“Michael?”
His gaze darted back to Sage. “Sorry, I was distracted there a moment.” He placed the slice of bubbly pizza on her plate. “So tell me, how did you get into nursing?”
After taking a bite of pizza and wiping her lips, she sat back. “I was sick a lot as a kid. And?—”
The rest of her words were lost on him when an odd movement out the window caught his eye. In the shadows of the church tower, something shifted. He squinted, straining to see what it was. Too big to be a bird up there in the belfry.
“Is something wrong?” Sage asked.
“Ah, no. Everything’s fine. As you were saying?” Michael took his own bite of pizza but hardly tasted it for all the concentration he put forth to stay engaged in the conversation. When Sage paused her story for a drink, he allowed himself to look again across the street.
The shadow moved. That was a person.
In the locked bell tower.
And whoever it was must have a death wish, because they were perched on the ledge like they were going to jump.
Michael couldn’t let that happen.
“I’m sorry, I have to go!” He threw down his napkin and rushed out of the restaurant.
How was it that Dani found herself in a pickle in the first hour back in her hometown? She was a fully fledged special agent with the FBI now, for goodness’ sake!
But no. Here she was, hanging from the crumbling brick ledge of St. George’s bell tower, about to plummet to her death. At least her reflexes had kicked in as she’d slipped. She’d caught the edge but couldn’t get enough oomph to pull herself back up. She tried to adjust her grip, the sharp edges of the stonework cutting into her fingers and palms as she hung there. The flat soles of her Converse sneakers couldn’t find any hold to relieve the pressure on her arms.
She could see the headline now: “Special Agent Dani Kim Breaks Neck and Dies Before Her Life Can Begin.”
No.
She could do this. She looked down. What was it? Fifteen feet? Thank goodness she’d fallen on the side where the tower met the adjoined school roof and not the streetside, which would’ve been a much longer fall. If she could control her drop and roll?—
“Hey, you need to come down!” a masculine voice yelled.
Oh goody. Someone to witness her humiliation.
“What do you think I’m trying to do?” Dani yelled back.
Footsteps on the school roof sounded louder. He was getting closer. “It’s dangerous. You have to come down!”
Before she could release the sarcastic quip on her tongue, he ran over. “Oh. Uh. Wait there, I’ll grab?—”
Dani’s hand slipped. Her scream reverberated off the brick wall for the heart-stopping nanoseconds she hung in the air before landing with a thud.
But she didn’t hit the pebbled surface of the roof.
Taking stock of her situation, she breathed out a prayer of thanks. A habit more than anything else. No shooting pain, nothing broken.
She’d made it.
Probably thanks to landing on a well-formed torso. A waft of subtle amber fragrance embraced her. With her hair in her face, she couldn’t see exactly who she’d landed on, but he definitely worked out. No one had pectorals that defined without trying. Maybe this wasn’t such a disaster after all.
She blew the thick black strands out of her eyes and caught a glimpse of a chiseled jawline and long nose. The surprised expression in the velvety-brown eyes probably mirrored her own shock.
Michael Martinelli.
She scrambled to her feet.
Oh.
