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Quake Page 5

by Tracey Alvarez


  Her hands fisted around the blanket edge. Stressing about it was pointless. Daniel had reminded her of the promise she made with cool glances as dusk fell. He hadn’t said a word. Hadn’t needed to. Looking down at the filthy water and the tumble of falling masonry after each aftershock, Ana had ranted internally, her heart a solid fist of pain, but even that was wasted effort. She was trapped. Separated from her kids as effectively as if they’d been transported to another planet.

  Maggie had fallen into an exhausted sleep half an hour ago. Joel, given his allotted painkillers, would follow shortly. And Daniel? She’d tried to ignore the bulk of him pressed up against her left side. While the right side of her body started a slow freeze when Joel awkwardly stretched out on the cushions to sleep, she could feel the heat seeping through the loose weave of the throw blanket, the only barrier between them. He was so warm, like a hot-water bottle. Only bigger.

  Pretending to sleep was a sensible option, and by faking it, she might even be lucky enough to get some. One of the reasons why camping didn’t head her fun to-do list became apparent as she tried to decide which side to lie on. Either way, she would end up with her nose pressed against Joel’s shoulder, or in Daniel’s case, his thigh, since he was still sitting. Neither option appealed.

  Ana stretched out on her back like an effigy on an ancient tomb, legs clenched together, fingers laced over her diaphragm, eyes resolutely shut. Soft, purring snores started beside her. At least Joel would be getting some sleep tonight.

  Daniel’s blanket rustled as he slid down to a prone position and rolled onto his side to face her. She knew he faced her because she felt him studying her profile, even though her eyes were shut and night had fallen. His attention burned an invisible trail on her skin.

  “How long are you going to pretend to be asleep?”

  Much to her irritation, a frisson of sensual warmth purled through her veins at the deep timbre of his voice.

  “That depends,” she whispered, keeping her eyes closed. “How long do you intend to stare at me?”

  A husky chuckle. “How can you tell I’m staring?”

  “It’s a mother thing. I always know when one of my kids is filching a cookie or poking a tongue out at me behind my back.”

  Struck by a rogue gust of wind, the curtains rustled and flapped, directing a chilly draft in their direction. Ana shivered again, tugging the blanket tighter around her shoulders. She started when Daniel moved and the weight of another blanket settled over her.

  “I can’t take your blanket.” She tried to pull the soft fabric off, but a large hand stilled her movements.

  “Yes, you can. You’re cold. I’m not.”

  An understatement. If it was Theo’s hand on hers, she would have promptly stuck a thermometer in his mouth.

  “How can you not be cold?”

  “Fast metabolism and years of sleeping rough.”

  “Well. Thanks.” She smoothed the blanket again and settled back. “Think we’d better get some rest, though that’s probably easier in theory for me. No doubt you’re used to falling asleep in uncomfortable places?”

  “Yep. I’ll be out in two minutes flat.” His shirt rustled on the carpet as he changed position to his other side.

  Approximately half his estimation later, Ana listened to the steady sound of his breathing. Two blankets and she still couldn’t stop shaking. Damn heater disguised as a man, able to fall asleep in seconds. Maybe if she moved a fraction closer to him some of his body heat would radiate back. Rolling onto her side, she inched closer, stopping before any parts of their bodies touched.

  Minutes crept past. She remained hunched in the blankets, goose bumps pimpling the length of her. Had she ever been so cold? Shifting her face forward, the tip of her nose touched the smooth cotton of Daniel’s shirt. She caught the clean trace of washing powder and the more subtle scent of his shampoo. It had been a long, long time since she’d been this close to a man. The taken-for-granted comfort of shared body warmth left an aching hollow in her gut.

  Unless she intended to stay awake all night with her teeth clacking together, she needed to get over her inhibitions. She’d need every bit of strength to get through tomorrow. A functioning zombie wouldn’t cut it. Desperate times called for desperate measures.

  Heart fluttering in her chest like a trapped sparrow, she shuffled over the last few inches to fit herself around the curve of his body. Ana Grace, you outrageous slut.

  A sigh hissed out of her as the heat from his broad back transmitted through her thin shirt and warmed her breasts. It was completely inappropriate to snuggle up to a man she hardly knew, but screw it. Daniel Calder could pry her cold, stiff arms off if he didn’t want her there.

  Closing her eyes, she gave tiredness free rein, sinking under the weight of mental and physical exhaustion. As consciousness faded, Daniel tugged her wrist around his chest. Captured in his hand, her loose fist rose and fell with each movement beneath it, her breaths slowing to match the easy rhythm of his.

  Chapter 10

  Saturday, July 24. 7:41 a.m. Lower Hutt, greater Wellington area, New Zealand.

  * * *

  “Climbing down a three-story building, hanging by a rope which may as well be made from dental floss, is a really shitty idea. Listen, I’ll even forgive you for wrecking my shoes.”

  Joel grabbed Ana’s hand and tried on a smile, but the worry lines on his forehead betrayed him. “Please stay.”

  “I can’t.” Ana squeezed his fingers. “We’ll be fine. Daniel knows what he’s doing.”

  Joel glared over her shoulder to where Daniel had finished anchoring their makeshift rope to the legs of the boardroom table. The rope, originally a foot-wide towel that came in a large roll and lived behind a dispenser on the staff bathrooms, was made from three long strands of the cotton fabric plaited into a bumpy length.

  Before the sun had risen that morning, Ana, Daniel, and Maggie had shoved the heavy table to the wall nearest the shattered row of windows. The reception sofa cushions were positioned over the sills once the loose shards of glass were removed. She would not think about all the empty space from the window ledge to the concrete sidewalk three stories below.

  “Did you even try to talk her out of it?” Joel raised his voice, continuing to glare past her.

  Ana turned and caught Daniel’s lazy grin.

  “Yep,” Daniel said. “But I don’t get paid the big bucks for arguing cases against a lawyer—you do.”

  “Hmmph.” Joel’s mouth puckered like a drawstring bag pulled too tight.

  Ana squeezed her friend’s hand again. He’d made a valiant argument, raising every point from the imminent danger of falling debris to the fact that society would rally together and look after her kids without her haring off half-cocked on a rescue mission. Alyssa was probably playing tea parties with Nadia, and Theo would be bitching about the death of Wi-Fi at a friend’s house, he’d added. All through Joel’s lecture Ana remained silent, her mind made up. She’d waited long enough for rescue to arrive, and she wouldn’t wait any longer.

  “That may be true,” she said once Joel had finally fallen silent. “But I need to know. And I’ll check on Luce and the girls, too.”

  Joel’s teeth snapped shut with a click. “You always were a dirty fighter, in and out of the courtroom.”

  “I know.” She tucked the blanket securely around him.

  Ana slid on the pair of sports shoes that Maggie found in a gym bag under Irene’s desk. She’d already changed out of her skirt into Irene’s sports leggings and baggy cotton shirt. Irene’s shoes were also a little too big, but with tight lacing it didn’t matter. She suspected Daniel thought she’d balk at wearing her dead friend’s clothes, judging by his intense scrutiny when Maggie handed them over. Instead of complaining, Ana merely murmured a quiet thanks. Irene’s shoes and clothing were a blessing and she missed her friend with an ache that numbed her to the core.

  Maggie crouched beside her. “First emergency people you find, rig
ht?”

  She secured the last double knot on the shoelace. “I’ll get them here.”

  “Just don’t tell them there’s an injured lawyer otherwise they’ll probably leave us both.”

  “Very funny,” Joel called from behind them.

  Ana stood and stretched the kinks from her back, watching Daniel test rope knots in her peripheral vision. She walked over. “Think it’ll hold?”

  She kept her tone light, hoped the shaky quality in it wouldn’t betray the anxiety that sat like an indigestible meal in her stomach.

  Daniel straightened and his gaze settled on her face as if no one else was in the room. “It’ll hold. I wouldn’t let you near it otherwise.”

  The question was a stalling tactic. She’d seen him test his own weight on the rope earlier. If it would hold him, it would hold her. Hardly the issue. If Daniel had any inkling of how she felt about heights, she was afraid he’d use that as an excuse not to let her out on the ledge.

  Like to see him stop me.

  She pressed her lips into a firm line to stop them trembling and approached the row of windows. She looked down, way down.

  Fear is a good thing. Fear is your friend. Fear helps you focus.

  Couldn’t someone knock her unconscious with a chunk of wood and lower her to the ground that way?

  “Won’t be as bad as you imagine.” Daniel spoke right behind her and she jumped, heartbeat skipping.

  She wasn’t sure the reaction was only due to her fears of dangling three stories above concrete.

  Ana sucked in a deep breath between clenched teeth and waited a beat until she was sure her voice would come out steady. “Can’t be worse than a bunch of heckling prepubescent boys when Theo talked me into indoor rock climbing a few years ago.”

  Theo’s face had stared up at her from way below as she missed a handhold and made the mistake of looking down. “You can do it, Mum,” he’d shouted, young enough then to think his mother giving it a go was the ultimate in cool.

  Ana swallowed, mouth drought dry, the memory of her son’s face both a strengthening beacon and a bruise on her heart.

  “It’ll be over before you realize,” Daniel said.

  Tingles danced up and over her scalp. Just a nervous reaction to imminent death by gravity. Ordinary nerves. Though since he’d first spoken, she hadn’t glanced down once. Daniel emanated warmth and the faint scent of something spicy. For a second, only a second, she started to lean back to rest on someone else’s strength, to let someone comfort her instead of always being the one to dispense comfort.

  Daniel’s inhale was ragged as her body swayed backward. His breath huffed out, stirred the curls escaping from her ponytail. Ana jerked away from the contact as if an impenetrable force field shimmered between them, reminding her of her personal boundaries.

  After an exaggerated gesture of checking her watch, Ana took a wide sideways step. “We’d better make a move.”

  She turned to find Maggie staring between her and Daniel like a spectator at a tennis match. Oh hell, she knew that what’s going on here look. Maggie Sloane was an amazing work colleague and an even better friend, but she was also a matchmaker from hell. While glad to see Maggie in a more positive mood this morning, her smug speculation made Ana want to protest that there was nothing going on here.

  A few embarrassing moments of emotional weakness on her part and a loaded glance or two in an intense situation meant nothing. Ana kept her expression bland while she sat cross-legged to reorganize the backpack she’d found to carry her share of the rations. Maggie’s smile transformed into an evil smirk as she cocked her head and stared pointedly over Ana’s shoulder.

  Like a sucker, Ana swallowed the bait and looked.

  Daniel was once again bent over the ropes, his legs long and lean in the well-worn denim. The breeze billowed his untucked shirt away from his body, revealing a tanned stomach ripped with muscle, likely gained from hard physical labor and not token gym workouts.

  “You two are predestined to be together,” Maggie mouthed when Ana turned back.

  Ana’s eyes rolled upward till they almost popped out of her skull from the strain. Understanding her friend was no great feat of lip reading. Maggie repeated the same line about predestination every time an eligible man under fifty even looked in Ana’s direction.

  Predestined, my foot.

  She shoved the backpack across the floor to Maggie and stood. Being the best mum she could for Theo and Alyssa was the only thing she believed about destiny and fate. Having a man in her life would be like jamming an odd-shaped piece into a nearly complete jigsaw puzzle just because it looked as if it should fit.

  Well, it wouldn’t fit.

  Ana didn’t need or want a man—especially this man—to try and fit the life she’d put back together since Neil died. Daniel, she suspected, saw too much. He noticed the little details most other men missed. Details Ana was happy for them to miss, as it gave her a strong fortress to hide behind. Daniel was the type of man to try and storm that fortress with guile and a disarming, dimpled smile.

  Daniel gestured her over. “Right, let’s tie this on, then.”

  She stood in front of him like a woman being screened by an airport security guard. Arms out, feet hip-distance apart, her gaze focused on a point somewhere behind him. He looped the two ends of rope between her legs and around her hips, and knotted them in a crude harness.

  “Do you remember what I said?” he asked once he was satisfied the rope was securely fastened.

  “Keep my feet wide apart and my knees slightly bent,” she intoned, the student parroting facts back to the teacher. “Find my center of gravity like we practiced and concentrate on your voice. Oh, and don’t look down. I’ve heard people say that—if they’re afraid of heights.”

  “Good advice. Lucky you’re not afraid of heights, huh?”

  “Lucky indeed.” She bared her teeth. Maybe he’d mistake it for a cool and collected smile, but she’d no doubt he knew that the idea of climbing out of this building scared her stupid.

  Daniel wrapped the other end of the rope around his body and clenched it in his fists.

  “When you’re ready, slide your legs out and get on your hands and knees. I’ll take up the slack while you get your feet flat on the wall outside. You could do this blindfolded.”

  “Blindfolded. Sure.”

  Maggie helped her climb astride the cushioned windowsill. Her stomach lurched as the cushions shifted under her legs.

  Oh God. I don’t know if I can go through with this.

  A seagull swooped by, its white wings a graceful double arc as it surfed the breeze. If only she could fly down instead of being forced to entrust her safety to this man.

  Please don’t let me fall.

  “I won’t let you fall. You have to trust me,” Daniel said.

  What was he, a mind reader? Or had she uttered the words out loud?

  Maggie stroked her arm. “You can still change your mind.”

  Ana’s eyes flicked to her friend then immediately returned to Daniel.

  “Do you trust me?” His eyes were deep, unending, bluer than blue, aflame with an intensity she didn’t understand.

  She dropped her gaze, certain he would spot the cowardice there.

  Outside noises drifted up. Machinery rumbling in the distance, the twitter of birds as they darted after insects. The breeze, stronger since the sun rose, cut through the thin shirt and into her exposed side. Ana’s knuckles strained white against her skin as she gripped the rope. She felt each roughened bump, each ridge of the woven cotton that would either save her or send her plummeting to the sidewalk below.

  She remembered the times saying she’d do anything for her kids. However flippantly she’d spoken those words, the moment to make good on them was now.

  So do it already. She closed her eyes and savored the sound of Theo’s voice, uneven and sometimes squeaky with the effects of puberty.

  Then she awkwardly turned on her knees and repositioned
her hands on the rope. “Let’s do it.”

  She left the question of trust Daniel challenged her with unanswered. Ana fixed her gaze on Maggie as she eased over the window lip, her knees digging into the corner of the concrete sill. The rope tightened around her thighs and hips, pinching and squeezing. With the balls of her feet against the bricks, she unfolded her legs until they were almost straight and shuffled a few slow steps down.

  Somewhere overhead and in the distance she heard the familiar whump-whump-whump of a helicopter, and the arid stench of smoke drifted into her nose. Now that she was out of the building, a kaleidoscope of sounds and smells assaulted her from all directions.

  Ana tried to ignore all external distractions because she had enough distraction churning on the inside, with muscles that ached and the overwhelming primal urge to look down. Cold sweat oozed out of her pores and slid over the raised bumps of her spine.

  Switch to autopilot, she ordered herself. Move your left foot. Move your right foot. Again.

  Theo’s words echoed in her mind. “You can do it, Mum.”

  A thigh muscle went into spasm. Instead of focusing on the pain, she pictured the last time she’d seen Theo and Alyssa playing together in the garden. Alyssa had squealed loud enough to shatter crystal as her big brother swung her by the hands in tight circles. Around and around they’d spun, the rays of summer sunlight bringing out coppery highlights in Alyssa’s curls.

  “Keep going. You’re nearly there,” Daniel shouted from somewhere above. “Don’t look down.”

  “Shut it, bloody know-it-all,” she muttered.

  But in the end, Daniel was right. Her feet stuttered off the wall and onto the ground before she realized it. A few scrapes stung her kneecaps and her knuckles creaked from grimly clutching the rope, but she was back on terra firma.

 

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