Until tonight. “Are you ever going to fly a chopper again?”
The question, more defense than actual inquiry, replayed in Ty’s ears as he got out of the silent Mustang and headed up to the two-story ranch house that formed the headquarters for the PEAK Rescue team. Their eleven-person team consisted of three EMTs—Gage, Pete, and Jess—their chopper pilot Kacey Fairing, their administrative assistant Sierra Rose, team incident commander Miles Dafoe, country crooner Ben King, and his father, Chet, who started the team way back with its founder, Ian Shaw, and their sheriff department liaison, Sam Brooks. Only Ty was the one without any formal duties. A former helicopter pilot, he now did his rescue duty as a dispatcher, sometimes searcher, all-around pizza delivery guy.
A real asset to the team.
Not that his busted knee didn’t give him legitimate excuse to cut back his hours, but frankly, if he wasn’t going to sit in the copilot’s seat or at the helm, he might as well make coffee and run inventory on the supplies. He didn’t have a medical degree like Jess, didn’t understand the logistic operations like Sam, couldn’t helm a search like Miles or even Pete, who’d recently gotten certified in the government’s FEMA rescue services. He couldn’t even make cookies like Sierra.
Frankly, he felt about as useful as Jubal, Chet’s lab. Maybe less so—at least Jubal knew when to plop down at a guy’s feet with a sigh and make him feel like he belonged.
The truth was, Ty stood on the outskirts of the team since the accident. And if they really knew the details, he’d probably be booted off the crew altogether.
He should probably thank Chet for keeping that part secret. But it was starting to raise eyebrows that the old chief wasn’t hassling him about getting back in the cockpit.
Instead, Ty honed his pizza-ordering talents. A skill met with cheers as he came in and found the team gathered in the kitchen of the small main room, watching the flat screen on the wall. Miles and Ben sat on the sofa in the middle of the room; Ben held a harmonica and was showing his daughter, Audrey, how to cup it in her hand. Miles bounced Huck, his two-year-old, on his knee, and his wife, Jenni, held their baby girl in a front pack, a seven-pound, one-month-old bundle of time-to-get-serious for Miles. He’d hung up his bull-riding spurs for Jenni and little Gracie May.
Ty slid the boxes of pizza onto the counter. “Two large pepperoni and sausage pizzas, no mushrooms.”
Gage had walked in behind him, slid onto a stool at the counter.
Sierra stood in the kitchen, opening a bag of plastic cups. She was dressed in a pair of track pants and a sweatshirt, her short dark hair tucked behind her ears. “Awesome. I was hoping someone would bring pizza.”
Kacey Fairing, with her wild red hair held back in a ponytail, was cutting up a pan of lasagna, something that looked homemade. Probably Sierra’s doing. Or Willow’s, Sierra’s younger sister, who was taking a batch of chocolate chip cookies from the stove. She wore her long brown hair in two braids.
“Thanks for sending the chopper today, Chet,” Gage said as he reached for a red Solo cup and filled it with cola.
Chet King, their former chopper pilot. The guy who still hobbled around on two crutches as his hips mended from the crash that had nearly ended their lives last spring.
The crash Ty had caused. He still couldn’t look at Chet without wincing.
“Did your dad patch the kid up?” Chet asked.
“Yeah,” Gage said to him. “My mom saw him in recovery, said he was doing okay.”
“My favorite surgeon,” Chet said.
Ty picked up the remote. “What channel is this thing on?”
“Channel eleven.” The voice came from the man seated at the computer. Ian Shaw. “But it’s going to run numerous times over the weekend, so hopefully we’ll get the right leads.”
Next to Ian sat Sam Brooks, deputy sheriff and liaison to the PEAK team from the Mercy Falls EMS department, headphones around his neck. He was out of uniform tonight in a pair of jeans and a button-down shirt. “The call center will route all calls here, allow us to vet the callers, interview them, and piece together leads.”
Ty still couldn’t quite figure out why Ian had spent the past eight months, and who knew how much money, helping to identify the remains of the woman who’d been found by their team in the Avalanche River last summer. Clearly, it wasn’t his niece, but the man could spend his billions how he wanted.
“Shh, the show is coming on,” Ben said.
Ty popped up the volume with the remote. Only then did he realize that Pete and Jess were missing.
Pete and Jess. Who had nearly become a couple last summer. And, except for Jess’s secrets, might be living happily ever after today.