“Understood, but, outside of a few breaks, dislocations, and over two hundred stitches,” she said with a laugh, “how are you feeling?”
He gave her a big grin. “I’m alive,” he said, “and I’m pretty thankful for that, all things considered.”
She nodded. “Your friend is still unconscious and in serious shape,” she said quietly. “They’re running him through a bunch of tests, but they’re afraid that they may have to open him up to see what’s going on.”
“Well, at least we’re here in a safe place with specialists on hand.”
“They’ll try to get us off here,” she said, “but a hell of a storm is brewing.”
“Exactly. That’s how these things go,” he said. “Well, you and I are safe and sound, so it comes down to whether or not they can handle whatever Garret needs.”
“We won’t know just yet.”
Ryland nodded and smiled. “How did you happen to be out there in the middle of the ocean?”
He listened while she told him about taking time away from her job at the hospital in Perth. “It’s always been a favorite holiday destination,” she said, “so I kept my boat docked in Sydney.”
“I’m sorry to ruin your holiday,” he said, and he really was sorry. That was shitty for anybody, and he hoped like hell she had insurance on her boat, but he didn’t have a clue how that worked.
“It is what it is,” she said.
Something in her tone suggested a lot more was going on in her world than she’d shared, but then why would she tell him? “We were heading toward Australia to pick up the rest of our team,” he said. “I need to contact them.” He sat up and looked around. “I guess there’s no phone or anything that I could use to call them.”
Now that he had a good chance to study her, he saw the high cheekbones and the clear blue eyes, her wet hair now braided down the side. She was tall, trim, and dressed in a shirt obviously a little too small across the chest, but provided a delightful strain on the buttons, and pants that somewhat fit. “I gather your clothes were soaking wet?”
“Everything I have is soaking wet,” she said. “I don’t know if my phone survived or not. I left it in my room.”
“I need to get a message out to the guys. They were expecting the plane.”
“Well, if you give me a number to call …” she said, looking around for something to write it down on. Not finding anything, she disappeared out into the main room.
He collapsed back, taking several deep breaths because, damn, he was really sore.
When she returned with a small notepad and a pen, he wrote down the number and said to contact Cain.
“Okay, what am I to tell him?”
“Just tell him what you know—that the plane exploded midair, that you rescued the two of us, but we … we’re missing Bullard.” At that, his voice cracked. She looked up at him, but he just sighed. “He’s a good friend … and my boss.”
“Will do,” she said and then hesitated. “Anything you need?”
“They’re bringing me soft food,” he said. “I’m getting IVs for liquids and vitamin shots, so I’ll be fine. What about you?”
“I’m supposed to get dinner in an hour, and there was talk of flying to land,” she said, “but I think, with the storm, if they can’t get you guys out, chances are they can’t get me out either.”
“No,” he said. “It’s all about safety for the crew and the passengers.”
“Understood,” she said, as she smiled and patted his hand. “I know that you’re pretty banged up, but you’re lucky to be alive.”
“And I’m alive, thanks to you,” he said softly.
She looked down to see where she patted him. “I’m sorry,” she said. “OMG the skin has been flayed right off you.”
“Wouldn’t be so bad,” he said, with a note of humor in his voice, “but after they flayed the skin off me, they dropped me in saltwater.”
“Ouch,” she said with a laugh. “Mother Nature was a bitch today.”
“Maybe she had good reason,” he said. “I wish I knew what made the plane go down.”
“Did you have any warning?”
He shook his head. “No, we were just coming in and maneuvering a better position. We weren’t even very far out anymore. We were at the end of a very long flight, coming from Texas in the US. We had stopped in Hawaii to refuel.”
“And it just happened, at the very end?”
He nodded.
“Bizarre,” she said. “Anything suspicious about it?”
His gaze narrowed, as he studied her. “I don’t know,” he said. “Outside of the fact that the plane went down from an explosion, which is always suspicious.”
“Right,” she said. “Not that I know anything about it, I just wondered.”
“And with good reason,” he said quietly. “The thing is, I don’t know. Until I can get back on my feet, I don’t have any idea what happened, but I will find out.”
“Well, you’re not getting on your feet for a little while,” she said. “So give up that idea.”
“Oh, I’ll be up pretty damn fast.” She frowned at him, but he just gave her a crooked grin. “It’s hard to keep me down.”
“I know guys like you,” she said. “Big and tough until something bigger and tougher knocks you sideways, and then it’s even harder to get you back on your feet.” She shook her head. “Even the big guys drop. And sometimes harder than they expect.”
“I know,” he said, “but the longer I sit here and think about it, I’m worried about the rest of my team. Because, if we were targeted, maybe they are in danger too.”
She stopped and stared at him. “Targeted? Your team?”
He shrugged. “We run an international security company, and Bullard’s the head of it. We’re stationed out of Africa, but we work with other companies around the world. One of them is in Texas, and, in our line of work, we’ve made some pretty big enemies.”
“Oh,” she said, studying him with alarm. “Like enemies who would blow you out of the air? That kind of enemies?”
“Enemies who would blow us out of the air and leave us to die in the ocean. Absolutely,” he said. “You can bet that I’m already plenty pissed that there’s no sign of Bullard around. Because if they took him out …” With that, his voice trailed off, as he thought of what would be the repercussions of something like that.
“Well, don’t even start thinking along those lines,” she said, reaching out to softly grab his fingers. He looped his fingers with hers. “You first have to heal.”
“I do,” he said, “but then? All bets are off.”
“Well, there’s nothing you can do while you’re here, so relax,” she said. “You need your strength.”
“Go make that phone call for me, will you?”
“I’ll see what I can do,” she said. “I can’t guarantee you that my phone works at all. But the navy should be sending out messages from here to whoever you need, to let them know that they’ve picked us up.”