Page 4

FOUR

Tiikaan Rebel might possibly be the most fascinating man Merritt had ever met. He screamed capable and a little wild, right down to the bandage wrapped around his bicep that peeked out of his t-shirt sleeve.

Something about the relaxed set of his muscles or the fact that he hadn’t bothered with dressing better than a black t-shirt and worn jeans to meet his new boss gave a natural air of confidence Merritt wished she had.

But if Merritt didn’t do some fast talking, he would two-step right back out the front door.

The phone call from her stepbrother, Silas, yelling at her about a budget Rachel, his sister and CFO of Harland Global Resources, Inc., wouldn’t increase, hadn’t put Merritt in the right mindset for this interview.

She’d already been nervous about meeting the Alaskan who occasionally flew his YouTube influencer sister around. That call set her completely off-balance.

“I kind of get the impression you weren’t expecting a woman.” She hoped her tone was teasing and kind, but from the way he clenched his jaw and the spark of challenge in his eyes, she bet she missed the mark.

“Honestly, I didn’t have time to research who I’d be flying around, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.” He lounged in the chair like he didn’t have a care in the world.

Merritt envied that.

No.

That wasn’t correct.

She loved the responsibilities she had in her philanthropy work. It was tiring and, at times, heartbreaking. Still, her soul screamed to be back where warmth and love flowed despite the circumstance. She pressed her body more rigidly against the chair and her arms on the rests so she didn’t fidget or bounce her legs.

“I appreciate you putting a hold on your normal summer ventures to fly me––”

“Merritt!” Rachel’s banshee screech was punctuated with the slam of the front door.

Merritt flinched, and Tiikaan’s eyes went wide as he looked over his shoulder, then back at her.

What little thawing she’d allowed of herself since opening the door to Tiikaan quickly hardened. She couldn’t show weakness in front of her family, not if she didn’t want them to pounce on her like a pack of wolves and rip her to shreds.

“Merritt, how could you?” Rachel stomped into the doorway, her blue eyes that matched her mom’s burning cold.

“If you don’t mind, I’m with someone.” Merritt shuddered at how easily the bored tone she’d adopted as a teen came from her mouth.

“Oh, I do mind, and this Podunk bush man can wait.”

Tiikaan’s entire body stiffened, and Merritt’s face and neck tingled. Could Rachel be any more stuck-up? Definitely. But Merritt refused to allow Rachel to spew her false sense of elitism on anyone.

“Rachel, I am in a meeting with one of the state’s most renowned pilots.” Merritt kept her voice even, cool, though she wanted nothing more than to shout her displeasure. “You will not waste his time nor mine with whatever problem you think you have. We will talk when I am done.”

Did her stepsister take the clue?

Of course not.

Classic Rachel.

“Oh, we’ll talk now, renowned pilot or not.” Rachel was building up so much steam, Merritt swore any second Rachel’s head would explode. “You think you can just walk in here after being away for nine years, plop into Dad’s chair, and do whatever you like? We’d all just bow down? All hail the uneducated Queen Merritt on her stupid high horse?”

Merritt never understood how Dad hadn’t seen this side of Rachel. Maybe that was what made mean girls so effective at what they did.

She should just follow her dad’s example and truly cut off all of her stepfamily. Sure, she’d be left with a multibillion-dollar business with no experience in mining and none of its executive officers, but it might be worth the stress if she didn’t have to deal with any of them ever again.

“We will talk when I am done.” Merritt leaned forward in the chair, praying Rachel would just leave.

“No. I?—”

“I’d be very careful with what you are about to say right now.” Merritt leaned back in the chair and stared down her stepsister with all the frigid emotion she’d always given Merritt.

“I—”

“Your next five seconds decide your future, Rachel.”

Her mouth dropped open. “You wouldn’t.”

Merritt lifted her eyebrow in challenge. Rachel’s eyes narrowed, and her chest heaved. Finally, she spun and stomped to her office down the hall. The door slammed, and Merritt barely contained her flinch.

The silence in the room settled heavily on Merritt. A palpable bubble that shrank around her, threatening to suffocate her. Knowing that her father was truly gone and that all she had left in the world was a family who hated her and a business she had no clue how to run would crush her.

Surely it would.

She looked up and was met with dark-gray eyes assessing her. Exposing her for the fraud she was. She took a deep breath and cleared her throat.

“Sorry, Mr. Rebel. I’m afraid your introduction to Harland Global Resources hasn’t been the best.” Merritt scooted forward on her chair and forced herself to hold his gaze.

“It’s one that’ll be hard to forget, that’s for sure. ”

Tiikaan tipped his head and raised his eyebrows in an expression she couldn’t place as entertained or surprised. Maybe a bit of both.

“And it’s Tiikaan. Alaska’s just one small community spread across a lot of land. Formalities don’t have much need among friends.”

Friends? When was the last time she had one of those?

Colleagues, yes. But friends? She honestly couldn’t remember.

He was just making a point about the chasm between his world and hers, not actually offering friendship, but her eyes stung with tears nonetheless. She nodded, kept her smile small, and blinked a few times so he hopefully couldn’t see the emotion building beneath the surface.

“Merritt.” She cleared the roughness out of her voice. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Tiikaan.”

Something crashed from down the hall. Of course, Rachel wouldn’t quietly stew. No. She’d want the world to know she was upset.

There’d be no escaping her, not with the house being their workspace and living quarters. Merritt would be stuck in this prison for God knew how long.

The feeling of suffocating was so overwhelming she wanted to beg Tiikaan to fly her to Fairbanks so she could get the first flight out of Alaska. She didn’t even care where it flew to. She just needed to be far from there.

Yet she couldn’t.

Not if she wanted to figure out how her dad died.

And why.

Another crash, and Merritt had to get out of there. She stood so abruptly the chair rammed into the windowsill behind her.

“Can I buy you dinner?” It was an awkward invitation and not the words she wished to say.

Now that they were out, she realized just how much being with someone normal somewhere other than there called to her.

He pressed his lips together, glancing out the window behind her like he wanted to escape, and she knew she had to talk fast. “We could talk about the details of the job, and even if you decide not to take it, you’d get a good meal out of it.”

His gaze slowly came back to hers. The unwavering sense that he was measuring her and finding her lacking filled her. Or maybe that was her own doubts speaking.

She held his stare, even though all she wanted to do was disappear. Vanish from the life she’d pretended didn’t exist and reappear in the life she enjoyed.

The left corner of Tiikaan’s mouth tipped into the first genuine almost smile she’d seen from him. “Sure. I’ll drive.”

She grabbed her purse from the desk drawer and the folder with the information he’d need and followed Tiikaan back out through the house. As she watched him confidently stride through the gaudy living room, she realized it was a trait she’d noticed in the little interactions she’d had around town. Everyone seemed to know who they were.

Sure, she hadn’t met everyone, and Alaska had the third highest suicide rate in the nation, so they couldn’t all be content. Yet there was an ease with a lot of them, an acceptance of their circumstances and making the most of them. She’d seen it in so many of the orphans and refugees over the years, too.

Joy despite the pain.

So why, when she had the world at her fingertips, was she so miserable?

A cold sea breeze hit her face the instant she stepped outside and snaked its way down her collar, knocking her to her senses. There wasn’t time to be melodramatic. She had an empire to run and a murder to solve. Whining about her lack of joy was pointless.

Tiikaan sauntered to a hideous hatchback that looked like an eggplant with rust. A giggle escaped before she could swallow it. Biting her lip to keep her grin contained, she opened the passenger door and almost lost it.

Someone had taken a Bedazzler and gone to town. Settling into her seat, she couldn’t help but scan the decorations.

“I know. It’s an assault on masculine pride.” Tiikaan shrugged his shoulder. “Guess it’s a good thing mine is overinflated.”

He shot her a smile and a wink. She laughed and shook her head. This was by far the strangest interview she’d ever conducted.

Granted, she hadn’t done many, but she doubted future employees flirted with their employers. Though he wouldn’t really be an employee. As a contractor, he’d just be a fellow entrepreneur.

Which meant he was totally fair game .

She looked at him out of the corner of her eye as he backed down the drive. Good-looking didn’t begin to describe him. Ruggedly handsome? Closer.

Something about his dark beard, toned body that she bet was honed in the mountains, and calm dark gray-blue eyes that reminded her of the ocean out her office window when the sky was clear gave her the impression he could handle himself in any situation. Even being demeaned by spoiled socialites.

She cleared her throat. “I’d like to apologize again for Rachel’s behavior. I wish I could say it’s because of Dad’s death that she acted that way, but she’s always been...”

How do you describe someone who put the TV and movie caricatures of rich brats to shame?

“An odious little monster?” He glanced at her with a lift of an eyebrow, then turned back to the road with a shake of his head. “Sorry. I just kind of felt like Epimetheus for a moment back there.”

Her breath hitched, and a smile stretched across her lips. “You’ve read Hawthorne’s Tanglewood Tales ?”

“Guilty.” He tipped his head to the side. “My mom read it aloud to us when I was around nine. Can’t tell you how many times I’ve thumbed through my copy just to read a story over again. Anyway, we’d always joked that kids throwing tantrums were odious little monsters, but I shouldn’t have said that about your sister.”

“Stepsister and it correctly describes her.”

In fact, Pandora’s box was the perfect analogy for Merritt’s life. More than one ugly Trouble swarmed her. Though she doubted Hope was left in the box.