Chapter Eight

 

Sitting in the Lexus the next day, heading toward the rink instead of my office, I couldn’t quite believe how Rick had persuaded me to skip work. I didn’t skip work. Ever. I always went into the office. It was my office. My business.

Oh yeah, I remembered how he’d gotten me to agree. My legs had been wrapped around his hips before I’d even opened my eyes that morning, and until I’d promised to take a whole day off I wasn’t getting any of what I wanted.

It had been underhanded, conniving and manipulative. It had worked extremely well!

A quick call to Maddie, who now had her cousin Cassie helping out, to tell her I was taking a day off had been a breeze. There was more than a hint of “tell me later” in her voice but I could live with that.

“Practice is only an hour on a Monday,” Rick said, “We don’t overdo it when there’s a Tuesday game. After I’ll take you to that Italian place I was telling you about.”

“Sounds fun,” I said, resting my hand on his thigh. I couldn’t stop touching him. It was as if I’d never get enough. Never fill the need to have him close, with me— in me.

The outside of the Vipers’ home rink was painted red and had huge emerald-green snakes with black forked tongues painted above each entrance. Rick parked around the back next to several other expensive cars and a bright orange motorcycle. He keyed the number into a security door and as we stepped inside the cold hit me. The air even smelled different, icy and fresh with a hint of nachos and beer.

“Put your coat on,” he said, grinning at me when I shivered.

“Oh yeah,” I said, remembering that he’d told me to bring it and I was holding it in my hands. “Good idea.” I slipped my arms in and zipped it to my chin as we wandered toward the huge slab of ice.

Through the Plexiglas I could see half a dozen guys racing around like darts, chipping the puck backward and forward and zipping to either end of the rink at ferocious speeds. The noise of their skates sliced through the air and the deep bellows of their shouts rattled up to the rafters.

“Carly’s over there,” Rick said, gesturing to a lone woman in a navy-blue coat sitting in the stands near the tunnel. “Why don’t you go and sit with her?”

“Oh, yes, I will. Actually I have some things to run over with her about Saturday.”

“Ah, the Roman party.” Rick raised his brows. “Can’t wait to see you in a toga. You’ll be naked beneath it, right?”

I frowned. “I’ll be working, remember.”

“Mmm, I’ve heard that excuse before.” His grin was particularly devilish as he leaned down and kissed me, hard and hungrily.

I held on to his biceps and let myself get lost in him, in his taste, his touch, his scent, everything about him. It was as though he was designed especially for me.

“Hey, Ramrod, get your ass on the ice.”

We broke apart and I turned to see a player with deeply tanned skin banging his stick on the Plexiglas. I recognized him from Carly and Brick’s house the week before.

“Shut up, Raven, remember who’s your damn captain,” Rick shouted. “I give the orders around here.”

Raven grinned, revealing perfect white teeth. “Yeah, I bet you do what she tells you.” He winked at me. “I would.”

Rick shook his head and turned back to me. “I give up,” he said. “Trying to get respect out of a bunch of boneheads is like getting blood from a stone—ain’t gonna happen.”

I smoothed down the wrinkles on his T-shirt my grip had created. “You’d better go, the sooner you do, the sooner we can eat.”

“Always thinking of your stomach,” he said on a grin.

I twitched my eyebrows. “Well, I’m getting extra exercise. It’s making me hungry.”

“Expect to be ravenous by this evening.” He winked, scooped up his soft gym bag and turned. I indulged in a moment of studying his delectable rear. Today his jeans were dark denim, a little tighter than yesterday’s, and the way they stretched over the curve of his butt was nothing short of beautiful.

He disappeared from view.

Damn!

I sighed and made my way to Carly.

“Hi,” I said, climbing up the steps toward her.

She looked bemused for a split second then her face lit with recognition. “Dana, hey, how are you?”

“Good.” I rubbed my hands together and took a seat. “Cold.”

“Here.” She handed me a pair of thin pale-green gloves. “I always have spares in my pocket. I keep asking them to turn up the temperature in here but for some reason they won’t.”

I smiled and gratefully wriggled my fingers into the gloves.

“Why are you here?” she asked, tipping her head. “I’m guessing it’s not to update me on Saturday.”

“No.” I smiled. “Rick made me a deal. If I sit through practice he’ll take me to some little Italian restaurant he knows.”

“Oh, Ciao, yeah, it’s awesome. Brick and I go there all the time, in fact we were going later… Ah.” Her eyes widened. “So you and Rick are…”

I couldn’t keep the beaming smile from my face. “Yeah, we’re seeing each other.”

Her face softened. “Oh, I’m so glad, I guessed there was something going on when he dashed out our front door to talk to you last week. But I had no idea you even knew each other.”

“Well, it’s all new, we only met at Mae’s wedding.”

Carly tipped her head, as though remembering something. “Oh, right, of course.”

“And I wasn’t really in the mood for dating. I’ve been so busy with work and that.” I shrugged. “So it took a while for him to persuade me.”

“Rick can be very persistent and very determined.” She shrugged. “But let’s face it, you don’t become captain of the Vipers if you’re not.” She paused as three more players whizzed onto the ice. It was hard to tell who they all were when they were so padded up. But Rick was easy to spot, simply because he was the tallest and the widest. “He hasn’t had much luck in the love department. I probably shouldn’t say, but he’s been on his own a long time. I’m not talking about a lack of available women, there’s always plenty for him to choose from, what I mean is someone nice, someone…normal.”

I laughed. “I’m glad I come under the normal heading.”

Color rose on her cheeks. “Oh, I didn’t mean it like that, I think you’re lovely, beautiful, and clearly you’re also very determined and very focused. Just look at the success you’ve made of Best Laid Plans.”

I rested my hand on her forearm. “I know what you mean,” I said with a smile. “And yes, he’s had a rough time lately, especially with…” I hesitated, unsure whether or not to mention Laurie Sharp.

“Ah, you mean his mad stalker woman.” Carly shivered and pulled down the corners of her mouth. “She’s a nutjob. It’s given all the guys a wake-up call to see some of the awful letters she’s sent.”

“They’ve seen them?”

“Well, not all of them, but Brick was there when Rick found one on his windshield last month. He told me if he hadn’t already met me it would have scared him off women forever to know they can think up stuff like that.”

I wrung my gloved fingers together. “Yes, she’s a psycho, but the police picked her up yesterday so she’s off the scene, thank goodness. Perhaps they’ll send her to rehab or something, I don’t know.”

Carly smiled. “They picked her up and charged her. That’s great news, great news all around for Rick. He’s a wonderful guy, he deserves to find happiness. Been living in that big house on his own for too long with just his nieces and nephews for company.”

“You know him well, then?”

“Yeah, he’s been a good friend to Brick. Well, him and Phoenix both have. I guess they’re that bit older, took him under their wing.” She glanced at me, wondering if she’d said something wrong by mentioning Rick’s age.

Smiling I said, “He’s been talking about what to do when his hockey days come to an end. Sounds like he’s got plenty of ideas.”

“All to do with hockey, no doubt.”

“Yes.” Looking over the rink I spotted him dragging his stick between another player’s legs to scoop up the puck. “I can’t imagine he’ll ever not be involved with hockey.” He spun in a microsecond and raced along the ice, dodging several eager defenders.

“So how are we set for Saturday?” Carly asked, taking a white knitted hat from her pocket and tugging it over her sleek, black hair.

“Great, not far off at all. I found a gold-painted chariot complete with armored horse and I’ve primed the photographer to take a shot of everyone, in couples, standing on it as they arrive. I thought, and this is up to you of course, that you could give the photographs out in frames when you send thank you cards for any engagement presents you get.”

Her eyes widened. “Oh yes, that’s brilliant. It’s always so hard to know what to get people, but I bet not many have a picture of themselves standing on a chariot all dressed up.”

The feeling of having made the right call grew warm in my belly and I began to tell her about the other details of the party. The catering was organized, the security company booked to man the gate and several huge urns of flowers would be delivered in the morning.

Before I knew it the guys were heading off the ice and an hour had gone past.

“We’re going to Ciao’s, too,” Carly said. “Perhaps we can eat together.”

“That would be real nice,” I said, standing. “I’m going to head to the restroom first, though.”

“It’s just down there. Come on, I’ll show you.” Carly stood and together we made our way down the steps. As we reached the corridor, her cell rang to the tune of Strawberries and Screams. “Sorry,” she said, grinning. “That’ll be Brick. It’s our song.”

I waved not-to-worry and headed through a door printed with a picture of a woman in a short flared skirt holding a hockey stick.

Ducking into the first cubicle, I quickly relived myself then stepped out. After washing my hands in foamy, anti-bac soap I dried them and reached for my lip balm. The thought of lunch with Carly and Brick was nice. I was kind of hoping it would just be Rick and me, but there were going to be times I’d have to share him and maybe it was time to make some new friends.

I leaned forward and studied my reflection. My mascara hadn’t dribbled and my hair was still fluffy and neat despite the cold atmosphere. A sudden movement over my right shoulder caught my eye. My gaze shifted in the mirror. Behind me stood a woman with lank, greasy blonde hair.

My heart rate picked up.

My breath hitched in my chest.

The crazed look in her brilliant blue eyes sent a chill to the very core of my soul. I spun around, lip balm in hand.

She raised her arm and directed a small silver gun at my chest.

Suddenly my entire world slipped into slow motion. Fear coursed through my veins, adrenaline flooded my system. The lip balm fell to the floor and rolled away. I felt as though my feet had been taken from under me.

“Hello, Dana,” the woman said, in a steely, sarcastic voice as one side of her mouth lifted in a sneer. “It’s so nice to meet you.”

“What…what do you want?” I managed, unable to take my gaze off the round black eye of the gun staring straight at me.

She took a step closer.

I pressed back into the sink and gripped it hard.

“What a stupid question,” she said with a snarl. “As if you don’t already know.”

I swallowed, but it was hard to, my throat had constricted, my mouth was bone- dry. “I…I don’t…know. Who are you?” Any moment now she was going to pull the trigger, a bullet would pierce my chest, take my life. The end was here.

“You know who I am.”

Yeah, I have a pretty damn good idea it’s Laurie Sharp pointing a gun at me.

She took another step toward me and the smell of fetid body odor combined with sickly sweet perfume filtered up my nostrils.

“I want what’s mine back,” she said through gritted teeth. “He was just starting to realize what a fool he’d been to let me go, he was on the verge of calling me, begging me to get back with him and then you…” She paused and scanned my body, her nose wrinkling, her eyes narrowing. “Then you waltz into his life in your slutty skirts and your long curly hair and made him forget all about me…again.”

“I’m sure he hasn’t…forgotten all about you.” My voice was so shaky it vibrated through my mouth, chattering my teeth. She was mad, crazed. I could see it in the wild flashing of her eyes. They were glacial blue but the whites were shot with blood and broken capillaries. She wore too much black eyeliner and it had seeped into small lines beneath her lids and into her crow’s feet—I would never forget her eyes, they were the last thing I was going to see before I died.

I don’t want to die. Life has just gotten so damn good!

“What…what do you want me to do?” I asked, gasping as she stepped so close the gun was less than an arm’s length away from me.

“I want you to go away, disappear. I don’t want you to ever be able to come into his life again.” She leaned forward and bared her teeth. Her lips were as cracked as peeling paint. “And I want you never to be able to touch him again. He’s mine, you’ve been trespassing. You’re a thief, nothing but a common whore and a thief and I want you removed from this world, from the universe. You will be punished.”

The restroom door swung open.

“I already spoke to Dana. Yes, they were going there anyway…I know, it will be great, I’m just going to powder my nose and I’ll meet you at—” Carly appeared, cell at her ear.

She stopped in her tracks. Her gaze fixed on Laurie aiming a gun at my chest.

Her eyes widened, her face paled. She dropped the hand holding her phone to her hip. “What the hell is going on?” she said in a loud voice. “Why has that woman got a gun pointed at you, Dana?”

Laurie lunged at me. Clasped her arm around my neck and spun me to face Carly. Cold, hard metal rammed into my temple. I was only seconds away from death.

I tried to scream but the noise never materialized. I wanted to fight her, get away, but what could I do? She had a gun pressed into my head. There was a live bullet with my name on it only inches away. My whole body buzzed with terror, blood raged through my veins. How could this be happening?

Carly stepped forward, palms up in a gesture of surrender, still holding her cell. “Hold on,” she said in a slow, steady voice. “Keep calm, nobody is going to get hurt in the ladies’ restroom.”

I kept my arms at my sides. I wanted to try to pull Laurie off me but it wasn’t worth the risk. Moving wasn’t worth the risk. I hardly dared to breathe. Breathing wasn’t worth the risk.

“I’m going to kill this bitch,” Laurie snarled by my ear. “I’m going to splatter her brains all over the place, it’s what she deserves.”

“No one deserves that. No one,” Carly said. “Why don’t we talk about it without the gun? Put the gun away.”

“No.” Laurie jabbed it harder into my head and my neck wrenched to the side. “There’s nothing to talk about. I warned her to stay away from Ramrod but she didn’t listen, so now it’s time for her to pay the price. She’s going to get what she deserves.”

I squeezed my eyes shut. Prayed it would be quick. Quick and painless. I hated to think how it would be for Carly to see me murdered so brutally and for Rick to think it was all his fault. A sob gurgled up from my chest, a tear spilled from my eye.

“What the fuck is going on?” Rick’s voice suddenly echoed around the restroom.

I flicked open my eyes. He stood in the doorway, hair dripping and wearing only jeans which were not quite done up. Behind him was Brick holding his cell. Though he was dressed he was barefoot. Both men were breathing hard.

I lifted my hand up, reaching out to Rick. But my arm was shaking so much I had no real control over it. My body no longer felt like mine.

“Laurie, what the hell are you playing at?” Rick stepped forward, putting himself between Laurie and me, and Carly.

“I’m doing it all for you, for us,” Laurie said in a sickening, simpering voice.

He shook his head. “What you’re doing is not for me. What you’re doing is a terrible, manipulative thing.”

“No, no it isn’t,” she snapped. “It’s what I have to do.” She removed the gun from my head and waved it toward him. “To make you notice me. You’re so busy being captain of the Vipers you don’t have time for me, don’t have time to see what’s in your heart.”

Rick didn’t move.

Brick grabbed Carly and dragged her from sight.

I tried to step backward, my legs shaky and weak, but the gun butted into my head again, just behind my ear this time. I drew my hands to my cheeks. They were shaking like maracas and I could hardly make them connect. My stomach churned, my heart pounded. My eyesight had gone wonky, everything was blurred.

“You made me notice you, Laurie.” Rick’s voice was steady and calm. “You know you did.” He took a step forward.

“But you didn’t call, you didn’t answer my letters and then you started sending me horrid lawyer letters and the police came to my house. You just don’t seem to care. You just don’t make me feel special anymore.”

“But you are special, you know that. Now please put the gun down. Put the gun down and we can all go get a coffee and talk about this like adults.”

She sucked in a breath. “I don’t want to drink coffee with this bitch,” she said angrily, jabbing the gun harder at my head.

“No, no, please,” I gasped, my eyes not leaving Rick’s face. If I was about to die, I wanted him to be the last thing I saw, I wanted his face to be the image that would be with me for all eternity.

“Don’t shoot her,” Rick said, his nostrils flared as the muscle in his cheek flexed.

“Why not? I hate her.” She shoved the end of the gun with more force into my skull. “I hate her so much it hurts.”

Pain sliced around my neck and down my spine. I whimpered and balled my fists.

“But you don’t know her.” Rick stepped forward again. He was so close now I would almost be able to touch him if I reached out.

“I know she’s been staying at your house, overnight. You let me stay once, remember?” Laurie’s voice lifted. “It was perfect, beautiful, the best night of my life.”

Several drips snaked down Rick’s neck from his sopping-wet hair. They trickled into his dense thatch of chest hair and disappeared. I wanted to be those drips. I didn’t want to be me, about to be murdered in front of my boyfriend. I wanted to be a drip all safe and sound against Rick’s chest.

“We did have a great night,” Rick was saying. His voice had changed, or maybe it was my hearing. It was softer, gentler, as though coming through gauze. “It was one of the best nights of my life, too, Laurie.”

“So why was it only once?” she whined.

Rick held up his big palms. “Initially I lost your number and then, I’ll be honest, Laurie, some of those letters were a bit needy.”

“But I needed you. I needed you so badly.”

“I know that now.” He smiled but it wasn’t a real smile. There were no dimples and his soul patch barely moved. “You’ve opened my eyes and I do think we should make a go of it.” He shrugged and pointed at me. “She was just a passing phase.”

“You mean you don’t love her?”

Rick shook his head, his dark gaze glued on Laurie. “No, not at all, a quick fling. It’s you I want, Laurie, you’re the one for me. We could be so great together.” Quiet fell over the restroom, interrupted only by a dripping cistern.

“What do you think I am? Fucking stupid?” Laurie suddenly shouted.

“No, no of course not.” Rick reached out. I couldn’t quite see, but I thought he had a hand on her shoulder. “Can’t you feel it?” he asked, his voice amazingly calm and soothing. “Can’t you feel the energy between us? It’s not like that with me and Dana, it’s just you, Laurie, just you that gives me the feeling of electricity when I touch you.”

“So I should kill her, get rid of her. Then we won’t have to worry about her.” She scraped the mean point of the gun over my scalp, tearing my hair until she reached my temple once more.

I whimpered and braced my neck.

“What would be the point in that?” Rick asked. “I told you, she means nothing to me. We don’t have to see her again, once we leave this room, ever. She’s already history to me.” His other hand reached out and I felt his knuckle brush my cheek. He’d taken hold of her wrist, the wrist holding the gun.

I hoped to hell he knew what he was doing. I didn’t have any chance of dodging this bullet.

“Besides,” he was saying, “if you commit murder you’ll be locked up for years, years that we could be spending together.”

“But you’d wait for me, wouldn’t you, you’d wait for me?”

“It would be an awful long wait, Laurie, you know that. You’d get life for murder.”

I sensed more movement behind Rick and flicked my gaze around his shoulder. Three burly security guards stood in a row by the door. I didn’t feel any relief. What could they do? My fate was in Rick’s hands. If only he could persuade her to move the gun from my head. I didn’t care what he had to say, he could promise her anything. I just wanted her to believe it.

“Laurie, come on, put the gun down, you know it makes sense,” Rick said.

“No. No and get off me.” Laurie had also seen the security men. “Get the fuck off me or she gets it. Now!”

Rick lifted his hands, his eye contact with her not breaking for a second. He swiped his tongue over his bottom lip.

I wanted to fold onto the floor, my legs were like noodles. I didn’t think they could hold me up much longer. But I didn’t dare collapse, that might be all the excuse Laurie needed to pull the trigger.

“Take the gun from Dana’s head. It’s me you’re mad at, not her,” Rick’s voice lowered to a persuasive rumble. “Point the gun at me, not at her, Laurie. Come on, me not her.”

In an instant she released me. The hard end of the gun disappeared and I watched in horror as she jabbed it into Rick’s bare chest.

“No,” I cried, wanting to grab for it, my arms twitching. But I couldn’t, I couldn’t grab it and guarantee she wouldn’t fire straight into his heart.

“That’s it, good girl,” he said, “That’s better.” There was relief in his voice. He must be the only man in the world who could speak with relief when a psycho aimed a gun at his chest at point-blank range.

“Now we can talk about us,” he said.

“Yes,” she said quietly. “We have to talk about us.”

“You know what I think we should do first, though?”

“What?”

“I think we should kiss. Do you remember that night, Laurie, that night when we had so much fun, we kissed and kissed, do you remember? Do you remember that, Laurie?”

My guts clenched, I was going to vomit, fear and disgust rivaling for supremacy at the sight of the gun pressed into his chest.

“Kiss?” she asked.

“Yes, let’s recreate the magic. Kiss me again, Laurie, like you did back then.” He leaned forward, the gun digging harder into his curls of chest hair and denting his flesh. He ignored it.

I wanted to step away, I wanted to collapse. I wanted to fling myself into his arms but I just stood, frozen to the spot—dizzy, tears flowing down my cheeks.

Laurie tipped her head. Her breaths were ragged, her stench overpowering.

Rick smiled at her, his eyes black and intense. “That’s it, Laurie, kiss me.”

She stepped forward, touched her cracked lips to his in the briefest of kisses then pulled away.

“Is that it?” he asked, acting as if he didn’t have a gun against him and she was a wonderful, desirable woman. “That’s not the passionate, sexy kiss I remember. You can do better than that, come on, show me. Show me what I’ve been missing out on.”

In a sudden flurry, she lunged upward, threw her arms around his neck and sucked onto him, her high-pitched squeal of crazed pleasure filling the room.

Then it all happened so fast my mind couldn’t keep up with my eyes.

Rick spun Laurie around so her back hit his chest. Her hand holding the gun was flung into the air, his fingers wrapped around her wrist.

An explosive bang blasted through the restroom. White plaster rained down from the ceiling as a bullet hurtled upward.

I screamed.

Laurie screamed.

“Fucking bitch,” Rick shouted, stepping forward and ramming Laurie’s writhing body against the wall. The impact of her chest banging into the tiles sent a grunt from her lungs and the gun skittered under a cubicle door, spinning as it went.

The security men ran in, the dark navy of their uniforms instantly peppered by the snowy debris in the air.

“Stay the fuck away from me,” Rick snarled into Laurie’s ear. “Got it?”

Her face was squashed up against the tiles, her cheeks puffing in and out as she breathed and her eyes squeezed shut.

He loomed over her, teeth gritted, every single tendon and muscle in his back, shoulders and arms taut and prominent and coated in both sweat and plaster. “Because if you ever, ever come near me or anyone I care about again,” he snarled, “then you won’t just be going to prison. I’ll see to it that you lose function of all four fucking limbs and that’s if I’m feeling generous that day, got it? You fucking got it, bitch?”

“But you love me,” she cried, foamy spittle leaving her lips and dribbling to her chin. “Why would you say that? Why would you do this?”

“I don’t love you. I never have and never will. Get that into your crazy fucking head, woman.” His body shoved into her harder and she cried out as she was squashed against the wall.

“Ramrod,” one of the security men said, placing a hand on Rick’s bare shoulder. “We’ll take it from here.”

Rick’s whole body jerked, his lips snarled back over his teeth. He made no move to let her go. If anything he pushed into her harder.

“Rick,” I said, shakily. “Rick, please.”
He turned to me, his eyes glazed, his face twisted in anger.

“It’s okay now,” I managed. “It’s okay. Let her go.”

He focused on me for a few long, drawn-out seconds, then sucked in a deep breath. His eyes lost their glazed fury and he pulled back from Laurie and watched as she was quickly surrounded and cuffed.

My legs finally gave up. Muscles shaking and knees refusing to hold my weight, I slithered to the ground. My palms slapped onto the cold floor, my knee landed on a sharp chunk of ceiling.

Rick was there in an instant, scooping me up against his chest. “Baby, it’s all right now, it’s all right.”

My whole body shook, from the very center of my torso to the ends of my fingers and toes. I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t speak. My eyes were so full of tears I couldn’t see.

“Get that mad bitch out of here,” Rick snarled over his shoulder at the security men. “Now.”

I buried my face into his neck, clung to his shoulders and drew in fast, juddering breaths.

“You’ll regret this,” Laurie shouted as she was hauled past us. “You’ll regret picking her over me. She’s a whore, she doesn’t really love you. She’s nothing on me. I love you. I can give you what you need.”

“Shut the hell up,” a security man said, yanking her from the room.

Rick’s hands were all over me as if checking for injuries. “Shh, baby,” he soothed into the sudden quiet. “She’s gone, the gun has gone. She’s gone, forever.”

My ears were still ringing from the sound of the shot, my guts rolling, my heart pounding. I wasn’t dead, I was alive. Rick wasn’t dead, he was alive. I hardly dared believe the terror was over.

He hugged me tighter. “Did she hurt you anywhere? Do you need the paramedics?”

“No, no, she didn’t, but…oh God…she’s so crazy…the things she was saying…I thought I was going to die, I…I thought you were going to die. Rick, I—”

“Shh, it’s okay, take slower breaths, calm down.” He stroked a hand down my back and kissed my head. The texture of his stubble-coated chin on my temple was so sweet, so familiar after the deadly cold of the gun.

“Shh, it’s okay,” he whispered again.

I snuggled into him, splayed out my fingers on the wiry patch of chest hair the gun had touched. I shuddered and choked back a sob. Fisted the short curls and shut my eyes.

“Dana, Dana, Jesus, are you okay?” Carly’s voice tinkled over the ringing in my ears as she squatted next to me and put her hand on my back.

“Yes,” Rick said. “She’s okay, just very shaken.”

“She doesn’t look okay,” Brick’s deep voice rumbled from somewhere above me.

“She’ll be fine, she breathes fast like this when she’s scared.” Rick tilted my chin so I was forced to look into his face. “Come on, baby, slow down or we’ll have to get you a paper bag.”

“I…I’m okay.” I swallowed and felt the first semblance of control over my breathing return.

Carly’s hand was still on my shoulder. “We should get her out of here, it’s real dusty. It’s not helping.”

Rick grunted in agreement and, obviously not having the same weak leg problem I was having, stood, taking me with him. Gently he secured me against his chest.