by J Theron
Gabrielle looked at the landscape through the window. The jagged mountainous terrain was slowly giving way to rolling green waves of dense forestation and they were losing light fast.
“I am a bit surprised to see you have Carlos Rodriguez with you,” Valentina said nonchalantly.
Ryan sat forward and touched Valentina’s shoulder. “Carlos is not with us. This is not Carlos.”
Valentina shrugged. “No need to tell me that. I’m not a novice, Ryan. And I know the young lady in the back is the doctor you’ve been watching for more than a year. When she was kidnapped I phoned you to warn you, but you never phoned me back until a few days ago to arrange this pick-up. By then I figured you didn’t need the information anymore.”
Ryan sat back in the seat and looked out of the window, ignoring what Valentina had said.
Gabrielle touched his arm to get his attention. “Is that true?” she asked when he looked at her.
“Which part?”
“Have you been watching me?”
Ryan nodded and simply stared at her, his eyes completely devoid of any expression.
“Why?”
He smiled but it did not reach his eyes. “Why do you think?”
“I don’t know,” she said.
“I was worried about you.”
Gabrielle was speechless. She could not tear her gaze away from his once beloved face.
He placed his hand over hers and squeezed her fingers. His touch was electric and the flare of attraction between them was explosive. Her mind was still reeling from his confession when the plane suddenly lost altitude, creating the sensation that they were free falling.
“Something’s wrong!” Valentina shouted. “The engine’s failing. Maybe one of the bullets caused some damage.” She managed to right the plane but was clearly struggling to remain in control of the aircraft.
“Can you land?” Ryan asked.
“I can try. I can see an old dirt road a few miles away. I’ll try to land on that, if I can get us there.”
Gabrielle could see the road ahead, but the light was poor. It was almost completely dark and there were no signs of civilization, only rainforest as far as the eye could see. An endless expanse of green ocean that filled every inch of visible land.
She closed her eyes and prayed that they would be safe. She grabbed Ryan’s hand and held tight. He turned her head and said close to her ear, “I love you.”
And then everything went black.
PART TWO.
“Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, nor hell a fury like a woman scorned.”
William Congreve
CHAPTER 11
Afghanistan, 3 years ago.
Ryan felt slightly out of sorts as he waited for Gabrielle in her tent. He was in love with her and it was a foreign sensation for him. He had never been in a relationship before and he did not really know what he was doing. They were in unusual circumstances and he tried not to think too much about what the future held and how they were going to make it work. They only had a few stolen moments together the last couple of weeks because she was working non-stop, but tonight she was off duty and she asked if he would wait for her until she finished her shift.
He could not believe he was nervous, but he had never had sex with someone he was in love with and he had no idea what to expect. He was lying on her bed, reading one of the few fictional books in her possession, when she stepped through the entrance.
He sat up, placed the book on the floor and watched as she walked towards him. His heart was climbing out of his chest and his stomach felt as if the bottom had dropped out. She was dressed in scrubs and running shoes and she had never looked more beautiful.
She stopped a few inches away, placed her hands on his face and leaned down to kiss him. Her lips were soft and he could smell her perfume, so unique to her, he knew it would remain branded in his memory forever.
“I could get used to you waiting in my bed for me,” she whispered.
He pulled back and smiled. “I would never get used to waiting in your bed.”
“Seeing you certainly improves an awful day,” she sighed as she sat down next to him.
“What happened?” he asked.
She hesitated. “I don’t really think it’s a good idea to tell you.”
Ryan sat up straighter. “Now you have to tell me.”
Gabrielle closed her eyes and pressed her thumb and forefinger on her eyes in agitation.
“It’s James,” she replied.
Ryan pulled her hand away from her face and turned her towards him. “What did he do?”
Gabrielle shook her head slightly as she studied Ryan’s face. “Ryan, I know you. I know it’s not a good idea to involve you in this. I can fight my own battles.”
Ryan jumped up and turned to Gabrielle with his arms folded across his chest. “I know you like to be independent, but I don’t trust him. He makes my hackles rise. You’ll tell me, otherwise I will go to him and I will make him tell me. And I can be very persuasive.”
Gabrielle leaned back on the bed with her arms behind her as she watched Ryan with narrowed eyes. “He cornered me in the medical supply room and tried to kiss me. He pushed me against the wall and I kicked him in the groin.”
Ryan unfolded his arms and gaped at her. “What the fuck, Gabrielle! You have to report him!”
“I did. There will be an inquiry. It’s my word against his. Nobody saw the incident.”
“I saw him harass you in hospital! I’ll testify.”
She shook her head. “No.”
He frowned. “What do you mean, no?”
“He will say that we’re sleeping together and that you have it in for him.”
“But we’re not sleeping together,” he replied angrily.
“Not yet…” she said, biting her lower lip to hide her smile.
Ryan smiled. “You’re very good.”
“What do you mean?” she asked innocently.
“You are very good at distracting me,” he said as he leaned over her and pushed her back onto the bed.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said as she lifted the top of her scrubs over her head and kicked off her shoes before wriggling out of her pants. She dropped it on the floor in a mock dramatic movement before turning him on his back and straddling him.
“Why am I in my underwear and you’re still fully dressed?”
“There is something to say for having a semi-naked woman on your lap when you’re still wearing your army fatigues.”
She leaned down and kissed him slowly, her tongue darting in and out of his mouth in a teasing fashion. His hands roamed her naked back and caught the end of her braid, pulling the elastic band out, before separating the braid. Her hair was framing her face as she kissed him and he could smell the vanilla scented shampoo she used to wash her hair. He pushed his one hand into her hair and grabbed her head to kiss her forcefully while his other hand travelled to her hip where he gripped the edge of her panties and ripped them off. She gasped in his mouth at his forceful movement and her hands became frantic as she fiddled with the waist of his pants, trying to pull his shirt out.
She sat up abruptly and climbed off his lap as she shrugged out of her bra. “You have to get out of those clothes, now!”
He was watching her intently as he took off his shirt and pants and dropped them on the floor as well. He hesitated slightly before pushing his boxer shorts down. He had a frown on his face as he said, “I want to say something, before we do this.”
Gabrielle became absolutely still. “What is it?”
Ryan pulled her closer and kissed her gently before pulling back. He looked into her eyes and his hands were travelling over her shoulders and upper arms.
“I love you. More than anything.”
Her eyes shot full of tears and she took a deep breath before she said, “I love you. And I promise I will never stop.”
“I’m going to hold you to that promise, Gabrielle,” he whis
pered as he pulled her under him.
She ran her hands over his back and closed her eyes as he bent his head to kiss her neck. He kissed his way down between her breasts and she raked her nails down his back as he made love to her. It was the most glorious sensation he had ever felt and he knew in that moment that he would never feel this way about another woman again. He increased the pace and he could feel her muscles contracting around him as he came inside her with a force that took his breath away. She pushed her face in his neck to muffle her cry of release and he turned on his side to pull her into his arms. He held her tight as he drifted into sleep and the last thought he had was of James Smith and how he wanted to bash his skull in.
CHAPTER 12
Colombia, present day.
Gabrielle opened her eyes with difficulty and for a moment believed that she must have gone blind because everything was pitch black in front of her. Her head was throbbing and she felt as if a marching band was trampling through her cerebral cortex. She became aware of a side to side motion and it dawned on her that the plane was caught in the tree tops. Valentina did not make the road after all.
She loosened the seat belt as gently as she could, fearing that any sudden movement could destabilize the plane, and reached forward to find her backpack that was on the floor in front of her before the crash. Her hand mercifully found the pack and she located the side pocket that held her small flashlight fairly easily.
She turned on the flashlight and for a moment the light radiating through the darkness illuminated a surreal world of mangled steel and twisted bodies. It took her a few seconds to make sense of the frozen tableau around her.
Her gaze went to Ryan first. He was next to her, his body twisted in an odd angle, but he was still in his seat and she could see the movement of his chest as he breathed in and out. He seemed to be breathing easily and she touched her fingers to his neck to check his pulse. It was strong and regular.
“Ryan, can you hear me? Please wake up,” she sobbed as she gently checked his body for broken bones. She wanted to cry in relief when she was certain he did not have any fractures. He had another gash on his forearm, the same one with the bullet wound in the shoulder. Luckily the bleeding of both wounds seemed to have stopped.
“Please wake up, baby. I need you.” She lifted his body to right his awkward position and placed both her hands on his face, the stubble on his cheeks prickling her palms. She placed her forehead on his. “I know you can hear me. Open your eyes.”
“Only if you’ll kiss me,” he whispered.
She pulled back abruptly and watched as he opened his eyes. She slapped him on his good shoulder. “You scared me to death!”
He groaned. “Easy. I’m hurt.”
“I’m sorry. Where are you hurt?” she asked anxiously.
He placed his hand in the centre of his chest. “Here.”
She frowned and sat forward. She lifted his shirt and ran her hand along the naked skin over his sternum and the ribs around it. His pectoral muscles were rock hard under her fingers and she had to control the urge to explore the rest of his muscular chest. “I don’t feel anything…”
“It’s been hurting for three years now. But it’s feeling better all of a sudden,” he murmured.
She looked up and her breath was frozen in her chest as she looked into his eyes which looked almost black in the dim light of the flashlight. She pulled her hand away and closed her eyes momentarily to compose herself before saying, “I need to check Carlos and Valentina. We have to be careful. We seem to be caught in the treetops.”
“I know. You check Carlos, I’ll check Valentina. We should try to keep out weight distributed as evenly as possible.”
She leaned forward and could see that Carlos was slumped forward in the seat, his chin resting on his chest. He was still breathing, but she could not examine him properly. She turned her head and watched as Ryan felt for a pulse in Valentina’s neck.
“She’s alive but something’s wrong with her left arm,” he said.
Gabrielle aimed the beam of the flashlight at her arm and she could see the odd angle of her upper arm. Her shoulder appeared to be dislocated.
“We have to get down from here, Ryan. The plane feels unstable and I don’t want to be caught in here when it drops.”
“I still have the climbing rope in my pack. We can lower Carlos and Valentina to the ground before we climb down.”
“We’ll make the plane unstable with the weight change,” Gabrielle said anxiously.
“It’s a risk we’ll have to take. I can’t do it alone with my injured arm. You’ll have to help me,” Ryan replied. He pushed his hand into one of the side pockets of his pack and swore loudly.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“The satellite phone. It’s broken.”
“What are we going to do now?” she exclaimed.
“Let’s focus on getting out of here and then we can think about that.”
They managed to tie the rope around Valentina, and Gabrielle tied her arm to her body as best she could with a ripped shirt from her pack. Gabrielle was relieved to find that they were only about twenty feet from the ground when she aimed the beam at the forest floor beneath them. The door was ripped open during impact and the one wing of the plane on the same side was missing.
The trees were a dense tangled mass of leaves and branches and created a spider web of moving branches around them. It was going to be difficult to lower Valentina through the maze of green.
“Why isn’t she waking up,” Ryan asked as they lowered her as gently as possible.
“She might have a concussion. I would have to examine her when we’re on the ground. I’m not looking forward to being stuck with two people with head injuries,” Gabrielle said while trying to keep her grip on the rope stable.
He sighed. “Yeah. Sorry about Carlos, but he wasn’t going to leave his sister and I couldn’t leave him there.”
Gabrielle sat back in relief when Valentina was on the ground. She moaned loudly when her body hit the wet earth but did not wake up. Ryan pulled the rope up after a trick with some special knots.
“You have to teach me the rope thing,” she mused.
He chuckled. “I have many tricks with ropes that are interesting. It would be my pleasure.”
She rolled her eyes. “Let’s get Carlos down before we crash. Again.”
After some difficult manoeuvring they managed to lower Carlos, all the supplies, packs and anything useful from the plane. Once on the ground themselves, they moved away from the crash site to a small clearing where falling debris would not hit them. Gabrielle unrolled a small waterproof canvas and tried to make her two patients comfortable. She checked their injuries as best she could with the limited light and medical equipment available while Ryan started a fire.
The light was a welcome relief in the stark darkness that engulfed them. The forest was a living, breathing creature around them and Gabrielle tried not to concentrate on the sounds emanating from the black walls beyond the circle of light cast by the fire.
Gabrielle felt sorry for Ryan who had to carry first Carlos and then Valentina. He sat on his pack and she could see that he was in pain. She sat down next to him and took his hand to look at his arm.
“Take off the jacket and let me look at your arm.”
“It can wait,” he said and tried to pull his arm away.
She held his hand tight. “Please?”
“Did anyone ever tell you how annoyingly persistent you are?” he said.
She grinned. “I vaguely remember my genetics professor saying something similar when I failed his exam in medical school and demanded a remarking of my paper.”
“I feel sorry for the guy. He probably considered moving to Iceland to get away from you.”
She sat back and looked at him with mock indignation. “You’re such a prickly bastard, did you know that?”
“I vaguely remember this hot doctor in Afghanistan saying something similar when my leg was
just short of fucked.”
She bit her lip and then could not help but smile. “You’re a funny guy. Who would have thought? Now, jacket off.”
He sighed deeply but shrugged out of his jacket and pulled his shirt over his head for her to look at his shoulder. “I’m okay.”
She took the flashlight and examined the wound on his shoulder and his forearm. “It’s still oozing blood. I need to clean and disinfect it and both wounds need stitches. Fortunately both are muscle injuries missing the bone. When was the last time you had a tetanus shot?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe two years ago.”
“That’s okay then. Let me get the medical kit we brought from the plane. It’s quite well stocked.”
Ryan sat perfectly still while Gabrielle cleaned and sutured his wounds. She used some lidocaine to anesthetize the wounds but only sparingly and she knew it had to be painful. She tried not to look at his naked upper body which was partially illuminated by the flames.
Her mind was suddenly flooded with images of them when they were together. Ryan kissing her, dancing with her, making love to her…She clamped down on her wayward thoughts and asked, “What’s the story with Valentina?”
Ryan did not answer for a long time. He simply stared at the fire, as if the solution to their predicament would magically reveal itself in the flames.
Gabrielle thought he was ignoring her when he said, “There is no story.”
“She’s in love with you.”
“And you know this how?” he asked.
She finished the last stitch in his shoulder and wrapped a bandage around the wound to keep it clean. “I know women. I can tell.”
He snorted but did not say anything. He pulled his shirt over his head and put his jacket back on to stave off the chill of the autumn air.
“Did you sleep with her?”
Ryan jumped up and turned to her. She could see he was angry as he pointed his index finger at her face. “Why in the hell do you care? You left me!”
She shot from her seat in agitation. “Because you couldn’t keep it in your pants. You knew how I felt about cheating and you did it anyway!” she shouted.
