“Somebody call my name?” Linc opened his eyes and struggled to sit up. The two men grinned at each other with the ease of old friends.
“Welcome aboard and pleased to meet you,” Cage said, shaking hands with Linc.
“Thanks.”
Linc looked at Kerry. She looked back. Cage realized immediately that something was going on there and that whatever it was, he was a fifth wheel. “I, uh, I’ll see to the kids. Kerry, maybe you’d better check on Linc’s wound. Medical supplies are in here,” he said, sliding a first-aid kit toward her. Diplomatically he left them alone.
“What in the hell were you trying to prove back there?” Linc demanded angrily. “I told you to leave without us if anything happened. I ought to bust your butt for disobeying me.”
Kerry’s encroaching tears were swept away by fury. “Well, pardon me,” she snapped. “I wasn’t waiting for you. I was waiting for Joe. Are you in pain or not?”
“It’s a Band-Aid wound,” he said, negligently glancing at his bleeding shoulder.
“Cage can give you a shot to stop the pain.”
“Forget it. I hate shots.”
They glowered at each other. Her lips were the first to quirk with the beginning of a smile. Then his. They surprised all the passengers in the small aircraft by suddenly bursting into laughter.
“We made it!” Linc cried exuberantly. “We actually made it. Hotdamn! You’re home free, Kerry.”
“Home.” She whispered the word like a benediction.
Then her emotions made another swift about-face. She launched herself against Linc’s bloodstained chest. And while they hugged each other fiercely, she wept with relief.
Chapter 8
Jenny Hendren had thoughtfully provided food. There were peanut butter sandwiches, oranges and apples, and homemade chocolate chip cookies. Cheese snacks and canned drinks had been kept in a portable cooler. As soon as their hunger had been appeased, most of the children dozed. All the seats had been temporarily removed from the Cessna executive plane, but there still wasn’t an abundance of space inside the fuselage.
“How is Joe?” Kerry asked Cage.
He was bending over the injured boy, checking the inadequate bandage he had placed over his thigh wound. “Still out.”
“I’m glad you had that injection ready.”
“So am I. He’d be in a helluva lot of pain without it. How is the other patient?”
“Ornery, bullheaded, obstinate.” Immediately after her tears had dried, she and Linc had moved apart awkwardly. No longer tender and consoling, he’d reverted to being tough and abusive. “He wants to talk to you.”
Cage moved over to where Linc was propped against the wall. He looked as disreputable as when Kerry had first met him. He was unshaven. His clothes were filthy and torn and bloodstained. Without the handkerchief sweatband around his forehead, he had to constantly keep pushing his hair away from his face.
“Kerry said you wanted to talk to me.” Cage eased down beside the other man.
“You said something earlier about calling ahead to your wife.” Cage nodded. “Do you think she could have a camera waiting for me when we land?”
“Linc had to throw his cameras in the river when we crossed it,” Kerry explained. “We barely managed to save his film.”
Cage, for all his reckless living in years past, looked back at them with surprise and respect. “Sounds as if the two of you had quite an adventure.”
Kerry glanced uneasily at Linc. “Yes, we did. You see, the river—”
Cage held up both hands. “I want to hear all about it, but everyone else will, too. Why don’t you rest now, then tell it once for everybody?” Kerry smiled at him gratefully. “What kind of camera do you need, Linc?” he asked.
“Got a pencil?”
Cage jotted down the specifications as Linc ticked them off. “I’ll see what I can do.” He inched toward the cockpit.
“Nice guy,” Linc remarked, his eyes still on Cage.