Page 15 of The Texas Cowboy's Rescue

That sounded like a dare to her. If he knew her better, he’d know that daring her was the same as waving a red flag in front of a bull. She just might have to prove a point.

“We’ll see if I’m in the mood when the time comes.” She turned her attention to the view below, and now and then, her gaze fell on the darkening cloud bank that seemed to be trying to outrace and outflank them. She had flown enough with him to know he was a good pilot, so she trusted the man with his hands on the controls. Until she felt an odd shudder from beneath her feet. She paused and waited to see if it was her imagination.

It wasn’t.

“By any chance, did you...?” she began.

“Noted already. I’ve been running a systems check. And I don’t like what the hydraulics are doing. I need to pull more power in light of the weather’s increase in speed, but she’s not cooperating.”

“So we need to set it down at the closest hospital, or clinic, even. We don’t have any large towns around us. Can we find the main highway in case we need to land there and have help...?”

“I’ve got this. I’ll keep her in the air as long as we can. I’m alerting the ground crew. There’s no need to panic.”

“I wasn’t panicking. I was going for a plan B. There’s lightning in that huge cloud to the east,” she pointed out... if only she could ignore the growing streaks.

“The land beneath us is not very hospitable... pretty rough. I’m trying to get to some of the farmland ahead of us if possible, in case I need to set it down.”

Kenzie realized her fingers had dug themselves into the seat cushion. She tried to ease them back. Perhaps she should have rethought the idea that being a trauma flight nurse would be a good career move. The ground seemed farther away each time she looked.

She looked at Deke’s face and saw the rock-hard set of the jaw. He was speaking in distinct terminology to someone in his headset, which was mostly gibberish to her. He was calm, but he was being very precise and getting the brevity of the situation across. In the meantime, she was aware that the young nurse in the back of the craft was looking a bit pale and her movements were shaky.

“Do you need me up here beside you for any reason?” Kenzie asked Deke. His gaze jerked to her with a scowl.

“If you’re frightened, then, no, you wouldn’t be any help. I’ve got this.”

She wanted to let him know what she thought about his attitude, but she also knew that she needed to settle the situation growing in the back of the craft. They didn’t need a truly hysterical person to deal with. And she also wanted to position herself to better protect the infant in case things went from bad to worse. She unclipped her seat belt and began to maneuver between seats toward the small space left in the back beside the cubicle that held the child.

Her gaze took in the instrument readings on the panel while she began speaking to the nurse in low, measured tones to get her attention and try to keep her nerves in check. The best thing was to get her to concentrate on something besides the situation.

“Marcy, I need you to read the panel above the unit and speak the numbers slowly into your headset so the nurses at the center can chart them. Can you do that and not stop? We want to catch any change in the normal vitals in the second they begin to change.”

The young girl nodded. She took a calming breath, and her gaze fastened on the numbers. Hopefully, the nurse at the call center desk would understand why she was asking the girl to do that, and her precise tones would help. Kenzie maneuvered herself into the space where she could see the monitors and yet have more support against the unit housing the baby in case of rough weather... or worse.

“Is that the wind or something else?” Kenzie said into her headset. Only Deke would hear her. She didn’t need to distract the woman beside her. The shaking beneath their feet had become more noticeable.

“Both. The storm is outracing us, and the wind clouds are almost on us. I’ve given coordinates, and I’m looking for a place to set us down. So buckle in. It’s likely to be a rough set down. There’s a dirt road a half mile ahead if I can get us there. Just hold on.”

She didn’t need to be told that one. She indicated the same to the nurse on the other side of the unit, who nodded her understanding. The child was calm and sleeping, oblivious to the drama around this portion of her trip. Kenzie wished she was sleeping through it, also, but there was no chance of that. If...whenthey made it to the ground, they had to hope all the equipment on the child would not be damaged. Help needed a way to get to them. But there was a mean storm headed for their location too. How could a quiet, easy trip turn so bad, so quickly? Bless Texas weather, that’s how.

“Setting her down. Hang on back there.” Deke’s voice was low and steady. He had nerves of steel. And she was glad of it. She felt them dropping and the wind pushing them sideways.

Kenzie thought of Brooke and repeated the same prayer over and over under her breath as the first jolt of contact with the inanimate rock-hard earth shook the cabin. Her grip increased on the infant beside her as she gritted her teeth and her body was jerked hard against the harness that held her in her seat. The power went off inside the cabin and alarms on batteries were set off on the preemie unit. Within a minute, the lights and air sounds came back to life.

“Check in back there,” Deke’s command came through the silence. “Kenzie, are you okay? The patient? Speak up!”

“We’re okay. Systems are up. You woke our patient, but she seems to want to finish out her nap. Nurse Barnes was in contact with the trauma desk, but we’ve lost them.”

“I need you to bring a pair of scissors or other sharp blades up front.”

Kenzie grabbed a pair of scissors from the leg pocket of her flight suit.

“The seat belt jammed on the side casing. I need to cut myself out of it,” he said as she stepped back into the front. That’s when she saw that somehow they were sitting flat on hard rock with boulders on one side and a drop-off on the other.

“That’s a nice piece of flying,” she said as Deke worked on the thick material with the scissors. “Or should I say landing? Into the side of a hill or down a canyon. You earned your keep today.”

“I earned my keep but lost it again on one damaged pile of metal.” He broke through the belt and extricated himself from the seat. Opening his door, he was able to slide out and stand. “I’m going to come around and open the side door if I can. We need to get up to the road I saw before we went down. It’s on the other side of that hill. There should already be help on the way.”

Kenzie jumped down from the open doorway when he was able to slide it open after some work. He was already checking under the craft and through the rest of the damage. Raindrops had begun to fall, pelting up puffs of dirt as they hit the dry ground.

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