Tremors. Debra Webb
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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—”
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