she finally took his meaning. “The sea?”
“Yes. Now put on your life jacket, and grab that orange backpack from where it’s stowed behind my seat.”
“But, Leo,” she said, panic rising inside her as she thought of them marooned at sea. Assuming they survived the impact. Oh, God.
“Anna, trust me,” he said firmly. “Get the pack. Get your life jacket.”
“What about you?”
“Grab mine, too. I can’t put it on yet, but I will.”
Anna unbuckled her seat belt and found the life jackets. She clipped hers on with shaky fingers, and then grabbed the heavy orange pack he’d told her to get and brought everything back to her seat. Leo was saying something into the headset, but he didn’t appear to be getting an answer.
“No,” he said when she started to sit down again. “Sit in one of the seats behind me. It’ll be safer on impact.”
Anna hesitated only a moment before sinking into the seat beside him and buckling her seat belt. “I want to be here with you,” she said. “I insist on it.”
She didn’t expect him to laugh, but he did. A short, sharp bark of laughter that stole into her soul and made her feel good, if only for a moment. “Dragon lady,” he said, and her heart skipped again. At a time like this, how did he make her feel as if she were formidable? As if she mattered? How did he cut through the pain and anger and make her feel important again?
“There it is,” Leo said, and she squinted into the distance, searching the horizon. A small gray bump rose up from the sea, growing bigger the closer they got. There were many small islands out here, some of which were inhabited and some not. Any hope she’d had this might be one of the inhabited ones faded quickly when she saw the size of the island.
It was long, narrow and rocky, with a green area at one end and a white sandy beach on one side.
“There’s nowhere to land,” she said.
“I’m taking us down,” he replied. “It might be rough.”
That was the only warning he gave her as he pointed the nose down and began his descent. Anna’s stomach twisted as the plane dropped in the sky. Sweat broke out on her forehead, between her breasts. Her heart went into free fall as the sea grew bigger and bigger with every passing minute.
The engine sputtered and whined, and Leo’s hands were white on the controls. But the plane continued to descend in a controlled manner. Anna grasped her pearls in her fingers, twisted hard and then chided herself for doing so. This was no time to break them. They’d been her grandmother’s, the only link she had left to the woman she’d most admired. She would not destroy them.
“Leo,” she said helplessly as they sank lower in the sky. She reached for him, put her hand on his shoulder, squeezed. She hoped she was imparting strength, courage, but she had the feeling he didn’t need any of those things. No, it was she who needed them and Leo who provided them to her.
She could do nothing but sit there and watch powerlessly as the island got bigger. But the sea was bigger still, so big and azure that it filled her vision from all sides. She focused on the island. There were a few trees, she noted, a wooded copse that might provide shelter—and might have fresh water if the rain had a place to collect. Assuming it rained.
If only they survived the plunge into the sea. First things first, Anna. She was so used to planning that she couldn’t help herself, when in fact there was nothing to plan if they didn’t make it out alive.
“Brace for landing,” Leo said as he took the plane dangerously close to the island. Anna closed her eyes at the last minute and gripped her seat for dear life. So many feelings went through her at once that she couldn’t process them all. Fear, regret, anger, sadness, love, passion…
Anna’s head snapped back as the plane shuddered into the water with a bone-jarring splash. It glided along the surface before coming to an abrupt stop that would have jerked her forward in the seat if not for the belt holding her tightly in place. There was a surreal moment of complete silence as the craft pitched and rolled with the waves. Anna’s stomach lodged in her throat. How would they ever escape with the motion throwing them around so much? Once the seat belt was off, two steps forward would turn into four steps back.
“There’s not much time,” Leo said as he unbuckled his seat belt and flung his door open.
“Your jacket,” she said, thrusting it toward him with a shaking hand as she unlocked her seat belt with the other. He took it and threw it out the door, then grabbed her and hauled her toward him. She barely had time to register all the sensations that rocked her as she was pressed against his hard body before she dropped into the sea.
The water was shocking, not because it was too cold, but because it was wet when she’d been so dry. The life preserver kept her from going under, but water still splashed over her head, soaking her. Anna spluttered and began to tread water as Leo landed beside her, the orange pack slung over one shoulder.
“Your life jacket,” she said. It was floating just out of reach and she made a grab for it.
“I don’t need it.” His hair was slicked back from his head, his expression grim and determined.
“Leo,” she began.
“I’m fine, Anna. Can you swim to the island?”
She turned and looked at the shore only a few meters distant. “Of course,” she said crisply, her heart beating like crazy in her chest as she began to process what had happened. They’d crashed. In the Mediterranean. She couldn’t quite wrap her mind around it, and yet the plane bobbed in the water nearby. The scent of salt mingling with jet fuel invaded her senses.
“We need to go now,” he said. “Before we get soaked in fuel.”
Leo began to stroke toward the island. She followed, easily crossing the distance before stumbling to her knees onto the shore beside him. Her hair was still in its rigid knot, but a few wisps had fallen free and snaked around her neck like tentacles. Her makeup was probably streaked and—
Oh, she’d forgotten her purse! She turned and started wading back into the water when strong arms caught her from behind.
“Where are you going?”
“My purse,” she said. “My phone, my identification—”
“It’s too late,” he growled in her ear.
“But it’s not.” She pointed. The plane was still on top of the water, though the nose had begun to sink. It wouldn’t take her a trifle to get out there and back again.
“It’s too dangerous, Anna. Even if the plane wasn’t sinking, the remaining fuel is leaching from it. Besides, was there anything irreplaceable in your purse?”
She wanted to tell him yes, of course there was. Instead, Anna slumped in his grip. “No, nothing irreplaceable.” Just her lip gloss, her hand sanitizer, her headache tablets and her phone with its calendar of all her events.
Events that were sadly lacking lately. Invitations had dried up since Alex had jilted her.
She
