Captive Of Fate. Lindsay McKenna

      Alanna turned, stunned. “They really could crash?” she asked, her voice painfully hoarse.

      “Sure. They’re flying completely blind. I’ve ridden in enough choppers to know that it takes a crazy Marine pilot to go up in weather like this. They fly on gut instinct when all else fails.”

      Alanna felt dizzy, and she leaned against the wall. No, this couldn’t be happening. Matt Breckenridge was too vital, too alive to die on some unknown jungle mountainside. Oh, God, she prayed, be with them. Guide them in. Don’t let him die. Please, don’t…

      “Ma’am?” the radioman asked, coming back over to her. He touched her arm. “You look like you might faint. Come here, sit down for a moment.” With concern in his voice, he continued, “I’m sorry, I spouted off about things I shouldn’t have. They’ll be all right. You wait and see. Can I get you some water?”

      Alanna shut her eyes tightly for a moment. “No—no, I’m okay.” She mustered a broken smile, looking up at his youthful features. “I’m—I’m not used to all this kind of excitement. A civilian,” she explained lamely.

      He shrugged and smiled. “Yeah, I guess you kinda have to get used to military operations. I’m not saying that what the major is doing is commonplace, but we’re trained for emergency situations. And if anyone can pull it off, those two can. You know they did a lot of flying together in Nam?”

      Alanna shook her head, only half-listening to the Marine corporal’s conversation. Her thoughts revolved around the fact that military personnel were trained to accept sudden, unexpected situations as easily as breathing air. It was so different from her peaceful, neatly organized life. Until now. She wrapped her arms around herself, feeling suddenly chilled. Conflicting emotions raged within her. Matt’s kiss…her body thrilled to that memory even now, and she felt giddy. Paul’s kisses had never inflamed her as Matt’s did. And to make it worse, Matt was the man who had caused Tim’s death. She hung her head, utterly bewildered.

      As the radio crackled to life, she jumped. It was Major Cauley’s voice coming in loud and clear, reporting the spotting of the green flare. Alanna rose, giving the chair back to the Marine. She stood close, her hand covering her mouth in anticipation as she heard Matt’s voice come over the airwaves. Her heart accelerated a beat, and she felt frozen to the spot. He was calling out the air speed and miles. He made a terse remark about how close the tall mahogany trees were to the helicopter as they slowly began their careful descent. She clutched her hands together as they moved below tree level. What if they had miscalculated the distance to the village? One rotor blade smashing into a tree would surely cause them to nose suddenly into the ground.

      “I see it!” Cauley announced excitedly. “The red flares!”

      Alanna took in a deep breath, grateful for Cauley’s triumphant discovery. The radioman looked up, grinning happily.

      “See, I told you so.”

      “Yes, you did, Corporal. I’m glad you were right. What about them getting back down here?”

      “We’ll follow the same procedure at this end.”

      The radio chatter ended, and Alanna hung around the radio, occasionally looking out in the darkness that was now turning gray with the promise of dawn. Finally, she heard Matt calling the radioman. In approximately twenty minutes, they would be landing. She closed her eyes, her heart and body responding to his husky voice. How could one man so completely disrupt her complacent life-style?

      She became aware of Marines and Costa Rican police gathering outside.

      Several stretchers were stacked nearby, and the men waited in the thick fog like dark apparitions. Finally, the flares were lit, and then she heard the puncturing beat of rotor blades overhead. Cauley’s happy voice exploded over the intercom.

      “We’ve made it! We did it! Look out, here we come.”

      She felt a surge of joy rising in her breast as she returned to the window, watching the unwieldy helicopter slowly lower itself into the muddy area outside the hut. Tears crowded into her eyes as she saw the men running forward with the stretchers to be swallowed up by the wall of fog. Brushing the tears away, Alanna turned and walked back to the bedroom.

      She tried desperately to sort out the turmoil of her feelings. All too soon, she heard Cauley’s jubilant words as he entered the hut and several other men’s voices raised in laughter. She drew her knees up, resting her chin on them, and stared at the lone blanket in the opposite corner where Matt had slept briefly. The raucous joking and laughter continued for another ten minutes, and she managed a sliver of a smile as she heard Cauley telling his story.

      The major’s voice bubbled with excitement and relief. “As we dropped down the first time, I told Matt to be ready to kiss his rear good-bye if we hit anything.”

      “That ring of flares,” Matt interrupted drily, “looked like a dull glow even ten feet up.”

      “Yeah,” another voice interjected, “we noticed the left side of the chopper is smashed in. What’dja do, Major Cauley, try to land it on its nose?”

      “Hell, no,” Cauley chortled. “Things were so bad I set the girl to the left of the landing circle the first time. We found ourselves in the supply crates. If you think the nose looks bad, you should see the crates! Some new paint and it’ll look like new, right Matt?” Cauley asked.

      “It will, but I won’t,” he returned.

      Alanna listened as the entire group exploded into laughter. She realized it was one way to relax after the harrowing event. From the sound of it, they were lucky they hadn’t crashed. But her own tension was not so easily relieved. She was upset and unsure of herself due to his unexpected kiss. Humiliation flooded her at the thought of the way she’d allowed herself to be swept uncompromisingly into his arms. She had been frightened for him, and he had taken advantage of the situation!

      Closing her eyes and rubbing her temples to ease the nagging headache, Alanna tried to find some acceptable excuse for her erratic behavior. She could hear Paul’s droning voice buzzing in her head: “Really, Alanna, logic should have told you the answer. Push aside your emotions and look at the black and white of the situation. If you do that, then answers become clear, and you don’t knock yourself out with worry and anxiety….”

      Sighing, she opened her troubled eyes. Logic and emotion. Did they ever go together? Or were they like Matt Breckenridge and herself—too different to be combined? Alanna knew one thing: she would never allow the Marine colonel to touch her again. His kiss had evoked too many explosive emotions she thought finally controlled.

      Chapter Four

      She forced herself to go back to sleep, shutting out the noises from the other room. Her anger simmered just beneath the surface until utter exhaustion drew her back down into the folds of blackness.

      It was daylight when she awoke the second time. Stretching stiffly, she sat up, feeling the chill of the room. Fog hovered around the small, paned windows, and she rubbed her hands briskly to get the circulation going. The door opened, and Matt smiled benignly, hesitating. “Just wake up?”

      Ignoring his genial tone, Alanna frowned darkly and turned her back toward him. She heard him walking over to her and tensed as he halted at her side.

      “I thought you might like to know we got the kids down off the mountain. They’re probably in San Jose by now,” he said, checking his watch. “It’s nearly eleven o’clock.”

      “I’m surprised you’re concerned about them at all,” she stated icily, standing and folding the blankets. Fervently, she hoped her ruse would throw him off the track. She didn’t want to discuss the kiss or invite further advances on his part. If she pretended not to understand their uneasy truce of the night before, it might keep him stymied so she could complete her investigation. He was much safer to deal with as an enemy. This morning, logic would dictate her decisions.

      “What