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  HERO ADRIFT

  by

  TRIXIE STILLETTO

  Amber Quill Press, LLC

  http://www.amberquill.com

  * * *

  * * *

  Hero Adrift

  An Amber Quill Press Book

  This book is a work of fiction. All names, characters, locations, and incidents are products of the author's imagination, or have been used fictitiously.

  Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, locales, or events is entirely coincidental.

  Amber Quill Press, LLC

  http://www.amberquill.com

  All rights reserved.

  No portion of this book may be transmitted or reproduced in any form, or by any means, without permission in writing from the publisher, with the exception of brief excerpts used for the purposes of review.

  Copyright © 2006 by Trixie Stilletto

  ISBN 1-59279-472-6

  Cover Art © 2006 Trace Edward Zaber

  Layout and Formatting

  Provided by: ElementalAlchemy.com

  Published in the United States of America

  Books by Trixie Stilletto

  The Blackout

  Body Slam

  The Coming

  Destiny's Escort

  The Interview

  Lucky's Strike

  The Quarterback

  Trixie's Treats

  Scarecrow & Betsy McGee

  Book I: Triple D

  Book II: Mattress Games

  Book III: Chinese Delight

  Book IV: Planes, Trains, & Betsy

  With T. D. McKinney

  Eight Is Never Enough

  Dedication

  To Tom, for all the right reasons.

  To all the men and women of the United States Coast Guard who serve and protect.

  "I shall sell life dearly to an enemy of my country, but give it freely to rescue those in peril. With God's help, I shall endeavor to be one of His noblest Works..."

  From the Creed of the

  United States Coast Guardsman

  (written by VADM Harry G. Hamlet)

  Chapter 1

  * * *

  "Okay everyone, stay calm!" Abby called. "I'm sure someone will be here to help us as soon as possible."

  She turned quickly to her teacher's assistant, a young man who looked almost as frightened as the nineteen six-year-olds who made up her class. They were part of a large group of first-graders taking a tour on a sightseeing boat that traversed the Niagara River between Buffalo and Niagara Falls. With parents and children, there were nearly one hundred people on the boat called the Niagara Belle, and they were currently dead in the water.

  Abby tried to smile reassuringly again. Things were not looking good.

  Abby's class was from the Buffalo School. Things had been going extremely smooth on this late-spring sightseeing trip and the children had been having a great time, in addition to learning a lot about the history of the great river and the Erie Canal. In fact, things had been going so well Abby had finally relaxed. But that's what she got for letting her guard down. Now things were looking bleak. She could feel her throat tighten and her panic begin to rise.

  The water of the Niagara that had looked calm and peaceful at the start of the tour now looked dark and dangerous. The wind had picked up and was whipping in off Lake Erie, bringing with it the cold bite of winter still lingering over western New York and lake waters that hadn't begun to warm for the summer. Worse, there was a large black cloud coming in from the west. It appeared to Abby as if it was being pushed by a rocket on a collision course with them.

  Add to all this the danger of the river and the dead tour boat...her captain apparently suffering a heart attack. Abby sucked in a deep breath. Well, it wouldn't do to panic. She had to be strong and self-assured or her children would pick up on her fears.

  "Okay, kids, everyone find your buddy and line up in a straight line behind Mr. Stella," she called. "Let's let the crew and Dr. Bailey do their work."

  Dr. Bailey and one of the chaperones, who was a nurse, were working feverishly on the captain. The boat had an emergency medical kit and Abby knew that calls had already been made to 911. In fact, as she looked out over the bow, she could see a large white-and-red boat coming to them. She smiled again. Everything's going to be fine.

  She wouldn't even think about the fact it seemed as if the Belle was drifting closer and closer to the large International Railroad Bridge that crossed the Niagara from Buffalo's Black Rock neighborhood to Fort Erie, Ontario. What could happen? Just because the bridge had been built in 1870 and was still used today, surely a ninety-foot long cruise and tour boat built in the 1990s could handle ramming into the bridge supports. Right?

  Abby closed her eyes as another wave of panic threatened to overcome her. She'd put that right out of her mind. That just left room for the thought of what would happen if a bridge meant to carry the weight of freight trains collapsed on top of their relatively modern boat.

  "Look, Ms. Smithton. The Coast Guard is coming," one of the children cried.

  Abby looked back out over the bow and could now make out the markings on the white boat. The child was right. It was the Coast Guard. And Abby could see there were other boats speeding to their rescue as well. Abby smiled, starting to really relax. "Yes, I see. I told you there was nothing to worry about. Now hurry up and find your buddy."

  Abby refused to think about how they were going to get everyone off the Niagara Belle and onto the other boats. Well, maybe they'd just tow the Belle and her passengers back to shore. There probably wouldn't be any danger of anyone having to step over the water. At any rate, Abby knew the Coast Guard and all the other rescue teams were the experts. She'd let them handle it.

  She wasn't afraid of water...she just didn't like the fact she couldn't see the bottom. She wouldn't think about what it would be like stepping across a chasm between two heaving decks. It probably wouldn't even come to that.

  "Everyone, here I am," called John Stella, her teacher's aide.

  Some kids were scurrying to obey, while a few others lingered at the rail. Abby went over to hurry them along.

  She felt a tug on the bottom of her blouse and looked down at the excited face of Billy Borrelli.

  "Ms. Smithton, do you think the Coast Guard will ram us?" he asked with a mixture of fear and excitement on his cherubic face and in his voice.

  "No, Billy, they will not ram us," she said firmly.

  "Oh." He looked a bit crestfallen. "Well, it could happen."

  "Only on a computer game," she replied. "Now hurry up and find your buddy and get in line. We want to be able to do everything the Coast Guard tells us when they get on board, okay?"

  Billy nodded and took one last long look at the boats drawing up to them.

  Another child called her name and she turned away, one thought in her mind--getting everyone safely off this boat and back on land.

  * * * *

  The U.S.S. Comfort pulled aside the Niagara Belle and Petty Officer Oliver Robinson balanced his weight on the balls of his feet as the skipper, Lieutenant George Danheiser throttled back and sent the diesel engine of their forty-seven-foot Motor Life Boat into idle. The current on the Niagara River was fast, with wind whipping up around twenty knots causing whitecaps to swell. The Belle was being pulled closer and closer to the International Railway Bridge and no one wanted to see whether ship or bridge would win that battle. The destruction was one thing, the possible disruption of the commercial railway traffic between the United States and Canada another. In fact, Oliver looked over and saw a boat from the Canadian Coast Guard tearing up river, as well as support craft from the local law enforcement agencies.

  The plan was to position the Comfort in front of th
e Belle and, using a tow line, keep her steady while they transferred the passengers to smaller crafts and returned them to land. Perhaps in normal situations, they would just leave the passengers aboard and tow the Belle back to port. But this wasn't a normal situation. They had a report the Belle's captain had collapsed with a possible heart attack. They also had learned the Belle was hosting over a hundred elementary school students from the area. No one wanted to risk anything happening to the youngsters, so the decision had been made to take everyone off the Belle, just in case.

  Search and rescue were the prime functions of the Coast Guard and one of the biggest reasons Oliver had signed up. Of course, since he'd been in, things had changed with the Guard taking on more and more responsibilities for law enforcement and homeland security.

  But search and rescue had always held a special spot in Oliver's gut. It was the thing he'd miss most when he left the Guard.

  This rescue was a little trickier than normal because of the children involved, but he also felt a little relieved. Oliver had just been transferred to Buffalo after spending eight months at Air Station Miami, where the duty was always exciting and hazardous. Buffalo normally wasn't quite so active, but with his shoulder still acting up after he had been shot on his last Miami op by the drug dealer they were trying to capture, Oliver could use a little light duty.

  He turned his thoughts away from Miami. There was no use going over it again because thinking about that evening just pissed him off and he couldn't do anything to change what had happened. He also didn't need to have those thoughts in his mind when he was facing a rescue.

  One thing Oliver had learned early in his CG career was to never take any rescue for granted and keep his mind one hundred percent on the job.

  The Comfort was in place and Oliver saw the signal from Danheiser that things were ready. Seaman Joe Poreda stepped from the Comfort onto the Belle, temporary anchor in hand, and headed to the stern. He made quick work of securing the anchor and then tying off a couple of lead ropes as well, making sure the Comfort would help keep the Belle steady.

  "Man overboard!"

  The shout sent a chill down Oliver's back and he looked all around the Belle. He saw the flash of orange of a P.F.D., a personal floatation device, off the port side. God, it was a child.

  Oliver knew the average water temperature of the Niagara River in the middle of May was 45.2 degrees. An adult would be exhausted swimming in that temperature in around thirty to forty minutes. Then there was the speed of the current and the real possibility the victim was injured and would drown even with the P.F.D.

  But this was a child. That ratcheted things up quite a bit. He wouldn't have a child drown. Not on his watch.

  In the time it took him to pull his protective waterproof headgear into place, another call rang overboard. "Man overboard times two!"

  Damn. This simple rescue had gone to shit in an instant he thought as he flipped over the rail and headed for the first flash of orange he saw.

  * * * *

  "Sixteen, seventeen, eighteen," Abby counted the children lined up. "Oh, God, who's missing?"

  Frantically she looked at the faces of her children. ""Where's Billy?" she asked John.

  "I don't know," he replied. "He was just there a minute ago. I saw you talking to him."

  "He was worried about us getting rammed by the Coast Guard," Abby said. She was turning to her right and left, praying she'd find the little boy soon. The man overboard call came just as her gaze ricocheted out the boat and she saw the flash of orange over the left railing.

  The Coast Guardsman was at the other end of the Belle. There was an Erie County sheriff's patrol boat on the left side and the students were standing on the right. She could see another boat racing to them from the Canadian coastline, but she wasn't certain if they'd reach them or if they could see Billy's orange life jacket and body. Abby knew Billy had only one chance. She bit back her fear at the thought of the cold, dark water coming over her head, but closed her eyes and jumped in. Billy was her responsibility. She didn't take that lightly.

  For a second she was afraid she'd be pulled to the bottom--the bottom she couldn't see and certainly couldn't feel under her feet. But the life jacket she was wearing did its job and popped her to the surface. The water was cold--much, much colder than she'd expected for this time of the year. Abby's teeth begin chattering within seconds of being in the river. She couldn't imagine what Billy, who weighed maybe forty-five pounds versus her one hundred and twenty-five, was feeling. Abby put the cold out of her mind, however. She had only one thought--reaching Billy. Although the thick jacket made movement awkward and Abby wasn't the strongest swimmer in the world, she started kicking and stroking her way to where Billy was bobbing away from the Belle at an alarming rate.

  Abby felt the combination of the strong current and the cold begin sapping her strength almost immediately. She had to reach Billy. She kept her eyes on him and yelled, "I'm coming, son."

  Her words ended on a cough as the wind whipped what felt like a gallon of water into her open mouth, down her windpipe and into her lungs.

  Abby heard shouts behind her and knew there were others coming to help. But she also saw the panic in Billy's eyes as she got closer to him. Although the life jacket was keeping his head above water, she could tell he was quickly losing the ability to stay afloat.

  She finally reached him and wrapped him in her arms. "I'm here, darling. I'm here. Put your arms around my neck, okay?"

  Billy nodded. She could see the tinge of blue around his lips from the cold and exhaustion and heard the rasp as he gasped for breath. Billy was asthmatic and she knew he was having an attack.

  At that moment one rescuer reached them.

  "Hurry," she said to the man. "He's having an asthma attack."

  Their rescuer nodded and took Billy from her arms, then turned and swam to the back of the Coast Guard boat, which seemed closer than it had been before. There were a man and woman wearing Coast Guard uniforms and one of them was readying emergency equipment. She opened her mouth to repeat her warning about Billy's condition when the rescuer beat her to it.

  "He's got asthma, according to his mother," the swimmer said as he handed Billy into the outstretched arms of a seaman leaning over the rescue boat. "I didn't see evidence of any head trauma, but I didn't check closely."

  "His name is Billy," Abby called. She was paddling behind the rescuer, thinking it had looked so easy when he'd reached the boat with Billy. For her, it seemed as if the boat was getting farther away rather than closer. She was appalled at how much her strength had been sapped by the experience. Perhaps she should be actually going to the gym instead of just paying for the membership. "I'm not his mother. I'm his teacher. Please hurry."

  A strong hand grabbed her wrist and pulled her the rest of the way through the water. Her muscles felt like they weighed a ton. Okay, she was definitely going to have to lay off the ice cream and hit the gym. Starting tomorrow. She looked at the puckered skin on her fingers. Check that. She'd hit the gym the day after because it was going to take at least forty-eight hours to thaw out. Wanting to at least do something for herself, Abby tried to grasp the rail, but her hands were so cold she couldn't feel the metal, and the material of her pants seemed to be wrapped around her legs like manacles, hampering her movements even more.

  "Come on, lady, upsy daisy," her rescuer said.

  His voice seemed right behind her ear and his breath sent a fresh wave of shivers down her back. He seemed so warm and solid behind her, it was a temptation to rest against him and let him handle everything.

  The water really was colder than she expected. Had she read somewhere that hypothermia could cause delirium?

  Then she felt his hand cup her bottom and knew cold could affect someone's mind because suddenly all she could think about was having that strong hand touch nothing but her flesh.

  Before she could do much more than wonder at the thoughts rushing through her, she was shoved out of the wat
er and over the rail onto the deck.

  The next few minutes were a blur of activity for Abby. Someone threw a heavy blanket to her and she managed to wrap it around herself as she watched the crew working on Billy. They already had him hooked up on oxygen and were taking his vitals.

  "His name is Billy Borrelli," she gasped, still trying to catch her breath. "His parents are William and Cheryl Borrelli. I believe his father works at the Buffalo News."

  Even though no one responded to her information, she knew they heard it because they were relaying it to the emergency room with which they had established contact. Abby shivered but was happy when she saw the litter Billy was on being lifted and then passed onto another, smaller craft from the Erie County Sheriff's department. One of the Coast Guard crewmembers went as well and soon the boat powered up and sped away to the shore. Abby could see several rescue vehicles parked and ready to ferry any victims to the hospital.

  Taking her first easy breath since she'd discovered Billy was overboard, Abby turned and met the icy-blue gaze of her hero. He was, without a doubt, the most gorgeous man she'd ever seen. His black hair, now visible since he'd removed his diving head gear, was damp and dark as midnight. His nose was long and sculpted like a Greek god's. There was a small, uneven bump midway along the bone, as if it had been broken at some point. His face was deeply tanned, not a tan she was used to seeing this early in the spring in Buffalo, so she guessed he'd recently moved here from somewhere southern and warm.

  She had an instant vision of him and her lying side by side, the sand beneath their bodies not nearly as hot as the feel of his fingers running over her aroused flesh.