Griff watched as his captain just raised an authoritative eyebrow. That, along with a warm smile, had Susan giving him a grateful look. “Milk for Hope, and I’d like an orange juice. Thank you.”
“Got it.”
“And I know what you want.” Josiah gave his wife a devilish smile, and Griff watched as Scarlett’s cheeks warmed.
Damn, that man had it going on.
Griff turned to Miranda. “How do you like your coffee?”
“Pitch black.”
“Are you sure you weren’t in the Navy?” he asked.
Miranda laughed.
Griff liked that she didn’t try to offer any money. It was as if she were aware that their relationship had changed since she had agreed to go out with him. Jeremy tugged on his hand again, and he started down the aisle with Josiah following him. As they got to the back of the railroad car, there was a spot where they could go down the stairs. “Do we go down there?” Jeremy asked.
“Nope, that’s where you go when you want to get on and off the train,” Josiah said. He pointed to the door at the end of the car. “Press that button. You have to press really hard, little man.” The boy used both hands, and eventually it opened to the small passageway between the two railcars.
“You did it Jeremy!” Josiah crouched down and held out his palm. “High five.”
“Now what?” Jeremy asked after slapping Josiah’s huge hand with his little one.
“Now Griff and I are going to go through the next door to the other car and go down the stairs to the café and get the drinks. We’ll be right back.”
“Can I go with you? Please?” the boy wheedled.
“Nope, you have to be a good boy and go back to Miranda like you promised you would.” Josiah stood up, and pointed back to where the women were standing. Jeremy reluctantly started walking back.
“Cute kid,” Griff said.
“He’s a handful. Reminds me of Nick at that age. Always pushing his limits. Of course not nearly as bad as Gianna. Now that girl ran roughshod over everyone but her mother.”
Griff thought of Nick’s baby sister. Yep, she was the spitting image of Scarlett. Nick swore he had started to sport gray hairs at twenty-four because of his baby sister.
“How is your daughter doing?” he asked Josiah as they walked through the passageway to the next car. It was quieter than the one they were staying in.
“Gianna got an internship at a design firm in D.C. They have her making coffee, and occasionally she gets to work with something called mood boards.” Josiah rolled his eyes. “The coffee I understand, but the mood boards escape me. She’s pretty damned excited, though. At least it’s interior design and not fashion.”
“I don’t know, I could see Gianna taking the fashion world by storm.”
Josiah shuddered. “Next thing you know she’d be making friends with models and Nick would be dropping out of the Navy. No thank you.”
Griff laughed. The captain had a point. They made their way downstairs and found four commuters in line ahead of them. Griff gathered the drinks for the kids, then poured two coffees into paper cups.
“Let me pay for Susan’s stuff,” Josiah said.
“No, I’ve got it.” Griff already had his wallet out.
Josiah nodded, then he picked up some Cheerios and bananas. Griff just grinned at his captain. The man was a serious soft touch.
Griff leaned against one of the high tables as Josiah doctored his wife’s coffee.
“So you met Miranda on the train?” Josiah asked.
“Yep, we’ve been commuting together every Monday for the last nine weeks. I finally asked her to go out with me this morning.”
“You’re moving kind of slow, aren’t you?” Josiah said as he set down the container of creamer. Then Josiah’s gaze pierced him. “Damn, Griff, I’m the one who’s slow today. You’re commuting in from your parents’, aren’t you?”
Griff nodded.
“Nick mentioned something last year about your dad being ill, but he didn’t say anything again, so I thought he was fine. What’s going on?”
“Dad’s going through chemo. But things are really looking up now. It’s been tough on my mom, and Darla is pregnant with her first baby, so there’s a lot going on. I’ve been trying to give Dad and Mom as much of my time as possible.”
Josiah clapped him on his shoulder. “You’re doing good, Son.”
“What about you? Why are you and Scarlett on the train?”
“We did the bed and breakfast thing in San Juan Capistrano.”
Looking out the window over the ocean, Griff suddenly had a vision of Miranda lying in a four poster bed. She’d look beautiful with her black hair fanned out over a pillow.
“Are you with me, Porter?” Josiah asked with a shit-eating grin.
“Sorry, my brain just got side-tracked for a—”
A thunderous roar.
The train lurched.
As if in slow motion, Griff saw the coffee begin to rise as his body was propelled up off the floor. He was thrown up and backwards, like he was in a tidal wave.
The lights went out, but the sun still shone through cracked and broken windows.
He heard the metal shriek.
His head and back slammed into steel.
Everything went dark.
Griff paused for a long time in his telling of the story, then he kissed Miranda softly on her forehead. “I’ve never been more scared in my life, than when I woke up. All I thought about was getting back to you. I couldn’t believe that the crash could have happened while Josiah and I were away from our two women.”
“So, you had already considered me ‘your woman’?” Miranda questioned with a hint of laughter.
“Oh, Baby, you might not have known it, but you’d been mine for weeks.” Again he looked deep into her eyes. “And for you? What was it like when you woke up?”
4
Miranda swallowed. She’d never really told Griff all that had gone on with her. Part of it had been that she’d had a tough time remembering everything after the wreck. But when her memories had resurfaced, her natural inclination was to keep things to herself.
“I really want to know. Not just what happened, I want to know how you felt. It’s time.” How could his voice be both firm and coaxing? But he was right. It was time.
Three Years Earlier
* * *
Miranda woke up to darkness. Something was wriggling underneath her belly, and something hard and heavy was pressing against her leg, and God, did it hurt. Everything hurt. What the hell had happened?
She tasted copper. Her mouth was full of blood. She opened it and let it drip out. Then her ears popped and that’s when she heard loud metallic groaning. This was some bad shit.
“Mommy! I want my Mommy!” The wriggling turned to kicking.
Train. She was on the train. There’d been a crash. The wriggling was the little boy who’d been sitting on her lap.
The angry little voice turned tearful. “Where’s my Mommy?”
Miranda tried to answer. The little legs packed a punch, the kicks hurt. She could move her arms, and she tried to stop the blows, but something was blocking her. Why was it so dark? She spit out some more blood before she gagged.
“Jeremy,” she croaked.
“Mommy!” came the frantic cry.
“Honey, we’ll find your mommy.” Miranda thought about moving off the boy, but she didn’t want him to scramble away. Why was it so dark? Hadn’t it been late morning? Had she been unconscious for hours? Was it night? It didn’t make sense, rescue workers would have been here by now if it were night.
She turned her head and saw that a seat was covering her. Her shoulders were blocked by the arms of the seat, and something was pressing down on her right leg. She tried to move it and the pain made the darkness turn to red. “Mother—” she bit off the foul curse.
“Mommy?” the boy asked again.
“No, I don’t see your mommy yet. Jeremy, are you hurt?�
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“My arm hurts.”
The boy started to cry. Shit, she shouldn’t have asked, now he was focused on what was hurting. Miranda tried to expand her scope of hearing, listening for all she was worth to see if there was anybody else alive.
“Derek, wake up! Wake up!” The woman’s shrill voice was far away. She kept repeating the same words over and over again, until finally she subsided into sobs. It drove home the fact that she and Jeremy were lucky to be alive.
She needed to figure out what was on her leg and get moving. It wasn’t the seat, so what was it? She wiggled her shoulders and was finally able to touch the leather of her computer bag. She shoved her hand in and found her cell phone. She powered it on, and dialed nine-one-one.
“What’s the nature of your emergency?”
“I’m on the Amtrak train heading to San Diego. We’ve crashed outside of Del Mar.”
“We know, first responders are on their way. What is your name?”
“Miranda Slade.”
“Can you tell me where you are? What is your situation?”
“I want my Mommy.” Jeremy grabbed at her phone and knocked it out of her hands.
Shit.
Miranda picked it up and heard, “Ma’am. Miranda. Can you describe what is going on?”
“Look, just get help,” Miranda said. “I’m going to use the flashlight on the phone to figure out how to get unstuck. I’ll call back when I can.” Miranda disconnected while the woman was talking.
She shone the light on Jeremy. His little face was streaked with tears. He didn’t seem to be bleeding anywhere, thank the Lord. Miranda was pretty sure she had some loose teeth and her jaw hurt like a son of a bitch. She shone the light on her leg. It looked like part of a luggage rack was wedged on top of her thigh. She tried to lift it, but the seat was on top of it.
“Miranda?” She heard a weak cry.
“Scarlett?”
Nothing.
“Scarlett.”
“Please. Mira. I want my Mom.” The little boy sounded desolate. He was killing her. Miranda had to get her leg free so that she could go look for the two women and baby Hope. If Jeremy wriggled free he would go wandering, she just knew it.
“We’ll find your mommy, I promise, Jeremy.”
How was she going to get free?
“Does anybody need help?” A man’s voice yelled from a distance.
Miranda almost shouted out Griff’s name, until her brain clued into the fact it wasn’t his voice.
“Me! Help me.” Another man cried out.
She heard glass breaking.
“Holy fuck! We’re going to fall onto the beach.” A different man’s voice said.
Miranda vaguely remembered that she had been staring at a beautiful view of the ocean and that they had been near a good-sized drop-off. Please say they weren’t near that spot.
The screech of steel vibrated down her spine. Fear pierced her brain.
“Don’t move!” the same man’s voice yelled out.
Screams shattered the darkness.
She had to get her leg unstuck. She had to. Miranda yanked, then bit her lip in excruciating pain. Teeth. Jaw. Lip. Leg. She let out a watery sob.
Keep it together, Slade. There’s no crying in baseball. Think. Think.
She needed leverage to lift the luggage rack. Finally, her brain kicked into gear. She dragged her computer case over to her, and turned it so that the wheels faced her. She positioned the edge under the rack. Using the case as a wedge and shoving with all her strength, the rack eventually began to lift. Miranda pulled her leg out, ignoring the pain. At least this time, she didn’t bite her lip.
As soon as her leg came free, so did Jeremy.
Dammit.
He was up like a shot. “Wait!” Her chin hit the floor as she lunged uselessly. He was slippery as an eel, and now she tasted blood and snot.
“Come back,” she choked. Miranda dragged herself out from under the seat. At long last, she was back out into the very dim light of the train car. She saw the light of her phone and snatched it up. She shone it around and gasped at the devastation surrounding her.
The train was on its side. Seats were torn from their moorings and scattered against the shattered windows on the floor. No, wait, that was the side of the train. She shook her head, trying to orient herself. The side of the train was now the floor. She was standing on glass. She needed her shoes, fast. When she whipped her head around to look, she got dizzy and her head hurt.
Suck it up.
She saw one pump on the floor, and then the other. She slipped them on.
“Lady?” She saw a man sitting, holding his arm that had an obvious compound fracture. He was bleeding heavily from his scalp.
“I have to find the little boy who must have just run by you. Did you see which way he went?”
He tipped his head, indicating he went behind her.
“Thank you.”
Miranda still wasn’t sure which way Susan and Scarlett were, based on how the train was now situated.
“Scarlett? Susan? Jeremy?”
No answer.
She’d try for a Mom voice.
“Jeremy! Young Man! You answer me right this minute!”
“I’m here.”
Miranda slumped in relief. She saw a flash of green and realized it was his shirt. He was waving. She climbed over two seats, scrunching her toes so her shoes stayed on.
He was looking down. Oh God, it was a dead body. She picked him up.
“What’s wrong with her?”
“She’s sleeping, Honey.”
Please God, let his mom and sister be all right. “Susan!” she yelled out. “Scarlett!”
“Over here.” She heard a weak voice. It was Scarlett’s.
The voice came from in front of her. She could have sworn Scarlett would have been behind her and closer to where she had been sitting. Her sense of direction was all off. Miranda took a step in the direction of the voice, doing her best to keep hold of Jeremy. At least he was doing a monkey hold, with his legs wrapped around her waist and his arms around her neck.
The train lurched and she slipped and landed hard. She hit her hip on one of the overturned seats. The pain reverberated up her leg, but Jeremy hung on tight. Neither of them hit the floor. She heard more screams.
“We’re going to die!” It was a woman’s voice.
Did Miranda hear a siren?
Sea grass peeked through some broken glass. Instead of darkness from the window below her, she could see a sliver of light. Miranda fought back a wave of nausea because when she squinted, she could see the sandy beach at least a hundred feet below.
The train car was literally perched on the edge of the cliff. They would die if the train plummeted over the side of the cliff.
“Jeremy? Hope?” It was Susan’s voice.
Stop focusing on the beach.
She clutched Jeremy tighter as he tried to squirm out of her arms.
“Mommy! I’m here.” He hit her shoulder. “Let me down, Mira.”
“Hold on, Honey. Let me take you to your mother. It’s not safe for you to be walking around in the dark. There’s glass everywhere.” Miranda struggled to stand upright, but she finally managed to get her feet under her.
Dammit, she was missing a shoe again. She felt around with her toe, while still dealing with a stubborn little boy who was determined to get away from her.
“Please Jeremy, hold still. I need you to hang on like the little monkey I know you can be. Your mommy might be stuck like we were, and we have to get to her together.”
“Really?”
“Yes, really,” she choked out as he all but strangled her.
Eureka, she found her shoe. Why in the hell had she worn heels? But at least she hadn’t cut her feet…yet. Glass crunched under her feet as she moved.
“Susan? Call out. We’re coming.”
“Do you have Jeremy and Hope?”
Miranda’s heart broke at the thought of the l
ittle girl being away from her mother.
“I have Jeremy. Maybe Hope is with Scarlett. Keep talking to me.”
“I’m here,” came the reply. It was closer. Miranda maneuvered past sheet metal and insulation. She looked up and saw that some of the siding had come off the wall along with the luggage racks. The steel had sharp edges and she had to be careful as she went around it to get to Susan.
As she stepped over somebody’s suitcase, her leg gave out. Miranda dropped down to one knee.
“Mira?” Jeremy’s voice quavered.
“It’s okay, Sweets. We’re almost to your mom.”
Miranda reached out to grab ahold of one of the seats to help herself up, even though her leg didn’t want to cooperate.
“Come on, Slade, we don’t have time for this shit,” she said under her breath.
Jeremy cupped her cheeks and looked her in the eye. “You said a bad word.”
“I’m sorry.” She grit her teeth, which was a mistake. She was going to need a dentist for sure. She pushed herself up.
Just a couple more steps.
Come on.
Just a couple more steps.
She found Susan.
Miranda didn’t know if she felt like crying with relief or worry, because Susan looked like she’d been in a train wreck. She stifled a hysterical laugh. But seriously, Susan looked like hell. Her once-blond hair was matted with blood and her leg was at an odd angle.
“Jeremy.” Had Miranda ever heard so much love contained in one word?
“Mommy.”
Susan stretched her arms out to her son, but Miranda didn’t hand him over.
“Susan, how bad is your head?” Miranda asked quietly, not wanting to alarm Jeremy. She bent down so that mom and son could at least hug.
Tear-stained eyes looked up at her. “I think it’s bad. I keep going in and out of consciousness. But it just might be from the pain.”
“Jeremy, I’ll let you down,” Miranda told the little boy. “But you have to be extra gentle with your mom. She’s hurting. You can’t jostle her, okay?”
He gave her a confused look.
“You can’t play rough with her,” she explained.
“She’s hurted?”
Her Honorable Hero Page 5