Life Flight

by Lynette Eason

  “Life Flight by Lynette Eason is a heart-stopping, breath-stealing masterpiece of romantic suspense! I read it in one gulp and could not put it down. It’s the best novel I’ve read this year. Highly recommended!”

  Colleen Coble, USA Today bestselling author of A Stranger’s Game and the Pelican Harbor series

  “Ready for a book that is a race from page one to the end? Then you need to read Life Flight, the latest from bestselling author Lynette Eason. The pages hurtle us from a life flight that crashes in the North Carolina mountains to a race against time and a serial killer. Laced throughout are enough additional plot lines to keep the characters desperate to figure out how to stay one step ahead. Layer in a blossoming romance, and this book has all the ingredients for a story I could not put down. I highly recommend this for those who love romantic suspense with enough twists to keep the most astute reader guessing.”

  Cara Putman, award-winning author of Flight Risk and Lethal Intent

  “A life-threatening medical emergency, a helicopter crash, and an escaped serial killer . . . Lynette Eason packs in all the ingredients for a thrilling edge-of-your-seat read! Life Flight will grip readers by the throat on the very first page all the way to the shocking ending, leaving them gasping for breath.”

  Elizabeth Goddard, bestselling author of Present Danger and the Uncommon Justice series

  “Lynette Eason’s latest book, Life Flight, grabs you from the opening words and doesn’t let go until the final chapter. I’m green-eyed with envy over her ability to craft such a heart-pounding, nail-biting story. I know one day she’ll even teach me how to write the sweet romance she so effortlessly weaves into her suspense novels. Another outstanding winner!”

  Carrie Stuart-Parks, award-winning, bestselling author of Relative Silence

  “Once again, Lynette Eason delivers a suspense-filled romance in Life Flight. Prepare to stay up all night as this book grips you from page one and won’t release you until the satisfying conclusion. The twists and turns had me holding my breath. Highly recommend!”

  Robin Caroll, bestselling author of the Darkwater Inn series

  “When you pick up Lynette Eason’s Life Flight, buckle up and brace for a wild ride! The story dips, twists, and spins with danger and deception on every page, all leading to the breath-stealing conclusion.”

  Lynn H. Blackburn, award-winning author of the Defend and Protect series

  Books by Lynette Eason

  WOMEN OF JUSTICE

  Too Close to Home

  Don’t Look Back

  A Killer Among Us

  DEADLY REUNIONS

  When the Smoke Clears

  When a Heart Stops

  When a Secret Kills

  HIDDEN IDENTITY

  No One to Trust

  Nowhere to Turn

  No Place to Hide

  ELITE GUARDIANS

  Always Watching

  Without Warning

  Moving Target

  Chasing Secrets

  BLUE JUSTICE

  Oath of Honor

  Called to Protect

  Code of Valor

  Vow of Justice

  Protecting Tanner Hollow

  DANGER NEVER SLEEPS

  Collateral Damage

  Acceptable Risk

  Active Defense

  Hostile Intent

  EXTREME MEASURES

  Life Flight

  © 2022 by Lynette Eason

  Published by Revell

  a division of Baker Publishing Group

  PO Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287

  www.revellbooks.com

  Ebook edition created 2022

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

  ISBN 978-1-4934-3416-9

  Scripture quotations are from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  Baker Publishing Group publications use paper produced from sustainable forestry practices and post-consumer waste whenever possible.

  To my incredible family,

  many of whom are in the medical field.

  Thank you for your dedication and commitment

  to helping the sick.

  Contents

  Cover

  Endorsements

  Half Title Page

  Books by Lynette Eason

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  Epigraph

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  11

  12

  13

  14

  15

  16

  17

  18

  19

  20

  21

  22

  23

  24

  25

  26

  27

  28

  29

  30

  31

  32

  33

  Author Note

  Another Thrilling Story from Revell

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Back Ads

  Back Cover

  But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

  —Isaiah 40:31

  CHAPTER

  ONE

  OCTOBER

  THURSDAY AFTERNOON

  Today was not going to be the day they died—not if she had anything to say about it. EMS helicopter pilot Penny Carlton tightened her grip on the throttle of the MBB Bo 105 chopper and prayed the wind would calm down long enough to get their patient to Mercy Mission Hospital on the other side of the mountain.

  Flying in bad weather was nothing new, and Penny often did it without hesitation, knowing it was a life-or-death situation. But today was exceptionally bad, with rain and ice slashing the windshield, requiring all of her concentration to keep them on course. Not to mention in the air as the potential of icing increased.

  “Come on, Betty Sue, you can do this. We’ve come this far, we’re gonna make it, right?” Penny talked to the chopper on occasion—mostly when she was worried.

  She’d protested the flight to her supervisor, and he ordered her to do it or find another job. With only a brief thought that she should walk away, her mind went to the person in jeopardy. At the time, the weather hadn’t been nearly as violent as it was now, so she’d ignored the weather warnings and agreed, praying they could beat the storm long enough to get in, get the patient, and get out.

  Unfortunately, things hadn’t worked out that way, and now she battled the weather while fifteen-year-old Claire Gentry fought to live.

  Claire had been hiking with friends along one of Mount Mitchell’s most rugged trails when a gust of harsh wind had blown her off balance and over the side of the mountain onto a ledge below. Once the rescue team had gotten her back up, it was Penny’s turn to make sure Claire lived to see sixteen. “How’s she doing back the
re?”

  “Not good,” Holly Cooper said into her mic. A nurse practitioner, Holly could handle just about any medical emergency that came up. However, controlling the weather was out of their hands. “Raina, hand me that morphine,” she said. “She’s hurting. And get pressure back on her side. She’s bleeding again.”

  Raina Price, the critical care transport paramedic, moved to obey. The three of them had been saving lives together for the past twenty months.

  Thunder boomed and lightning lit up the sky way too close for comfort. Penny tuned out the familiar beep and whine of the machines behind her, knowing the best way she could help Claire was to get her to the hospital.

  A hard slam against the left side of the chopper knocked the cyclic control stick from her grip, sending them sideways. Yells from Raina and Holly echoed in her ears. “Hold on!” Penny grabbed the stick, righted the chopper, and pushed the left antitorque pedal, the helicopter sluggish in response to her attempts to turn it into the wind.

  “Penny! What’s happening?”

  “We got hit with something! I think it damaged the tail rotor. I’m going to have to land it.”

  “You can’t.” Holly’s calm words helped settle her racing pulse. A fraction. “Claire’s most likely going to die if we don’t get her to the hospital.”

  The wind threw them into a rapid descent, sending Penny’s stomach with it. The chopper wasn’t spinning, so the tail rotor wasn’t completely damaged, but something was definitely—desperately—wrong. “I don’t have a choice!” They would all die if she didn’t do something now. She keyed her microphone and advised air traffic control of the emergency and their approximate location.

  “. . . breaking up . . . please repeat.”

  Penny did and got silence for her efforts. “Mayday! Mayday. Anyone there?”

  Nothing. She was out of time.

  The instrument panel flashed and went dark. “No, don’t do that! You’re not supposed to do that.”

  “Do what?” Holly yelled.

  Penny ignored her and got a grip on her fear while she tried to make out the fast-approaching ground amid flashes of lightning. The last one allowed her to spot a small neighborhood with a row of houses farther down the side of the mountain—at least she thought that’s what she saw. The storm was now raging, visibility practically nil.

  She would have to go by the memory of the brief glances. The top of the mountain had looked flat with a bare area where she thought she could safely land. Or at least not crash into trees—or homes.

  The throttle was set, controlled by the governor. Now all she had to do was point the nose of the chopper downward to keep them from entering an out-of-control spin. “Come on, girl, you can do this,” she muttered. “We can do this. Just a little farther.” The trees were somewhere straight ahead. The loose watch on her left wrist bounced against her skin in time with the movement of the chopper.

  “Penny!” Holly’s tightly held fear bled through her voice. “Tell me what we’re doing.”

  “Just focus on your patient and I’ll get us on the ground. We’re going to be fine.” Please, God, let us be okay. Please. She’d trained for this. Over and over, she’d practiced what to do if she lost a tail rotor or had engine issues or whatever. The engine was still good, and a Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm could perform amazing aerobatic maneuvers when called on. For a brief moment, her panel flickered to life and she quickly checked her altitude and airspeed. So far, so good. For now.

  “I can do this,” she whispered. “Come on, Betty Sue, please don’t quit on me now.”

  They’d all trained for situations like this. Mostly, focusing on how to keep the patient stable in the midst of an emergency landing. Landing, please. Not a crash.

  When her panel fluttered, then went dark once more, she groaned and squinted through the glass. More thunder shook the air around them, but the nonstop lightning was going to be what saved them.

  The landing spot she’d picked out wasn’t perfect, but it would have to do. At least it was mostly flat—and big. “Brace yourselves,” she said. “It’s going to be a rough landing, but we are going to walk away from this. All of us.”

  The tops of the trees were closer than she’d like, but the small opening just beyond them was within reach. “Almost there!” A gust of wind whipped hard against her and debris crashed into the windshield, spreading the cracks. Penny let out a screech but kept her grip steady. “Come on, come on.” She maneuvered the controls, keeping an eye on the trees through the cracked windshield. Okay, the tail rotor was responding somewhat. That would help. “We’re going to have a hard bounce! Be ready.”

  She whooshed past the trees, their tips scraping the underbelly of the chopper, but she cleared them. Her heart pounded in her ears. Down, down . . .

  The helicopter tilted, the right landing skid hitting first and sliding across the rocky ground. A scream came from the back and supplies flew through the cabin. Something slammed into the side of Penny’s helmet, and she flinched and pushed hard on the collective, angling the rotors, desperate to get both skids on the ground. They bounced, rocked, then settled on the skids. Upright and still breathing.

  She’d done it. She was alive. They were alive. With shaking hands, she shut down the engine and took off her helmet. Thank you, Jesus.

  She turned to see Raina and Holly unbuckling their safety harnesses. Holly dropped to her knees next to the patient while Raina dabbed at a cut on her forehead.

  “You okay?” she asked Raina.

  “Yeah. This is minor compared to what it could have been.”

  “How’s Claire?” Penny asked.

  “Hanging in there,” Holly said. She pulled the stethoscope from her ears. “Where are we?”

  “I don’t know, but there’s a rescue team on the way. I hope.” If they could get through. Even now, the rain and wind whipped at the chopper body. “We just need to stay put until someone comes.”

  Raina met her eyes. “You did good, Pen. I don’t know how you did it, but you did.”

  Penny wasn’t sure either. “God did it. I was praying the whole time, so that’s the only explanation I’ve got.”

  “Yeah.”

  She needed to check the chopper and see what the damage was. Not that she could fix it, but . . .

  She glanced upward. “Thank you,” she whispered.

  Holly shot her a quick look. “What?”

  “Nothing.” Penny eyed Claire and didn’t like what she was seeing. She snagged the radio again. “Mayday, Mayday, Mayday. This is Medevac 2646 advising of an emergency landing somewhere on top of Mount Mitchell. Requesting immediate extraction. Four passengers. One critical. Over.” Then waited. No reply.

  With another glance at her passengers, she tried one more time, all the while knowing it was useless. “Mayday, Mayday!”

  No response.

  “Okay, that’s not good,” she muttered. She snagged her cell phone from her pocket. One bar. She dialed 911 and waited. The call dropped. She tried again with the same result. If she had a sat phone, she could use that, but she didn’t have one, and she didn’t have time to be angry over the reason why.

  Think, Penny, think. She turned back to the others, who were monitoring Claire. “Holly, I can’t get a signal and nothing’s happening with the radio. I’m going to have to try and walk until I get something.”

  Raina scowled. “Stupid mountains.”

  “All right, here’s the deal,” Penny said. “I have no idea if anyone heard my Mayday—or anything else. You guys keep Claire stable. I’ll be back as soon as I can get word to someone where to find us. I saw a few houses scattered in the area. I just need to find a road and follow it. Hopefully the closer I get to a neighborhood or house, I’ll pick up a cell phone signal.”

  “Can’t they track the ELT?” Holly asked.

  The emergency locator transmitter. “They should be able to, but I don’t want to take a chance on it malfunctioning. Something’s going on with the electrical. The instr
ument panel keeps flickering and the radio’s not working.”

  “You can’t go out in this,” Raina said. “This weather is too dangerous.”

  “If Claire wasn’t in such bad shape, I’d sit it out with you guys, but I’ve got to try—and when we get back, we’re having a fundraiser for a satellite phone.” She was going to have it out with her supervisor as soon as she saw him face-to-face. Thanks to his budget cutting, they could very well die out here. If she had a sat phone, she could—

  Nope. Not going to think about that.

  Penny grabbed the poncho from the bin next to the stretcher. “If I’m not back and help arrives, you get Claire to the hospital. I can wait for the next ride.”

  “But, Pen—” Holly started to protest, but Penny was already shaking her head.

  “I mean it,” she said. “You know you can’t wait on me to get back.”

  “Fine,” Raina said. “But if you’re not back in an hour, I’m coming looking for you.”

  “Don’t you dare. Holly needs your help with Claire. I’ll be fine. If I can survive juvie, this little storm is child’s play.”

  “Juvie?” Holly asked. “Why is this the first I’ve heard of that?”

  “Long, boring story. I was a bad girl, they sent me to juvie, and I got my head on straight. End of story.”

  “Right.”

  Penny pulled four protein bars and two bottles of water from the small pack she carried on every flight. “Just in case you guys get hungry.” She slid the pack with the remaining protein bars and bottles of water over her shoulder and grabbed the emergency flashlight from the box, then opened the door. The rain had slacked off slightly—at least she thought so. She pulled the poncho over her and the pack and hopped to the ground. “Keep her alive! I’ll be back!”

  Penny shut the door behind her and turned. With her cell phone clutched in her left hand, she darted into the woods.

  FBI Special Agent Holton Satterfield jerked his feet from the desktop and slammed them to the floor even while he pressed the phone to his ear. He hadn’t thought the day could get any worse. First, his conversation with his sister Rachel about their older sibling, Zoe, had gone so far south, it was probably north at this point. And now this. “I know you didn’t just tell me that.”