Deadly Race

by Margaret Daley

  Slowly thoughts returned and because she began to think about their situation again she wished they hadn’t. “How far is it before we leave the island behind?”

  “This mountain range and we’re home free.”

  To take her mind off the fact that once they left the island behind they still had miles and miles of sea to fly over, Ellie laid her head back against the seat cushion and studied Slade. Again she was struck with how handsome he was. The vivid green of his eyes stood out against his dark features and was what drew her attention to his face first. What kept her looking at him, though, was his dynamic combination of strength and intelligence.

  His black hair curled loosely about his head. She had a strong urge to run her fingers through it; she clasped her hands tighter together in her lap. Her impulsive streak had gotten her into this awful mess. She certainly didn’t need to complicate it anymore than it already was by becoming attracted to this man. Of course, she strongly suspected it was too late. Hard not to be when he’d saved her life, but when they landed on U.S. soil, she’d be able to put this “adventure” behind her--and Slade Calvert, because she wasn’t blind. They came from two different worlds.

  “Next to your name, I know practically nothing about you,” Ellie said, trying not to think about Slade’s physical appeal. Boy, she would like to roll down the window like in a car and get some much-needed fresh air inside. She felt hot and she knew it didn’t have anything to do with the temperature in the cockpit.

  “I own a computer company in Boston.”

  “You own the company? I thought you worked at one.”

  “I do work at it. Practically every day for ten or twelve hours. How about you? Where do you live when you’re not traveling?”

  He flashed her a smile, packed with a compelling male charm that Ellie knew could be dangerous to her peace of mind. “New York.” Thank goodness they would be in Puerto Rico in a few hours and she could go her merry way.

  “You said you were a governess. I must admit you don’t seem the type.”

  Again his gaze slid to her, just a brief touch but electrifying anyway. “Type? What type is that?” she asked, knowing exactly what he’d meant. More than once she’d had trouble with that notion when she had gone to a job interview. She had learned to play down all her physical attributes in order to get the assignment.

  He laughed. “I think you know. You’re one good looking lady.”

  She actually blushed at the compliment and made the mistake of glancing out the window. They were flying awfully low, which should comfort her since the ground wasn’t so far away, but in this case she wasn’t relieved one bit. A mountain loomed before them, tall, menacing. Automatically she squeezed her eyes shut and looked away.

  “I love children. Being a governess has given me the opportunity to do some traveling I wouldn’t have been able to afford. I work with an elite service in New York City that specializes in filling wealthy clients’ temporary needs. I’m sorta like a temp worker in an office.” She didn’t particularly want to talk about her being a governess, which might lead to a discussion of Mr. Martinez, a man she definitely wanted to forget. “Are you married?” she asked the first thing that popped into her mind.

  “Married?” Slade asked, surprised.

  “I was just wondering. The best catches are always taken.”

  His astonished gaze riveted to hers. “Are you fishing?”

  “Me! Heavens no!” She waved her hand as though to dismiss the subject. “Just curious.”

  “No, I’m not married. I was caught once, though.”

  “Divorced?”

  He nodded.

  Something inside of Ellie relaxed, and she was amazed by her reaction to the fact the man was free, free to pursue other relationships. Oh, my, the temperature in the airplane was soaring. She fanned her face but that did little to cool her heated cheeks. “I’m sorry about that,” she said, trying to alleviate the strained silence that had descended.

  “Don’t be. It was for the best.” His words were clipped, his expression hardened.

  “I find subjects to avoid are politics, religion and ex-spouses. So tell me about your—”

  An explosion rocked the plane. Ellie gripped the seat and looked out her side window, praying it wasn’t one of the engines blowing up. It wasn’t, much to her horror. Another shell exploded near her, and she jumped back, nearly into Slade’s lap.

  “Someone’s shooting at us!” she shouted above the noise.

  A shell hit the plane, jerking Ellie forward. They were in the middle of the last group of mountains before the sea. They had been so close to freedom. Now, though, it didn’t matter. The plane started losing altitude—quickly, and Ellie’s stomach plunged right along with it.

  “Tell me we aren’t going to crash,” she said, her eyes wide.

  “We aren’t going to crash.” Slade spared her a glance. “Do you feel better now?”

  “No.” She watched Slade scanning the terrain below while he tried to steer the gliding plane to a safer place to land than into the side of a mountain.

  Ellie braced herself as their means of transportation descended rapidly toward the blanket of green trees that covered the valley nestled between the mountains. Terror forced everything from her mind except her survival instinct. She wouldn’t let Mr. Martinez have the last word; she was sure getting tired of running for her life in the past thirty-six hours. Now, she was fighting mad. She made sure she was strapped into the seat, then leaned over and covered her head with her arms. She began to pray as she never had before.

  When the jarring impact with the treetops came, even with her preparations Ellie wasn’t really prepared. There was so much she hadn’t done. She didn’t have anyone who really cared if she died here. She made it a practice never to stay in any one place for long. New York, her so-called home, was only a temporary base between assignments, she thought, as the belly of the plane grazed over the trees and plunged down into the wall of green.

  Sounds—the crunch of metal, the shattering of glass, the scrape of branches—filled her mind until something struck the back of her head and blissful darkness calmed the terror.

  * * *

  Moan.

  Ellie wasn’t sure who moaned, herself or Slade. But the sound meant she was alive. Painfully alive. She was instantly aware of a throb pulsating between her temples, threatening to push her back into the black void of unconsciousness.

  She took a deep breath and slowly, inch by inch, raised her head, placing her hand out to steady herself. She was seated almost upright, but could feel she was cocked at an angle. She finally opened her eyes, almost afraid to look. The plane was suspended partway in a tree, supported for the time being by its massive branches. They were sitting at a precarious slant that she realized could change at any moment.

  Even though her head pounded, matching the rapid beat of her heart, she turned slowly, trying her best to be careful and not to move too fast. Her gaze took in Slade, slumped against the wheel, his eyes closed, his body limp. Blood trickled down his face from a gash on his forehead.

  “Oh, please, dear God, let him be alive,” she whispered out loud, needing to hear her own voice at the moment.

  She hesitantly reached toward his neck, her fingers pressing against the pulse beat that throbbed beneath her touch. Ellie sagged with relief, tears cascading down her face. She would never have forgiven herself if anything bad had happened to him. She was most likely the reason he was injured, sitting in a treetop in a plane. She wasn’t nearly as convinced as Slade that the people shooting at them were after him. Suddenly she realized she couldn’t tell him the truth about Mr. Martinez and the two goons. She doubted Slade would appreciate the trouble she had caused him. And she needed him to help her get off the island.

  He stirred. He lifted his hand, touched his head and groaned. His eyelids eased opened, and he stared at her, the side of his face still cushioned against the wheel. “I feel like a herd of elephants are stomping through my he
ad, having a good old time,” he muttered, his gaze traveling over her, checking every inch of her. “Okay?”

  “Just a few aches and bruises. You?” she asked, while fighting the heat his look produced in her. It made her feel safe while suspended fifteen feet from the ground in a plane that at any moment might crash to the forest floor.

  “If the herd doesn’t want to pull an all-nighter, I’ll manage.”

  “That’s good because do you have any idea where we are?”

  Gingerly he sat up straight and peered out. “It looks like in a tree in a jungle.”

  “That much I can figure out.”

  “In the Bella Isla Mountains.”

  “And I bet you were a Boy Scout, too.”

  “If you want our exact location, I can’t help you. We’re about a mountain away from the sea--I think.”

  “You think? What are we going to do? My expertise isn’t in jungle survival. All I see is green and more green. I never knew there were that many shades of the color.”

  “I’d say the first thing we need to do is to get out of this plane and have a look around.”

  “Do you think they’ll come after us?”

  “Possibly. Hopefully they won’t have the time to check for small potatoes like us.” Slade leaned forward to get a better look at the way the plane was situated. He frowned. “I’ll have to get out first, since your door is jammed up against the trunk. I want you to follow immediately and take it slow and easy. The plane isn’t going to stay up here long.”

  This probably wasn’t the time to tell him about her fear of heights, which was really the reason she hated to fly, especially in small planes. Sweat drenched Ellie and rolled down into her eyes. Swiping a hand across her forehead caused the throbbing in her temples to intensify. Somehow she would do this. How, she wasn’t yet sure, but again she wasn’t going to let a lifelong fear beat her.

  Before leaving, Slade checked around for a first aid kit. When he found one, he deposited it in Ellie’s lap. “Put it in my duffel bag,” he said, then tried his door. It wouldn’t budge. He threw his shoulder against the door and it gave way, causing the plane to shift.

  Ellie gasped, waiting for the aircraft to continue its descent.

  When nothing else happened, Slade said, “As soon as I’m on the ground, you follow.”

  As he exited the cockpit, the plane moved again. Ellie grasped the seat, something she had been doing a lot lately, and prepared herself for another jarring impact. She hadn’t realized she was holding her breath until she heard Slade call up to her to throw his duffel bag down then climb out. She released her trapped breath and looked about for the bag.

  “Okay,” she said as her fingers closed about the canvas material. Quickly she unzipped the bag and put the first aid kit inside. When she began to pull her hand out, she felt his passport. Without thinking, she flipped it open and confirmed everything he had told her so far. Of course, it didn’t prove he wasn’t some kind of secret agent. He was awfully competent, which she knew she should be thankful for, but she had learned very early not to trust most of what a man said to her. Tom, her ex-fiancé, had been an expert teacher in that area.

  “Is anything wrong?” Slade shouted up at her.

  “No, I just want to check my appearance in my mirror in my purse,” she said, not wanting him to know her doubts about him or the fact that she was rummaging through his belongings.

  “For heaven’s sake, get out now!”

  After zipping up the duffel bag, she drew in several deep breaths to steady herself and started to ease over into the pilot’s seat.

  “Ellie, it’s not like I’m your date you have to keep waiting.”

  “I’m coming,” she shouted back, his insistent voice making her move faster than she intended. The plane jolted. She froze. A vision of her plunging to the ground filled her mind.

  “Now, Ellie!”

  “I can do this,” she muttered to herself and tossed the bag out of the plane. She could feel Slade’s impatience as she backed out of the door, trying to find a foothold, her bottom sticking up in the air in a most unladylike position. She finally found a place to put her foot, then another one. As she hung onto the side of the plane, it moved again and Ellie lost her balance. She began to plummet the remaining feet toward the hard earth.

  Slade broke her fall, but the force of her body slamming into his caused them both to collapse to the ground. She ended up lying on top of him, her breath knocked from her. Taking in deep gulps of air, she lifted her head to stare into his face.

  “Well, what was the verdict?” Slade asked, amusement now sparking his eyes. His arms stayed about her, securing her on top of him.

  “Verdict?” The fall must have jarred him more than she realized. She had no idea what he was talking about.

  “When you checked yourself in the mirror.”

  “Oh, that. I didn’t get a chance. You were yelling at me to move. Do I look all right?”

  He smoothed her hair away from her face, then rubbed at a dirt smudge on her cheek. “Considering the circumstances, you look real good to me.”

  “After a bath in a trash pile and a terrifying ride in a plane, I don’t feel particularly good. Do you know I broke another fingernail?”

  “No!” he said in mock astonishment, but his laughter broke through. “Here we are shot down by no telling who, stuck in a jungle between two mountains and I’m laughing.”

  “Well, I’m glad you think this is funny.” She tried to sound offended, but she couldn’t when she was looking at his sparkling eyes, his sexy smile that made her stomach turn over as if she were on the plane again and it was nose diving toward earth.

  “Sorry.” He stifled his laughter, a serious expression on his face, except for the gleam in his eyes that indicated his control was barely contained.

  His body relaxed beneath hers and shifted. When his hand slid up her spine to cup the back of her neck, she knew she was in more danger from him than the jungle. Or, for that matter, the people shooting at them. He brought her mouth down on his in a deep plundering that rocked her to her core. Her lips parted for the burning seal of his kiss while his hands caressed the length of her back, sending tingling sensations throughout her body like one of the rockets that had exploded near the plane.

  She had always been so careful around men, having found herself in situations that had forced her to use her wit and intelligence to get out of them. Men like Mr. Martinez made it hard for her to trust. But for the life of her she didn’t want Slade to stop kissing her. She wanted to forget about her caution and stay here and explore these budding feelings flowering toward Slade.

  They were in serious trouble. In a jungle. Miles from the sea. Running for their lives. Those thoughts filtered through her bemused mind and brought reality back in a rush.

  She strained away, placing her hands on either side of his head. His eyes held hers magnetically, and she thought she would drown in his smoldering gaze. She ran her tongue over her lips and tasted him on her skin. He started to drag her back down toward him.

  “This reminds me of the time I was caught in the woods when I was a little girl. I wandered and wandered around—”

  “Ellie, can’t you be quiet for a second?”

  “Surely you mean longer than a second. A second isn’t very long. I mean—”

  Slade chuckled, pulled her to him and crushed her mouth with his before she could react. His hand molded her closer to him.

  Ellie felt surrounded by him, trapped willingly by his steely muscles, drugging male scent and bold masculinity, as primitive as nature’s forces that enclosed them in a green cocoon. When her head came up, he lifted her hand to his mouth and kissed her fingers, the whole time their gazes bound in wonderment. Aching to touch the hard planes of his face, the strong line of his jaw, the curve of his mouth, Ellie gave in to the luxury of exploring the roughened texture of his features with her hand.

  Slade drew in a sharp breath at the look in her eyes that was dreamy,
at the expression on her face that was sensual. He was amazed by the chemistry that instantly sprang up between them, confused by the alien emotions that stormed through him. He was a loner, had been most of his life. His failed marriage proved to him that he couldn’t make a lasting relationship work. He had fought his way up from the gutters of Boston to become president of his own computer company. It had been a long, hard battle that had toughened him, and all he wanted to do was kiss a woman who looked like a blonde bombshell while danger raged around them. The crash must have scrambled his brains.

  He started to bring her mouth back down onto his again when he heard a cracking sound. Glancing over her shoulder, he saw the largest limb supporting the plane snap in two and then another smaller one break. The plane jolted, dropped a few feet, held up by a branch for a couple of seconds, then all of a sudden began to plunge toward the ground where they lay.

  CHAPTER 4

  “Hold on!” Slade said, clasping his arms tightly about Ellie.

  The breath rushed from her lungs as he rolled them over and over. Then all of a sudden they stopped, the bark of a tree biting into her back. She started to voice her objection at his manhandling, when he covered her body with his and shielded her head, her face pressed into his chest. She felt the hammering of his heart against her cheek that mirrored the fast tempo of her own. Fear began to take hold as sounds reached her ears.

  The shifting of the plane. The snap of branches. The thunder as metal smashed into the earth.

  The ground shook. Ellie turned to look at the place where they had lain only a moment before. Dust mushroomed up, choking her and obliterating her view of that place. But she had seen enough to know they would have been dead if Slade hadn’t acted so fast.

  Coughing, Ellie closed her eyes and wondered not for the first time if she would ever see her apartment again. Slowly, sensations that had nothing to do with the plane crashing to the ground invaded her awareness. Slade was close. His heartbeat hadn’t slowed its rapid pace. His breath tantalized the soft side of her neck and ear. Goosebumps rose on her flesh, chilling her even though the air was hot about them.