And lastly there was Camilla D’ Angelo. She seemed like a decent woman. Surely she was too young, and had far too much left to do in life, to be taken out so soon.
So, we’ll make it. It’s not our time. It can’t be.
Just when he thought they actuallymightmake it in one piece, just when they’d slowed enough for him to rake in a shuddering breath, he heard thecrunchof bending metal and knew one of the pontoons had given its all and could give no more.
Everything that came next happened in slow motion.
With the left pontoon crumpled flat, the tip of the left wing dipped into the ocean. And that was all it took to send them into a cartwheel. At first, all he saw through the windshield was clear, blue water as the nose of the plane plunged into the sea. Then all he saw was sky as what was left of the tail section sank into the drink.
The noise inside the aircraft was incredible. Agroaning, crunching, bucklingof metal. He thought he heard the lawyer scream. Heknewhe heard Mia catch her breath; he wasthatattuned to her. And then...
With one final moan, the Otter came to a teeth-rattling halt. The cacophony of noise was diminished to a fewsqueaksandthumpsas loose objects settled into place. And a second later...ear-splitting silence.
For a moment, he remained frozen in place. Long enough to feel them climb the gentle rise of a wave and then slowly slide down the back side of the swell. Then, a fresh punch of adrenaline scorched his veins and lit a fire under his ass.
He did a mental inventory of his injuries while unbuckling himself. A hella bruised knee. Otherwise, nada. As Doc would say, he was “fit as a fiddle.”
Un-fucking-believable.
Scrambling out of the pilot’s chair, he didn’t realize he’d opened his mouth until he heard himself bellow, “Mia!”
Her answer was immediate. “I—I’m okay.” And her raspy voice had never sounded so sweet.
Clambering out of the cockpit—no easy feat since the aircraft had come to rest on its side and there were no horizontal surfaces to walk on—he nearly choked when the first sight to reach his searching eyes was Mia’s pretty face.
She was still strapped into her seat, although she leaned across the one next to her in a fight against gravity. Her hair was a riot of soft waves, proof that she’d been tumbled around like clothes in a dryer. And there was a small scratch on her chin. But apart from that, she seemed unhurt.
A quick scan showed him Doc and the lawyer were in about the same shape. And despite being a lapsed Catholic, he sent a quick word of thanks heavenward.
At some point during the ditching, Doc had regained consciousness. He blinked in confusion when he asked, “What happened?”
“We crashed,” Romeo told him, already on the move because they had minutes, maybe even seconds, before the plane started filling with water.
“Well, why did we go and do that for?” Doc’s tone was disgruntled.
Romeo ignored him as he partially ran/partially crawled over the rear seats toward the back of the plane where the inflatable life raft was stored. “Get unbuckled and get ready to leave the aircraft!” he yelled over his shoulder, coughing slightly as a wisp of smoke caught in his throat.
Velcro straps held the deflated watercraft to the wall. Removing those was easy. It was harderhoisting the heavy valise of rubber and coated polyester through the rear exit hatchway once he got it open. The life raft weighed nearly a hundred pounds, and with the Otter on its side, he was basically heaving the deflated raft straight over his head.
After a couple of seconds, and after alotof grunting, he had the life raft resting on the outside of the plane.
He sure as shit didn’t want it slipping off and sinking—it was their only chance at survival—so he used one of the straps on the giant duffel to secure the raft to a portion of the locking mechanism on the door.
Determination and a cold sense of desperation had him yelling at his passengers. “This way! Quickly!”
He didn’t wait to see if they followed his orders before he began rummaging through the wreckage at the back of the Otter. Twisted metal and the various detritus of a crash met his gaze. But there. There!
He saw what he was looking for and nearly howled with victory that the case of bottled water appeared intact. No crushed bottles. No missing caps. Just twenty-four glorious containers of pure, life-sustaining H2O.
Grabbing the plastic covering securing the bottles together, he lifted, expecting the weight of the water to hang heavy on the end of his arm. But the plastic had been torn, and it ripped away from the bottles in one solid sheet.
Shit!On to plan B.
“Here.” He thrust two bottles at the lawyer, who was the first to make her way to the back of the plane. “Load up as many as you can.”
She blinked at him, not getting why he wanted her to take the water when they’d just crash landed and were about to sink. They had more important shit to deal with, like, you know,notdrowning.
Then understanding dawned in her eyes.
