Friday, July 23. 10:22 a.m. Lower Hutt, greater Wellington area, New Zealand.

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Ana watched Daniel’s butt flex under his snug blue jeans as he maneuvered the heavy box behind her office desk.

The one thing Nadia had neglected to mention was her big brother was hot. Not that she was looking per se. More an under-her-nose observation. No harm in appreciating a fine male form when it didn’t go any further. Admiring men at a safe distance was a habit, much the same as her morning battle with the hair straightener.

Daniel toed aside another file box. A former soldier, Nadia had mentioned. Well, he sure didn’t look like a soldier. With the scruff on his jaw closer to a short beard than designer stubble, and his dark brown hair long enough for the back to brush his shirt collar, there was no ugly crew cut in sight for this six-foot-plus chunk of blue-jeans-wearing male. He bent and dropped the box in the empty space. Definitely not the stiff, formal-uniform type.

“Thanks again for lugging the box up all those stairs.” Her words tumbled together as Daniel stood. Just what she needed to start the day—caught ogling this guy’s ass. Very professional.

“No worries. Consider us even for the ride.” Daniel edged around the desk, which was covered with papers, pens, and stacks of folders stuffed with more paper threatening to slide off.

Distracted by his nearness and with the box no longer a barrier, she pretended to check her watch. “I’d better not keep you any longer or you’ll miss your meeting.”

Daniel hooked a thumb into his jeans’ pocket. “Yeah.”

Tremors vibrated under her feet and papers rustled, shifted. A framed self-portrait Theo had sketched for her clinked and jerked against the wall.

“Welcome to Welling—” Her flippant remark died when the earthquake, considered normal in this part of New Zealand, accelerated powerfully. Every hair follicle on her body stood rigid as the floor beneath her pitched to the left.

Folders cascaded off the desk. A large wooden bookcase creaked, and a few heavier books tipped out and thumped to the floor. Theo’s portrait plummeted off the wall, the crunch of glass swallowed by the earthquake’s grinding roar. Someone yelled, “Earthquake,” over and over.

Ana toppled backward, her balance thrown off in her ‘go on, I deserve them’ high heels. A hand clamped around her wrist, preventing her from falling. Instead, she slithered to her knees like a newborn giraffe.

Daniel dragged her on hands and knees around the tight corner. “Under your desk.”

Heart bashing a frantic staccato, she skidded on loose paper, her skirt tangling around her legs.

He shoved aside a wheeled office chair, his mouth twisted into a concentrated grimace. “Move.”

Debris tumbled around her, a bizarre waterfall plummeting from walls and ceilings. The quake rumbled and roared, a freight train of destruction and terror that seemed to go on and on.

Daniel pushed her under the desk while he fitted himself behind. “Cover your head,” he ordered.

Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop.

The mantra flooded her brain, leaving no room for anything else. Metal shrieked, wood splintered, concrete boomed as it cracked and fell. Carpet scraped her thighs as the violent motion wrenched her body from side to side.

Please, God, will it ever stop?

Eyelids clamped shut, Ana drew comfort from the bulk of the man covering her. She wasn’t alone. At least she wasn’t alone. Two names, hidden in her mind’s turmoil, sliced past the confusion and left her blindsided.

Theo.

Alyssa.

Oh God. My babies.

Nausea roiled in her stomach. Sour bile spilled onto her tongue but she choked it down. Her vocal chords, fisted in a death grip around her throat, wouldn’t even let a scream escape. That didn’t stop the screams inside her head.

The nightmare shaking finally stopped.

Ana’s eardrums vibrated with fast-moving blood, and seconds passed until Daniel coughed. Dust coated Ana’s lips and drifted into her nostrils. She sneezed, and awareness exploded through her. Her babies. Theo was in high school, Alyssa at home with Nadia. They were both at least thirty-five kilometres from her, on different sides of the city, while she lay trapped with Nadia’s brother, a man she’d met only an hour ago.

Images filled Ana’s head of her kids, scared, alone, bleeding.

Dead.

Those technicolor snapshots shredded the last of her control. Sweat oozed from her pores and her heart raced so fast she felt light-headed. “Let me out, let me out!”

Ana braced her palm against the desk wall and shoved backward. Daniel didn’t budge. Her elbow slammed into solid male, but he only grunted and still didn’t move.

A strong arm slid over her waist, pinning her still. “You need to calm down.”

That was a suggestion guaranteed to have the absolute reverse effect on her demeanor. Ana tried to peel his fingers off her forearm. “Get the hell off me. I need to get to my kids.”

Screams raw with grief and panic built in her chest, but the dust inhaled with each breath choked them into strangled moans. In the confined space she kicked, thrashed, and swore. Daniel just held her closer. Time slowed. Minutes, hours, days seemed to inch past. Her focus narrowed to the repetitive words murmured in her ear. Her breaths descended from panicked gasps to shuddered sighs.

“They’ll be fine. Breathe. In, out, again.” His tone was gentle, but interlaced with unbending strength.

The claws of hysteria retracted enough for a semblance of self-possession to return. Tension seeped out of her rigid muscles. “Daniel?”

“Yeah?”

She felt a guilty pang remembering how she’d kicked and elbowed him. “Are you hurt?”

“No, I’m fine.” The roughness of his jeans brushed her bare thighs, and his belt buckle dug into her tailbone.

God, if the circumstances weren’t so dire she’d be mortified at how high her skirt had ridden up. She eased her hand from his grasp and smeared tears off her face. “Is it over?”

His body eased away from its protective curl around her. “Don’t know. Could be aftershocks.”

Chilled air rushed against her legs. Exposed and vulnerable to the confusion around her, Ana jerked the hem of her skirt down.

“Wh—where are you going?” Ana loathed the fearful catch in her voice. It was bad enough to go to pieces once; she wouldn’t display weakness again.

“I’m poking my head out. Don’t move.”

She craned her neck to peek over her shoulder. Particles of plaster floated in the air like ashy snowflakes and the wall studs behind her desk were exposed. Daniel crouched, one hand resting on the desk for balance.

“Hey? Anybody hear me? Maggie? Irene?”

Daniel’s voice, loud in the desk’s confines, masked the backdrop of crashes and the howl of distant alarms.

“Who’s that? Where’s Ana?”

Ana exhaled in a rush at the familiar voice of her friend and fellow lawyer, Joel Cameron. She rolled onto her knees and crawled to Daniel’s side.

“You don’t follow instructions well, do you?” he asked.

Ana ignored the dig and shouted, adrenaline spiking her voice to a fingernails-on-chalkboard pitch. “I’m here. Nadia’s brother is with me. Are you okay?”

“Think my arm’s broken. Bloody bookcase fell on me,” he said.

“Joel? Ana?” her secretary called from across the hallway.

“Maggie? Are you hurt?” Ana blinked away hot tears. Two of her friends were, if not safe, at least alive.

“No. I’m fine, I think.”

Daniel raised his voice again. “Joel? Is the bookcase still on you?”

“Yeah, can’t get the stupid thing off my arm. What a mess.”

“What about Irene?” Ana shouted. Joel’s office was closest to the reception area. “Can you hear her?”

Joel shouted Irene’s name and a couple of beats passed before their receptionist replied.

“I’m here, I’m here.” Irene’s hoarse voice drifted down the corridor, followed by a couple of sharp, barking coughs. “Don’t worry about a tough old bird like me. Sort Joel out.”

Ana squeezed her eyes shut in relief for a moment. When she opened them, Daniel was looking at her with intense focus.

“Who else is here today?”

“Sean’s at court,” she said. “Angela and Denise are away, so it’s just us four.”

“Right. Do you have a staff room table here? Something that can protect us from aftershocks.”

“The conference room has a big table in it.” She edged forward, preparing to show him where it was. “We’ll fit under it if we huddled—”

“We need to move fast.” He stood and glanced at her feet. “You have any sensible shoes with you?”

“Ah, no. I’ve running shoes in my gym bag, but they’re in the car.” She leaned forward again.

He crouched, effectively blocking her exit. “You need to stay here. There’s broken glass all over the floor.”

Ana rocked back on her heels, her mouth open in protest, but he continued to speak as if he hadn’t noticed. “I’ve got boots on. I’ll help Joel and—”

“You’re not listening.” Her stomach dropped to somewhere in the region of her knees. One other time she’d experienced a similar combination of frustration and helplessness. The night more than two years ago when her husband, Neil, was killed.

“Go ahead.” Daniel’s gaze locked with hers, twin blue lasers that pierced through the shadows.

For a moment, looking in his eyes, Ana forgot the point she was making. Then panic clawed at her once again from the inside out. She sucked in a deep breath and fought to expand the bands of emotion constricting her lungs.

Keep it together, woman.

“I can’t stay under here.” The words slid smoothly from her tongue. “I have to get home to Alyssa—she’s only two. Then I have to find Theo.” She latticed her fingers into knots on top of her thighs. “I can’t stay here.”

“In time. All in good time.”

Ana glanced down, startled to stillness when the rough warmth of his hand covered her numb fingers.

“Nads will take care of your little girl, and teachers will be with your son at his school. You can’t just bolt out of this building. You have to think, not react.”

He rubbed a thumb across the smooth skin of her knuckles, and the rough edge of a callus sent tingles along her arm. “We have to help the injured. If you come with me now, if you sprain your ankle in those heels, or glass cuts your feet, where will we be then?”

Ana pounded a fist on the floor, raising a small plume of dust. The leather crossing over her toes and digging into her skin was now a frustrating reminder of her powerlessness. The shoes were headed for the garbage first opportunity. Daniel was right. She needed to use her analytical mind and stop reacting to the terror that had hijacked her common sense. “All right, fine. You go.”

Sensibly not waiting for her to change her mind, Daniel squeezed her hand once and left.