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The helicopter took off and rose into the air.
I was nervous at first. That was to be expected after the crash—the first time back in the air was certain to be terrifying. I forced myself to ignore those emotions. I couldn’t allow myself to be nervous. I didn’t want Jake to see any signs of weakness.
Besides, everything was going to be fine now.
The helicopter wasn’t going to crash. We were going to reach Maui safely.
I wasn’t going to lose my job. Michael would be pleased to see me.
And I would never make the mistake of believing Jake Wallace again when he said he had any respect for me.
I’d learned my lesson about that.
Chapter 20
JAKE
“We’regoingtotheset,” Olivia said as the helicopter touched down on Maui and we were loaded into a taxi. The helicopter crew had given us fresh clothes, so even though we weren’t looking our best at all, at least we no longer looked like refugees.
“No, we aren’t.” I wasn’t even going to entertain an argument about this. “We’re going to the hospital. You’re injured.”
“It’s just my arm.”
“That was a serious burn.”
“And I’ll go to the hospital. But I want to go to the set first. We need to let Michael know that we’re here and still prepared to work on the movie.”
“Michael Sanders will understand this,” I said.
“You’re the one who’s been making it clear to me for weeks that he doesn’t really need me,” she snapped. “Hollywood writers are a dime a dozen, right? He could step out of his house, throw a stone, and hit someone who would beg him for my job. I want to talk to him so I can make sure he isn’t going to hire someone else.”
“Olivia, this isn’t a fucking discussion. We’re going to the hospital, and that’s the end of it.”
She snorted. “Do you really think you can tell me what to do? I’ll get out of this car and hail another cab. There’s nothing that says I have to go anywhere withyou. So go to the hospital if that’s what you want to do, butIam going to the set.”
Of course, she was right. I couldn’t make her go unless I tossed her over my shoulder and hauled her body to the hospital, which I was considering at the time.
Olivia leaned forward and gave the cab driver the address of the movie set, and he nodded and drove off. I was pissed off—and underneath that, I was seriously worried about her—but I couldn’t do anything.
After all, this was what she had been getting at on the island. She thought I told her what to do too much and didn’t respect her ability to make her own choices. Well, fine. Let her. Let her go to work instead of getting help when she needed it. Her injury would only getworse, and she was beingstupid, but she’d made it clear that she resented any attempt on my part to point it out.
We made the trip in silence, neither of us looking at the other. I knew I was being rude and standoffish, but I also knew that if I tried to talk to her, I was going to explode. It blew my mind that I could get this angry at her after having realized that I had feelings for her.
This was angrier than I had ever been at anyone.
What had she been thinking when she blew up that plane? It was the stupidest thing I’d ever seen in my life!
It did get us rescued, though.
I shook off the thought. That didn’t matter. We would have been rescued eventually even if she hadn’t done that. The crew of the helicopter had confirmed that they had been searching the area for us, and in a chopper, it wouldn’t have been too long before they had spotted the wreckage.
Except that we had already been waiting for a while. We werebothstarting to worry about it. I wasn’t this confident when we were stranded.
I couldn’t keep thinking like this. The fact of the matter was, even though her actions had gotten us rescued, they could have gotten her killed. That was why I was really angry. She had taken a risk that was far too big, and I couldn’t stand it. I knew I could have lost her today.
I might have lost her today, anyway. It was clear that she wanted nothing to do with me, that she didn’t even want to look my way. But at least she hadn’t beenkilled.
Though if she didn’t get her ass to the hospital, she might be in for some serious health ramifications.
