Whatever he was doing seemed to be working, however. Because slowly—too slowly for Mia’s peace of mind—the Otter pulled itself out of its heavy bank.
“What happened?” Cami cried out to no one in particular as Romeo urged the aircraft to climb higher into the sky, despite the plane having turned into a drunken bird. Its wings rollicked back and forth.
“Feels like a tailstrike!” Romeo called above thebeep, screech,andhonkof alarms.
Mia wasn’t sure what atailstrikewas, but she assumed the name said it all.
Craning her head around to stare into the back of the plane, she fully expected to see mangled metal and a hole the size of a refrigerator where their tail section should’ve been. She was relieved when all she saw was smoke.
Of course, her relief only lasted a second because...smoke!
Just like snakes, no one wantedsmokeon a plane!
She gripped the armrests so tight her fingers hurt. Her blood seemed frozen in her veins despite the pounding of her heart.
BreatheRomeo was always telling her.
Good advice. But how was she supposed to follow it when she was about to be one in eleven million?
Those were the odds of being in a plane crash. Alexandra Merriweather had shared the statistic with Mia the day Romeo had landed them in the storm and Mia had admitted to Alex she’d been sweating bullets the entire flight.
But just in case Idon’tend up being a statistic...
“I’m unbuckling to check on Doc!” she yelled to Romeo.
“Damnit, Mia!” he shouted. “You—”
“He’s hurt!” She cut him off and knelt next to Doc, who hadn’t moved a muscle since going down.
She was no doctor, but she’d taken three Wilderness Medicine courses. In her line of work, she was often far from the nearest clinic or hospital. It behooved her to know how to throw a stitch or brace a broken bone.
Propping her back against the bulkhead to steady herself, she pressed two fingers to Doc’s carotid. When she felt the steady hammer of his pulse, she let loose with a windy breath of relief. Then she grabbed his right hand and pinched the space between his thumb and forefinger, nearly crying out with happiness when his hand contracted. She did the same with his left hand and got the same results.
No difficulty breathing. No obvious muscle paralysis. I don’t think we’re dealing with a broken neck. So that leaves...
As gently as she could, she turned Doc’s head. Bright red blood slid beneath his ear and stained the collar of his T-shirt.
Probing his skull, she found a goose egg behind his left ear. But thankfully, when she carefully palpated the bones beneath, there was no crackle or flex that would herald a cracked cranium.
“He hit his head!” she yelled in the direction of the cockpit. “I don’t think his skull is fractured, but he’s out cold!”
“Is there any way to secure him?” Romeo’s voice was tight with tension.
That probably scared Mia worse than anything. If Mr. Cool, Calm, and Collected was anxious, they reallywerein trouble.
“We can try!” she called and glanced up to see Cami had once more shoved her sunglasses onto her head. The woman’s dark eyes looked nearly black inside the paleness of her face, but her voice was steady when she asked, “How can I help?”
“Let’s see if we can drag him into your seat.”
The lawyer nodded mutely. And even though her hands shook, she was able to get her seat belt undone in a flash. She knelt on the floor on the other side of Doc’s prone body.
Doc wasn’t fat by any means. In fact, he had the rangy build most people associated with a mountain man from the wilds of the West. But nearly six and a half feet of big bones, wiry sinew, and lean muscle still weighed a ton.
Mia and the lawyer grunted and strained and heaved and huffed. It was like trying to lift a 220-pound ragdoll. But after a little maneuvering and a lot of cussing on Cami’s part, they were finally able to hoist him into Cami’s vacated seat.
The lawyer kept him upright with both arms wrapped around his chest while Mia cinched the belt snug across his waist. Once he was strapped in, they gingerly lowered him until his head hung between his knees and his arms dangled down until his big hands lay palm up on the floor.
It was as close to a “brace” position as they could manage with an unconscious man.
