face. Skye saw the man’s head snap back toward her and then his eyes roll back as he dropped to the floor.
“Come on!” Trent yelled, holding out his hand for her.
Skye scrambled to her feet, and the second she placed her hand in his, she knew they’d make it. The pilot was yelling at them to stop, but all Skye could focus on was Trent as he glanced out the door.
Skye followed his gaze and looked down at the river. “Let’s jump,” she yelled over the sound of the helicopter engine and blades.
“It’s a good forty feet. Jump with your legs together and head up high. Before you hit the water, draw your arms to your side like a pencil,” Trent instructed.
Skye squeezed his hand. No fear. No hesitation. They looked at each other and jumped from the open door. There was a moment when they were jumping straight out, but then the plummet began. She held on tightly to Trent’s hand as her stomach rose to her throat, but the scream she was letting loose stopped it from coming all the way out. Suddenly Trent’s hand was pulled from hers and she remembered to pin her hands to her side.
Her feet hit the water, what little air was left in her lungs was pushed out, and the darkness of the water overtook her. She clawed for the surface as her lungs burned. Panic almost took over, but then she felt Trent’s hand grabbing her shirt and pulling her upward.
Trent hit the water hard, but he was used to it. With a brother in the Coast Guard, Trent had made these jumps a million times with Wade. Not from a helicopter, but from the cliffs over the rivers along the Appalachian Trail or off the top of boats into the ocean.
The second he stopped the downward plunge, he was using both arms to swim toward the surface. He made sure he entered the water near Skye and felt her almost kick him underwater. He reached out with his right hand and grabbed for her. He got a fistful of shirt and kept swimming with his left arm and kicking hard as he propelled them to the surface.
His nose broke through the surface first and then the rest of his head. He took in a deep breath of air as he yanked Skye up. When she broke the surface, she dragged in a ragged breath as she tried to get her bearings.
“I got you. Take some deep breaths,” Trent ordered her. Her arms grabbed him and as she inhaled over and over again, the panic started to fade and she began to tread water.
Voices were yelling for them, lights shone in the distance, and then the light on the deck was turned on and the whole river was lit up.
“Trent! Skye!” he heard Ryker’s booming voice and then Edie and Karri’s terrified screaming.
“Over here!” Trent yelled back as he raised an arm out of the water and waved. “Look, it’s a boat,” he said, dropping his voice back down as he talked to Skye. “That must be how the others arrived.”
“We’re coming!” Ryker yelled and then Trent saw a life ring being flung out downriver from them. Ryker let out the slack and let the river take the life ring farther out into the middle of the river.
Trent wrapped his arm around Skye and used Wade’s rescue swimmer technique to begin to swim.
“I can swim. I promise. I’m good now,” Skye said as she kicked along with him.
“I’ve got you. I don’t want us to be separated.”
“Why aren’t we just swimming back to shore?”
“We’re going to let the current take us to the ring. Then they’ll help pull us back to the shore. It’ll save us a lot of energy,” Trent explained as they kicked along with the current. “Here it is,” Trent said, reaching out and hooking his arm around the ring.
Skye reached forward and kicked hard to climb her way up Trent’s body until she could hook her arm over the ring too. “You’re right. This was harder than I thought.”
“Okay, Ryker!” Trent yelled. “Now kick as they pull and we’ll be on the shore in no time.”
It took only minutes as they fought the current but with the help of the ring they were finally pulled ashore by Wade, Ryker, and Edie.
His brother, Wade, went straight to Skye and started the standard medical evaluation that he used as a rescue swimmer.
“Where’s Gavin?” Trent asked of his doctor cousin.