Two Alone

by Sandra Brown

  Dear Reader,

  I’m most excited to share with you, in digital form for the first time, this love story. It was written and published early in my career when finished manuscripts were delivered on paper instead of in an email!

  I consider each book I write to be a personal letter to you, the reader. This is particularly true of the stories in which a man and a woman experience the wonder, the thrill, often the pain, and the complete joy of falling in love.

  Whether you’re enjoying this book for the first time, or revisiting it like an old friend living in a new house, I’m delighted to be sharing it with you. Because, although we’ve come a long way technologically since this book’s original publication, the essence of the story is timeless.

  Sandra Brown

  “Two Alone” Copyright © 1987 by Sandra Brown

  Two ALONE First Ebook edition December 2017 ISBN: 978-1-944654-15-3

  All rights reserved. No part of the Ebook may be reproduced, stored in, or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both copyright owner and Class Ebook Editions Ltd., the publisher of the Ebook. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Class Ebook Editions, Ltd.

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  “A masterful storyteller, carefully crafting tales that keep readers on the edge of their seats.” –USA Today

  “If you want romantic suspense that has teeth ... Sandra Brown is your gal.” –Stephen King

  “Brown is an excellent and almost effortless writer...The chemistry is undeniable.”―Kirkus Reviews

  “Sandra Brown's novels define the term page turner” –Booklist

  “Sandra Brown shows that she’s right up with the best of the boys.” –St. Louis Post Dispatch

  “Sandra Brown keeps readers on the edge of their seats.” –USA Today

  “Brown's story mixes thrills with mystery and a spicy sex scene or two. She has a talent for making the reader think that too much information has been revealed early in the story, eliminating any possibility for suspense, but the conspiracy is so multilayered, the reveal is a tiny part of the overall picture. Strong characters and an emotional narrative make this one of Brown's best books in years.”―Associated Press for SEEING RED

  “Brown ticks off the boxes that elevate her books to the bestseller lists in this sexy romantic thriller set in Texas...murder, intrigue, betrayal, and a series of dark revelations...witty, pitch-perfect dialogue and fluid writing. A master of her genre, Brown knows how to please her most ardent readers.”―Kirkus Reviews for SEEING RED

  “Sandra Brown just might have penned her best and most ambitious book ever, a tale that evokes the work of the likes of Don DeLillo, Greg Iles and Robert Stone....SEEING RED is an exceptional thriller in every sense of the word, a classic treatment of the costs of heroism and the nature of truth itself. Not to be missed.”―Providence Journal

  “When it comes to telling stories that are suspenseful, complex and romantic, no one does it better than Brown...Looking for excitement, thrills and passion? Then this is just the book for you!”―Romantic Times for SEEING RED (4 1/2 stars, Top Pick)

  “[An] exceptional romantic thriller... Brown handles the romance with her usual panache and adds some nifty plot twists that will keep readers guessing.”―Publishers Weekly (starred review) for STING

  “Brown crafts facets and depths of characters in a taut novel full of surprises.”―Booklist for STING

  “STING is Sandra Brown running on all cylinders.”―Fort Worth Star-Telegram

  “Sandra Brown knows how to create unbearable tension, and STING has it in spades... complex and riveting... well crafted, fast-paced, with just enough romance to satisfy the most discriminate reader.”―Fresh Fiction

  “Brown continues her transformation from the queen of romantic suspense to the queen of thriller form- period... Gritty, crime noir at its absolute best. Superb in all respects.”―Providence Sunday Journal (Praise for STING)

  “One of the hottest Sandra Brown books ever.” –Huffington Post for FRICTION

  “Brown will have you guessing right up to the very end. What she so creatively calls the finish line.” –Fresh Fiction for MEAN STREAK

  “Solid novel of romantic suspense from bestseller Brown.” — Publishers Weekly for MEAN STREAK

  “Just when readers think they’ve got things figured out, Brown pulls a clever twist. Settle back and enjoy!” — Romantic Times TOP PICK for MEAN STREAK

  “She knows how to weave a story that will hold her reader’s attention from the very first line.” — Totally Addicted to Reading for MEAN STREAK

  “Deft characterizations and eye for detail make this a winner...Satisfying, vintage Brown storytelling.”―Kirkus Reviews, praise for DEADLINE

  “DEADLINE is both a breathtaking and heartbreaking story; one that will stay with the reader long after the book is finished.”―freshfiction.com

  “Sandra Brown meticulously develops a stellar cast of characters, weaving them into a tense, gritty thriller that offers numerous plot twists leading to stunning revelations and a nail-biting conclusion. I highly recommend Brown's Low Pressure. Its multilayered, intricate and suspenseful storyline is enriched with vivid descriptions and crisp dialogue. If you enjoy romantic suspense, LOW PRESSURE is a book you'll want to read in one sitting.”―USA Today for LOW PRESSURE

  “A good old-fashioned thriller, and a winner...”―Kirkus for LOW PRESSURE

  “Sexual tension fueled by mistrust between brash Denton and shy Bellamy smolders and sparks in teasing fashion throughout.”―Publishers Weekly for LOW PRESSURE

  “This is classic Brown, packing a story with plenty of romantic tension and chilling danger!”―Romantic Times for LOW PRESSURE

  “Brown skillfully combines strong characterization with plots that keep the reader guessing all the way...A good old-fashioned thriller and a winner...”―Kirkus for LOW PRESSURE

  “Pulse-pounding . . . a relentless pace and clever plot.”―Publishers Weekly (starred review) for LETHAL

  “Hair-raising . . . a perfect mix of thriller and romantic suspense.”―USA Today, praise for LETHAL

  “Sandra Brown delivers a Hitchcockian thriller that reads like a bullet... No one is better in the genre than Brown, and she has written her best book to date.”―Associated Press, praise for LETHAL

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Dear Reader

  Praise for Sandra Brown

  Title Page

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  More by Sandra Brown

  Author Biography

  Also by Sandra Brown

  Excerpt

  Two

  Alone

  Sandra Brown

  Class Ebook Editions, Ltd.

  New York, NY

  Chapter One

  They were all dead.

  All except her.

  She was sure of that.

  She didn’t know how long it had been since the impact or how long she’d remained bent over with her head in
her lap. It could have been seconds, minutes, light-years. Time could stand still.

  Endlessly, it seemed, torn metal had shifted before settling with a groan. The dismembered trees—innocent victims of the crash—had ceased to quiver. Hardly a leaf was stirring now. Everything was frightfully still. There was no sound.

  Absurdly she thought of the question about a tree falling in the woods. Would it make a sound? It did. She’d heard it. So she must be alive.

  She raised her head. Her hair and shoulders and back were littered with chips of shattered plastic—what had previously been the window next to her seat. She shook her head slightly and the chips rained off her, making tinkling, pinging little noises in the quiet. Slowly she forced herself to open her eyes.

  A scream rose in her throat, but she couldn’t utter it. Her vocal cords froze. She was too terrified to scream. The carnage was worse than an air-traffic controller’s nightmare.

  The two men sitting in the seats directly in front of hers—good friends, judging by their loud and rambunctious bantering with each other—were now dead, their joking and laughter forever silenced. One’s head had gone through the window. That fact registered with her, but she didn’t look too closely. There was a sea of blood. She slammed her eyes shut and didn’t open them until after she’d averted her head.

  Across the aisle, another man lay dead, his head thrown back against the cushion as though he’d been sleeping when the plane went down. The Loner. She had mentally tagged him with that name before takeoff. Because the plane was small, there were strict regulations about weight. While the passengers and their luggage were being weighed before boarding, the Loner had stood apart from the group, his attitude superior and hostile. His unfriendliness hadn’t invited conversation with any of the other passengers, who were all boisterously bragging about their kills. His aloofness had segregated him—just as her sex had isolated her. She was the only woman on board.

  Now, the only survivor.

  Looking toward the front of the cabin, she could see that the cockpit had been severed from the fuselage like a bottle cap that had been twisted off. It had come to rest several feet away. The pilot and copilot, both jovial and joking young men, were obviously, bloodily, dead.

  She swallowed the bile that filled the back of her throat. The robust, bearded copilot had helped her on board, flirting, saying he rarely had women passengers on his airplane and when he did, they didn’t look like fashion models.

  The other two passengers, middle-aged brothers, were still strapped into their seats in the front row. They’d been killed by the jagged tree trunk that had cut into the cabin like a can opener. Their families would feel the tragedy with double intensity.

  She began to cry. Hopelessness and fear overwhelmed her. She was afraid she would faint. She was afraid she would die. And she was afraid she wouldn’t.

  The deaths of her fellow passengers had been swift and painless. They had probably been killed on impact. They were better off. Her death would be long in coming because as far as she could tell, she was miraculously uninjured. She would die slowly of thirst, starvation, exposure.

  She wondered why she was still alive. The only explanation was that she was sitting in the last row. Unlike the rest of the passengers, she had left someone behind at the lodge on Great Bear Lake. Her goodbye had been drawn out, so she was the last one to board the aircraft. All the seats had been taken except that one in the last row.

  When the copilot assisted her aboard, the rowdy dialogues had ceased abruptly. Bent at an angle because of the low ceiling, she had moved to the only available seat. She had felt distinctly uncomfortable, being the only woman on board. It was like walking into a smoke-filled room where a heated poker game was in progress. Some things were innately, exclusively male, and no amount of sexual equality was ever going to change that. Just as some things were innately, exclusively female.

  An airplane leaving a hunting and fishing lodge in the Northwest Territories was one of those masculine things. She had tried to make herself as inconspicuous as possible, saying nothing, settling in her seat and staring out the window. Once, just after takeoff, she had turned her head and inadvertently made eye contact with the man sitting across the aisle. He had looked at her with such apparent disfavor that she had returned her gaze to the window and kept it there.

  Besides the pilots, she was probably the first one to notice the storm. Accompanied by dense fog, the torrential rain had made her nervous. Soon the others began to notice the jouncy flight. Their braggadocio was replaced with uneasy quips about riding this one out and being glad the pilot was “driving” instead of one of them.

  But the pilots were having a difficult time. That soon became apparent to all of them. Eventually they fell silent and kept their eyes trained on the men in the cockpit. Tension inside the aircraft increased when the two-man crew lost radio contact with the ground. The plane’s instruments could no longer be depended upon because the readings they were giving out were apparently inaccurate. Because of the impenetrable cloud cover, they hadn’t seen the ground since takeoff.

  When the plane went into a spiraling nosedive and the pilot shouted back to his passengers, “We’re going in. God be with us,” they all took the news resignedly and with an amazing calm.

  She had bent double and pressed her head between her knees, covering it with her arms, praying all the way down. It seemed to take an eternity.

  She would never forget the shock of that first jarring impact. Even braced for it, she hadn’t been adequately prepared. She didn’t know why she had been spared instantaneous death, unless her smaller size had allowed her to wedge herself between the two seats more securely and better cushion the impact.

  However, under the circumstances, she wasn’t sure that being spared was a favorable alternative. One could only reach the lodge on the northwestern tip of Great Bear Lake by airplane. Miles of virgin wilderness lay between it and Yellowknife, their destination. God only knew how far off the flight plan the plane had been when it went down. The authorities could search for months without finding her. Until they did—if ever—she was utterly alone and dependent solely on herself for survival.

  That thought galvanized her into action. With near-hysterical frenzy she struggled to release her seat belt. It snapped apart and she fell forward, bumping her head on the seat in front of her. She eased herself into the narrow aisle and, on hands and knees, crawled toward the gaping tear in the airplane.

  Avoiding any direct contact with the bodies, she looked up through the ripped metal seam. The rain had stopped, but the low, heavy, dark gray clouds looked so laden with menace they seemed ready to burst. Frequently they belched deep rolls of thunder. The sky looked cold and wet and threatening. She clutched the collar of her red fox coat high about her neck. There was virtually no wind. She supposed she should be grateful for that. The wind could get very cold. But wait! If there was no wind, where was that keening sound coming from?

  Holding her breath, she waited.

  There it was again!

  She whipped her head around, listening. It wasn’t easy to hear anything over the pounding of her own heart.

  A stir.

  She looked toward the man who was sitting in the seat across the aisle from hers. Was it just her wishful imagination or did the Loner’s eyelids flicker? She scrambled back up the aisle, brushing past the dangling, bleeding arm of one of the crash victims. She had studiously avoided touching it only moments ago.

  “Oh, please, God, let him be alive,” she prayed fervently. Reaching his seat, she stared down into his face. He still seemed to be in peaceful repose. His eyelids were still. No flicker. No moaning sound coming from his lips, which were all but obscured by a thick, wide mustache. She looked at his chest, but he was wearing a quilted coat, so it was impossible to tell if he were breathing or not.

  She laid her index finger along the top curve of his mustache, just beneath his nostrils. She uttered a wordless exclamation when she felt the humid passa
ge of air. Faint, but definitely there.

  “Thank God, thank God.” She began laughing and crying at the same time. Lifting her hands to his cheeks, she slapped them lightly. “Wake up, mister. Please wake up.”

  He moaned, but he didn’t open his eyes. Intuition told her that the sooner he regained consciousness the better. Besides, she needed the reassurance that he wasn’t dead or going to die—at least not immediately. She desperately needed to know that she wasn’t alone.

  Reasoning that the cold air might help revive him, she resolved to get him outside the plane. It wasn’t going to be easy; he probably outweighed her by a hundred pounds or more.

  She felt every ounce of it as she opened his seat belt and his dead weight slumped against her like a sack of concrete mix. She caught most of it with her right shoulder and supported him there while she backed down the aisle toward the opening, half lifting him, half dragging him with her.

  That seven-foot journey took her over half an hour. The bloody arm hanging over the armrest snagged them. She had to overcome her repulsion and touch it, moving it aside. She got blood on her hands. It was sticky. She whimpered with horror, but clamped her trembling lower lip between her teeth and continued tugging the man down the aisle—one struggling, agonizing inch at a time.

  It struck her suddenly that whatever his injury, she might be doing it more harm than good by moving him. But she’d come this far; she wouldn’t stop now. Setting a goal and achieving it seemed very important, if for no other reason than to prove she wasn’t helpless. She had decided to get him outside, and that’s what she was going to do if it killed her.

  Which it very well might, she thought several minutes later. She had moved him as far forward as possible. Occasionally he groaned, but otherwise he showed no signs of coming around. Leaving him momentarily, she climbed through the branches of the pine tree. The entire left side of the fuselage had been virtually ripped off, so it would be a matter of dragging him through the branches of the tree. Using her bare hands, she broke off as many of the smaller branches as she could before returning to the man.