Against the Odds Read Online Free PDF

mobility that was different than flying
a plane. He circled once, then returned the chopper to the tarmac.
    Satisfied with the demonstration of his skills, Woodard nodded
and Alex turned off the engine, letting the rotor blades slow to a stop. The old
man climbed out, turned and helped Sabrina aboard.
    “Have a good trip!” Mr. Woodard called out from a safe distance
as Alex restarted the helo and the blades once more began to spin.
    “You ready?” Since there were no doors, he made sure she was
safely buckled in.
    He caught her nod and grin. “I’m ready.”
    She was looking forward to this. He was glad he was the one
giving her her first ride, but pulled his mind from where that thought took him,
and lifted off gently. The chopper rose into the air, moving higher and higher,
rising gracefully away from the ground. When Sabrina grinned wider, he laughed
and picked up speed, swung the chopper away from the airport and headed in the
direction they had pinpointed on the map.
    He knew where her land was located, knew the coordinates, at
any rate. He had no idea what they would find when they got there.
    * * *
    Rina’s adrenaline was pumping. The thrill of being so
high in an open-air helicopter was a rush unlike anything she had ever felt
before. Add to that flying with Alex Justice, watching his long fingers work the
controls, seeing the capable way he handled the machine, made her heart rate
soar even higher. There was something about a man taking charge, a man who was
good at what he did, that turned her on.
    Not that she would ever admit it.
    Alex wasn’t her type and she wasn’t his and both of them knew
it. Still, she wasn’t dead and Alex was definitely eye candy and more.
    She forced herself to concentrate on the search they were
making. They’d been flying for more than an hour and had located the property
but not the mine itself—assuming there was one. There’d been nothing in the will
to indicate its location or anything about it. Just the legal description of the
land itself: three thousand acres—five square miles—of what appeared to be
nothing but dirt, rocks and cactus.
    Her gaze followed the contours of the property. Ravines scarred
the landscape. Ridges of granite rose out of the sloping desert floor.
Chaparral, mesquite and scrub brush dotted endless stretches of rocks and
sand.
    “Not much out there,” Alex said above the sound of the
rotors.
    “We haven’t covered that much area yet. Maybe we’ll find
something that marks the mine.”
    “If there is one,” Alex said, reminding her there might not be
anything more than exactly what they were seeing—miles and miles of vast, empty
desert.
    The hours began to blur together. Once they had reached the
property location, Alex had begun searching in a grid pattern to cover as much
of the area as possible. The temperature was rising, the heat building inside
the chopper, the afternoon slipping away. Rina yawned and rubbed her eyes, which
felt gritty from the wind and heat.
    An odd noise caught her attention. The whop, whop, whop had been so regular she’d been trying not to fall
asleep. This sound was different, a kind of grinding that had her gaze shooting
to Alex, whose features suddenly looked grim.
    Sabrina’s heart stalled and, a few seconds later, so did the
engine.

Three
    “A lex, what’s happening?”
    Alex heard the fear in Sabrina’s voice. There wasn’t time to
answer. Instead, his years of training and experience kicked in and he did what
he had been trained to do—slamming the collective down to neutral, taking the
pitch out of the blade. The chopper fell like a stone.
    “Oh, my God!” Sabrina’s voice rose even higher as she realized
they were in trouble.
    The blades were flat now, the wind whistling up between them,
making them spin even faster than the engine, which had gone deadly silent.
    “Just hold on!” he shouted. “We’ll autorotate down! We’ll be
fine!” He’d done it dozens of times, knew without