A Dangerous Leap (17 page)

Joe helped her swing into the doorway and quickly unhooked the strop holding the child. Jeremy pushed his yellow hood back and surveyed his new surroundings with wide eyes. “Where’s my mom?” he asked.

Kelly met Joe’s grim look. What were the chances she’d made it out of her car and into a tree? She knelt down and wrapped a blanket around his thin shoulders, then leaned close to the boy’s ear so he could hear her over the roar of the helicopter. “Where did you see her last? Was she in the tree with you? Or were there any others with you?” Had she misinterpreted his answer when she’d asked if he was alone?

He shook his head. “It was just the two of us. She was on top of our truck,” Jeremy said. He rubbed his eyes and looked up at Joe. His bottom lip quivered. “Didn’t you see her?”

Kelly’s heart sank. The only vehicles they’d seen had been submerged or floating upside down.

“What color truck?” Ryan asked over the headset. Joe settled onto the jump seat next to the boy and repeated the question to Jeremy.

Ten minutes later they were sweeping the searchlight over the flooded highway where the boy’s mother had been seen last. They had fifteen minutes left on their shift. And a little boy counting on a miracle.

* * *

Joe kept the light moving in a steady arc back and forth as Caitlyn tracked the highway, a prayer on his lips. Jeremy had wanted to help but the little guy fell into an exhausted sleep within minutes of being dried off and wrapped in another blanket. The idea that they might not find the boy’s mother was unacceptable.

So far they hadn’t spotted any white trucks.

“There! To the right. See those lights?” Kelly said pointing into the rain. She leaned against his shoulder, her hand holding on to the gunner’s strap holding him in.

Joe swung the searchlight to the spot she pointed at. It was a truck all right. The bed was submerged but headlights pointed skyward where the hood and roof were still above—“Son of a bitch,” he said as a figure clinging to the roof came into view. Water boiled around the truck like a caldron. The white vehicle straddled a bridge abutment and looked reasonably stable. But trees and the metal superstructure would make extraction damn tricky.

Kelly was already snapping the cable onto her harness. “Drop me onto the girder and give me some extra line. I’ll climb down and get her into a harness. If I hold a ground line you should be able to lift her without running into interference. After you get her on board you can drop the line back down and I’ll climb—”

“What the hell is going to keep you from getting swept away if that truck gives way? Or the bridge?” Joe demanded. Hell, if anything happened to her while on his watch, Ian would kill him.

Not that he would ever be able to forgive himself if anything happened to her while in his care.

Her mouth clamped shut for a moment then she spoke into the mic. “Cait, drop as low as you can. I’m going down.” She unhooked the safety belt that held her in and pointed to the winch control. “We both have a job to do.” She looked over her shoulder at the huddled figure. “I’m not going to tell him I didn’t even try.”

Shit. That wasn’t fair.

Control Bitch was back. But he couldn’t muster any of his earlier rancor. Dammit, she was good. And if anybody could do the impossible, his money was riding on Kelly. And he’d back her all the way.

* * *

Kelly’s feet connected with the steel girder just before her shin did.
Damn, that hurt
. She grabbed the crossbeam and steadied herself before signaling Joe to pay out more cable. The figure on the truck, definitely a woman, had moved when the rotor wash pelted her body with more wind and rain. At least they knew she was alive.

The same blast of air kept Kelly’s progress slow. They’d already exceeded their time limit, but she’d been on her way down when base had radioed for their ETA. She’d rather face a pissed-off flight ops commander than a brokenhearted little boy without a mother.

The climb across the top of the bridge was tricky in the alternating glare of the searchlight and pitch-black of the night. Add to that the slippery metal and downward gusts from the helo and Kelly had to fight to keep from being blown off the structure. No way she’d bring the survivor back the same way. The ground rope would allow her to guide the cable’s return, ensuring a much safer extraction.

Ten feet above the truck Kelly stopped. “Can you hear me?” Kelly shouted into the general confusion of elements. The woman, spotlighted from above, shaded her eyes from the glare and pelting rain.

“Yes! You need to go get my boy!”

Kelly clambered down another section of girder and bit back a smile. “If his name is Jeremy and you left him in a tree a few miles up the road, he’s in the helicopter above your head,” she shouted back.

The woman’s smile rivaled Joe’s spotlight. “Yes, thank God, that’s him!”

A general whoop sounded in Kelly’s ear as the Jayhawk’s crew absorbed the news. “Joe, give me another five feet of line,” Kelly instructed. The tricky part would come when she had to unhook from the cable. From the time Jeremy’s mom was hooked in until the line was returned, Kelly would be vulnerable to the oily looking water tumbling over the truck’s bed and slapping at the bridge. Every so often a tree or some other debris slammed into the shaky structure. If it hit the truck before she had the survivor above the tree line, they’d both be in trouble.

Kelly had enough slack to reach the truck’s hood. All she had to do was jump…and not fall into the water. Her knees hit the metal with more force than she anticipated. She grabbed for the edge but slipped and her butt slammed into the windshield.

She’d anticipated the wide-eyed look of panic. And gave Patty, Jeremy’s mother, points for sucking it up and allowing Kelly to hook the harness around her.

“Keep your arms crossed over your chest like this,” Kelly instructed as she demonstrated the position she wanted the woman to hold. “That’s all you have to do. I’ll be guiding your line from here and Joe will help you into the helicopter at the top. Then you can cuddle with your son all the way back to the hospital,” she said.

Patty nodded stiffly. Once the nylon harness was belted around her and the guideline attached, Kelly radioed Joe to begin the hoist. Patty gave a quick thumbs-up before clutching her arms as Kelly had instructed, her eyes wide with fear. “You’re doing great!” Kelly shouted as Joe took up the slack and her feet left the security of the truck.

The added benefit of a ground line was no spinning. Kelly prayed there’d be no sudden gusts either. If you weren’t expecting them it was a surefire way to black out. Fortunately the winds stayed steady and Patty was reeled in like the catch of the day.

“Delivery made and the reunion party has started,” Joe transmitted over the radio. “Come on up before all the beer and food is gone,” he added.

Damn, why’d he have to mention food? It had been hours since she’d eaten.

The cable played out as Kelly began climbing the bridge. “Order me a pizza, would ya?” she radioed back to the crew. “I want extra cheese and pepperoni.”

Kelly reached for the swinging cable and heard Joe’s yell a second later. Too late to shift her weight, the bridge shuddered, then jerked violently to the left, slapping her against a girder. She grabbed for a handhold and just like that was free-falling toward blackness.

Chapter Twelve

Kelly swallowed mouthfuls of gritty water despite her best effort to keep her lips sealed when she sank below the foaming surface. The shock of the cold water and the ten-foot fall made her gasp like a beached puffer fish. She careened off tree limbs, trash, and submerged cars before her hands closed on something substantial and unyielding. Her body crashed into it seconds later.

Shit, that hurt
. Floodwater pummeled her until she felt like George Foreman’s sparring partner. Survival instincts kicked in and she concentrated on discovering where she was and how she’d get back to her helo. The cold water sapped her strength, making her stupid.
Jeez, Kelly, use your brain.
“Bishop to Jayhawk Three, do you copy?”

Static crackled in her ear, but no reassuring voice. “I can’t hear your transmission, but will assume you can hear me. Over.” Couldn’t hurt, and felt comforting to believe Joe was hearing her. Who would have thought that would be comforting?

Something smashed into her below the water and her handhold slipped. Shit, she needed to keep her mind focused. Using her fingers, and her legs, she was able to determine she’d snagged a billboard. Okay, she should be able to—a brilliant light blinded her.

“Joe! Joe, I’m on a billboard. I just saw your searchlight. Over.” Damn, she’d lost all sense of direction after hitting the water. She had no idea where she was in relation to the bridge. Well, obviously she was downstream.

The searchlight swung in an arc in front of her. “Joe, the light is ten yards in front of me.”

The light moved away, then swept back and forth in a deliberate search pattern. Good, he’d settled into his normal work mode. Jeez, maybe her tumble had rattled him just a little bit. The rain turned stinging and the sound of the rushing flood water subsided under the assault of the Jayhawk’s rotor wash. Hot damn, Joe must have decided to come get her after all.

Light blazed down on her and she had to squint. “Yep, that’s me!” she shouted into her mic.

The helo dropped lower still, and seconds later the bright orange nylon strop slapped against the billboard to her right. Prepared to grab for it, the cable swung closer, dragging the line to her. “Wow, such service. Thanks, Caity, I think I’m ready to call it a night.”

Within ten minutes she was safe in the bowels of the Jayhawk, crushed in Joe’s arms.

“Dammit, Fish-Bait, don’t ever do that to me again,” he said in a rough voice before letting her go.

Kelly grinned and punched him in the chest. “Did you guys eat all my pizza, or did you save me one? I could sure use a beer while you’re at it.”

* * *

Joe slumped back against the bench seat, too full to move any further. He was dog-tired and still wired from Kelly’s rescue. Caitlyn and Ryan had disappeared back to the hangar but Kelly was still working on her pizza. They were in the base mess, which was serving up meals 24/7 to all the crews working search and rescue. The middle of the night and the place was still feeding a ton of hungry Coasties.

“Where the hell do you put all that food?” he asked Kelly, eyeing the empty plates. She’d packed away a large pizza and damn near a gallon of water. Now she was picking the toppings off Caitlyn’s last piece of veggie pizza.

Kelly grinned and popped a mushroom slice into her mouth. “My metabolism works overtime—if I don’t eat every two or three hours I get hostile.”

He grunted. “I’ll try to remember that.”

She poked her finger around the bits and pieces of veggies. “So what makes you hostile? Is it me personally, or women in general?” she asked quietly.

He looked up and found unblinking brown eyes watching him. Leave it to Kelly to go the direct route. He glanced away, trying to decide how to answer that without revealing any more of his weaknesses.

“Yeah, I thought so.”

His attention snapped back to her. “What does that mean?”

Her shoulder jerked up and her mouth tightened. “It’s me. I guess I knew that. You and Caitlyn get along fine. But as long as we can work together like we did tonight, I can’t complain,” she said. Her voice implied quiet acceptance.

Joe wasn’t used to hearing resignation from Kelly Bishop. Hell and high water seemed to go together. He sat forward, his arms crossed in front of him on the table. “No, that’s not good enough for me.”

Kelly’s eyes widened and for a scary moment he thought he saw tears shimmering before she looked down. Shit, shit, shit. He couldn’t handle tears—especially not from his kick-ass swimmer.

“Look, it’s not you—it’s what you represent.” He blew out a breath. Hell, it was going to be one of those touchy-feely talks. He hated those.

But he owed her. She hadn’t been the one with an attitude thicker than the L.A. smog he’d grown up in.

“I joined the Coast Guard with the idea of saving lives.” He’d had a debt to pay. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to matter how many lives he helped save. It still didn’t bring back his friend’s dad.

Joe scrubbed both hands over his face. There was no way to dip a toe in this pool of guilt—it was all or nothing. “What I really wanted to do was become a rescue swimmer.” Of course he’d had to learn how to swim first. Since everybody in the Coast Guard had to swim, no matter what their job description, he hadn’t been alone in his swim lessons.

He picked up a knife just to have something to hold on to. “It took me damn near forever to get qualified to even apply for swimmer’s school. I had no clue what I was getting into,” he said and laughed without any humor. Talk about an ass-kicking experience. The swimmer’s school might not be as tough as the SEAL’s hell week, but it still racked up more than its fair share of washouts and failed dreams.

“Yeah, I know. You think because you’ve heard all the stories you’re prepared. But until you face it, until you’ve spent that first week living it, you don’t have a clue,” Kelly agreed.

Joe looked up from the knife he was twirling like a miniature baton. “Yo mama, you can say that again.” He grinned at her answering grimace. “I freaked when I saw how tiny you were. Hell, I knew right then you’d gotten the job by, uh—” Great job asshole, he couldn’t very well tell her what he really thought.

She giggled. “Yeah, I know, you thought I’d slept my way into it.” Her giggle turned into a hoot of laughter and her cheeks reddened. “Sorry, but I worked my butt off those three weeks. And at every new post since.”

“Hey, cut me some slack. I didn’t know you and, well hell, it just seemed—”

“Your ego couldn’t handle that I’d made the cut when you couldn’t,” she finished for him.

Embarrassed by the truth, he met her stare and nodded. “Yeah. Well, if I couldn’t handle two guys in the water bent on drowning me, how the hell could you have done it?” That pretty much sucked, but it was the unvarnished truth.

“Answer me something. Did you grow up in the water? Did you learn to swim in the ocean with rip currents and surf trying to smash you into the rocks?”

He shook his head. “No, I was afraid of the water. I—my best friend and I almost drowned when we were eight. H-his dad did trying to save us,” he choked out. Jesus, he never told anyone that dirty little secret. It had been his personal cross to bear for twenty years. If he hadn’t jumped in to try and save his buddy maybe things would have turned out differently.

“Ah, Joe,” Kelly said softly. She reached across the table and patted his hand. “You’ve saved hundreds of lives during your career as a Coastie. Look how many you racked up in the last two days. But there’s no way you can go back and save that man.”

He shrugged his shoulders. Logically, he knew that, but his gut still needed its daily dose of guilt and remorse. That’s what drove him during the rough jobs like hauling that burned sailor up from the Navy ship when he’d wanted to puke his guts up from the smell.

Kelly blessed him with a wink and her childlike grin. “As a swimmer, I’ve got to tell you, you’re one hell of a hoist operator.”

He returned her wink. “As a hoist operator, I’ve got to tell you, you’re one hell of a swimmer.” And now he could honestly say he was damn glad they were working together.

* * *

The helo’s sudden drop woke Kelly. They were on their way back to Florida. They’d put in four eight-hour shifts in the last seventy-two hours. Of course those were the flying hours, they’d worked on the ground longer. Despite regulations, they’d gotten only sixteen hours sleep during those three interminable days.

From the weather briefing they’d received before leaving Georgia, things weren’t going to be getting better anytime soon. The National Hurricane Center was predicting Gina, a Category Three hurricane, would make landfall along the Florida Keys within the next forty-eight to seventy-two hours. Originally expected to track farther south, everyone was on high alert moving ships out to sea and battening down the coast. Tropical storm force winds were advancing a hundred miles in front of the hurricane, pounding the Keys from Marathon on down.

The one chance Kelly had to call Ian, she’d discovered her cell phone battery had died. She didn’t know what she would have said, she only knew she needed to hear his voice. To feel like she’d come home.

That in itself was a scary admission.

“We’ve got less than twenty-four hours to get some sleep and grab clean clothes. Our next flight leaves tomorrow at twenty-three hundred sharp,” Caitlyn announced to her weary crew.

The helo settled onto the runway harder than usual. Cait was obviously feeling the effects of too much coffee and too little sleep. Kelly’s fingers didn’t want to unbuckle her seat belt and she practically crawled out the side of the Jayhawk. She groaned out loud. Her arms, shoulders, holy patooties, everything ached.

Joe surprised her by slipping his arm around her waist, steadying her as they walked to the hangar.

“Ya know, Tank left out one important detail about flying with you,” he offered along with his brotherly support. “Not only do you outperform expectations, you raise the bar for everyone working with you. A month ago, hell a week ago, I never dreamed I’d be saying this, but I’m damn proud to be crewing with you.”

Warmth spread through Kelly and her eyes burned with unshed tears. Jeez, she must be whacked out if a few kind words made her weepy. “Thanks, but I couldn’t have done what I did if you hadn’t been right there anticipating what I needed. Missing that power line was particularly noteworthy,” she said pinching a rib. She shivered as her stomach did a slow barrel roll. Just remembering how close the cable she was hanging from had come to a downed power line tangled in a tree gave her the shakes.

“Those kids, God, I’ll never forget that as long as I live,” she added. The rampaging river had swept a trailer into a stand of trees. A father, desperate to save his family, had tied each of his five children to the upper branches of the oak their home was lodged against.

Every time Kelly went down to pluck another child from their perch, she prayed the floodwaters below didn’t uproot the tree. Or that the Jayhawk’s rotor wash didn’t knock it down from above.

“Jesus, I about had heart failure when you pulled that baby out of your raingear,” Joe said with a reassuring squeeze. “I still can’t believe their dad survived the way he did. It was like a damn fairy tale.”

Kelly shuddered. What could have ended in tragedy actually did have a happy ending. After securing his family, the man had fallen into the water and been whisked downstream. The county rescue squad had pulled him out and alerted the Coast Guard of the children’s plight. Kelly refused to think about what could have happened if the man had drowned before telling anyone where he’d left his kids.

The mother, a nurse working a double shift, hadn’t heard about her family until her husband was admitted to her hospital. When Kelly’s crew delivered that particular load of survivors to the hospital, there hadn’t been a dry eye in the bunch. Including the stoic hoist operator that apparently had a heart after all.

“Damn, now I’m all sappy feeling again,” she complained, scrubbing her eyes with the heel of her hands and trying to laugh it off.

Joe gave a suspiciously husky laugh. “Go find your guy and tell him how much you love him,” he said, giving her a push toward the parking lot.

Kelly smiled. Yeah, that’s exactly what she intended to do.

It felt surreal driving toward her marina in the rain. She hadn’t seen the sun in a million years. Well, not exactly true. Caitlyn had broken out of the clouds when they’d flown over Jacksonville, but that was in the air. She wanted to feel the sun on her face while she was walking on the ground. Or lying on the back of her boat. Maybe she could talk Ian into a little vacation after the hurricane…

The boat looked forlorn in the drizzle. She hopped onto the deck wishing Ian were there to greet her. Insecurity chewed on her hopes. Had she gone too far? Would Ian forgive her, or had he had enough of her attitude?

More tears threatened and Kelly snorted in disgust as she unlocked the hatchway. It would serve her right if he’d taken up with some leggy blonde. Stale, slightly musty air filled her nose as she descended the three steps to her cozy little home. Except after spending part of her weekend with a real family in a real home, this just felt like a glorified closet.

Kelly plugged in her cell phone and took a shower. Wrapped in a terry-cloth robe she curled up on her platform bed and called Ian. His landline rang three times before his answering machine picked up. “Hey, just got back and wanted…”

What? To hear his voice? Yeah, actually she did. She swallowed. “To hear your voice. I’m going to sleep but call me anytime. I’m due back at the station tomorrow at twenty-three hundred.”

Not sure what else to say she pushed the disconnect button. Another call to his cell phone rolled to voice mail but she didn’t leave a second message. Lonely and bone-tired, she flopped back on the bed. But her mind refused to shut down. Mizzen jumped up to snuggle beside her.

She relived the last three days. Thank God Joe had made the effort to work with her despite his disappointment over his loss of a dream. He really had found his niche; he didn’t need to be coveting anyone else’s job. She closed her eyes. Maybe she could catch a few zee’s after all.