Not long after the boats arrived, helicopters started circling above. He didn’t see the Coast Guard orange on their sides. As he looked closer, he caught a glimpse of the side of one of them labeled NEWS 19. Fury filled him as he glared up at the vultures hoping to get the first pictures of dead bodies floating in the water. Well, they were out of luck.

Cooper turned to Wolf. “They’re here to get us, bud. We’re going home.”

Wolf nodded his head, still out of it from the crash, but he managed to crack a smile.

The Coast Guard began to pull passengers on board, immediately giving them dry clothes and warm blankets. Cooper waved to one of the boats to come in his direction. It approached alongside his raft, its wake causing the light boat to move up and down in the water. A Coast Guard lieutenant leaned over the side.

“I have one that’s injured and needs immediate medical attention,” Cooper told him.

Wolf was pulled into the boat.

Cooper sat back against the raft’s side, refusing to board the ship until every last passenger was picked up out of the water.

Cooper now sat alone in his raft, floating on the cold waters of the Pacific, tuning out the sound of people talking. The water in the raft sloshed from side to side with every rock of the sea. He sat with his life vest over him and a blanket wrapped around his body as he fought the cold.

With his shaking hand, he reached into his soaked pants pocket and retrieved a little black box. The once cardboard box was now more mush than cardboard. He opened it and peeled away the soaked parts, revealing the stunning diamond ring, sparkling in the lights from the Coast Guard vessel.

“Everyone is on board, Captain, but we’ve had a request that you get flown home,” the man said.

Cooper smiled, knowing exactly where that request had come from. As the ship backed away, he could hear the distinct sound of the humming rotor of a Coast Guard helicopter.

The light became more intense as it neared his position. The light’s rays were interrupted temporarily by a man in a basket being lowered down. The man grabbed Cooper’s hand as he pulled him into the basket alongside him. The cable swayed back and forth as the helicopter crew began to reel the basket up.

“Brother, it’s so damn good to see you!” Cooper exclaimed.

“Not as good as it is to see you. You scared the shit out of me this time, Coop,” Nick admitted. “I couldn’t even fly this bird.”

“Yeah, it would be the same for me if the situation were reversed,” Cooper told him.

“Where are we landing?”

“We’re taking all passengers to the Red Cross crash assistance center.”

“You gotta pull some strings and give me a reroute, Nick.”

“Sorry, brother, no can do. Orders are to take any survivors to the center to get checked out.”

“Don’t make me pull the older brother card. I need to get to Stormy, and if the fates are with me, she’ll be at the airport,” Cooper said, getting frustrated.

“You’re going to get my ass chewed, Coop,” Nick said.

“Just take me to Sea-Tac,” Coop repeated, before admitting to his brother, “I love her, Nick. I have to tell her I love her.”

“All right man, but this is only because I’m a sappy romantic,” Nick replied as he ordered the helicopter to turn toward the Seattle airport.

It was just past midnight when Nick touched the helicopter down on a taxiway across from the TPA passenger terminal, where all flights had been cancelled for the remainder of the night.

At the exact moment the helicopter touched down, Cooper slammed open the sliding passenger door on the right side of the rescue helicopter.

Through a gale of rotor wash and the deafening noise of the helicopter’s engines, Cooper dashed from the rescue helicopter in a full sprint to the terminal.

“Hey—what the hell are you doing?” one of the guys cried, reaching out in a vain attempt to pull Cooper back in.

“Let him go. He knows what he’s doing,” Nick radioed back through the mic on his flight helmet. “If we get busted for letting him off here, I’ll let him take the heat, but I somehow doubt anyone will say anything to the captain that pulled off an ocean landing at sunset in a Boeing 757 with zero casualties.”

Cooper ran into the terminal, his uniform still damp with seawater, his body aching from the crash. He pushed past the concourse and kept on going. Cooper was now suffering from fatigue as his body shook and his damp uniform clung to his body.

It seemed to take forever, but finally he made it to the ticket counter and was thrilled to see familiar fingernails clicking on a keyboard.

“My heavens! Cooper, what are you doing here? You should be at a hospital!” Meredith chastised.

“Stormy?” Cooper began as he leaned against the counter.

“Stormy?”

“Yes, is she here? I need to see her . . .”

“No, she’s been taken to the hospital.”

Panic flooded him more than when he’d been crash landing in an ocean that wanted to swallow him and his crew whole. What had happened? “Which one?”

Meredith told him, and then he stopped listening. He ran through the terminal. He had to find her.

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

Her eyes opened and Stormy was startled by the monitor on her finger and the machine echoing her heartbeat.

“What’s happening?” she croaked.

“You’re being monitored in the hospital,” Sherman said. She turned to see his ashen face by her side.