Devil in Texas (Rugged and Risque 1)

“Good girl.” He let go of the material in his hand and worked his way slowly and carefully down a few rungs to get to her. He wrapped an arm around her waist and said, “Can you make it down?”

She nodded. “Having trouble breathing, though.”

“We’ll take it easy.” She could have broken a rib. Punctured a lung. And her ankle was likely broken.

They took one rung and she cried out.

“Your ankle?”

She nodded, her eyes squeezed shut.

“Jack!” Eddie called out to him. When Jack looked down, Eddie was pointing up to the window. The flames had engulfed the attic. The side of the building was starting to burn. He feared it’d be a matter of minutes before the wood gave out and the ladder went crashing through the side of the shop. With him and Liza attached to it.

“We’ve got to move, sweetheart.”

She had opened her eyes and caught the entire exchange, both verbal and mental.

“I can do this.”

Just then the fire trucks pulled up and the crew went to work on the flames, the commotion below heightening the intensity of the situation. Jack would have loved to have waited for them to reach him and Liza with their own ladder, but even the fire captain knew time was of the essence.

“You’ve got to get down from there, Jack,” he said as he climbed out of the truck, his voice deceptively calm. “Now.”

“She’s hurt,” Jack said back, but eased her down another rung, trying to hold her against his body, take as much of her weight as he could so she didn’t have to put it on her ankle.

“We’ll take care of her as soon as she’s down,” said Mitch Rockwell, one of the EMTs who’d arrived on the scene.

They continued down the ladder, one rung at a time. They’d barely made it shoulder level to the Mason brothers when Mitch grabbed hold of Liza and took her from Jack’s arms. Chris and Carl reached for him and the three fell to the ground as a portion of the building gave way and the ladder went crashing inward.

The firefighters had them on their feet in a heartbeat and out of the area. The police had moved the crowd across the street as the fire department battled the flames, which had spread to the stores on either side of Ginger’s.

When Jack was steady on his feet, his head whipped in every direction until he located Liza. She wrested herself free of Mitch’s hold on her and started to limp toward Jack.

He winced, seeing the pain in her eyes and on her face.

“Don’t walk, darlin’.”

“Okay.” She fell into his arms and he was quick to get a good grip on her.

She held him tight, wheezing and shuddering. Her leg lifted, bent at the knee, to keep her weight off her bad ankle. He held her to him, trying not to crush her, but wanting to keep her close to his body. He smoothed a hand down her hair and kissed her temple.

“You’re handy to have around,” she said against his shoulder, her voice low and raspy, her body shaking.

“Let’s try to keep the need for my sloppy rescues to a minimum, huh, darlin’?”

His heart was still beating so hard it was a wonder he didn’t go into cardiac arrest. He hadn’t allowed himself to think about how badly Liza could have been injured if he’d botched his rescue attempt. Or if he hadn’t been in the vicinity in the first place. He couldn’t stand the thought of what might have happened to her if she’d remained trapped in that burning attic.

He held her a little tighter, never wanting to let her go.

“You did great,” she assured him, her grip on him a firm one too. “But, yeah. I’d like to avoid life-threatening situations in the future.”

“Scared me,” he admitted.

“Me too.”

She stared up at him. No other words seemed to be necessary. She smiled weakly and he winked back at her.

Several minutes passed before she pulled away slightly and asked, “Where’s Ginger? Is she okay?”