A Warrior's Love [Blackhawk Brothers 3] (BookStrand Publishing Romance)

by Lavada Dee

Chapter 19

  Tyrell gripped the controls as another high gust of wind hit them and he lost contact with Nadia. He cursed under his breath. What a fool thing to do. He shouldn’t have let her come. Rescue was always dicey with a helicopter, and with the weather conditions what they were, it was as bad as it got. But what choice was there? She had been right when she said they would need her as a spotter. He just hadn’t expected they would need her for the actual rescue.

  Concentrating, he focused on making contact with Nadia again, and was gratified when he felt her. He could hear Devon talking to her through the headset. “Don’t fight the wind. You won’t win, and it will tire you before you get to them.”

  Tyrell felt her acquiesce before he heard her voice. “I’m trying.”

  “And you’re doing good. Just a little further and you should be able to swing onto the ledge.”

  Tyrell had to hand it to Nadia. In spite of the fear he could feel coursing through her, she was putting up a fight. He let his mind flow to hers. “I’m still with you. We will work as one.”

  Nadia immediately answered, “What about Devon? If we don’t use the headset he won’t be able to hear us.”

  She was right. He could mind talk with Devon, just not as completely as with Nadia. Still if he could pull them in, making them one unit, it would give the rescue a better chance. “Devon?”

  Tyrell let out a sigh of relief when he heard Devon answer with, “I hear you, bro.”

  He doubted if Nadia and Devon would be able to communicate, but it wouldn’t matter if they were in a circle unit. A hissing noise sounded over the headset, and then it went dead. Tyrell wondered at both the timing, and the power that was allowing them to work without the wireless technology.

  “Whew.” Devon’s mind transmitted the single word.

  Tyrell couldn’t see Nadia from the pilot’s seat, but being one with her gave him the ability to be there with her as a full participant. She was almost at the ledge. As her foot found ground, a large chunk of the ledge gave way and rumbled down the mountain. “How far away are you from that last slide?”

  “I’m not sure, close.”

  Devon’s mind spoke, “Okay, remember what I told you. Don’t un-strap your harness. Can you reach the one I sent down for the boy?

  Tyrell breathed in a sigh of relief. Good, it would be a three-way communication which would help him concentrate on keeping the copter at a steady hover.

  Silence from Nadia, but Tyrell could feel her reaching for the harness. Then, “I have it.”

  Working as one with her, he could hear the boy shouting above the whipping wind, and then Nadia reassuring him. She moved further onto the ledge. “Give me your hand and I’ll help you put this on.”

  The kid was pressed as tight as he could get against the cliff. “Get my dad first.”

  Tyrell wanted to shout, “Don’t argue, kid, just do what she says.” But he knew the boy wouldn’t hear him. Best to stay quiet, at least he could hear through Nadia what was going on.

  Nadia’s voice sounded like she was out of breath, and Tyrell tried to mentally draw closer to her. There wasn’t much he could do but that. He couldn’t lower the copter, and still stay in close to the mountain. This should have been a ground rescue. At that thought he tuned the radio to caution the sheriff and men to get away from the slide area. “It could let loose at any time.”

  The sheriff answered, “We are already moving back. Let me know when you have them, and I’ll alert the hospital.”

  “Make it Missoula General, there’s no way we will make it to Spokane in this.”

  Tyrell cursed under his breath. He had again broken contact with Nadia by contacting the sheriff, but the ground rescue party was in danger until they got down from the slide area. Concentrating, he felt himself move toward Nadia and Devon.

  Good. He was in and could hear Devon’s mind voice talking, “Hurry, honey, make sure he’s fastened in and let me…”

  Tyrell gripped the controls as the copter dropped down. Thankful that Devon had purposely played out extra line when he knew Nadia would have to leave the harness on, he slowly repositioned them. Damn, it was a close call, another few feet and Nadia would have been swept off the ledge. Again he reconnected his mind, and focused on the boy and Nadia. She had him in the seat harness, and he could hear her voice telling the boy what to do. “Put your hands on here and hold on. If you’re scared, close your eyes. The man in the helicopter is going to pull you up.”

  “Okay,” came the shaky response. Tyrell had to hand it to the kid, he was a lot braver than most men would have been.

  Nadia steadied the boy until he was out of her hands and then turned to the father. He was lying in a fetal position, as close to the mountain as possible, but the ledge wasn’t all that wide. Devon would be lowering something for him as soon as he had the boy in the copter, but would she be able to get the man into it? Despair hit her as she knelt beside him. He wasn’t very old, but his face was drawn and gray. Her heart gave a bump. Was he even alive? Then she heard Tyrell.

  “Hold your fingers to the pulse point in his throat and push.” A second, and then he said, “Can you feel a pulse? If so, describe it.” Why couldn’t Tyrell feel the guy’s pulse through her? Then, as if he had answered her unasked question, she knew. He was engaging her to keep her from doubting herself. She felt a surge of confidence. She could do this.

  “It’s barely there.” She knew Tyrell could feel her anxiety, and hated she was showing so much to him. “I can feel it. It’s sort of skipping, then nothing.”

  “Okay, straighten him out so you can roll him onto the stretcher when you get it.”

  Nadia bit back a reply to say that this wasn’t the way to work with an injured man. There simply weren’t a lot of options, especially with the ledge breaking off like it was. Turning back to the man, she made her way down his body to his legs. The going was difficult in the harness, but she didn’t need Devon’s warning to keep it on. She was too scared to even think about not having a safety net. What had that poor kid been thinking and feeling?

  She heard the man’s moan and almost immediately Tyrell’s voice. “Don’t stop to reassure him. The stretcher is coming down. Try to get him in position for it.”

  If only she knew what his injuries were. But, would he be in this fetal position if he had injured his back or neck? She wasn’t sure, and again it was a moot point, because if they didn’t get him out of here and soon, he wouldn’t be alive to worry about being paralyzed.

  She put her hand on his lower leg. “Can you roll over on your back?”

  No response, but then she hadn’t expected one. Making sure she was between him and the edge she moved her hand up to his hip and tried to roll him toward her. He didn’t move. “If you can hear me, relax.”

  She waited a second, and then tried again. This time he responded. She caught sight of the stretcher as it came even with the ledge. It was dangling less then a foot out. Devon’s mind spoke, “Slowly reach for it so you don’t dislodge the ground under you.”

  She did what he said.

  “Good. Now set it on the ledge as close to Larry as possible.”

  Nadia couldn’t help her mind from replying, “Larry?”

  “I asked the kid. It might help if you use his name when you’re trying to get him on the stretcher.”

  There wasn’t room for Nadia to get between the face of the mountain and the stretcher. That meant she was going to have to try to get Larry on the stretcher from the cliff side. If she overshot, he would roll off on the other side and it was a long way down.

  Again, it felt like Tyrell was right beside her. Impossible. He was flying the helicopter, and in these conditions, it had to be taking superhuman strength.

  His voice sounded in her mind. “Nothing’s impossible for you and me. Now concentrate on the man in front of you, and we will get him on that stretcher.”

  Like magic, strength flowed through her, she lifted the man’s shoulders onto the basket stre
tcher.

  “Good, now grab his ankles.”

  Nadia grasped the man’s ankles but didn’t have the strength to get his body in the basket. She sat back on her heels. What now? The noise from the wind and copter hovering just above was deafening. And, cold. Frustration had her almost in tears. Then she heard Tyrell’s voice. Or was it only her thoughts? Sitting here, thinking about it, isn’t going to get us out of here. With new resolve she again reached for the man. But a loud rumbling gave her pause. When the ground started shaking, Nadia ceased thinking and with adrenalin raging through her body, reacted by grabbing the man’s belt and heaving him in the basket.

  Just as she reached for the strap to secure him in, the ground started crumbling under her feet. With a scream she threw herself over the man. Then, felt the stretcher carrying both of them, swing into nothingness. “I can’t hold on. Oh, my God, he’s going to fall.”

  “No he’s not. Hang on. Devon, don’t try to pull them up. I’m going to set us down on the canyon bottom.”

  Nadia was too scared to scream, too scared to do much of anything, except what Tyrell had told her to do. Hang on.

  Tyrell couldn’t go up, which would have been closer, because it looked like the whole damn face of the mountain was sliding. He fought the winds, he had to get them down and fast. He could feel Nadia barely hanging onto the man in the stretcher, and horrendous fear. He gritted his teeth and tried to absorb it from her. “Stay with me honey, just a little bit and we’ll have you on the ground.”

  She wasn’t answering him, but he could still feel her. Snow that was more ice than flakes beat against them, but at least the lower they went, the less wind they had to contend with. It seemed hours, but was maybe a minute, and he had the stretcher about three feet off the ground. “Okay, Nadia, you’re on the ground but it’s a long step, so slowly put your feet down and stand up.”

  As she’d done from the start, she didn’t argue, but followed his directions. Even with his team, he had never felt the full connection he did with her. She was like an extension of his body—and mind.

  Nadia slid off the stretcher and for a second tottered, then went down on one knee. Devon was out the door and running to her before Tyrell could get out of his seat. He was hollering something over his shoulder. Tyrell looked up to see the mountain sliding like slow motion toward them. He sped up and got to the stretcher seconds behind Devon. Grabbing the handles, he shouted to Nadia, “Go. Don’t wait for us, get in the copter.”

  Again she didn’t hesitate to do what he said. Heedless of the injured man, who Devon had managed to position fully into the stretcher, they took off at a run. Tyrell felt the earth shudder. It felt like an earthquake, but worse. And the sound. Like the earth was splitting in two.

  When they got to the door Tyrell heaved his end up and dove for the pilot’s seat. This was going to be close.

  Chapter 20

  Tyrell slumped in his chair, barely seeing the sterile, non-descript décor of the hospital waiting room. He glanced up as Devon set a cup of vending machine coffee down beside him.

  “Helluva night, eh?” Devon said, plunking down in the chair next to Tyrell.

  “You can say that again. Thanks for the coffee.”

  “Don’t thank me until you taste it.”

  “That bad, huh?” Tyrell took a sip and grimaced. Silence fell over the two brothers as each contemplated the last hour.

  Devon’s voice sounded loud in the hushed waiting room. “I can’t believe we made it outta there.”

  “It was close. Another second or two…”

  “Yeah, and without Nadia…”

  Tyrell rubbed his hand over his face. He knew he was going to have nightmares about her part in the rescue. He didn’t want to talk about it. Hell, just thinking about it had him sweating. Changing the subject he said, “What happened? I would have thought the sheriff and the family would beat us to the hospital.”

  When they had gotten to the hospital, the boy, Kenny, wouldn’t let go of Nadia’s hand. Understandably, he had bonded to her, and it looked like she felt the same way. To reduce the trauma as much as possible, the hospital staff had asked Nadia to stay with him until the mother got there.

  Devon answered his question. “I got a hold of the sheriff. They are on their way, but this storm is making a mess of the roads. There’s a tree down between here and Blackhawk.”

  “So how long?”

  “The sheriff says maybe forty-five minutes if they are lucky.”

  “Damn, when this hits her…” Tyrell didn’t have to say more. Both men were still in awe of what the woman they had previously though was a cream puff had done out there.

  Tyrell paced across the room, and then back. On his third trip, Devon held up a hand. “Enough. Nadia is okay, she’ll do what needs to be done, then, if she falls apart, you’ll be there to catch her.”

  “This waiting is hard. It’s easier when I have something to do.” Tyrell sat down, and ran his hand through his hair. “By the way, what were you saying to her?”

  “Huh? When?”

  “Just after we lifted off over the slide. You held her, and whispered something I was too busy to hear.”

  “Come on, bro. You were there. Hell, I was scared to death. We were only a foot from all that mud. When I looked away from the avalanche, I could see that Nadia was shaking. I didn’t have to think twice about pulling her into a hug.”

  “So what were you saying? It took a while.” Tyrell knew he was being an ass, but his confidence in his relationship with Nadia came and went. Sure, they had mind-numbing, over-the-top physical attraction. And thankfully, they had taken their relationship to the next level. A level that had left him both stunned and sated. But what if that wasn’t enough for Nadia? Before the call about the hikers, she had been firm in her decision to go back to New York.

  Devon seemed to sense that Tyrell was torn, and he knew this, whatever it was, wasn’t in character. “Like I said, Nadia looked…hell, she looked scared to death. The kid didn’t look a whole lot better, but he at least had some color. As I held her, I could feel her shaking. If I’d been scared before, now I really was, because she was close to going into shock.”

  “So what did you say to her?”

  Devon sat back in the chair, apparently oblivious of the storm raging in Tyrell. “I told her that there was no way my stubborn brother would let us die. Not now, after he had found her.” He stopped for a second then continued. “I told her that I trusted you, and she could too. I told her that over and over again. Hell, Tyrell, I did…I do. I knew you would get us out of there.”

  Tyrell felt like a Mack truck had slammed into his chest. They had come so close to not making it. He heard himself mumble something, and in seconds he was out of the door. The ice storm had followed them down the mountain, and was now pounding them, with the wind driving it. Without thinking, he stepped out into it, and welcomed the cold wet blast.

  What if he hadn’t been able to pull the copter up in time? It didn’t bear thinking about. And, what in the hell was all that jealously about? He should be glad Devon was there for Nadia when he couldn’t be, and that his brother respected her like he did. He was proud of both of them. His team couldn’t have performed better. One thing for sure, Nadia was a whole lot more woman than met the eye. She’d stepped up to the plate, and then some. His totem had it right. Nadia was meant for him.

  His musing was interrupted by Devon’s shout. Turning, he walked back to the hospital and joined his brother, who unlike him, had stayed under the porch. When he was a foot away, he plastered a smile on his face. Putting aside his doubts in his own abilities, he again presented the strength and control that had gotten them out of that mess.

  Thankfully, Devon was oblivious to the emotional storm raging in Tyrell. For this, he was grateful. He made himself listen as Devon said, “The wife and daughter just arrived. A good thing, because we need to get Nadia away from all this. She has to be running on fumes.”

  Tyrell hated
that Devon was taking control where Nadia was concerned. When had that happened? On second thought, he knew when. As much as he was connected to them during the rescue, it was Devon who’d done the hands-on part of the job. Tyrell had been stuck in the pilot’s seat.

  It was almost an hour before Nadia walked into the waiting room. A doctor, or at least a guy in scrubs, followed behind her. Dismissing the man, Tyrell only had eyes for Nadia. His heart slammed into his throat. She looked…beautiful. Tired, but beautiful. Her gaze scanned the room until she spotted him and Devon, then with a smile she started toward them. Tyrell saw her first and stood up, but then felt rooted to the spot. She had bonded with Devon, would she turn to him first? The moment of truth didn’t happen. She addressed them both, introducing them to the doctor who had been working on the father. “Dr. Allen, these are the two men that brought Mr. Fisk in.”

  The doctor smiled, “Amazing rescue. Kenny, the son has related the story with all the details.” He didn’t shake hands, but motioned Tyrell and Devon to sit back down. “Mr. Fisk is out of surgery. We had to operate, but he will make a full recovery. If you were wondering if you would be needed to fly him over to Seattle, I’m happy to say it won’t be necessary.” He looked toward the windows where snow that was more ice was pelting down. “Not that it would be possible. Again, a heroic rescue.”

  Tyrell agreed with the doctor’s assessment of the flying conditions. He had even thought about renting a car to get them back to Blackhawk, but it wasn’t that far to the airfield and he could fly low in the unpopulated area. He’d flown in worse.

  Nadia had sat down beside the doctor, and when he stood up, they all did. The doctor was around six feet tall, and for the first time Tyrell saw that he was young. He smiled at Nadia. “I hope you’ll let me know when you come back to visit Kenny.” He winked. “He isn’t the only one that enjoys your company.”

  Tyrell stifled a growl, then nodded at the doctor and put his arm around Nadia. “No, he isn’t—”

  The doctor wasn’t stupid, but hell, he was male. He took a step back, and again his smile was only for Nadia. “I’d better get back.”