by Susan Stoker
“Are you a pilot?” Eve asked.
“No.”
Zoey swore in her head. Why wasn’t he a pilot? He should be! If he was, he could probably fix whatever was wrong in a heartbeat.
She knew her thoughts were careening wildly, hysterical and irrational, but she couldn’t help it. In all her time living in Alaska, in the hundreds of flights she’d taken in a craft just like this one, she’d never been in this situation. It was scary as hell, and she didn’t like it one bit.
“Can you take us down safely?” Mark asked the pilot.
She shook her head slightly, which didn’t make Zoey feel any better. “Maybe. If I can find a place to land.”
“Water or land?” Mark asked.
“Water preferably,” was Eve’s response. “Ah, there!” she exclaimed. “There’s a small lake in front of us. If we can make it there, I can put her down.”
As soon as she finished her sentence, the plane coughed once—and the eerie sound of silence filled the interior of the plane.
“Shit. We lost the engines,” Eve announced, her tone now scarily calm. “Take brace positions,” she ordered. “Put your head down and cover it with your arms. Make yourself as small as possible back there.”
Zoey looked over at Mark with eyes she knew were as wide as saucers. He stared back for a beat before reaching for her.
“Breathe, Zoey,” he said softly. “Eve will get us down.”
“Of course she will, we’re going down whether we want to or not!” Zoey retorted.
Mark didn’t smile, but his lips did twitch. His fingers curled around the back of her neck, and he urged her to lean over. In any other situation, Zoey would’ve had a spontaneous orgasm feeling those calloused digits on her bare skin, but being seconds away from death effectively dimmed her libido.
“Bend over, Zoey. Brace position.”
Instead of doing as he told her to do, Zoey’s body acted without her even thinking about it. She leaned sideways, burying her head in Mark’s stomach instead. The seat belt pulled taut and dug into her shoulders, but she ignored the slight discomfort.
They’d been sitting close enough that she could’ve reached out and touched him at any time, but she’d refrained for her own sanity. Now, knowing they were about to die, she didn’t hold back. More thankful than she could put into words that the plane was so small and that no aisle separated her from another living, breathing human being, Zoey wrapped her arms around Mark’s waist as best she could and held her breath.
Instead of pushing her away, Mark curled himself over her back as much as possible. The position was awkward on the small bench seat, but feeling Mark’s weight and heat on top of her made her feel way safer than curling up into a ball on her side of the bench would have.
She heard the pilot swearing but Zoey didn’t lift her head to see what was happening out the windshield. She didn’t want to know.
Minutes passed, or maybe they were seconds. Time seemed to stand still.
At the first rough bump, Zoey let out a startled and frightened squeak. Mark tightened his hold on her, and she did the same to him. No one said a word.
The sound of the plane creaking and water slapping against the pontoons was as loud as a bomb.
“Fuck yeah, I did it!” Eve exclaimed thirty seconds later.
It had been the longest thirty seconds of Zoey’s life. She felt Mark rise up, but she stayed where she was, clinging to his lap as if she were three instead of thirty-one.
“I got us down, but we’re not out of danger yet,” Eve told her passengers. “I’m going to steer us to the edge of the lake. You’re going to have to get out while I see if I can figure out what’s wrong and get it fixed.”
Get out. Yeah, Zoey could do that. She’d gladly get out of this death trap.
“I didn’t hear you call a mayday,” Mark said.
“Yeah, didn’t have time,” Eve said calmly. “I’ll do that in a second and radio for help. Our flight plan was recorded, and the route from Anchorage to Juneau is well traveled. I’m sure even if I can’t get this thing started again, someone will find us soon. Here we are. I got as close as I could to the shore.”
Zoey took a deep breath and slowly sat up. Looking out the window, all she could see was water and trees. She swiveled her head to look out the front of the plane, and she saw they were within feet of dry land.
“It looks like it gets shallow close to the bank. If you climb out onto the small pontoon on the passenger side, you can get to the shore without getting too wet. I’ll then throw you the tow line, and you can tie off the plane to one of the trees so I don’t float away while I’m figuring out what’s wrong with this damn plane.”
Zoey looked over at Mark…and saw that he was frowning. Not that it was a surprise; she had a frown on her own face.
But something was different about his expression. He looked on edge. Alert.
Suspicious.
“Mark?” Zoey asked softly. She wasn’t sure what she was asking. All she knew was that she wanted out of this plane. Now.
With one last long look at Eve, he took a deep breath and half stood to lean over her and push open the small door on the front passenger side. Zoey pushed the seat in front of her forward and scooted back as far as she could, letting Mark get around her and climb out first. He stepped onto the float and held out a hand to Zoey.
She gratefully took hold. She wanted to memorize how his fingers felt around hers, but this was no time to give in to a silly crush. They’d almost died, for God’s sake. She had to get herself together.
He helped her stand on the tiny float, and Zoey inhaled sharply in fear when the plane bobbed in the water, since their combined weight was now all on one side.
Mark stepped down into the water and reached for her. He plucked her from the float as if she weighed nothing more than a child. Zoey wrapped her arms around his neck and held on for dear life as he took the few steps required to get to dry land.
She was wearing her normal attire—jeans, wool socks because her feet were always cold, Timberland boots, a tank top under a long-sleeve T-shirt, and her fleece-lined plaid shirt tied around her waist, in case she got chilled.
The second her feet were on the ground, Mark turned around to head back to the plane and grab the tow line—and Zoey stared in disbelief at the plane they’d just exited.
Instead of being only a couple feet from the shore, it was now more than five yards away, and getting farther and farther with every second that passed.
When the engine turned on, Mark shouted, “What the fuck?”
Without looking at them, Eve turned the plane around and headed away toward the middle of the lake.
Zoey looked on in confusion for a second before the situation sank in.
“I thought the engine died,” she whispered.
“So did I,” Mark agreed.
They stood on the bank of the lake watching helplessly as the plane they’d thought was disabled puttered farther away, then turned around. Eve gunned the engine and the float plane skimmed the surface of the water for a couple hundred yards before it slowly lifted up into the air. The engine sounded strong, with no evidence of the stuttering that had been there before.
“Son of a bitch!” Mark exclaimed in disgust.
They both watched helplessly as the plane got smaller and smaller in the sky until it was gone, the only sounds that of the water lapping lazily against the edge of the shore and the occasional bird.
Zoey took a step closer to Mark, as if her brain knew they were in deep shit and the only safe place was next to the large, pissed-off man at her side.
“She’ll be back, right?” Zoey asked after another minute had passed.
Mark gazed down at her with a look so intense and frightening, Zoey instinctively took a step backward.
“I highly doubt it, since she fabricated that engine failure and got us stranded in the middle of fucking nowhere.”
Zoey inhaled sharply. “But…she said it herself. The
flight path from Anchorage to Juneau is highly traveled. Someone will find us soon, won’t they?”
Mark sighed and ran a hand over the short stubble on his face. The scraping sound it made would’ve turned Zoey on in any other circumstance, but at the moment, all she could do was stare at Mark and pray he’d agree with her.
“I was tired,” he said.
Zoey frowned, not knowing what in the world he was talking about.
“I fell asleep almost as soon as we took off. I wasn’t paying attention to where we were going. How long were we in the air before the engine supposedly went out?”
“Um…I’m not sure. Maybe an hour or so?” Zoey told him.
“Fuck,” Mark swore. “This isn’t good.”
“But we should be almost halfway to Juneau,” Zoey said, thinking she wasn’t going to like what Mark said next.
“Zoey, Juneau is southeast of Anchorage. I didn’t realize it until after we’d already landed…but we were flying west.”
She stared at him with wide eyes, realizing he was right. Shit. The sun should’ve been in the pilot’s eyes as they were flying, but it wasn’t, it had been behind them. “We weren’t headed toward Juneau,” she said unnecessarily. “Why not?”
“That’s a good question. I’m guessing it’s tied into why our pilot would fake an emergency so she’d have to land the plane and the reason she stranded us here.”
The severity of their situation hit Zoey then. They were in the middle of Alaska somewhere, with no food. No shelter. They weren’t on the flight path they were supposed to be on, so if anyone looked for them, they’d certainly look in the wrong place. They hadn’t even been going in the right direction. They had no phones, not that they’d work out here in the middle of nowhere. No one knew where they were.
They were going to die.
“This has to be a mistake. She’ll come back!” Zoey said desperately.
Mark stepped toward her and took her by the shoulders. She looked up at him, hoping he’d say something positive. Anything that would make their situation seem less bleak.
But he didn’t.
“She’s not coming back. We’re on our own.”
Zoey wasn’t a crier. Had learned a long time ago that crying didn’t solve anything. All it did was make her sinuses hurt and her eyes puffy. But she couldn’t have held back her tears at that moment if someone had a gun to her head.
She was going to die out in the Alaskan wilderness. No one would ever find her body. Her mom would always wonder what happened to her. Maybe she’d end up on one of those shows on the ID Channel that she loved so much. How Ironic. And sad.
And even Mark taking her into his arms and holding her as she cried couldn’t make this situation better.
Chapter Three
Bubba was pissed and disgusted with himself. He should’ve known something was up, but he’d been groggy from sleeping when the plane had first acted up. Even when his brain had noted that they weren’t headed in the right direction, he’d told himself it was just because Eve was trying to gain control of the plane and had gotten turned around looking for a place to land.
He’d been stupid to leave the plane, but he’d been concerned about the look of panic on Zoey’s face and wanted to get her to safety.
Fuck, he’d been an idiot.
He had no idea who was behind this, but he was going to find out. Whoever had planned this had seriously underestimated his abilities.
He was a fucking Navy SEAL, for God’s sake. He’d been through cold-weather training and he’d spent more than his fair share of time in the wilderness. And while he had no idea where they were, he’d figure it out as soon as he could get Zoey calmed down.
While his duffle was still on the plane with the deceptively helpful and kind Eve, he never went anywhere without some basics in his pockets. Once a SEAL, always a SEAL.
He felt Zoey take a huge breath as she attempted to get herself under control. He appreciated it. He didn’t mind crying women, but he was a man of action. They had a lot to do and everything within him said he needed to get started. Though, holding Zoey wasn’t exactly a hardship.
Back in high school, he’d definitely noticed Zoey when she’d transferred to his school. She’d been the new kid, and of course all the guys had their eyes on her. She’d been shy and soft-spoken, and something about her had called to him. But then Malcom had asked her out, and after the way things had ended between them, it seemed weird to pursue her, to see if she might be interested in the other brother.
He’d already been burned by girls who didn’t care which brother they dated. Even in high school, he’d wanted a woman who wanted him and only him.
And he’d also been more concerned with keeping his grades up and getting into the navy than dating.
But holding Zoey right now, and having her turn to him for comfort when she’d thought they were crashing, felt good. Really good. He was used to being in charge, being someone people turned to in precarious situations, but having Zoey rely on him felt different. Felt right.
Taking a deep breath of his own and mentally telling himself to chill out, that they were about to have an extremely difficult few days—hopefully it would be only a few days—Bubba put his hands on Zoey’s shoulders and gently pushed her back so he could see her face.
Her eyes were puffy and her face was blotchy from crying, but he didn’t see panic, which was good. He could deal with her being scared and unsure, but panic was a harder emotion to combat.
“Feel better?” he asked.
She nodded, but said, “No.”
Bubba couldn’t help it. He chuckled. That was one more thing he remembered about Zoey. She could make him laugh at the most surprising times. “Right. First of all, I need to apologize.”
She frowned. “For what?”
“I should’ve been paying attention. I know better. But I was tired, and I let my guard down. It won’t happen again.”
“Mark, this isn’t your fault. How could we know this would happen?”
Much like it had in the airport, hearing his given name on her lips made him feel…odd. He couldn’t put his finger on why, though, so he simply ignored it. “Well, we both know my pop had plenty of money. So I’m guessing someone didn’t want us to make it back to Juneau for the reading of the will.”
“That’s stupid,” Zoey said. “I mean, making us disappear isn’t going to automatically make the money go to someone else…is it?”
Bubba shrugged. “I have no idea. I don’t know what was in Pop’s will or how he worded it. If he set up a trust, it’s possible if I was indisposed—or dead—it would go to someone else.”
Zoey’s eyes got big. “Who do you think is behind this?”
“That’s the million-dollar question, isn’t it?” he asked. “And something I should be asking you. You spent a lot more time with Pop than I did. Who do you think would want to get rid of us?”
“Us? I’m nobody. I wasn’t even related to Colin. Why would anyone include me in their scheme?”
“Another good question,” Bubba told her, glad she’d stopped crying. “And maybe you just had the bad luck of sharing a plane with me. But as far as you being a nobody, that’s definitely not true. I hadn’t seen Pop in forever, but I know that you’ve been by his side for over a decade. You were very important to him, and since he included you in his will, you definitely weren’t a nobody to him, either.”
Zoey stared at him in silence, and Bubba couldn’t read what she was thinking.
Eventually, she closed her eyes and sighed. “So someone wanted us both dead, or at least out of the picture so we couldn’t claim your dad’s inheritance? It’s a stupid plan.”
Again, Bubba chuckled. That definitely wasn’t what he thought she’d say. “I agree. Because if we are declared dead, whatever Pop left us will go to our heirs.”
“But it still leaves us with the question of who wants us dead,” Zoey said.
Bubba nodded. “Yes. But we have bigger things to de
al with at the moment.”
Zoey looked around them. She hadn’t pulled out of his grasp. Bubba saw that she had a fleece-lined shirt tied around her waist, and he moved his hands down to tug at the knot.
“What are you—”
Before she could finish her question, he moved behind her and helped her shrug on the shirt. The temperature was in the lower sixties right now, but he was glad she had the extra layer because it would get quite chilly at night.
“Thank you,” she said when he walked back around her.
“We aren’t going to die out here,” he said in a sure, serious tone.
Zoey tilted her head up to look him in the eyes. “You don’t know that.”
“I do. Whoever was behind this messed up.”
She raised an eyebrow at him.
Bubba felt his lips curling upward again. God, she was adorable. “Their first mistake was thinking dropping us off in the middle of nowhere was going to get rid of us.”
“I hate to break it to you, Superman, but we have no food. No transportation. No way of contacting anyone. No shelter.” Zoey looked around comically. “And I don’t see any Ubers lining up to take us home.”
“Oh, ye of little faith,” he chided. “On a scale of one to ten, how comfortable are you with the outdoors?”
She frowned and wrinkled her nose. “Maybe a four. Four and a half,” she said.
Bubba beamed. “Perfect.”
“Perfect? Has anyone ever told you that you’re insane?”
“My teammates, actually,” he told her, straight-faced. “If you had said zero or one, then things might’ve been a little more difficult, but I can work with a four.”
Zoey shook her head and rolled her eyes, making Bubba suddenly want to grab ahold of her head and kiss the look of exasperation off her face. He didn’t have time to examine that reaction before she was talking again.
“Seriously, you’re crazy. I mean, I live in Juneau, so of course I’m somewhat familiar with the outdoors. You know as well as I do that we all like to be outside as much as possible in the summer because it’s so miserable, cold, and dark in the winters.”