Chapter 69
Tilda
My eyes blink open, and I look at the blue sky stretching before me.
The plane shakes, like we’re flying through turbulence, but it stops a moment later.
I yawn.
I hadn’t meant to fall asleep. But seeing my family always exhausts me. And I didn’t sleep well last night since I was stressing about today.
Today. Who could’ve seen that coming?
I shift in my seat, opening my mouth to ask Ethan how much time is left, when I notice something.
The quiet.
The lack of rumble.
I stare out the windshield at the propeller.
It’s spinning.
Is it going slower?
“Ethan?”
He’s doing something to something on the complicated dashboard. The dashboard with a blank screen in the middle.
I lift one side of my headphones.
It’s too quiet.
“Ethan?” Panic laces my tone.
He sighs and drops his hand from the dials back to the steering wheel thing.
“Ethan?” I whisper it this time.
He looks at me. His dark glasses block me from seeing his full expression. But he doesn’t look worried.
Maybe it’s fine? Maybe I just thought it was loud before because I was nervous.
“We’re going to land,” Ethan says calmly.
And I look forward, back out the windshield.
But there’s nothing.
No airfield.
No city.
Just mountains and an endless forest.
I try to keep my voice even. “Where?”
“Up ahead. There’s a strip of clear land beside a stream.”
My heartbeat starts to dance. “Why?”
Ethan sighs again. Like he’s annoyed. “Because the engine stopped.”
Because. The engine. Stopped.
I look back out the front. “But… the propeller…”
It’s still spinning. I can see it.
“The air is pushing it.”
My next breath is choppy.
The air…
It’s just spinning.
The engine stopped.
I clutch at my seat belt, gripping the straps over my chest tightly. “We’re going to crash?”
“No.” His tone is stern, and I focus on his mouth. “We’re going to land.”
My throat feels so tight it hurts to swallow. “Ethan.”
“Starlight. Remember what I told you?”
I shake my head.
“I’m a good pilot. Remember?”
I nod. “I remember.”
But remembering doesn’t stop my hands from trembling.
“Relax.” He holds his hand out. “Breathe.” I force my fingers to release the seat belt and put my hand in his. “I’m going to land us smoothly.” He sets my hand on his thigh. “Now you say it.”
I press my palm down against the warm denim. “You’re going to land us smoothly.”
I repeat that sentence in my mind. Over and over.
And I try to tell myself to be calm.
I try to keep my breathing even.
But then Ethan pushes the control forward, and the nose of the plane angles down.
Toward the ground.
My pulse feels too loud.
I dig my fingertips into Ethan’s thigh and curl my other hand tighter around my seat belt.
I hold my breath.
“Breathe.” Ethan’s voice speaks directly into my ears.
I inhale.
The ground is getting closer.
The trees are becoming more defined.
I look out the side window.
My heart stutters.
We’re below the mountaintops.
There’s nowhere to go but down.
“Relax.” Ethan sounds just as calm as he did before. “I need you to breathe and relax.”
I try.
I drag in a lungful of air.
We’re getting lower.
A sound of distress tangles in my chest.
“Repeat what I told you.”
I struggle with another breath.
I can see the stretch of grassy land next to the river below.
It’s mostly bare. Looks like smooth earth. But it looks too small.
It looks too short.
And too far away.
“Wife. Repeat what I told you.” Ethan’s voice is louder this time, pulling my attention to his profile.
I look at his jawline.
Look at the way his wavy hair curls around his headphones.
I glance at his tattooed forearms, the muscles shifting as he controls the plane.
I purse my lips, and my inhale doesn’t rattle as much this time. “You’re going to land us smoothly.”
Ethan turns his head toward me. “I’ll never let anything happen to you, Starlight.”
I bite my lip.
“Tell me.”
“You’ll never let anything happen to me.”
“Never.”
Heat stings the corner of my eyes, but Ethan can’t see it through my aviators. And I’m glad.
Because I can’t distract Ethan.
Not when he’s about to… land us smoothly.
Please, gods, let him land us smoothly.
I face forward, keeping my hand on his thigh, and I try to relax.
The clouds are above us now.
I try so hard to relax.
The plane vibrates through a patch of rough air.
I try really hard to relax.
But it’s not possible.
So I fake it.
I keep my lips parted and my inhales quiet.
I trap my little backpack between my boots on the floor.
And I squeeze the hell out of my seat belt but try to keep the hand on Ethan’s thigh steady.
And we go lower.
Ethan stays silent.
The ground gets closer.
The forest spreads out on either side of us.
Mountains surround us.
I can make out rocks jutting from the water below on my side of the plane.
We’re going too fast.
It feels like we’re going too fast.
But I can’t close my eyes.
I didn’t look the first time, when we landed in Vegas. I didn’t look because I was scared. I didn’t watch Ethan land the plane.
But now, as the forest floor rushes up below us, I can’t look away.
I can’t close my eyes.
My mouth is painfully dry.
My palm aches where the seat belt is digging into it.
The plane tilts to the left. To the right.
My muscles tighten.
The ground is so close.
We tilt left, to the right again.
The ground is filling the windshield.
“Relax, Matilda.”
Ethan’s voice is strong and steady.
I exhale.
I force my limbs to relax.
The nose of the plane tips up.
My next breath catches.
And then the plane touches down.
Our tires connect with the ground.
We’re still going too fast.
We have to be going too fast.
Ethan’s thigh shifts beneath my hand as he depresses the brakes.
We start to slow.
The ground dips.
We bounce.
I press my lips together and swallow the distress trying to crawl out of my throat.
We slow a little more.
The stretch of clear land narrows ahead of us.
The river turns.
The trees get closer on Ethan’s side.
The sound claws at my throat.
“Counts as smooth,” Ethan grits out through my headphones. “But this part won’t be.”
“What—”
Then I see it.
The lone tree.
It’s not huge.
But it’s not small enough.
We’re going to—
The tip of Ethan’s wing slams into the trunk.
The sound escapes my chest.
And the collision forces the plane to swing toward the forest.
My eyes finally squeeze shut.
We rock.
And then we… stop.
I force my eyes open.
We’re facing the thick tree line. But it’s still yards away.
We… landed.
We hit a tree.
But we landed.
Warm fingers wrap around my wrist, and I look down.
Ethan has reached across, and he’s prying my hand away from the seat belt.
I let him.
And I let him turn my hand over.
He holds my wrist with one hand and uses the other to trace the indents left in my palm.
“Bad Girl. I told you to relax.” His voice vibrates through the headphones. “No more hurting yourself. I told you I wouldn’t let anything happen to you. Don’t make me a liar.”
Heat trails across my skin where he touches me.
He lowers my hand to my lap, then reaches across and unclips my seat belt.
Glancing at his chest, I see he’s already unbuckled himself.
My heart is still beating wildly behind my ribs, and when I look out his window, I swallow.
The tip of the wing is all smashed up and somehow still stuck to the tree trunk.
A memory of being a kid, roller skating, and holding my friend’s hand as she swung me around in a circle flashes in my mind.
Only today, the tree is my friend, and the plane is the roller skates.
“Arms,” Ethan softly commands.
I shift and let him help me slide my arms free from the straps.
“Look at me.” Ethan reaches up and takes his sunglasses off.
I do the same.
Or I try to.
But my hands are shaking too badly.
Why can’t I stop shaking?
Ethan makes a shushing sound and takes my glasses off for me.
I know my eyes are shining.
I know a few tears have slipped free.
His brows furrow, and holding both our sunglasses in one hand, he smooths a thumb across the rounded part of my cheek. “Don’t be scared, Starlight.”
“I-I’m okay.” I take a slow breath. “I’m okay.” I say it with more conviction this time.
“Yes, you are. And you’re going to keep being okay.” He pulls his hand away from my face, giving one of my curls a light tug as he lowers his hand. “I have a satellite phone. I’m going to make a call while I pack us a bag. Then we need to go.”
I blink at him.
Need to go?
Slowly, I turn my head to look out the windshield. At the forest.
At the mountains beyond.
At the nothing but wilderness.
My pulse doubles.
We’re stranded.
I was so concerned with landing. With not dying. I didn’t think…
My hands start to shake again.
I didn’t think about the where.
I didn’t think about the fact that we just crashed a plane in the middle of the Rocky freaking Mountains.
Fingers grip my chin. And Ethan turns my face back toward his. “Matilda. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
“We-we were in a plane crash,” I whisper.
He shakes his head. “We experienced a controlled emergency landing.”
“But…”
“The tree hit us. But we’re fine. You’re fine.”
A sliver of humor—or mania—cracks through my wall of panic. “Rude of the tree.”
“Incredibly.” His eyes trace over my features. “I’m sorry,” he whispers.
I look back out his window at the tree that dared to hit our wing. Then I meet his gaze. “You did a very good job crashing the plane.”
His tongue presses against the inside of his cheek. “Controlled emergency landing.”
I nod. “Right. Controlled emergency crash landing.” My sliver of humor slips away. “What do we do now?”
Ethan drags his fingers down the front of my throat before dropping his hand. “Now, you grab your little backpack while I make a call. Then we start walking.”
I swallow. “We can’t stay here?”
It’s not that I can’t walk. It’s just that I have no idea how to survive in the Colorado wilderness.
Assuming we’re in Colorado. Not that the state matters. I don’t know anything about surviving in any wilderness.
“There’s a cabin a few miles from here. And if we leave now, we’ll get there before dark.”
The mention of dark has my heart thudding all over again.
I don’t want to walk through the woods. But the idea of sitting here, with the windows surrounding us showing nothing but darkness…
“Is it safe?”
“Park ranger, remember?” Ethan lifts a brow as he reminds me of his profession.
Right.
I nod. “I guess if there’s anyone to crash in the mountains with, it’d be you.”
“Not a crash.”