TorC5

Nash lost his footing as the ground started to shake. A loud crash sounded behind him and he looked back in horror as the bartender merely stood staring as bottles fell all around him. “Get out of there!” Nash yelled, glad to see the guy finally realized that having a hanging glass rack overhead was not the best place to be at that moment.

He looked for Victoria then and saw that she was struggling to move away from the bar. Nash moved as quickly as he could as ceiling tiles started to crumble. “Get under the tables!” he ordered to everyone still standing.

He pulled Victoria into his arms with a sigh of relief. He kissed her forehead as he covered her head with his arm and hand. He didn’t stop moving until he had them in the doorway to a storage closet. He pressed his back against one side and his hand against the other to hold them steady. “It’s going to be okay,” he said against Victoria’s ear. “We’re going to be okay.”

He could feel her heart racing and pressed her closer. He buried his face against hers to protect them when he saw the glass rack swinging free before crashing to the ground. He knew that it hadn’t been more than a few seconds, but it felt like and eternity. It always did. When the tremor finally subsided, Nash could only hear the sound of his own breathing. The quiet afterward always struck him as more ominous than the actual quake. “Nick!” he called out to his father, then took Victoria’s face in his hands to be certain she wasn’t hurt.

“I’m okay,” she told him and received a quick kiss before they began searching the room. “I thought I saw him near the dance floor.”

Nash immediately started in the direction she indicated and found Nick a few seconds later helping a much younger lady up off of the floor. Nash heaved a sigh of relief as he caught his father’s attention. “Nick. You okay?”

“We’re fine son,” Nick assured him and waved him off.

“Joe?” Nash called out and quickly spotted his partner over by the exit where he had left him. Inger made her way over to him surprisingly steady in her spiked heels.

“Nash!” Joe called back as he moved hesitantly toward the exit. “I think the stairwell has collapsed.

His jaw dropped open in shock. Just when he was starting to think that they had survived another quake with relatively little damage, he remembered seeing Harvey and Rachel going through the exit.

* * *

Rachel groaned as she reached up to grab her head. It was throbbing violently. She dared to open her eyes, then closed them quickly when a shower of dust came down on top of her. She coughed hard, then grabbed her head, pressing her palms against her temples in an attempt to keep it from splitting open when she was forced to cough again. “Oh, I don’t think there is an aspirin big enough for this headache,” she mumbled, then opened her eyes once more.

Odd shafts of gray light made its way through the cracks of rubble. She remembered that she had just stepped out into the stairwell when the quake hit, then her heart flipped over. “Harvey!” she called out, then grabbed her head again and groaned. “Damn,” she whispered, then forced herself to listen. “Samuel!” She tried again. Nothing.

She ran her hands over her body quickly to make sure that nothing was broken, then dug in her jacket pocket for her cell phone. She groaned when she felt three separate pieces, then she searched her other pocket for her key chain. “Please work,” she whispered as she clicked on the penlight attached to the key chain. When it didn’t come on right away, she slapped it against her palm, then tried again.

She breathed a little easier when the tiny light came to life and she did a quick scan of her immediate area. “Looks like I got boxed in pretty good,” she said to herself, trying not to dwell on what could have happened or what she had yet to find as she maneuvered her way out.

As she crept over the rubble, her heart sank. Her worse fear gripped her when she found Harvey’s red beret sticking out from under a heavy slab of concrete. “No, no, no,” she whispered as she struggled to get into a better position to see underneath. When she found nothing, her entire body went limp with relief as she slid down to crouch on the rubble. Her head was swimming from the rush of adrenaline and her hands were shaking as she reached down to retrieve his beret. She clutched it to her chest as a sudden flashback from a dream assaulted her.

Rachel picked her way carefully into the abandoned building. The debris on the floor made each step a strategic placement. “Harvey.” She said his name softly, afraid to shout. It was so dark in the house she could barely see the clutter in front of her. The place looked familiar to her, but she couldn’t recall when she had been there. As she nudged aside a box to get a better footing, she saw something red roll out into a shaft of moonlight coming in through the boarded windows.

Her heart dropped when she recognized the red beret. She glanced around at the shadows, then she bent down quickly to retrieve Harvey’s beret. She used her pen light to scan the floor around her the best she could, then moved further into the house. She jumped at the sound of a gunshot, then she heard Harvey cry out in pain. Her heart was in her throat as she ignored everything in her path and followed the sounds.

She fought to control her own breathing as she pressed herself up against the dingy wall. The peeling paper and broken plaster was clawing at her clothes, keeping her from safety. Keeping her from Harvey. One quick glance into the next room and she squeezed her eyes shut at the image she received. Two men had Harvey kneeling between them, obviously facing a third still out of view. The men had to hold Harvey up because of the bullet someone just put in his leg.

“Take out the other one,” the familiar voice said and a second shot immediately fired followed by Harvey’s anguished cry as a bullet was buried in his other leg.

She knew she couldn’t wait any longer. The next bullet could kill him. She had to get him out. She drew in a deep breath, then turned into the doorway. She didn’t hesitate to take out the two men holding Harvey, but when she turned to the third, she was staring down the barrel of a gun. A gun in the hand of Samuel Chon.

“Mom! So glad you could make it.”

Rachel’s heart was in her throat and her mouth felt like cotton had been packed into it. She couldn’t move. She couldn’t speak. She was frozen to the spot. Harvey was on the floor discretely searching the two men she gunned down for weapons. She could feel her hands trembling and yet her gun remained still, pointing at her son.

“Harv was just telling me about a case file he has on me.” Samuel moved is arm quickly, transferring the laser site from Rachel to the center of Harvey’s forehead. “You would think that my own mother would have done something to protect her only son.” He took a step toward her. “I am the only one, aren’t I?”

His voice was echoing in her head. How could this be her son? How could she be in such a position to literally have to choose between her son and her soul mate? This couldn’t be happening. The grin on Samuels’ face was nothing like she had ever seen before as his eyes shifted from her to Harvey. Rachel looked down at him just in time to see Harvey raise a pistol that he had found on one of the bodies. Shots rang out in every direction and then all Rachel could hear was the sound of her own voice. “No!”

“But that didn’t happen,” she reassured herself, forcing her mind away from the vivid images. “No one was shot.” She searched her memory for a moment, struggling to recall if she heard any gunshots. “No. There were no shots,” she said a little easier.

“Rachel!”

She heaved a heavy sigh of relief when she heard Harvey calling out to her. “I’m here,” she said as loud as she dared as she scrambled to her feet. “Keep talking. I’m coming to you.” She stepped as gingerly as she could. “Is Samuel with you?”

“Yeah, he’s here,” Harvey returned as he glanced back at Samuel. “He’s pretty banged up, but he’ll live. Do you have your cell phone with you?”

“Yeah, which piece do you want?”

“Damn,” Harvey muttered, then he started to shift some of the debris when he caught a glimpse of her penlight coming through the cracks. “I’ve been looking for mine for the past ten minutes.”

Rachel hesitated for a moment. She hadn’t realized that there had been any elapsed time. “Have you been able to find a way out?”

“No, it looks like we’re pretty much boxed in.”

Samuel let out a burst of air. “How’s the claustrophobia?” he asked.

Harvey turned his small flashlight on Samuel’s face. “Considering our situation, I’d think about being a little more polite. I found my gun and yours too, I might add. I just might decide to use your body as a ladder before this is over with so I wouldn’t be too smug if I were you.”

“I’m so glad to hear the two of you are bonding,” Rachel said as she maneuvered into position. She could easily make out Harvey’s movements through the small opening. “You’re going to have to pull me through.”

Harvey grabbed her hands and pulled. Once she was on his side of the rubble, they fell into each other’s arms. “Thank God,” Harvey sighed as he held her close. “When you didn’t answer...” He couldn’t even finish the thought.

“I know,” she returned and held him tighter.

When she looked up at him, he lightly brushed her hair back from her face. “You look good in dust,” he told her.

She smiled. She couldn’t believe that, even in the aftermath of an earthquake, his touch could still cause her heart to flutter. “I thought married life was suppose to be boring.”

“I could do with a little boring.”

“You’re married?” Samuel asked in stunned disbelief. There was just enough light for him to make out the guilty looks that they exchanged. “Great. Thanks for the invite Mom,” he said sarcastically.

“You left a couple of hours earlier on a plane to who knows where,” she returned just as sarcastically. She reluctantly left the circle of Harvey’s arms. She had to see to Samuel’s injuries. Harvey’s flashlight cast an eerie glow with just enough light for her to see that blood was trickling down Samuel’s arm. “Is the cut deep?” she asked as she took his hand.

“I’m fi...” Samuel began, jerking away only to have his words cut off as a lancing pain went through is side. He leaned forward on his elbows, trying to lower his head without moving his body. The nausea nearly overwhelmed him.

Her brow furrowed when she jerked aside what was left of his shirt and saw the huge bruise at the lower left side of his back. She had barely touched him and he had nearly passed out from the pain. “Are you hurt anywhere else?” she asked as her penlight skimmed over his body to make sure that all parts were still attached.

He shook his head and she immediately went to work on the wound on his arm. “So why him?” he bit out through the pain. He needed to stay focused. He couldn’t believe his people had missed something so significant as his mother marrying a cop.

Rachel’s mouth dropped open in surprise. “Because he’s the most amazing man I’ve ever met,” she answered simply.

“Thank you dear,” Harvey said.

“You’re welcome sweetheart.” Her smile grew when she heard Samuel groan at the endearments. She knew it wasn’t going to be easy to get the two of them to talk, but she also knew that she would never have a better opportunity. They were literally a captive audience. She would have to handle things very carefully. “Any luck finding your phone?”

“Not yet,” Harvey returned, running his hands over some of the debris. “Everything is gray. I can’t tell anything apart.”

Samuel looked up at him with hate in his heart. The fact that he was half Asian and half American had made him an outcast in both regions. “Is that your way of saying that we all look the same to you?”

Harvey’s flashlight was back on Samuel’s face. “Do you really want a piece of me?” he asked with a surprisingly calm voice.

Rachel jerked the makeshift bandage tight around Samuel’s arm to stop the bleeding and received a yelp that ended the argument. “I sure hope someone finds us soon or we’ll be drowning in testosterone before long.” That accomplished, she stood to help Harvey hunt for his cell phone.

Harvey caught the hint and he was willing to play nice for her sake. “How is he?”

Rachel sighed as she studied Samuel’s pain-ridden face. “The cut is minor, but the bruise on his back concerns me.” She looked up at Harvey. “It could be internal.” She knew that he would understand her cryptic response. If any of Samuel’s internal organs were damaged, they were fighting against the clock. “Any ideas on how to get out of here?” Rachel asked, fighting once more not to think of what could happen.

He knew that she was scared, just as he knew that she would stay strong. “Well. We could always use the wire from your earrings and make a ladder,” Harvey suggested.

Rachel slapped his shoulder and a dust cloud billowed around them.

* * *

Nash stood by the gaping hole that use to be the stairwell and stared down at the rubble with a sinking heart. It had been nearly half an hour since they had contacted emergency services to get them down from their third floor prison. “Nothing like walls of air,” Nash said absently to Joe as he stood next to him.

“That’s probably what Harv is thinking right about now,” he returned. Having been trapped with Harvey on more than one occasion, he had experienced his claustrophobia first hand. It was almost contagious. “You couldn’t reach them on the cell?”

Nash shook his head. “I keep getting the out of service message. How’s Lucia?”

“She’s fine.” Joe smiled at the thought of his daughter. “Ulla said that she didn’t even wake up. That kid sleeps like a rock. Ulla’s freaking out, though.” Joe’s grin grew. “She’s insisting on going back to Sweden.”

He managed to work up a smile. “Leave it to Mother Nature to get rid of mother-in-law,” he joked. “How’s Inger taking it?”

Joe’s jubilee fell away. “She’s trying to talk her out of it, of course.”

Nash jumped, grabbing for his cell phone when it started to ring. “Nash.”

“Daddy, it’s me,” Cassidy said as she sat behind the wheel of her car. “I’m with the ladder truck now. They are on the way, but got stopped by some downed power lines. They should be there in ten.”

“Finally. Thanks Cass. You sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah. I’m on my way over to Ingleside if you don’t need me. They’re having problems with getting enough people to work the quake site.”

“We’ve got most of the SIU here, so as soon as that ladder truck gets here, this place will be flooded with cops. Just be careful.”

“You too Daddy.”

Nash flipped his cell phone closed only to have it ring seconds later. “Send some of our people over to Ingleside when we get out of here,” he told Joe before answering the phone. “Nash.”

“Nashman, it’s Harv.”

“Harv!” He let out a sigh of relief. “Are you okay? We’ve been trying to reach you for the last 45 minutes.”

“We had to piece both of our phones together to get one to work,” he explained. “I don’t know how long this is going to hold up. Rachel and I are both fine, but Samuel is going to need to get to the hospital pretty quick. He’s got some major bruising on his lower back and Rachel’s having a hard time keeping him awake.”

“Does she think it his kidney?”

“She won’t even venture a guess, man. Hey, would you mind putting a call into my house to check on Jerry? I don’t think that we will be able to dial out of this thing again.”

“Joe already took care of that. Robin said that Jerry and the house are both fine and that she would stay until you could get there.”

Harvey let out a sigh. “Thanks man. That’s a load off my mind.”

Nash looked down at the pile of rubble that was the stairwell. “It looks like a good section of the roof over the stairwell has broken apart. Are you getting any air down there? Or light?”

“We can see some moonlight squeezing through, but not much. Air’s not a primary concern.” He wiped at his sweating brow. “For the most part anyway.”

“Hang in there bubba,” Nash encouraged him. “We’ve already got a rescue team on the way and we’ll get you out as soon as possible.”

* * *

Rachel’s eyes darted between Samuel and Harvey. The tension continued to build as they baited each other. The fact that Samuel’s company was the source of a major supply of OxyContin hitting the street was the fodder for the current argument. She wanted to play mediator, but the antagonism between the two men had roused Samuel. She knew that he was getting weaker, but he was fighting.

“Do you really think I would be stupid enough to use my own password?” Samuel asked Harvey.

“Considering the fact that you walked into a room filled with cops earlier tonight, I’d say stupidity is a good option.”

“I just found out about it myself.”

“Your people must really be slipping,” Harvey shot back. “It’s bad enough they didn’t know about the wedding, but to have your password intercepted and used to commit a felony only to find out about it weeks later?” He clicked his tongue.

“Apparently I’m not always the last to get the picture,” Samuel retorted.

“That’s one box you do not want to open, Pandora.”

“Wait a minute.” Rachel interrupted the conversation. She wasn’t sure if it was her pounding headache or not, but the conversation seemed to be veering off course and she needed some clarity. “Is the OxyContin thing the reason you were holding guns on each other or is there something else?” she asked. Her eyes continued to dart between them as they gave each other a long look, then both turned away. “Okay, why do I have the feeling that the two of you know something that I don’t?”

“Harvey!”

Harvey was on his feet at the muffled sound of Nash’s voice. “Nash!” He darted his flashlight around in the hopes to see someone breaking through.

“We’re trying to get a fix on exactly where you are.”

Harvey followed the sound of Nash’s voice, then the sound of a hammer tapping against metal to give him a guide. “It sounds like we’re just south of you. Rachel doesn’t want to move Samuel unless it’s to put him on a litter, so nothing spectacular in the way of entries, but we’re clear.”

“It would be advisable to cover up if you can. We’ll see you in a few.”

Harvey looked over at Rachel as the distinctive sound of a chainsaw revving could be heard. Harvey and Rachel both slipped off their jackets and formed a cover over Samuel’s head, then waited.

* * *