Читать книгу The Daughter Dilemma - Ann Evans - Страница 9

WITH THE FLICK of a finger on his control box, Sam D’Angelo moved his wheelchair out of his son’s way.

They were in one of the lodge’s downstairs suites, Nick’s and granddaughter Tessa’s temporary lodgings until their cabin was habitable again. The plumbing crisis had been dealt with—at least to Nick’s satisfaction—but Sam, who had once handled these kinds of little emergencies, couldn’t help feeling the need to make sure.

“You turned off all the valves in Number Ten?” he asked for the second time. “Just to be safe.”

He hated that he couldn’t get up the stairs in his own home, his own business. When he’d come back from the hospital, he should have insisted that they put in an elevator. He could have seen the damage upstairs for himself.

Nick was bent over the sink, washing his hands to remove the grease he’d encountered from taking a look at Rosa’s stove. “I did, Pop,” he said without turning around. “Tom Faraday’s on his way. I think a crack in the tank is the culprit, but he’ll be able to tell us for sure. Stop worrying.”

“You know what water can do to wood when it seeps through tiny crevices?”

Nick straightened, wiping his hands dry. “Gosh, no,” he said with a grin. “Not since the last time you put me through Plumbing 101 class.”

Sam narrowed his eyes. “Your mother is right. You are becoming a very disrespectful son.”

“And you’re turning into a bigger worrier than she is.”

Sam gave him a severe look.

Nick grabbed the edges of his shirt and pulled it over his head, then slipped on a fresh white T-shirt. From his wheelchair, Sam watched in silent admiration. Nick had inherited Sam’s build. His torso was tanned, broad and powerful. A man’s chest, the way a man’s chest should be. The way Sam’s had once been years ago.

He couldn’t help it, a little twist of envy jolted through him. Bad enough that age took its revenge so soon. That sickness could whittle you down until there was almost nothing left of the person you had been. Sam had cheated death. It had whispered in his ear, but he had refused to listen. He had lived, and for that, he thanked God. But he was only fifty-eight. He missed that lost energy, that effortless strength. He wondered if his son understood how lucky he was to have it.

Nick went to the closet, pulled out his sneakers and sat on the bed. He was halfway through knotting one shoe when the lace popped.

He held the broken piece in front of him, shaking his head. “Perfect,” he said. “Just perfect.”

Toeing off the sneaker, he kicked them both out of the way and went to the closet to root around for another pair. “I’m telling you,” he said as he scooped up his hiking boots. “I don’t care if a whole family of skunks have taken up residence in the cabin. Tomorrow, Tessa and I are moving back in.”

Sam cocked his head. “Why are you in such a black mood?”

“I’m not in a black mood. Brown, maybe. You wouldn’t believe—”

He broke off as they both became aware that Tessa stood in the open doorway. Sam’s granddaughter was a beauty even at fourteen. Glossy black hair like Rosa’s had been when he’d first met her. And the eyes—like dark fire. Unfortunately the fire lately had all been directed at Nick. Even now, as she addressed her father, her eyes were smoldering.

“Nonna Rosa said to tell you that we’re all eating sandwiches tonight ’cause of the stove. Everything else is for guests. She also says the kitchen is closing early and don’t either of you touch the zabiglione in the fridge.”

“Donnaccia! We live under the rule of a petty tyrant,” Sam said dramatically, hoping to get a reaction out of the girl. Tessa was his pet, his favorite companion. Surely he could make her smile.

The child had no time for him. Tight lips declared her grievances against her father. She lowered her head, setting her chin. “Can I eat dinner in my room?” she asked Nick.

“I suppose.” Nick pulled on one hiking boot. “Still mad about the dress, huh?”

Now his darling grandchild’s eyes shot daggers. “I took it back like you told me. That doesn’t mean I think it’s fair.”

“Tessa…”

The girl flung herself away from the door and disappeared.

Nick sighed and looked at his father. “If I’m in a mood, would you really wonder why?”

“She’ll get over it. The young suffer a great deal, but their anger dies quickly.”

“Addy thinks I’m too hard on her.”

It was time, Sam decided, to say a few things that had been on his mind lately. “Sometimes you are. I think you need someone to make what you say to her more pal—” He stopped, trying to envision the right word in his mind. In spite of all the progress he’d made, sometimes the consequences of the stroke still plagued his speech, but Nick knew better than to help him.

The word wouldn’t come. After a frustrated moment he said, “To make what you say not such a bitter pill to swallow.”

“There are plenty of people around here sugarcoating every word I say to her.”

“You need more than that. You need a real mother for the girl. And a wife for yourself, Nick. A helpmate.”

There was a swift change in Nick’s expression. He stopped tightening the laces on his second boot and looked at his father as though he had suffered another stroke. “A wife! That’s the last thing I need.”

“Why? Look at your mother and me. So many happy years. Marriages are made in heaven.”

“So are thunder and lightning,” Nick said with a bark of laughter. He turned back to his boots, a touch of impatience in the set of his mouth. “I don’t think we need to have this discussion. Let’s go see if we can talk Mom out of some lasagna.”

Sam moved his wheelchair closer. “Don’t brush me aside. I’m serious. You think one bad marriage and it’s over? Just because you burn your mouth once does not mean you have to blow on your soup forever.”

Nick rose, raking a hand through his hair. “I don’t know where this is coming from,” he muttered. “I haven’t been this uncomfortable since our birds and the bees talk.”

“Your mother and I—we see you. You take on too much. You share nothing. Not even your thoughts anymore. This mountain is becoming your fortress. I know this is because of me.” Sam’s right arm was his strongest, and he let his fingers brush against the side of the wheelchair. “Because of this. You think we can’t manage without you.”

The discussion was sapping his energy. Sam could feel his head drooping a little. In a softer tone he said, “Well, perhaps you are right. Perhaps we can’t.”

Nick came to the chair and knelt in front of his father. He took his hand in his, massaging the long, bony fingers lightly. “I see improvement in you every day, Pop,” he said in a gentle voice. “You keep going, and I’ll be out of a job in no time. In the meantime, I enjoy looking after everyone here. I’d be bored without all this insanity.”

Sam looked his son in the eyes. “You are a healthy young man. Good Italian stock. You should date.”

Nick grinned. “I do. Didn’t I take Helen Grabowksi to Broken Yoke’s Fourth of July celebration?”

“Bah!” Sam said with a grimace. “That woman, she is…she has…” Again he struggled to find the word. When it failed to materialize, he settled on something easier. “Your grandfather would have said she has la malocchio!”

Nick’s Italian was pretty good, but he’d seldom heard that word. He straightened and placed his hands on his hips. “I don’t see how a woman who works at Becky’s House of Hair can have the evil eye.”

“She giggled all through the national anthem.” Sam didn’t bother to hide the acid in his tone.

“God help her if it had been the Italian national anthem. You’d have had her run out of town on a rail.”

“That woman is not your type.”

“Type!” Nick exclaimed with more laughter. “I was looking for fun and a little companionship. Not a blood transfusion.”

“Nicholas—”

“We can talk about my love life later. Much, much later. I have to get back to the hangar. I’m surprised Addy hasn’t called screaming bloody murder because I’ve been gone so long.”

He moved around to the back of Sam’s wheelchair, bending forward as he pushed his father out into the hallway. “If you and Mom want to work on finding someone a mate, start with Addy. Get her interested in a man and maybe she’ll stop bugging me about more flight time.”

ALL THE WAY DOWN the mountain in his Jeep, Nick couldn’t stop smiling.

Imagine his father and mother worried about his love life! What was that all about? Maybe he hadn’t been in the best of moods lately, but how did they figure getting involved with a woman was the answer? If anything, it would just make everything more…complicated.

He should have told his father not to bother. He was no damned good at the husband/wife game. Ask Denise, his ex. She’d have given Pop an earful, although Nick wasn’t sure she’d be completely impartial about where the blame lay. Some of the reasons their marriage had failed had been his fault. Okay, a lot of them. It probably didn’t matter now which ones. It was enough to say that their quarreling had corroded and eventually killed what they’d once had together.

A new relationship? These days he couldn’t find much reason to try. He was too tired. Too set in his ways. Too busy to blow the dust off the old male/female dance steps and find someone new to whirl out onto the floor.

Besides, who in these parts could even inspire him to try?

Pop was right about Helen Grabowski. Way too giddy. Ellie Hancock, the owner of Ellie’s Book Nook? Too timid. You had to work hard to get a single word out of her. Paulette Manzoni, the pretty ski instructor he’d met in Vail the last time he was there, had been a possibility. She had a great appreciation for the bed and was Italian, to boot, which would certainly please his parents. Only thing, she collected teddy bears, which was a nice little hobby—until Nick had discovered they took up every square inch of her house.

No. Definitely not.

Broken Yoke, the nearest town, didn’t offer much hope. The woman who’d shown up at Angel Air’s office today had been right. If something didn’t happen soon, the only inhabitants there would be ghosts.

Kari Churchill. Pretty name. Pretty lady, too, although she had one heck of a nerve expecting them to drop everything to fly her out to Elk Creek Canyon. He didn’t care for egotists who had so little respect for other people’s time. She’d put his back up right from the start with that attitude of hers, and Nick suspected the feeling was mutual.

Too bad, because they could have used the money. But if he was going to be tied up at the lodge, he hadn’t wanted Addy taking up that flight. Not in the last hour of good daylight. Not when his sister still didn’t know his birds like the back of her hand.

But he couldn’t say that in front of her. So he’d probably lost that booking and made an enemy of the Churchill woman for life. Sorry, Pop. Scratch that name off your list of potential mates.

Rain splattered the windshield of the Jeep. In the distance he heard the rumble of thunder. Those clouds he’d seen earlier hadn’t lied. He was getting pretty good at predicting storms. Soon he’d be like Great-Uncle Giovanni, forecasting weather with his big toes.

Addy was going to be furious. It took both of them to get the birds into the hangar, him pushing from the tail while she maneuvered the skid dolly. Now they might have to manage it in pouring rain.

He frowned as he pulled into the parking lot. The outside floodlights weren’t on and Kari Churchill’s vehicle was still sitting there. The lights in the office weren’t on, either, but what made Nick’s stomach drop right down to his toes was the chopper pad.

Raven One was gone.

Ramming the key into the office lock, he flipped on the lights and strode back to the hangar in less than a dozen steps. It was dark, too. No copter. Nobody in sight.

He ran back into the office. Not possible. Addy wouldn’t. She wouldn’t have taken the copter up with a storm coming in. She knew better.

Didn’t she?

His mind stretched back, trying to recall if she’d been standing there when he and Dwayne Patterson had shared that awkward conversation about the weather.

We’ll get a thunderstorm later.

You really think so?

Where had Addy been? On the pad, right? On the pad right beside him. No. Not there. Checking on that little witch Hannah Patterson.

If she hadn’t known about the coming storm, then she might have gone up. When he’d pulled out of the parking lot, had there been anything but pretty blue sky overhead? He couldn’t remember. Would she really have let the Churchill woman talk her into something? No! She’d check the weather service. She knows the drill. She knows it…

His legs felt as though they were filled with water as he dropped behind his desk, knocked everything aside and pulled the base radio to his chest. He had to swallow hard.

Focus. Don’t lose control.

Oh, damn it, sis! Where are you?

“BASE TO Nine-Zero-One-Bravo. Where the hell are you?”

Ground radio transmissions were normally more difficult for a passenger to hear, nothing more than muffled signals, but Kari didn’t miss a word of the angry male communication that practically made her ears ring. And it wasn’t difficult to figure out just who was trying to reach them.

She and Addy exchanged a look.

Addy pressed the radio switch. “Nine-Zero-One-Bravo to Base. Who wants to know?”

“Damn it, Addy! Where are you?” Nick demanded again. At what had to be the top of his lungs. “I don’t think this is funny, Adriana. If you get down here in one piece I’m going to break every bone in your body.”

Kari threw Addy a worried glance, but the woman only grinned and gave her a look of mock terror. She pushed the radio button again. “Stop acting like a raving maniac. I’m not hurting your bird. We’re flying.”

“I don’t give a damn about the bird. Are you aware there’s a thunderstorm on your tail?” There was a moment of hostile silence. “And who’s we? It better not be who I think it is.”

“She can hear every word, Nick,” Addy said patiently. “That’s not the way to talk to our paying customers.”

“She wasn’t supposed to be a paying customer. Not today. Get down here.”

“Soon, big brother. We’ve been watching the storm. I think we’re outrunning it.”

“You think?”

“We’re getting a little wind. But stop worrying. We’ll be down in about five minutes. I can see the power station lights up on the ridge.”

“Okay. Okay,” Nick said, sounding a little more calm. “Keep your airspeed up. And don’t overdo your cyclic. Pull back too hard and she’ll plant your tongue to the roof of your mouth.”

“I know that,” Addy said in a put-upon voice. “Now leave us alone. You’re making me nervous. And you’ve got to promise to be civil when we get down. No yelling.”

“I want you to check in with me every minute until you touch down. Base to Nine-Zero-One-Bravo. Out.”

Inside the copter cabin and over the dull whipping of the rotor blades, there was nothing but dead silence for a few moments. Kari’s ears were tingling in her headset, but Addy still seemed unfazed. Maybe she was used to going toe-to-toe with her brother. Kari, on the other hand, had a feeling that if she ever did get to Elk Creek Canyon, it would be another flight service that would take her there.

Addy sighed. “Nice to know he cares.”

“I notice he didn’t make any promises about not yelling.”

The helicopter started to drift and rock as the weather worsened. It seemed to be at the mercy of a giant’s swinging hand, picked up and pushed sideways, then dropped and pulled back in the other direction. Kari began to feel slightly queasy, but Addy seemed determined and calm.

Rain was falling in silver sheets. Kari’s eyes were riveted by the sight of it sliding down the windscreen, where it was violently flung away by the wind. They both became silent, tense. Addy was concentrating and Kari was simply too nervous to speak.

In the next moment lightning zigzagged across the front of the helicopter. There was a sizzling crack, so loud and close that Kari couldn’t hold back a small yelp of surprise and fear. The aircraft bucked and took such a swooping dive that Kari felt her rear end come up off the seat.

“Son of a—” Addy muttered, both hands moving on the controls to correct their descent. “I think we just took a hit!”

She jerked her chin toward the top of the cabin. Over Kari’s head was a small paned opening, like a car sunroof. “Look up there and tell me if you see anything. Sparks. Fire. Anything.”

Kari rose as much as her seat belt would allow. At first she saw nothing but darkness. Then a stray flicker of light from one of the exterior lights revealed that the blades were still turning. Surely that was a good sign. “Nothing,” she said.

“Something’s wrong.”

“Are we going to crash?”

“Not if I can help it.”

The wind seemed stronger, rising and moaning eerily. Kari watched the sure movements of Addy D’Angelo’s pale hands. Up. Down. Back again. Correcting constantly.

A heart-deep fear rose in her. Please. I don’t want to die.

And then the engine failed.

It lasted only a moment or two. Like a misfire in an automobile. But it was enough to send the helicopter plummeting further still, sinking like a bird dropped out of the sky by a hunter’s rifle.

Addy was on the radio instantly, shouting through the headphones. “Base, come in. Springs Flight Service, come in. Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! This is Nine-Zero-One-Bravo. We have engine failure from a lightning strike. Two on board. I think we can make Columbine Meadow. I repeat…”

There was no answer. Was the radio dead?

Kari was numb with fear now. She squeezed her eyes tight for a moment, listening to her own rattled breathing and the woman beside her, who muttered and cursed and talked herself through every movement.

“Autorotate, Addy…. Not enough airspeed and height, but you know how to compensate. Easy. Easy. Nose up. Glide in, glide in. You can do it.”

Kari gripped her own hands hard. A flicker of lightning lit up the cabin. In that one brief moment Addy’s face looked both beautiful and terrible.

It couldn’t end like this. Not like this, Kari thought in anguish.

Father. I’m so sorry. Now I’ll never know…

Addy swung her head to look at her. “Columbine Meadow’s less than five miles from Angel Air. We can make it.”

The helicopter shook as though it was coming apart. Although she couldn’t see anything out the front windscreen, Kari knew the ground was coming up fast in spite of all Addy’s best efforts. “Oh, God,” she whispered. “Oh, God.”

“Hang on,” Addy warned her. “Hang on.” She had pushed back in her seat, bracing, both hands tight on the controls. “Flatten the glide path, Addy. Raise your collective. Keep your nose up, damn it!”

The earth rushed toward them.

Addy shouted at her through the headset. “If we hit hard enough to split the skids, then our bodies are going to take the force of the impact. Get ready.”

The helicopter landed suddenly.

Nothing could have prepared Kari for how crushing it was, how loud, how completely terrifying. Her spine jolted. Her teeth came down hard and cut into her lip, filling her mouth with blood. Something struck her against the right temple. Beside her, Addy D’Angelo gave a short yelp of pain. Above them, the rotor blades still turned, but things banged. Rattled. Screeched in protest.

There was a moment of absolute stunned silence as both of them realized that they hadn’t been instantly killed. That they might even survive this.

Then Addy moaned.

“Addy,” Kari said, reaching out to touch the woman’s arm. “Are you all right?”

Addy jerked away from that contact with a gasp. “Got to shut down. Get us cooled off.” She sounded disoriented and when she reached for the switches, she moaned again. “Oh damn, I think my arm’s broken. Maybe both of them.”

“Tell me what to do.”

“Get out. Leg it out of here.”

“No!” Kari told her. “Tell me what to do.”

With her chin, Addy motioned toward the floor on Kari’s side. “The fire extinguisher. By your right foot. Do you know how to use one?”

Kari reached for it immediately. It looked no bigger than a bottle of shaving cream. “I’ll figure it out.”

“I’ll shut down what I can up here. Can you move? Get out and go to the back of the fuselage. The engine’s below. Don’t touch it. Just spray the hell out of it until the canister’s empty. Understand?”

Quickly, Kari unfastened her seat belt and slipped the helicopter’s door latch. The ground wasn’t flat and it took a moment for her to find her feet. The craft sat slightly cock-eyed on a scattered field of rocks, but at least it seemed to be in one piece. From what Kari could see, in spite of what Addy had feared, the landing struts hadn’t separated from the fuselage.

It was still raining lightly and Kari shivered with cold. Or maybe it was shock. She realized her hands were shaking, too. So badly she could hardly pull the pin out of the extinguisher. Setting her teeth, she did as Addy had told her. Yellow chemicals sprayed out to cover the engine. When the can finally emptied with a dribbling hiss, she tossed it away. By the time she managed to stumble back inside the cabin, her hands weren’t the only part of her that trembled.

She slid into her seat, hearing the quick rise and fall of her own shallow breaths as they competed with the pounding of her heart. “I did it. Now what?” she asked, though she hoped the answer required no more than the strength she possessed right now.

“Good,” Addy said. “Just give me a minute.”

Kari looked at her companion. She held both her arms against her body like a surgeon who’d just scrubbed for surgery. Her face was pale, but there was no blood anywhere, thank God.

Twisting in her seat, Kari leaned closer. “Let me help you.” Addy’s left arm looked normal, but there was a good-size knot just past the wrist of her right one. “Do you really think they’re broken?” Kari asked with a grimace.

“I don’t know.” Addy frowned at her. “Your forehead is bleeding.”

Gingerly, Kari touched her temple. She could feel a lump forming—it hurt like hell—but when she brought her hand away, there was only a little watery blood on her fingertips.

“I’ll survive,” she said. “Looks like we both will.”

“I can’t believe we crashed.” Addy’s voice sounded sketchy and a little wild. “And that we didn’t die. Although we might as well have. Nick’s going to kill me.”

“After what we just went through, we can deal with him.”

Kari leaned across the back of the seat, trying to ignore the throb of pain that suddenly stabbed along her spine. Her camping equipment lay all over the rear seats. She unzipped her pack and dug into the contents, pushing through nylon and tin and packages of freeze-dried food.

“What are you doing?” Addy asked.

When Kari finally found what she wanted, she settled back in her seat. She held up the tent stakes and masking tape she’d rescued from her gear. “I think we should try to splint your arms. Okay?”

Addy gave her a faint smile and nodded.

As gently as she could, Kari placed a tent stake against Addy’s right forearm, then wound the tape around it to hold the metal in place. The woman was a trooper. She set her jaw and didn’t make a sound except for one hiss of pain that escaped her dry, pale lips.

“So now what do we do?” Kari asked as she worked. “Do you think your brother heard you?”

“Even if he didn’t, the airport would have heard the Mayday. Assuming that the radio was still working. It’s definitely not now.”

“So we’ll just sit and wait to be rescued,” Kari said, trying for a lighter tone that might keep Addy’s mind off the pain in her arms.

The woman closed her eyes and let her head fall back against the seat. She suddenly looked so much younger, smaller. The cabin seemed to swallow her up.

“I’m so sorry, Kari,” she said in a thin, quavering voice. “My fault. Not rechecking the weather service was such a stupid mistake. It’s basic.”

“What are you talking about?” Kari reproached her. “You were magnificent. We’d never have survived this if you hadn’t been so calm and in control. Besides, it’s really my fault. I’m the one who took advantage of your kindness.”

Addy gave her a faint smile. “Don’t be so hard on yourself.”

“No, I’m to blame here. My father was the most spontaneous man you’d ever want to meet, but even he used to complain about how impulsive I am, how disorganized. I could have planned this whole trip so much better. I could have come up here when I had more time to devote to it.”

“So why didn’t you?”

“Because…” Kari hesitated, then decided to tell the truth. After what she and Addy had just been through, the woman deserved nothing less. “Because today is the two-year anniversary of the day my father hiked into Elk Creek Canyon. I wanted to experience the same set of circumstances he did. Know exactly what he saw. It just seemed important somehow. A way to help me understand…how he could have died there.”

“I’m sorry,” Addy said again, sounding a little woozy.

“It’s all right,” Kari reassured her. Lightly she pressed the final piece of tape around her splint. “This is the best I can do under the circumstances. Let’s just rest now. There’s no point in beating ourselves up for what’s already done.”

That seemed to help a little. They settled back in their seats. Addy kept her eyes closed. Kari just kept staring out the front of the helicopter. Her temple throbbed. Muscles in her back began to protest. The only sounds were the soft exhalations of their own breaths, calmer now, no longer quick and charged with panic. They were cocooned in a puddle of light inside the aircraft, but outside everything looked as black as a deep well. At least the rain had let up.

Help will be here soon. Just rest. Wait for it.

A few minutes passed. Kari dozed.

The next thing she knew, the helicopter seemed to be shaking again. Her eyes flew open. She felt disoriented. In the darkness beyond the helicopter there seemed to be bright lights everywhere. For a moment she thought the lightning was back. Then she realized that the lights were the twin white beams of car headlights.

Shouts. Movement. We’ve been rescued.

Someone tugged on the door next to Addy. It held stubbornly for a moment, then gave with a squeal of protesting metal. Kari squinted, trying to give features to their rescuer’s face, but all she could make out was the silhouette of a man.

Please, please let it be a policeman, she thought. A paramedic. A fireman. Anyone but—

“Addy, talk to me!” Nick D’Angelo demanded. His tone was tart, frantic.

No such luck. Big brother Nick had found them.

Kari had a feeling the crash was only the beginning of her problems.