Conn'n'Caleb

She kept her eyes closed, listening to the voices of the men in the cockpit of the military helicopter. She didn’t want them to know that she was awake. Or that she was no longer bound by the restraints they’d placed on her and therefore free to move around.

For the last two days every time she’d roused, she’d been given another injection. This was the first time she’d managed to gain full consciousness. Her mind was still not clear. There was a heavy shroud of drug-induced fog clouding her thoughts. She needed to be able to think clear. Her survival depended on it.

From the conversation going on in the cockpit they were apparently flying over a place called Arizona. Keeping below radar level. That didn’t surprise her either. No one wanted to take credit or blame for what was happening. The men in the cockpit were like all the others before them. They just wanted to pass her off to those higher in the chain of command and be done with her.

Knowing that time was running short, she focused her mind on a plan. The minutes ticked by. The pilot’s voice alerted her to a change in their status. They were suddenly losing fuel. He wasn’t sure they had enough to make it to their destination. He had to radio for instructions.

“This is Bravo Tango Charlie 227.”

There was an answering blast of static. He tried again. Still nothing. Focused on the problem at hand, he and his copilot turned all their attention to checking the instrumentation, their comments made in hopeful tones. Maybe the instruments were wrong. Maybe it was a glitch.

This was her chance. She slowly sat, peeling off the blanket they’d placed over her. Keeping her eyes on the cockpit, she inched toward the door. Neither of the men sensed movement until she placed one hand on each of their shoulders.

“This aircraft is going to crash,” she said softly. “You must escape before it goes down. You are lucky men. The only survivors.”

“What the—” The pilot never finished the sentence. The chopper suddenly lost altitude and all his attention was on battling the controls.

Standing between the two men, for a moment she was weightless. Had she not reached up to absorb the impact with hands and arms, her head would have banged into the ceiling of the cabin.

The copilot issued a mayday call, giving their location. Hope swelled inside her. They were passing over a lake. As the chopper dropped lower, she reached for the door. The copilot grabbed her, trying to stop her. She fought him with everything she had. This time he wasn’t going to overpower her. She’d played nice. She’d played fair. And it’d gotten her nowhere. Except getting her kidnapped, drugged, bound and gagged, and flying who-knew-where with this surly barbarian and an equally dour pilot.

It was time to get the heck out of Dodge as she’d heard on the black and white western show she’d watched at the last holding facility she’d been kept in. And this was her best chance.

The pilot was trying to find a place to land. She’d spotted the lake and knew this was the time to act. All she had to do was get free of the co-pilot who had a death grip on her wrist.

He yanked on her, and she put everything she had into a punch right into his groin. His mouth opened wide but only a strangled gurgle came out. She vaulted over to the door as he collapsed.

The aircraft did a sudden nose down, throwing her forward onto her knees. As the pilot fought to level out the plane, she scrambled to her feet and headed for the hatch.

With all the wobbling and the steep angle of the dive, it was next to impossible to push the door open. If only she had more time and didn’t have to rely on brute strength. A look towards the front told her she was out of time. With a grunt, she shoved at the door. It slid open and wind buffeted her, whipping her hair around her head.

She closed her eyes, stretched out her arms and leaned forward. This was insane. She’d probably die. But she was going to die anyway. Better to go this way than the way the people waiting for her had planned. Just then the helicopter lurched. Then the world turned upside down and topsy turvy as she fell forward into nothingness.

* * * * *

Caleb rowed along, watching the indigo sky flare with those few final moments of reds and oranges as the sun disappeared into the horizon. What a great weekend it’d been so far. Just what he’d needed. No drinking, no women, no noise. Just him, a kayak, and a sleeping bag.

It’d been a while since he’d come to the lake. Back when he was young, he’d come up here with his brothers often. They’d race their jet skis, drink like fish and swap tales of their exploits with women.

Those had been good times. Now they were all grown with families of their own, except him. He was the last of the single Russell men. Not that he minded it. Blessed with good genes, he made out just fine with the ladies and he didn’t have any complaints about his social or sex life. They were both quite active.

But now and then he needed to get away and have some time to himself. This weekend he’d found himself thinking about his brothers and how happy they were settled down with wives and kids. He wondered if he’d ever meet a woman who’d inspire him to want to try. So far it hadn’t happened.

One moment he was stoking along the glassy surface of the water and the next thing he knew something was falling out of the sky in front of him, a dark silhouette that looked remarkably like a person.

It couldn’t be. Could it? He dug in on one side with the oar, turning the kayak and watching the strange sight. A moment later the shape hit the water. He had time to think that it couldn’t have been a person because the surface of the water moved as if a beach ball the size of a truck had suddenly plunged into it.

A second later the resulting wave from the impact capsized him. He was slammed upside down hard enough to have him passing from a startled state of confusion into a consuming darkness.

Her landing was far rougher than she’d hoped. All the way down she’d focused her mind on the image of a bubble encasing her, visualized it hitting the surface of the water and bouncing until it came to a soft landing.

Such was not the case. How could water be so hard? Spots danced in front of her eyes, threatening unconsciousness. She fought against it, kicking to the surface. Slinging her hair back from her face, she looked around.

And that’s when she saw it. A kayak bobbing in the churning water, upside-down, and a man floating face down in the water. Fear that she’d killed someone infused her with a rapid spike of adrenaline, providing the strength she needed to roll the man over, wrap one arm around his neck, and swim for shore.

It was harder than she’d anticipated to drag him to shore. She must have suffered more from the fall than she imagined. And he was one big man. Tall and muscular in all the right places. She scolded herself for even noticing how well built and handsome he was. This was not the time for her hormones to take over.

Concentrating on his physical well-being, she maneuvered him over to a truck that was parked beneath a thin stand of trees. He was breathing. Just unconscious. She had no idea who the vehicle belonged to but hoped they wouldn’t mind when she spotted a rolled-up bundle of fabric and grabbed it.

Turned out, it was some kind of bedding. She draped it over the man and knelt down beside him, putting her hand on his forehead. By the stars, he was divine. She could not resist admiring the strong lines of his face and wondering what color his eyes would be when he opened them. And he had to open them. He had to. She could not be responsible for injuring an innocent person.

When Caleb suddenly came to, he bolted upright, finding himself on the ground beside his truck.

“Are you damaged?” A feminine voice with a musical accent asked.

He jerked his head to the right and saw a woman kneeling beside him. And what a woman. She was stunning. Exotic. Her skin carried a slight tint that spoke of the East, Persia or perhaps India. But her eyes were the color of amethyst, a violet that was pale but possessed of almost a glow. Clearly, she was of mixed heritage. Her features were classic—elegant arched brows, a thin delicate nose, and lips that could be used as a model for women who want to achieve that full, kissable pout.

“What the hell happened?”

“Your vessel capsized, and I brought you to shore.”

“You…” He looked around in confusion. His kayak was nowhere to be seen. Caleb leaned forward, running his hands back through his wet hair before looking at her again. “Was that you? That fell from the sky, I mean?”

She regarded him for a moment. “You think I fell from the sky?”

“Lady, I know what I saw. You fell and hit the water and…and capsized me.”

“Then I suppose you have your answer,” she said and sat back on her heels, watching him.

Caleb couldn’t help but notice the way the white t-shirt clung to her, revealing full high breasts with hard, perfect nipples. He also noticed the slight smile on her face when she caught him staring.

“Look, I’m not crazy. I saw you falling. But from what?”

She looked away, hugging herself. Night air was falling, and the temperature was dropping. Caleb stripped off the bed roll that was draped over him and wrapped it around her shoulders. “Let’s get a fire going so you can get warm. I have an extra shirt in the truck if you want to put it on and we’ll dry your clothes by the fire.”

He got up and reached into his pocket for his keys. “Shit!”

“There is something wrong?” she asked.

“My keys. They must have come out of my pocket when I capsized.”

“Then we shall search for them,” she said, throwing aside the bed roll and springing to her feet.

“Hold on,” he grabbed her arm.

She jerked away so fast and with such fury on her face that he involuntarily took a step back. “Do. Not. Ever. Do. That.” Her words were sharp and punctuated.

He raised both hands up in surrender. “Sorry. I just meant that there’s no point. Night’s falling and we’d never find them anyway.”

“Then you cannot open the door to your vehicle?”

“Well, I do keep a spare set of keys.”

“That is very wise.”

He grinned sheepishly. “Yeah, well the problem is, they’re inside the glove compartment of the truck. We’ll have to break a window to get them.”

“Oh.”

Before he had a chance to move, she stepped over to the window, balled up her fist and slammed it through the passenger window. Caleb gaped at her in shock as she turned and smiled at him. “Now you may retrieve your keys.”

He was unable to respond for a moment. First, she free falls out of the sky and ends up without even a bruise and then she slams her fist through a window like it’s papier mâché? What the hell kind of woman was she anyway?

“Your keys?” she prompted.

“Oh, yeah, right.” He didn’t bother to state the obvious. He didn’t need the keys now. He reached in, unlocked the door, and rummaged through the duffle bag that was on the floor.

“Here,” he handed her a blue plaid flannel shirt. “Get out of those wet clothes and put this on while I get a fire started.”

“Thank you,” she said with a smile, hung the shirt over the window, and started stripping off her wet clothes.

Caleb’s mouth fell open in surprise. He’d been around uninhibited women before, but never one who’d strip off their clothes in the same manner one would kick off a pair of muddy boots. Despite his desire to see what delights lay beneath the wet clothing, he turned away and busied himself building a fire.

Fortunately, he’d stocked up on wood earlier in the day, prepared for a cool evening. Of course, he hadn’t dreamed he’d be sharing his campfire with a totally gorgeous and completely out of the ordinary woman.

He grinned to himself as he watched the kindling ignite and spread. Life sure was full of surprises.

“What do I do with these?” she asked from behind him.

Caleb had just finished spreading a plastic tarp on the ground and topped it with a wool blanket. When he turned and saw her standing there, his shirt covering her from neck to mid-thigh, exposing long, strong, sexy legs and her wet clothes held in one hand, he momentarily lost the ability to speak.

Damn she was sexy. Wet hair cascading down over her shoulders to nearly her waist, eyes watching him with the curiosity of a cat and those lips. Those full, please-kiss-me lips. It was enough to drive a saint to sin.

“My clothing?” she asked with a seductive little smile.

“Oh, right. Here let me take care of that.” He grabbed a couple of stout sticks and jammed them into the ground near the fire, draping her shirt and pants over them. “There. They’ll dry in a few hours.”

“Thank you,” she said. “Mr.?”

“Russell. Caleb Russell.”

“Thank you, Mr. Russell.”

“You’re more than welcome, Miss…?”

“Raenee Thotthoft,” she replied after a moment’s hesitation.

“That’s an unusual name.”

“So is Caleb,” she said with a smile and gestured to the pallet on the ground. “Do you mind if I sit?”

“Oh, sorry. Sure. There’s an extra blanket there if you want to wrap up. It gets pretty cold at night.”

“Thank you, but I’m fine,” she said and sank down in an Indian style, cross legged position.

“You rest and warm up. I’m going to change and get things going for dinner.”

“Might I assist you?”

He knew her offer was for food preparation, but he could not help but think about her assisting him in getting out of his still damp shorts. “No, thanks I got it.”

She smiled and nodded then turned her attention to the fire, staring into it as if there were secrets in the flames that only she could discern. He watched her for a moment then hurried to the truck, changed into jeans and a shirt, and grabbed the cooler.

Raenee stared into the flames of the fire. She had no doubt that Caleb would revisit the topic of her unusual arrival. Naturally he was curious. She didn’t blame him. It wasn’t every day a person fell out of the sky. Her dilemma was what to tell him.

It was against her nature to lie. But could she trust him? She’d made the mistake of putting her trust in a stranger and it had landed her here, on the run and unsure what to do.

She did sense that he was an honest and honorable man. And was obviously compassionate, giving her dry clothing and building a fire so that she could warm herself. And now, preparing food.

But her experience of late had taught her that compassion could sometimes be a self-serving act. People would feed you, keep you safe from the elements and provide you with the necessities to survive, but in return they wanted to take your life from you, make you their prisoner.

She could not afford to be taken prisoner again. Now that she was free, she had to stay that way. Which meant she was going to have to find one trustworthy person. She had no money, no identity papers and no way to secure food and lodgings.

And then there was the matter of the people who would be looking for her. Fear swelled inside her at the thought of being found. They claimed to be good people, interested only in the benefit of mankind through scientific exploration and research. But their methods spoke otherwise.

“You hungry?” Caleb’s voice interrupted her thoughts.

She looked up at him, thinking that her mind must have been more affected by the impact that she realized because suddenly it was very clear that she needed to learn how to speak as he did, master the accent and the cadence so that she did not sound quite so much the foreigner. She’d pay close attention and hope he didn’t notice the change in her speech patterns.

“Yes.”

He sat down, putting the cooler between them. “Not a lot to choose from, but I have stuff to make sandwiches, some fruit, beer, water.”

“Sand witches?” Wouldn’t you know he’d offer something she had no clue what it was.?

“Yeah, roast beef and cheese.”

“Roasted beef?” She felt her stomach recoil. “You mean the roasted flesh of a bovine?”

His face crinkled in a puzzled expression. “Uh, yeah.”

She shook her head. No way was she going to eat flesh. That was disgusting. “Fruit?”

He pulled a fat red apple from the cooler, and she accepted it with a smile, taking a big bite. “Mmmmm,” she moaned, nodding and chewing. “This is heavenly. Thank you.”

He shook his head with a smile and popped open a beer. “Want one?”

“What is it?”

The question stopped him cold turkey. “What is it? You mean you don’t know what beer is?”

“Oh, yes, of course. A general name for an alcoholic beverage created by the fermentation of a cereal or mixture of cereals and flavored with hops.”

He laughed despite thinking that was the oddest way of explaining beer he’d ever heard. It sounded like something quoted from a dictionary. “Yeah, right. So, you’ve never tasted beer?”

“No.”

“Would you like to?”

She cocked her head to one side for a moment then nodded. “Very well, I would love to taste beer.”

Caleb handed her his bottle and watched as she lifted it to her lips, tipped it up and guzzled half of it. When she lowered the bottle, her lips pursed for a moment, her eyebrows drew together slightly and then she smiled and handed him back the bottle. “Interesting and—” She suddenly belched then laughed. “My apology.”

“No worries,” he said and tilted the bottle up for a drink. “So, you want one?”

“Hmmm, no. Thank you.”

“Water?”

“Oh yes, please.”

Caleb handed her a bottle of water and watched her tip her head back and guzzle it down. How was it possible that just watching her throat as she drank was one of the most erotic things he’d ever seen?

He needed to get a grip. Turn his attention to something besides how much she got to him sexually. Like how out of place she seemed and how she’d fallen from the sky.

“So, Ran ̶ eh, so where’re you from?”

“Rain,” she corrected his pronunciation then answered. “I am not really from anywhere.”

“Everyone’s from somewhere.”

“Really?”

“Well, sure. Usually, people consider the place they were born or grew up as being the place they’re from. So where did you grow up?”

She saw that the moment had come. Either she took a chance and was honest with him, or she had to concoct an elaborate lie. And lies tended to trap the person who spoke them, even if it took a while.

“I have no idea,” she said at last.

“What?”

“I don’t know where I’m originally from.”

“I heard what you said, I just don’t understand.”

She sighed and picked at the peel of the apple. “I have no memory of my origins. My memories begin when I was…I don’t know how old I was. I only know that my first memory is of being in the Song Sang in the Henan province with an elderly man, Shen, whom I came to love as a father.”

“China?”

She nodded.

He frowned at her for a moment. “Well, your name sure isn’t Chinese.”

“No, I was not given a Chinese name since it was clear by my appearance that I am not.”

“So, how’d you end up here?”

“It has been a long journey.

“You want to elaborate on that?”

Raenee looked down at the apple then tossed it away. The questions robbed her of her appetite. “I lived in the Henan province for many years then we moved to India. From there we traveled to Iran and on from there to Egypt. After a time, we left Egypt and spent some time in Russia and the Ukraine, then on to Spain, Portugal and finally to Brazil and the Yucatan. We were in Mexico when my father—when Shen—was killed.”

“Which doesn’t explain how you came to be here, falling out of the sky.”

She sighed and studied his face for a long time. He reached over and put his hand on her shoulder. “Raenee, I don’t know what kind of trouble you’ve got, but it’s a sure bet that people don’t fall from the sky without a reason. And it’s clear that you’re hesitant to tell me what happened to land you here, but I promise you that whatever you say I’ll keep in confidence and will do whatever I can to help.”

She’d never heard more honesty in a man’s voice or felt more assurance of sincerity. It was as refreshing as happening upon an oasis in the desert. But still, it was frightening. Secrets once revealed could not be retracted.

“You’re right. There are…difficulties in my life. I did not simply fall from the sky. I escaped from a military aircraft in route to a base somewhere in the southwest of the United States.”

Caleb didn’t know what he’d been expecting but it sure as hell wasn’t that. “You—you escaped a military aircraft?”

She nodded confirmation.

“Why did the military have you? Are you a terrorist or something? How did you come to be a military prisoner? What’d you do?”

“I am not a terrorist,” she replied. “I came to be the prisoner of the United States military when my father was killed in an attempted robbery in a street market. I…I killed Shen’s assailant. When the authorities arrived upon the scene, a man who claimed to be a representative of your government claimed that he saw what happened. He said that my act was self-defense and he claimed to be traveling with me and Shen. They believed him and he offered to help me arrange to have Shen’s body transported back to his homeland for burial.

“But instead, he drugged and held me hostage for weeks, then I was transported via automobile to an airfield where I was put on a jet and flown somewhere. I am not sure where. I was kept drugged. I do not know how much time passed, only that many medical examinations occurred. I was wakened in the night to be told I was being moved. I do not remember much about it except for being transferred to an aircraft. I regained consciousness as the military helicopter I was being transported in flew over this area.”

“And you escaped?”

“Yes.”

“How?”

“I jumped.”

Caleb wanted to believe but it was too much to ask of any sane man. “That’s impossible. I didn’t hear any helicopter before you landed in the lake.”

“I believe I heard the pilot talking about stealth mode and keeping under the radar to avoid having the flight logged or recorded.”

“Still, you’d have had to have fallen from…thousands of feet. There’s no way you could’ve survived.”

“But as you can see, I did.”

He opened his mouth then closed it and picked up a stick to poke at the fire. “Okay, let’s say I believe that it did happen. Why were you a prisoner to begin with?”

She was silent for a long time. Finally, he looked at her. She stared at him silently. Either she was trying to cook up another elaborate tale or she had run out of lies. As beautiful as she was, she had to be lying. Her story was just too fantastic to be real.

“Well?” he asked.

She sighed before speaking. “Caleb, the wisest course of action for you would be to pack your belongings, get in your vehicle, and pretend that you never met me.”

“Why?”

“Because they will be looking for me and I do not wish to bring you trouble.”

“What makes you think they’ll be looking? Just what is it about you that makes them want you so bad?”

Again, she hesitated, then raised her hand, gracefully rotating it at the wrist so that her palm faced upward. “This.”

To his shame, he actually yelped as his body suddenly floated up off the ground. His legs unfolded from a seated position and dangled a good two feet from the earth.

“What the hell?”

She smiled and slowly turned her hand palm down. His feet touched the ground and for a moment he felt a little weak in the knees. Was this possible? Had the accident in the kayak left him unconscious and cooking up fantasies in his mind?

“How’d you do that?”

“I do not know.”

“What do you mean you don’t know?”

Raenee was trying to be patient, to understand how unbelievable and fantastic it must sound and seem to him. But her patience was being sorely tested with the continuous bombardment his maleness was having on her and the fear that the longer she stayed there the stronger the possibility that she would be found and taken again.

She stood and faced him. “I do not know why it is I possess these abilities. I only know that they exist and because of that your government wants to dissect me and I have no desire to be their laboratory rodent. Believe me or not. That is your choice. All I know is that I have to find a place that is safe where I cannot be found.”

He stared at her for a few moments then reached out to grasp her hand. “This is, well, it’s pretty unbelievable. I mean people don’t survive falls from helicopters without a scratch and what you just did…well, it’s like something out of a sci-fi movie. I’m sorry if I seem harsh, but I’m a down-to-earth kind of guy and I sure as hell haven’t ever dealt with anything like this before—well not exactly like this anyway.”

“I apologize,” she said, wanting to extricate her hand from his. His touch was sending tendrils of fire up her arm to spread throughout her body, igniting the primal female within her and making her long to couple with him. “I have been less than understanding. I realize this must seem quite strange to you. And I do not want to endanger you. Again, the wisest course of action for you would be to—”

“I’m not abandoning you,” he said in a determined tone. “That’s not an option. If you need a safe place, then you can come home with me. To the Circle R.”

“What is a Circle R?”

He chuckled and gave her hand a squeeze. “It’s a ranch.”

“Are there others who live on this ranch?”

“Well, yeah. We have a lot of employees and provide housing for some of them. And my father and stepmother live there from time to time. When they’re not at the capital.”

“The capital?”

“Yeah. My father’s the governor of Arizona.”

Fear spiked inside her. “He is part of the government?” She jerked her hand from his and took a step back.

“Of the state, Rain. He’s not part of whoever’s responsible for what happened to you. I promise you that.”

She felt the fear recede at his assurance and wondered if she was being completely foolish in placing her trust in him. But something inside her said that he was worthy of trust. She prayed her instincts were not wrong.

“Then the people on your ranch would also be at risk, Caleb. Would you endanger their lives to aid me?”

“They won’t be in danger,” he insisted and sat down, tugging on her hand to get her to sit beside him. “Here’s what we’ll do. We’ll give you another name and tell everyone that you’re…shit, we have to come up with a good cover story.”

He fell silent and she waited for him to continue. After a time, his eyebrows rose, and he turned to her with a smile. “We’ll tell them that you’re someone I hired to work for me and you’re staying at the ranch until you can get settled into a place of your own.”

“You want me to work for you? Doing what?”

“Do you know anything about horses or cattle?”

“In the breeding or raising of such animals? No.”

“Okay, then what about as a vet assistant?”

“A vet assistant?”

“Yeah. See, along with ranching, I’m also a large animal vet. I have a clinic at the ranch and mainly focus on horses and cattle but sometimes people bring their pets to me for vaccinations or to set a bone or something like that.”

“And you would like for me to assist you in caring for these creatures?” The idea appealed to her. She loved animals and had an affinity with almost every species.

“Yeah.”

“I think I would enjoy that.”

“Great! Now we just need to come up with a new name for you. Got any favorites?”

“Constantia,” she said without hesitation.

“Constantia?”

“Not good? Then perhaps Constance, or Conner.”

“Conner? Doesn’t that sound a little masculine?”

“I do not think so, but if it offends you then perhaps Connery.”

“Okay, fine. Connery. And your last name will be…”

“I am not familiar with contemporary American surnames.”

“Okay, how about Hoffman?”

“Connery Hoffman,” she murmured. “Yes, I will be Connery Hoffman.”

Caleb stuck out his hand and she looked at it then at him. “Shake on it,” he said. “It’s a way of sealing a bargain.”

“Oh!” She smiled and put her hand in his. The moment their flesh touched a spark ignited.

“What was that?” he asked.

“I believe it is called energy,” she said with a smile.

Caleb chuckled. “Looks like it’s going to be real interesting having you around, Rane—I mean, Connery.”

She grinned in return. For the first time since Shen’s death, she had hope. And as her teacher had always told her, where there was hope there was possibility. She prayed he were right.