The air ambulance spun in free fall. Max flung himself into the pilot’s seat. Wind beat at him through the open cockpit door. He yanked it closed and grabbed the seat belt to keep himself from falling through after Smith. Desperately, his hands and feet battled the controls, trying to keep them in the air. But it was too late. Smith had sabotaged the stabilization systems. They were going to crash. Help me, God. What do I do? He’d taken his pilot classes for fun. But he’d never tested. He’d never thought he needed to. Now, as he plummeted toward the ground, it was his only hope to keep Daisy alive.
He put the helicopter in autorotation, slowing the descent as his eyes searched the wilderness below, looking for a safe place to land. Treetops rose high around them. Jagged rocks shot out of the thick Ontario woods on all sides.
Then he saw it, a tiny sliver of gray blue shimmering in between the trees. A lake. He steered toward it. Behind him, he could hear things falling, crashing as they tumbled and tossed, and the sound of Daisy shouting prayers like a warrior’s cry.
The ground rushed toward them. Thick rock filled his eyes. They weren’t going to make it. He yanked the controls up and prayed, as he felt the updraft catch and toss them upward for a moment. Then a crash sounded around them. Everything shook like they’d just slammed into the ground and then unexpectedly fell through it.
Max’s head snapped back against the seat. Pain filled his skull. Then he heard the sound of water roaring around the small metal copter like a thousand waves crashing around them.
Water flew past him on all sides and the helicopter sank into the lake. Cold seeped into his limbs, like something freezing and heavy was swallowing his body whole from the bottom up, threatening to drag him into unconsciousness.
Please, God. Don’t let me die here today. I need to rescue her. I promised I’d protect her.
He gasped a breath, plunged underwater and yanked the cabin door open. Water filled the cabin. Equipment floated loose around him. He pushed through and swam down as his eyes searched the water for Daisy. Then he saw her. She was still strapped in the chair. Her eyes closed. Her blond hair floated loose around her. No, please, no.
Prayers filled his desperate heart as he swam for her. His hands struggled with the seat belt as his lungs fought for breath. Then she fell free.
He pulled her limp body into his arms and swam back for the cockpit. His mouth rose to the last few inches of air left in the cockpit and he gasped a final desperate breath. Then he pushed through the door and swam for the surface, pulling Daisy with him and battling the drag of the sinking helicopter as it threatened to pull Daisy from his arms. He didn’t let go.
He surfaced in a lake, swam to shore and pulled Daisy up alongside him, cradling her limp body in his arms. He eased the water from her lungs, then slid his fingers along her throat and felt for her pulse.
“Keep fighting, Daisy! Please! I need you to fight!” He glanced back at the helicopter, watching the lifesaving equipment he needed sink deep below the surface. Help me, Lord. Help me save her! Our story can’t end now. It can’t end like this. Sirens sounded in the distance, far beyond the trees. “You hear that, Daisy? Police and paramedics are coming. They’ll be here in a moment with oxygen. You just need to hold on for me, you can’t die. Okay?”
Her pulse weakened against his touch. Then he felt it stop. He laid her back on the muddy ground and breathed deep into her lungs.
“You can’t be dead, you hear me?” Tears filled his eyes as his hands pumped her core. “You’re not allowed to leave me. Not now. Not like this. I need you to come back to me. Please, Daisy. I don’t want to live without you.”
Her eyelids fluttered. She coughed hard, spitting up water and then she looked up into his eyes. “Max?”
“Hey, Daisy.” He pulled her into his chest. She reached for him, clutching him to her as if she was as frightened of losing him as he’d been of losing her. “Please don’t ever leave me again. I don’t ever want to lose you again.”
“I won’t.” Her head fell against his chest. “I promise.”
Beside them, the lake bubbled as the helicopter sank deeper. Fitz’s baby toys and odd pieces of electronic equipment littered the ground around them. The sirens grew louder. Then he saw figures running through the woods toward them, a virtual crowd of uniformed men and women—police, firefighters and emergency services—sweeping through the trees.
One tall figure ran forward and outpaced them all.
“Max!” Trent bellowed. “Come on, man! What did I tell you about flying a helicopter without a license?”
Deep laughter poured from Max’s throat as he climbed to his feet and pulled Daisy up alongside him. “I’ll get my license now. I promise! And it wasn’t my fault, honest. The pilot decided to leave midflight.”
“I know!” Amazement and affection filled Trent’s gaze. “We saw him dangling from the trees a while back and sent some guys to pick him up. But it’s still a mystery what he was doing, trying to fly off with boxes of baby gear stuffed with electronics.”
Trent bent down, picked up a teddy bear and turned it over. Then he pulled the soggy fur apart and pulled out a small tablet. He pushed a button. “Password protected. Like everything else we’ve recovered since this whole thing started. I’m going to start praying for the tech guys. They’re going to need all the help they can get cracking these.”
“Well, he was pretty paranoid,” Daisy said slowly, as if hearing herself say the words for the first time. Max watched as a thought began to form slowly behind her eyes. But whatever it had been faded as she saw Chloe striding through the crowd with a tiny form safe in her arms. “Fitz!”
Daisy ran toward Fitz. He reached for her and Max noticed for the first time the gentle-looking white-haired lady with nervous eyes standing a few feet behind them.
“Daisy, his aunt has come to take him,” Chloe said. “We can’t stay long. Her return flight leaves very soon. But I talked her into bringing him to say goodbye.”
His heart lurched as he watched Daisy brush her fingers along the sides of Fitz’s tender cheeks. Fitz waved his hands at her again and gurgled, his eyes growing wide when instead of pulling him into her arms, she took his tiny hand and let his fingers curl around hers.
“I’m sorry, Fitz,” she whispered. “I’m afraid if I hold you now, I might never let you go. Now, you go be a good boy for your auntie. You grow brave and strong and know you’re loved.”
She brushed a kiss across his head and then turned back as Chloe walked away with Fitz in her arms.
Lord, it wasn’t fair! How could Daisy love someone so much and yet lose them? How could Max’s own family have been torn apart by sorrow when he was only a couple of years older than Fitz?
Max’s eyes scanned the ground covered with the toys, gadgets and electronics that represented a life that had been filled with money but not love. He’d never had anywhere near this many toys growing up. But he’d known he was loved and that had been what mattered.
He saw Daisy’s eyes dim as they searched the ground, at the wreckage of a life she’d lived. She reached down and picked up a broken sailboat off the ground, and a sad sob left her lips.
“Gerry gave him this same boat the day he died,” she said. “There was always a new present but it was never like there was any thought behind it. Then it was smashed to pieces in the crash.”
She ran her fingers along the hull and then suddenly cracked it hard against her knee. It snapped in half. A bundle of sugar maple money and a small smartphone fell out. She turned the phone on. It was locked. The light in her eyes grew brighter.
“Chloe, wait!” Daisy called. She grabbed Max with one hand and they ran after her, Trent just one pace behind. Chloe stopped and Daisy slid the small device into Fitz’s hand. He gurgled. His finger slid over the button.
The screen flashed. Fingerprint Password Accepted.
Trent whistled. “Hey, kid, try this one!” He slid the tablet he’d found in the teddy bear in front of Fitz. The baby scrunched his face at the device as his own reflection looked back at him. Then his eyes opened wide.
The device beeped and flashed the words Retina Scan Accepted. Data spilled onto the screen.
Trent shook his head. “I... Well... That’s a new one...”
“Well, aren’t you a little crime fighter?” Max chuckled softly. He slid his hand over Fitz’s head. “I always knew you were a very special baby. It looks like you’re going to get a whole bunch of devices to play with.”
Then Max walked over to Fitz’s aunt and stretched out a hand to shake hers. “I hope you know how amazing he is. If he ever needs anything, anything at all, you let me know.”
He watched as Daisy gave Fitz a final kiss, then turned away and wrapped her arms around herself. Max ran after her, wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly. They stood there for a long moment, as they heard people come and go, processing the scene. Finally, Daisy’s tears stopped, as if she’d cried her chest free of them. She tilted her face up toward him and her beautiful eyes met his.
“I need you to marry me, Daisy,” he said. “I don’t care if we have to date long-distance or if I have to figure out how to move to England or if you make me wait years and years for an answer. I can’t lose you. Not like we lost Fitz and not like I thought I’d lost you earlier. You’re the strongest, bravest, best part of me. And you make me a better man. Please be my wife.”
She laughed, tears of happiness mingling with the tears of sadness on her cheeks. “Wait until you’ve known me longer than two days and then decide if you want to ask me again.”
“Okay,” he said. “But I already know that I will. I love you, Daisy.”
“I love you, too, and I know what my answer will be,” she whispered as he brought his lips to meet hers.