Chapter Fourteen

Blake

“I’m sorry, sir,” the lady at the airport counter said yet again. “There will be absolutely no flights out for the time being.”

He hated this damn airport and this whole damn island. Blake ground his teeth and stalked back toward the taxi stand, fists balled up into near knots of fury.

He was trapped. Literally trapped in paradise, by a hurricane that was apparently on its way, even though the sky was as blue as could be and the wind seemed just fine to him and Bubba had said hurricane season was over. But planes couldn’t take off, apparently, so now he was stuck on an island without a room, since he’d checked out earlier.

With nowhere else to go, Blake nevertheless had a cab taken him back to the hotel and sank down in a chair in the lobby, wondering where the guy who had been totally at peace with himself and the world had vanished to.

All he could do was pray that Kelly didn’t show up in the lobby with one of her men. He might just kill somebody, and the reason why was something he wasn’t about to acknowledge.

He pulled out his phone, which he apparently hadn’t completely destroyed, even if the screen had seen better days, and tried to call Cole, as he had been on and off for several hours.

“Come on, pick up your phone! Fuck!” Blake muttered.

Probably because of the storm, the connection was incredibly erratic. He had briefly gotten through to his brother’s phone a couple of times, but Cole hadn’t had the chance to answer before the connection cut out again.

Suddenly, the sound of thunder ripped through the hotel, and Blake got up and walked around to face the window. To his surprise, the previously blue sky was now almost pitch black and the palm trees were rocking in a violent wind, seemingly up from nowhere. As he watched, the clouds broke open and hail began to thunder down, in tandem with heavy rains.

Well, shit!

He sighed as he pressed his forehead against the window, refusing to contemplate how this was going to affect construction. The sound of his phone ringing brought Blake back to the moment, and he hastily put his phone to his ear.

“Hello? Hello?” He pressed the phone tightly against his ear, hoping to make the connection before the signal was lost once more.

“Blake?”

“Cole! I’ve been trying all morning to get through to you—what’s the word on the plane?” Blake asked before his brother had the chance to answer. He’d sent a text asking about a private plane, earlier, before he even knew about the hurricane or the cancellations.

Cole cleared his throat, and Blake’s heart sank.

“The bad news is that we can’t even get a flight on anything commercial—they’ve got it all shut down due to the storm, and they aren’t sure when things are going to be up and running again. Looks like you’re going to have to just sit tight for a little while longer. What changed? You were plenty happy before. Didn’t seem in any hurry to get back. Did your girl dump you?”

“Don’t,” Blake warned tersely, so much venom in that one word that even his clueless brother quieted.

“How are things going over there?” he asked, just to say anything at all, since he didn’t know when he might next be able to talk to anyone off the island.

“Well, if Hawk could manage anything at all that would be great, but even if he doesn’t, things are fine. We’re turning more profits this quarter than we originally thought we were going to from the Wellington side of things. I’m sure none of this really matters when you’re stuck on an island paradise, though.”

Cole laughed at his own joke, and Blake swore under his breath once more. He was in no mood to be made fun of or even to be teased in the situation he was in, and he was more than happy to make that clear.

“Well, try not to work too hard, buddy,” Cole said with an obvious smile. He hung up before Blake had the chance to say anything else, and Blake rolled his eyes. He wanted to throw his phone again, but he knew that it wouldn’t do him any good. Frustrated or not, he was stuck on this island until he had a way to get home, and he might as well make the most of it. He pulled out his laptop and set to work, minus any Internet, since that connection was down.

***

Blake managed to get through most of the afternoon with the work that he had given himself, but around five, he knew that he had done all he could for the day. The manager had checked in with him a few times, promising to do all he could to find an available room somewhere on the island, but for the time being he was stuck in the lobby, camped out along with other tourists who had also checked out and then had had no flight to get on.

With a sigh, he shut off his computer and sat back in his chair, thinking. He decided he would go down to the bar. Perhaps there would be some sort of game on he could watch for a while, killing a few hours until there was a break in the storm and he had better hope of escaping to the mainland. He glanced at the storm as he got up, seeing that it was still gusting and thundering, but not understanding why it was so dangerous when it seemed more or less like any other storm he’d ever seen.

Shaking his head, he walked down toward the bar and then stopped cold as he spotted Kelly standing just beside it, staring up at a tall, buff guy, laughing and elbowing him playfully. The guy leaned down to whisper something in her ear and she laughed again, the sound sending shards of glass into Blake’s stomach as though the windows had been shattered by the storm.