Explosions overhead. The ceiling cracking and tumbling down. Dirt and concrete plunging through the gaping holes. Fleeing. Agony in her arm and chest. The inability to breathe.
Her heart must have acted up. Hardly surprising considering they’d faced the very real possibility of being buried alive. She glanced up, relieved to find the concrete above her head intact. Rawls must have hauled her to safety. At least they didn’t have to fend off that particular danger at the moment. The first time had obviously put enough stress on her heart to trigger the tachycardia. Thank God she’d saved that last dose of Cordarone.
“Thank you,” she mumbled on a deep contented breath. The earlier crisis so dim and dreamlike, it didn’t have the power to pierce her current serenity.
“For what?”
His voice sounded closer, and she could swear something was nuzzling the top of her head.
“For getting the Cordarone into me. I would have died without it.” An unwelcome realization scratched at the contentment. She must have been totally out of it, because she didn’t remember taking that pill.
“Yeah . . . ” That odd rasp was back in his voice. “I couldn’t get to the pill. I didn’t save you. Kait did.”
“Kait?” She raised her head, trying to make out his face in the shadows surrounding them. Where were the flashlights? But then the renewed tension in his arms and the rawness to his voice distracted her. There was more to the story than he was telling her.
“She healed you.” Thickness ironed out his drawl.
“Healed? Why did I need healing?” She tried to remember. But her recollection stopped when the ceiling had given way. “What happened?” She forced the question out, even though she was pretty sure she didn’t want to know the answer.
“Your heart stopped. I couldn’t get it goin’ again.” There was a world of dark, gritty anguish in his stark reply.
My heart stopped? I died?
She shook the possibility off.
No way. I’d know if I died.
“I’m awake. Alert. So you must have gotten it going again.” She tried for a teasing tone to lighten his mood, because it was impossible to take his account of what had happened seriously. Not when she felt better than she had in—well—ever.
“I didn’t. Kait did.”
So they were back to that again, were they? Faith shook her head. “It was probably beating, just so faintly you couldn’t hear it without your stethoscope. It must have recovered on its own, given time.”
“Sure.” Pure dryness condensed the words. “I reckon all that CPR I did was just for show.”
He’d done CPR on her? Faith focused on her chest. If he’d done CPR, there should have been some lingering sense of pain. Bruising or aching. She sure as heck wouldn’t feel like she’d spent the last month at a spa.
He must have picked up on the skepticism in her silence.
His voice cooled. “Have you forgotten I’m a medic?”
“Of course I haven’t forgotten. It’s just—”
“—easier to believe I couldn’t find your heartbeat than Kait healed you?”
Well . . . pretty much.
But guilt stirred. By everyone’s account, he was a very good medic. Which made sense since he’d gone through medical school and into his third year of residency. Not to mention all those years keeping his teammates alive on the battlefield.
Against her will, common sense stirred. Someone with those kinds of credentials would know if a heart was beating. It wasn’t fair to just dismiss his opinion like that.
No wonder he hadn’t appreciated her disbelief.
“Okay. Let’s agree my heart did stop. Maybe your CPR took effect at the same time Kait arrived.” She offered the alternative tentatively.
With a snort, he picked up his pace. “Anythin’s possible.”
While he didn’t sound like he believed her new explanation, that earlier tension seeped out of his muscles.
Faith relaxed against him again. He appeared to carry her with no effort, but it wasn’t fair to let him do all the work. She was perfectly capable of walking—even if she didn’t want to. Even if she’d much rather lie here and wallow in the pleasure of his closeness and the feel of his hard, warm muscles rubbing against her body. Drown in the hot, musky scent swirling around her head.
Good lord, did the man ever feel and smell delectable.
“I’m perfectly capable of walking,” she finally forced herself to admit.
“I’m sure you are.” He stopped long enough to give her a subtle hug. “Just kick back and relax. No sense in tuckerin’ yourself out. Everyone’s waiting for us just up ahead.”
She glanced down the dusky tunnel, for the first time realizing there was a flashlight beam bouncing around up ahead—leading the way. Which explained why the area around them was dusky rather than dark. Some of the light ahead must be filtering back.
“Who’s up there?” she asked. All she could make out was a bulky shadow.
“Cosky and Kait.”
Oh . . .
Her mind shifted gears. “Was anyone hurt? Did everyone make it out of the cabins okay?”