Against the Odds Read Online Free PDF Page A

detail, and Sabrina had been
there to help her friend Sage keep the Saudi women occupied.
    Rina was feisty and smart.
    And she flat-out hated any man she thought might have more than
an ounce of testosterone. She didn’t like macho men, she’d said, and she didn’t
like smart-ass jet jockeys.
    He smiled at the memory.
    She didn’t want anything to do with a guy like him, yet she was
here with him in Rio Gordo because she wanted a man who could protect her. She
hadn’t come right out and said that, but both of them knew it was true. As he
spotted the tough-looking characters hanging around the helicopter sitting on
the tarmac fifty yards away, he thought she’d done the smart thing.
    “Let me get the plane tied down then we’ll go into the office.”
He grabbed Sabrina’s pink-flowered satchel out of the luggage compartment along
with his gear bag, then finished securing the plane and guided her inside a
metal-roofed wooden building.
    The interior was spartan, with only two worn green leather
chairs and a table stacked with dog-eared magazines. A gray-haired man stood
behind the Formica-topped counter, a pencil perched above his right ear.
    “We’re here for the chopper,” Alex said. “I spoke to someone
about it. This is Sabrina Eckhart, she phoned a couple of days earlier.”
    Sabrina smiled and the old man smiled back as if he’d known her
for years instead of only through a single phone call.
    “Why, yes, I surely do recall.”
    “Hello, Mr. Woodard, it’s nice to meet you in person.”
    “You, too, Ms. Eckhart. Don’t get a lot of folks out here from
the big city.”
    “I’m from Uvalde originally. It’s not all that big.”
    “Uvalde, huh? You wouldn’t know a guy named Leonard Jenkins out
there?”
    “Jenkins...? I’m afraid not. I’ve been gone for a while.”
    Woodard looked as if he had another dozen names he wanted to
run past her, but instead took the file Alex handed him containing his
pilot-helicopter credentials and forms he’d pulled off the internet. In
exchange, Woodard handed him the service records he’d asked for on the helo.
    “Your lady said you was a navy pilot.”
    She wasn’t his lady, not even close, but he didn’t bother to
correct the guy. “That’s right.”
    “I guess you’ve got plenty of experience,” the older man said,
reviewing the file he’d brought with him.
    “I’ve been at it awhile.”
    “You fly into Afghanistan?”
    Alex nodded. “Air Wing One off the Teddy
Roosevelt. Iraq off the Enterprise. ”
    The creases in the old man’s weathered face went deeper. “Lost
a boy over there. Appreciate the work you fellas do for our country.” He looked
up, seemed to shove the memories aside. “You don’t have to worry about the
chopper. We take real good care of her.”
    Alex handed back the maintenance record. “Let’s take a look.”
Setting a hand at Sabrina’s waist, he guided her outside and they crossed the
tarmac to the helicopter. The woman he had spoken to on the phone had told him
it was a two-passenger Schweitzer 300C, a well-performing little chopper, and
not as expensive to rent by the hour as some of the bigger machines.
    He knew Sabrina’s finances were tight. When he’d seen the
Toyota she was driving instead of her Mercedes, he’d done some digging.
According to Sol Greenway, the office computer geek, her retirement fund had
turned to worms, her clients were on the run from the bad market and Sabrina had
taken a leave of absence from work. That he’d found out by calling her
office.
    No wonder she was hoping to find silver on her uncle’s
land.
    Alex fixed his attention on the chopper, made a careful
inspection, determined it to be in good condition. Shoving his gear bag behind
the seat, he tossed in the flowered satchel and climbed aboard.
    Sabrina stood by as the old man climbed in beside him for the
flight check. Alex performed the required takeoff and landing, enjoying the feel
of the stick in his hands, the lift, the