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“Okay,” he relented. “I was wrong. I shouldn’t have slept with you then walked away.”
He could almost see her stewing on the other end of the communications link. Without a word, she telegraphed her fury with a quiet that thickened between them.
“That’s all it was to you, wasn’t it?” she said. “Plain old physical gratification. Not making love, just sex.”
His frown deepened. Maybe he did deserve a good tongue-lashing, but she’d enjoyed the sex just as much as he had. To pretend otherwise was a flat-out denial of the truth.
“We were both over twenty-one, honey,” he retorted, his own irritation surfacing now. “It’s not like I talked you into anything you didn’t want to do.”
The silence was different this time, and he muttered a self-deprecating curse. Talk about inserting foot in mouth. Good thing they were on this line alone.
“Look, I shouldn’t have said that. Let’s just focus here.” He glanced around at the destruction and then shook himself. What the hell was he doing, letting his attention stray? Only Lisa had ever been able to do that to him.
She sighed. “Sorry. You’re right. Just get me out of here, please.”
“Almost there.” He zeroed in on the spot where he’d determined her SUV to be. A grin slid across his face. He could see the rear hatch. “Gotcha in my sights, babe.”
“Thank God.”
Ditto, he mused.
They would talk about this later. When they were both safe. And when the city was back to normal again. When he finished up here, chances were there would be other missions related to Mother Nature’s handiwork waiting for him.
Getting Lisa to safety was about all he and his squad could accomplish at this site. The canines and heavy equipment would have to take it from here.
Lisa gasped. “I see you!”
He smiled for her benefit, though he couldn’t quite make her out just yet. The lightly tinted rear window prevented him from seeing inside the vehicle, but he was almost there.
The entire structure suddenly shook.
Not just a slight shift.
Not a mere reaction to mounting stress on the compromised support beams.
Aftershock.
Joe bit back a heated curse and pushed forward.
He had to get to Lisa.
The rubble beneath him shifted.
A loud boom thundered above him. Debris fell around him, the low-pitched roar sounding like the enthusiastic clapping of hands.
Joe curled into a ball and shielded his head.
Chunks of glass and concrete rained down on him, followed by clouds of dust.
The shaking stopped as suddenly as it had started, and an eerie quiet fell.
Lisa.
Freeing himself from the rubble, he strained to see her car.
A distant rumble drew his gaze upward in time to see another section of the upper level falling.
He scrambled for cover but he couldn’t get a footing.
Then it was silent again…
…and dark.
CHAPTER THREE
LISA CURLED into the smallest ball possible and wrapped her arms over her head as she hunkered in the cargo compartment of the SUV.
The whole world seemed to tremble with fear.
Was this it?
The end?
Dear God, what about Joe?
She unfurled herself even before the vehicle stopped groaning beneath the weight of more rubble.
She had to know if he was all right.
Had to see.
To get out.
She couldn’t help him from in here.
“Joe!”
The silence that reverberated across the airwaves and into her ear sent her heart plummeting to her feet.
“Joe! Please, answer me! Joe, are you all right?”
“Lisa!”
Shannon’s voice.
“Lisa, where’s Joe?” Her voice warbled slightly.
Lisa’s pulse throbbed in her brain. It had to be bad if Shannon was worried. She was always so strong. Please, please, God, don’t let Joe be dying out there.
“Lisa, we’ve lost contact with Joe. Are you all right?”
“I can’t see him,” she murmured, her own voice stumbling. “I can’t—”
“Lisa, listen to me,” Shannon commanded. “Are you all right?”
She tried to calm down, forcing herself to look around the car and size up the situation. Okay. She was okay.
Just then a vicious creak split the air and the roof buckled in, pressing down on her.
Glass shattered.
“The roof is caving in,” Lisa cried. She edged closer to the rear hatch. The middle of the SUV was crushed so far down that the interior ceiling light was now flattened against the console.
She couldn’t move.
Couldn’t breathe.
She was going to die.
“Lisa, I heard glass shattering. Are you still with me?”
She nodded mutely, then struggled to respond audibly. “Yes.” She couldn’t move…could scarcely breathe.
Joe. God, where was Joe?
“Can you climb out? Maybe through one of the windows?”
Lisa started shaking her head before her friend completed the question. All the windows were shattered, flattened into triangular slits only a few inches high.
No way could she get out.
“I can’t…”
She tried to see behind her. Where was Joe?
“Joe!” she shouted. Please, please, don’t let him be dead. “Joe! Can you hear me?”
“Lisa, stay with me,” Shannon urged. “Is the window in the rear hatch still intact?”
Lisa turned her head as best she could. “Yes.”
“Can you maneuver around and kick it out?”
“I tried that already.” Her heart had leaped into her throat. “I couldn’t do it. I…I can’t turn around. I’m stuck.”
“Try, Lisa! You’ve got to try. You might be able to kick out the glass now with the added pressure.”
“Where’s Joe?” Lisa repeated, tears stinging her eyes. She tried to see but the car seemed buried in rubble. There was still some dim light coming through the hatch, which gave her hope, but what about Joe? She stretched, tried to move.
Turn around. She had to turn around. Something sharp jabbed her shoulder. She winced but kept working at freeing herself.
“Bull’s trying to get him now. Let’s concentrate on getting you out of that vehicle.”
Shannon said something to one of the others…
“No!” Lisa shouted. “Don’t you try to come in here, Shannon. It’s too late. Just…” There was no way anyone could get to her. Defeat twisted like barbwire in her stomach. She was certain of it now. Joe was likely dead and soon she would be, too.
She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to hold back the tears. Damn it. Who would take care of her animals? What about her family? They would be devastated.
And what about Joe?
The tears flowed now as she remembered the last time she’d seen him. He’d dropped by the clinic to break a date with her. She had to give him that. He had been man enough to let her down in person.
She had pretended indifference. As if it didn’t matter either way. But she’d known what had sent him running.
Where do you see our relationship going?
She’d asked the impossible of him.
Joe Ripani just wasn’t the marrying kind.
It certainly didn’t matter now.
Nothing mattered now…
“Lisa?”
Her breath caught.
“I’m here, babe.”
Joe.
The sound of his voice sent her heart into a frantic rhythm.
He was alive.
“Joe!” She bit down on her lower lip to stem the new rush of tears. “You scared the hell out of me, Ripani.”
“Scared myself,” he admitted with a chuckle. “Had to dig my way back to the surface.”
Fear stabbed deep into her chest. “Are you all right?” She could imagine broken bones and hemorrhaging. Men never liked to admit when they were injured. He probably needed medical attention. The dead last thing he should do was crawl deeper into this hellhole.
“’Course I’m all right. You think a little something like a few thousand pounds of concrete is going to stop me?”
This wasn’t the time for jokes. He could save that iceman persona for someone who didn’t know him better.
“Joe, I—”
