I ask as we clear the last section of the mountain range, having found no signs of the hikers but plenty of tense moments where the cloud cover shifted to mask entire peaks. Dense trees and a vast system of lakes stretch before us, as far as my eyes can see. I sink back into my seat, taking what feels like the first deep breath since we took off, wishing for a stiff drink.
Jonah holds up a creased piece of paper with a map and a hand-drawn line with several x marks. “This was the planned route they gave me just in case.”
Which we basically just flew over, as much as we could, anyway.
“So, now what?” I wince, the bumping and jostling from the turbulence having done little good for the blossoming caffeine headache behind my eyes.
Jonah’s shrewd gaze studies the fuel gauge as he bites his bottom lip in thought. “Man, Wren and Aggie are gonna be pissed.”
“Why?” I ask warily.
“Because they hate it when I change plans.” Jonah’s hands are tight on the yoke as he dips our plane to the right and brings us around. “And I’m changing plans.”
“There!” I shriek, my adrenaline surging as I stab the air. A sagging yellow dome tent sits on the ridge to our right. One person—likely a female, given the long ponytail—is jumping up and down, frantically waving her arms in the air. The person beside her remains seated on the ground, propped up by a pile of rocks and covered by a neon-orange blanket. “Is that them?”
“They’re way off course, but yeah, pretty sure that’s them. And he’s hurt.” Jonah eyes the flat patch of ridge behind them with a calculating look that makes my stomach drop.
“You can’t land here.”
“I’ve landed on worse.” After another moment of consideration, he shakes his head. “I could, but I wouldn’t get back up with the added weight.” He curses under his breath, and then with a sigh, he tips the wing toward them before leveling off. A signal that we’ve noticed them.
The woman falls to her knees and throws her arms around the man’s neck, and I’m hit with a wave of chest-warming relief. God only knows what their story is, and what the situation is, but her joy is unmistakeable, even from the air.
Jonah gets on the radio. Within minutes, a search-and-rescue team have the couple’s coordinates and a helicopter is en route.
“How’d you know to look here?” Jonah veered off in another direction on the way back.
“Just a hunch. Sometimes people get these two rivers mixed up.” He drags a finger along the photocopied map. “They were smart enough to camp out where they did, though. If they’d stayed down here, there’s no way we would have seen them and who knows how long it would have taken the rescue guys to fly out this way. They could have been out here for another week, easily.” His chest heaves with a sigh and I catch the faintest “thank God,” under his breath.
“That would have really bothered you, huh.”
“It would have bugged the shit out of me,” he admits. “I would have dropped you off, fueled up, and come right back.”
“Is that why you were in such a rush to get back in the air?” He wasn’t being an ass. Well, maybe he was, but it’s more that he wanted to find them.
Jonah pauses. “Nah. I was just afraid you’d take off your clothes again.” His lips twitch as he tries to hide his smile.
I give his arm a playful smack and the corners of his eyes crinkle with his smile.
He reaches down to squeeze my hand before putting it back on the yoke. “Come on. Let’s go home.”
“This is gonna be a treat,” Jonah mutters, steering the plane in with an air marshal’s guidance, his blue gaze on Agnes as she marches toward us.
“She doesn’t look angry,” I say doubtfully. Agnes’s face is typically serene. Sure, there’s no wide smile to greet us. If anything, she seems hesitant to approach.