Page 35

THIRTY-FIVE

“ B ryce, the good news is you’re already headed back toward Last Chance. We see you on the radar.” The voice in the headset was steady and calm. Thank goodness one of them was, because Bryce sure wasn’t feeling all that calm at the moment.

But wait…he said the good news . “What’s the bad news?” Bryce asked.

Silence.

“Dude, what’s the bad news? I need to know what’s going on.”

“Uh, there’s a mountain in the way and no good place to land.”

“You’ve gotta be kidding me.” Bryce’s pulse spiked. “Okay…what we do?”

“I’m going to walk you through this every step. We already have rescue crews and a chopper heading toward you.”

Guess that was something. But at this point it was up to God and him to land this plane. He yelled back to Penny and the governor to buckle up and brace for impact.

Bryce couldn’t let the panic take over. He repeated every line the stranger on the speaker said and followed each direction. Maybe it was a blessing he couldn’t see much except the black night sky outside the window.

“You’re doing well, Bryce. Now lower those flaps. It’s going to decrease the speed even more.”

The altimeter continued its countdown. Three thousand miles. Two. One.

He could see the outline of trees, a rugged terrain. The ground rushed toward them too fast. “Now, Bryce, now! Pull up! Keep it steady!”

Bryce braced himself, feet pressed hard against the floor. “Hold on!” At the last second he threw his hands around his head as the ground rose up.

The impact took his breath away. Penny screamed. The engines whined. Metal clashed. Time hung in the air as Bryce was slammed by a force like the hand of God Himself pressing him against the seat.

Then silence.

Bryce breathed again, slowly moving his body, beginning with his fingers. They worked. He didn’t wait for pain or anything else to register. He found his buckle and released the latch.

“Penny! Governor?” He climbed out of his seat and turned. A tree branch dissected the cabin. The branch and pine needles blocked the way. He couldn’t see them.

“Penny!” He dropped to the floor and crawled under the thick limb.

Oh God. Help.

The governor stirred. Groaned. But Penny lay crumpled in the aisle and wasn’t moving. Bryce crawled over to her. Her chest rose and fell. Breathing. That was good.

But that branch. Oh, that was bad. So bad. A thin branch of the tree had impaled her abdomen. Blood seeped through. The branch had already broken away from the limb dissecting the plane. But they needed to get her help. Fast.

Bryce moved over to the governor. “Hey! You okay?”

He opened his eyes, blinked. He slowly roused.

“We need to get off the plane. Can you move?” Bryce asked him as he came to.

“I think so.” The governor unbuckled himself, looked down. “Oh no.”

“Yeah.” The governor’s seat swiveled completely around. He turned it to get behind Penny. “What do we do?”

“We need to keep her as steady as possible. Is there anything strong, flat we can use for a backboard?”

While Noble checked the luggage compartment, Bryce took her pulse. It was weak but steady.

The governor came back with a garment bag. “This was all I could find.”

“Lay it down best you can next to her. When I roll her toward me, you slip it under.”

He nodded. On the count of three, Bryce rolled Penny onto her side as smoothly and gently as he could. Noble slid the bag under, and Bryce rolled her back down. She stirred a bit.

“Penny, baby, you need to stay still, okay?” He whispered near her ear, kissed her scraped and dirty cheek. They’d been through so much already. “I’m going to get you home.”

Please, God. Save her.

They used the garment bag to slide her toward the large opening where the door had been and laid her on the ground outside. The governor sank to the dirt, resting against a tree.

“We can’t stay here. The plane could ignite at any time.” And Bryce needed to keep moving. He had to get Penny home.

He’d promised her, and he was going to keep that promise.

“It’s sparking!” The governor stood and backed away.

And the smell of fuel meant—“Back away!”

Bryce scooped up Penny and ran.

They ducked around trees, climbed the incline sloping away from the plane, but the explosion still knocked Bryce down to his knees. He cradled Penny against himself, letting his own body take the brunt of the fall. The governor helped him up. They turned and watched the wreckage burning.

“That should at least make it easier to find us.” The governor looked over at him. “Do we keep moving?”

The sound of a helicopter stilled Bryce. “I think they found us.”

The next hours were a blur of rescue workers, questions, medical assessments, and chaos.

Penny was immediately whisked away and taken into surgery. As soon as Bryce and Governor Noble stepped out of the rescue helicopter, a kid with dark hair and braces sprinted and launched himself at his dad.

Cindy Noble embraced her husband with a wobbly smile and tears streaming down her face. She looked over at Bryce. “Thank you for saving him.” Her voice cracked with thick emotion.

“I don’t know that I can take much credit, ma’am.”

The governor shook his head. “You’re a hero, Mr. Crawford. No doubt.”

He certainly didn’t feel like one. Not with Penny fighting for her life on an operating table.

Not even when Jude grabbed him and told him, “They tracked down Sosa. You coming?”

But at least that gave him something to do.

An army of black SUVs drove to a remote cabin in the mountain forest outside Last Chance. The other federal agents didn’t question Bryce’s presence after Jude told them all “He’s with me.”

Bryce slipped on the Kevlar vest handed him. “We know how this guy operates. He’s slippery. He’ll have an escape plan.”

“Then we’ll take the back,” Jude said.

Good, because Bryce needed to end this.

Jude adjusted the straps of Bryce’s vest. “Just remember, you’re here to observe more than anything.”

“You know I’m not great at the watching and waiting and staying out of it, right? I can’t promise anything.”

Jude kept his deadpan expression. “I’m counting on it. Just stay safe.” The slightest glint of humor poked through.

Huh. Go figure. Maybe his by-the-book brother-in-law was loosening up a little.

He and Jude took watch over the back of the cabin at the northeast corner, closer to the tree line. Others were set at the opposite back corner. Within seconds of the agents breaching the front, Sosa was crawling out a back window. As soon as his feet hit the ground, Bryce shot off from his position, ignoring the yelling he heard from somewhere behind him.

Not. This. Time.

With everything in him, Bryce propelled himself and flew at the blur moving away from the cabin. He tackled Sosa, wrestling him to the ground.

Jude pulled Bryce off as two other agents lifted Sosa off the dirt.

Bloodied and dusty, the man wasn’t nearly as cocky as he’d been on the plane. “This isn’t over!”

Desperate cries from a desperate man, considering Sosa could hardly stand. It might have had something to do with the blood still trickling down his arm from where Penny had shot him.

“Oh, it’s over, Sosa. You’ve got nowhere else to run.” Bryce glared at him.

Sosa whipped his head to address the agent dragging him away. “I demand you release Emma Kemper. I have documents signed by?—”

“It doesn’t matter. She’s gone.” Jude, steady and calm as always, faced the criminal that had caused so much destruction.

Sosa paled. “What do you mean gone ?”

“She’s dead. Killed in the shootout when you left her there to save your own hide.”

“No. You’re lying. It’s a trick, right?” He looked at the other agents. “You’re lying!”

They didn’t bother to speak and instead led him away while he continued to demand answers and medical attention. Through it all, Bryce grew numb. He didn’t remember the ride back to the hospital. Once they arrived, there was still no word on Penny.

Bryce sank into a chair in the empty hospital waiting room.

He didn’t know if it was minutes or hours later when Jude sat next to him and forced a cup of coffee into his cold hands.

“Hear anything yet?” Jude asked.

Bryce shook his head. “Find Woods?”

“He’s still on the run. But the governor’s family is safe. Settled at a secure location.”

Good. Bryce dropped his head back, rested it against the wall. His mom came at some point with Libby and sat next to him. She took his hand but didn’t say anything. Andi rested her head on Jude’s shoulder. Izan and Zack and some of the crew trickled in, offering encouragement and assurances. He had so much to be thankful for.

But all he wanted was Penny.

He went ahead and let the tears fall as Jude prayed out loud for her.