Thoughts of him or the others being injured finally spurred Kaamisha into motion. Her eyes flew open, and she looked around with wide eyes and a gaping jaw.
Dangling directly in front of her face was an oxygen mask she hadn’t had time to use. A few seats had come unbolted from the floor, two having fallen completely onto their sides.
Panels from the jet’s curved ceiling hung open to reveal wires and other necessary parts underneath. Glasses that had been used for drinking lay in shards on the floor beneath a few of the seats, and the door to the cockpit had been completely ripped from its hinges.
Dear God.
Her hands shot to the buckle, her fingers trembling as they fumbled to release the metal clasp so she could be free. Kaamisha pushed herself up, only then fully realizing the plane had come to a rest at a slight angle to her left.
A man coughed, and she immediately turned to her right as Lucky and Chase both stood cautiously from their seats.
“Holy shit!” Chase looked at her and then at the unbelievable scene around them.
Lucky hollered out loud, “Is everyone okay?”
Something pulled her focus back toward her left, and that’s when she saw him. Donovan was on the floor of the plane, his body perfectly still, and there was a small pool of blood forming beneath his unmoving head.
“Donovan!” Kaamisha called out his name as she stepped over debris that had made its way into the carpeted aisle.
Several low curses sounded as Lucky and Chase followed. Logan and Archer appeared in her peripheral as she dropped to her knees next to where the former SEAL lay.
“Donovan?” She reached toward his neck, the tips of her fingers pressing against the warmth of his skin. Her shoulders fell with a rough exhale when she found his pulse still beating strong and steady. “He’s alive!” she announced to the others with a quick glance over her shoulder.
The relief on the other four men’s faces was clear, as was the love they possessed for their teammate and friend.
“Somebody stay with him,” Logan ordered. There was a small stream of blood dripping from a cut in his cheek. “I’ll go check on the pilot.”
“We need to get outside,” Archer announced. “That’s jet fuel I’m smelling, and a single spark in the wrong location could blow us all to smithereens.”
“What about him?” Kaamisha looked to them all for an answer. “He’s still unconscious, and the back of his head is bleeding.”
“Put pressure on the wound,” Lucky ordered. “Chase, Arch, and I will start moving some of this stuff out of the way, and then we can carry him outside.”
With a plan in place, she and the others went into motion. As directed, she slid a hand to the back of Donovan’s head, wincing for the pain she knew he’d feel upon waking when she found the source of the bleeding.
To keep from injuring him further, she kept his neck as steady as possible while the other men worked. Her heartbroke when Logan returned with the news that the pilot of the plane hadn’t made it out of the crash alive.
“He’s gone.” The man who’d once led Donovan and his team into battle looked grim. “Looks like his neck was broken on impact.”
Kaamisha closed her eyes and said a prayer for the man’s soul, as well as those who were left behind to mourn him.
“How’s Van?” Logan asked while helping the other two clear a path from where Van lay to the cabin’s main door.
“Still unconscious,” she told him. “But he’s breathing, and his pulse has remained steady and strong.”
“Probably just got his clock cleaned good,” Archer muttered as he worked.
“How’s the bleeding?” Lucky asked next. The man’s blue eyes were filled with worry for his friend.
“I think it’s slowed down some,” Kaamisha answered. There was a lot, and the warm liquid already coated her fingers and hand. “What about emergency services?” She tried peeking out the window above where she sat. “Does the airport have an ambulance on standby, or?—”
“No EMS.” Logan shook his head. “This airstrip is privately owned, and the guy it belongs to put it in the middle of nowhere for a reason.”
“Don’t worry.” Chase squatted down beside her. “Our client is one of the good guys. He’s just a verywealthygood guy, and that makes him a target for all kinds of evil.”
Like Logan, the team’s sniper looked a little banged up with disheveled hair and a cut on one side of his forehead.
“How’s he doing?” Archer returned as the other three men positioned themselves around Van’s body.
