Kitabı oku: «In the Boss's Arms», sayfa 3

Clean-shaven, dark and good-looking and dressed in his business suit, he was every inch a corporate leader, dead set on going places.

His blue eyes skirted over Alice as he looked directly at Mary-Ann and then Shana. ‘I know the photo in the Cairns Post has caused quite a stir and I’d like to set the record straight,’ he said. ‘I expect Alice has told you about our chance meeting in the bar last Friday evening.’

He waited, eyebrows raised expectantly. ‘Right,’ he continued, once he’d elicited nods of agreement from the girls. ‘I’m here to assure you that there are no grounds for gossip. That photo means nothing and I don’t expect to hear any more about it from anyone in this company.’

His cool, no-nonsense gaze flicked to Alice, causing considerable difficulty with her breathing. ‘What’s important from now on is this business,’ he said, still looking straight at her. ‘Your jobs.’ His hands dropped from his hips.

Alice couldn’t believe how awful this felt. Liam wasn’t putting a foot wrong. He was doing everything he’d said he would and it was sensible to clear the air, to nip rumours in the bud. He was distancing himself from her, as he’d promised, turning from her lover into her boss.

She should be pleased. She was pleased. In her head.

But her heart felt like a heavy stone, sinking…sinking…

‘OK,’ Liam said. ‘Let’s move on to more important matters. I’d like to schedule a full staff meeting for tomorrow.’

‘Alice, can you come through to my office?’

Liam held his breath. There was an unsettling pause before she replied.

‘I’m sorry, Mr Conway, I’m busy with clients at the moment. Can you give me—oh, say, fifteen minutes?’

‘Certainly.’ Liam swallowed. He’d seen little of her over the past week—just the occasional glimpse from a distance down the corridor. Now the sound of her voice triggered a constriction in his throat.

He knew he’d been avoiding her. Cowardly of him? No doubt. Untenable for an effective working environment? Most certainly.

‘Come as soon as you’re free,’ he said.

She wasn’t free for another forty-five minutes and he distracted himself by making phone calls, continuing to contact the various resorts and attractions the company dealt with. He was questioning the people who ran them to find out what his staff and consultants were doing well and what they were doing wrong.

When at last Alice knocked on his door, he jumped to his feet. ‘You’ve had a busy morning,’ he said.

‘Yes.’

‘No problems? Nothing I should know about?’

‘No, just some complicated transport arrangements for a Japanese group.’

Something about the way she said that made him wonder if her delay had been deliberate. Was she trying to avoid him as carefully as he’d been avoiding her? ‘Please, take a seat.’

She sat very primly, shoulders back, ankles crossed neatly. She was wearing a short grey skirt and now she made an attempt to camouflage its hemline by positioning a notebook and a pen just so.

But the skirt wasn’t the only problem. The pale, intensely feminine blouse beneath her businesslike jacket was damnably distracting. The blouse wasn’t transparent, but the way his imagination worked it might as well have been.

Liam wondered if he should insist that his staff wear an ultra-conservative uniform. Then again, that wouldn’t be much use. It was Alice who was distracting, not her choice of clothes.

She looked demure, almost prim, here in his office, but all he could think of was how uninhibited she’d been when she was alone with him, how passionately she’d made love.

He snatched his gaze away from her and took a moment to refocus on the business he had to discuss. ‘I’d like to talk to you about the outback tours. I know they’ve been your responsibility in the past.’

She looked surprised. ‘I haven’t been in charge of that area for a couple of years.’

‘Quite. Dennis Ericson took over from you.’

‘Yes.’

He pointed to the stack of hard-copy files on his desk and to the computer screen. ‘I’ve been going through the company’s history and I’ve noticed that the outback package tours used to be very popular but these days they aren’t doing nearly as well as the tours to the reef and the rainforest. I’d like to hear your thoughts on that.’

‘Oh…’ Alice looked down at her hands and he could sense her discomfort.

He suspected it wouldn’t be easy for her to give him an honest appraisal without implicating the staff member who’d taken control from her. Ericson.

‘Well, to start with, the reef and the rainforest have more obvious and well-established attractions,’ she said. ‘That’s where the big operators are and they’re very strong in marketing and promoting their product. It’s a lot easier to interest people in island cruises in glass-bottomed boats than in the hot and dusty outback.’

‘But from what I’ve seen we used to connect tourists to a huge range of outback activities in the past. Everything from wilderness canoeing with helicopter drops to visiting Aboriginal communities and outback picnic races.’

Alice nodded. ‘Actually, the farm stays and cattle musters were probably our most popular drawcards.’

‘What happened to them?’

She gave a half-hearted shrug but didn’t comment.

‘I’d like you to be honest with me, Alice. It’s important to get to the bottom of the problem. I expect growth in every area of my business.’

‘But I’m not sure that I can help you.’

‘Just tell me what you know.’

She sighed. ‘There have been a few problems,’ she admitted carefully. ‘I’d say it started after we switched to a different airline for the charter flights out to the remote areas.’

Liam nodded. This change of airline, he was sure, had been Dennis’s decision.

‘The new company was much cheaper,’ said Alice.

‘But that economy came at a price?’

‘Yes, they were too casual. Vague about timetables. Passengers were left stranded, luggage misplaced. And fair enough, we scored some bad word-of-mouth publicity.’

Liam nodded and made notes. ‘What else?’

She tapped her pen against the cover of her notebook, taking her time before she replied. ‘We used to have about fifty popular farm stays on our books and quite a few fishing spots up in the Gulf Country, but a lot of them pulled out.’

‘Why?’

She hesitated. ‘Haven’t you already discussed this with Dennis?’

Liam had.

‘I’ve taken note of Dennis’s observations,’ he said. ‘But I’d like to hear your opinion.’

She frowned. ‘Our outback contacts said it wasn’t worth it.’

‘Are you saying that they removed their properties from our books, or they dropped out of tourism altogether?’

It was clear she didn’t want to answer this question. She opened her notebook, stared at a blank page, and then shut it again with a snap.

‘Is that what happened?’ Liam prompted again. ‘These cattle stations stopped taking tourists?’

‘No.’

Liam waited.

‘They went to other tourist agencies.’

‘Why?’ he asked again.

Alice looked away and drew a sharp breath. ‘I’m not sure.’

Now she was lying. He knew that, but he felt a grudging respect for her attempt to protect her colleague.

‘Could it have been a PR problem?’ he suggested carefully. ‘Were a few toes stepped on? A few egos bruised?’

She looked directly at him and the loveliness of her soft grey eyes snagged at his breath.

Very carefully, she said, ‘I guess it’s easy sometimes for people in the city to misread country folk and to believe they haven’t kept up with the times.’

‘But that’s rubbish. When it comes to market trends and meeting consumer demands, the people in the outback are as astute as anyone else.’ He’d told Dennis Ericson as much.

He tapped long fingers on his desk top. ‘As you might have guessed, I plan to turn this situation around. I’m going into the outback tomorrow to check things out. A kind of reconnaissance and goodwill tour.’

Alice nodded, her eyes watching him.

‘I want you to come with me.’

The look of dismay that swept over her face shocked him, but he kept his face stone-hard.

His assessment of the company records showed a clear period of growth while Alice had been in charge of the outback operations. And after observing the way she handled his questions, he felt certain she had the diplomatic skills needed to win back lost clients—if that was still possible.

He cracked a small smile. ‘Just remember I’m the boss and I get to make the decisions.’

His brashness fired two pink spots in her cheeks. ‘I thought your first priority was to hunt down new premises. Somewhere flash on the Esplanade.’

‘I’ve simply changed my priorities. As I see it now, my biggest problem is the outback and I’m going to tackle the most pressing problem first.’

Her hands twisted nervously. ‘You know you shouldn’t be asking me to do this, Liam. Take Shana. She’s from Mount Isa and she has good contacts out west.’

‘Shana’s also a single parent with a rather emotionally fragile pre-school child.’

Her head shot up. ‘You know about Toby?’

‘Yes. You see, Alice, I have looked into alternatives.’

Her eyes widened and he thought he caught a flash of emotion. Annoyance? Pique? Was she miffed that he’d exhausted other possibilities before approaching her? The thought stirred him in ways that it shouldn’t.

‘Shana doesn’t want to spend so much time away from her son,’ he said. ‘And Mary-Ann has specialised almost exclusively in the reef tours and attractions.’

‘And Dennis?’

‘I have other plans for him.’ Liam pressed his point home. ‘Alice, you used to look after the client base in the outback and it was doing well. It makes perfect sense that you should accompany me.’

There was a long, awkward silence and at the end of it she let out a sigh. Of defeat? Liam held his breath.

‘I’m sorry, but I’d rather not,’ she said quietly.

‘I’m afraid you don’t have any option. Alice, I’m telling you that this is not negotiable. It’s a directive.’

‘A directive?’ Her eyes flashed with a mutinous glitter, but he glimpsed a flash of pain behind her defiance.

He felt a stab of guilt. Her husband had treated her shabbily and no doubt she found it hard to trust any man now, especially a man who’d deliberately sought her out, and then seduced her.

‘How long would we be gone for?’ she asked.

He forced a casual shrug. ‘For as long as it takes.’

‘Oh, for heaven’s sake!’ Her sudden anger launched her to her feet. ‘What kind of answer is that?’ Her eyes turned smoky, angry as thunderclouds. ‘You might be my boss, Liam, but don’t let the power go to your head. Surely you haven’t forgotten our ground rules? You know perfectly well why we should make this trip as brief as possible.’

‘Don’t you trust me?’ He tried to lighten the question with a chuckle, but even to his ears it sounded hollow—rather destroying the effect.

Her chin tilted to a haughty angle. ‘No. Under the circumstances, I think I’d be foolish to trust you.’

Liam knew he deserved that. For a long moment, he stared at the surface of his desk while he breathed in and out slowly. Then he kept his gaze determined as he looked at her.

‘Three days, Alice. That’s all I’m asking.’ God knew how he was going to survive three days in the outback without touching her, but he was determined to stand by his word.

‘There’ll be separate accommodation?’

‘Of course. You have my word this will be strictly business.’

Her response was another venomous glare. ‘You’d better believe it, Mr Conway.’

‘What’s this? A new dress code for the office?’

Alice squirmed beneath Dennis’s scrutiny of her bone-coloured stretch Capri trousers and plain white scoop-neck T-shirt.

‘I’m heading to the bush today,’ she said, nodding to the small backpack on the floor beside her desk. ‘Just for a quick tour of the Gulf Country to try to recoup some of the market share.’

‘On your own?’

‘With…the boss.’

‘Oh? I see.’ Dennis’s voice added layers of innuendo to those simple words.

‘So the boss’s taking you out west? Just the two of you?’ This came from Mary-Ann, who’d just come into the room.

Alice suppressed a sigh. ‘Yes.’

These awkward questions could have been avoided if she’d been able to meet Liam at the airport, but he’d insisted on leaving from the office in full view of the staff. ‘I don’t want to skulk away as if we have something to hide,’ he’d said.

‘Shana won’t be too happy,’ said Mary-Ann.

Alice frowned at her. ‘I thought Shana didn’t want to go.’

‘She didn’t at first, because of Toby. But apparently the boss seemed really keen to take her and Shana went all jammy. I think she’s developed a crush on him. Anyway, she ran around madly until she found a babysitter Toby really likes and she was all hot to trot.’

‘When was this?’ Alice tried to ignore nasty niggles of jealousy.

‘Day before yesterday.’

Before yesterday…Goose-pimples broke out on Alice’s arms. ‘Did Shana tell Liam—I mean, Mr Conway—that she’d found someone to mind Toby?’

Mary-Ann nodded. ‘First thing yesterday morning. But he said he’d already made alternative arrangements.’

Dennis made a show of rolling his eyes. ‘Alternative arrangements aka Our Sweet Alice.’

Alice felt her face grow hot. Liam had spoken to her late yesterday morning, which meant he’d lied when he told her that Shana wasn’t available.

How dared he lie? After the lofty way he’d talked about giving her his word, he’d been dishonest. She couldn’t bear it.

Bending to hide her bright red face, she retrieved her backpack and hooked it over one shoulder. ‘Maybe not,’ she muttered and marched out of the office and into the foyer.

Through the sliding glass doors she saw a limousine waiting outside on the semicircular drive. Liam, dressed in jeans and a casual light blue shirt, was standing on the footpath, chatting with the driver as if they were old friends.

A limo. Yikes.

The automatic doors opened for her, and the men looked in her direction.

‘Ah, Ms Madigan,’ said Liam, directing a courteous, almost remote smile her way.

‘May I have a word with you, Mr Conway?’

‘Yes, sure.’ He frowned at her. ‘What’s the problem?’

She glanced at the driver and then at Liam. ‘I don’t think I can come on this trip.’

Liam’s frown deepened. ‘But you’re all ready to go.’

How obtuse could the man be? ‘Can we discuss this inside?’

With a stiff nod he followed her back through the sliding doors and into his office.

As soon as they were safely out of earshot she challenged him. ‘You lied.’

‘I beg your pardon?’

‘Why did you tell me that Shana wasn’t available?’

Liam closed his eyes and let out a low groan of exasperation. Then his eyes flashed open again. ‘You’re convinced I’ve rigged this so I can get you back into bed, aren’t you?’

Alice gasped. Get you back into bed… The words were like missiles. Damn him. How could he use their intimate encounter as a weapon? How could he turn it against her, as if she was the one in the wrong? Was he trying to distract her?

‘I—I just want to know why you lied to me,’ she cried.

‘Listen, Alice, if you think that one night we spent together gives you the right to question every business decision I make you’re going to come a cropper.’

She wanted to throw something at him. Was this the same man who’d made such exquisite love to her? Were all men toads? She almost cried at the thought. ‘So,’ she said, letting her bitterness show, ‘first you lie to me and now you threaten me.’

His jaw clenched stubbornly. ‘Don’t forget you’re on probation like any employee here. As far as this trip is concerned, I’ve decided that you’re the most suitable person for the exercise and that’s my sole reason for selecting you. How many times do you want me to tell you you’re perfectly safe from me?’

She was so angered by his high-handed manner she couldn’t respond.

‘I won’t come near you unless you ask me to, Ms Madigan.’

Her chin snapped high. ‘Well, that won’t happen in this lifetime.’

‘Good,’ he said. ‘That’s settled, then. Now let’s get going. The charter pilot’s ready and waiting at the airport.’

Chapter Four

WHEN the small charter plane took off it climbed to the east, taking Alice and Liam out over the shimmering, aquamarine waters of the Coral Sea before arching back towards the curving rim of the coastline. From their eagle-eye view, the sandy beaches below formed scalloped yellow trims on a string of pretty blue bays. Then the suburbs of Cairns spread out below them, reaching into an imposing hinterland of mountains clad in a thousand lush shades of green.

Liam, sitting on the far side of the narrow aisle, seemed to be entranced. He strained forward against his seat belt, eager to catch every detail of the spectacle below.

Alice had seen this view many times, but she never tired of it. She liked to imagine how it must look to international tourists used to the softer, more subtle landscapes of the northern hemisphere. Small wonder they found the vibrant colours and luxuriant vegetation of tropical Queensland exotic and exciting.

But as the small craft continued to climb she sank back into her seat and took a deep breath, closed her eyes for a minute or two. She had a faint headache which the confrontation in Liam’s office hadn’t helped. And last night she’d slept badly—thinking about this trip, and worrying about the strain of spending three whole days in her boss’s exclusive company.

I won’t come near you unless you ask me to.

Huh. In his dreams.

Problem was, if she was honest she had to admit that she hadn’t slept well since the night of her birthday. Their birthday.

Darn it. She was still finding it impossible to put that night behind her. By the end of three days her nerves would be in shreds. How dared Liam trick her into this no-choice position?

Keeping her eyes closed, she tried to relax, deliberately loosening her shoulders, her stomach, her hands. She wasn’t going to let Liam Conway upset her. After her divorce she’d vowed never to let another man undermine her confidence the way her husband had. She’d learned her lesson.

The important thing to remember was that her boss recognised how good she was at her job and, more importantly, he understood how significant the outback was to the company. It would be a real coup to bring the outback tours back on board.

Opening her eyes again, she sent a sleepy glance around the small cabin.

Liam was still intent on the scenery below. She watched the pilot, Joe Banyo, flick one of the many buttons on his complicated control panel, and saw him reach into a pack beside him for a roll of antacid tablets. From beneath heavy eyelids she watched him tear the foil and pop one into his mouth.

Joe turned, caught her watching him and sent her a quick, reassuring grin.

The monotonous, throaty roar of the plane’s motor filled the cabin. She’d always found the surroundsound hum of small planes rather hypnotic and she let her eyes drift closed again. They were heading for Redhead Downs, about an hour and a half inland. Why not take a nap? It would kill two birds with one stone. She could get rid of her headache, and she could avoid the embarrassment of having Liam ignore her.

Turning sideways, she nestled more comfortably into the padded upholstery.

‘Alice!’

Liam was shouting at her, shaking her shoulder roughly. ‘Wake up!’

She blinked. And then her eyes flicked wide. Liam had already moved on past her and was at the front of the plane. He was crouching over Joe, the pilot, who was—oh, good heavens—slumped sideways in his harness.

Oh, my God, who was flying the plane? A blast of panic brought her fully awake.

‘What’s happened?’ she shouted.

‘He’s collapsed.’

She stared in horror at Liam’s shocked expression and the pilot’s pale form. Oh, God. Flicking open her seat belt, she jumped to her feet. ‘Have you tried to wake him?’

‘Of course. He won’t respond.’

‘Is—is he breathing?’

‘Hard to tell. I don’t think so.’

They were going to crash! She struggled beneath another slam of panic. ‘Is there a pulse?’

Liam flashed her a quick, worried frown and then touched his fingers to Joe’s neck. ‘I—I can’t feel anything, but I’m not sure if I’m on the right spot.’

She tried to remember what she’d learned in various first-aid courses. ‘Feel to the left of his Adam’s apple.’ Please, Joe, have a heartbeat! Her own heart was a sledgehammer.

Liam tried and shook his head. ‘I’m not getting anything.’ He struggled with Joe’s harness. ‘I’ll have to get him out of this seat.’

Alice sent a hasty, terrified glance out of the nearest porthole to the grassy paddocks and bush below. Miles and miles below. At least the plane wasn’t doing anything dreadful like spiralling downwards the way they did in war movies.

‘Do you think he’s had a heart attack?’ She knew she sounded panicky.

‘How the hell would I know?’

She remembered seeing the antacid Joe had taken earlier. Had he taken it because he’d felt chest pain and thought he had indigestion? If he’d had a heart attack, they would have to get help fast or he would die. Oh, God, what was she thinking? They were all going to die if their pilot couldn’t land the plane.

In the confined space it was a terrible struggle but at last Liam managed to drag Joe and together they set him in the tiny aisle, on his side in the recovery position.

‘You’ll have to look after him, while I try to get help on the radio,’ Liam told her.

‘OK,’ she said, thinking she would need to be a contortionist to attempt CPR in the available space. ‘I’ll do my best.’

‘Good girl.’

She looked up quickly. Liam’s face was pale, his expression grim—just this side of terrified—but he managed a reassuring smile.

‘I don’t suppose you know how to fly a plane?’ she asked.

‘’Fraid not. But the plane must be set on autopilot. We don’t seem to have lost altitude, so that gives us a bit of leeway while we try for some help.’

She gave a brief nod, an even briefer smile. ‘Good luck.’

He was already climbing into the pilot’s seat, and she turned her attention to the unconscious man. He needed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and CPR. She hoped to God she could remember the procedure.

She checked Joe’s airway and began to breathe for him. After the initial weirdness of putting her mouth to a stranger’s, she settled into the rhythm. One breath every four seconds.

‘Mayday! Mayday!’ Liam was shouting.

How scary those words sounded. But at least he’d figured out how to work the radio.

Alice wished she was braver. She knew she mustn’t think about the plane crashing, but horrific images of their tiny cabin smashing into hard earth kept jumping into her head.

Don’t let your mind go there! Get a grip! Be disciplined. Focus on Joe, on the breathing.

She could hear Liam shouting to someone, explaining about their pilot’s collapse. Thank heavens he’d made contact. She felt a tiny bit calmer. And remembered to pray.

‘We’re close to Redhead Downs,’ Liam was saying, and then he gave their position from a control-panel monitor and reeled off a string of numbers—something to do with the plane.

She finished a round of breathing and checked again for the pilot’s pulse. Beneath her fingertips, she felt a tiny beat. Dear God, thank you. She wouldn’t need to apply CPR. But Joe still wasn’t breathing, so she began again on another round of mouth-to-mouth.

‘OK,’ Liam was shouting into the radio. ‘I’ve found the airspeed dial. It says we’re flying at—er—one hundred and twenty knots. Is that OK? It is? Great!’

Alice kept up the rhythmic breathing. Surely Joe would revive soon? As she worked she could hear the voice on the radio explaining the basic controls to Liam, and the confident replies Liam gave to each set of instructions. Wow! How did he stay so calm?

In the midst of terror, there was something commanding about his manner, something reassuring. Perhaps it was an illusion created by broad shoulders?

But the illusion was destroyed when Liam yelled, ‘Brace yourself back there. We’re already approaching the Redhead Downs airstrip. I’m going to have to land this thing soon.’

Alice’s chest squeezed like a vice, breaking the rhythm of her breathing. She had a vision of the ground racing up to meet them, fancied she heard the shriek of ripping metal, the blast of an explosion. Pain.

Idiot, stop that right now!

She heard a faint groan and stared hard at Joe. Had he made that noise? Was his colour improving? Surely he looked a little pinker?

He groaned again and coughed.

‘Joe’s alive!’ she screamed.

Liam was too busy focusing on instructions from the radio to reply.

Joe clutched at his stomach.

‘He’s coming round,’ shouted Alice.

‘Can he talk?’ Liam called back to her.

Alice gave the poor man a shake. ‘Hey, Joe, wake up. We need you!’

‘Ask him if the plane has fixed or retractable landing gear,’ yelled Liam.

‘Joe,’ Alice shouted. ‘What kind of landing gear does this plane have?’

There was no reply. Joe’s face was pale again and beaded with sweat.

‘Please, Joe,’ urged Alice. ‘Tell me about the landing gear.’

‘Fixed,’ he whispered.

‘Fixed,’ she called back to Liam.

‘Fixed,’ Liam shouted into the radio. ‘Hallelujah! We’ve got wheels!’

His excitement was contagious. Suddenly it seemed possible that somehow Liam was going to land this plane. They were going to be all right. Alice felt a surge of courage. She was going to have faith. Now. Even when poor Joe rolled onto his side and groaned wretchedly, she remained calm.

She found a hand towel and a bottle of water in her backpack and washed his face. His eyes flickered open.

‘Sorry about this. Think it must be food poisoning.’ And then he tried to sit up. ‘I’m all right now. I’ll take over.’ But he’d no sooner spoken than his face turned as white as paper and he sank backwards again, clutching his stomach.

‘If you try to fly and keep blacking out we won’t make it, Joe. The best way you can help is by lying still and staying conscious. That way, Liam can ask you questions.’

Eyes closed, he nodded.

She dampened the towel again and mopped the beads of perspiration on his brow, and as she worked she watched Liam in her periphery.

From her point of view he looked perfectly cool and collected, but she knew that was impossible. He’d never flown a plane before. He would be fighting fear every second.

‘I can see the landing strip now,’ he was telling his instructor on the radio and he sounded remarkably calm. ‘Yes, I’m pulling back on the throttle, reducing power. Yes.’

Joe grabbed Alice’s elbow. ‘Tell him he mustn’t let the nose drop more than six inches below the horizon.’

She relayed the message at the top of her voice.

‘Doing my best,’ was Liam’s grim-voiced reply.

She could feel the plane’s descent and panic rose again, but she pushed it away from her. She had faith in Liam Conway. He was going to make this. They were going to be safe.

Joe’s eyes were shut and she wondered if he’d fainted again, but when the sound of the motor suddenly changed his eyes opened and his head snapped back.

‘Pull all the way back on the throttle,’ he shouted.

‘Pull all the way back on the throttle,’ Alice repeated.

‘I’m pulling!’

This time Liam sounded really worried. Alice could see the tension in his shoulders, the strain in the back of his neck.

Through the windscreen in front of him, she saw the airstrip, tilted at an alarmingly rakish angle, zooming closer, closer.

She almost jumped out of her skin when Joe’s hand grabbed her wrist. ‘You should have your seat belt on,’ he said.

‘What about you?’

‘I can’t bloody move. I’ll be OK down here.’ He was grasping the legs of seats on either side of the aisle. ‘You get in a seat. Quick!’

The plane teetered back to the correct level as Alice scrambled into her seat and buckled up. Oh, God, they were almost touching the ground. She wanted to yell to Liam that he could do this, but her throat was too jam-packed with fear. Besides, she knew he was listening intently to the person talking him down on the radio.

She held her breath.

The hard red dirt of the outback airstrip was so close now. Coming closer every second.

She shut her eyes as the wheels skimmed the earth. They bumped and bounced off again and then reconnected with a rough thump that almost jolted her out of her seat. Oxygen masks tumbled out of overhead lockers as their tiny craft bounced and streaked at breakneck speed along the rough airstrip. Alice didn’t dare to breathe.

On the floor beside her lay Joe, his face contorted with pain and the effort of holding himself in place.

But they were slowing. Yes, they were definitely slowing. They were alive and the plane…was…coming…to a stop.

‘You did it!’ she screamed, rushing over to Liam.

He turned as she reached him and he looked pale and shell-shocked, as if he didn’t quite believe he’d made it.

‘That was just fantastic!’ she cried, throwing her arms about him and hugging his shoulders.

‘Thanks,’ he said. ‘But I think we’d better get out of here fast. God knows what I’ve done to the plane.’

She stepped back quickly, realising that her celebration was premature.

‘You get out while I get the pilot,’ he said.

‘I’ll help you.’

‘No, you look after the door.’

Right. Alice turned to the door and saw the complicated handle. Oh, heck. How on earth was she supposed to open it? For a moment she felt embarrassingly useless—especially when Liam had been so amazingly resourceful—but then she noticed a helpful sign and a diagram.

Liam hauled Joe’s arm over one shoulder and got him to his feet, but the poor fellow only took a few steps then folded, so in the end Liam had to carry him out and they settled him on the ground in the shade of a bush.