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“Okay,” she squeaked, tears pricking at her eyes again. She wasn’t always this emotional. Right? It scared her that she couldn’t remember this day or the men who she felt like she should somehow know. What else was she forgetting? Was she actually an emotional mess who cried all the time?
Curtis’s gaze was warm on her face as the two men stood on the edges of the basket, hanging on to the cables, and the contraption and men lowered toward them.
“It’ll be okay,” he said, bending down closer and almost whispering the words in her ear.
“You promise?” She grabbed onto his warm, firm arm.
“I promise.” His gaze reassured her as much as his words.
“Will you stay by my side?” she begged.
“You just try and get rid of me,” he said with a charming smile.
“Bless you.” She relaxed, releasing his arm. This was a man as true as a Southern gentleman. He wouldn’t leave her. He wouldn’t let harm come to her.
The men landed and stepped over to them. The one thumped Curtis on the shoulder, a big smile on his face.
“Thanks for coming, Chad,” Curtis’ voice was muffled by the helicopter but his eyes were as serious as she’d seen them and something passed between the two men.
“Anytime.” Chad nodded to him then turned to her. “We’re going to load you onto the board ma’am,” he said loudly, giving her a kind smile. He was a handsome man with unique green eyes wearing a gray military uniform.
“Bless you,” she said. She’d noticed Curtis’s unique and charming accent but this man’s accent was thick and suave. On his days off from the military she imagined he was quite the ladies’ man.
The other man gently put a soft collar around her neck and held her head as Chad and Curtis slid their hands under her back and legs and eased her onto a hard board. She couldn’t understand why Curtis’s hands produced a strong tingling sensation but Chad’s were just hands. They strapped her onto the board. She didn’t like that. It was awful to feel like she was bound but she instinctively trusted these men.
They loaded her and the board carefully on top of the basket, securing it. The two men conferred for a brief moment and then Curtis stood on the edge of the basket, grasping the rope and smiling down at her. How did he know she didn’t want to be away from him for a moment? It was terrifying to think of being lifted while laying helplessly on this board, but she trusted Curtis and Chad. They had been nothing but kind. She was anxious to get away from whoever was out in the woods. Would they have followed her? Was she safe now? How could she find Gracie?
She and Curtis lifted off the ground. Aliya cried out. He crouched down as the cable pulled them up, holding onto the ropes.
“It’s okay,” he called to her.
Aliya focused on his face, his blue eyes. It was okay. Curtis was here.
They were quickly level with the helicopter. A man waited inside while the pilot held the helicopter steady. The man offered a hand, Curtis took it and leapt inside. Then the two of them carefully maneuvered her and the board into the helicopter, sliding her in and away from the door.
The basket and cable descended back down.
Curtis took a blanket from the other man’s hands and squatted next to her, tucking the blanket around her and making fire race through her body as his hands brushed her hand, her side, her leg, and then her neck.
“You all right?” he called to her.
“Yes. Bless you,” she talked loudly to be heard over the rotors.
He nodded and started to straighten.
“Curtis.” She tried to reach for his hand but grasped his warm leg instead.
He immediately squatted back down, those blue eyes holding her in his grasp. “Yes?”
“Can they look for Gracie?”
“Of course.”
The other two men swept into the helicopter. They pulled in the basket and cable, shut the door and the helicopter climbed up above the trees and then swooped over the mountains.
Curtis and Chad put on headsets and talked rapidly into them. Curtis gestured to her a few times and his eyes swept over her often. Aliya was the farthest thing from comfortable, lying on the hard wooden board, her head throbbing, in wet clothes, and worrying about Gracie. She closed her eyes and she must’ve drifted off.
She was lifted into the air. Her eyes sprung open. The helicopter had landed and Curtis and another man carried her off the helicopter, settling her on a waiting rolling bed, still attached to the board.
