Unseen Messages(35)

Frigid terror melted down my spine.

Eighteen thousand, three hundred square kilometres?

Three hundred islands and only a hundred with people on them?

Crap.

The hope I clung to popped like a helium balloon. The police would search for us...I mean why wouldn’t they? I was important. Conner, Pippa, Galloway, we were all important in the citizenship of earth.

But really...we weren’t.

We were just four people in four billion. Just four people thrown into four different compass directions while four people died every second around the globe.

Why would they come for us?

Why should we expect them to?

Madeline will try. She’ll look for me.

Would she?

She was expecting me home. She didn’t know I’d been stupid enough to hitch a ride without thinking. I was never spontaneous. Why would they think to search for me in a helicopter disappearance?

My cat. The house sitter. My freshly signed record deal. What would happen to all of that? Who would be there to issue the paperwork when my life suddenly ended?

I laughed out loud as I remembered the final nail in our coffin. The Emergency Locator Beacon wasn’t working when we crashed. Akin had warned us, and we all believed we were invincible to require it. We’d willingly charted a helicopter when commercial airlines had refused to fly because of the weather. We’d walked right into death with so much blasé stupidity we didn’t deserve to be found.

We’d done this.

Our past was over. Our lives before the crash...deleted.

This was our reality now, and we had no one else to blame but each other.





Chapter Fourteen


...............................................

G A L L O W A Y

......

THE ANSWER I didn’t want blurted the moment Estelle and Conner arrived.

The starkness of our circumstances plastered all over their faces’ as they morphed from the forest with their arms full of junk.

I met Estelle’s gaze. I didn’t want to believe it. My heart thudded with frustrated rage; I looked away just as quickly.

We’re alone.

My shoulders rolled while increasing pain in my ankle drenched my skin with a mixture of sweat and nausea.

Pippa slept soundly on my chest. I hugged her closer? finding comfort in her warm body. I hoped the kid had good dreams...she’d need them to get through reality.

Taking a deep breath, I looked up again. Estelle moved with decision and purpose, but her hips still swung in an intrinsically feminine way.

Why did she have to infuriate and beguile me all at once?

I wanted her but she’d never reciprocate.

No one wanted a long-term commitment with a guy like me.

The moment I’d set eyes on her, I couldn’t explain the sudden rush and confusing link tugging me to know her.

I’d never had that before.

With anyone.

And I didn’t want it now when she was the only woman around and I had no way to give her what she deserved.

My temper rose again at the flush of her skin and obvious pain in her eyes from carrying such heavy items. I should be the one exploring and carting bloody bags, not her. I should be the one taking charge and keeping everyone safe. I should be the one tending to stuff and making this disaster easier...not her.

Damn her for caring.

Damn her for being a better person than I was.

While she’d been off playing explorer, I’d replayed the glance I’d earned down her top. I’d concluded that the scratch on her chest had been from the helicopter harness. And if the cut was that bad, it probably meant she had broken ribs as well.

My suspicions were validated as Estelle dropped her armful of gear, unable to hide her wince and the quick way she wrapped arms around herself.

Christ, what I’d give to be able to leap to my feet and take over.

Conner dropped his armful and came to squat beside his sister. Pippa didn’t move in my embrace as he stroked her hair, his eyes bloodshot from tears and stress. “She okay?”

I somehow managed to plaster a smile on my lips, hiding my rage at not being able to help. I was a glorified bloody babysitter. All I was worth. “She’s fine. Been sleeping the entire time.”

My throat scratched with thirst; I hated the hollowness in my stomach. If I was hungry and all I’d done was sit here, Estelle and Conner must be starving.

I’d done my best to come up with a plan, eyeing the foliage, pretending I knew what I was looking for.

But I had to face facts. I knew crap all about that sort of thing.

“That’s good.” Conner stood. “Sleep will make it easier.”

I pointed at the supplies they’d brought. “Been shopping?”

Estelle half-smiled, thanking me wordlessly for not asking hard questions like ‘what did you see?’, ‘where are we?’, and ‘just how screwed are we truly?’. Those questions would come later—when we weren’t in front of two scared children.

Moving toward Conner, Estelle draped an arm over his shoulders. They almost matched in height. In another few months, he would be eye-level with her. “Conner found a convenient helicopter supermarket, didn’t you?”

He grinned. A rudimentary splint shackled his wrist; he fiddled with the black ties holding it together. “Sure did.”