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The whole structure shook again. The metal SUV screeched beneath the weight bearing down on it.
Dear God, this whole place was going to collapse.
“You should get out of here, Joe,” she said. Her voice had gone flat, emotionless. It was over. No point in both of them ending up dead. “Don’t come any closer. You’ll never be able to get me out.”
“I’m almost there.”
She shook her head. “No. Don’t do this.” She managed to squeeze to one side as the hatch was compressed even further. She was trapped completely now. Couldn’t even turn her head.
“Just go,” she urged him. “The whole place is going to fall in. You can’t get me out of here. The car is squashed down around me.”
Defeat sucked the oxygen right out of her lungs.
Shannon. “Shannon said she was coming in, too,” Lisa blurted. “You have to stop her, Joe. Go back. Don’t let anyone else come in here. Please don’t play the hero. It’s…” She took stock of the situation again and surrendered to the inevitable. “It’s too late.”
Something bumped against the glass behind her. She couldn’t turn around.
“It’s me,” he said, only this time his voice came through the glass instead of over her cell phone.
She wanted to turn around…to see him one last time and tell him how sorry she was that things hadn’t worked out between them…but she couldn’t move.
“Can you slide down just a little? Get beneath the glass.”
The urgency in his voice prodded at her. It was too late. Why didn’t he just go? Why risk his life, as well? Because that’s what he did, she answered herself. That’s who he was.
Joe Ripani was a real hero. He liked the part, no matter the risk. It was who he was.
“I’ll try.” She slid downward, forcing her body against the damaged metal and tattered headliner that had once been the roof of her SUV. Sharp edges snagged her blouse, scraping at her skin, but she kept squirming to do as Joe asked.
“Close your eyes and protect your face if you can.”
She released her cell phone and shielded her face with the one hand she could move.
He pried at the window…she could hear him grunting with the effort.
The glass shattered.
Suddenly his hands were pulling at her.
With the glass gone, she squeezed out through the opening as he tucked the crowbar he’d been using into his gear belt.
And then she was in his arms.
The tears flowed like a river. She couldn’t have stopped them if she’d bothered trying.
He was okay.
He was really okay.
His arms felt so strong around her.
“We have to get out of here,” he murmured softly against her ear. “The whole place is going to cave in.”
She nodded and reluctantly drew back from his embrace.
Damn, he looked good.
She wanted to stare at him, to take in every last detail of that handsome face. But they had to move.
He clambered over and around the heaps of rubble, dragging her behind him.
Barely recognizable parts of vehicles pierced through the mounds of fallen concrete and steel but Lisa kept her gaze steady on Joe. If she stopped to look—to think—she’d lose it. She had to keep moving. For both their sakes.
Another rumble…another vibration.
“Aftershocks?” she asked.
“Probably the underlying structure…it’s going to give way completely,” he said.
She remembered thinking that only moments ago. Her heart hammered viciously. What if they couldn’t get out after all?
Joe swore. The heat of it seared through her.
They were trapped.
The path they’d followed was now fully blocked by the collapse of the level above.
“We’ll have to try another egress route,” he suggested as he started in a different direction.
Joe spoke quietly via his communications link to his team, who were standing by to assist in any way possible. But there was nothing they could do.
It was all up to him now.
An odd kind of calm settled over Lisa. Joe knew what he was doing. If anyone could get them out of here, he could.
He pulled her after him, weaving over and between slabs of concrete. The place looked like a war zone. The destruction was unbelievable…overwhelming. She prayed again that no one had died in what must be dozens of crushed automobiles.
“Things are going to get a little tricky here,” he said as he came to a stop.
Lisa tried to focus, but her cognitive processes were pretty much on automatic now.
“We’ve got to snake our way through here to get to the other side.”
She considered the mountain of broken construction material before them. No way over it or around it. That much was true. Then she stared at the narrow, tunnel-like hole he indicated.
This void went down…under the debris.
That could be a death sentence.
“I can’t…” She shook her head to emphasize her words. No way could she crawl into that hole.
He took her by the shoulders and gave her a gentle shake. “It’s the only way, babe. It might be nothing but a dead end, but we can’t just stand here and wait for the inevitable. I’ll go first.”
For three beats she could only stare into those dark eyes. His face was dusty and grimy, as were his clothes. He looked nothing like the spit-and-polish, suave guy who had a reputation with the ladies. She had a sudden, nearly overwhelming urge to laugh. Hysteria. She knew the symptoms. As funny and out of character as he looked, he was dead serious.
She forced her head in an up-and-down motion. “Okay.”
He knew what he was doing. This wasn’t her area of expertise. If he thought they needed to crawl under the rocks, then by God, she’d follow him into that hole.
He was, after all, that kind of hero.
Again, she had to stifle the urge to laugh. Hysteria had taken root. Focus, she ordered her dizzy brain. She had to do just what he told her…she had to keep it together. Had to listen carefully to his instructions.
JOE SQUEEZED through the opening to the tunnel, tilting his shoulders at odd angles to manage the feat. Lisa stayed right behind him. She was scared. The fear in those blue eyes had been palpable. He’d wanted to hold her and tell her everything would be all right, but there was no time for that. Every second they stayed in this garage pushed them closer to the edge of no return.
If this passage turned out to be a dead end…well, he’d just deal with it.
He stalled at the next turn. Damn, the pathway narrowed here. Maybe he should have let Lisa go first. She was tiny enough to slip through without much effort. He still couldn’t be sure that this would take them where they needed to go. But he was banking on the light. The tunnel would be pitch-dark if the other end was closed.
The dim light gave him hope. He prayed it would be enough.
Grunting with the brutal effort it took, Joe twisted sideways and forced his big body through the passage-way. Thankfully, the end of the tunnel seemed just beyond this turn. The light was much brighter there. Good sign.
They’d almost made it.
Thank God.
He almost shouted with relief when he reached the narrow exit. A short scramble over the rocks and they’d be out of this hole.
“Give me your hand.” He reached for Lisa, and the two of them climbed up and out of the makeshift passage. “You okay?”
She nodded stiffly. Her clothes were covered in dust, but he saw no sign of injury. No blood.
They were close now.
The location of the stairwell and elevator shaft was only a few feet away. They wouldn’t be able to use either of those routes, of course, but he’d figure out something. The knots of tension in his gut tightened, ratcheting up his anxiety. They had to get out of here. Right now. Every instinct was screaming a warning at him.
Joe zigzagged his way through the fallen rubble until he reached the far half wall on the outside of the garage. Relief surged through him as he stared down into a narrow opening next to where the stairwell had once stood. He could actually see all the way to the ground below.
He reached over his shoulder and retrieved his rappelling line. “Spike, O’Shea, you still with me?”
O’Shea’s relieved voice came across the communications link. He quickly related their approximate location and the intended egress. The team would assemble on the ground below in case he needed assistance. Getting Lisa out of here was top priority.
He eased back from the wall and turned to her. She looked terrified. “I’m going to lower you down to Shannon.” Maybe it would comfort Lisa to know her friend waited below. He glanced back outside and saw that O’Shea, along with four others, were ready and waiting to assist.
“What about you?”
The uncertainty that glittered in her eyes almost undid him. Why did she care? He knew he’d hurt her when he’d backed off their…relationship. And yet she still cared what happened to him.
Basic human compassion, he told himself.
Nothing more. She’d likely gotten over him already. She took in stray dogs and cats all the time with every bit as much compassion. Her concern for him was nothing outside the norm for Lisa Malloy. Nothing he wouldn’t expect…and yet it touched him somehow.
“I’ll climb down as soon as you’re on the ground,” he explained.
She blinked rapidly, a frown drawing her sweet face into a scowl. “But how will you—”
He snaked the line around her waist. “Don’t worry about me, babe. I know what I’m doing.” He gave her a few quick instructions on how to pull the line down around her hips and then how to hold on so she didn’t slip. She paid close attention though he sensed that his every touch disturbed her almost as much as their current predicament. He imagined that she didn’t feel comfortable being touched by him since he’d walked away so easily from what they’d shared.
If she only knew.
Easy had not been the way of it.
She stepped into the narrow opening that would take her to freedom as he tugged on his gloves.
“Now, swing your legs over the edge of the wall and I’ll lower you down,” he said as casually as if she did this sort of thing every day.
Her gaze locked with his. “You…you won’t drop me?”
It took all his strength not to kiss the hell out of her. That pouty bottom lip trembled, tempting him almost beyond endurance.
“Not a chance.”
She nodded, then did as he’d instructed.
He heard her gasp as she dropped free of the shelf the remaining wall formed, but he had her. Slowly, but surely, he lowered her through the narrow crevasse to safety. Cheers went up as O’Shea tugged the line free from Lisa and gave Joe a nod. As he hoisted up the line, he watched the two women embrace and couldn’t help feeling a little jealous that it wasn’t him holding Lisa like that.
“Idiot,” he muttered. He’d had his chance. He’d walked away. He couldn’t go down that road with her or anyone else. Staying single was the right thing to do. No matter how wrong it felt at the moment.
LISA WATCHED as Joe rappelled downward as easily as he would walk across a room. When his feet touched the ground, the whole squad flocked to him, thankful their leader had survived.
As she stared up at the collapsed parking garage that she had used so many times, Lisa swallowed hard. It just didn’t seem possible that a building could crumble like that. As if it were made of sand and fragile sticks rather than concrete and steel. But it had.
She closed her eyes and thanked God yet again that she and Joe had made it out safely. It was an absolute miracle that neither of them had been killed.
A wave of dizziness washed over her and she swayed on her feet.
Strong arms went immediately around her. “Whoa.” Joe’s deep, husky voice rumbled in her ear.
“I’m okay,” she assured him as she pulled free of his embrace. “Really.”
He didn’t look convinced.
Shannon started to say something and Joe cut her a look. “Take it from here, O’Shea, I need to run Ms. Malloy by the hospital to be checked out.”
Lisa looked from Joe to Shannon and back. “I’m fine.”
Shannon seemed a little taken aback but didn’t buck her captain’s orders. “Yes, sir, Captain Ripani,” she said sharply, and did an about-face without a word to Lisa.
