Page 12 of Stranded with the Billionaire
Chapter Three
Bright sunlight was streaming through the window. Sterling groaned and squinted into the light. Her nose was frozen, a drip of moisture hanging from the end. Quickly, she wiped it away.
Not that she was trying to impress Jake Ramesly.
If anything, she was going to be persona non grata after she published the photos that she had taken. Speaking of which, a picture of the inside of the cockpit before they took away the blanket in front of the door would look great. She could see the headlines now.Billionaire stranded on side of mountain. Billionaire to survive due to the ingenuity of flight attendant. Plane crash claims life of pilot, Jake Ramesly still alive!
Any one of those would be a seller for the tabloids. Ray Grange eat your heart out. Her boss would be enthusiastic about the piece.
Problem was, if she didn’t have reception, she couldn’t send any articles. Sterling also would need to find time away from Jake Ramesly to write. There were so many things in the mix right now that she needed to get on. David’s release, Michael’s arrest and the family’s opinion of that, Ted’s death, and now Jake being stuck on a mountain.
It really was amazing how one family could have such bad luck. Her good luck was that she could write about it and had an interested audience.
Sterling took a peek at Jake. He was still sleeping. At least he was breathing. The last thing she wanted was to explain how a billionaire had died under her care. Those would be bad headlines. Turning her phone on, Sterling edged it out of the blanket and took a quick picture before looking for a signal.
Nothing.
Then again, hadn’t 911 rolled out a new texting program? Sterling didn’t think it was available in all areas, but she was willing to give it a shot. She remembered learning somewhere that text was less strenuous on signal strength than an actual phone call.
First, she dialed 911. No signal was the phone’s response.
Then she tried to text. Sterling had never done this before, so she didn’t know if a person was supposed to just send it to 911 or if there were letters or anything. Figuring it could only not work, she texted as much as she knew about their situation.
Plane 9089 out of NewHaven airport crashed in mountain. Unknown location. Pilot dead. Passenger and crew okay. Need rescue asap.
Hitting send, Sterling had a little prayer that the text would find its way to the right people.
“Any luck?” Jake asked sleepily, running a hand through his hair.
No man had any right to look that good just waking up. Sterling knew her makeup was going to be smeared all over and that she’d have wild hair and racoon eyes. Her breath probably didn’t smell all that wonderful either. “No. The text message isn’t even sending.”
“Who did you text?” Jake frowned. He did that far too often in Sterling’s limited exposure to him. She wondered what it would take to make the man happy. Probably data sheets that added up perfectly.
“911,” Sterling shut off her phone and put it away. Her fingers were getting cold.
“Is that a thing? Texting 911?” he asked.
She shrugged. “I thought I read somewhere that some counties are now making texting 911 available. I thought it couldn’t hurt to try.”
“True,” Jake agreed. “I suppose we should see what our situation is by the light of day.”
He sat up and took all the warmth of the blanket with him. Sterling scowled as she quickly sat up. She grabbed the blanket from the floor to wrap around herself as he began peeling the tape away from the frame of the cockpit door.
Bright light hit their eyes from the winter wonderland outside. It was white and snowy with green pines. It looked like a holiday postcard except for the fact that neither of them were properly dressed for the occasion. Sterling huddled in her blanket, trying to ignore the call of nature. Now she bitterly regretted those two glasses of wine.
Jake stepped through the doorway and gave a low whistle.
“What?” scrambling to her feet, Sterling followed him.
“It’s a long way down,” Jake grimaced. “Did I mention I hate climbing trees?”
“Well, be thankful you don’t need to do it in a skirt,” Sterling looked over the edge. The nose of the plane was wedged on a rock face. Unfortunately, it looked like their best bet was to climb down the nearest pine tree. It didn’t look like they would be able to reach the rock as the plane was just slightly over the edge.
Sterling stepped back, her stomach queasy at the drop. Thankfully, their combined weight hadn’t caused the plane to move an inch, otherwise they’d be plummeting down the hillside right now.
How was she supposed to climb down a tree in a skirt and pumps?
In her search of the remaining cupboards, Sterling hadn’t found anything useful that she could swap out her flight attendant clothes for. She had the bad feeling they were in deep trouble. Jake didn’t look much better equipped than she was. He had loafers and dress pants on. Both of them were going to court frostbite come the approaching nightfall when things cooled off considerably. Right now, with the sun and hardly any breeze, it was somewhat tolerable. Still cold, but Sterling thought if she could just get proper shoes and pants, she might be okay. Tonight however, that was going to be a different story. Without adequate shelter, they probably would freeze on the side of the mountain.
