Page 68 of Colton's Second Chance
“His fuel tank was leaking fuel. He’ll have to land somewhere soon.” Eli looked to Hetty. “Any guesses how far he could make it?”
Hetty gave him a withering frown. “Hardly. Too many unknown factors. How much fuel did he have to start with? How fast is the fuel leaking? What sort of tailwinds or headwinds will he encounter? Did he—?”
“Okay,” Eli said lifting a hand. “I get it.” He scrubbed a hand over his head, mussing his hair. “Damn it! We were so close to bringing him in!”
Noelle ducked her head. “It’s m-my fault he got away. Isn’t it?”
Eli’s pulse jolted, and he cut a sharp look toward her. “What?”
“No!” Hetty said. “Don’t you dare take this on yourself.”
“If I had stayed in the plane like Eli wanted—”
“You wouldn’t have been there to save Grace from the lake,” Eli finished for her.
Grace nodded, her movements still stiff and choppy as she sniffled. “You s-saved my life. Youalldid. Th-thank you so m-m—” The young woman dissolved in sobs again, and Hetty rubbed her back.
Noelle wouldn’t meet his eyes, and Eli said, “Hey. Noelle, look at me.”
She angled a dubious look at him. “I thought I could do more to help. I wanted to stall him…or distract him…or—”
Eli moved to squat right in front of her, his ankle protesting. But Noelle mattered more than the throb in his ankle. In a low voice meant only for her, he said, “Listen to me. If you’d stayed in the plane, Scott would still have used Grace as a humanshield. I still wouldn’t have had a clear shot of him. He would still have gotten to his plane. He might have still pushed Grace in the water, or he might have taken her with him. We don’t know. But what you did, tampering with his plane, distracted him enough that I got close enough to at least make an effort to stop him.” He pressed his lips in a frown of frustration at the reminder of Montgomery’s escape. “If you’d been at the other end of the lake with Hetty, though, you couldn’t have gone in after Grace.”
“But you would have,” she said, correctly. “You’d already started to.”
He sighed, scowling as he acknowledged a hard truth. “And either way, Scott still escapes. So you—”
“I was still too stubborn,” she said, her voice stronger now as she cut him off. Tears bloomed in her eyes. “I was too determined to do things my way, thinking I somehow knew better. But I was wrong. Again. Like I was in college. I should have listened to you. I—I should have trusted you more!”
Eli flinched. “In college? What are you saying?”
She drew a long, slow breath and cupped his face with hands that were at the same time freezing cold and a balm to his heart. “I’m saying I made a mistake. I should never have left you. Should never have shut you out.”
Eli furrowed his brow, startled by her change of topic. His pulse pounded so loud in his ears, he could barely hear his own voice asking, “A mistake?”
When the women’s heads all lifted, their gazes darting toward the cabin door, Eli realized the thrum in his ears had drowned out another noise. Someone was outside the cabin.
Chapter 24
Noelle heaved a huge sigh of relief when the men outside the cabin identified themselves as from the state trooper detachment from the Fairbanks office. A medic with the responders checked her, Grace and Eli, and though they all would need further treatment and checks once they arrived at the hospital in Fairbanks, they were all doing remarkably well under the circumstances.
Grace was showing signs of shock. Eli had a sprained ankle. And Noelle had a huge case of guilt, despite Eli’s attempts to assuage her regrets. She needed time to process her feelings and talk to Eli alone, and neither looked likely to happen soon.
Eli stayed behind, returning to Grossford Lake to take charge of the state troopers as they continued the search for Scott. Noelle, having signed a waiver refusing further medical treatment once she’d gotten warm and dry, accompanied Hetty back to Shelby.
Having gotten snippets of information about what had transpired at Grossford Lake, a large representation of Coltons, plus Asher, awaited Noelle and Hetty at the RTA offices.
Kansas was among the first to rush to Noelle and wrap her in a hug. “Good grief, Noelle! You don’t do things by half measures, do you? I’m not sure how you translated ‘case consultant’ to mean ‘risk your life saving a hostage,’ but kudos to you for your bravery!”
Noelle flashed a sheepish grin. “I’m not sure how you translated ‘foolish stubbornness’ to mean ‘bravery.’ But, no, I’mnot known for holding back. I’m headstrong to a fault, and…” she choked as a bubble of emotion rose in her throat “…and Eli has paid the price of that stubbornness and fear for too long.”
Kansas took her by the arm to pull her away from the clamoring family. “Hey, are you okay? What does ‘Eli’s paid the price’ mean?”
“I saw it so clearly today, everything I’d been trying to hide from, but I’d only been hurting myself and Eli instead.” She sucked in a deep breath, not wanting to cry in front of Kansas and the other Coltons.
“Noelle?” Sasha said, stepping over from where she’d been clustered with Troy and Lakin, listening to Hetty recount their day. “I promise I wasn’t intentionally eavesdropping, but did you say Eli was hurt? Is that why he’s not with you?”
Noelle mustered a smile to calm Eli’s mother. “He’s fine. Well, mostly. A twisted ankle.” She summarized how Eli had stayed with the phalanx of state troopers and local searchers to hunt Scott, and Sasha shook her head.
