“We’re all going for her.” Ford snapped a thigh holster into place. “These mercs, whoever Williams hired, don’t know this land. The terrain. We’ll finish them on our turf.”
“We said they’d be stupid to go after an admiral’s daughter,” I said, remembering our earlier convo. “I guess we were wrong.”
Taft nodded, gripping his AR.“We’ll get to Quincy. And the baby.” Hayes slapped me on the shoulder.
“Then we’ll finish this with Williams. Our way.”
We set off, Taft taking point. He knew exactly where to go, and we’d had plenty of practice pushing ourselves on the obstacle course.
This time, we weren’t racing the clock, we were racing for Quincy.
CHAPTERTWENTY
QUINCY
A good pilotknew how to fly in difficult situations, weather and terrain.
A top-notch Navy pilot knew how to crash land.
Sometimes, though, especially with helicopters, there was no landing involved with the crash.
This was going to be one of those cases.
It was funny how in an emergency, things became crystal clear. Time slowed. You knew exactly what was important and what you had to do to protect life at all costs.
This was one of those moments.
It wasn’t just my own life on the line here. It wasn’t just my own future.
It was my baby’s. And Kennedy’s.
I had to be smart and stay alive, so the three of us could have that future.
I cut the engine since it was smoking. I had no power, but that didn’t matter because the rotors were still spinning. I pitched the blades down and got the lift I needed for autorotation. I was going down, but on my terms. There wasn’t a good spot, which was the issue, but I was able to slow down enough to make the impact better.
Time went still as I pulled up hard. My velocity slowed and with it, all the frantic, circular thoughts I’d had about the pregnancy disappeared.
I somehow knew that Kennedy was all in.
He’d been right after all. He did get to do theI’m right dance.I’d been afraid of getting hurt, so I’d pushed him away. I doubted his intentions and his love.
Of course, Kennedy would stand by me. And, of course, it wouldn’t be out of obligation. He’d already made it plain he wanted a relationship. With me. He’d challenged me to stop fighting it.
We may not have planned to have a family, but we were going to have one, and rather than this being a big mistake, it just might be the biggest blessing imaginable.
I was being gifted with a future I never even imagined for myself. One I thought I hadn’t wanted. But now that I’d adjusted to the idea–could imminent death do that?–I couldn’t think of anything I’d want more.
A shot at real happiness.
Real love–both with Kennedy and our baby.
A family.
As soon as I came to that realization, my survival extinct kicked into high gear again. The ground was still approaching more quickly than I’d like. I was in for a hard landing. My harness was tight and there was nothing I could do except hope.
As I scraped across the ponderosa pines, luck was with me, because the helicopter caught in a treetop and settled. I jerked in my restraints, suspending me above the ground without any impact. The rotors sliced up the trees it encountered, making a whirlwind of twigs and greenery until they stopped.
Breathing hard, I unclipped my harness and pushed open the door. I was fifteen feet off the ground, but I climbed out, descended a tree like an uncoordinated black bear.