Page 33 of Fatal Love
Chapter Nine
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SABRINA FLEW FASTthrough the morning air, dipping down through the valley, racing above the interstate, and rising up over the city. She’d radioed ahead to the hospital and they’d given her permission to land on their helo pad, the giant red X coming into view as she neared.
She should have felt relief, but both her passengers were out cold. From blood loss? From their concussions? From shock?
Do not panic.Any or all could be the reason. All she knew was that she had to get this bird down and get Connor and Maria into the hands of the professionals.
Please don’t die on me. Please don’t die.
The refrain swam through her head, over and over again as she chanced a glance at Connor, slumped in the seat next to hers, his face ashen. She’d tried shaking him, yelling at him, pinching him. Nothing had worked. The pulse in his neck beat so slowly and erratically, she’d barely been able to find it. All she could now was fly for all she was worth.
Because she was flying forhislife.
Her hands shook, and her breath was tight in her chest. She’d just lived through a situation that had rivaled the bombing in Antwerp. That night, with all the injured, many of them her friends and colleagues, she’d flown flight after flight back and forth from the bomb site to the nearby hospitals.
Men and women had died in her helicopter.
She’d almost died when the perpetrators had sent a surface-to-air missile at her while she was in the air.
That impact and explosion still happened nightly in her dreams. The sensation of falling, falling, falling…
Connor coughed beside her, a ragged, burbling sound. Sabrina steeled her nerves as she stuck the landing, bringing the bird down swiftly but as gently as she could. A team of nurses and doctors ran out the door to meet her.
By the time she shut down the helicopter and jumped out, they already had both of her patients on gurneys and were headed for the building. Sabrina ran after them.
A burly male nurse stopped her before she could follow Connor inside. “Get that helicopter off the pad. The med copter is inbound with another patient.”
“What? But I have to stay here with him,” she argued.
“Sorry, there’s nothing I can do.” He shrugged one beefy shoulder. “You have to get that helicopter out of the way. There isn’t enough room for two.”
The door slammed shut in her face.
Anxiety tore its way through her body. The memory of them wheeling her mother away on a gurney just like that flashed into her mind.
Momma. I miss you so.
Sabrina hadn’t been there for her when she’d died and the guilt still ate at her.
What if Connor died too?
Her chest tightened even more, air whistling through her parted lips. Her body felt immobile, locked in place, her hands and feet terribly cold.
The helicopter had to be moved. She had no choice.
Closing her eyes for a brief moment, she sent her mind to a beautiful mountaintop, a sunrise, a quiet brook in an old forest. The nature scenes calmed her and eased the vise grip on her chest. Shaking out her hands, she opened her eyes and ran to the helicopter, hurrying to get the bird back in the air.
The UComm building was only half a mile from the hospital, but that meant half a mile back to the Emergency Room in early morning traffic.
No way was she leaving Connor for that long.
In the air, she circled around and found the spot she needed. An empty parking lot on the far side of the east wing. The parking lot held overflow from the main lots, where no one ever wanted to park, but often times had to. It would be a tight fit to get past the buildings and not clip the decorative trees, but she wasn’t an ace pilot for nothing.
A couple of the trees lost branches, but she managed to bring the helo down in a spot not more than a hundred yards from the east wing’s side entrance. Sabrina shut down the helicopter and ran for the door.
