Kelly blessed him with a wink and her childlike grin. “As a swimmer, I’ve got to tell you, you’re one hell of a hoist operator.”
He returned her wink. “As a hoist operator, I’ve got to tell you, you’re one hell of a swimmer.” And now he could honestly say he was damn glad they were working together.
* * *
The helo’s sudden drop woke Kelly. They were on their way back to Florida. They’d put in four eight-hour shifts in the last seventy-two hours. Of course those were the flying hours, they’d worked on the ground longer. Despite regulations, they’d gotten only sixteen hours sleep during those three interminable days.
From the weather briefing they’d received before leaving Georgia, things weren’t going to be getting better anytime soon. The National Hurricane Center was predicting Gina, a Category Three hurricane, would make landfall along the Florida Keys within the next forty-eight to seventy-two hours. Originally expected to track farther south, everyone was on high alert moving ships out to sea and battening down the coast. Tropical storm force winds were advancing a hundred miles in front of the hurricane, pounding the Keys from Marathon on down.
The one chance Kelly had to call Ian, she’d discovered her cell phone battery had died. She didn’t know what she would have said, she only knew she needed to hear his voice. To feel like she’d come home.
That in itself was a scary admission.
“We’ve got less than twenty-four hours to get some sleep and grab clean clothes. Our next flight leaves tomorrow at twenty-three hundred sharp,” Caitlyn announced to her weary crew.
The helo settled onto the runway harder than usual. Cait was obviously feeling the effects of too much coffee and too little sleep. Kelly’s fingers didn’t want to unbuckle her seat belt and she practically crawled out the side of the Jayhawk. She groaned out loud. Her arms, shoulders, holy patooties, everything ached.
Joe surprised her by slipping his arm around her waist, steadying her as they walked to the hangar.
“Ya know, Tank left out one important detail about flying with you,” he offered along with his brotherly support. “Not only do you outperform expectations, you raise the bar for everyone working with you. A month ago, hell a week ago, I never dreamed I’d be saying this, but I’m damn proud to be crewing with you.”
Warmth spread through Kelly and her eyes burned with unshed tears. Jeez, she must be whacked out if a few kind words made her weepy. “Thanks, but I couldn’t have done what I did if you hadn’t been right there anticipating what I needed. Missing that power line was particularly noteworthy,” she said pinching a rib. She shivered as her stomach did a slow barrel roll. Just remembering how close the cable she was hanging from had come to a downed power line tangled in a tree gave her the shakes.
“Those kids, God, I’ll never forget that as long as I live,” she added. The rampaging river had swept a trailer into a stand of trees. A father, desperate to save his family, had tied each of his five children to the upper branches of the oak their home was lodged against.
Every time Kelly went down to pluck another child from their perch, she prayed the floodwaters below didn’t uproot the tree. Or that the Jayhawk’s rotor wash didn’t knock it down from above.
“Jesus, I about had heart failure when you pulled that baby out of your raingear,” Joe said with a reassuring squeeze. “I still can’t believe their dad survived the way he did. It was like a damn fairy tale.”
Kelly shuddered. What could have ended in tragedy actually did have a happy ending. After securing his family, the man had fallen into the water and been whisked downstream. The county rescue squad had pulled him out and alerted the Coast Guard of the children’s plight. Kelly refused to think about what could have happened if the man had drowned before telling anyone where he’d left his kids.
The mother, a nurse working a double shift, hadn’t heard about her family until her husband was admitted to her hospital. When Kelly’s crew delivered that particular load of survivors to the hospital, there hadn’t been a dry eye in the bunch. Including the stoic hoist operator that apparently had a heart after all.
“Damn, now I’m all sappy feeling again,” she complained, scrubbing her eyes with the heel of her hands and trying to laugh it off.
Joe gave a suspiciously husky laugh. “Go find your guy and tell him how much you love him,” he said, giving her a push toward the parking lot.
Kelly smiled. Yeah, that’s exactly what she intended to do.
It felt surreal driving toward her marina in the rain. She hadn’t seen the sun in a million years. Well, not exactly true. Caitlyn had broken out of the clouds when they’d flown over Jacksonville, but that was in the air. She wanted to feel the sun on her face while she was walking on the ground. Or lying on the back of her boat. Maybe she could talk Ian into a little vacation after the hurricane…
The boat looked forlorn in the drizzle. She hopped onto the deck wishing Ian were there to greet her. Insecurity chewed on her hopes. Had she gone too far? Would Ian forgive her, or had he had enough of her attitude?
More tears threatened and Kelly snorted in disgust as she unlocked the hatchway. It would serve her right if he’d taken up with some leggy blonde. Stale, slightly musty air filled her nose as she descended the three steps to her cozy little home. Except after spending part of her weekend with a real family in a real home, this just felt like a glorified closet.
Kelly plugged in her cell phone and took a shower. Wrapped in a terry-cloth robe she curled up on her platform bed and called Ian. His landline rang three times before his answering machine picked up. “Hey, just got back and wanted…”
What? To hear his voice? Yeah, actually she did. She swallowed. “To hear your voice. I’m going to sleep but call me anytime. I’m due back at the station tomorrow at twenty-three hundred.”
Not sure what else to say she pushed the disconnect button. Another call to his cell phone rolled to voice mail but she didn’t leave a second message. Lonely and bone-tired, she flopped back on the bed. But her mind refused to shut down. Mizzen jumped up to snuggle beside her.
She relived the last three days. Thank God Joe had made the effort to work with her despite his disappointment over his loss of a dream. He really had found his niche; he didn’t need to be coveting anyone else’s job. She closed her eyes. Maybe she could catch a few zee’s after all.
Several hours later the subtle shift of her boat woke Kelly. She blinked at the clock then smiled. Oh three hundred. Ian must have decided to stop by instead of calling.
The boat shifted again and Mizzen growled a low warning from the end of the bed. Nerve endings prickled across Kelly’s body. Two people had boarded her boat.
Despite Ian’s nagging, she hadn’t thought to lock the hatch. Her nine millimeter service weapon was stowed in her locker at the air station. Think, dammit, think.
Moving silently, she rose to her hands and knees and edged toward the end of her platform bed. Her phone was plugged in near the clothes locker. If she could reach it—
The hatch opened with a clatter and a white tactical light swept across the cabin to pin her in its blinding glare. She felt more than saw Mizzen leap from the bed.
“Yeah, you were right, she’s awake,” a harsh male voice said.
He was somewhere behind the light, but Kelly couldn’t tell if he was the one holding it or not. Either way, she didn’t recognize his voice
She settled back on her haunches. Unable to see anything but the burning white beam, Kelly tried to protect her sight by squinting. It didn’t seem to matter as tears flooded her eyes. She held her hand up to block some of the light. “Who are you? What do you want?”
She didn’t keep much cash on her and she only had a couple of credit cards—
“Your boyfriend.”
“Ian?” What in the world would they want with Ian?
A short muttered conversation took place between the two intruders. Her whole body froze when she heard one of them say fuse. Fuse? Dear God. They were looking for Matt!
“Where is he?” The voice and rustle of clothing came closer and the light shifted to the side. “You think he cares enough to save your life?”
Heat flashed over her body followed by a wave of chills. Matt had flown out days ago. She had no idea where he’d gone. Anything he did, including where he went, was classified information. It was safer for him, and her, if she didn’t know what he was doing.
“Don’t play dumb. We saw him here. He spent a couple of nights with you…” the light traveled up and down her crouching body.
“So we’re thinking it was more than just sex, otherwise he would have been with the hot redhead,” the second voice said with a sneer.
Jesus, they had been spying on her and Caitlyn?
Anger replaced fear. She would not let them use her to hurt her brother—or anyone else she loved. While she didn’t have a weapon on board, she did have more than one flare gun. All she had to do was create enough of a diversion to reach it.
And hope to hell she didn’t catch the Admiral’s boat on fire in the process.
A hand reached out from behind the blinding beam and grabbed her upper arm. “Come on, we have a plane to catch.”
He yanked her off the bed and when her legs collapsed he shook her roughly. “Don’t try to slow us down or I’ll just knock you out and carry you.”
A plane? It would have to be a private plane to haul an unwilling passenger…oh hell, these men had to be the drug buyers. They would have been keeping an eye out for their delivery. Matt had been tracking the drugs from South America. He had never admitted it, but come on, how else had he known about the DC-3 and its load of cocaine?
“Bring the dinghy around and I’ll hand her down to you,” the man holding her said to the other one. Then he set the light on the dinette, its beam pointing up.
He shook her again. “And so you don’t get any ideas about calling for help, you’ll be wearing this,” he said and released her arm. He quickly wrapped a rough cloth that smelled of oil and gas around her mouth and tied it tight enough to make her gag.
Ha, ha, maybe that’s how it got its name. Don’t be an idiot, Kel, this situation is about as serious as it gets.
He snatched up the light and pulled her toward the steps, his hand like an iron band around her triceps.
Her emergency flares were clipped to the underside of the railings on both sides of the cockpit. She just needed to come up with a way to get her hands on one of them.
Kelly had reached the top step when Mizzen yowled and suddenly she was being pulled downward. The tactical light flew across the deck and the man let go of Kelly, probably to try and break his fall. She rolled toward the side rail and grabbed the flare gun.
She stripped it from its case and aimed it at the man with one hand and yanked off the gag with the other. “Don’t move or I’ll shoot. It may not kill you outright, but the heat and resulting fire will probably make you wish it had.” She dropped the gag and then steadied her grip with her left hand.
“I don’t think she’s bluffing,” a voice said from the dock behind Kelly.
Lights suddenly flooded the area and a half-dozen men in jackets with various letters emblazoned in yellow swarmed onto her boat to take control of the man still sprawled on the deck.
Dazed, Kelly looked around at the flurry of activity.
“I think you can stand down now,” the man who’d joked about her bluffing said with a chuckle. “Do you have a propensity for blowing things up too?”
Kelly relinquished the flare gun to the narrow-faced young man now standing beside her. She started shaking so badly her teeth actually chattered as if it were twenty degrees out, not seventy.
“Come on, you need to sit before you fall down.” He took her arm but immediately dropped it when she winced. He flashed a small but equally bright light on her upper arm. “Hell, he did a number on you,” he said softly. He took her other arm in a very gentle hold and led her to the cabin below.
Kelly sat on the edge of the padded bench seat hugging herself and trying to process the craziness that had just happened.
“Here,” the man said, producing a blanket and wrapping it around her shoulders. Then like a magician, he placed Mizzen in her lap. “I think she’s earned fresh fish for life.”
Kelly closed her eyes and hugged her cat to her chest. Who would have thought Mizzen’s habit of tripping people would save the day? She opened her eyes and looked closely at the man staring back at her. “You must be Squirrel,” she said.
A twinkle and a slight twitch of his mouth confirmed her suspicion. “Fuse told me he could always count on you to come up with needed supplies when the going was tough.”
He shook his head. “I wish I’d figured this out before they got to you. We lost track of them a few hours ago and I had a bad feeling about where they were going.”
Mizzen was happily purring and kneading Kelly’s thighs through the blanket. She knew Matt well enough to know he would not react well to what just happened.
“Maybe we should keep this our little secret.”
Squirrel laughed. “Hell no, I can’t wait to tell him how you got your new name.”
“New name?”
“There she stood, in a skimpy tank top and shorts, fighting off the bad guys with her trusty flare gun.”
Lord, Kelly hadn’t given a thought to how she was dressed. Or not dressed. Heat engulfed her face. “There is nothing skimpy about my tank top.” She raised her chin and sniffed. “And I don’t think that’s a good thing to bring up to a man known for his short fuse.”
Squirrel choked on his next belly laugh. “Flare and Fuse. Yeah, I can see the pyrotechnic family resemblance.” He stood. “I’ll see if we can get the powers that be to take your statement from here so you can get some sleep. I understand you’re slated to be on duty tonight.”
Startled at the reminder, Kelly glanced at the clock on the coffee maker. Less than an hour had passed since she woke to the feel of her boat moving. It felt like days.
Squirrel patted her hand. “Don’t worry. You’ll have someone keeping an eye on you until you report to work. Then I think your Coasties will keep you safe.”
* * *
The buzz of her alarm finally broke through the wild dream of surfing off the barrier reef on a broken helicopter rotor, shooting flares like a gunslinger while being chased by a bright white light. She squinted at the red digital readout of her clock and squealed. It was twenty-two ten. Shit! Her alarm must have been buzzing for some time or she’d hit snooze without really waking up. Regardless, she was late.
The adventures of the early morning felt as unreal as her dream of surfing. Part of her wanted to treat it the same way—just a frightening dream she should forget about.
She threw on a clean flight suit and grabbed an apple from the bowl on the dinette table. Maybe she’d have time to run through a fast-food place on her way to the air station. She grabbed her cell phone and noted there was no message icon showing on the LCD screen. Ian hadn’t returned her call.
Kelly left instructions for the cat-sitter to buy Mizzen a case of fancy canned cat food. Her cat was eating like a queen for the rest of her nine lives.
She ate a burrito on the way onto the base and tried Ian’s two numbers again without success. Double damn, she’d wanted to see him before they took off for south Florida. She was stowing gear on the Jayhawk when the rescue alarm blared in the hangar. She glanced at her watch. It was twenty-two forty and their crew wasn’t due for another twenty minutes.
The two on-call helos were still out on separate missions, leaving them “on” only if they could assemble a crew in time to scramble.
; Caitlyn ran out of the ready-room, her expression grim. “We’ve got a grounded boat west of the Keys and an inbound hurricane bearing down on them,” she said. “Has Joe made it in yet?”
“Right behind you. What’s up?” he asked trotting to catch up to her.
“Two families, consisting of five adults and two children, aboard a sixty-five-foot sailboat tried to make a run in from Fort Jefferson to Key West. They went off course in the gale and ran aground in the Rebecca Shoal area. Now Gina is spanking them. We’re their best chance of making it to land safely before Gina hits full force.”
While Caitlyn talked she went through her preflight check of their helicopter. “They’ve got some minor injuries sustained during the grounding along with a potential heart attack victim on board. Flight ops is trying to locate another swimmer to help, but it’s not looking good.”
Kelly and Joe climbed into the helo and began stowing gear and going through their own checklists. Her stomach threatened to send her dinner back up for reconsideration. It looked as if Ian’s prediction was coming true—she’d get her chance to ride out a hurricane, or at least the leading edge of one, with Caitlyn at the controls. At least it would keep her from thinking about drug smugglers and buyers.
Ryan joined the crew a few minutes later and the ground crew towed the helo out of the hangar. Caitlyn fired up the engines and they sat on the ground, rotors spinning.
Joe looked at Kelly with raised eyebrows before keying his mic. “What’s the delay, Cait?”
“We’ve got one more crewmember on his way. Kelly, could you use another medic on board?”
Distracted with her own gear, Kelly murmured her assent. If someone required advanced lifesaving, she’d take all the help she could get.
When the side door slid open, filling the Jayhawk with wind and rain, she didn’t have to look up to know it was Ian. Heck, if she’d been hooked up to monitors, her vital signs would have set off alarms.
Her eyes devoured him as Joe gave him a high-five. The smile he shot her way started tentative, then grew downright cocky. Double dang doggies, her lovesick expression must have broadcast her capitulation. She grinned anyway. Why pretend indifference when her heart tumbled end over end at the mere thought of him?
A Dangerous Leap Page 20