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Every limb in her body went ice cold. They wanted her to climb through an elevator shaft?
“I’ll be right behind you,” Alex said quietly. “It’s mind over matter, Isabel.”
Yes, but she didn’t have a mind left! Her legs started to shake; her breath came in short, frantic bursts. “But what if—”
Alex took her hands in his, wrapping his fingers around hers. “There is no ‘what if.’ We’re going to climb out of here and it’s all going to be over, okay?”
She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, absorbing the quiet confidence in his voice, the warmth of his hands around hers. “You’ll stay right behind me?”
He nodded.
“Okay.” She pulled in another big breath and let go of his hands with a decisive movement. “Let’s do it.”
The technician strapped the other harness around Alex. Then they started up the ladder, Alex following Izzie. Her legs were shaking so hard she had to inject every bit of concentration she possessed into each step, her hands clutching the side of the ladder for balance.
“One step at a time,” Alex murmured, anchoring his hands firmly around her hips to steady her. “You’re doing great.”
She didn’t feel great. Her heart was in her mouth, acid stung the back of her throat in the very real threat she might throw up, and she felt as if she was going to collapse in a puddle.
She forced herself to keep moving, her slow climb taking her up to where the ladder emerged from the car. She looked down. Gasped at the endless plunge into darkness.
“Don’t look down,” the technician said, turning around. “Keep going.”
But her legs wouldn’t move. “I can’t,” she whispered. “My legs, they—they’re shaking so much I’m afraid I’ll—”
Alex stepped up on the ladder behind her, his hands digging into her waist. “You can do this,” he insisted firmly. “I’m right here and I’m not letting go. Just put one foot in front of the other and we’ll be out of here in a minute.”
The heat of his hands penetrated the thin cotton of her dress. Sank into her skin, warming her. Grounding her. “Mind over matter, Isabel,” he whispered, his hands tightening. “Move with me.”
She gritted her teeth and forced herself to focus on the strength of his hands around her waist. He would not let her fall. He would keep her safe...
She started climbing again, focusing only on putting one foot in front of the other as they emerged from the elevator, walked across the top of it and climbed the ladder toward the floor above. Step up, make sure her foot was securely on the rung, bring the other foot up. Repeat. She said it over and over again in her head as she did it, Alex’s hands never leaving her waist. And then, someone was reaching down and grasping her by the arms and lifting her to solid ground.
Alex stepped up behind her, the look of grim relief on his face making her knees go weak. “You okay?”
She nodded. Swayed as her shaking knees turned to mush. He closed his arms around her and pulled her close, his chin coming down on top of her head. “It’s okay,” he murmured into her hair. “It’s over.”
Izzie had the strange feeling that once here, she might never want to leave. She buried her face in the rock-solid wall of his chest, her limbs shaking so hard she wondered if they’d ever stop.
“The paramedics are downstairs in the lobby, waiting to check you out,” the burly rescuer said. “Sorry to say, the generator’s still out, so you’ll have to take the stairs.”
Since Izzie never intended to get on another elevator in her life, that was just fine with her. But by the time they’d descended twenty-three flights of stairs and she’d gotten thoroughly poked and prodded by a young medic she was done.
“How many fingers am I holding up?” the medic asked, sticking up four.
She waved her hand at him. “I’m good, really. I hardly bumped it at all.”
“It was a hard knock,” Alex interjected, holding his cell phone away from his ear. “Let him do his job.”
Izzie made a face. “Four,” she sighed. “And I’m not seeing double...no halos, nothing...”
“Any dizziness?” he asked patiently.
“No.”
“Okay, I think you’re fine.” He started packing up his kit. “But you should be watched for the next twenty-four hours to make sure you haven’t suffered any kind of internal issues.”
Izzie nodded. “No problem. I’m going to rebook myself on another flight to the States tonight so there’ll be a whole planeload full of people ready to catch me if I keel over.”
The medic frowned. “Flying isn’t the best idea after an injury like that.”
She shrugged. “I have no choice.”
He gave her a long look. “Do you have someone in London you can stay with if that flight doesn’t happen? Otherwise we can admit you to the hospital overnight for observation.”
She blanched. Spending the night in the hospital wasn’t an option. She had to get a flight. “I do,” she lied. “Thanks so much for your help.”
Alex was still on the phone when she picked up her bag and walked over to him. He held the phone to one side. “We can’t get a flight to the States tonight. Give me your ticket and I’ll have my assistant rebook you on something tomorrow morning.”
Tomorrow? “There must be a flight tonight...a red-eye? I’ll take a red-eye...”
He scowled. “By no flights, I mean no flights, Isabel.”
Oh. She bit her lip, frantically sifting through the alternatives, but coming up with none. “Can you see if she can make it as early as possible tomorrow?” she asked, dragging her ticket out of her purse and handing it to him. “I have that interview in the morning.”
He nodded, took the ticket and started rattling off the information into the phone. She left him to it, collapsing into one of the sterile-looking leather lobby chairs. If she caught a super early flight tomorrow she had a shot at making the interview, given the time difference. But she wasn’t even sure overseas flights left that early in the morning. In fact she was pretty sure they didn’t.
She swallowed hard and removed her fingernail from her mouth before she mangled it. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. What she’d been obsessively working toward for the past four years, coming into the studio at eight when most reporters didn’t amble in until their 10:00 a.m. editorial meeting and working well past when most had left. She, a single girl in New York, had no personal life. Her job was her life. Which was fine, because dating was like some type of ancient torture for her, and in ten years she’d have a flourishing career to point to rather than a series of America’s worst matchmaking stories.
Her stomach dropped. She just hadn’t expected to be taking her big leap now.
An audition for an anchor job in the most high-pressure media market in the country was a daunting task for even the most experienced reporter. Ten times so for someone like Izzie, who tended to burn out like the brightest star when the stakes were the highest.
Been there, done that. She squeezed her eyes shut. She was not that Izzie anymore—the terrified, unsure eighteen-year-old who’d walked into that audition and blown the biggest opportunity of her life. She would not go back there. Ever. Particularly not when today, facing her mortality, she’d suddenly had a crystal-clear vision of how short life could be.
A shaky sigh escaped her as she leaned back into the smooth leather. What was she doing, anyway? If those emergency brakes hadn’t deployed, she and Alex would have been smashed to smithereens. Worrying about a job was just nuts! But to be fair, she’d spent her whole life worrying. On a low, chronic level that couldn’t be good for a person. About keeping her job. About how she looked. About what the future held. And right now, that seemed like a very, very stupid way to live.
Alex dropped down in the chair beside her. “You okay?”
She nodded, her brain settling into an oddly lucid state. “Actually,” she said slowly, “I am.”
He gave her a long look as if he was trying to decide if she’d lost it. Then handed her ticket back with some scribbles on it. “The best Grace could do was an eleven-thirty tomorrow morning.”
She did the calculation in her head. If she left here at eleven-thirty, she’d land in New York around one-thirty. Maybe, just maybe, James could get the execs to stay later.
“Thank you,” she murmured, sliding the ticket into her purse.
“No problem.” His gaze sharpened on her face. “What did the paramedic say?”
“He says I’m fine...just to keep an eye on my head.”
“You mean have someone keep an eye on you,” he corrected. “For at least twenty-four hours probably. Any of those girlfriends of yours live in London?”
She shook her head. “I’m sure I’m fine. I’ll just book a hotel, get a good night’s sleep and it’ll all be good.”
His dark brows slanted together. “You don’t fool around with a head injury, Isabel. It’s serious stuff.”
“I don’t have a head injury. I have a bump on my head.”
He gave her a dark look and raked his hand through his hair. “Give me a second. I’m going to see if I can find a nurse or someone who can keep an eye on you.”
