Heartless

by Sybil Bartel

  Sheer panic twisted her features. “Don’t leave me!”

  Grabbing my clothes, I squatted for a second I didn’t have. “I’m not leaving you for long. Hold the mattress over you. Try not to breathe the dust in.” I grabbed her ripped dress off the floor and shook the debris off. Bunching it up, I reached under the mattress and pressed it over her nose and mouth. “Breathe through this. I’ll be right back.” I made to stand.

  She grabbed my wrist. “Do you promise? You have to promise me, Ronan.”

  “I promise.” She would see me again. Hopefully it wouldn’t be in a fucking box. “I have to go. You need clothes, and I need to find out what’s going on. Stay here.” The floor shook again, and I lifted the mattress just enough to give her a chaste kiss before dropping it back down.

  Grabbing my cell, I threw on my clothes and boots and dialed Luna.

  He answered immediately. “Madre de Dios, you’re alive! Is Sanaa with you? What the fuck happened?”

  I tried to open the door to the suite, but it didn’t budge. “Explosions. I don’t know where yet.” I yanked the door harder. “Sanaa is alright. We’re in the northeast suite. Where are the others? I can’t get into the hall to see what the fuck is going on. There were two detonations. Do you have eyes on anything?” I yanked again. Goddamn fucking door. “Shit’s caving in around us. I need to get her out of here, Luna.” I glanced up. The fucking frame was bent. There was no way I was going to be able to open the door.

  “I need to get both of you out of there, mi hermano.” Static cut in on the line. “I’m leaving base now, on my way. ETA… Harm is… He went radio silent after… Tyler and… in lobby… Vance… Emergency services… Bomb squad… They’re evacuating the rest…”

  “You’re cutting in and out. Where’s Harm? I need to get out of this suite.” Static crackled over the line, and I glanced at the signal strength. Fuck. “Luna, if you can hear me, I’m going to look for another way out of the suite and then assess. It feels like we’ve had structure collapse and we’re not secure. Let the bomb squad know there could be more explosives rigged. If there were two, there’s probably more.”

  “Ronan? …Fuck. Conlon, you hear me?”

  “Copy, you read me?”

  The only response was static.

  I hung up and shot off a text to him.

  Me: There could be more explosives. Not secure. Structure compromised. Need safe exfil STAT.

  Then I shot off a group text to Harm, Ty and Tyler.

  Me: Sanaa and I are trapped in the penthouse suite. Looking for exit plan. Structure compromised. Bomber on site? Sitrep.

  Both texts stuck in a queue, I didn’t know if either had been sent, but I couldn’t stand here and wait. I needed to get us out of here.

  Circling back through the suite to the opposite bedroom that had an adjoining door to the other suite on this floor, I stepped over chunks of ceiling and a crack in the floor. Neither of which were good signs. Whatever explosive had been used I was guessing was detonated on the floor below or somewhere outside the suite, maybe in the stairwell.

  Opening the adjoining door, I checked the second door that was locked from inside the other suite. No heat. After a quick inspection of the frame, I took a calculated risk and stepped back a foot.

  Then I kicked the fucking door by the lock.

  The frame splintered, but the deadbolt held. One more kick, and the door swung open. Unholstering my Sig, I trained first left then right. “Harm!”

  No response.

  “Tyler, Ty!” I yelled as the building fucking creaked and wind whipped in from more shattered sliders.

  Still no response, my gun at the ready, I stepped carefully into the bedroom. Quickly clearing the bathroom and closet, I saw her suitcases, but I didn’t pause. No idea if Abernathy was up here, I wasn’t risking any chances.

  Taking a defensive position by the door to the living area of the suite, I glanced around the corner. Seeing no one, I walked thru the space to the second bedroom. The sliders were cracked, the ceiling was coming down and the floor was buckling in the corner.

  Clearing the second bedroom, I hurried back and grabbed leggings and a long-sleeved sweater from Sanaa’s suitcase. I found a pair of sneakers in the closet and her large purse on the dresser. Shoving everything in it, I shouldered the bag.

  Praying the door to this suite wasn’t damaged, I stepped over a light fixture that’d fallen and put my hand against the door to check for heat. The fire alarms were still going off in the hall, but the sprinkler system hadn’t activated. I didn’t think there was a fire, but I wasn’t taking any chances on opening the door if there were flames in the hallway.

  Not feeling any heat, my gun aimed, I tried the handle.

  Whisper quiet, the door opened, the shit went from bad to worse.

  A fucking cloud of dust and debris so thick I couldn’t see through it choked out any breathable air.

  “Harm!” Switching on the laser on my gun, I covered my nose and mouth with my left elbow and scanned.

  Jesus Christ.

  I dropped my arm only long enough to call out again. “HARM.”

  Tempered wind blew in from the broken sliders in the suites and the debris in air dissipated enough for me to get a look.

  I almost wished I hadn’t.

  A fallen support beam was blocking the door to the northeast suite, the elevator doors were buckled outward as if blown from the inside, and the lights were flickering. The fire door to the stairwell was blown clean off.

  I scanned the length of the hallway twice for Harm or anyone else, but it was empty.

  Holding my breath, keeping my gun aimed, I fished in my pocket for my cell and snapped a couple pics before hitting send to Luna. Then I retreated into the suite.

  Making my way back to where Sanaa was, I scanned quickly for more damage that was an immediate threat and was two paces away from the bedroom when the power flickered, then went out.

  “Ronan!”

  “Stay where you are, Sanaa.” Fuck. “I’m coming back.” Holstering my gun, I glanced at my cell, but neither the texts nor the pics had gone through. “I’m here.” Dropping her purse and crouching by the bed, I lifted the mattress and used the flashlight on my cell so I could see that she was okay.

  She gasped. “You’re covered in soot.”

  “I know.” Turning off the flashlight on my cell and shoving it in my pocket, I grabbed her clothes and handed them to her. “Hold these, but don’t move yet. Conditions out here aren’t good. Give me a minute to make a barrier between you and the dust.” I knew from past experience that inhaling debris after an explosion could cause asthma at best, and lung damage at worst. “I don’t want you breathing any of this in.”

  On her stomach, but braced on the arm holding the dress to her face, she took the clothes and clutched them to her chest as she nodded.

  I lowered the mattress, and let my eyes adjust to the dark before glancing around.

  Curtains, sheets, ceiling fan, headboard… large framed painting above the bed. That’d work.

  Quickly moving toward the sliders to the balcony, I had to make a decision. The winds were coming in strong and the weather was deteriorating, but the air quality in the suite was shit. I kicked out the spiderwebbed safety glass on the one slider still standing.

  “Oh my God!” Sanaa shrieked. “What was that?”

  I glanced back as she lifted the edge of the mattress to look out. “Mattress down,” I barked. “Keep it down. I’m just getting some fresh air in here.”

  “Okay.” Thankfully she retreated under the mattress.

  The distant sound of sirens filtered up through the howling wind, and I set to work. Shaking out the sheets, I then ripped a few strips and tied them off between the headboard and ceiling fan. Taking the painting off the wall, I jammed it upright at the end of the bed between the mattress and the short footboard. Using my knife, I stabbed two holes in the canvas and tied off two more strips of ripped sheet from the painting t
o the fan. My makeshift frame for a tent over the mattress complete, I yanked the curtains down and layered them over.

  It wasn’t much, but it’d work.

  Shaking my hair off and dusting shit from my shoulders, I crouched under the curtain and lifted the edge of the mattress.

  Shaking, lowering her dress just enough to speak, she put on a brave front. “Hi.”

  My heart took a hit. “You okay?”

  She nodded, but I knew she was lying.

  She looked past my shoulder. “How bad is it?”

  “It’s not good, but emergency services are here, so we’re going to sit tight for now and wait for them to get to us.”

  “How long will that be?”

  I didn’t tell her it would probably be hours, maybe tomorrow. Protocol wasn’t to rush into a compromised structure. “Hopefully soon.”

  Inhaling as if she was fighting tears, she nodded. “How are the others?”

  My first reaction was to search her face for any signs that she was asking specifically about my brother, but it was dark enough to not be able to read any expression and I tamped down the bullshit in my head that was taking me down that path at a time like this. “I haven’t heard specifically, but I think Vance, Tyler and Ty were all downstairs when the explosions detonated. As far as I can tell, the bombs were up here or on the floor below, so hopefully there isn’t too much damage downstairs.” I didn’t tell her the hotel would probably be a total rebuild with compromised structural issues, because I knew her. She’d feel responsible, and I didn’t want to add guilt to her fear. I just needed to get her the fuck out of here.

  “I hope they’re all okay.” She looked at me a beat. “And Kyle?”

  “I don’t know.” But that piece of shit was a dead man. I was going to hunt the fucker down the second I got her to a secure location.

  “Do you think for sure it was him?” she asked in a small voice I couldn’t read.

  “The MO fits.” The fucker was insane, reckless, and bent on revenge. It was him.

  She inhaled, then coughed.

  I reached under the mattress and put her dress back over her mouth. “Okay, we’re going to keep that there while we get you dressed. I made a shelter over the bed to keep the dust out, but it won’t protect you from falling debris. So we’re going to have you come out, quickly get dressed, then I’m putting you back under the mattress. Ready?”

  Holding the dress over her nose and mouth, she tucked her clothes under her arm and nodded.

  “Good girl.” I stood to half my height and lifted the mattress carefully, giving her enough room to get out, but not enough to disrupt my makeshift tent. “Step carefully.” I held my hand out to her.

  When her small hand grasped mine, I squeezed once, then held her steady as she crawled out. Once she was on her feet, I lowered the mattress.

  My Songbird, naked and exposed, and so fucking vulnerable it hurt, dropped her clothes and launched herself at me.

  I HAD TO PUT MY arms around him.

  I’d been terrified he wasn’t going to come back when he said he was going to get me clothes. I couldn’t go another second without feeling his warm body and hearing his heart beat. I had to know that he was okay.

  So I hugged him as he stood with his knees bent and his shoulders hunched so his head didn’t poke through the top of his tent.

  I loved him.

  I loved him so hard it hurt, and I wanted to tell him, but I was afraid he would think it was the situation talking, or the way he’d made love to me. I was afraid he’d think I was saying it out of fear and not conviction.

  So I held my tongue and hugged him as hard as I could.

  His arms went around me, and for one brief moment, I felt like we were going to be okay. Not just surviving this, but us, together.

  He stroked my hair before he pulled back. “You need to get dressed.” He kissed my forehead, then he picked up my clothes and held them out to me. “I want you back under the mattress.”

  I looked up at him and wiped a smudge of dust from his cheek. “Okay.” But then I didn’t move.

  The wind blew, the building creaked like it was going to topple, and I suddenly realized that this could be it. The building could collapse, another explosion could go off, or Kyle could burst into this room and shoot us both. The horrific scenarios flew through my mind unchecked, and I couldn’t hold my words back anymore.

  I gave him all I had. “I love you, Ronan Conlon.”

  His nostrils flared, his chest rose, and his hand landed on my hip. His fingers squeezed hard enough to leave their mark.

  For one terrifyingly vulnerable moment, my admission, my love, my hope, my heart—it hung suspended between us.

  Then my dominant, quiet, war hero Ronan surfaced. “You remember those words, Songbird. Because the next time I’m deep inside you, making your body sing, you’re going to tell them to me again. Understood?”

  I couldn’t help it. I smiled. “Understood.”

  “Get dressed,” he commanded almost harshly as he let go of my hip.

  I let two words I had never said to him, never thought about saying, cross my lips. “Yes, sir.” As soon as they were out, I had a moment of panic, but then my Ronan, he came out to play.

  He brought his mouth almost to mine as his hand landed on my ass with a sharp slap. “Remember that too, Songbird.” He pressed my clothes against my chest and brushed his hand across my hardened nipples.

  My body hummed and my smile stretched my face even further as I took my clothes. Thankful he had brought me pants instead of a dress, I quickly pulled the leggings on and slipped the sweater over my head before stepping into my shoes. No socks, no underwear, I didn’t even care. I was so thankful to have clothes, it had almost felt like we’d passed the worst of it when a violent rumble echoed through the building a split second before a harrowing thud.

  The entire floor shook, and I lost my balance.

  Before I could fall, a strong arm was around my waist. “Easy.”

  Fear eclipsed all else. “What was that?”

  His eyes were already scanning past the makeshift tent, and I could feel the tension in every one of his muscles. “Back under the mattress. I’m going to take a look.”

  I grabbed his arm. “No.” I couldn’t lose him. Not again. “Stay here. The emergency people will find us.”

  Sparing me a glance, he kissed my lips once, then lifted the mattress. “I need to alert them to where we are.”

  He was lying. “They know where we are. Vance, or someone else will tell them.”

  Taking my arm, he gently but firmly coached me back under the mattress. “In a situation like this, if they’re doing an evac from air or the roof, exactly where we are matters.”

  Oh dear God. “The roof?” The air? “I’m not going on the roof, Ronan. I can’t.” I was terrified of heights. He knew that. I hated being up twenty stories as it was.

  “I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”

  How could he promise me that? “The winds alone could blow us off the roof.” They’d been getting steadily worse since yesterday. The news said it was a tropical depression. I was from the Caribbean, I knew what that meant. At any moment, those winds could whip up into a frenzy and we’d have a hurricane on our hands.

  “I won’t let that happen.” He took my dress off the floor where I’d dropped it and pulled his knife out. Quickly slicing the silk as if it were a paper napkin, he made a rectangular section and doubled it, then reached under the mattress. “This will be easier.” Covering my nose and mouth, he pushed my hair back, then with his strong muscled forearms reaching on either side of me, he tied the material behind my head.

  I lifted my hand to adjust it, but he caught my wrist.

  “Leave it. I want it tight. I don’t want you inhaling the dust.” He checked the knot he’d tied.

  “Okay.” It was tight, but it wasn’t painful.

  “I’m going to do a quick check. Five minutes. Stay under the mattress.�
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  I grabbed his wrist again. “Please. I’m asking you. Can you just stay here? Call or text someone, tell them where we are, then come under the mattress with me?” I knew it was futile, but I had to ask.

  In a rare show of emotion, and one that I was not expecting, he simply reached in the front of shirt and grasped the pendant of the necklace I’d given him.

  He didn’t say anything.

  He didn’t have to. He held the pendant and he held my gaze.

  I knew what he was saying. It’d kept him safe all these years. It’d keep him safe now.

  Reluctantly, with tears welling, I acquiesced and nodded.

  Holding my gaze, he dropped the pendant back under his shirt. For two heartbeats he gave me the intensity of his powerful stare.

  Then he stood and was gone.

  THE CONTINUING SOUND OF CONCRETE caving in wasn’t good.

  The structure was failing, and I feared we didn’t have time to wait for emergency crews to find us. Leaving her unprotected was killing me, but I didn’t have a choice. I needed to get us out of this building.

  I checked my cell as I made my way back through our suite to the adjoining one. My initial text to Luna looked like it went through, but none of the subsequent ones or the group text had. No replies had come in either.

  As I walked through the second suite’s bedroom, I spied the phone on the nightstand and cursed my stupidly. Quickly grabbing the receiver, I prayed for a dial tone.

  Nothing. Damn it.

  Walking to the door of the second suite, I paused and tried Luna again on my cell. The call connected, but after a single ring, the line turned to static. Hanging up, I pocketed my phone and palmed my Sig. Then I opened the door to the hall.

  Quickly scanning, I looked for any more damage or anything that was different from before, but it all looked the same, like a fucking bomb had gone off.

  Using the security bar that was a hotel’s answer to not locking yourself out and keeping cleaning staff from entering, I flipped the thing to keep the door from closing all the way. Stepping into the hall, I scanned again and hoped to God Harm was okay. Not bothering to call out, I headed toward the elevator shaft.