Tansys startled, But was drowned out by Dales bellow of, No way in hell!
It was panic, pure and simple, that cranked his volume. He didnt want her anywhere near Lobster Island. He didnt want her to see where hed come from. Who he was.
Diamonds and purple rocks didnt mix.
Youre going to the island together, Cage said in a steely, unforgiving tone, or Ill fire both of you with prejudice.
Tansy gasped at the threat and Dale scowled. He was resigned to leaving HFH, but he couldnt get Tansy fired. The patients needed her. The group couldnt lose her. Damn.
Cages expression softened. Go to Lobster Island. Remember how to work together. Youre the best team Ive got, and itd be a shame to let that go to waste.
And if I still want to be reassigned after its over? she asked quietly, not looking at Dale.
Then Ill reassign you. Cage sighed and stood. But I hope it wont come to that. HFH needs you both. Together. Do we have a deal?
His exit left a hollow gap in the conversation.
Fine, Tansy said after a moment. She stared at one of the empty strippers cages rather than at Dale. E-mail me a list of equipment you want loaded on the plane. Ill meet you at the hangar tomorrow afternoon.
Theyd had the same conversation a hundred times before, in a dozen different countries, but there was no sense of impending adventure now. There was only a sense of impending doom.
Tansy on Lobster Island. It was the last thing Dale wanted, but if he didnt agree, she could lose her job. And really, what did it matter if she found out about his past?
She already hated him.
On that thought, he drained the last of his beer and felt none of the alcohols punch. I dont want you with me.
She jerked her chin down. Yeah, youve made that clear. Dont worry, the feeling is mutual. Too bad we dont get a vote.
She slipped from the booth and marched out on Cages heels, leaving an aching hole in Dales gut. Damn. He pressed the empty beer bottle to the center of his forehead, wishing hed chartered a plane and gone on his own. He hadnt been back to the island in fifteen years, since his parents were lost at sea and hed run away from his Uncle Trasks brutal grief. He didnt want to go back now. And he certainly didnt want to bring Tansy with him.
Scowling, he reread Mickeys message. Six people were sick. Three had already died from respiratory failure, though the disease shouldnt be fatal. And although she was one of the best investigators in the business, Dale wished he could leave Tansy safe on the mainland.
Because people were dying on Lobster Island. Again.
HEADPHONES CLAMPED OVER her ears, Tansy slapped the throttle open and braced herself as the little prop plane surged down the runway, eager to be on its way. Shed gotten her pilots license when she first joined HFH, nearly three years earlier. God, she loved to fly.
But not today. Today, the man brooding in the copilots seat kept her from enjoying the sky. Arms folded across his broad chest, Dale made no move to touch the second set of controls. He merely sat there, sullen and angry.
Well, the hell with him. The breakup hadnt been her idea. Shed wanted to work on their relationship. Hed bailed.
She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye and tried to ignore the way the afternoon sunlight gilded his white-blond hair and accentuated his pale skin, which never tanned, even when theyd spent a month in the Serengeti. Long-legged and powerfully built, he had the hard body of a laborer and the graceful hands of a surgeon. His very presence filled the small cockpit, almost suffocating Tansy with the memories shed tried so hard to avoid.
Both fair and blue-eyed, fit and wellborn, she and Dale resembled each other on the surface. But underneath, they were polar opposites, and those differences had been the problem. He wouldnt let her into his guarded, private corners, and she hadnt wanted to settle for less.
She glanced over again, and their eyes met. Heat flared in her midsection. After almost three months, she still woke up reaching for him, and despised herself for it. She was no better than her mother.
When they reached the shallow cruising altitude that would take them to a lobster-shaped speck off the Maine coast, she slid the headphones off one ear and broke the silence. Want to tell me why were investigating a tiny outbreak of PSP?
Paralytic shellfish poisoning was a serious, though rarely fatal, condition that was usually handled on the local level. From what little Cage had told her, there was no reason for HFH intervention. But she knew Dale well enough to realize he wasnt going to volunteer any information. He was too committed to his bad mood.
After a long moment he sighed and uncrossed his arms. It doesnt look like typical shellfish poisoning. The reactions are too severe, and there hasnt been a red tide in the area. Besides, the islanders fish for lobsters, not mollusks.
And lobsters, being scavengers, dont usually absorb enough of the toxin to be a problem. Tansy nodded, glad he had at least answered her. Though it hurt to sit near him and know there was no hope for their relationship, she would be okay if she focused on the job. Always the job. Her work had gotten her through the last three months. It would get her through the next few days.
Besides, they usually got along fine when they were in the field. It was his behavior in Boston that had driven her crazy. When they were at home base, he withdrew, became unavailable. Toward the end, shed wondered whether he had another woman in the city.
Know your man inside and out, and youll never be surprised, baby. Her mothers words came to her across the years, along with the memory of sitting in the car while Eva Whitmore cruised their ritzy neighborhood in search of her husbands vehicle.
Feeling the familiar tightness in her stomach, Tansy clenched her teeth and concentrated on flying, as the sun sank towards twilight. Shed make it through this one last assignment with Dale, and then shed leave. She couldnt stand seeing him every day. Not like this. Though in the end shed been the one to walk away from their relationship, he had pushed her there.
He simply hadnt cared as much as she did.
Were almost there. The voice was thick from the silence. The rough timbre heated the back of her neck with memory, and she stared harder out the cockpit window. The shadow of an island appeared, black against the gray sea. The granite claws arced around a central harbor at one end. The subtle curve of tail at the other end completed the illusion and created a second harbor.
She craned her neck to follow the rocky contours as she flew past and came around to face the northernmost claw. Damn. It does look like a lobster.
Thats why they call it Lobster Island, Dale muttered as they began their descent.
Frustrated by his mood and his nearness, she snapped, This trip wasnt my idea, you know.
Wasnt mine either, he growled in return. I tried to leave you home.
Tansy compressed her lips and concentrated on flying. Maybe she shouldve refused the assignment and risked her job. But part of her had wanted this one last trip with Dale. Away from Boston General, she knew she would see the man beneath the brittle upper-crust charm. The man shed fallen for. In the field, Dale Metcalf was a bit loud and a bit rough. Exciting. Almost uncivilized. More at home in the slums of the small, hot country of Tehru than the Theater District of Boston.
But the moment they returned to the city, that man disappeared and was replaced by someone else. She didnt like the other Dale much, nor did she trust him. There was somethingfalse about him in the city.
She darted a glance at the pale, perfect features of Boston Generals most eligible bachelor. His square jaw was tight with tension, the lines beside his mouth deeper than she remembered. Though they were headed into the field, he had avoided his usual attire of bush pants and a cotton shirt. Instead, he wore a monogrammed shirt from England and lightweight wool trousers.
He was wearing his Boston clothes, Tansy realized. Not his field clothes. She felt a strange, unexpected stir of fear. Her mother had taught her that if she knew everything and understood everything, shed never be out of control. That had made medicine a perfect career choice. Tansy understood illness, understood health. But as the little plane dropped through a scattering of clouds and shimmied in a slap of crosswind, she realized she didnt know everything about this assignment.
And she knew even less about the man sitting beside her.
Worried now, though for no good reason, she side-slipped the plane to lose altitude and radioed her approach to the Lobster Island tower. The response was slow in coming, and informal, but the parallel row of lights sparkled in the near distance, outlining a runway that was much longer than the blasted dirt strips she was used to.
Almost there, she murmured, more to herself than Dale.
Great. He bit off a curse and she felt another flash of annoyance.
If youre going to snarl at me every time I open my mouth, this is going to be a very long investigation, Metcalf.
This from the woman whos called me a slimy toad whenever shes seen me for the past three months? His knuckles whitened. You wanted happily ever after. I wanted to be friends. The two dont mix, Tansy.
It still hurt that their breakup hadnt crushed him like it had crushed her. Then again, that was part of the problem. Never mind, she snapped. Forget I was about to suggest a truce. Lets just keep biting each others heads off and hope the patients dont notice.
The little plane dropped down through the last fifty feet of air and the rocky bulk of the island flashed beneath them. Their airspeed bled from a hundred miles per hour to eighty, then slower.
Dale sighed heavily and reached out a hand as though to touch her, but he didnt. Tansy, Im sorry. I dont mean to fight with you. But this isawkward for me.
The first of the runway lights glinted below the plane and Tansy brought it down expertly, letting the wheels kiss the smooth, shadowed tarmac. Its awkward because of me. Because of us.
No. He shook his head. Or at least, not entirely. Its the island. You see, I was born
Crack! A horrendous jolt yanked the control yoke from Tansys fingers. Her body slammed against the shoulder harness and the plane bottomed out, hard, on the runway.
Christ! Dale yelled, grabbing for a handhold. Hang on!
No time. There was no time for hanging on. Sparks flashed by the windows, brighter than the sunset. Metal screamed.
Dale! The landing gears collapsed! Fear grabbed Tansy by the throat. Control. She was out of control.
The little plane slid sideways down the runway at almost fifty miles per hour. Metal ground against asphalt, and sparks spewed higher against the dusky sky. She fought the useless yoke for a few seconds before letting it go. She glanced out the cockpit window. There werent any buildings to hit at the end of the runway, thank God.
Then her stomach dropped. The runway ends! she shrieked. Dale! The ocean!
Hang on, baby. Hang on! Somehow, their hands twined together. Their eyes caught and held as the plane slid over the end of the runway and tilted down.
Metal howled. The plane slammed against something. It twisted and fell, bounced, and continued to fall until they hit bottom, hard.
Tansys head smacked into the side window.
First, she saw watery stars.
Then she saw nothing.
Chapter Two
The endless moment of freefall was sickening. Dales stomach lodged in his throat, then dropped when they hit bottom and Tansys head cracked into the side window. She sagged against her safety belt.
Tansy! Tansy, stay with me. I need you to stay with me! The words were rote, the feeling beneath them anything but. Panic roared in Dales ears. Then he realized it wasnt just panic.
It was the sound of waves breaking on the plane. Theyd fallen into the bay. And Tansy was unconscious.
Damn! He yanked free of his belt and struggled to his feet, hunching down in the small cockpit space. The cold, salty water of Lobster Bay splashed around his ankles. God, he hated the ocean.
The floor tilted by degrees as the weight of the engine pulled the front of the plane down. Heart pounding, hands shaking, he glanced out the forward window. In the crimson of twilight, he could see wavelets and greasy, gray water edging up the nose of the plane.
How long until the tower sent help? How long would the little plane float?
Working quickly, he checked Tansys vitals. Tansy! Tansy, sweetheart, wake up. We need to get out of here, baby. The endearments slipped out, though hed rarely used them when they had been a couple. At least not out loud.
How deep was the water just past the landing strip? He didnt remember. He hoped it was shallow. Lobster Bay was tricky that way. But even four feet of water would be too much if he couldnt get them out of the plane before it flooded.
Tansy stirred, and relief rattled through him. He could get her out. He had to get her out.
Flotation, he muttered, knowing that HFH stocked their planes with life jackets as well as the standard cushions. He bypassed the field equipment crammed in the back and yanked the jackets from their compartment. His hands were still shaking. What was wrong with him?
Youve worked outbreaks in Tehru and terrorist bombings in the Middle East, he reprimanded himself. Two people in a sinking plane should be a piece of cake. He stilled his hands by force of will, but he couldnt stop the lurch of his heart when he returned to Tansys side and she opened her eyes.
The knowledge hit him like a fist to the gut. This wasnt a stranger in Tehru or the Middle East. This was Tansy.
And that made all the difference.
Dale? What? Pain and sudden comprehension clouded her eyes. We crashed. The landing gear broke. She turned her head towards the storage space and winced. Weve got to grab the field kits and get out of here.
Put this on first, he ordered, helping her into the jacket over her protests. Were in the water and I dont know how long well float. Forget about the equipment.
The hell I will. We have an outbreak to work. Listing to one side as the plane sagged beneath her, Tansy stumbled to the cargo area. She fumbled with the straps securing their instruments. The cases are shockproof and rigged to float. Well get as many as we can out the door before we jump.
The floor tilted even further and water surged up to cover most of the cockpit window, blocking out the bloody light of dusk. Dale cursed under his breath. Theres no time for the equipment, Tansy! Lets get the hell out of here.