His Flight Plan Read online

  His Flight Plan

  Yvette Hines

  Last thing he expected was to be captivated by her and have his heart take flight…

  Kiera Stanfield is tired of making bad choices when it comes to men. Her socialite mother and business mogul father haven’t faired any better when it’s come to matchmaking for her either. Believing the right man will never come along she takes herself out of the dating scene. It’s not like she’s going to miss it. Running her community center takes up most of her time anyway.

  Drake Rhine has his hands full being a commercial airline mechanic. As if the problems that entails aren’t challenging enough, his life gets more complicated when, at the end of his shift, he volunteers to help with a difficult customer. What he doesn’t count on is her being thoroughly captivating.

  The last thing Kiera wants is to be caught up in another impossible relationship, but she can’t get Drake off her mind. Will this be just another hopeless relationship doomed to fail, or is Drake her destiny?

  eBooks are not transferable. They cannot be sold, shared or given away as it is an infringement of the copyright of this work.

  HIS FLIGHT PLAN

  Alpha Series

  Copyright © 2015 YVETTE HINES

  ISBN: 978-1-936387-86-1

  All Romance eBooks, LLC Palm Harbor, Florida 34684 www.allromanceebooks.com

  This is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or business establishments, events, or locales is coincidental.

  All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever with out written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  First All Romance eBooks publication: February 2015

  Dedication

  Thanks to my friend and husband, Mr. Blue Collar, for the help on the story. An additional thanks to my readers for picking this unsung hero kind of Alpha.

  Chapter One

  “No, Mom. I’m not going out with your Thursday golfing pal’s son.” She weaved her way through traffic with one hand as she held her cell phone pressed against her face. Her car’s Bluetooth was on the fritz and it was something she didn’t have time to take care of. Normally, she allowed any calls that came in to go to her voicemail and checked them when she stopped, but she was headed out of town. Not to mention it was her mother and she knew her mother would worry her mercilessly while she was gone if she didn’t address the issue at hand. Hell, it was always the same issue with her mother—her lack of dating life.

  “Kiera, why do you always have to be so difficult?” her mother grumbled.

  She whipped around a garbage truck that should not have been in the left lane and pressed out more speed toward the airport exit, then refocused on her mother. “Not. I just don’t want to be fixed up like some business merger.”

  “Ah!” The sound of a harsh breath her mother must have exhaled came through the speaker. “Business is your father’s hat, mine is relationships. Your brother is a great example. I put Samson with Jenni, you know. I can do the same for you.” Jenni was Mom’s Pilates partner’s daughter, and her brother would be marrying her this fall.

  Shaking her head, Kiera didn’t even attempt to remind her mother that she and her brother were on two opposite ends of the spectrum. Samson always made sure he was hobnobbing with the elite and every corporate mogul he could saddle up to. Jenni was an elevation-type move for her brother. Jenni’s father owned Sunray. Sunray was one of the country’s mass suppliers of household appliances and other devices.

  Samson had gotten his Bachelors in Business, with a Masters in Kiss-Ass.

  “No way, no thanks. Look, Mom, I need to go. I’m pulling into the airport long-term parking now. I have to hustle so I don’t miss my flight.”

  “Okay, sweetheart. Text your father when you get in.”

  That was her mother’s way of letting her know that she would be at a function that evening and would not be available to hear her phone. Lola, her mother, the socialite. Richard, her father, the businessman. Amazingly, since she became old enough to start dating her father was the one at home at night.

  “I will text Dad.”

  After the call ended, Kiera tossed her phone into the passenger seat and maneuvered her way through the traffic around the airport. With the construction going on being at the airport was a nightmare. New traffic patterns that most people didn’t see until the last minute caused major backup.

  Finally, she got her car parked. Grabbing her things she raced into the terminal.

  Thirty minutes later when she was settled in her first class seat with a glass of Moscato and a half turkey on rye coming to her, she sighed with relief. This trip was important to her.

  She was meeting with Josh Clarke in Salt Lake City, CEO of the Boys and Girls Club of America. After months of trying to get on his schedule to pick his brain and get his support in her youth community center, she finally got a slot. This meant everything to her. She may be the daughter of rich, affluent parents, but she and Samson had been raised not to depend on their money.

  Her father held the belief that as their parent it was his responsibility to provide for them financially through college. After college it was up to them to acquire their own jobs and build their own careers and financial independence. She and Samson were in her parents’ wills but received no financial assistance or favoritism.

  Samson made sure he always dated the daughters of powerful men to ensure his connections were set with the right people when he was out of college. Now he was getting married and would be acquiring a vice president position at his father-in-law’s company after the wedding.

  Kiera sipped her wine. It disgusted her to think about her brother’s antics. He was like their mother. She on the other hand was exactly like her father, believing that people had to work hard for what they achieved so they could be proud of their accomplishments in the end.

  As the plane gained altitude and headed toward her first and only layover, she closed her eyes and emptied her mind. She’d treat this three-day trip as a mini vacation, something she normally didn’t have time in her schedule to take.

  * * * *

  “Ladies and gentlemen, we are sorry to announce that we need everyone to evacuate the plane,” the flight attendant began over the intercom. “There is a mechanical problem. We thought it would be able to be repaired quickly, but unfortunately that isn’t the case. Please take all your carry-ons and speak with the agent at the counter when you disembark. We apologize for any inconvenience.”

  Kiera couldn’t believe it. After she’d arrived at O’Hare and discovered that she had the option of being bumped to coach because of overcrowding or take the next flight and keep her original section, the one she’d paid for.

  She’d opted for the next flight, because it was only a two-hour difference. Since her meeting wasn’t until the next morning she could take it. However, when she checked in for her next flight she discovered that they had double booked and she still ended up in coach. The only thing she got for her troubles was an apology and a promise of reimbursement of the difference in fare being placed back on her credit card, in a week to ten days.

  Now this.

  I hate Chicago. She should have went with her first instinct not to connect through the Windy City airport. There were always delays and cancellations. But it was the cheapest fare, the closest airport, and the one arriving at the time she desired.

  Frustrated, she grabbed her laptop bag and purse then meander off the plane with the slow mass of her fellow, grumbling passengers.

  After another twenty minutes in line she finally stood before the one Amway Continental Airlines ticket agent they had re-ticketing the passengers on her flight, wh
ile the other agent behind the counter checked-in for the next flight to board.

  Taking a deep breath, Kiera set a smile on her lips. “Hi.”

  “Your boarding pass, please.” The male agent, who was not smiling, held his hand out to her and waited.

  Still holding a smile on her face, she fished the previously scanned slip from her purse and she passed it to him.

  He took the slip, set it down on the counter and began to type, practically ignoring her as he handled her business.

  “I really need to get to Salt Lake City tonight, even if I have to change carriers or fly coach, again.” She made sure he understood that she had already been shifted from her original section on this flight.

  “I will do what I can. However, Miss. Stanfield, I’m not seeing any other flights leaving tonight.” The man’s gaze met hers briefly as he continued his tapping away at the keys.

  “What?”

  “I can get you a seat on the flight that leaves out at eight twenty in the morning.” Tap, tap, tap, his fingers sailed over the keys.

  “That’s not acceptable. I’ve already been bumped once today by your airline screwing up my first class seat.”

  “Um, I see in the notes that you opted to change flights.” His fingers stopped as he nailed her with a direct stare.

  She drummed her fingers on the countertop, attempting to keep herself calm so she wouldn’t go off on the rude man. She could understand that he was probably exhausted from having to deal with so many irate customers, but it was his damn job. “I wouldn’t have had to opt anything if my seat hadn’t been given away…twice.” She held up two fingers. “Now this.”

  “Sorry. Do you want the seat or not?”

  It was on the tip of her tongue to scream not. “Have you checked the other airlines?”

  “Yes, I have. But, all of the seats we are allowed to book have been taken. I can write down the different airlines that have flights leaving out tonight or sooner than eight a.m. tomorrow and you’re more than welcome to go to their agents to make other arrangements.”

  “I’ll call my travel agent.”

  “If you wish.” He returned his focus to the screen, pushed a few buttons then stepped back so he could reach down and grab the printed slips that came out.

  What she wished was to beat the head of the airlines on the skull for having such crappy planes.

  “Here are your boarding passes for the morning. Your luggage will be waiting for you outside of our baggage office on the lower level. The airlines has also comped you a room at a hotel for the night.” He handed her the pass and the voucher for a local airport hotel as he presented her with a smile this time that was so fake it could have been painted on the front of a mask.

  Taking her ticket, she stomped off and let the next passenger enter his hell.

  Following the signs to the baggage claim she whipped her phone out and called her friend Brigitte, her travel agent.

  “Hi, Kiera. Girl, what’s up? You in Salt Lake City already?”

  “Hell no. I’m stuck in O’Hell airport. The place where apparently all planes and passengers come to die.”

  Brigitte laughed.

  “I swear I wouldn’t be shocked to pass by a skeleton sitting in a seat with its carry-on, dusty with cobwebs all over it, still waiting on a flight to somewhere-ville,” she jested. Kiera had to use humor or she was going to snap.

  “Are you calling me to vent or you need me to do something?” Brigitte’s rich German accent came through the line.

  “Both.” She stepped onto a moving walkway that would take her through the concourse to the baggage claim area. “I know you’re off, but can you check and see if any of the other airlines leaving out tonight have any available seats. I’m rebooked for eight tomorrow and that will not work. I have a meeting with Clark at nine. The flight will be longer than an hour.”

  “Give me one second to go into my office.” Her friend pulled the phone away and spoke to whomever she was with.

  “Sorry. I know I probably interrupted dinner with your family.”

  Brigitte worked from home as she cared for her husband and two children. She and Brigitte had met at a spin class and became friends. That had been a year ago, and over the last five months Brigitte volunteered every Wednesday at the youth center.

  “It’s fine. It’s just Dan and I tonight. The kids are with his parents for the weekend. Love my in-laws.”

  Kiera envied her friend. Like Kiera, Brigette was twenty-seven and running their own companies. However, Brigitte had married her college boyfriend and had a family. College had been how she’d come to America, meeting Dan had been what made her stay. Kiera wished she had a Dan in her life instead of all the losers she always ended up with.

  That was her problem; she always seemed to fall for the starving artist type. Musicians or community theater actors. Hell, her last boyfriend well over a year ago had been the painter that created the mural on the side of her youth center. Her assistant’s cousin. After two months, he’d tried to move in with her when he lost his apartment. She paid for everything because he refused to get a real job until he sold enough artwork to open his own gallery. All her exes were nice guys, but just not for her.

  The men her mother fixed her up with were rich, arrogant assholes. Her father had even jumped into the matchmaking service a few months back, which shocked her. She kept clear of any of their country club friend’s offspring.

  “All right, I don’t see anything tonight. However, I do see Delta has a seat available for their six oh five flight. By the arrival time you would get in leaving only time enough for you to go directly to the meeting.”

  “Oh, God, yes. Book it please. I don’t care if the seat is on the tip of the right wing.”

  “Not that bad.” Brigitte laughed. “It’s still a first class seat.”

  “Thanks.” Kiera spotted the passengers surrounding the open door of the baggage claim office sorting through the luggage to claim their own. She started checking tags of all the red suitcases she saw. Years ago, red was an odd enough color that she could pick her bag out a mile away. However, now it seemed to be the new black. “I’ve got to get my bag and head to the hotel. Can you take care of canceling my reservation for this airline at eight?”

  “I’ll take care of it. You be safe and call me after your meeting.”

  “Will do.”

  Finished with the call, Kiera slipped her phone into her purse. She frowned and was starting to get a little upset as she continued to flip one baggage tag after another, not seeing hers, yet all the other passengers were grabbing suitcases and rolling away. One after another left and still she had nothing.

  Going into the claim office for the airlines she approached the bald, deep-brown-skinned man behind the counter.

  “How can I help you?” He looked up and gave her a smile, framed by his goatee. One more genuine than the frustrated agent upstairs.

  “Hi…” she glanced down at his embossed, silver tag, “…Antwan. My name is Kiera Stanfield. I just got off flight 1725—”

  “Headed to Salt Lake City?”

  “Yes.”

  “Sorry about your flight, ma’am. All the bags have been placed out front for your convenience.”

  “No they have not. Mine is not out there.” She was trying to keep her tone nice like his. But she was struggling since she was already pissed about the day. “Will you please look up the tracking number?” She handed him the print out from when she had checked into Charlotte-Douglas.

  “I will. One moment.” He took the paper and set it beside his flat screen monitor, referring to it occasionally.

  She kept her hands linked together on his high counter, attempting to keep from drumming them as the seconds turned into multiple minutes.

  He frowned. “Ah…I see the problem.”

  “What?” She leaned forward and tried to peer over the monitor, even though the way it sat she couldn’t see anything. Set up that way on purpose by the airlines, of course.


  He met her gaze, his smile gone. “Your luggage is already in Salt Lake City.”

  “What! How in the hell did my bags get to my destination but I can’t?” Forget being calm, she was fully pissed off now.

  “It appears that they were already loaded to your original flight leaving O’Hare. Then you changed planes—”

  “I didn’t change planes, I was bumped.”

  He frowned as he placed a single finger on the screen and traced something he was reading. “My apologizes. However, it states passenger requested a later flight. Was comped a first class seat.”

  “Listen, Antwan.” She pressed her palms flat on the counter, but could still feel them shaking from the anger raging through her body. “Hear me well. I feel like I have been repeating myself all damn day.”

  He stepped back and folded his arms over his chest, not in attitude, but appeared to be showing her she had his full attention. “I’m listening.”

  “When I checked in eight hours ago, a flight from Charlotte, I discovered that your airline overbooked the first class section. I was re-booked to coach. I didn’t pay for coach. The agent told me the next flight had a first class seat available. So, I took that one. Since I still had time to reach my destination. However—” her jaw was locking and she was speaking slowly through clenched teeth, “—moments before that flight was boarding I was called to the counter and found out that I was once again shoved back into coach because of some big wig coming. I only took that because I am now on borrowed time to reach Salt Lake City for a very important meeting.”

  “Ma’am?” His tone was low. Almost as if he were speaking to an emotional child he was trying to soothe.

  Kiera realized that she was crying when she felt the streams crawling down along her cheeks. “Oh, God…” Embarrassed at her own breakdown she swiped at her face, not caring if she smeared her make up. Taking a deep breath she worked on calming herself.

  “I surely see your frustration. This last flight had a mechanical and all passengers were set up in a hotel for the night and you’re not leaving until the morning.”