Page 33 of The Woman Left Behind

“Let’s get this over with,” Levi said and closed the door with a loudthunk.

Meaning it was her last chance? It couldn’t be. Boom said he’d packed more parachutes for today than he ever had before, so just two attempts wouldn’t use up the supply. She didn’t know which was most terrifying, the thought of having to do this whole thing again, or Levi tossing her out of training.

Realistically, what would happen if she crapped out of training? She’d go back to her old job and earn good money, though not as great as what she was currently pulling down. She’d get her weekends back. She’d be able to go to movies again, and hang with her friends, and see her family on a regular basis.

And she’d be a failure.

Jina began shaking as she slid onto a bench and strapped herself in.

Once again Levi took the seat beside her. His scent had changed, he had a more outdoorsy smell now, like cold fresh air. Guess that was appropriate, given that they’d just fallen through a couple of miles of fresh air. He seemed invigorated by it, his energy level up so far electricity was practically snapping around him. His big gloved hands rested on his thighs, relaxed despite the situation. Maybe he was happy. Maybe he was looking forward to this.

She felt nauseated; hot moisture pooled in her mouth, forced her to swallow.

All too soon, they were in the air again.

Pound-pound-pound.Her own heartbeat was loud in her ears, the force of it vibrating through her body. She couldn’t breathe; her chest seemed to have tightened, preventing her lungs from expanding. Was she hyperventilating, or suffocating? How could she tell the difference, and did it matter anyway?

“Time,” Levi said.

What? No! They’d just taken off. They couldn’t be more than a couple of hundred feet—except when Boom opened the door she saw the earth far below.

Why couldn’t there be a group of them jumping? Maybe if she saw other people doing it before her turn, she wouldn’t be so terrified? Not only that, there would be a delay before her turn. But, realistically, even if there were a thousand people who jumped before she did, she’d still be as terrified. Watching other people do it wouldn’t help at all.

“Come on, let’s get hooked up,” he said, giving her thigh a light slap.

The bottom dropped out of her stomach. Resentment burned in her, thatnowhe said something that could be construed as flirtatious,nowhe was treating her more like a team member than a team intruder. He must be confident she wouldn’t make the cut, that she was going to crap out, and the prospect of getting rid of her put him in a good mood.

She’d like to twist his dick off.

And throw it out of the damn plane, a dick without a parachute, and see if he’d dive out after it.

Of course he would. Men would march through hell for their dicks. But wouldn’t it be funny if a hawk or something caught the falling dick and carried it off to be eaten?

She was so distracted by thinking of the adventures of the flying dick that she didn’t move despite his prompt. Should she be ashamed she was thinking of mutilating him? It was just that the part of her that wasn’t terrified was so angry at him for everything, for the situation, for being who and what he was, for denying her attraction to him for months now and throwing it in her face anyway so all that effort had been for nothing. Anger and terror didn’t make a good mixture, leaving her nauseated and exhausted.

Levi’s patience lasted a few seconds, then he hauled her in front of him with her straddling his legs like before and hooked their harnesses together. The heat of his body warmed her butt and legs, banishing the wet chill from sitting on the ground. Jina catapulted from thinking of dismemberment to wanting to lie back against that hard hot strength and let him cradle her while she rested. She was so tired, so scared, and so damn tired of being so damn scared.

He began moving them toward the open door. Jina stiffened, planting her feet against the floor and pushing back against him, even though she knew resistance at best would gain her only a few seconds.

“Just trust me,” he said in her ear, his tone rough and low. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”

She tilted her head back and looked up at him. His dark gaze bored into her, intense and... something else that she couldn’t read.Trust him.She wanted to. She wanted a lot of things where Levi was concerned, and she was suddenly crushed under an avalanche of half-formed thoughts and wants and needs that sent her mind spinning. Before she could process any of it, he muscled them out of the plane and into nothing.

It was worse than the first time.

The wind tore at her. She knew she was screaming because she could feel the strain in her throat. She tried to take a deep breath, tried to control the terror that had exploded through every cell in her body the moment Levi took them out of the plane, tried to stop screaming. She tried to orient herself, to make sense of sky and earth. She could hear Levi yelling at her but couldn’t tell what he was saying, not that it mattered, because her body had overruled her mind and, screw reason, was in a battle for survival.

She fought him. She fought him with everything she had, her lizard brain telling her that he was the cause of her terror, her impending death, and logic had nothing to do with it. So what if he was the one with the parachute strapped to his back? She fought him anyway, tangling her legs with his, trying to flip him, trying to getaway.That was all she wanted, just away, away from this horror of an experience and the complete lack of control. The pressure in her chest was enormous, crushing her, and she was too far gone to tell it was his arms wrapped around her trying to control her struggles. With his arms down instead of spread for wind resistance they were an arrow plummeting earthward, a bird without wings, without guidance, without control.

An eternity later, exhausted, her body simply gave up and she went limp. Only then did she dimly realize that he had her wrapped up, legs and arms clamped and controlled by his steely limbs. She sucked in a shuddering breath just as they were jerked violently upward. The straps of her harness dug painfully into the jointure of her thighs, and across her breasts. The universe swung sickeningly and then settled into proper position, with earth below and sky above, and instead of falling at full speed they were now swaying under the billowing canopy.

“We’re off course to the north,” she heard Levi say tersely. “I don’t have the altitude to correct. If I try for the LZ, we’ll go in the river. There’s a field just to the east of the country road, we’ll land there.”

What was she supposed to say? It wasn’t as if she had a choice in any of this. Then he said, “I’ll radio our exact position,” and she realized he was talking to Boom.

Everything felt very distant, as if she had disconnected, and Jina realized she had crossed an invisible boundary between terror and numbness. Some people might look around and enjoy the view from their altitude, but she had no interest in the view other than noting the ground seemed closer than it had the first time they’d gone under canopy.

Silently Levi reached across her chest and loosened the strap with a quick, economical movement, easing the pressure and giving her more comfort in the harness. The backs of his fingers unavoidably brushed against her breast, and she couldn’t work up any kind of reaction, good or bad. He wasn’t copping a feel, he was... he was taking care of her. Then she saw his gloved hands on the toggles, turning them away from a river that was on the left and toward a small overgrown brown field bordered on two sides by trees, the green of pines mingled with the bare leafless limbs of hardwoods. The field was coming up fast. Levi said, “Legs up,” and obediently she lifted her legs a couple of seconds before they were on the ground.

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