Andis’s wife began to wail.
Kayla sank to the floor beside Conner. “You have to wake up. I need you. I love you, Conner, and I don’t want to die if it means you’re not with me.” She wasn’t making any sense. “Not that I want you to die, but we’re on this plane and it’s taking off. It’s going to crash with us on it. Conner.” She tried to shake his shoulder without moving his head at all. She didn’t want to hurt him. “Conner, you have to wake up.”
*
I love you.
Conner’s head pounded like a rock concert was going on inside his skull. What had happened rushed back in a flash flood of information—those fake agents, Kayla being arrested. He opened his eyes and tried to focus. White ceiling, curved. Kayla.
“You’re awake. I couldn’t stop him. I tried, but he left and now we’re in the air.”
Conner looked around more. An airplane?
“Sofija and Lena are here. They’re really scared, and we need your help.”
“Help me up.”
Kayla did, and she handed him a bottled water, too. Her bottom lip looked red from being chewed on. She kept talking, but the words blurred with the clang in his head. Conner kneaded both his temples and tried to focus. Not cops, or agents on the job, as he’d suspected. Sent there to capture both of them—or just Kayla, and he’d been an added bonus.
“Tell me what happened.”
She explained everything from when she woke up to Andis leaving. Then Kayla said, “Please tell me you know how to break through a locked cockpit door.”
Conner didn’t answer. He got up and went to the door. The plane was climbing, so the walk was uphill, and he set one hand on each chair he passed to steady himself. Conner tried the door. Locked.
Andis was seriously going to crash the plane? That was insane. Framing them when they couldn’t defend themselves. Murdering yet more people. It wouldn’t have surprised him if Andis had killed Drew after he forced the man to find Sofija and Lena.
He only wished he had some way now to contact Locke and let him know what was happening.
He banged on the door. “Hello! We need some help back here! We need to know what’s going on!”
Could be the pilot was unknowing, and Andis had sabotaged the plane. Or the man had some kind of escape in progress, though how he’d do that was anyone’s guess.
Conner banged on the door. No answer.
Anger lit in him like a match to gasoline. He slammed both fists on the door. This was not supposed to be how this assignment ended. Kayla wasn’t supposed to be hurt and about to die, and neither were Andis’s wife and daughter. Ever since he’d found out months ago that Kayla lived in this town, he’d been distracted. Had his distraction made it so that they all ended up dead?
Conner couldn’t even contemplate the fact that he might have been so oblivious to what was going on. Andis had been an impressive catch, a solid win for the Secret Service’s undercover operations. An arrest that would have put Conner’s name in a category with some of the best agents they had.
Instead he’d go down in history as being an epic failure.
Okay, God. I give up. Kayla said You always help her. Well, we need Your help now more than ever. Show me how to get us out of here.
The door flung open, the pilot slammed into him, and with one whack Conner was on his back, staring up at the ceiling. He turned to watch the pilot, who had a bulky backpack—wait, was that a parachute?—on his back. No. He wouldn’t leave Conner to—
The pilot wrenched the door open and jumped out.
Wind rushed through the cabin like a hurricane had touched down. Alarms blared from the cockpit. Conner stared at the open door for a second more, then hopped up to his feet. He turned to check on the women, not harmed physically but not happy, and the child was screaming. Kayla looked like she wanted to.
Conner blocked it all out and got to work. He fought his way to the pilot’s seat, trying to remember everything he’d learned in the air force. This was in no way the same thing, and he did not have a license. He wasn’t supposed to land a small passenger plane under even calm circumstances.
Had Andis known Conner had flight experience? It must have been part of his plan to frame them—to make it look like Conner was attempting to fly them away.
Conner grabbed the stick and pulled on it. Nothing happened. He pushed the rudders with one foot, then the other. No response. The controls must have been disabled somehow to ensure they fell to their tragic deaths.
Lord, help us.
He heard nothing but alarms.
Conner searched around for headphones. He put them on and found what he prayed was the right channel. He radioed in, then gave in to fear. “Hello? We need help.”
Nothing but static greeted him through the headphones.
He scanned the scenery outside. They were still climbing, though slower now. They’d reach a point and then simply stall out and fall from the sky. Conner had to get control of the plane if he was going to do anything.
He pressed buttons. Flicked switches. Anything that looked like autopilot, he toggled the switch, hoping for some kind of a response.
He slammed his hands down on the dash.
And saw the fuel gauge.
Empty.
“Kayla!”
She rushed forward. “There are no more parachutes.”
“I can’t land this thing.” What were they supposed to do? “Andis’s wife and daughter?”
“They ran to the back. They’re hunkered down hoping to survive.”
She grabbed his hand. “Is this it? Are we going to die?”
He grabbed the handles and pulled. They couldn’t go higher for much longer before they dropped into a tailspin.
“Lord, help us.”
Conner had prayed before, and the shelter residents had been rescued. If she thought praying would help now—when he could see no way out but their deaths—he was willing to try it again.
God, we seriously need Your help. Don’t let Kayla down. Don’t let us die without the truth being known.
The plane dipped for a second. Suddenly they weren’t going as high as they had been, or as fast. The dials all moved. The engines, which had been roaring with their fight to keep the plane aloft, cut to an eerie silence. “The engines stalled.” He pulled her into the seat beside him. “We’re going down.”
Kayla gripped his hand and yelled over the sound of the alarms, “We’re going to fall out of the sky.”
NINETEEN
Dawn was breaking in the eastern sky, but Kayla couldn’t marvel at it. The plane had stopped climbing and all she could hear was her own breathing. Short gasps coming fast as the scenery tilted and she caught sight of the ground.
“We’re going down.” She was repeating his own words, but she couldn’t even process what was happening. They were falling out of the sky.
Kayla could barely pray, she was so flustered. Nausea roiled in her stomach, and her abs screamed from how tight she held them. They were going to die, and Andis was going to get away with it.
Conner pulled on the joystick thing, hauling it toward him. Nothing happened. They would dive into a tailspin and crash into the ground. Four dead, accused of producing counterfeit money. The fallout for her father would be catastrophic. She hated that it would happen to him, the media smearing her name across the headlines, making her look like a criminal. Like Andis. Every legal contract she’d filed with the court would be called in to question. Every case Conner had ever investigated. It was like ripples from a rock thrown into a lake—the effects would touch so many people.
But it would hurt her father most of all.
Tears ran down her face.
The plane jerked. “What?”
She glanced at Conner. His hands gripped the handle and he pulled. “What is it, Conner?”
“It’s working.”
Kayla looked at the autopilot controls. “The light went off. It’s not on autopilot anymore.”
“We stalled. I
might be able to get us level again, but this won’t be pretty.”
“Why did it switch off?” She hadn’t meant to say it out loud, not when he was fighting for control of the plane. Kayla gripped the sides of her seat and hung on, praying the belt would hold. Praying the mother and daughter in the back would be safe.
“Could be a safety feature or something. Does it matter? It might have saved our lives—how about we call it a God thing?”
That sounded really good to her. “Thank You, Lord. Help us get to the ground in one piece.”
The land around them was farmland, wide stretches of green fields that might cushion their landing so long as they could avoid hitting a mountain, a barn or someone’s house.
Conner turned the plane to the right in a wide arc. He couldn’t know how scared she was. It would make him more nervous, and this situation was serious enough. They were going really fast. Maybe too fast.
Kayla looked around. “Is there a road or something we can land on? We need a runway.”
“First we need to find out how to get the wheels down.”
“What’s that?” A black dot in the distance lifted up from the ground and headed in their direction.
“Helicopter. He’d better stay out of the way.” Conner flicked switches. She didn’t know what they were. “But if that’s a local news crew, they’ll see us go down. They should contact emergency services. That means an ambulance and fire crews will be on the ground when we land.”
Why hadn’t she taken those pilot lessons her dad had offered her? She would have known what to do instead of sitting around, not helping, again. Lord, I’m deadweight. I’m not making a difference here. I only put us in more danger. I can’t save Conner. I always have to wait for him to save me.
But it wasn’t Conner who’d saved her; it was the Lord. And He was the only one who could save Conner, too. Whether they lived or died, God had paid the ultimate price to save both of them—He’d given His Son.
Thank You for reminding me of that. She’d been so caught up in her problems she’d forgotten the bigger picture. The one that stretched beyond this life to something more. He’d given her Conner. What a blessing, a gift of protection from the God who loved her.
Kayla had only ever been good at arguing her point. In person or on paper. How was that helpful? But she had discounted herself so many times she’d forgotten the point of a partnership. The kind of relationship that she wanted with Conner didn’t mean she would sit there in silence. She wanted him to encourage her, and to spur her on to be the best person she could be. And she wanted to be able to do the same for him.
He’d said that she’d been there for him through all this. That she’d played an important part. Protecting her meant everything to him; it was what made up who he was.
Kayla laid her hand on his shoulder and fought down the fear over what was happening. “I’m sure you can land this plane. I know God will help you, and I’m trusting that He’ll guide your hands while you get us down onto the ground.”
Conner’s focus didn’t move from his control of the plane still rapidly descending. They were running out of fuel. From all angles this was an impossible problem, but faith had seen her through so many times she just knew God had brought her and Conner together for a reason. They were going to get Sofija and Lena onto the ground safely.
Out loud, Kayla prayed more. For their safety and protection. For Conner to know what to do and to do it at the right time. Peace flowed through her. She wasn’t useless, and even though she still just sat beside him and didn’t physically do anything, she was helping. She knew it, though he didn’t smile. He didn’t move his focus. Conner swiftly and efficiently controlled the plane.
A whir of machinery started. The wheels were going down. Kayla prayed more. Conner nodded once, to himself or her, she didn’t know. They were lower now, headed for a highway. It looked clear of cars.
The sun had risen above the horizon, washing the sky with an orange glow. God’s mercies were new every morning, and she was counting on that fact today.
“There.” Conner’s voice came out hard and sharp, as though he was holding the plane steady with the sheer force of his will.
She looked in front of them, where a tobacco field was laid out. They were going to destroy the crop the farmer had planted, but if the four of them came out of this alive, she would pay him back double for what he’d lost. Who cared about holding on to money when they might lose their lives?
Conner moved his hand to the center and gripped a big handle. He shoved it forward by inches as the sound of grinding filled the cockpit. The landing gear going down still? Kayla prayed harder than she’d ever prayed.
The helicopter was close now, circling above them. A news helicopter. Probably broadcasting their plane crash live after seeing them nearly fall out of the sky. Had they called for help? Couldn’t they see this plane needed assistance, not an audience?
Conner cried out as he forced the plane to the ground, nose first. All his frustration, fear and hope came out as a great roar and he pulled back at the last second.
The plane touched ground and bounced back up again. They shook side to side in their seats.
Kayla turned to the back of the plane and yelled, “Hang on!”
Her head smacked against the seat cushion. They hit the ground again, whipping in their seats like pinballs. The plane slowed as they tore through the field toward a fence. The wind screamed as Conner pushed the handle for the brake flaps, and finally, they slowed to a stop.
Conner’s chest heaved.
He lifted both hands from the controls as though he couldn’t believe he’d done it.
“You did it.” She could barely believe it either. “You landed the plane.” She looked over, her hand still on his shoulder from when she’d prayed for him.
Conner glanced at her, tears of pure relief and joy in his eyes. “Kayla.”
She smiled. “You did it.”
“I love you, Kayla.”
*
Conner packed all the emotion he felt into those four words. It was past time she knew how he felt. They’d been through the worst few days he could have imagined and they were alive.
Was she going to say it back? Maybe she’d said it before only because she thought he’d been about to die. Or he’d imagined it. He had been coming around, not all the way conscious. Maybe it was just wishful thinking.
“Conner…” Her eyes softened, but she didn’t finish whatever she’d been about to say.
He unclipped his belt. “I’m going to check on Sofija and Lena. Make sure they’re okay.” His body protested and his head still pounded. It hadn’t hurt while he’d been guiding the plane into that rocky landing that nearly tore the aircraft apart. Now that the adrenaline was no longer throbbing through him, aches and pains answered every movement.
Kayla’s footsteps pattered behind him. “They’re at the back.”
Not in any seat, though. They were huddled behind the back row, between the reclined chairs and a wall of cabinets. Why hadn’t they buckled in?
Conner crouched, trying to hide the wince. He probably needed to be in hospital.
“Are you okay?”
The mom nodded. She spoke rapidly in a language he didn’t know.
“There’s a fire truck outside and an ambulance,” Kayla said. “Let’s have them check you out, okay?”
Andis’s wife nodded. “Thank you, Kayla.”
Kayla held out her hand, and the daughter took it. Conner helped the woman to her feet and they walked as a group to the open door. Thank You, God, that no one got sucked out. He didn’t want to know what that would have been like, falling to certain death with no parachute. Landing the plane was bad enough, but he knew God had been guiding him. There was no explanation other than that the Lord had answered Kayla’s prayer.
He’d gotten them down to the ground, and Conner would thank the Lord every day for the rest of his life. When he looked at Kayla. When she said “I love you” back
to him.
That hadn’t been a dream. He’d heard her say it.
He was going to ask her to marry him. Not now, but when the time was right. Conner was going to convince her to spend the rest of her life making him the happiest man ever, because he knew that’s what he’d do for her in return. He would make sure of it, because she didn’t deserve anything less.
The firefighters were wide-eyed all through the story, and they quickly ushered the mom and daughter to the ambulance. Conner found a spare patch of dirt and sat down with a thud.
“Conner!” Kayla rushed over the few steps between them and crouched. “Are you okay?”
“I need to make a call.” He pulled out his phone.
Kayla waved over the paramedics. Conner dialed Locke’s number and put the call on speaker.
The director answered immediately. “Conner?”
“We’re good.”
“I’m almost there. I heard about the crash. I cannot believe you got abducted off the highway.” Behind Locke’s voice was the white noise of tires on a road. “I saw the whole thing live on the news station’s website. Did you seriously land that plane? And Kayla’s okay?”
“She’s okay.”
She leaned forward. “Conner needs to go to the hospital. He’s not okay.”
Locke said, “Conner?”
“Bump on the head. I’ll live.” Along with the shot he’d taken to his leg and the bruises and scratches he’d acquired. Other than all that, he really was okay.
The paramedic touched the back of his head. He flinched away and wound up nose to nose with Kayla. She was alive. She was unharmed. He had done his job. “We need to find Andis.”
“Locke will find Andis. You just worry about you.”
Locke said, “She’s right. Let me figure out where he went.”
Kayla leaned closer and let her weight press into his shoulder. “What about Jan Barton and Manny?”
“Safe and sound in custody. We think there was an attempt to gain access, but my agents took care of it.”
“So everyone is good? Andis said Manny had been taken care of.”
“I think he tried. We’re looking into the attempt. Andis probably spoke too soon.”
Security Detail Page 16