“S’OK,” I managed, barely a whisper. But she heard it. I knew because she collapsed down on me, her head on my chest, sobbing.
“Don’t die,” she cried.
“S’OK,” I repeated, finally managing to make one of my arms move to touch her back. I blinked open my eyes. Blinding sunlight and a pale blue sky without a cloud in sight. What was happening?
“Are you all right?” she asked. I tried to raise my head. It pounded and ached, and I sank back with a groan and a wince. It felt like I’d been hit with something. “Don’t die!” she repeated.
“Course I’m not going to die.” I managed to get my other arm up around her. It felt like it was made of lead. “I’m gonna get you naked in Fiji.”
She started laughing, big sobs mixing with her inhales. “That’s what’s on your mind?”
“Always,” I replied, honestly. But where were we and what was going on? I opened my eyes again and it all came back in a rush. The pilot’s heart attack, the emergency water landing, our frantic paddling in the life raft.
“Are you all right?” I asked, clutching her, searching her face.
She nodded, wiping her nose. She had a cut on her chin and her right eye looked slightly swollen, but she seemed OK. I pushed myself up to sitting, groaning, bringing a hand to the back of my head.
“You hit your head when we landed,” she told me, bringing her hand up to my face. “Let me take a look.” With gentle hands, she pulled apart the hair on the top of my head. I closed my eyes, hoping she wouldn’t find a gash. If we’d managed to secure a first aid kit along with us into the raft—and that was a big if—who knew if it would have what we’d need to stitch me up? Or keep it sterile.
“No blood.” She let out her breath with relief. “And can you move your legs?”
I found I could, with great effort and concentration. They felt like they’d been run over by a steamroller, though. She burst out crying when she saw my movement.
“Hey.” I drew her to me, pressing her face to my chest. “That’s a good thing.”
“I know. I’m just relieved. I thought—” She sobbed again, clinging to me.
“Was I passed out for long?” I asked, bringing my hand to her hair, soothing her.
“I don’t know.” She shook her head, disoriented. “Where are we?”
An excellent question. Ignoring the pain in my head, I turned to survey our surroundings. Lush tropical greenery opening to a white sandy beach. Not a person or a building in sight. The island might be long but it wasn’t wide. I remembered how hard we’d had to fight not to pass it by. I drew Caroline closer to me, stroking her back.
“Don’t worry, we’re going to be all right.”
“But, where are we?” she asked.
“One of the islands around Fiji.” There were hundreds, the majority of which were uninhabited. “But I made contact with the control tower. And I set the transponder signal to emergency. They’re probably already out looking for us.”
“What about the pilot?” she sobbed, her hands over her face. I wrapped her in my arms. I felt sick over him, too.
“There was nothing we could do,” I told myself as much as her. “But, damn it, I should have been up there with him. I fucked up.”
She made a sound of disbelief as she murmured into my chest, “You saved our lives.”
“I should have checked on things sooner.” I couldn’t accept her gratitude, not before I’d served myself up some serious self-recrimination.
“Colt, you landed us safely into open water, got us into a life raft and steered us to shore. With a head injury. I don’t think you need to beat yourself up.”
I hugged her, too exhausted and emotional for words.
“Thank you for saving my life,” she whispered.
I held her and hoped what she said was true. We were on an uninhabited island, probably on the radar of a rescue crew. But nothing was certain. I just hoped I could do a better job of keeping her safe no matter what lay ahead.
CHAPTER 12
Caroline
I didn’t know what time it was. The sun pounded down strong and hot from what seemed like directly overhead. But it seemed to stay directly overhead for way too long.
“Don’t!” Colt cautioned me as he ventured out to assess what looked like a piece of debris, maybe from the plane. I stayed huddled underneath a cluster of palm trees in the shade. Shaking, not from cold but from shock, I sat down on the life raft. We’d pulled it and the contents we’d managed to take with us over to the shade as well.
He walked back, dragging a jagged piece of metal.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“Part of the plane.” He placed it to the side. “Watch out, it’s sharp.”
“How’s your head?” When he’d blacked out on the shore earlier that day, I’d never been so frightened in my life. Even when the plane started to go down and I knew we were headed for an emergency landing, adrenaline and survival instinct had kicked in strong. But when we’d finally made it to shore and then Colt had lost consciousness, I’d nearly lost it myself.
“OK.” He nodded in assurance, keeping his focus on the task at hand. “We need to take stock of what we’ve got. Help me lay it all out.”
We had a wool blanket in the emergency pack that, thank God, had stayed fastened to the life raft. Sealed tight in a waterproof case, it had also stayed dry. I took out a First Aid kit with standard-issue bandages, sterile pads and antibiotic ointment. Colt insisted on taking a closer look at my jaw.
“I think it happened when we hit the water.” It was hard to remember, my senses had been on such high alert. But I thought I recalled something coming down from above, maybe from an overhead compartment, and hitting me in the face.
“I couldn’t get us slowed down enough.” He sounded angry at himself.
As he gently dabbed at my chin, I touched his forearm. “You saved our lives.”
He exhaled, seeming somewhat relieved after his closer look at my scrape. “It’s not bad.” He put a small Band Aid on it. “And you’re sure, nothing else hurts?” He looked at my arms and legs, still in jeans and a long-sleeved shirt. They’d gotten soaked, of course, but now they weren’t dripping so much as soggy. Hot as it was, it was also humid.
He had a cut on his side, again not a deep one, but I helped him clean and bandage it.
“Do you think…” I tried to stay calm, but my voice wobbled as I began to ask the question. I swallowed and started again. “Does anyone have any idea where we are?”
“Yes.” He sat next to me, taking my hands in his. “Caroline, I want you to understand. I made contact with the control tower before we went down. They got our coordinates and knew that we were making an emergency landing. I also set the transponder to the emergency code. Both will help a search and rescue crew find us soon.”
I sobbed in relief. He’d told me before, but I’d been so overwhelmed I hadn’t fully processed what he had to say.
“So it’s not going to be like Lost?”
“The TV show?” He chuckled a bit and that sound reassured me even more than his explanation of the emergency contacts he’d made. If he was laughing, he really meant it. We would be found. “I don’t know. I never watched it. But, no, I don’t think we’re going to be lost long before we’re found.”
I wiped the tears from my eyes and tried to smile. “So they know which island we’re on?”
“No, not exactly. But they’ll be able to find out where the plane went down. Then they’ll circle out from there. There are a lot of little islands around here, but they’ll keep looking until they find us.”
“That’s right! You’re super rich!” I declared, suddenly perking up. “They’ll want to find you. They won’t give up.”
“I’d like to think they’ll look just as hard for you.” He touched my cheek. “But you’re right. The CEO of Kavanaugh Investors missing after a plane crash in the South Pacific. That’ll get people’s attention. So, don’t worry. They’ll keep
at it until they find us.” He gave me a kiss on my forehead. “Now let’s see if we have some water.”
We got busy sorting through the contents of our emergency pack. Four Power Bars as old as time and hard as bricks. A thin, wool blanket plus the First Aid kit. Matches that had somehow gotten wet and looked like they weren’t going to do any good. No flares, which made Colt swear. But, still, we managed to strike gold.
“Look at all the waters!” I kept pulling out the 16-ounce bottles and, like people out of a clown car, they kept coming. All totaled, we had eight of them.
“That’s enough for one day for the two of us,” Colt warned me as I began to tear off a cap.