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“I try telling myself that,” he mumbled. After a long pause, he said, “We should turn around and start heading back.”
The pout on her face made him want to kiss her. She did a near-perfect turn despite her disappointment, and they began heading back toward the airport. Ace was about to speak again when a light began to flash on the control panel. Suddenly, the engine went silent.
Dakota looked at him with worry. What the hell? “Give me the controls,” he demanded, his voice calm. It wasn’t a big deal, but certainly not something a pilot in training could deal with on her second day out.
“This is bad, right?” she said. He noticed her voice remained calm, even if it was hesitant.
“This isn’t what’s supposed to happen, but we aren’t in trouble yet,” he told her.
She nodded as she watched every little thing he did. He was trying to get the engine to start again, but all he got was a sputter and then . . . nothing.
They were losing altitude, and Ace knew he only had seconds to decide what to do. He was sort of wishing he hadn’t been trying to impress her by flying this plane, because it ran hotter and required a much faster landing speed, making it more difficult to set down in a short field. He began searching the ground, damn grateful they were outside the city limits. To their slight left were some fields. He didn’t have a great visual to see if there were power lines, tractors, hay, anything that would make them flip once they hit the ground, but he had no other choice except to make an emergency landing.
“This is bad, right?” she repeated, her voice calm, but quiet.
“Yeah, this is bad,” he told her before he keyed the mic to call in an emergency landing. He relayed his coordinates and said a little prayer as the ground drew closer, their speed too fast.
“Hold on,” he told her, his voice tight. This would almost be a thrill for him if Dakota wasn’t sitting right next to him.
Dakota’s heavy breathing came over loud and clear through his headset, and all Ace could think about at this point was trying to control the plane. He didn’t have time to wonder what was wrong or what was going to happen when they hit the ground. He had to play this by ear and pray he kept her alive.
“This is it,” he said, not liking how fast they were going as the plane approached the field. Nothing was visibly in his way, but he didn’t know about holes, low fences, ditches. He just focused his eyes and did his best to pull up the slightest bit so they didn’t slam forward or tilt and hit the wings.
The plane hit the ground with a jarring impact, their bodies getting tugged painfully against their seat belts. Their harnesses were the only thing that saved them from slamming their heads into the ceiling.
He heard Dakota let out a sigh of relief.
“This isn’t over,” he told her. “Hold on tight.”
The plane careened a bit to the left, and he did his best to straighten her out as they thundered down the grassy field. He tapped the brakes lightly, not wanting to hit them hard and send the plane tail over front.
Looking ahead, he saw a fence, and he knew it was going to be a close call. Tapping the brakes a little harder, he felt the plane resist as the tail began sliding sideways. Then they hit a mound of dirt, slamming the left wing into the ground, making them flip over.
Dakota’s scream was the last thing he heard before his head slammed into the window, knocking him out cold.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Sirens were blaring when Ace regained consciousness. Dakota felt tears streaming down her face as she saw the beautiful sight of his eyes opening. She ripped off her headset and reached over and tore his off too.
“How long was I out?” he asked. He looked a bit dazed, but he was waking up fast.
“Only a few seconds, but you scared the hell out of me,” she told him.
“We have to get out of here. She could catch on fire,” he said. He ripped off his seat belt, then reached over and undid hers. Dakota’s fingers were trembling.
The doors were jammed, so Ace leaned back and kicked with all his strength. It took a few tries, but he finally broke the window out. He pushed her through, and then he quickly followed her. He directed her away from the plane. They were damn lucky it hadn’t gone up.
Dakota was trying desperately to be brave as fire engines and an ambulance drove quickly to find them. The whole ordeal had been terrifying.
“Still want to be a pilot?” Ace asked. He was trying to be calm, but she could see the fear in his eyes. She also knew it was because of her. She had a feeling Ace was rarely scared for himself but was bothered deeply when someone he cared about was in danger. That meant she was on his list of those to protect. She sort of liked that feeling.
“That wasn’t a fun part of training,” she admitted with a wobbly smile. “But it won’t stop me from going up again.”
The admiration in his eyes as he brushed some hair from her cheek made her want to do a dance. The soreness in her body warned her it might be a few days before she was doing any type of cardio movement.
“You impress me, Dakota,” he told her.
“Good. I like to be impressive,” she said.
