I was surprised to see the pizza delivery van here already. The driver had texted me a million questions about driving through the small airport.
"It's not like LAX," I reassured her.
I didn't even have to tell Sam to tip her. He was already out of his van and at the driver's window, accepting the pizza boxes and handing her a tip.
"Your boss already tipped me," she said.
"He tips half up front and half when you deliver." Sam handed over the $50.
Her mouth dropped open when she saw me. "Aren't you that guy from the news?"
I took the pizza boxes from Sam, and he forkedanother hundred from his wallet. "No. He's here on business."
She looked at the bill in her hand and made a happy sound. "Yeah, okay. Thanks!" She threw the van in reverse and drove away from us before I could say a word.
"You'd better get out of here as soon as you're refueled," Sam said.
"Agreed."
He grabbed the bags from the front seat of his van, and we walked back to the plane. Amber already stood at the bottom of the stairs. "Piece of pizza for the road?" she asked.
"You weren't the one stranded on the space station for a week." It took effort to withhold a growl.
"Boss ordered pizza for us back at the office." Sam's grin and wide eyes made him look like a caricature of himself. "Right, Boss?"
"I do not pay you enough," I said to him. "I'll order as soon as we're in the air. It should arrive about the same time you do."
Sam took Amber's arm and winked at her. "See? Why have one piece of pizza when you could have the whole thing?"
She shook her head. "Clearly, I do not think big enough for this operation."
Loftus, my pilot, was still fueling the plane. That was the best part about this airstrip. The fueling stations were spread out, one for each landing strip, and we had our own. As long as my dad didn't land here within the next fifteen minutes, we were as good as gone, vanished into the wind for a few months whilemy loyal employees figured out my dad's plans for my wolfy abilities.
The plane was eerily quiet when I entered. I could hear the engine cooling, but I missed the sound of Gunnar's soft snores.
I didn't find him in the cabin or the bedroom. After everything we'd shared, everything I'd done for him, had he decided to run? LA was no place for a wolf to hide.
I dashed toward the open door and almost ran right into the wolf in question, though he was in his human form. "Where were you?" I sounded frantic, but I didn't care.
"Amber introduced me to Loftus and said they could show me how this thing works." He shrugged. "I've always been interested in aircraft, and Loftus answered all my questions."
I patted my pilot's shoulder as they boarded the plane. "Thank you."
"You picked a good one, Boss." Loftus's genuine grin surprised me. "Knows how to admit when he doesn't know something. It's been ages since I've met someone who didn't claim to fly one of these better than I do." They grinned. "Last one was you, and you were ten."
"Fuck all the way off, Loftus. You haven't been flying this thing since I was ten." We were almost the same age, though they had flown all over the world for Paskal Enterprises when their dad was Ivan's pilot.
"Didn't say I was the one showing you the ropes." They grinned, and then squinted their eyes in pain. Their dad had passed away two years ago, but talking about him hadn't gotten any easier.
"Sorry." I patted their shoulder again. "We both miss him."
"Every damn day." They gave me a slight nod and brushed past me into the cockpit. "Wheels up in five, seatbelt sign off in fifteen. Do what you must with that disgusting pizza."
"Disgusting?" Gunnar asked as he followed me into the cabin.
"They don't eat meat," I said. "Their dad died of liver cancer. Probably all the alcohol he drank, but Amber likes to bitch about processed meat, so … " I trailed off at Gunnar's horrified expression. "You all right?"
"Y'all are so fucking privileged, you think you can pinpoint what causes cancer? Shit, where I came from, we had pesticides in the water, but nobody did anything about them and tried to blame other things."
