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Turbulence
Dana Mentink


Someone wants to ensure that the flight bringing Maddie Lambert and a transplant organ to her father never reaches its destination. Someone who's desperate enough to sabotage the plane. In the aftermath of the crash, Maddie finds herself stranded on an isolated mountain with the last man she'd ever trust again - her ex-fiance, Dr. Paul Ford.He's the man she blames for her family's tragic loss, but now he's the only one who can get her to her father in time. Yet what neither of them knows is that the danger has just begun.









“I’ve got to save the Berlin Heart.”


With a sharp crack, the window fractured and pulled loose. Paul shielded Maggie’s body with his.

It could not be true that she was sitting in a crashing plane and the device that would save her father’s life was going down with it. Not now, not when she had a chance to fix things.

She peeked behind her at Paul. He had his eyes closed, his lips moving.

He was praying to a God she used to know, a God that let little children die in pain and adults live in agony.

She wished in that moment she still had someone to pray to, to help her with the fear that choked the breath out of her.

“Paul, are we going to die?”

He pushed his hand through the gap between the chairs and squeezed her hand. “We’ll make it.”

She was grateful for the lie.




DANA MENTINK


lives in California with her family. Dana and her husband met doing a dinner theater production of The Velveteen Rabbit. In college, she competed in national speech and debate tournaments. Besides writing novels, Dana taste-tests for the National Food Lab and freelances for a local newspaper. In addition to her work with Steeple Hill Books, she writes cozy mysteries for Barbour Books. Dana loves feedback from her readers. Contact her at www.danamentink.com.




TURBULENCE

Dana

Mentink








Do not let kindness and truth leave you;

Bind them around your neck,

Write them on the tablet of your heart,

So you will find favor and good repute

In the sight of God and man.

—Proverbs 3:3–4


To my own little ones,

who carry my heart around with them

wherever they go.




CONTENTS


CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

LETTER TO READER

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION




ONE


The box was plain metal, the color of tarnished silver.

Maddie Lambert watched as Dr. Wrigley slid it carefully onto the bench seat of the jet her father had chartered. He fastened it down with bungee cords. Odd, she thought. The box was so painfully ordinary. She’d imagined it would be more impressive somehow.

Wrigley checked his watch and took a seat on one side of the box, the cabin lights shining on his bald head as he peered at the screen of his phone.

Stomach knotted, she shouldered her bag more firmly and squeezed down the aisle to greet him.

“Dr. Wrigley.”

He looked startled. “Ms. Lambert. I had no idea you would be on the flight.”

The man hunched on the other end of the bench seat straightened abruptly.

“Paul?” She gasped, momentarily forgetting about Dr. Wrigley and his cargo.

“Maddie.”

Two syllables and in them she heard a lifetime of anguish. Maybe the grief was not in his voice, but still ringing in her own ears after a year going on eternity. A wave of emotion shuddered through her so strongly she bit her lip to keep from screaming. They’d agreed to stay out of each other’s lives. There was too much pain; the past would forever be an impossible wedge between them. She fought to keep her voice steady. “What are you doing on this plane, Paul?”

Dr. Paul Ford stood, tall and lanky, and shook away the hair that perpetually hung in his eyes. Wrigley eyed them both as if they were a couple of live grenades just rolled down the aisle.

Paul raised his hand slightly, as if he meant to take her cold fingers in his.

She tightened her grip on the bag, nails digging into the nylon strap, and forced herself to stare into his gray eyes.

Paul shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans, his gaze roving her face as if he had left something there long ago. “I wanted to be here, unofficially, to escort Dr. Wrigley, in case he needed anything.”

The pilot stepped into the cabin. The copilot peered in from behind him, a concerned look on his face, and holding a carton with two coffees. “Ms. Lambert? Is there a problem? This gentleman showed proper hospital identification. I was told two Bayview employees, a gentleman from the Heartline Corporation rep and you.” He looked around. “Nobody from Heartline yet?”

“No,” Dr. Wrigley said. “I’m still not certain why the company needed to send someone to accompany their device anyway. The Berlin Heart is a mechanical marvel. There’s no way we would let anything happen to it.”

“My father and I expected the hospital director.”

The pilot looked again at her. “Shall we delay takeoff?”

Focus, Maddie. Do whatever you need to to get this plane in the air.

“No, there’s no problem. I guess the director changed plans.”

Paul shrugged. “He canceled.”

The pilot excused himself and returned to the cockpit.

Dr. Wrigley looked sharply over his wire-rimmed glasses. “Canceled? Since when?”

Paul seemed not to hear the question. He took a step into the aisle, closer to Maddie. “I didn’t think…” He cleared his throat. “I assumed you would have already flown out to be with your father prior to the surgery.”

She refused to move back a pace, though his nearness, the musky smell of his cologne made her head spin with too many emotions to name. She felt the bittersweet shadow of lingering tenderness and fought to shut it down. “You think I should be with my father? To say goodbye in case it doesn’t work?”

Paul exhaled. “No, to comfort him.”

“My sister’s there. I wanted to fly with…” She looked at the secured box. “I wanted to be on this flight.” She could not stop herself from adding, “After all my father’s been through, I thought someone should be there every step along the way.”

Paul’s face twisted. He looked toward the cockpit, his chin shadowed by dark stubble. The tiny muscles in the corner of his mouth twitched ever so slightly. She looked into his gaze, those gray eyes that used to dance with laughter, and yes, a touch of arrogance, too. They were flat now, as if some internal light had been extinguished.

Dr. Wrigley stood and rested a hand on Paul’s shoulder. “Maddie? We’ve not had a chance to talk in a while. I’m honored to be a part of this. We certainly had to navigate some massive red tape to get hold of a Berlin Heart. Heartline has only made a few of their artificial hearts this year. Your father picked the best surgeon in the country. I know they had to apply for a compassionate-use permit, since it’s not yet cleared by the FDA. If everything goes well, and I’m confident it will, this may be the procedure that ensures FDA approval. It could save many thousands of lives every year.”

It was the time for diplomacy, for a conciliatory tone toward a person so much higher up the ladder she could hardly see him. Instead, she felt the ugly truth spill out. “Dr. Wrigley, I don’t care if the Berlin Heart ever gets cleared by the FDA and I don’t care about the reputation of the hospital. The only thing on my mind is whether that piece of plastic will save my father’s life.”

Though it could have been her imagination, she thought she saw the glimmer of a smile on Paul’s full lips, though he remained silent.

Dr. Wrigley reddened. “Of course. I can imagine the grief you and your family have endured.”

He could imagine? After Wrigley broke up her father’s long-ago engagement and knowing her nieces had died in the emergency room he supervised? The anger hummed inside, growing louder with every passing second. “You have grandchildren, don’t you, Dr. Wrigley?”

He nodded.

“So you’re saying you can imagine what it would be like driving them to the park and having a drunk driver plow into your car?”

Paul grimaced, crossing his arms across his chest.

Wrigley’s lips tightened. “The hospital and Dr. Ford did the best they could for your nieces, as well as your father.”

“Yet, my nieces are dead, while the drunk who hit them is in perfect health.” She shot a look at Paul.

The gray of his eyes darkened like a coming storm, but he did not comment.

Her words snapped out. “And you hope to save the reputation of your hospital and deflect my father’s financial investigation with this groundbreaking surgery.”

Dr. Wrigley’s mouth fell open. “Ms. Lambert, your father has had a personal vendetta against me for years, but I had hoped you’d be more reasonable. Your grief doesn’t give you an excuse to attack me or the hospital.”

Her voice broke, but she persevered. “My father was investigating Bayview because his company was hired to do so, pending a buyout. That’s what he does for a living. It wasn’t a personal attack on you. As far as my feelings about the matter, I don’t need an excuse to grieve. I see their faces every day in dreams and when I’m awake.” Her eyes filled but she willed herself not to cry.

Why had the hospital not had enough staff in the E.R. that fateful morning? It had come to light that Paul was late to work because he’d been on the phone trying to check up on his brother, but there had been no answer. If he’d only made contact, perhaps his drunk sibling might not have plowed into the car Bruce Lambert was driving.

The terrible thought occurred to her again. Paul had four victims brought in then. One of them his brother. The children were too far gone to save, according to official hospital reports, but she didn’t believe it. Paul had chosen to help his brother at the expense of the children. Her father believed it deep down in his core. And in spite of the love she and Paul had once shared, the anguish she felt, the darkest part of her believed it, too.

Dr. Wrigley shook his head. “As I said, I understand.”

Her fury ebbed, leaving a profound fatigue in its wake. Though she spoke to Wrigley, her eyes were riveted on Paul’s. “Respectfully, Dr. Wrigley, you couldn’t possibly understand.”

The captain’s voice crackled over the intercom, requesting the passengers buckle up for takeoff. Maddie walked on trembling legs, glad her seat was facing forward and she wouldn’t have to spend the flight looking at Paul. Disbelief fogged her mind.

Paul was on the plane. His nearness was a switchblade pressed to her heart, enough to cut but not to sever.

You’ve put it behind you. Focus on the now, the miracle you’ve been given, the heart that will save your father’s life.

An Asian man with hair down to his shoulders slid into the seat beside her. She guessed him to be in his fifties, though his eyes seemed much younger. “Hello. Almost missed it.”

She jumped. “You must be the man from Heartline.”

“Yes. You’re Bruce Lambert’s daughter? A physical therapist, I heard. I might need one after my sprint through the airport.”

She did not want to be talking to him or anyone else, but there was no polite way to ignore the man in the cramped space of the small jet. “My clinic is across town. You can look me up when we get back, Mr.…?”

He extended his hand. “Tai Jaden. Pleased to meet you. I’m glad our company could provide the heart that will save your father’s life.”

She gripped his fingers. “Me, too.”

He pointed to the illuminated sign. “Better buckle up. It’s time to go.”

Maddie closed her eyes and tried to sleep as the flight lifted off through clouded San Francisco skies and headed north, but the shudders of the plane and her own worries prevented it. She could feel Paul’s presence like a shadow, and she almost wished she’d decided not to board. Her father hadn’t wanted her to accompany the heart. Not necessary, he’d said. Fly ahead and meet it on the other end.

But her father was down to his last days, the Berlin Heart his only option; and the past year, he’d been so stricken that he barely worked or accepted comfort from her. She had little to give anyway. She understood about his torn ventricle and the patched aorta that could not be permanently repaired. But it was not those things alone that put Bruce Lambert a hairbreadth from death. It was grief and the helplessness of a powerful man who realized he could not buy back a single moment of the past. Doctors were surprised he’d survived this far.

Only one thing kept him alive and able to put his plans into action. It wasn’t physical or emotional healing. Not coming to terms with the loss. Something darker and infinitely cold.

He might not achieve peace, but he would have his revenge on Wrigley, on the hospital. She swallowed. On Paul. She’d heard him rant. Not enough doctors on duty. Wrigley unable to be located when he should have been supervising the emergency room. Paul’s inability or unwillingness to save the children.

She made herself remember. Paul had managed to save his brother, his blood, at the expense of the kids. She’d heard her father say it time and time again, but there was some tiny part, some deep-down whisper in her heart that wondered.

The desire for revenge was the only thing sustaining her father, and if that was what he needed, she would help him get it.

Paul spoke to Dr. Wrigley. She heard the low huskiness of his voice over the whine of the small airplane’s air circulation system. Her guilt was palpable, a live thing that slithered through her gut and into her spine until it whispered in her brain.

Her father’s vengeance meant everyone responsible for the children’s death would pay.

She shivered.

Jaden shot her a glance. “Cold?”

“Just thinking.”

He gave her a curious look as the plane banked and sliced through a storm-washed sky.

She closed her eyes and gave herself to sleep.



They’d been in the air for two hours going on a lifetime. The plane was a six-seater Cessna, and Paul could see Maddie’s chestnut hair just over the top of the seat in front of him. He couldn’t decide if he had caught the scent of her, the fragrance she always wore that reminded him of cinnamon, or if it was the cruel taunting of his memory.

Dr. Wrigley’s surreptitious glances in his direction didn’t help him relax. “What?” Paul said finally, turning to him. “What’s on your mind?”

“I’m worried.”

“About what?”

Wrigley raised an eyebrow. “Flying with an unstable, grief-blinded woman, for one.”

“She’s not unstable.”

“No? Well blaming the hospital and the both of us for the tragedy isn’t rational. She’s bought into her father’s madness. He’s had it against me since grad school.”

When you had an affair with his fiancée? Paul imagined his own wrath if someone had tried to steal Maddie from him. The pain in his gut reminded him she was not his anymore. He cleared his throat. “She’s just here to make sure nothing goes wrong.”

Wrigley’s eyes narrowed. “And the man from Heartline. Do you know him?”

Paul looked at the passenger he’d been trying to identify since they took off. “No. Maybe Maddie does.” He sighed, thinking about how much he’d lost since they’d broken up. It had been a little more than a year since the accident, two months since he’d last spoken to her, and then it was merely a strained conversation outside a lawyer’s office. She seeking a civil suit against the drunk driver who killed her nieces, and he in search of any kind of help for the same man, whom, in spite of everything, Paul loved.

His older brother, Mark, who was in prison.

Paul pushed away the ever-present pain and tried to read his book. This one was set in a submarine. The hero a rugged ex-marine who would accept no failure. Big guy, big guns, lots of good one-liners. If only things were so black and white. You wanted something, you worked hard at it and bingo: dreams came true.

He’d learned early on that, in the field of medicine, dogged determination didn’t keep damaged hearts beating. Hard work and a brilliant understanding of the human body wasn’t enough.

And sometimes love wasn’t, either. It was ironic that he could hardly look at Maddie due to the guilt, yet he couldn’t stop thinking about her for a single moment. He leaned his head against the cool glass of the window and tried to refocus on the book.

After the okay from the pilot, he saw Dr. Wrigley check his emails.

“It’s from Director Stevens—‘Sorry I missed the flight. Thanks for “having a heart” and taking my place. Look forward to your report next week. Keep your eyes on that heart.’” Wrigley grimaced. “Funny guy. I thought I’d had enough of his jokes when he pawned off a meeting on me yesterday and flew the memo into my office on a paper airplane. I had better things to do than sit next to a heart all the way to Washington.”

Paul smiled at the thought of Dr. Wrigley chasing a paper airplane. He instinctively glanced at the box between them.

Keep your eyes on that heart.

If anything happened to that biomechanical miracle, it would most likely mean death for Bruce Lambert. There would be no time to procure another device, with all the red tape that had to be plowed through, and the unreliable quantity of human transplants made that option unfeasible at this late hour in Bruce’s journey.

Paul pictured the powerful man as he had been that night in the emergency room last year—scared, defiant, even through the pain.

And at the news Paul hadn’t been able to save the children?

Incalculably angry.

Paul wished that he could lose himself in anger, too, steep in the rage that would drive away darker feelings. The emotion that filled him to overflowing was guilt, wrapped in a terrible sorrow for the children.

For Bruce Lambert.

For his brother Mark.

And most of all for Maddie and what they had lost. Bruce’s rage bled into his daughter, proving to Paul that love and anger weren’t compatible. One feeling must crystallize at the top, like the unbreakable sheet of ice atop a frozen lake.

Whatever love Maddie had felt for him before the accident was frozen under the icy weight of her fury and her father’s.

He should read, take his mind off the stew of memories, but even the rollicking adventure novel didn’t stir his interest.

Paul looked out the window, taking in the rugged Cascade Mountains, snowcapped and sharp against the gray sky. The plane dropped below the cloud cover and more of the Washington terrain came into focus. White-capped peaks, the vivid green of trees against the snow. He wondered why they were flying so low.

It reminded him of winters in Yosemite. So crisp, cold. So beautiful it hurt to look at it.

They’d been planning a honeymoon there, at the old Ahwahnee Hotel. He could imagine it so clearly. Moonlight dancing on snow, the bottomless blue of her eyes, her cheeks flushed with her love of him and that irrepressible joy that always filled her. It was that persistent hope and optimism that enabled Maddie to get broken people on their feet again, to will them through the pain of physical therapy and back on track to living. He’d loved her desperately for that.

His ruminations stopped abruptly as the plane lurched violently.

Dr. Wrigley peered around Paul’s shoulder. “What was that?”

There was a crash from the cabin and a thud, as if something had slammed into the door.

The pilot’s voice came over the radio, garbled and indistinct.

Dr. Wrigley grabbed his arm. “What did he say?”

Paul struggled out of his seat, instinct screaming at him to get to Maddie, as the floor moved beneath his feet.

“Hold on!” His shout was lost in the cacophony of engine noise as the plane dropped.

His gut knew what was happening, even if his brain could not comprehend.

Their plane was going down.




TWO


Maddie was awakened by a strange jumble of noise and a thunderous concussion that would have thrown her from her seat if not for her seat belt. The cabin shuddered and bucked while it filled with a dense black smoke. It seemed as though the floor was the deck of a ship in high seas as it heaved under her feet.

She looked wildly through the smoke. “What’s happening?”

Jaden’s face was barely visible through the choking blackness. “I think we might have hit a pinnacle of rock. The pilot’s trying to keep it in the air.”

The words froze her for a moment. “Trying to keep it in the air?” The thought went through her like a knife. Save the heart. With frantic fingers, she fumbled at the buckle of her seat belt.

A strong sucking wind pulled everything toward the opposite side of the cabin, now illuminated by the glow of the flame. Where was Paul? Had he been injured? Some papers and a blue blanket whirled by her face. She saw Jaden free his backpack from under the seat in front of him and cradle it like a baby. He looked resigned.

Maddie was not. She would make it down the aisle and get that box. Finally, the catch on the buckle gave and she ripped the seat belt off. The acrid smoke grew denser, expanding into every inch of space above their heads. She kept her head bowed, trying to inhale the cleaner air below, and struggled to her feet.

“Don’t,” Jaden yelled over the sound of rushing wind. “Your best chance is to stay seated.”

Maddie continued on, forced to her hands and knees to avoid the smoke and the bits of broken glass and plastic shooting through the air. She couldn’t see Paul. Whatever they’d crashed into struck the rear of the aircraft. What would she find there? Was it a matter of moments before she was killed? Before they all slammed into the mountains and died?

She swallowed hard, her mouth dry, tongue coated with a bitter metallic taste. Something sharp cut through the knee of her pants. A moment later it seemed as though the crazy movement of the floor had tapered off, the cabin almost leveling out. Using the arm of the chair next to her, she pulled herself to her feet.

Out of the darkness, a figure emerged. She didn’t recognize Paul at first. His face was bloodied and soot-stained. He scanned the area until he saw her.

“Maddie.” He grabbed her and pushed her back into her seat.

“Let me go. I’ve got to get the box.”

“The plane’s in trouble,” he said. “You need to sit.”

She fought against his hands. “Let me go, Paul.”

He took her by the shoulders and pressed her harder into the chair.

She struggled in his grasp.

“Stop it, Maddie,” he shouted.

In the four years they’d been together she’d never heard him raise his voice. The sound shocked her so much she stopped.

The cabin floor sloped downward suddenly and he almost fell on her lap, landing instead on his knees in the aisle.

He leaned close. “Listen to me. The pilot has lost control for some reason. He must have managed to level us out. He’s probably trying to land, but we’re headed into the mountains. Do you understand me? If you are going to live through the impact, your best hope is to be buckled up.”

She stared at him. “I’ve got to save the Berlin Heart.”

His eyes were the same pearl-gray as the soot that clung to his forehead. “It’s safer where it is, instead of flying all over the cabin.” He turned to Jaden. “Are you injured?”

Jaden shook his head, face expressionless.

A whine rose above the other noises. With a sharp crack, the window fractured and pulled loose. Paul shielded her body with his.

With her cheek pressed to his chest she could feel the racing of his heart, hear his sharp intake of breath as the glass cut into him from behind. He pulled away.

She searched his face. “Are you hurt?”

He ignored the question, bending over to buckle the seat belt around her waist. His voice was quieter now. “Please stay here, Maddie. I’m going to see if I can help Dr. Wrigley.”

Through the hole where the window had been, freezing air barreled in. Alternate streaks of white and green flashed by, pine trees against a blanket of snow. Close. Too close.

She did not fight any more. “I’ll do it, but only if you stay here, too.”

He gave her a quizzical look. Then he rubbed a hand across his face, smearing the soot into oozy spirals. Without a word, he moved to take the seat behind her, but before he did he pulled a blanket loose and tucked it around her, giving her a corner to hold. “Protect your face from any flying glass.”

The blanket smelled of singed plastic, but she huddled behind it anyway, thinking she must be in the grip of a powerful nightmare. It could not be true that she was sitting in a crashing plane, and the device that would save her father’s life was going down with it. Not now, not when she had a chance to fix things.

She eased the blanket aside and peeked behind her at Paul, eyes closed, lips moving.

He was praying to a God she used to know, a God that let little children die in pain and adults live in agony.

The pain swirled inside her with vicious intensity. She wished in that moment she still had someone to pray to, to help her with the fear that choked the breath out of her.

When Paul was done, he opened his eyes and looked out the window. “It won’t be long now,” he said.

He didn’t look scared, only perplexed, as if he wondered how he came to be aboard a crashing plane. Absently, he patted the pocket of his coat.

“What are you looking for?”

He started, then grinned. “Candy.”

She knew he’d given up smoking at age nineteen and developed a ferocious candy habit, encouraged by long nights eating out of vending machines at the hospital. The gesture brought tears to her eyes for a reason she couldn’t understand. “Paul, are we going to die?”

His expression was one of myriad emotions, probably the same ones he showed to families when there was no hope to give, no comfort left to offer. He pushed his hand through the gap between the chairs and squeezed her hand. “We’ll make it.”

She was grateful for the lie.



Paul watched as the ground loomed closer with every passing moment. The smoke that filled the cabin made it impossible to see Dr. Wrigley or Maddie’s seatmate as they careened on. He couldn’t hear anything over the deafening roar of the dying aircraft.

They were low enough now that the trees slapped and crunched under the belly of the plane. He suspected the pilot was either unconscious or disabled. Paul wished for a crazy moment that he had the arsenal of skills of the ex-marine in the novel. He could take over the controls and find a flat spot to land. The galling reality was, he was powerless to do anything. He had no idea how to fly a plane, and the cockpit doors were reinforced against any kind of breach, and if two experienced pilots couldn’t land it, neither could he.

Another window ripped free and hurtled through the cabin behind them. With a wild swing of his arm, he batted it away from Maddie. She was huddled under the blanket. He was glad. Better for her not to see the mountain rushing up at them.

Ironically, he remembered the last airplane-crash victim he’d treated. It was a nine-month-old baby who survived the horror with only a slight scratch on her cheek. Rescuers named her Sunny, since she greeted them in the midst of the smoke and fire with a tiny-toothed smile.

Her parents hadn’t been so lucky.

He considered trying to free his cell and call someone to alert them of their location, but he didn’t think he could hold the phone steady against the vicious tremors of the plane.

The wing struck a projection of rock and spun around, cartwheeling them into dizzying circles. The whirling dislodged cushions and broken equipment, hurling them around the cabin. Metal gave way and a fissure ripped through the roof, raining a mixture of hot steel and freezing snow down on them.

Maddie screamed.

He shouted to her, but the din covered his words. The only thing he could do was grip her shoulder around the side of the seat and ask God to spare her.

She’d been through enough.

Her father had, too, and Paul knew Berlin Heart or no Berlin Heart, Bruce Lambert wouldn’t survive the death of his daughter.

The plane flipped and rolled. Paul heard the sound of shearing metal and he hoped the seats were not ripping loose from the floor. Another crack appeared in the ceiling. The aircraft was beginning to break apart.

“Paul!” Maddie screamed. “We’re—”

Her words were snatched away in the wind.

The whine of the engines stopped abruptly. His stomach fell as the plane began a steep dive to the ground. He held on to her until the turbulence tore them apart. The grinding of metal sounded from under their feet and Paul watched in horror as Maddie’s seat began to shudder from its moorings.

He tried to unbuckle himself to grab at her chair, to somehow keep her anchored to him through what was to come, but his own seat pulled loose and he was pitched backward into the smoke-filled rear of the craft.

There was a final, bone-jarring impact, a bombardment of burning shards and jagged metal, and the plane slammed into the ground.



Flickers of color appeared in front of Maddie’s eyes as she blinked back to consciousness. Black smoke and white snow. Her brain fought to make sense of it. Neatly strapped into her seat, yet feeling the sting of icy flakes on her arms? The terrible noise was gone, replaced by an eerie silence broken only by the rush of wind and a crackling she could not identify. The smoke cleared enough for her to assess the situation.

She was in her seat, yes, but the seat was loose, tumbled to the side of a section of aircraft that had broken away from the main body of the plane. From her semiupright position, she looked out onto the snow, dotted with dark pockets of still-smoking debris. Frigid air seared her lungs as she fumbled for the seat-belt release. She had somehow survived the crash.

Had Paul? She could still feel his hands clutching her, trying to keep her from whirling away.

There was no sign of him in the smoke-filled gloom.

She did not know whether to feel grateful or afraid.

She gritted her teeth as the buckle came loose. Half stupefied with fear, she forced herself to look at her body. There was no obvious bleeding, no pain to indicate she’d suffered a traumatic blow. Slowly, she wiggled both feet and gingerly moved her legs. Aside from myriad cuts and abrasions, her body appeared to be working fine. Pressing a hand to her temple, she felt the warm trickle of blood and a dull ache in her wrist. Jaw clenched, she struggled to her feet, head ducked low under the twisted fragment of the plane. She shuffled to the opening, still taking inventory of her injuries. As she approached the lip of the shredded cabin, her stomach tightened.

What would she find tangled in the twisted metal?

Dr. Wrigley?

Tai Jaden?

She swallowed hard. Paul?

And what had become of the Berlin Heart?

Her instincts screamed at her not to cross that smoking threshold.

Stay in shelter. Stay away from the gruesome sights that might be waiting.

Still, she found herself drawn to the opening.

The cold air hit her like a fist, her eyes tearing, vision blurred.

She blinked them away. The piece of the wreckage she stood in was cratered on a snowy hill, wedged against a stand of pines that must have stopped the chunk of wreckage from sliding any farther. Plumes of steam rose from the snow where grotesquely twisted shards of metal protruded like the skeleton of some long-dead thing. She couldn’t see any more pieces of intact plane from her position. The impact must have thrown her some distance.

Wishing she had managed to hold on to her purse, she fumbled in her pocket and retrieved the cell phone.

Please work. Please work.

No signal available, the screen read. She would not be summoning help, or calling Paul. Maybe it was a blessing, anyway. What would it be like to hear Paul’s phone ring endlessly, imagining all the reasons why he was not able to answer? What would it be like to know she would never hear his voice again? Those ridiculous ideas that made her groan. The Donald Duck impressions he did for his young patients.

Her breath froze.

Perhaps the rest of the plane had disintegrated and she was the only one, the only survivor.

The thought paralyzed her until she balled the fear up in her mind and transformed it into rage, penetrating and intense as the cold all around her.

No. It wouldn’t be death for all these innocent people.

“That’s not the way it’s going to end.” She hadn’t realized she’d shouted aloud until the words echoed back to her. It was time to go find the others and help them.

She put out a hand to brace herself for the climb down, but yanked her fingers away when the metal burned her skin. Grabbing a couple of blackened cushions, she held one in front of her and sat on the other, skidding down the side of the plane.

Even with the fabric insulation, she could feel the heat seep into her pants. When her feet crunched into knee-deep snow, she floundered for a moment before she climbed up on a wide section of metal lying on the ground, grateful it wasn’t smoking hot. The realization hit her. It was a section of wing, broken loose.

Scooting out as far as the metal surface would allow, she peered through the smoke. Just south of her was a deep furrow of snow, gouged wide, until it disappeared over the rise ahead. She walked to the end of the wingtip and stepped off gingerly, sinking again into the whiteness. Ignoring the chill, she made her way laboriously toward the edge of the slope where she would be able to get a view of what lay below.

Stomach knotted, muscles complaining with every step, she moved on, wishing she had more than a wool blazer for warmth. The edge neared, and in spite of her earlier bravado, fear nibbled at the corners of her mind. What would she find? How could he have survived?

She realized she was thinking not of Wrigley or Jaden, but of Paul. Only of Paul.

The anger she nursed was alive as ever, bitter as gall, yet fear rose up right alongside it.

She wanted to shout, to tear through the oppressive stillness and hear the comfort of a reply. Far worse would be an answering silence. Shuddering, skin prickled with goose bumps, she forced her feet to the top of the rise.

Looking down with eyes streaming from the acrid smoke that filled the air, she saw the rest of the plane, upside down, half-buried in snow. There was no sign of movement from inside.

She continued on. Downslope, the snow was harder, fused into sheets of icy crust.

Her mind wandered back to her nieces, Ginny and Beth, on their annual trip to Bear Valley. The shrill cries of Ginny as she raced along on a toboggan with her sister close behind, Maddie’s sister, Katie, watching, eyes dancing, Maddie waiting at the bottom, where Katie’s husband, Roger, should have been if he hadn’t had an affair that ended their marriage. Katie had once told Maddie she wondered if his affair wasn’t a reaction to his Huntington’s disease diagnosis.

Maddie refused to listen. Katie had to deal not only with Roger’s life-altering diagnosis, but the terror of wondering if the girls had inherited the disease. And she’d never considered having an affair. Roger had been weak and selfish. When he left, Maddie tried to fill in for him as much as she could. They’d made their own odd little family, bound together by love and loss, and always overseeing everything was Bruce Lambert, father, grandfather and steadfast rock.

The moisture on her face hardened into icy trails, and she scraped them away as she tried to inject some logical thinking into her half-frozen mind.

She had no idea how much time had passed since the accident, or if their sudden disappearance off the radar had been noticed by airport officials. Was there a rescue crew on the way? Had her father and sister been alerted?

She hoped her family hadn’t been told. The worry could prove too much for her father’s damaged heart.

Gritting her teeth, she pressed on. The Berlin Heart would be in this section, and if she could save it, the rescuers would be able to get it to her dad. Her own heart tumbled in her chest as she drew closer to the wreck. Her feet were so cold in her leather slip-ons, she felt as if she were walking on two frozen stumps.

How long before frostbite would begin to kill her extremities, she wondered? Fifty feet away, and she could see the details now. Windows blown out, sharp twists of metal, blackened bits of plastic littered like flakes of pepper on salt-white snow.

A plume of flame erupted from behind one of the windows. Maddie screamed, the sound echoing through the snowy hollow. She waited to see if the flames would escalate into a roaring inferno, but they died away again.

She had to get in there and find Paul and Dr. Wrigley and the heart, before it was too late.

In spite of her determination, she stopped again.

The images of other deaths came back to her in all their brutality. When the girls died, it kindled an impenetrable fear inside Maddie that froze her in her tracks. She’d once armored herself against that fear with faith, but it had been ripped away in the moments after the car crash, leaving her soul tattered and exposed.

The fear had rooted deep then.

And threatened to overwhelm her now.

She could not move.

Another plume of flame erupted from a different location, bringing with it black smoke that swirled through the open side of the plane.

Through the haze, a man staggered out.

Maddie’s heart thundered and she reached a hand toward him. “Here.”

She could not tell if he reacted to her voice, or if he even heard her as he fell facedown in the snow.




THREE


Breaking free of her numbing paralysis, she ran, falling and floundering, through the snow. He was so covered with black that she could not tell his identity at first, until she saw the twisted glasses lying next to him.

Dr. Wrigley.

Not allowing herself to acknowledge the keen surge of disappointment, she rolled him over as gently as she could, to prevent him from suffocating in the snow. His eyelids fluttered as he came to.

“What…?”

“Our plane crashed. Are you badly injured?”

He blinked and struggled to sit up. She considered pushing him back to keep him from further injury, but exposure to the icy ground would kill him as certainly as any internal damage. She helped him sit up.

He clutched a hand to his front. “I think my clavicle is broken.”

She didn’t dare peel away any layers of clothing to assess. “We’ve got to get to shelter somehow. Have—did you see what happened to Paul or the other passenger?”

Wrigley gently bent his glasses back into position and put them on. “No. I didn’t see anyone inside. But the smoke was so thick.”

He scrambled to his knees, sliding against the slick surface as she helped him to his feet. They moved to the shelter of a copse of fir trees.

Maddie made sure he was not going into shock before she turned away. “I’m going back. Stay here.”

Wrigley stiffened as if he wasn’t used to taking orders. “Going back in there? The plane is on fire. We need to stay away before it blows.”

The flames were visible now, dancing through the shattered windows.

“Not until I know about the survivors and I get my father’s heart.”

He didn’t raise a hand to stop her, and she moved quickly toward the burning wreck.

The smoke was thicker now, as she approached the threshold. An overnight bag flew out the opening, almost knocking her over.

Another followed.

“Hey,” she managed.

Tai Jaden appeared in the opening. He gaped at her.

“You made it.” He shook his head. “I can’t believe anybody did. The plane is shredded.”

“Dr. Wrigley is alive.” She watched him pull out blankets and toss them onto the snow. “What are you doing?”

“We’ve gotta get any warm clothes and supplies out of here before it goes up in flames.”

“I need the Berlin Heart.”

His eyes glittered in the dim light. “I’ll get it.”

“Where’s Paul? Have you seen him?”

“The tall guy who was with Dr. Wrigley?”

“Yes.”

Jaden looked around, prowling between the piles of loosened seats. “He’s not in here. Could have been thrown out when the plane cracked apart. Some of the seats are just plain gone, from what I can see. The rear is hard to get to, but maybe I can access it from the tail end. I’ll look for the box, and then we’ll find him.” Jaden disappeared back inside.

Maddie’s mind raced. Then Paul might be lying somewhere in the snow, covered by wreckage. Had she passed right by him and not known? She felt a surge of anger. He shouldn’t have even been on the plane. He had no reason to be a part of her life anymore.

Still, she strained her eyes through the smoke and the curtain of snow that had begun to fall. He’d been right behind her, or so she’d thought, but it was clear he was not in the wreckage now. The side they’d sat on was crushed against the ground. Had he been thrown clear? The only way to get a good look was to move around to the other side of the plane. Floundering in deep pockets of snow, she traced the perimeter of the tail end, though the rudder appeared to have been sheared off. The smoke nearly blinded her, and she kept her head down to avoid breathing the toxic fumes.

The crackle of flames grew louder, along with the sound of Jaden throwing bags off the plane. He would find the Berlin Heart; and if he didn’t she would get it herself, after she found Paul. She tried to move faster, but the snow seemed to pull her down. The glint of glass shone in the sunlight, and Maddie arrived at the cockpit.

The pilots.

She realized with a start that she hadn’t given a thought to their fate.

Teeth clenched, she peered in.

The glass was veined with cracks, the far door twisted off, allowing cold air to find its way in. There was no one inside.

More missing people, she thought.

A sound caught her attention, a half shout that died away abruptly. It came from the bottom of a small, snow-covered hill. She didn’t wait to hear more. Trying to run, Maddie slipped and skidded until she crested the hill and looked down to find two men, one prone, one on his knees.

Terror filled her, thick and weighty, as she tumbled toward them.



Paul looked up from his examination of the pilot, and felt a relief so profound he thought it might drown him. For a moment, he couldn’t get the words out. “Maddie. I looked everywhere to find you. I thought…”

Maddie closed her eyes for a moment and wrapped her arms around herself. He thought he saw tears glistening on her face, but decided it must be the dazzle of sun and snow.

She was alive. Alive. He wanted to grab hold and crush her in his arms, but instead he continued to monitor the pilot’s breathing, his hands suddenly shaking. “Are you hurt?”

“I’m okay. Jaden is, too. Wrigley’s hurt, but alive. What about you?”

He felt buoyed by the thought that the four of them had miraculously survived. “Couple of cracked ribs, I think. I was looking for you and I found the pilot wandering. The copilot is dead. I saw him under a chunk of wreckage, but I couldn’t move it.”

The pilot’s face was ashen, and his lips moved.

Paul bent low. “I’m here, buddy. Right here. You’re going to be okay.”

His lips moved several times before the words came out. “I think…coffee was drugged.”

Paul looked at Maddie, whose face showed shock and disbelief.

“Did he say…?” Maddie started.

Paul gently lifted the man’s eyelids. “His pupils are dilated. It could be from a narcotic or a concussion.” Drugged? He didn’t have time to think more about it as the pilot’s breathing died and his heartbeat fluttered to a halt. The man was in cardiac arrest. Paul immediately began chest compressions.

Maddie knelt next to him and gave the man two breaths.

They kept up a full cycle of CPR before Maddie felt for a pulse. “Nothing.”

Paul continued, feeling guilty that he was so happy to see Maddie while a man lay in cardiac arrest before him. He couldn’t stop himself from thinking it. Thank You, God, for sparing her life. Above all things, he did not want to find her dead or dying in the wreckage. And now she knelt next to him, cheeks pink, breath making puffs in the cold air.

Maddie was alive. When he brought the pilot back, there would be only one fatality from the horrific crash. They’d wait for rescue. They would all survive.

He was so lost in the feeling, he didn’t hear her at first.

“Still no heartbeat.”

Paul blinked. “What?”

Maddie gestured to the pilot. “No heartbeat, Paul. Nothing.”

Jaden joined them. “Took me a while to find you. What can I do?”

Paul waited to answer until Maddie was giving the rescue breaths. “Do you have any medical training?”

“No, I’m just a Heartline rep.”

Paul nodded. “Can you find a tarp or piece of plastic? Anything we can use to get him off this snow?”

Jaden hesitated a moment before he disappeared over the rise.

Maddie touched Paul’s arm. “Paul, I don’t think you’re going to save him.”

Paul shook his head. “Hasn’t been down that long. I can get him started.” Though his arms were aching with fatigue, and each movement aggravated his ribs and made the wounds on his back sting, Paul kept on. “One-one-thousand, two-one-thousand,” he counted with each thrust of his hands on the man’s chest.

Maddie gave the next set of breaths, though the urgency seemed to have gone out of her. Didn’t matter. She wasn’t a doctor. She didn’t know the wildly persistent quality of human life. He’d seen people in comas suddenly wake up when doctors said there was no hope. He’d known small children to survive inhuman conditions with smiles on their faces.

A part of him filled in the rest.

And you’ve also seen plenty of people you couldn’t save with any amount of effort.

Not this time.

The pilot’s name was N. Fisher. The man thought he had been drugged, if he’d heard right, yet somehow the guy had managed to get them down alive. Paul recalled the scuffle he’d heard in the cabin and wondered about the copilot’s part in the crash. He steeled his arms and did the compressions more aggressively.

The next time he looked up, Jaden was there, and Dr. Wrigley.

Dr. Wrigley looked at him from behind glasses that sat slightly cockeyed on his face. “Dr. Ford, your patient is gone. You need to call it.”

“No,” Paul said, feeling his stomach clench. “I can get him back.”

“Four-one-thousand, five-one-thousand.” His shoulder muscles screamed at him, his injured ribs stabbing at him with every movement. The end of the cycle came and he looked to Maddie. Her face was damp with tears.

“It’s over, Paul.”

Anger surged inside him. “I’m a doctor. I know when it’s time to quit. I say I can save him.”

He pushed past her and administered the two rescue breaths himself. When he returned for compressions, Dr. Wrigley took a step forward and gripped his upper arm with surprising strength.

“Dr. Ford, the pilot is dead. There is no hope of resuscitation, in spite of your efforts.” He looked at his watch. “The time of death is ten-fifteen a.m.”

Paul looked at them and read it in their faces. He knew they were right. He was not going to make a save this time. Despair rose inside, along with a deep fatigue. He slowly got to his feet and Jaden stepped forward with a blanket he’d retrieved, draping the body against the falling snow.

Paul stood, hands on hips. “His name was Fisher. I saw it on his ID tag. He saved us.”

Maddie looked at the ground when she spoke. “You did your best.”

The irony cut deep. I did my best for your nieces, too.

Had he?

The question that had tormented him every day since the crash surfaced again. Had he done everything medically possible for the children? Was there something he’d overlooked because he’d been distracted by another accident victim, his brother? He’d replayed the events second by painful second in his mind, without achieving any clarity. The bald facts were that today the children were gone, Bruce Lambert was hanging on by his fingernails and Paul’s brother, Mark, was in perfect health.

A cold wind struck at them and he saw Maddie shiver. “We’ve got to get some shelter and wait for a rescue team.”

Jaden looked around. “The cabin is unstable, and there’s a fire burning in the electrical system. I salvaged what I could, but we can’t take cover there.”

Wrigley took a few steps toward the top of the hill. “There must be something nearby. A cave, a cabin—something.”

Paul considered. “I think the best bet is to move to the bottom of that rock wall. If we can find some debris to stand on, maybe some wood to make a fire, we can at least be out of the wind.”

“I’ll get the gear that survived and see if there’s anything else.” Jaden zipped his jacket up to his chin, against the biting wind.

Maddie nodded. “I’ll help. I’ve got to make sure the Berlin Heart is safe.”

An odd look crossed Jaden’s face, but Paul could not read it before the man turned and headed quickly up the hill. Maddie followed, struggling to keep up.

The Berlin Heart. He’d forgotten all about it. The rescue team might still be able to fly it to Bruce’s hospital. He looked ahead at the smoke rising from the downed plane. Had it been damaged? He didn’t allow his mind to continue the thought. One catastrophe at a time, Ford.

Before he followed Maddie up hill, he bent to one knee again and said a prayer for N. Fisher.



Dr. Wrigley stayed with the pile of singed carry-on bags while Jaden and Paul approached the plane, Maddie following. Her thoughts were fuzzy as she moved to climb on the wreckage. She’d just seen a man die, and though all she knew about him was his last name, she couldn’t ignore a feeling of loss. She wondered if Paul felt it every time he lost a patient. Maybe he felt it more keenly when he’d sacrificed one patient for the next, as he’d done with her nieces. Her father’s words rang in her memory.

He let them die, Maddie. He let the girls die.

Thinking of her dad drove all thoughts about Paul away.

Her face was stiff with cold, and she reached carefully to hold on where the metal was not sheared off razor-sharp. Smoke continued to blossom out of the shattered windows and the crackle of flames was louder now.

She was about to haul herself up when Paul stopped her.

He put a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t go in there.”

His face was calm again, unmarked with the same frustration and anger she’d seen a moment before.

“I’m going, Paul.”

“Not a good idea. The smoke is toxic, you know that.”

She yanked out of his grasp. “I’m not going to let my father die.”

Jaden appeared in the opening. “Fire’s getting closer to the fuel tanks. We’ve gotta clear out.”

Maddie called over the crackling. “Did you get the heart?”

She didn’t hear his reply as a whooshing noise filled the air.

Paul grabbed her wrist and pulled her away from the wreck.

She fought him, twisting and jerking. “Let go of me.”

She thought he’d listened for a moment, until she found herself draped like an ungainly package over his shoulder. Squirming did nothing to loosen his grip.

“Fight all you want, Maddie. I’m not going to let you die.”

She watched his feet crunch through the snow. “I hate you, Paul,” she stormed, angry tears bursting from her eyes.

He sighed. “I know, Mads.”

The grief in his voice startled her. Before she could say anything else, he’d lowered her to the ground next to Dr. Wrigley and started to jog back to the plane.

Maddie wanted nothing more than to march over to the plane and let him have it. She settled for kicking a mound of snow into icy smithereens.

Wrigley didn’t comment as he watched her, but she could see the corner of his mouth crimp and the thought that he was amused infuriated her all the more. He handed her a bag.

“I believe this is yours. Do you have warmer clothes in there?”

She grabbed it from his hands. “Yes. But I can wait until the plane is unloaded.”

“At least put boots on if you’ve got them.” He pointed to her feet. “Frostbite sets in quickly, and we’ve been in the snow for a while now. I’m glad I found mine.” He looked as though he was going to cry for a moment.

The emotion unsettled her. To give herself something to do, she fished through the blackened carry-on until she found socks and her snow boots. The irony stung. She’d planned a long walk with her sister after their father’s surgery was completed. A time when they could share their grief, but with the added promise of a more hopeful future.

She yanked on the boots. She’d have it all, just like she’d planned.

Though her feet were numb with the cold, it was a relief to have the thick soles between her toes and the rapidly piling snow. Dr. Wrigley stiffened, his eyes riveted to the twisted remnants of the plane.

“What?” she said, trying to follow his gaze.

She saw Jaden and Paul dive out of the opening into the pile of luggage they’d retrieved.

After a few seconds’ delay, the structure erupted into an orange fireball. It was an explosion that deafened Maddie, and she threw her hands around her head as the air became unbearably hot.

When the noise and heat subsided enough for her to raise her face, she was relieved to see Jaden and Paul heaving themselves to their feet. Each man grabbed an armful of rescued belongings and made their way back to join the others.

Maddie couldn’t wait for them to cross the hundred yards. She ran and met them, nerves tingling, stomach constricted. “Did you get it out? Did you get the Berlin Heart?”

Jaden wiped a sooty hand across his face but didn’t answer.

“Tell me,” Maddie all but shrieked. “You found it, didn’t you?”

Paul made a small movement toward her. “Yes, we found it.”

Her breath whooshed out of her, the relief so profound she could feel it in every pore of her body. “Thank goodness. Where is it?”

“Maddie…” Paul said.

They weren’t carrying the box. It must be in the pile they hurled just before the plane exploded. She darted toward the wreck, shielding her face from the heat. “I’ve got to move it away from the fire.”

Paul put the gear down and followed her. “Maddie, it’s not there.”

She continued on, eyes searching, straining for a glimpse of the metal box. “Leave me alone, Paul.”

He spoke louder. “We couldn’t get it.”

The intensity finally penetrated. “What do you mean? You said you found it.”

Paul looked at her and she could see the flames mirrored in his eyes.

“The metal shell of the tail section collapsed in on itself while we searched. It’s welded shut from the heat. We couldn’t get to it. We couldn’t save your father’s heart.”




FOUR


Paul ignored the snow that fell in a steady curtain around him. He had eyes only for Maddie and the anguish that played over her face. She took a step backward and he thought she would tumble, so he reached out a hand for her.

She stiffened. “Please,” she whispered. “Leave me alone.” She turned and walked to the shelter of a thick pine tree. Her shoulders slumped, head down, defeat written in the lines of her body.

Paul started after her, but Jaden stopped him. “Let her have a minute, Dr. Ford.”

“She’s hurting.”

Jaden shrugged. “If we don’t come up with a plan here pretty quick, it isn’t going to matter.”

Paul stared at Jaden and then at Dr. Wrigley, who cradled his shoulder and grimaced. The snow fell harder, piling into puffs around them. The sky darkened to a dull slate, though Paul’s cracked watch showed the time to be just after noon. He shot one more glance at Maddie. She hadn’t moved. He fought the urge to go to her. It was time to start thinking triage, prioritize what they would need to do to keep all four of them alive. “Okay. Let’s talk this out.”

Jaden nodded. “Search-and-rescue is probably mobilizing, but it may take a while for them to find us, and there’s a storm coming, so they won’t risk losing aircraft. I’m guessing we’re on our own at least until morning.”

Paul raised an eyebrow. “You former military or something?”

A glimmer of a smile played on Jaden’s lips. “You wouldn’t believe the great training Heartline provides its employees.”

Paul folded his arms. “Uh-huh.” He turned his focus to the surroundings. The temperature was dropping steadily, and exposure would kill them first. He scanned the terrain. Steep snow-covered slopes rose on either side, studded with enormous trees. The main body of the plane was now completely engulfed in flame, belching out toxic smoke into the thin air.

Paul reviewed the survival training he’d taken in his backpacking phase. “Shelter first. We’ve got to find something to get us out of the storm.” As he spoke, he removed his belt and buckled it into a circle. He hung it over Wrigley’s neck and helped him gingerly rest his injured arm in the makeshift sling. Wrigley nodded his thanks, his face pained.

Jaden grunted. “Right. Dr. Wrigley, keep moving around, see if you can get a signal on your phone. It’s doubtful, but worth trying.” He pointed to a ridge of rock that thrust upward through the snow. “Let’s check there for any kind of covered area.”

“I’m on it.” Paul made sure Maddie was still safe under the tree before he plowed through the snow toward the shadowed rocks. Sinking to his knees every few steps, Paul floundered along until he reached the base of the rock which had long ago tumbled loose from the towering mountain peak. He picked his way from one rock—up and over—onto the next, in search of some indentation, any kind of rocky depression that might screen them from the elements.

He slipped on an iced-over patch and loosened a shower of rubble that rained down onto the snow.

Careful, Ford. Let’s not get taken out by a bunch of rocks, especially when you just survived a plane crash. That part still seemed surreal. Had the pilot really said he’d been drugged? The sinister notion added to the tension in his gut, but Paul put them away for later. He had to find shelter for Maddie.

What scared him more than the crash, more than the notion that someone wanted them to die, was the defeat on her face. The Berlin Heart was lost, and it seemed her father was, too. Could she live through it? After the death of her nieces?

He climbed over a sharp projection of rock. Part of Maddie had died the day the children did, and truth be told, part of him had, as well. He’d lost some of his confidence—some might say arrogance—when he could not save those girls. He shook the thought away, along with a clump of snow that attached itself to his neck.

Help me find a way, Lord.

The snow coated his hair now, freezing his coat stiff against his complaining muscles and aching ribs. Dropping down behind a pile of black rock, he found nothing, just a smooth blanket of white. It reminded him of backpacking trips with his big brother, Mark, especially the time Paul broke his foot, diving into a tree trunk hidden in the water, and Mark carried him five miles back to their uncle’s place, cracking jokes all the while. Mark was always quick with a one-liner, even now that they only saw each other across a scarred table in the prison visiting area, but Paul saw the pain in his brother’s eyes.

The question that haunted him daily surfaced in his mind. Would things have been different if Mark hadn’t been exposed to his uncle’s cavalier attitude toward alcohol at a vulnerable time in his life?

You’re a physician, Paul. You know that alcoholism is a disease that can affect people anywhere, anytime, regardless of the situation. Still, if his father hadn’t left them…if Uncle Lyman hadn’t turned a blind eye to Mark’s drinking…

If, if, if.

None of it would change a thing. The indisputable fact was, Mark was driving the car that hit Bruce Lambert and the kids, and he had been drinking. For all his protestations that another car had been involved, the police could not find evidence to support Mark’s claim. Their case was cut-and-dried. Mark drove drunk. He plowed into the Lamberts’ car. He was guilty of manslaughter.

And the other indisputable fact was that Paul had loaned the car that morning to his brother, thinking that this time, finally, his brother really had sobered up.

A piece of rock came loose in Paul’s hand and he threw it savagely as far as he could. He didn’t even hear it land. Biting back the frustration, he shook the snow from his hair and started to climb back up to search in another direction, when he noticed a hole cut into the rock, about four feet across. Icicles hung from the rim, like jagged teeth.

With nothing to lose, Paul kicked at the icicles to break them off and stuck his head into the opening. Blinking to be sure he was not the victim of a hallucination, he peered into the gloom again before he said a silent thank-you and headed back to the others. Finally, one small thing had gone right.



Maddie saw the snow deepening around her, but she could not feel it. Her body was numb from the inside out, with a bitter cold that had nothing to do with the elements. In the distance, the plane crackled and hissed, as if it hid some creature living out its last breath.

Last breath.

Last hope.

She was trapped in a surreal nightmare. The marvelous machine that would save her father was lying crushed underneath a half ton of twisted wreckage. She wanted to be angry at the pilot for letting them crash, at Jaden and Paul for not saving the heart; but deep down she knew they were not to blame.

Each breath caused a pain that cut her open inside.

The harsh truth was, she could have gone to get the heart, but her need to find Paul drove her to him instead. If she had put her father first, as he had done for her all her life, she would have gotten the device off the plane before it exploded.

Could it be true? Had she really sacrificed her father’s life for Paul? The man who already held responsibility for letting her nieces die? Paul, Paul, Paul. He was the center of all her pain, and now there was no chance that she would ever be able to rebuild the tattered remnants of her life.

She felt herself sliding to the ground. Snow crunched under her as she collapsed on hands and knees, her palms punching down through the iced crust. There should have been tears, rivers of them, flowing hot down her face, but there were none. There was no way to release the terrible agony she felt, not a single tear left to ease the pain.

A hand took her arm and pulled her up. Tai Jaden stood over her, brows drawn together, saying something. But she couldn’t understand him through the wind and the emotion howling through her body.

She didn’t want to go with him, but he moved her anyway, until she found herself sitting on a pile of luggage.

“Watch her,” Jaden told Dr. Wrigley. “I’m going to see what Paul found.”

Dr. Wrigley eyed her uneasily as his fingers moved over the keys on his phone. “No signal still. It’s like we’re at the bottom of a well.”

She didn’t answer. Instead, she looked at the fire, still burning, and wondered how long her father had left to live.

“We’ll make it. The rescue crew will find us soon,” Wrigley said.

She wondered if he was saying the words to comfort her or himself. A nod was all she could manage.

When Jaden returned, Paul came with him, cheeks reddened and jacket dusted with snow. He hastened to Maddie.

“There’s a cave back behind those rocks. We’ll have some shelter there until help arrives.”

She looked at him, at the face that had brought her so much hope and joy in the past. A desperate thought took root in her mind. She grasped his hand. “Paul.”

He started and covered her fingers with his, chafing as if to rub some life back into them. “What is it, Mads?”

“Is there a chance, any chance, that we could get another Berlin Heart for my father?”

Paul opened his mouth, then closed it. He squeezed her hand. “There’s always a chance.”

But she saw the truth in his eyes. It had taken months of effort on the part of the hospital and her father’s government contacts to obtain one Berlin Heart. People in Europe and the States were vying for the precious few that were produced. Months that Bruce Lambert did not have anymore. Her father’s best hope was entombed in a burning aircraft, a medical marvel with all the hope smashed out of it, just like herself.

She looked away, biting down on her lip until she tasted blood.

He tried to put an arm around her, but she shook him off. She would not take comfort from him, or anyone, ever again.

Dr. Wrigley grabbed a suitcase with his good arm. Jaden and Paul did the same. In a daze, Maddie picked up the bag she’d been sitting on and followed them. Someone helped her over a steep rock and another took the luggage while she ducked under the rounded archway and stepped into the large cave. The ground was clear of snow, covered with rocks from pea-size to boulders. The ceiling rose ten feet above them, glazed and shimmering, as if it had been carved out of ice. It was deep, so deep the far walls were bathed in darkness.

Paul ushered her to the far side, away from the entrance, and urged her to sit on a blanket he’d placed on a piece of luggage. The others did the same, moving together until they were seated in a strange circle, as if they were enjoying a camping trip instead of having just fallen out of the sky.

Jaden looked around. “Ice cave?”

Paul spoke, his breath making steamy trails in the cold air. “Caused by steam, I’d guess. This mountain is volcanic. The rising heat melted these tunnels in the glacial ice. I’d guess there’s a network of them.”

Wrigley sighed. “Too bad it isn’t any warmer than outside.”

“At least we’re out of the snow.” Paul rummaged in his pack. “Is everyone okay? I found a small first-aid kit, and I can take care of any minor injuries.”

Jaden waved him off. Dr. Wrigley pointed to his shoulder. “I believe my clavicle is broken.”

Paul nodded. “I’ll make a better sling to immobilize it.” He turned to Maddie, his voice soft. “Is there anything I can do for you?”

She shook her head, unable to trust her voice. He continued to look at her, his gaze deep and searching, but she lowered her eyes to stare at the ground.

Paul unrolled a length of linen from the kit and began to fasten it around Dr. Wrigley’s neck. “I need to tell you all something Maddie and I heard from the pilot before he died. It’s not good news.”

Wrigley grimaced. “How could it be worse at this point?”

“The pilot said his coffee had been drugged.”

Jaden stiffened. “Drugged? Is that what caused the crash?”

Paul sighed wearily. “I would guess so. Seems to fit the facts. His depth perception was probably off. He clipped the mountain, fought off the effects of the drug long enough to straighten us out, but not enough to keep from crashing.”

“The copilot, too?” Jaden asked.

Paul shook his head. “I don’t know. I thought I heard a struggle before the crash.”

Wrigley’s face was incredulous. “Drugged? Who would have wanted to drug the pilot?”

Maddie felt a prick of interest. She’d been so focused on the heart, she hadn’t had time to think about the pilot’s last words. “Someone who wanted my father dead.” Her words echoed eerily in the cave.

All three men stared at her. Jaden spoke first. “Who would benefit?”

Maddie took a deep breath. “The hospital. It would be better for them if my father died, rather than continue the financial investigation he started before the crash.” She locked eyes on Wrigley. “Because you don’t want my father to uncover any irregularities, do you?”

Dr. Wrigley shook his head. “That’s preposterous.”

“I don’t think it’s so preposterous. And after the surgery he intended to file a malpractice suit.”

Paul jerked. “Malpractice?”

She forced her chin up. “Yes. He believes the children died because the E.R. was understaffed and…”

He stared at her, disbelief strong in his eyes. “And because he thinks I was professionally negligent?”

She didn’t answer.

His voice trembled with emotion. “Is that what you think, Maddie? Deep down, do you believe I turned my back on those children, gave them insufficient care and let them die?”

She wanted to glare at him, to feel her father’s hatred flow through her, but the anguish in his eyes, the betrayal she saw carved deep in the gray depths, stopped her. Instead, she looked away. “What I believe doesn’t matter anymore. We’re talking about a motive for crashing the plane. Now that the heart’s ruined, it looks like things just got a lot better for Bayview Hospital.”

Paul’s laugh was bitter. “And for me, too. Maybe I can escape a malpractice suit now. I guess that gives me a pretty good motive for drugging the pilot, if it weren’t for the fact that all of us should have been dead from that crash.”

She recoiled from the razor edge in his words, wishing she’d kept her mouth shut, but it was too late.

Wrigley stood, good hand on his hip. “I agree with Dr. Ford. I certainly wouldn’t have arranged to crash the plane on which I happened to be a passenger. I have no love for Bruce Lambert, but I’m not about to give up my life to punish him.”

Jaden held up a hand. “There was another person who didn’t make the flight. Someone else who would benefit if the investigations went away.”

Wrigley jerked as if he’d been slapped. “Director Stevens?”

Maddie watched him closely. Wrigley finally shook his head. “No. Director Stevens and I have butted heads, but at the end of the day we’re both doctors. We got into this business to serve people, and I don’t believe he’d sacrifice six lives. He’s not a murderer. Do you agree, Paul?”

Paul ran his hands through his hair. “Yesterday, I would have agreed with you. At this moment—” he looked at Maddie “—I don’t trust anything I believed in before.”

Maddie felt his gaze burning into her, but she did not look at him.

“It could be,” Jaden continued, “that plans were changed at the last minute and all the parties involved were not informed. Perhaps, the copilot was paid to slip drugs to the pilot and land the plane somewhere off-course, to cause delay, or to disappear with the heart.”

Maddie noticed how the strange light picked up the silvered strands in Jaden’s hair. His face was weathered, tough and grim. “Who would do that?”

“It’s entirely possible that Dr. Wrigley or Paul is part of a scheme with the director to see that the heart never reached Bruce Lambert.”

“But—” Wrigley began.

“But,” Jaden finished, “the plans changed. Perhaps the director decided to switch things up.” He looked slowly from Wrigley to Ford. “To take care of anybody who could turn evidence against him later. Or maybe the pilot realized what was happening, fought back and caused the crash.”

Wrigley clutched his shoulder and took a step toward Jaden, as if he meant to hit him. “I don’t have to listen to this.”

“I think you do.” Jaden waved a hand around. “You’ve got nowhere to go, no title to hide behind and no secretary or staff to shield you. Here, your reputation and skills mean nothing. You’re just another crash victim, Dr. Wrigley, and you know more about our situation than you’re letting on.”

Maddie held her breath as Paul’s face twisted in anger.

His hands balled into fists as he drew an arm’s length from Jaden. “Hold on, Jaden. These are pretty serious accusations.”

Jaden nodded. “I know.”

“Maybe we should be asking you a few questions. You certainly don’t act like some lowly company rep. Dr. Wrigley worked for months with Heartline, and he never heard of you before, yet you seem to know a lot about our situation. Who’s to say you weren’t hired by the director to destroy the heart, and he turned tables on you?”

Jaden smiled, and there was something in the expression that told Maddie things were about to change. She watched in fascination as he reached for his backpack and drew out a nylon-wrapped package.

“Because of this,” he said, holding up the Berlin Heart.




FIVE


Paul found himself speechless, mesmerized by the sight of the pristinely packaged Berlin Heart, the same heart he’d believed buried under a sheaf of burning metal not an hour before. He ripped his eyes away to look at Maddie. Her expression was as incredulous as he felt.

“How…?” she started, taking a faltering step toward Jaden.

Wrigley stared, eyes round and mouth open.

Paul reached out a hand to both steady and stop her. She clung to his arm. “Jaden, you’ve got some explaining to do. Right here, right now.”

Jaden shot a glance at the entrance to the cave. “I’ll tell you all about it, but right now we’ve got other priorities.” He bobbed his chin at the piling snow. “We need to keep this clear or we’ll be trapped inside here.”

Paul stepped closer. “We’ll take care of it right after you come clean.”

Jaden sighed. “Later.”

Paul cut him off. “No. Now. You and I went into a burning plane and clawed through that rubble. You were with me the whole time, and I never saw you remove that heart. I think you had it with you since we left San Francisco.”

He looked from Paul to Maddie and back again. After a beat he said, “Yes, I’ve had it the whole time. Mr. Lambert contacted Heartline and expressed his concern that someone from the hospital might try to tamper with the heart.”

Wrigley gasped. “Unbelievable. We broke our backs getting this device for Lambert. We are doctors, not two-bit thugs.”

Paul held up a hand. “Let him finish.”

“Heartline assigned me to carry the heart and see that it reached its destination safely.”

Maddie’s face was pale. “So the box on the plane…?”

He shrugged. “Contains a prototype model, not the real thing.”

For a moment, the only sound was the wind blowing against the snowbank outside.

Paul tried to keep his voice level. “I don’t believe you. I think you found a moment to switch the hearts before the flight took off, for some reason of your own.”

Jaden raised an eyebrow. “Like what?”

Wrigley found his voice. “To extort money from Mr. Lambert, perhaps?”

“Good theory, but what about the crash? That would derail any plans to profit from stealing the heart, wouldn’t it?”

Paul’s mind raced. “The crash surprised all of us, but I still think you’re a liar.”

Jaden put the pack down on the floor and stood, feet apart, arms at his sides. “It doesn’t matter what you think.”

Paul didn’t miss the body language. If the guy was ready for a fight, he’d give it to him. “I’m not going to let you get away with stealing that heart.”

Jaden brought his fists up when Maddie stepped between them. “Stop. Whatever the reason Jaden switched the packages doesn’t matter. Don’t you see?” She turned burning eyes on Paul. “The important thing is the Berlin Heart is intact. If we can get help, my father doesn’t have to die.”

Paul saw the desperate hope shining on her face. He looked at Jaden, closed, guarded, and knew that the man was lying. “Maddie…”

“Please, Paul.” She put a hand on his chest and its gentle pressure made him dizzy. Maddie…he thought. Maddie, this man is not on our side. But the emotion in her body, that seemed to radiate from her trembling fingertips straight into his soul, stopped him.

He stared at Jaden. “All right. What we’ve got to do now is focus on staying alive until help arrives and we can get the heart to Maddie’s father.” The rest of it—intended for Jaden—remained unspoken. And I will be watching you every moment until that happens.

Jaden turned his attention to the approaching storm. “Weather’s worsening. Here.” He handed Paul a pair of boots. “Found these in the plane. Must have been the pilot’s.”

Paul reluctantly pulled them on before he turned to Wrigley. “Stay here with Maddie—” he lowered his voice “—and watch that heart.” He zipped his jacket. “Jaden and I will see if we can find something to shovel the snow away from the entrance. Can you two organize whatever supplies we’ve got? Set aside any food items or first-aid materials you can find.”

Wrigley bristled. “You don’t mean we should go through luggage, do you? That’s an invasion of privacy.”

Paul checked his temper. “It’s between survival and privacy, Dr. Wrigley. Take your pick. Mine is the blue duffel. Feel free to tear it apart.”

Wrigley didn’t answer, but his cheeks flushed.

Without a word, Jaden put on a cap and followed Paul into the snow.

The afternoon sunlight shone through the clouds, illuminating the ground in a dazzle of white, even as the snow continued to fall. Trying to keep Jaden in his line of sight, Paul approached the still-burning wreckage, looking for pieces of metal that had ripped loose and could be used as a makeshift shovel. Facts whirled through his mind, as snowflakes danced around his face.

If Jaden stole the heart for blackmail purposes, then who drugged the pilot? As much as he didn’t want to believe it, Maddie’s accusations were beginning to sound more logical. The hospital director asked Wrigley to go in his place. Did he arrange to have the copilot disable the pilot and take them off course? Or perhaps Wrigley had been instructed to disrupt the delivery, unaware that Director Stevens intended to take care of the problem another way?

With a start, he realized he didn’t trust any of them. But for the moment, they needed each other. It would take all of them to survive until help arrived. He looked at the sky, thick with snow.

If it arrived.

The transponder in the plane had probably broadcast their position, if it hadn’t been completely destroyed in the crash. Or maybe the pilot had managed a Mayday before he became incapacitated. In either event, they’d be on their own for a while.

He thought of Maddie’s face again, the hope that shone there as it had before the car accident. The mask of grief had slipped away for a moment, and it took his breath away. He stopped the stream of memories and continued his search.

Jaden yanked at a piece of metal, pulling it from underneath the snow.

Paul retrieved a plastic door, torn loose from some compartment on the plane, and they carried their finds to the cave.




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