Page 6 of Wood Riddance
It left me with few options. I was a pilot, and that was where my job experience started and ended. The US Navy had seen to that. I’d moved home two years ago after being promised steady employment with the family business, top-of-the-line equipment, and the potential to develop and launch my own business.
Henri was a good guy. Like his dad, he commanded respect and was known to be honest and fair. Our dealings since my return had been nothing but professional, and he had given me no indication that he was holding my father’s crimes against me.
His sister was a different story.
It was no secret that she hated my family, and by extension, me. There was a time when a truce had been a slight possibility, but that ship had sailed when we’d all learned the truth: my father had murdered her father to protect his drug-smuggling operation.
She hadn’t gouged my eyes out yet, though. That was a feat in itself and a testament to the type of people the Gagnons were. Good, honest, upstanding. Worlds apart from the elder generation of Heberts.
Their father, Frank Gagnon, had been a beloved member of the community. Charitable and loyal, he adored his wife and four kids and went out of his way to help anyone who needed it.
My father, by comparison, was obsessed with money. He’d cheated on my mom, neglected and emotionally abused his six sons, and alienated almost everyone in this town. And that was before all the crime. Oh so much crime.
But work was work. And I wasn’t qualified for much else.
I refused to not be involved in my daughter’s life, so I’d do whatever it took to make a living. And my dad, from his prison cell, was in no position to help finance the flight tourism business I dreamed of and had been working toward. So I’d have to start from scratch.
And the Gagnons needed a pilot.
“There are plenty of other qualified people in the area,” she groused, refusing to even look in my direction. Adele was probably the most terrifying woman I’d ever met. And, in my book, that was a compliment of the highest order.
Right now, she was wearing coveralls that were unbuttoned and tied at the waist, leaving her in a black tank top that showed off her muscular shoulders and small, round breasts.
She had a long, graceful neck and always wore colorful jewelry. Today she was sporting dangly rainbow earrings. Her dirty blond hair was piled on top of her head in a messy knot, with pieces escaping in every direction.
She was arresting and so damn distracting. I could almost imagine what it would feel like to tuck a piece of that hair behind her ear. Or caress her soft cheek while she looked up at me with those dark blue eyes.
Years ago, I had jokingly called her She-Ra, and I stood by that comparison today. She was a princess of power. Sadly, she was directing that power at me, as if I were her enemy. I’d be lucky if I left this building with my balls intact.
Henri pinched the bridge of his nose and huffed. I didn’t envy his position. The lumber industry was tough, and working with family came with its own set of challenges. “He owns a plane, Adele. We need a plane.”
She snorted. “His daddy bought it for him.”
Henri ignored her. “Now that we’ve purchased the new acreage, we’ve got major work to do. Planning and surveying and road repairs. We need a pilot. Finn needs work and is more than qualified.”
“I’ve got drones too,” I added.
“No one asked you,” she snapped, her irises twin blue flames of hatred.
Henri gave me a tense smile. “Yes. Top-of-the-line survey drones. And he’s trained to use them.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Adele planted her hands on her hips and glared at her brother. “You’re hiring him because he’s got cool toys? What is this? Grade school?”
Gritting my teeth, I dropped my chin and let out a slow breath. I knew there would be hostility. Hell, I faced hostility everywhere I went these days. But I wasn’t interested in taking continuous verbal abuse from this woman.
Despite her obvious physical charms, Adele Gagnon was far from my favorite person. And while we had once shared a brief connection, it was clear she’d prefer if I stayed as far away from her and her family business as possible.
I stood and stuffed my hands into my pockets. “I can give you a minute.”
“Sit,” Henri barked at me, though he never took his eyes off his sister.
“I don’t take orders from you,” Adele said in a petulant tone reminiscent of my ten-year-old daughter’s when she was displeased with me.
Across the room, her shoulder muscles flexed as she crossed her arms over her chest. Adele and I went to the same gym, and I’d be lying if I said she didn’t fascinate me and impress me every time I saw her. I secretly looked forward to bumping into her there, both because I enjoyed pissing her off and because I liked looking at her.
Adele had the kind of traffic-stopping beauty that, when combined with her surly, go-fuck-yourself attitude, shriveled the balls of most men in her vicinity.
But I was not most men. She intrigued the hell out of me. There was a time, in fact, when I had been so taken with her that I planned to get to know her better.
