“I don’t want them to be dead.” Pippa burst into fresh tears. “They can’t be dead.”
I cursed that I couldn’t get to my feet and hug them. They were too young to deal with death, too innocent to deal with pain, and too damn precious to be stranded in a crash and left alone.
Screw this.
Gritting my teeth, I bent my good leg and pushed upward. The world tilted, pain greyed my vision, and the breaks in my bones toppled me back down again.
Goddammit!
Pippa pummelled Conner’s chest as he tried to grab her. “I want to go home. I don’t like this place.”
“You think I don’t want that, too?” He caught her flailing fists. “I want them to wake up just as much as you do!”
Gasping with agony, I growled, “Guys, quit it. You can’t—”
“Oh, my God. You’re alive.”
The squabble ceased as we all wrenched our heads to the newcomer’s voice.
My heart tripped over as the blonde, hazel-eyed apparition turned into a dirty but sexy-as-hell woman. Leggy and lovely, she represented everything I thought I’d lost and everything I’d been too afraid to want.
She was safety to me. Even while granting jeopardy in the worst way.
“Estelle?” My voice echoed shock and relief. “You survived.”
She flicked me a smile but beelined toward the kids. Pippa stood frozen with tears cascading down her cheeks.
Estelle didn’t say a word, merely stopped in front of them, dropped to her knees, and grabbed them in a hug.
Pippa dissolved, burying her face into the stranger’s damp hair, sobbing with no restraint. It bloody hurt to see a child come so undone, but it was for the best. She needed to grieve; only then could she face what her new future held.
Conner stood rigidly, his arms dead straight and hands balled tight, unyielding in Estelle’s arms. But slowly his pale bravery cracked and his tears flowed.
Bowing over Estelle, he let himself be hugged, allowing the weight of death to smother thanks to a random act of kindness.
I hated that I couldn’t join in; that I couldn’t offer what Estelle did so easily. All I could do was sit there, fighting against uselessness and grieve with them. If Conner was right and his parents and the pilot were dead, that meant our seven had become four and who knew what the future held.
I had no way of judging time, but slowly, Pippa’s tears stopped and Conner moved away.
Kissing Pippa’s cheek, Estelle stood upright, wincing a little as she held her chest.
She’s hurt, too.
We were all damaged in some way.
Making eye contact with me, Estelle’s gaze cut me to the core. She made me feel lacking; she made me feel brave. She made me feel like she needed me even while I needed her in return.
I didn’t even know her, but she dragged so many emotions from me. Emotions I wanted nothing to do with because she made me weak and I had to be strong in this place. Strong for her and for them.
But how could I stop her power when all I wanted was for her to hug me the way she’d done with the kids?
Clearing my throat, I looked away.
Estelle came to stand over me. “Is it broken?” She pointed at my ankle.
I squinted; the sun silhouetted her through the trees. “I’m not a doctor, but I’m pretty sure a normal leg and foot isn’t supposed to bend like that.”
She scowled. “You don’t have to be pissy about it. It was a simple question.”
What?
I hadn’t meant my answer to come across surly and rude. She unnerved me. It made me try too hard and sprout crap I didn’t mean.
Dragging long hair over her shoulder, she muttered, “Can you stand at least?”
Keeping my eyes down, I did my best to answer without any hint of attitude. “No.” I wouldn’t give her any other reason to think I was an asshole.
“The pain is that bad? Or you just didn’t try?”
Way to make me feel like even more of a loser than I am.
My teeth clenched. “Of course, I fucking tried.”
She sucked in a gasp at my curse.
The children drifted closer, drying their eyes and focusing on me rather than their dead parents.
“On a scale of one to ten, how bad?” Estelle squatted beside me, resting her tiny hands on my quad.
I flinched. The heat of her fingers lacerated me through my jeans. Even with a crashed landing, immense pain, and night in a storm, my cock still twitched with longing.
I didn’t know this woman, yet everything about her shackled a collar around my neck and made me want to beg for scraps of attention. Why did she have to be on my flight? Why did she have to sign up for a stupid helicopter taxi? Why couldn’t she have stayed away?
“Are you going to answer me?” Her head tilted. Sunshine dappled her bare arms, highlighting cuts, scrapes, and mud but somehow making her even more beautiful. Twigs and leaves tangled her hair as if she’d slept in a tree, and her lips were wet and pink.
What the hell did she ask me?
I forced myself not to look at the glittering gemstones on her top, beckoning me to peer down her cleavage to the hint of bra beneath.
“Earth to Galloway.”