Love on the Edge: Nine Shades of Romantic Suspense, page 80
He forced himself to look up and say casually, “Uh, yeah. The romance writer, right?”
“That’s right.” Her voice was ironic.
The look in her eyes made him want to shift in his chair and look away. His pride wouldn’t let him do either one. Did she suspect the romance writer had almost made a believer out of him? He looked down at the sheets in his hand. “What about her?”
“I’m on her Christmas card list—”
Why wasn’t he? He’d only saved her life.
“—just got this flyer from her. She’s coming back to Denver for a book signing.”
She was coming back. She’d be here. Not New Orleans.
Here. He could see her again. Yeah, and an alcoholic could walk into a bar. Didn’t make it good for him.
“On Valentine’s Day.” She held out the pink sheet. Matt eyed it for a moment before accepting it. Was it his imagination that made it smell like coconut? Too many hearts and flowers mixed in with the copy. The book was called One Near One. Under it was a quote by Robert Browning. “If two lives join, there is oft a scar. They are one and one… One near one is too far.”
In the margin next to the cover, she’d scrawled, “My publicist thinks I need to get back on this particular horse or be doomed to forever live in fear of your mile high city. She obviously doesn’t know her Kafka. My “fear”…is my substance, and probably the best part of me. But she’s the one who calls the tune, so the worst part of me is coming. Can we do lunch or cookies while I’m there?
She had signed her name and inked in an emoticon grin. Her handwriting was like her, nearly indecipherable.
Sebastian came up and read the flyer over his shoulder. “Cool. Can I come, too?”
Henry, seated at his desk, looked up. “To what?”
Sebastian explained. Henry wanted to go, too. So did Riggs. Matt couldn’t believe it. Dani brings them a box of cookies, smiles and thanks them, and they all forget how much trouble she was. Maybe Luke was right. Maybe she was a witch.
Less than six weeks until her broom landed here. Less than six weeks to figure out how not to care.
Easy. If you routinely did the impossible.
*
Valentines Day. Denver.
Dani wasn’t the only author signing books in six cities. Her publisher was calling them the Valentine’s Six Pack. By some strange twist of fate, she was the only one who chose to wear red, the others having opted for virginal white.
It was harder than she expected to land in the mile high, to walk off the plane without hoping he’d be there waiting. Happy endings paid her bills. It was a good thing her finances didn’t depend on the lonesome lawman. He wasn’t there. Caroline was.
“You don’t look like you’ve been through hell,” she had said with a broad smile after they had hugged.
“If you could see under the make-up you wouldn’t say that,” Dani had answered. There was a radio interview. She became an actress again as she assured the citizens of the city that she didn’t hold them responsible for Spook’s rampage and loved their city. When asked how she researched her sex scenes, she smiled and said, “Very carefully.”
During the drive to the mall, Dani played the part of a woman catching up with an old girlfriend. Alice met her inside. She lunched with her and all the guys—minus one—still acting at a level worthy of an Oscar nomination. Alice walked with her to the bookstore, both of them chuckling over how quickly the men sheared off, after giving Alice money to buy books for their wives and sweethearts. She was fast running out of time to ask about Matt. Decided she wouldn’t, her mother always used to tell her not to pick at wounds or they wouldn’t heal, but the words came out anyway. “So, how’s Matt and Luke?”
She endured Alice’s glance with composure, but was glad when it was over.
“I hear Luke’s dating someone. I haven’t seen Matt today, but he’s fine, too. I think he took some comp time so they could go climbing. A couple of real romantics.”
Dani smiled, shook her head over the foibles of the male sex, and in her head plotted his castration. Couldn’t even face her. The coward. She earned two Oscars signing and smiling, while cursing the cooling off period that kept her from buying a gun. She looked up to hand a woman her signed book and there he was.
Standing smack in the middle of a bevy of romantic women, holding a heart-shaped box of chocolates, a bottle of coconut perfume and a single red rose.
With a face like the storm on the mountain.
Their gazes connected like thunder on that mountain.
Dani rose to her feet, her mouth curving in a smile edged with evil. This was going to be good.
It was the hardest walk of Matt’s life. Harder than walking into a den of Uzi toting drug dealers. There were women everywhere he looked, all wearing that knowing look that made him want to swear or worse. He wasn’t a romantic guy. Didn’t want to be a romantic guy. If he hadn’t finished her book, he probably would have just waited until she was done signing and said something normal like, “Want some dinner?”
If he hadn’t read that book. Put a lot of pressure on a guy to keep up with a hero straight out of a romance writer’s brain. As far as his could tell, the only thing he had in common with the guy was that they were both male.
And they were both in love.
It still made him wince to admit it. He had given up trying to get over it. It was an incurable disease. Probably terminal, too. He’d almost bought a book of love poems before he caught himself. Since he couldn’t get over it, he might as well offset the misery with some of the benefits.
He could still hear her voice on the radio saying she researched her sex scenes very carefully. She looked up and saw him, her eyes widening into pleasure, sucking the air right out of his lungs. She stood up and his heart stopped beating, too. Her dress, so red it made his eyes bleed to look at her, hugged her body everywhere he had fantasized about hugging her.
Her mouth, the mouth he’d dreamed about for six, long months, widened into a smile that parted the waiting women like the Red Sea. Made it easy to walk toward her.
When only the table separated them, Dani put her hands on her hips. “Well, well. If it isn’t the lonesome lawman.”
His throat went dry with wanting her. He dumped the crap he had bought on the table. Shoved the whole thing aside, vaguely aware romance writers were scattering like startled white chickens. He stepped in close, let his hands settle on her shoulders. The relief of finally touching her almost took out his knees. He slid his arms around, pulled her in that last little space that separated them. Her head tipped back so he could see all of her face.
He took a minute to compare memory with reality. Reality was better. All the things he had rehearsed, liberally plagiarizing from her book, went right out of his head. All he could remember was that he loved her. He wanted to marry her more than he wanted to live. He wanted to make a life and babies with her. Wanted to grow old with her. He opened his mouth to say it, but all that came out was, “I give up.”
The sighs of thirty romantics ruffled Dani’s hair. She had written, then rewritten this scene every day and night since she left him standing in the airport. She’d never written it like this. This was real. Matt was real. She could see in his eyes all the things that went with his surrender.
Awed by the tender desperation in the way he held her, she touched his cheek. Because she finally could, she spread her fingers across skin, found it both soft and rough. Felt how ragged her touch made his breath, how fast it made his heart beat. Hers accelerated to keep up.
“Of course you do.”
When her smile turned cocky he had to do something about it. Her green eyes were sizzling with enough anticipation to melt rock. Fine. He could take anything the romance writer could dish out. First he was going to take care of that smile.
He bent his head and erased it.
I’d like to thank you for taking the time to read The Last Enemy. If you enjoyed it, perhaps you’ll consider leaving a review or telling a friend about it. There are two more books in the series, Byte Me and Missing You. And there’s a short story called “Lonesome Mama.”
You can find out more about the Lonesome Lawmen series and my other books, and/or sign up to hear about my new releases by visiting www.paulinebjones.com
And if you want to talk books, you can find me here:
My Blog Facebook Fan Page Twitter Google+ Pinterest Linked In Goodreads
About the Author
Pauline Baird Jones had a tough time with reality from the get-go. After “schooling” from four, yes FOUR brothers, she knew that some people needed love and others needed shooting. Pauline figured she could do both. Romantic suspense was the logical starting point, but there were more worlds to explore, more rules to break and minds to bend. She grabbed her pocket watch and time travel device and dove through the wormhole into the world of science fiction and even some Steampunk.
Now she wanders among the genres, trying a little of this and a lot of that, rampaging through her characters’ lives like Godzilla because she does love her peril (when it’s not happening to her). Never fear, she gives her characters happy endings. Well, the good characters. The bad ones get justice.
For more information about Pauline and her books, visit her website at www.paulinebjones.com
Other Books by Pauline Baird Jones
Available in print, digital and audio
Romantic Suspense
The Big Uneasy Series:
Relatively Risky (1)
Family Treed (1.5)
Lonesome Lawmen Series:
The Last Enemy
Byte Me
Missing You
Lonesome Mama (Bonus short story)
(The Lonesome Lawmen is also available as a digital bundle)
Do Wah Diddy Die
The Spy Who Kissed Me
A Dangerous Dance
Science Fiction Romance/Paranormal
Out of Time
Project Universe Series:
The Key
Girl Gone Nova
Tangled in Time
Steamrolled
Kicking Ashe
Short Story Collections
Project Enterprise: The Short Stories
The Mystery Collection
Let’s Fall in Love
Take a Chance on Me
Hide’n Go Seek
Dale Mayer
A twisted game of Hide’n Go Seek forces an unlikely alliance between a no-nonsense FBI agent and a search-and-rescue worker.
Celebrated search-and-rescue worker Kali Jordon has hidden her psychic abilities by crediting her canine partner Shiloh with the recoveries. But Kali knows the grim truth. The Sight that she inherited from her grandmother allows her to trace violent energy unerringly to victims of murder. No one knows her secret until a twisted killer challenges her to a deadly game of Hide’n Go Seek that threatens those closest to her.
Now she must rely on FBI Special Agent Grant Summers, a man who has sworn to protect her, even as he suspects there’s more to Kali and Shiloh than meets the eye. As the killer draws a tighter and tighter circle around Kali, she and Grant find there’s no place to hide from themselves.
Are her visions the key to finding the latest victim alive or will this twisted game of Hide’n Go Seek cost her…everything?
Heat Level: Sensual
Chapter One
Death shouldn’t be so greedy. Everyone came to him eventually.
Kali Jordan surveyed the wet gray rubble, her heart aching with sorrow. Three days ago this giant pile of debris had been a small but thriving Mexican town. Today it was a deathtrap.
Thunder rumbled across the mountain. She squinted at the black clouds gathering on the horizon. Already the weather and location had hampered rescue efforts with fog preventing the helicopters from landing.
The disaster site had been treacherous before the earthquake, yet if the approaching storm deluged the area as predicted, search and rescue conditions would deteriorate even more.
Rubbing her throbbing temple, she dropped her gaze to the crumpled mass of concrete and glass ahead of her. So many people missing and, as always, so little time to help them. Shiloh, her long-haired Labrador Retriever, had worked this same quadrant all morning with the concentration and focus typical of her breed. This afternoon, however, her tail drooped. Kali could relate.
Strong muscles bunched as Shiloh jumped up to another boulder. Her bright orange K-9 SAR vest stood out against the dusty gray backdrop. Even dirty, the vest was striking enough to be visible. Although Shiloh’s fur was an unusual fox red, the grime had an equalizing effect, coating everyone and everything with a uniform layer of dust.
An aftershock rattled the ground, shifting the pile under the dog’s sturdy feet. Shiloh scrabbled to stay upright.
Kali’s heart stopped for a second, her breath catching in her throat. The earth stilled. Shiloh caught her balance and kept going. Kali waited an extra moment before exhaling. She didn’t want to be here.
Many disaster sites had huge influxes of help from the global community. Many sites had organization, management of some sort, experienced people to move resources and offer assistance to the survivors. Many sites—but not this one.
Kali and Brad, along with Jarl and Jordan, another set of old hands in this game, were one of the few groups on the spot. The roads had washed out after their arrival, hampering the army’s efforts.
Right now everyone else was working on a different quadrant. Her intuition—her grandma called it the Sight—had insisted she search here. She’d learned a long time ago to listen. But that didn’t mean she liked where it sent her.
Shiloh barked.
Ignoring her headache, Kali hopped over the mess of ripped supports and roofing. Shiloh barked again, then sat on her haunches, head high. She wagged her tail, sweeping away the dirt around her.
She’d found a survivor.
Excitement bloomed. Unbelievable warmth surrounded Kali’s heart. A miracle, after three days in this heat, and one sorely needed to boost the exhausted search and rescue volunteers’ flagging optimism. A rush of adrenaline sent her surging up the next pile of rubble.
A large block shifted, tossing Kali sideways. She scrambled to recover her footing. Shiloh yipped, her version of ‘are you okay?’ Kali grinned at her when she’d righted herself.
“I’m fine, girl. Not to worry.”
Jumping onto a different cement slab, Kali climbed ever higher, to where Shiloh waited.
“Hey, Kali, what have you got?”
Turning, Kali spotted her best friend and fellow SAR member Brad, with his German Shepherd, Sergeant.
“Shiloh’s found a survivor here.” Kali reached for the next handhold.
“Really? Hang on. I’m on my way.” With his long strides, Brad covered the height differences in the piles within seconds. Sergeant passed them both as he jumped up to join Shiloh. He barked and sat on his haunches.
“Good Lord, this is great to see.” Brad’s voice brimmed with energized exhilaration. Holding out a hand, he helped Kali up and over a broken wall. “We passed that all important forty-eight-hour window this morning. I hate this stage of the search.”
“Especially here.” From her high position, Kali stared at the surrounding chaos while she caught her breath.
Both dogs whined.
Groaning, she started climbing again. Her muscles ached with tension. The rubble shifted again. “Shit,” she whispered. “It’s touch and go.”
“I know. Slow and steady. Let’s assess whether we can do this on our own or if we need to bring a crew over.”
Not that there were many crews to call.
Disorganization ruled here. Survivors scrambled in desperation to find their lost family members, along with the few volunteers who had made the trek to help. Volunteers were invaluable on disaster sites. Silent unsung heroes as they often made their own arrangements and covered their own costs in a bid to help out.
The army would probably arrive in time to organize recovery operations. Meanwhile, everyone was doing what they could at a location where just being on site was a huge risk. The ground trembled with aftershocks several times a day, shifting the wobbly debris under their feet.
Kali finally reached Shiloh. Digging into her fanny pack, she removed Shiloh’s reward, her black-and-white, well-chewed teddy bear. Shiloh gently grasped her cuddly toy before bounding to ground level where she lay down to rest, her bear tucked under her chin. Brad sent Sergeant to join her.
Peering through the helter-skelter heap of broken flooring and walls, Kali heard a faint voice. She studied the small pocket of darkness off to the left. “Hello? Is anyone there? Can you hear me?”
The tiny feminine echo bounced upwards. “Si.”
Kali let out a whoop. “It’s a child. Brad, call for help.”
Brad searched the surrounding area to see if anyone was within shouting distance. Several people scrambled toward them. He signaled for assistance then turned back to her. “A team is on the way. Does she speak English?”
She shrugged. Peering into the dark opening, Kali squinted at what appeared to be a young girl in the murky shadows. Slowly, a small face came into focus. A small hand waved up at her. “She’s pointing at her leg. Ah. I see it now. Her leg is broken just below the knee.” Kali called to the girl, “What’s your name?”
The weak high voice trembled in a new spat of Spanish.
From Kali’s poor Spanish, she thought the child said her name was Inez. She could only hope Inez was old enough to understand what had happened and not panic. Although if Kali were the one stuck in that hole, she’d be panicking plenty.
The girl stared up, fear and hope warring on her face. Kali’s heart ached. She looked so tiny. So alone. She had to be terrified. Hell, Kali was terrified.
Needing to help in some way, Kali tried to reassure the child by speaking in a calm steady voice. “Take it easy, Inez. Help is here. Don’t try to move.” The little one might not understand the words, yet the smile and easy voice would help her to relax.
A noisy hub of activity heralded the arrival of several other workers. Lilting voices flowed as singsong conversation bubbled between the suddenly animated girl and the crew. A hubbub of activity commenced. Brad grabbed Kali’s arm, pulling her out of the way.
“That’s right.” Her voice was ironic.
The look in her eyes made him want to shift in his chair and look away. His pride wouldn’t let him do either one. Did she suspect the romance writer had almost made a believer out of him? He looked down at the sheets in his hand. “What about her?”
“I’m on her Christmas card list—”
Why wasn’t he? He’d only saved her life.
“—just got this flyer from her. She’s coming back to Denver for a book signing.”
She was coming back. She’d be here. Not New Orleans.
Here. He could see her again. Yeah, and an alcoholic could walk into a bar. Didn’t make it good for him.
“On Valentine’s Day.” She held out the pink sheet. Matt eyed it for a moment before accepting it. Was it his imagination that made it smell like coconut? Too many hearts and flowers mixed in with the copy. The book was called One Near One. Under it was a quote by Robert Browning. “If two lives join, there is oft a scar. They are one and one… One near one is too far.”
In the margin next to the cover, she’d scrawled, “My publicist thinks I need to get back on this particular horse or be doomed to forever live in fear of your mile high city. She obviously doesn’t know her Kafka. My “fear”…is my substance, and probably the best part of me. But she’s the one who calls the tune, so the worst part of me is coming. Can we do lunch or cookies while I’m there?
She had signed her name and inked in an emoticon grin. Her handwriting was like her, nearly indecipherable.
Sebastian came up and read the flyer over his shoulder. “Cool. Can I come, too?”
Henry, seated at his desk, looked up. “To what?”
Sebastian explained. Henry wanted to go, too. So did Riggs. Matt couldn’t believe it. Dani brings them a box of cookies, smiles and thanks them, and they all forget how much trouble she was. Maybe Luke was right. Maybe she was a witch.
Less than six weeks until her broom landed here. Less than six weeks to figure out how not to care.
Easy. If you routinely did the impossible.
*
Valentines Day. Denver.
Dani wasn’t the only author signing books in six cities. Her publisher was calling them the Valentine’s Six Pack. By some strange twist of fate, she was the only one who chose to wear red, the others having opted for virginal white.
It was harder than she expected to land in the mile high, to walk off the plane without hoping he’d be there waiting. Happy endings paid her bills. It was a good thing her finances didn’t depend on the lonesome lawman. He wasn’t there. Caroline was.
“You don’t look like you’ve been through hell,” she had said with a broad smile after they had hugged.
“If you could see under the make-up you wouldn’t say that,” Dani had answered. There was a radio interview. She became an actress again as she assured the citizens of the city that she didn’t hold them responsible for Spook’s rampage and loved their city. When asked how she researched her sex scenes, she smiled and said, “Very carefully.”
During the drive to the mall, Dani played the part of a woman catching up with an old girlfriend. Alice met her inside. She lunched with her and all the guys—minus one—still acting at a level worthy of an Oscar nomination. Alice walked with her to the bookstore, both of them chuckling over how quickly the men sheared off, after giving Alice money to buy books for their wives and sweethearts. She was fast running out of time to ask about Matt. Decided she wouldn’t, her mother always used to tell her not to pick at wounds or they wouldn’t heal, but the words came out anyway. “So, how’s Matt and Luke?”
She endured Alice’s glance with composure, but was glad when it was over.
“I hear Luke’s dating someone. I haven’t seen Matt today, but he’s fine, too. I think he took some comp time so they could go climbing. A couple of real romantics.”
Dani smiled, shook her head over the foibles of the male sex, and in her head plotted his castration. Couldn’t even face her. The coward. She earned two Oscars signing and smiling, while cursing the cooling off period that kept her from buying a gun. She looked up to hand a woman her signed book and there he was.
Standing smack in the middle of a bevy of romantic women, holding a heart-shaped box of chocolates, a bottle of coconut perfume and a single red rose.
With a face like the storm on the mountain.
Their gazes connected like thunder on that mountain.
Dani rose to her feet, her mouth curving in a smile edged with evil. This was going to be good.
It was the hardest walk of Matt’s life. Harder than walking into a den of Uzi toting drug dealers. There were women everywhere he looked, all wearing that knowing look that made him want to swear or worse. He wasn’t a romantic guy. Didn’t want to be a romantic guy. If he hadn’t finished her book, he probably would have just waited until she was done signing and said something normal like, “Want some dinner?”
If he hadn’t read that book. Put a lot of pressure on a guy to keep up with a hero straight out of a romance writer’s brain. As far as his could tell, the only thing he had in common with the guy was that they were both male.
And they were both in love.
It still made him wince to admit it. He had given up trying to get over it. It was an incurable disease. Probably terminal, too. He’d almost bought a book of love poems before he caught himself. Since he couldn’t get over it, he might as well offset the misery with some of the benefits.
He could still hear her voice on the radio saying she researched her sex scenes very carefully. She looked up and saw him, her eyes widening into pleasure, sucking the air right out of his lungs. She stood up and his heart stopped beating, too. Her dress, so red it made his eyes bleed to look at her, hugged her body everywhere he had fantasized about hugging her.
Her mouth, the mouth he’d dreamed about for six, long months, widened into a smile that parted the waiting women like the Red Sea. Made it easy to walk toward her.
When only the table separated them, Dani put her hands on her hips. “Well, well. If it isn’t the lonesome lawman.”
His throat went dry with wanting her. He dumped the crap he had bought on the table. Shoved the whole thing aside, vaguely aware romance writers were scattering like startled white chickens. He stepped in close, let his hands settle on her shoulders. The relief of finally touching her almost took out his knees. He slid his arms around, pulled her in that last little space that separated them. Her head tipped back so he could see all of her face.
He took a minute to compare memory with reality. Reality was better. All the things he had rehearsed, liberally plagiarizing from her book, went right out of his head. All he could remember was that he loved her. He wanted to marry her more than he wanted to live. He wanted to make a life and babies with her. Wanted to grow old with her. He opened his mouth to say it, but all that came out was, “I give up.”
The sighs of thirty romantics ruffled Dani’s hair. She had written, then rewritten this scene every day and night since she left him standing in the airport. She’d never written it like this. This was real. Matt was real. She could see in his eyes all the things that went with his surrender.
Awed by the tender desperation in the way he held her, she touched his cheek. Because she finally could, she spread her fingers across skin, found it both soft and rough. Felt how ragged her touch made his breath, how fast it made his heart beat. Hers accelerated to keep up.
“Of course you do.”
When her smile turned cocky he had to do something about it. Her green eyes were sizzling with enough anticipation to melt rock. Fine. He could take anything the romance writer could dish out. First he was going to take care of that smile.
He bent his head and erased it.
I’d like to thank you for taking the time to read The Last Enemy. If you enjoyed it, perhaps you’ll consider leaving a review or telling a friend about it. There are two more books in the series, Byte Me and Missing You. And there’s a short story called “Lonesome Mama.”
You can find out more about the Lonesome Lawmen series and my other books, and/or sign up to hear about my new releases by visiting www.paulinebjones.com
And if you want to talk books, you can find me here:
My Blog Facebook Fan Page Twitter Google+ Pinterest Linked In Goodreads
About the Author
Pauline Baird Jones had a tough time with reality from the get-go. After “schooling” from four, yes FOUR brothers, she knew that some people needed love and others needed shooting. Pauline figured she could do both. Romantic suspense was the logical starting point, but there were more worlds to explore, more rules to break and minds to bend. She grabbed her pocket watch and time travel device and dove through the wormhole into the world of science fiction and even some Steampunk.
Now she wanders among the genres, trying a little of this and a lot of that, rampaging through her characters’ lives like Godzilla because she does love her peril (when it’s not happening to her). Never fear, she gives her characters happy endings. Well, the good characters. The bad ones get justice.
For more information about Pauline and her books, visit her website at www.paulinebjones.com
Other Books by Pauline Baird Jones
Available in print, digital and audio
Romantic Suspense
The Big Uneasy Series:
Relatively Risky (1)
Family Treed (1.5)
Lonesome Lawmen Series:
The Last Enemy
Byte Me
Missing You
Lonesome Mama (Bonus short story)
(The Lonesome Lawmen is also available as a digital bundle)
Do Wah Diddy Die
The Spy Who Kissed Me
A Dangerous Dance
Science Fiction Romance/Paranormal
Out of Time
Project Universe Series:
The Key
Girl Gone Nova
Tangled in Time
Steamrolled
Kicking Ashe
Short Story Collections
Project Enterprise: The Short Stories
The Mystery Collection
Let’s Fall in Love
Take a Chance on Me
Hide’n Go Seek
Dale Mayer
A twisted game of Hide’n Go Seek forces an unlikely alliance between a no-nonsense FBI agent and a search-and-rescue worker.
Celebrated search-and-rescue worker Kali Jordon has hidden her psychic abilities by crediting her canine partner Shiloh with the recoveries. But Kali knows the grim truth. The Sight that she inherited from her grandmother allows her to trace violent energy unerringly to victims of murder. No one knows her secret until a twisted killer challenges her to a deadly game of Hide’n Go Seek that threatens those closest to her.
Now she must rely on FBI Special Agent Grant Summers, a man who has sworn to protect her, even as he suspects there’s more to Kali and Shiloh than meets the eye. As the killer draws a tighter and tighter circle around Kali, she and Grant find there’s no place to hide from themselves.
Are her visions the key to finding the latest victim alive or will this twisted game of Hide’n Go Seek cost her…everything?
Heat Level: Sensual
Chapter One
Death shouldn’t be so greedy. Everyone came to him eventually.
Kali Jordan surveyed the wet gray rubble, her heart aching with sorrow. Three days ago this giant pile of debris had been a small but thriving Mexican town. Today it was a deathtrap.
Thunder rumbled across the mountain. She squinted at the black clouds gathering on the horizon. Already the weather and location had hampered rescue efforts with fog preventing the helicopters from landing.
The disaster site had been treacherous before the earthquake, yet if the approaching storm deluged the area as predicted, search and rescue conditions would deteriorate even more.
Rubbing her throbbing temple, she dropped her gaze to the crumpled mass of concrete and glass ahead of her. So many people missing and, as always, so little time to help them. Shiloh, her long-haired Labrador Retriever, had worked this same quadrant all morning with the concentration and focus typical of her breed. This afternoon, however, her tail drooped. Kali could relate.
Strong muscles bunched as Shiloh jumped up to another boulder. Her bright orange K-9 SAR vest stood out against the dusty gray backdrop. Even dirty, the vest was striking enough to be visible. Although Shiloh’s fur was an unusual fox red, the grime had an equalizing effect, coating everyone and everything with a uniform layer of dust.
An aftershock rattled the ground, shifting the pile under the dog’s sturdy feet. Shiloh scrabbled to stay upright.
Kali’s heart stopped for a second, her breath catching in her throat. The earth stilled. Shiloh caught her balance and kept going. Kali waited an extra moment before exhaling. She didn’t want to be here.
Many disaster sites had huge influxes of help from the global community. Many sites had organization, management of some sort, experienced people to move resources and offer assistance to the survivors. Many sites—but not this one.
Kali and Brad, along with Jarl and Jordan, another set of old hands in this game, were one of the few groups on the spot. The roads had washed out after their arrival, hampering the army’s efforts.
Right now everyone else was working on a different quadrant. Her intuition—her grandma called it the Sight—had insisted she search here. She’d learned a long time ago to listen. But that didn’t mean she liked where it sent her.
Shiloh barked.
Ignoring her headache, Kali hopped over the mess of ripped supports and roofing. Shiloh barked again, then sat on her haunches, head high. She wagged her tail, sweeping away the dirt around her.
She’d found a survivor.
Excitement bloomed. Unbelievable warmth surrounded Kali’s heart. A miracle, after three days in this heat, and one sorely needed to boost the exhausted search and rescue volunteers’ flagging optimism. A rush of adrenaline sent her surging up the next pile of rubble.
A large block shifted, tossing Kali sideways. She scrambled to recover her footing. Shiloh yipped, her version of ‘are you okay?’ Kali grinned at her when she’d righted herself.
“I’m fine, girl. Not to worry.”
Jumping onto a different cement slab, Kali climbed ever higher, to where Shiloh waited.
“Hey, Kali, what have you got?”
Turning, Kali spotted her best friend and fellow SAR member Brad, with his German Shepherd, Sergeant.
“Shiloh’s found a survivor here.” Kali reached for the next handhold.
“Really? Hang on. I’m on my way.” With his long strides, Brad covered the height differences in the piles within seconds. Sergeant passed them both as he jumped up to join Shiloh. He barked and sat on his haunches.
“Good Lord, this is great to see.” Brad’s voice brimmed with energized exhilaration. Holding out a hand, he helped Kali up and over a broken wall. “We passed that all important forty-eight-hour window this morning. I hate this stage of the search.”
“Especially here.” From her high position, Kali stared at the surrounding chaos while she caught her breath.
Both dogs whined.
Groaning, she started climbing again. Her muscles ached with tension. The rubble shifted again. “Shit,” she whispered. “It’s touch and go.”
“I know. Slow and steady. Let’s assess whether we can do this on our own or if we need to bring a crew over.”
Not that there were many crews to call.
Disorganization ruled here. Survivors scrambled in desperation to find their lost family members, along with the few volunteers who had made the trek to help. Volunteers were invaluable on disaster sites. Silent unsung heroes as they often made their own arrangements and covered their own costs in a bid to help out.
The army would probably arrive in time to organize recovery operations. Meanwhile, everyone was doing what they could at a location where just being on site was a huge risk. The ground trembled with aftershocks several times a day, shifting the wobbly debris under their feet.
Kali finally reached Shiloh. Digging into her fanny pack, she removed Shiloh’s reward, her black-and-white, well-chewed teddy bear. Shiloh gently grasped her cuddly toy before bounding to ground level where she lay down to rest, her bear tucked under her chin. Brad sent Sergeant to join her.
Peering through the helter-skelter heap of broken flooring and walls, Kali heard a faint voice. She studied the small pocket of darkness off to the left. “Hello? Is anyone there? Can you hear me?”
The tiny feminine echo bounced upwards. “Si.”
Kali let out a whoop. “It’s a child. Brad, call for help.”
Brad searched the surrounding area to see if anyone was within shouting distance. Several people scrambled toward them. He signaled for assistance then turned back to her. “A team is on the way. Does she speak English?”
She shrugged. Peering into the dark opening, Kali squinted at what appeared to be a young girl in the murky shadows. Slowly, a small face came into focus. A small hand waved up at her. “She’s pointing at her leg. Ah. I see it now. Her leg is broken just below the knee.” Kali called to the girl, “What’s your name?”
The weak high voice trembled in a new spat of Spanish.
From Kali’s poor Spanish, she thought the child said her name was Inez. She could only hope Inez was old enough to understand what had happened and not panic. Although if Kali were the one stuck in that hole, she’d be panicking plenty.
The girl stared up, fear and hope warring on her face. Kali’s heart ached. She looked so tiny. So alone. She had to be terrified. Hell, Kali was terrified.
Needing to help in some way, Kali tried to reassure the child by speaking in a calm steady voice. “Take it easy, Inez. Help is here. Don’t try to move.” The little one might not understand the words, yet the smile and easy voice would help her to relax.
A noisy hub of activity heralded the arrival of several other workers. Lilting voices flowed as singsong conversation bubbled between the suddenly animated girl and the crew. A hubbub of activity commenced. Brad grabbed Kali’s arm, pulling her out of the way.
