Page 59 of Crystal Skies (Stormcloud Station)

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

JULIE FIDGETED FROM one foot to the other and pulled her Akubra down over her eyes to block out the sun. It was bloody hot out here. Why the hell Steve was making her stand out next to the landing pad in this heat was beyond her. He might be ecstatic that their new helicopter and pilot were arriving—it’d been his dream for years now to have their very own chopper—but she really wasn’t that impressed. Agreed, it’d be nice not to have to rely on the charter company as much and to be able to come and go with ease whenever they wanted. But Steve had told her this chopper was going to be primarily used for muster and other errands on the station. It was only a little two-seater Robinson R22, so most of their guests would still be ferried in from Cairns using the charter company. Steve had plans for a bigger helicopter too, but that was later down the track; there was no way Daniella was going to cough up the money for two choppers at the moment.

At least her feet had healed well. For about a week after her escape through the scrub, she could barely walk, and standing for half an hour like this would’ve been out of the question. But like the doctor had promised, her feet had healed, as had the multitude of other small injuries she’d endured. The physical part of her had been cured, but her mental state remained a little wobbly. It was still hard to reconcile the fact that she’d nearly died at the hands of her stalker. Images of Chase during her abduction came back to haunt her when she’d least expect it. The cruel twist of his mouth as he leaned over her while she was paralyzed might suddenly play over and over in her mind even as she sat down to eat dinner with her family. And she often woke drenched in sweat, panting and out of breath as she replayed her run down the creek bed while bullets whizzed over her head. Skylar had been a great help to Julie in those moments. Because she’d also suffered trauma at the hands of her kidnapper, she understood what Julie was going through, and it helped to have someone else to talk to. Skylar assured her the flashbacks and nightmares would fade with time, and Julie took comfort from that.

Skylar had also helped her talk through her confusing feelings of guilt over Maya’s death. A search had uncovered her body in a shallow grave on the outskirts of Chase’s campsite. With Chase dead, they’d never know the truth behind Maya’s murder, but Nash guessed that she’d probably balked at going along with Chase’s senseless plans any longer. Julie knew it was absurd to feel self-reproach over Maya’s terrible demise, but nonetheless, she still wondered if there was some way she could’ve helped the gullible, young woman. She’d obviously been charmed by Chase, persuaded to help him in his sick endeavors, by feeding him confidential information from patient files. Love made you do crazy things, Julie knew that. But when Maya finally came to her senses and refused to go along with her husband, she’d paid the ultimate price.

Chase may well have conned Maya into leaking the details about women who attended family planning clinics for abortions, and then perhaps married her when she started to become suspicious of his motives. But it wasn’t the first time Chase had been married. The police had discovered he’d been married before, and when they interviewed the ex-wife, it turned out she’d left him when she became pregnant, scared of his growing dark side—but not understanding the full extent of his perversion—so she’d got out while she could. Chase found out later that she’d aborted the pregnancy, not wanting to have any connection with him, and he’d erupted into an uncontrollable rage, beating her nearly senseless. The ex-wife had left town the next day, moving to Geelong to get away from him. It seemed Chase had transferred his rage onto other women who resembled his wife, who’d also had terminations, as a sick way to get revenge on his wife.

Julie shook her head, still hardly able to believe there were people in this world capable of such revolting and twisted atrocities.

Nash had conceded they might never know all the details of Chase’s stalking, now he was dead. They still hadn’t figured out how Chase found her at Stormcloud, even after going through all his paperwork and his computer the police had seized from his apartment. One small detail that’d been bugging Julie had been cleared up, however. After questioning everyone who worked or was associated with the lodge, Nash had finally tracked the leaking of Julie’s phone number down to one of the contract cleaners who came out from town to help clean on most days. Maria had admitted that she’d been cleaning Chase and Maya’s cabin, and Chase had stayed in the cabin as she refreshed the towels and scrubbed the bathroom, hovering around and asking her questions. Out of the blue, he’d said he had a complaint he wanted to make, and he needed to talk to Julie directly, as he’d met her a few times and knew she’d handle his grievance fairly. He said he didn’t want to take his complaint to Daniella, as it was a delicate matter. The unsuspecting cleaner hadn’t thought twice about giving Chase Julie’s cell phone number. It seemed reasonable to her that Chase would prefer to talk to Julie, as Daniella could be a little…fierce, at times. Julie had smiled at that and had then gone and personally assured Maria that she wouldn’t be losing her job. Chase was a manipulative, evil man, and it wasn’t the other woman’s fault she’d fallen for his ploy.

Skylar gave a loud sigh from her spot beside Julie, and then pointedly looked at her watch. Skylar was perpetually itching to get back to her kitchen, there was always something that needed tending. At least if Julie had to endure this, everyone else was being forced to witness the new chopper, as well. All the staff, and even some of the more interested guests, were down here. Alek, Bindi, and Sasha crowded behind her and Skylar, talking quietly amongst themselves. Dale and Wazza leaned nonchalantly in the shade by the big river gum down near the edge of the billabong, well away from the flat landing pad that was baking in the sun. Maybe she should go and join them; they had the right idea.

She was about to walk in their direction, when Steve said, “Here it comes.” Barely able to contain his excitement, he was almost hopping from one foot to the other, like a kid in a candy store. A low buzzing sound reached Julie’s ears, and she tipped her head back to scan the sky in the direction her father was pointing.

A white dot appeared on the horizon, flying high above the escarpment. It got quickly closer, morphing into the dragonfly shape of a small aircraft. Once it landed, she’d be able to get back to finishing putting in the order for next week’s groceries for Skylar.

As she waited, her mind drifted to Aaron, as it always did these days. She was planning on flying down to Brisbane in a week or so to see him. Although, she hadn’t mentioned the idea to him yet. She was so desperate to see him. They’d talked on the phone every single day of the six weeks since he’d returned to work. And he’d spent one gloriously short weekend with her at the lodge three weeks ago, before duty called him back to Brisbane. But… It wasn’t enough. They both knew it.

Julie put her hand on her hat as the helicopter dropped toward them, averting her face as it descended, and the rotor kicked up dust and debris.

Steve hardly waited for the pilot to cut the engine, before he jogged onto the landing pad, ducking low to avoid the spinning blades. The door opened and Steve reached in to shake the pilot’s hand.

“Great, can we go now?” Julie asked. Surely that was enough of a ceremony? She’d watched the damn thing land, and admired the new shiny, white fuselage. There wasn’t much more to it. She turned to leave.

“Wait one minute longer,” Daniella said, stepping in front of Julie. What now? Daniella took her by the shoulders and slowly spun her around to face the chopper. It was Skylar’s gasp that made Julie look up as the pilot stepped out of the helicopter.

The figure dashed beneath the spinning blades and then stood to his full height beside her father. Those broad shoulder and big biceps, encased in a tight black T. One blue eye, one brown, regarded her with a hint of an apprehensive twinkle.

“Aaron?” The word left her lips more out of shock than any true comprehension. “What are you…?”

“Hi, Jules.” Aaron beamed, the grin splitting his face from ear to ear, as if he could no longer contain his glee at the secret he’d been keeping. “It was your dad’s idea to keep it a surprise,” he added, as he registered the total confusion on her face. But Julie couldn’t look at her father, she only had eyes for the man standing before her. The smile slowly faded from Aaron’s face when she remained mute, unable to speak.

Vaguely, Julie registered Skylar’s cry of delight from somewhere behind her, and Dale’s whoop of glee from his spot by the tree.

It slowly dawned on her that Aaron had mentioned he had a helicopter pilot license, and he loved to fly in his spare time.

“Is this…?” Her gaze flicked to the gleaming new chopper on the pad. “Are you…?”

“Yes.” Aaron came up and took her by the shoulders, so he could look directly into her face. “I’m the new Stormcloud chopper pilot. But only if you want me to be.”

It took a second for his words to make sense. “You’re not a bodyguard anymore?”

“Nope, I’m no longer a protection agent,” he said with a wry twist to his mouth.

“You’re going to work for Steve? For us?” Her mind was struggling to compute what was happening. Aaron was here? She hadn’t seen him for weeks; hadn’t expected to see him for another week and now he was here, invading her senses, bringing her body alive.

“Yes, as long as that’s okay with you?”

“Oh, my God, you’re here,” she said as the truth finally sank in. She leapt into his arms, wrapping her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck, hugging him tight. “You’re here,” she said again, as the thunderbolt of shock finally morphed into joy. “I missed you.” She gave him her best, biggest grin. To hell with it. She didn’t care that her whole family was watching, she kissed him on the mouth, funneling all her rapture and passion into that kiss.

“I missed you, too,” he said, when she eventually let his mouth go.

Everyone started clapping and Julie unhitched her legs from around Aaron’s waist and let her feet drop to the ground with an embarrassed smile.

“All right, all of you back to work, the fun’s over now,” Daniella clapped her hands, and everyone began to wend their way back toward the lodge. Dale and Wazza called out a welcome to Aaron as they meandered past, and Skylar swung by and gave him a quick peck on the cheek, before she turned and practically jogged up the slope.

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