In less than two months Dr Mia McKenzie had taken over his life. And he wasn’t sure exactly when it had happened. All he knew
for sure
was that the thought of never being with her again was not one he relished.
She’d been the one he’d thought of while he’d been away. Not the air hostess in business class who’d slipped him her card. Not the many beautiful Sicilian women who had smiled at him with frank interest on the streets of Marsala. Not even Marissa, his brother’s wife, the
woman he’d foolishly thought himself in love with all those years ago.
Mia. It had been Mia who he’d thought of. Mia he’d picked up the phone to ring after his brother had paid him a visit at his hotel and told him to go home.
And then put down again.
Mia who he’d credited as he’d talked to his grandmother standing by her fresh grave after the other mourners had left. Mia who had got him through a killer flight as he’d fantasised about their reunion.
He stole a glance at her as she flicked through the retrieval paperwork balanced on a clipboard on her lap. She was gorgeous even in a big yellow helmet that made her look as if she was trapped inside a giant insect eye and flight overalls that seemed two sizes too big for her.
He looked away again as the insanity of it all hit him. He’d always been able to walk away. Always. None of this made sense.
And none of it made him happy.
It was official—he was having a truly hellish week.
‘So the ambulance crew on scene have the patient stabilised and ready for transport,’ Mia said, conscious of his eyes on her and desperate to get back to a professional footing after their
coitus interruptus.
Their patient had suspected spinal injuries requiring rapid air evacuation for maximum treatment success and that’s what she needed to focus on.
Luca nodded. ‘Should just be able to scoop and run.’
Mia hoped so. The rain had picked up and the chopper seemed to be being buffeted by some decent wind. She could see lightning in the distance and guessed that was the storm they were skirting around. At the best of times Mia wasn’t the greatest flyer in the world and she
knew that Brian wouldn’t be flying if he didn’t think it was safe but the sooner they were back at The Harbour in one piece, the better. And then there was Luca, sitting opposite her, watching her with brooding eyes and causing another kind of storm. Inside her. She’d never met a man she couldn’t handle and she hated it that she couldn’t shake him. From her thoughts. Her dreams.
Her daydreams!
‘Think I might get a bit of shut-eye,’ she said into her mike. It was, after all, nearly three in the morning and she’d long ago learned the value of power-napping.
She didn’t wait for anyone’s permission, just closed her eyes. And dreamed of Luca.
A loud bang woke her with a start fifteen minutes later. The chopper spun wildly and her head was filled with Brian swearing and putting out a mayday call. Her eyes flew to the man opposite her. ‘Luca?’
Luca saw alarm and fear in her eyes and felt his own pulse leap as the helicopter seemed to be losing altitude as it spun. ‘Brian?’ He spoke into his headphones. ‘What’s happening?’
‘Lightning took out the tail rotor,’ Brian said calmly, while desperately trying to regain control of the spiralling chopper.
‘I thought you said you were skirting around the storm?’ Mia said above the noise of her pistoning heart and the whine of the labouring engine. She braced one hand against the stretcher beside her and the other against the aircraft shell to steady herself in the midst of the crazy spinning.
‘I am. Mother nature can be a bitch like that sometimes.’
How was it possible that Brian could even sound upbeat during a mid-air emergency?
‘Are we going to crash?’ she asked.
‘Hell, yeah,’ Brian said matter-of-factly. ‘Brace yourselves, guys, we’re over national park and there’re a lot of trees down there.’
Mia tamped down on the rather alien urge to become hysterical. It wasn’t what she usually did in a crisis but, hell, they were going to crash. She was twenty-nine and she was going to die. She hadn’t witnessed the northern lights. She hadn’t bought herself that cute little retro convertible. She hadn’t been to the ballet.
She hadn’t been in love.
Except she had, of course.
And the man she loved was going to die with her.
Her gaze locked with Luca’s. What a really, really horrible time for such a profound revelation. No time to hug it to herself like a delicious little secret.
‘Oh, God,’ Mia whispered, her throat suddenly as dry as ash, her eyes trying to take in every detail of Luca’s face.
‘It’s going to be okay, Mia,’ Luca said.
He reached out his hand, hoping his grandmother was out there somewhere watching over them. He was damned if he was going to die before telling Mia how he felt about her.
Whatever the hell that was.
If he’d learned anything this past week it was that life was short and you couldn’t live in the past.
Mia slipped her hand into his and gripped tight. It was cold and she was trembling and he’d have given anything to erase the glimpse of mortality he could see in her eyes.
‘Just because we crash it doesn’t mean we’re going to die. Does it, Brian?’ Luca queried.
He was calm, so bloody calm. How could Luca be this calm as the helicopter spiralled out of control in a death plunge? Her brain was spinning just as wildly. Desperately trying to remember helicopter crash statistics while grappling with regret that she wasn’t closer to her parents and sorrow that her fledgling love for Luca was going to be snuffed out before she’d even had the chance to explore it.
‘Not on my watch,’ Brian chirped. ‘Okay, guys, hold tight. Prepare for impact.’
Mia squeezed Luca’s hand hard. ‘I’ve never seen
Swan Lake
.’
Luca smiled at her. ‘When this is over, we’ll go and see it together.’
There was no time for her to smile back. The crippled chopper hit trees with a violent jolt, halting the rapid downward spiral most effectively. Mia squeezed her eyes shut as the impact raced through her body like a giant shock wave. She vaguely heard cracking glass, a loud expletive followed by a guttural cry from Brian and then nothing other than the screech and grind of the rotors could be heard as they sliced through the canopy. Mia, eyes still shut, hit her head several times against the shell of the cabin and she was grateful for her helmet as the chopper lurched and listed, dropping a little then stopping then dropping again as the branches beneath buckled beneath its weight before it finally came to a shuddering halt.
After a good twenty seconds of no movement, Mia cracked open an eye. She could hear Brian talking to Air Control, she could smell rain and fuel and eucalyptus,
she could feel the wind buffeting the chopper and hear it whistling inside the cabin. Her eyes adjusted to the sudden darkness and she could see Luca sitting opposite, wonderfully intact.
She was alive.
They were all alive!
‘You okay?’ Luca asked.
Mia thought about it for a moment. Everything felt fine. She nodded. ‘Yes … I think. You?’
Luca nodded back. ‘Yes.’ And then he grinned. ‘
Swan Lake,
here we come.’
Mia grinned back. Her first instinct, to throw herself at him, was pulled up short by a moan coming from the front.
‘Brian? Are you okay?’ Luca asked.
‘Leg’s busted,’ the pilot panted as he killed the engine.
Luca glanced at Mia. The pain in Brian’s voice was obvious. ‘Is that a guess or can you see it?’
Brian swore again. ‘Tree branch breached the cab, drove into my leg. I can see the bones.’
They exchanged glances again. Luca felt a moment of guilt at his earlier wish that Brian would break something. ‘Any other injuries?’
‘Nope. Don’t think so.’
Luca wasn’t totally reassured. Often people could have wounds they weren’t even aware of if there was one overriding painful injury.
‘Okay, so we need to get you out of there onto the stretcher so we can splint your leg and give you something for the pain. Lucky for you, you crashlanded a mini emergency ward, they have all the best drugs.’
Brian gave a half laugh, half snort at Luca’s attempt
to keep things light. ‘Ah. You cottoned onto my dastardly plan.’
Luca unbuckled. Mia followed.
‘Wait,’ Brian called out. ‘We need to assess how this bird’s being supported. I don’t know how precarious it is and moving around could dislodge it. I’d hate to survive the first crash only to be killed on impact with the ground.’
Luca paused. He could tell that Brian was trying to make light of the situation but he also knew that Brian was still thinking like a pilot. Which, given his horrific injury, was amazing.
‘Okay,’ Luca said. ‘How do we do that?’
‘If you can open your door safely, grab the torch and have a look out, see if you can see what’s supporting us. But move carefully until we know. The crash would have activated our emergency locator transmitter so Air Control will know where we are but they’ll want a sit rep—once we know what we’re up against, I’ll let them know.’
Luca glanced at Mia. The chopper had come to a stop in a reasonably level position with a slight tilt to the left so he was pretty certain that movement wouldn’t be an issue but that all depended on what was beneath them.
‘Buckle up,’ he said as he reached for the torch strapped to the cabin above his head and gently removed it.
Mia felt a trickle of dread drip down her spine. ‘Be careful.’
Luca nodded, aware that they might well be precariously balanced and not keen to be the one that upset the apple cart. It was good to know that their ELT had been activated and that help would no doubt soon be
on its way. But Brian, while he was being very stoic, needed urgent medical attention, so they couldn’t just sit around and wait.
He swivelled in his seat and shone the torch out the window. Through the now driving rain he could see that the door appeared to be free of any vegetation so he gingerly reached for the handle and gently eased it open. The freezing rain assaulted him almost immediately as he carefully lowered himself to the floor of the cabin, hung his head out and shone the torch under the chopper.
They appeared to be wedged between three massive looking tree trunks huddled together. The bottom of the cabin was supported by sturdy interwoven branches which appeared knotted. The tail also seemed wedged between two trunks further back.
Luca shone the torch down towards the forest floor. Whether it was the rain or the dark or the sheer distance, he couldn’t make it out. It was nothing but a swirling abyss of cloud and night.
He crawled back in and gently shut the door. His overalls were soaked around the shoulders and the part of his face not protected by the helmet was as wet as if he’d just stepped out of the shower.
He scrambled to his feet and gave a very slight experimental bounce. When the chopper stayed firm he gave another bigger one. ‘I think it’s fine.’
He relayed the info to Brian who spoke with Air Control. Luca experimented some more, shifting slowly and carefully around the cramped confines of the chopper, which was hardly made for ease of movement anyway.
It seemed stable and he let out a little sigh of relief.
‘Bad news.’ Brian’s voice interrupted Luca. ‘The weather has worsened. High winds and driving rain are going to make rescue impossible for a while. It’s too dangerous to send another chopper and a winch crew. Meteorology think the system’s going to hang around for quite a few more hours so we’re stuck up this tree until daylight. Like the bloody Swiss Family Robinson.’
Mia heard Brian laugh at his own joke then suck in a breath on a deep guttural groan.
‘We’ve got to see to him,’ she said.
Luca nodded. ‘I think the chopper’s stable enough to drag him out of his seat and onto the stretcher. It’s going to hurt, though.’
Mia nodded grimly. Hell, yeah. ‘We could get him to splint his leg first—we carry vacuum splints—it might help a bit.’
Luca nodded. ‘Okay. Let’s do it. Unbuckle, but slowly. And leave your helmet on. Let’s make sure this bird can take both of us moving around before we get too carried away.’
Mia unbuckled and stood slowly. Luca held out his hand and she glanced at him as she took it.
‘You’re freezing,’ he murmured, enclosing her hand within his.
Mia was surprised to realise she was—she’d been in survival mode and hadn’t realised it. ‘The wind’s getting in somewhere,’ she said absently, caught up in the warmth of his hand.
Despite how soaked his shoulders and arms were, his hands were like a toasty pair of gloves. In fact, his mere presence was like a beacon of light in this cold, dark, scary scenario they’d landed in.
Luca was here and he was warm and solid and one hundred per cent in control.
‘Near Brian, I think,’ Luca murmured, steadying her. ‘Grab the splint,’ he said. ‘Slow and easy. I don’t know how much weight distribution is aiding stability.’
Mia nodded and reluctantly let go of Luca’s hand. She’d felt safe under the influence of his touch. Which made no sense. They were still stuck up a tree. In a helicopter. In the middle of a storm.
Which just went to prove what she’d always thought—love was crazy!
She took a tentative step and then another towards the storage cupboard. Like boats, helicopters made excellent use of space and Mia knew what was in every nook and cranny. The floor felt solid beneath her as she inched her way closer.
She grabbed the splint and the pump and turned to face Luca. ‘What now?’
He held out his hand and she passed him the gear. He gestured her close. ‘I’m going to drag him out from behind. You stand by at the stretcher for when he’s out. Let’s get an IV going and give him some morph.’
Mia looked at the cramped confines of the single pilot’s seat. The end of the stretcher protruded into the front cab area where in most commercial choppers there would have been a second seat.
‘Are you going to be able to manoeuvre him out from behind?’