Reilly's Woman Read Free Page B

the casinos for the tourists and the gamblers."
    "Say," Grady paused, turning a curious look to her, "did you tell me that you were in the South Pacific for a time?"
    "Guam and Hawaii."
    "I was there when I was in the service—and I'm not going to tell you how long ago that was!"
    A steady flow of questionsbegan as Grady probed her memory to see if she had been to places he had visited, then compared her descriptions to what he remembered.
    Gradually they talked themselves out and drifted into silence. Leah gazed beyond her window reflection at the star-sprinkled sky in the east. She felt sublimely relaxed.
    "If you feel like nodding off," Grady spoke quietly, "you can crawl back to your old seat. At least there, you can stretch your legs out without fear of bumping any controls."
    With a contented sigh, she agreed. "I think I'll do that."
    It was a bit easier negotiating the tiny aisle, although Leah took care not to waken the sleeping Reilly. As she turned to slide into her seat, she noticed the inky blankness of the sky directly ahead.
    "It's very dark ahead, isn't it?" she questioned Grady softly.
    "It must be frontal system. I think I'll check with the weather bureau and see if I can get an update on it."
    He made the call while she buckled her seat belt. The answering transmission didn't carry clearly to her, but Grady passed the message back.
    "The front beat us to Austin. You'd better buckle in tight—it might get a little rough." Then he glanced over his shoulder at the sleeping figure. "Reilly!"
    "I heard you," came the quiet reply. With calm deliberation, Reilly straightened and tightened his seat belt.
    "I thought you were asleep." Leah spoke without thinking.
    "I was."
    There was not a trace of sleepiness in his voice. She decided that he wakened as quickly as he went to sleep.
    Â 

 
    Chapter Two
    Â 
    A BLACK VOID yawned ominously around the twin engine plane. Jagged splinters of lightning rained fire in the sky. Turbulent cross-currents of air alternately tugged and pushed at the plane.
    At each bone-shaking bounce of the plane, Grady throttled back to avoid putting any more stress on the structure than necessary. The buffeting only increased in intensity.
    "Reilly!" Grady called for him to lean forward, not taking his eyes off the gauges and dials bouncing with the plane in front of him. The dark-haired passenger loosened his seat beltslightly and bent toward the pilot. "It's only going to get worse. I'm going to try to fly around it. Okay?" he shouted.
    "Okay." The voice that agreed didn't sound at all troubled by the weather.
    Leah, despite all her trust in the competency of their pilot and the airworthiness of the craft, found tremors of fear shuddering through her. She tried to forestall the guilt feeling of cowardice with knowledge that only a fool wouldn't be afraid.
    Still, she held her breath as Grady slowly banked the plane toward the east, trying to outrace the storm and sneak in around it. Sliding a rounded look to the man next to her, she decided that behind that expressionless face, he must have nerves of steel.
    A severe downdraught sucked at the plane, nearly taking Leah's stomach when the plane groaned free. The pitch blackness that surrounded them was only broken by fiery tongues of lightning licking the air around them. The plane continued bucking through the turbulence.
    "I can't get above this stuff!" Grady shouted. "I'm going to take her down a couple of thousand feet and see if it's any calmer."
    No reply was necessary. Leah doubted if her dry mouth and throat could have made any. It felt as if they were diving, but she knew it was a controlled sideslip downward.
    Through the mirrorlike reflection of the window, Leah watched the pilot gently levelling the wings out. Lightning flashed ahead of them, its brilliant yellow-white light lasting for several seconds.
    "Sweet Jesus!" Grady's mutter of angry prayer reached Leah's ears at the same instant that she saw the mound of