Chapter 11 #2
“Thunder is going to do everything he can to get us down safely,” Leo spoke up, coming to his knees beside her. “And we’re together, the three of us.”
That probably shouldn’t be a comfort, because she certainly didn't want her daughter to die, or the man who had owned her heart since she was just a little girl. But it did bring comfort. Because she wasn't alone. The people she loved most in the world were right by her side.
“Brace for impact,” Thunder yelled, and before she could even blink, Leo picked her up and deposited her in the seat beside their daughter.
After he’d buckled her in, making sure that Ariella’s seatbelt was tight across her hips, he took his own seat again. There were only two feet separating them, but it was two feet too many. Kate wanted to be in Leo’s arms when she died, wanted Ariella wrapped up between them.
“I love you both. I'm sorry I couldn’t protect you,” Leo said, his hands reaching out to grasp hers and Ariella’s.
“No, Daddy!” Ariella protested immediately.
“Absolutely not,” she added as she could feel the plane hurtling toward the earth much faster than it should be.
“This is not your fault.” It was hers. She had to be the one who had brought this mess to everyone’s doorstep, and now they were all going to die because of it.
“But we love you too,” she said, wanting him to know again that despite everything, the lingering hurt and anger, the confusion and uncertainty of the future, she loved him and would until she took her last breath.
“Always mine, Katie-Bear. Always. Nothing ever changed that. That man could turn me into a monster, but he couldn’t take away my love for you.”
Those were the final words she heard before the inevitable happened.
Blinding pain tore through her body.
Screams filled the air.
Then … nothing.
Maybe seconds, maybe minutes, maybe hours later, the pain was back.
Vicious and unrelenting.
Stabbing through her body with each breath she took.
But …
She was alive.
How the hell had she survived?
That was some pretty awesome flying from Thunder if he’d managed to get them to the ground without killing everyone on board.
Ariella.
Her daughter’s name screamed through her mind, and somehow Kate managed to ignore the pain and the heaviness that clung to her limbs, pry open her eyes, and jerk upright.
Well, she tried to jerk upright, but the seatbelt held her in place, and instead she just stumbled, setting off a fresh wave of pain.
It was like being in a horror movie.
The ruined inside of the plane was dark. Broken pieces of metal were everywhere, their suitcases had all been thrown free and were scattered about, but the only thing she wanted to see right now was her daughter.
Turning her head, she saw her daughter, right where she’d been when they hit. Ariella wasn't moving, slumped in her seat, resting half against the now torn wall of the plane.
Was she dead?
“No, baby, you can't leave me, don’t be dead,” she begged, barely registering how weak her voice sounded in her desperation to get to her child. Blood streaked Ariella’s face, and Kate feared the worst.
Hand shaking as she reached for Ariella’s neck, she hesitated a millimeter from her daughter’s skin.
Was she ready to find out if her little girl was gone?
For years now, she’d been fighting what felt like an uphill battle to save her child’s life, and now it might be too late.
Right when she’d been given hope that Ariella might live, might even have been able to have a normal life, it had been ripped out from underneath her.
In the end, it was fear for Leo joining her fear for Ariella that had her fingers closing that final millimeter. The quicker she confirmed her daughter was alive—and she couldn’t accept any other possibility—the quicker she could check on him.
As her fingers pressed to Ariella’s neck, relief almost stole her consciousness.
Alive.
A pulse bumped against her fingertips, confirming she hadn't lost her baby girl quite yet.
It wasn't until a figure knelt in front of her that she realized she was sobbing. Huge, body-wracking cries that sent pain spiraling through her body with each one.
“It’s okay, Kate, she’s alive,” Blade said gently, his hand ghosting over her shoulder in reassurance. “I can hear her heart beating.”
“I thought I lost her,” she wheezed, seemingly unable to get her breathing under control.
“But you didn't, you haven’t, and you won't,” he said with a confidence she wished she could emulate. “Need you with me, okay? Whitney is conscious, and she’s heading into the cockpit to check on Thunder and Maya, but we need to find the others.”
Shoving away her pain, Kate nodded, fighting against the need to remain right by her daughter’s side.
Ariella was alive, but the others might not be.
She, Ariella, and Leo had been closest to the cockpit on the left side of the plane, Blade and Whitney the closest on the right.
It seemed that most of them had somehow survived the impact, but the rest in the back of the plane might not.
Leo might not have survived.
“Everyone okay?” Voodoo demanded, suddenly appearing through the hazy smoke of the back end of the plane, Indigo at his side.
“Whitney and I are okay, hurt but nothing serious. Ariella is alive but unconscious. Kate is conscious, but I don’t like the sound of her breathing,” Blade rattled off, and she was glad he was able to answer because he was right, she was having a hard time breathing.
“Let me check you out,” Voodoo said, stepping up before her, but she shook her head.
“Ariella, check her first,” she ordered. “She won't clot easily, and there’s blood on her.”
Looking torn, Voodoo finally nodded and focused his attention on Ariella. Knowing her daughter was being looked after by a man who supposedly had an unnatural ability to heal, Kate focused her attention on searching for Leo.
He wasn't where he’d been when they were going down.
The seat before her was pretty much torn in two, and his body was nowhere to be seen.
Was he …
No.
He couldn’t be.
“Who’s still unaccounted for?” Dragon demanded as he appeared, Cassandra in his arms.
“You can put me down, Dragon,” Cassandra insisted, but the big man merely growled at her and tucked her closer against his chest.
“We’re okay,” Thunder replied as he, Maya, and Whitney all came through the small door to the cockpit. “Banged up but alive.”
“Haven't seen Steel or Rose,” Blade said as he reached for Whitney and pulled her to him.
“And Leo,” Kate said, choking on another sob. “Where’s Leo?” These men had enhancements, they should be able to hear him, smell him, feel him, whatever it was they did. Why weren't they finding him?
Unless …
They knew it was already too late for him, and no one wanted to tell her.
Panic lit her on fire, and she fought with the seatbelt to get it off.
Shoving away the well-meaning hands that grabbed at her, Kate began to stagger through the wrecked plane in search of the only man she had ever loved, the one she’d only just gotten back, the one she couldn’t survive losing all over again.