âSometimes,â he said softly. âFamilies just happen.â
Coleâs hand was warm, strong. He didnât immediately let her go, and a strange feeling surged up her arm, pushing into her chest.
Time seemed to stop. She stood still and drank in his appearance. He was such a gorgeous, sexy man. His smoke-gray eyes were dark with emotion. She noticed once again that his shoulders were broad, arms toned, chest defined. He seemed to radiate a power that was more than just physical.
She fought another urge to go to him. It couldnât happenâ¦not this time.
* * *
The Missing Heir is part of the No.1 bestselling series from Mills & Boon>® Desireâ¢â Billionaires and Babies: Powerful menâ¦wrapped around their babiesâ little fingers.
One
Cole Henderson propped himself against a workbench in Aviation 58âs hangar at the Juneau, Alaska, airport and gazed at the front page of the Daily Bureau. He realized news of the Atlanta plane crash deaths should make him feel something. After all, Samuel Henderson had been his biological father. But he had no idea what he was supposed to feel.
A nearby door in the big building opened, letting in a swirl of frigid air and blowing snow. At ten oâclock in the morning, it was still dark outside this far north.
His business partner, Luca Dodd, strode in, crossing the concrete floor alongside the sixty-passenger Komodor airplane that was down for maintenance.
âYou looking at it?â Luca asked.
âIâm looking at it,â said Cole.
Luca tugged off his leather gloves and removed his wool hat. âWhat do you think?â
âI donât think anything.â Cole folded the paper and tossed it on the bench behind him. âWhatâs to think? The guyâs dead.â
A drill buzzed on the far side of the hangar, and the air compressor started up, clattering in the background as two maintenance engineers worked on the engine of the Komodor.
âHe was your father,â Luca pointed out.
âI never met him. And he never even knew I existed.â
âStill...â
Cole shrugged. His mother Laurenâs marriage to billionaire Samuel Henderson, whose family owned Atlanta-based Coast Eagle Airlines, had been short-lived and heartbreaking for her. Sheâd never hidden Coleâs heritage from him, but sheâd certainly warned him about the Henderson family.
âEight dead,â said Luca, spinning the paper so the headline was right side up.
âSounds like it all went to hell in the final seconds.â As a pilot, Cole empathized with in-air emergencies. He knew the pilots would have been fighting to safely land the airplane until the very end.
âEarly speculation is a combination of icing and wind shear. Thatâs freakishly rare for Atlanta.â
âWe all know how bad that can go.â
âAn Alaskan pilot might have helped,â said Luca.
Cole didnât argue that point. Pilots in Alaska had more experience than most in icy conditions.
He glanced over his shoulder at the headline once again. On a human level, he felt enormous sympathy for those whoâd lost their lives, and his heart went out to their friends and family who had to go on without them. But for him personally, Samuel Henderson was nothing but a stranger whoâd devastated his motherâs life thirty-two years ago.
By contrast, when his mother, Lauren, had passed away from cancer last year, Cole had mourned her deeply. He still missed her.
âThey put up a picture of the baby on the website,â said Luca.
The article had mentioned that Samuel and his beautiful young wife, Coco, had a nine-month-old son, who, luckily, hadnât accompanied them on the trip. But Samuelâs aging mother and several company executives had been on board when the family jet had crashed into the Atlanta runway.
âCute kid,â Luca added.
Cole didnât answer. He hadnât seen the picture, and he had no plans to look at it. He wasnât about to engage in the Henderson tragedy on any level.
Luca leaned forward, putting his face closer to Coleâs. âYou do get it, right?â
âWhatâs to get?â Cole took a sideways step and started walking toward a hallway that led to the airlineâs offices. November might be Aviation 58âs quietest month, but there was still plenty of work to do.
Luca walked beside him. âThe kid, Zachary, is the sole survivor of that entire family.â
âIâm sure heâll be well cared for.â For the first time, Cole felt an emotional reaction. He wasnât proud, but it was resentment.