Setting Him Free Read Online Free Page B

and surveyed her handiwork. "All
done," she said watching him carefully. Her gaze moved to the front
of the plane. "Do you think we should go look?"
    Taylor put out his good arm and stopped her. "I'll
go. I should be able to get through that gap."
    She pulled him back. "No, Taylor. You keep that arm
still. Let me."
    "It's not something you need to see, Danielle. Won't
be pretty."
    "Neither is he." She pointed to the dead policeman,
at the same time averting her eyes.
    Taylor had already noticed she'd been carefully
avoiding the body. Should have covered him up. God knows what the
sight of mangled, dead nuns would to do to her.
    "Do you ever do as you're told?" he said, already
knowing the answer. This was a woman used to getting her own way.
She'd do it anyway, with or without him.
    "Not really. Look Taylor, let's do it together,
okay?"
    He gave a brief nod. "Deal. But let me go first."
    Taylor crouched and turned sideways to squeeze
himself through a gap in the crushed seats near the front of the
plane. He reached through to help Danielle, who wriggled after him.
He kept hold of her, letting his eyesight adjust to the dim light.
It no longer looked like a plane and he didn't want her stumbling
over any of the bodies.
    "Stay with me." He felt for her hand and looked
around, taking in the crushed bodies of the two nuns and the
businessman behind them. No sign of the pilots. No sign of the
cockpit. Instead, a tangle of metal and a gaping hole. He pushed
Danielle behind him to stop her falling through. Spotted the flight
attendant's body at the same time she did. Felt her hand tighten in
his, heard her sharp intake of breath.
    "Go back, Danielle." One look at her stricken face
and he urged her back, breathing a sigh of relief when she went
without question. He knew what she must be feeling. Disbelief, that
what you're seeing can't be real. He wasn't worried about the dead.
They were beyond anyone's help, but he'd hoped the radio might
still be intact. The black box flight recorder would have some sort
of homing beacon in it, but he'd have preferred a working
radio.
    Taylor checked the bodies for signs of life, found
the business-man's mangled phone, wondering where the pilots and
the second policeman were. Knowing that they needed to get the dead
away from the plane before they attracted any wild animals.
    Danielle's eyes widened in silent question when he
reappeared. She moved tentatively towards him as he shook his head.
Watching her face crumple a little as she fought back the tears, he
envied the compassion she had to spare for complete strangers,
while he was struggling to feel anything at all. He knew that he
needed to keep this woman safe, but beyond that – nothing. No
thought for himself. Right now she was all he had. His only reason
to be here.
    She had no idea how much he needed her.
     
    * * * *
     
    Danielle didn't cry – it would open floodgates that
couldn't easily be closed. There weren't enough tears for what
she'd seen in there.
    "You were right," she said quietly, "I shouldn't have
looked. But I'm glad I did. I'd only have spent the whole time
worrying that one of them was still alive."
    "I know. Try not to think about it."
    Danielle pressed her lips together and nodded. Death
had never walked so closely to her before. Only pure luck separated
her fate from that of the battered and broken bodies all around
them.
    "You've pulled off your sling," she said clicking her
tongue as if Taylor were a naughty child. "After all my hard work."
Reaching out to smooth it back into place, she busied herself with
the mundane – the rest was almost too much to comprehend.
    She fretted over him, and he stayed very still, as if
he understood her need to anchor herself somehow. To feel something
warm and real, not cold and dead like the others around them. With
the sling back in place, her hands continued moving across his
chest, gliding over the soft cotton of his tee-shirt, feeling his
hard muscles twitching beneath