Daniel stretched his long legs out under the table, as if they were having a chat at a cozy café rather than snatching a moment of sanity in a world gone mad. “I’ll be on the way to your house to check on Nadia and your little girl.”

Eyes narrowed to lashed slits, Ana’s fingernails tapped a staccato beat on her upper arm. “Like hell. I asked for your help, not as a damsel in distress who’ll stay here while you be the big hero, but as an equal.”

Daniel shifted position, rocking back on his chair so it balanced precariously on two legs. He folded his arms, the subtle shift of his Adam’s apple the only indication of emotion. Something flickered behind his eyes before vanishing like heat rising off a desert highway.

“From where I sit you look exactly like a pain in the ass damsel. I’m no hero, but when it comes to survival in this sort of environment, you’re not my equal.”

Ana rarely, if ever, let raw emotion direct her actions. Raw emotions ungoverned by self-control led to bad decisions and life-altering mistakes. Ask her how she knew. But like a lighter touched to a pile of dry leaves, fury, pure and bright, flared in her gut. “I’m coming with you.”

“No. Absolutely no fucking way. It’s too dangerous.”

Ana jerked at the blunt aggression in his tone but refused to back down. “I’m not asking for your permission. I’m telling you. Whether you help me or not, I am getting out of this building.”

He snorted out a huff through curved lips.

Of all the arrogant—

Her back teeth clicked together. “Nadia will be doing her best to care for Alyssa”—she held up a hand to stop him interrupting—“but she’s only twenty-two years old, and as much as I trust her, as much as I know she’s capable and kind and I now consider her more a friend than an employee, she’s still on her own with a traumatized toddler.” Her hand trembled, picturing Alyssa sobbing inconsolably, or worse, staring into space.

“Theo is thirteen and thinks he’s indestructible. He’s not. He’s still a kid, probably assuming he can make it home alone. He can’t. As you pointed out, it’s dangerous out there.”

She planted her palms on the table and got right in his face. “One way or another, you jackass—even if I have to slide down the cables in the elevator shaft and crawl every mile from here to home—I am going to my kids.”

He stared, unflinching. “You’re nuts enough to try it anyway, aren’t you? You’ll be dead within five minutes.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence.” She dropped back into her seat, glaring icicles at him. “So help me, then.”

“What makes you think I can get you home safely?”

“Nadia told me you were in the army. She also said you were a free runner or a ninja or something.”

“The army was a long time ago, and I used to practice parkour—which is different to the show-off free runners.” He stared at a spot beyond her shoulders for a beat before his gaze met hers again, this time laughter lines crinkling the corners of his eyes. “Trust me, I’m no ninja.” He waved a dismissive hand. “It’s one thing for me to navigate through the city. I’ve had the training; you haven’t.”

“But—”

The two chair legs squeaked in protest as Daniel rocked back and forth. “How often do you work out every week?”

She wished the chair would collapse and drop him on his overconfident butt. “What’s that got to do with anything?”

“Humor me.”

“Three mornings a week at the gym for cardio and weight training.”

“How often do you go hiking?”

“What? I don’t. I’m not into that outdoorsy stuff, unless you count throwing a ball around in the yard with the kids. Some weekends Theo and I will go for a ride on our bikes—oh, and we’ve done the southern and northern city walks.” She couldn’t keep the note of triumph out of her voice.

Daniel seemed less than impressed. “Well, Ana, I guarantee you your experience with four- to five-hour strolls on maintained council tracks are nothing like what you’ll find outside now. Even if you were an outdoorsy type, getting home wouldn’t come close to anything you’ve ever experienced. It’ll be a war zone out there.”

“I don’t care.”

“I’m serious.” He folded his arms again and dropped his chair back to the floor.

She mirrored his body language. “So am I.”

“Are you always so pigheaded?”

Before she could answer, he stood and pulled her to her feet, his hand warm on the chilled skin of her bare elbow. “Come look at this.”

Daniel half dragged Ana across the staff room to where she could see, through the mouth of jagged bricks, the carnage of the road below.

“Is that water down there?” she said.

“Yeah. A tsunami rolled in after the earthquake. Probably more than one wave, too.”

“Tsunami.” Each syllable stuck to her tongue like it was pressed to frosted metal. “My home is on top of a hill, so Alyssa and Nadia should be fine. But Theo’s school is not far from the beach. Right in a tsunami’s path.”

She chafed her hands along her arms and a rash of goose bumps pimpled under her fingertips. “This morning Theo has PE, I think. He’d have been out on the sports field when the earthquake struck.”

“If Theo was on a field when the quake struck, there’s a good chance he’s fine.”

“The school is on flat ground.” Daniel’s words barely registered. A mental blueprint of the school’s layout superimposed over what her memory recalled of tsunami footage in the media. “There’s a hill a few minutes’ walk behind his school. Theo’s been taught what to do in an earthquake. If he suspected a tsunami, he’d have run for higher ground.”

She was talking herself into a sense of optimism, but she had to cling to the belief Theo had recognized the warning signs and fled to safety. She had to. What else could she do? To contemplate anything else would be to infect her will with black despair before she’d even attempted to get home.

They watched the violent surge of water, with nothing but the creaks and moans of the building settling around them to break the awkward silence.

Finally Daniel spoke. “Theo sounds like a resourceful kid. We can’t tell how bad the quake was at his school until we find a way out of here, but we’ll find him.”

“We?”

He paused, tension rippling off him. “Yeah. I guess it’s we. Nadia would make my life hell if her jackass of a brother let her boss commit suicide by trying to get home alone. But here’s the thing—you listening?”

Ana turned slightly and met his gaze. “I’m listening.”

“You can’t do anything rash and reckless like climbing down elevator shafts to get to your kids. If you die, they’ll have no one.”

The lump constricting her throat moved up and down as she nodded. “Okay.”

“So first we have to find a way to get down from here since the stairs are gone. And second, once we’re out, you’ll do exactly what I tell you.” He looked down through narrowed eyes, likely waiting for an argument.

Ana trapped her tongue between her teeth and assembled a passively agreeable expression on her face.

“Third, we can’t leave the safety of this building until the waves stop coming.”

She opened her mouth to object, closed it again while she thought, and sighed. “Because the water will make it too dangerous to travel.”

“Exactly, and the waves could keep coming for hours.”

They could be trapped in here for hours? “No—it’ll be getting dark by five.”

“Yeah, it will. But I’m not—not”—he held up his hand when she grimaced—“allowing you to climb down from this building in the dark. Agreed?”

Theo. Alyssa. Her teeth jammed down on her lower lip, trapping the rising scream inside. Tears slid hotly along her lower lids but she blinked them away before they could spill over, and pulled her gaze back from the carnage outside. “Yes, all right. Agreed.”

After a moment, Daniel reached over and took one of her hands, rubbing his large rough fingers over the indentation where her wedding ring once nestled. “We’ll find them.” He squeezed once and let her hand fall back against her side.

She turned away from the gaping hole that showed only a sliver of blue sky. “I have to.” The breeze swept into the room, whisking her voice away. “I have to find them both.”