“Oh, shit!”
In front of me, Isaac’s fingers went to his belt, and he fumbled with the buckle. The world had gone mad around us, the whirring of the blades suddenly a pitch higher, or perhaps it was the engine, I wasn’t sure.
The ground was coming up too fast.
Then Isaac was out of his seat and lurching forward.
“Isaac, no!”
If we were going to crash, I didn’t want him to not be strapped in.
He stepped and fell, bouncing off the side of one of the seats. I realized what he was doing, trying to reach the pilot. Jonathan had fallen across the level which controlled the helicopter’s movement, which was why the helicopter had gone into a spin. Isaac managed to regain his balance and leaned over the seat, hauling the pilot up. I’d seen the impact of the bullet, the way the other side of his head had exploded, leaving tiny pieces of skull and brain matter across the seat. At no point did I hold any hope that he might have survived.
Kingsley must have understood what Isaac was doing, as he unclipped himself as well and followed his movements. The aircraft continued to spin, leaving me sickeningly dizzy. I’d braced myself for impact, expecting the blades to strike the ground or the surrounding trees at any moment, and the helicopter bursting into a huge fireball with us in it. I didn’t want it to end this way. Not now. Not like this. Fingers reached for mine, and I looked down to see Clay holding my hand tight. I could see the fear in his eyes, but with it he also fixed me in his gaze. Look at me. Focus on me. Don’t think about what might be about to happen.
But the motion of the aircraft slowed, and I risked looking away to see Isaac and Kingsley at the front. Kingsley had hold of the body of the pilot, pulling him away from the controls, while Isaac leaned forward, pulling on the lever, I assumed, and trying to stabilize the helicopter.
I had no idea if Isaac knew how to fly this thing. It wasn’t something he’d ever mentioned before. The helicopter had stopped its furious spin which had sent the world into a blur around us, but it still felt far from under control. The machine dipped and then rose, lurching to one side, and then the other, like a giant beast that had been shot with a sedative dart and no longer had control of itself.
“We’re going down!” Isaac yelled. “Brace yourselves.”
I’d been bracing myself since the moment I understood what was happening. The shriek of the helicopter was too much. The headphones had been ripped from my head from all the movement, but I couldn’t have pinpointed the moment when it had happened. Then arms wrapped around me from behind, and Clay leaned across the front of me, as though hoping to pin me in my seat. Alex held my other shoulder, perhaps knowing it wouldn’t do much good, but trying to offer me some comfort. And it did. They’d surrounded me with their bodies. Trying to protect me, even though we had no idea what might happen next. Hell, yes, we did. We were going to crash.
Oh God, oh God, oh God, oh God.
Panic and terror flitted through my mind, every muscle bunched. I didn’t want to think of Isaac and Kingsley at the front, with no seatbelts on. Or who’d taken the shot at the helicopter and killed the pilot. This had all happened so fast, the time passing by both terrifyingly fast, and also impossibly slowly, as though my brain had slowed every moment, so I would be aware of the final minutes of my life in pure, three-dimensional detail.
The helicopter hit the ground, but instead of the nosedive I was expecting, the landing skids somehow struck the forest floor first. The chopper bounced and lifted back into the air, before coming down again. The blades still spun, though I thought they might be slowing. We were somehow still moving forward, and I risked glancing up to see the tree trunks of the forest growing larger through the front windshield. The engine suddenly died around us, and we were left with only the whirring of the blades above our heads as their momentum slowed. Isaac must have somehow killed the power.
There was an impossible silence before we struck the line of trees. And then we were thrown forward, combined with a horrific crunch, metal screeching on metal, glass shattering. My head whipped forward and snapped back, slamming the back of my skull into the seat behind.
And then everything fell still.
Chapter Fourteen
The acrid stench of spilled diesel filled my nostrils and made my eyes water. Around my head, pieces of metal creaked and clicked, and another shard of glass fell from one of the windows and shattered with a crash, followed by a tinkle. My seatbelt had held, though it had crushed the air out of my lungs, and I knew I would be sporting some serious bruising across my chest. But I’d somehow survived.
My attention turned to the others. Were they all right?
Beside me, Clay shifted, sitting upright. “You okay, sugar?” His voice was a croak.
“Yeah, I think so.” I looked around, frantic. Isaac, Kingsley! “What about the others?”
On my left, Lorcan groaned. “Fuck. Someone shot the pilot from the ground.” He sat up straighter then reached to unclip his seatbelt. “They’ll be coming here next.”
Oh, my God. I knew what that meant. We needed to move and fast. We were sitting ducks by staying here.
I twisted slightly in my seat, the movement causing pain to lance up through my chest. “You okay, Alex?”
Behind me, Alex coughed and budged in his seat. “Yeah, I’m okay.”
Movement came from the front, someone moaning. We’d hit the trees with both Isaac and Kingsley right at the front of the chopper, and neither of them had been strapped in. Kingsley’s big body was slumped across the back of the passenger seat. Isaac wasn’t even in view. Had he been thrown from the helicopter? Frantic, I reached to my belt buckle, my fingers feeling numb and fat. Terror clutched at my chest, and I feared the worst. Where was Isaac? I wanted to cry, but I wasn’t going to let myself. I didn’t have the luxury of tears right now.
I needed to get to them, to make sure they were all right. At the front of the helicopter, with no seatbelts on, there was no way they could have gone uninjured when we hit the trees.
“How far away have we come down?” Clay asked.
I shook my head. “I have no idea.” Everything had been so disorienting when we’d lost control of the helicopter. I thought we’d come down somewhere in the clearing, but I had no idea where.
Lorcan worked to free himself from the restraints of the belt, too. “It’s not going to take the shooters long to get here.”
Shit. We were being stalked on the ground by whoever had killed Jonathan. I couldn’t think about the pilot being dead. He’d seemed like a decent guy, but I’d barely spoken to him. He might have had a family we didn’t even know about, people who would need to be informed of his death.
My belt popped, and as I staggered on trembling legs toward the front of the helicopter, I reached to the holster at my waist and pulled my gun free. Movement came beside me, and I looked to find Alex right there.
“Cover us,” he called back to Lorcan and Clay. “We need to check on the others.”
I knew what that meant. Lorcan and Clay were going to need to cover us from the men who were most likely now approaching the helicopter from the outside. They’d shoot us as soon as they reached us, and if Alex and I were focusing on Kingsley and Isaac, we wouldn’t be able to protect ourselves.
As Alex and I climbed over the seats to get to the front of the helicopter, Lorcan reached over and managed to wrench open the side door. We hit the trees from the front on, which meant, other than some buckling, the doors were still intact.
I managed to peer over the seat. Isaac was on the floor of the helicopter, folded into a position that didn’t look natural at all. “Oh, God.”
Scrambling over the back of the seat, I planted both my feet on the pilot’s seat. Jonathan’s body had slumped to one side when he’d been shot, and then thrown farther when we’d crashed. I tried not to look at the blood spatters, or the way the poor man appeared to be missing a chunk of his skull. I needed to focus on those of us who were still alive. Isaac
had been thrown directly over the back of his seat and into the small space where the control panel was located. I kneeled and reached down to Isaac. Was he still breathing?
I folded his arms away from his face so I could get a better look. His hands and forearms were cut up from the glass. Blood soaked into the white of his shirt, and the gray sleeves of his suit jacket. A bloom of watercolor dripped onto canvas.
His eyes were shut, his lips slightly parted. More blood matted the light brown of his hairline, creating a rusty halo. I placed my fingers beneath his nose, desperately trying to figure out if I could feel the heat of his breath. Could I detect the faintest warming of my skin, or was I imagining things?
“How is he?” Alex called to me.
“I’m... I’m not sure.”
Then his arm jerked, and his eyes flickered open. “Oh, thank God.” I twisted to Alex. “He’s alive.”
“So is Kingsley. Come on, buddy. Time to wake up now.” We wouldn’t be able to carry Kingsley out of here. Not with armed men hunting us down. He was too big, and would mean we wouldn’t be able to move fast enough. I was suddenly relieved we’d handed George over to Andrea when we’d had the chance. I couldn’t imagine being in this situation with a kid. It was terrifying enough.
“I can see movement in the distance!” Lorcan yelled from where he was positioned beside the now open doorway. Clay had taken up position on the opposite side of the helicopter, so we were covered from both directions. “They’re coming.”
It wasn’t much, but at least we had the shell of the aircraft to take shelter in. I turned my attention back to our leader.
“Isaac, are you okay?”
He groaned and winced, but managed to nod, He grappled out, trying to right himself. I took his hand to try to pull him upright. He winced again, and I noticed the hand I was holding had a gash in the palm. His skin was slippery and hot against mine. But he seemed to be becoming more and more aware with every second that passed.
His gaze, at first unfocused, finally settled on my face. “We landed?”
I held back a small, crazed laugh. “We’re on the ground, if that counts?”
A muscle beside his right eye twitched. “Yeah, I guess it’ll have to.”
I helped to pull him up, so his feet were on the floor instead of his backside. The space was small, and he was hurt, but we managed it.
I ran my hands down his body in a purely practical way, checking him over and making sure he didn’t have any huge pieces of glass speared into his body that shock hadn’t yet let him recognize. But, apart from all the cuts from the glass, and the wound in his scalp, he appeared to be unharmed.
“I think he’s okay,” I called back to Alex.
“I’ll be even better if you keep doing that to me, love.” One side of his lips quirked in a smile, and I had to hold myself back from smacking him. In the chaos of the crash, he seemed to have forgotten what a dangerous situation we were in. His gaze was still dreamy, as though he’d had a little too much to drink.
“How’s Kingsley?” I asked Alex, ignoring Isaac’s comment. He didn’t know what he was saying.
“Cut up,” Alex replied, “but he’s coming around. Slowly.”
Clay shouted from his position at the back of the helicopter. “They’re almost here. Prepare yourselves.”
I leaned to one side, looking out the pilot’s window. “Where? I can’t see them.”
“Right there!” Clay replied. “Between the trees. They’re using them as cover.”
“Sons of bitches,” Lorcan swore.
“Hollan’s men?” I wanted to confirm.
Clay nodded. “Who else?”
Our proximity to the base meant only one thing. I’d been right when I’d suspected Hollan had doubled back and come here. What had he done with everyone below ground? Were they all dead? Devlin, the boys, my aunt? It was an unthinkable but very real possibility.
“Come on, Kingsley,” Alex said, giving the big guy a shake. “You got to wake up, man. We need to get out of here!”
“Can we drag him?” I suggested.
“We can try, but it’ll slow us down and make us an easy target.”
I remembered the stop we’d made at the hangar, and the snacks we’d bought. Frantic, I scanned the floor of the helicopter, trying to spot something. There, that was what I wanted! A bottle of water. It might not be the most sophisticated method of bringing someone around, but we were desperate. I snatched up the bottle and unscrewed the cap, and then tipped the cool water over Kingsley’s head.
He sprang forward, gasping.
I felt guilty for bringing him around in such a way, but at least he was awake. Even more importantly, he was alive.
“Fuck.” He wiped his hand over his face, and then winced. “What happened?”
“We can’t go over it now. Can you walk?”
He looked around, confused. “The chopper ... it was going down.”
“Seriously, Kingsley,” I said. We didn’t have time to explain what had happened. “You need to move or we’re all going to end up dead. Can you walk?”
He nodded. “Yeah, I think so.” He hauled his massive frame upright in the confined space, and then caught sight of Jonathan and the crushed fuselage of the helicopter. His eyes widened at the sight, but thankfully he didn’t ask any more questions.
Lorcan leaned out the door and fired a couple of shots. The bangs were impossibly loud, and I flinched with each crack, my ears already ringing from the noise of the helicopter crash.
“Go!” he yelled. “Into the tree line. I’ll cover you.”
“No, there’s too many of them.” And there were. I risked taking a peek to see numerous men in the same black protective gear we’d watched on the video approaching with their weapons aimed.
My hand went to my hip, checking my gun was still there. It was. “I’ll help cover, too. Alex and Clay, help Isaac and Kingsley get to the tree line.”
Lorcan glanced back at me. “No, Darcy. You go.”
“I’m not strong enough to help the men, but I know how to shoot.”
Lorcan threw me a look, and then, perhaps seeing the determination on my face, gave me a short nod. I took the opposite side, stepping into Clay’s place as Clay moved back to help Alex move Kingsley. Using the interior of the helicopter as cover, we leaned out the side to take shots at the approaching men.
“Aim for the neck, arms, or legs,” Lorcan yelled to me between shots. “They won’t be protected by bulletproof gear on those areas.”
I refocused and did what he instructed. I lined my sight on one man as he jogged forward, his weapon aimed at the fallen chopper. I pulled the trigger. The gun recoiled, bucking in my hands, and the man jerked to the side, as though someone had shoulder barged him. A volley of gunfire returned, punching holes in the metal door of the helicopter. Thwack, thwack, thwack. I cowered, half-expecting a bullet to strike me at any moment.
Gunfire came from closer to the tree line, and I realized the guys had made it. They were able to cover us now.
“Come on,” Lorcan said, reaching out to grab my hand. I allowed him to pull me out of the chopper, and just as Clay and Alex fired at the approaching men, we took the opportunity to run. My whole body hurt from the crash, but I ignored the pain, knowing we needed to get to relative safety. Even breathing hurt my lungs from where the straps had tightened across my chest, bruising my ribs. None of that mattered now, though. We were alive, and I wanted it to stay that way.
We scrambled away. I expected for a bullet to punch me in the back, but we reached where the others were hiding and threw ourselves behind the thick tree trunks to take shelter. Now I could see the helicopter properly, my blood curdled in my veins. We’d been so incredibly lucky to survive that. Then I remembered not all of us had.
Chapter Fifteen
Hollan’s men kept coming, closing the distance between us. Now I had a better view, I counted them. There were four men left now, with two injured, having taken bullets from me and L
orcan.
Kingsley had slumped down behind one of the tree trunks, but he held his gun and leaned out to fire at the approaching men.
“Can you see Hollan anywhere?” Isaac yelled.
Lorcan frowned. “No, but it’s hard to tell with them wearing headgear.”
“Shit.”
I shook my head. “He won’t be there. He always gets others to do his dirty work.”
“Then we’re going to need to find out where he is.” Lorcan peered back around the side of the trunk, and then darted away, to the left, using each of the trees as cover. I only caught flashes of his black leather jacket as he moved between them.
“What’s he doing?” I hissed.
Isaac shook his head, his expression as baffled as my own. “I’m not sure.”
There was no time to talk about things. The men were closing in on us. But they were exposed, where we had cover. More smart shots from the guys took another couple of men down. I tried to spot Lorcan, trying to see where he’d gone.
Suddenly, he stepped out into the open, behind where the remaining two men still moved forward. My breath caught in my lungs, my whole body freezing as I stared in shocked horror at him, wondering what the hell he was playing at. He crept forward, moving quickly and almost silently up behind one of the remaining two. In what appeared to be two actions at once, he pointed his gun and fired a bullet into one of the men’s leg, and wrapped his arm around the second man’s throat. He lifted his foot and kicked the gun out of the shot soldier’s hand. The man he had by the throat fought back, firing a shot that made me sick to my stomach, but that missed Lorcan, thank God. Lorcan wrestled the gun from him, and then yanked off the man’s helmet. The headgear fell to the ground, rolling in the dirt.
The man with the leg wound reached for the gun he’d dropped, but Clay was there before he could reach it. I hadn’t even noticed Clay leave our side. Clay kicked the weapon away, and it skidded some distance in the dirt before coming to a standstill, well out of reach.
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