by Reina Torres
“We need more men!” Seth hefted another plank and tossed it aside as another alarm began a little deeper in the mess.
“That's three,” Adam swore under his breath. Four had gone in, and three alarms had gone off, where was the fourth?
Almost as if the other men heard the thoughts in his head, they turned to look at him. He waved them back to keep going. They knew that the fourth was Roman. His PASS alarm was silent, or so far away they couldn't hear his PASS alarm. Neither one was reassuring.
#
Harper showed up after Finley had managed to get Matt to have a slice of the pizza and a gulp of milk. She stood on the porch, eyes wide, skin pale. “We should talk.”
Matt’s hand squeezed around her thumb, making her wince. “Something happened.”
Finley gasped in a breath as Harper nodded.
“Where’s Roman?”
Like a Band-Aid, the news was quick. “We don't know.”
#
Will winced with every movement, but he didn't stop going through the debris even when the EMTS tried to pull him away. Adam's look of warning went unheeded. “Cap saved my life, Adam. He pushed me out of the way! I'm staying ‘til he's out.”
Air support hadn't come, but a truck from the next town added their hoses. It was enough to put out the flames. Three PASS devices had been located, the men removed and treated and back in the search even with the bloody gash on Will’s forehead.
Now it was a race against time to find the last man on their crew.
#
Finley ended the call and looked down at the phone instead of at Matt’s expectant face.
“Did you tell them?” Matt leaned closer against her side as if he needed to keep warm. She lifted her arm and tucked him closer.
“I told them, honey.” She pressed a kiss to his forehead, “I told them about the cellar. I'm sure that they’ll find him soon and then he’ll be home.”
"Finley?" Matt climbed into her lap, his eyes fixed on her face. "How did you know?"
She set the phone down on the abandoned cushion and turned her back to the arm of the couch so she could look at him. "Your father and I were there years ago," she explained, "he drove me out to the vineyard to photograph the house for a school project. When we got there, the house looked like something out of a book about castles." The smile that touched her lips felt good. "Mr. Berger had bought the house for the woman he loved."
Matt's nose wrinkled a little and she tapped her finger at the bridge.
"But she thought it was too small. "Finley sighed and leaned back, getting lost in the story. "So Mr. Berger built up the house to almost twice the size, all by himself, hoping she'd come back and see how much he loved her."
Stifling a yawn, Matt smiled as she brushed her fingers through his hair. "Did she come back?"
Finley pulled him closer, tucking his head against her shoulder. "No, she never did as far as I know, but if Mr. Berger kept building like he did before, that house must be a monster."
Matt wrapped his arms around her, snuggling closer. "Mr. Berger sounds a lot like my dad."
Even though she wanted to laugh off the idea, Matt sounded so earnest. "What do you mean?"
"He wouldn't give up on me," he added matter-of-factly. "He'd keep waiting for me to come home, like he's been waiting for you." His eyes drifted closed.
Finley felt her heart go still in her chest and it took a minute to summon up enough of a voice to ask. "Me?"
"He always knew you'd come home," he explained. "He told me all about you, but I just didn't know what you looked like until the meeting." He rubbed the back of his hand over his eyes. "You won't give up on him, will you?"
Before she could form her answer, she felt him sag against her in boneless slumber, his warm breath on her cheek, but the question still needed an answer. When she came back to St. Helena, she'd known that Roman would be here. It wasn't that he was 'stuck' there. No, Roman 'fit' St. Helena just as much as the lush beauty and heritage fit him right back. And if she was finally going to be honest with herself, she'd come back because he was going to be here. Even if she'd come home to see him blissfully happy with half a dozen children, and a wife that looked like a supermodel, she would have been okay, because he was there.
Knowing that Roman had told his son about her, even before she'd come back to St. Helena, had left her breathless. He hadn't forgotten her. She'd left him, walked away from him, but he had kept her there. She felt an odd hole opening up in her middle. A hole that might have driven her to her knees if she'd been standing, but laying there on the couch with Matt's warm body pressed snugly up against hers, she felt the hole fill right back up again.
"Come home, Roman." The words slipped from her throat before it closed up with tears. She pressed a kiss to Matt's forehead and reached up to pull the throw blanket down over him as he slept. She had to whisper the rest of her words because she didn't have a voice left. "We're waiting for you. Just come home."
#
Adam waved in the backhoe, freshly unloaded from the Tanner Construction flatbed. He shouted out the instructions to the driver and cleared the men back from the edge, grabbing Will by the harness and making him step back to the line with the others. When the backhoe took the first bite into the rubble, he heard his own heart thundering in his chest, praying this was the answer. He looked up in the cab and saw Jack Tanner's face illuminated by the search lights. The construction boss and hometown hero had not just volunteered his equipment, he'd come to run the machine himself. Their town may be small, but the people who lived in it were bigger than life when it came to courage, and their hearts were even bigger when it came to helping someone in their hour of need.
Every scoop dragged huge pieces of charred lumber away from the structure, dumping it to the side where others had cleared away the truck and the hoses from their earlier efforts. The men were spread out around the rubble, listening intently for any signs of the PASS device, but they'd been disappointed so far.
His phone rang and he answered it without looking, recognizing Harper's ringtone.
"Hey, honey."
He smiled and tears turned his vision watery. "Hey."
"I know you haven't found him yet, but you're going to. You know that right?"
Adam heard the determination in her voice and he struggled to match it with his own. "Yeah, I know."
There was a long pause as Adam watched Jack dislodge another huge scoop of debris and slowly lift it up from the ruined structure. He let go of a breath. "You know I love you, right?"
He heard a little sob from the other end of the call. "Just as much as I love you." She sucked in a breath. "You better get back and-"
A loud crack echoed through the clearing, bouncing off of the equipment and the trees. Following that was a deep rumbling sound as if a few hundred pounds of weight suddenly tumbled down in the dark.
The high pitched and ear piercing wail of a siren was echoed back from the pit with a round of shouts from the men.
"Honey," Adam kissed the air near the phone, "I love you, but I have to go. We found him!"
#
Finley counted the minutes. It had been twenty-three since Adam's call. And three since she'd managed to get Matt to close his eyes, promising to wake him when Roman came home.
Holding a sleeping Matt against her chest, feeling his breath fan across her cheek, she counted the soft fluttering heartbeats against hers. She didn't recall her father ever holding her like this. Really, she couldn't remember her father holding her at all. He had been a bitter man long before she'd been born, or at least that's what people said when they tried to explain how he'd treated her. There had been times when she'd longed for comfort from him, but as she held Roman's son against her heart, she found her own beating in concert with his. She knew without a doubt that she was just as much in love with him as she was with his father.
She waited for panic to settle in.
She waited for the impulse to run.
Neithe
r came, and Finley closed her eyes and fell asleep with her arms protectively holding this little boy.
#
Roman heard the soft electronic blips of a machine and shook himself awake. It was a welcome change from the shrill eardrum piercing blurts from the PASS system that snuck up on him every time he closed his eyes. The white expanse above him was sadly recognizable as the ceiling tiles of St. Helena Memorial Hospital.
His hands fisting in the sheet, he tried to sit up and felt a hand on his chest. “Whoa there, Superman.”
Roman groaned and relaxed against the bed, lifting a hand to remove the oxygen mask the nurse had insisted he leave on. “At least I know I'm alive, Baudouin. They wouldn't let you in heaven.”
“Ouch.” Adam put his hand to his heart. “How do you know this isn't hell?”
With a longer breath pulled into his lungs, Roman looked around the room, and gave a nod to the doctor as he walked in. When he finally swung his eyes back to stare at Adam, he managed a weak smile. “Kathleen's not here.”
Adam cringed at the mention of Roman’s ex-wife and crossed himself. “Okay, I see your point.”
The doctor started reviewing the numbers on the equipment at Roman’s bedside. He made a notation on the clipboard and gave Roman a wink. "Dodged another bullet, Captain."
Roman relaxed into the bed as the doctor left to fill out his release paperwork. “What about Finley and Matt?” He knew his voice was a little weak, and his throat hurt like fire, but he had to know.
Adam gave him a thumbs up. “When that house of cards fell on you, I thought that was it. But Finley called to tell me about the root cellar beneath the house. A quick loan from Tanner Construction, and we started clearing away the timbers. When I heard that bitch of an alarm I nearly cried.”
“You always were a softy, Baudouin.”
Adam shrugged. “I just didn't want your job.” Nodding to the doctor he pointed at the hallway. “I'm going to go-"
"Wait." Roman tried to sit up and earned himself a raised eyebrow from the doctor. "What about Mr. Berger? Did you find... did you find him in the house?"
"No. We'll go through more of the debris once we get some sunlight, but as far as I can tell, the old man wasn't there when it went up." He pointed a finger at Roman. "You. Let the doctor check you out, so you can get home. Me? I'm going to call and let Finley know that now’s the time to run if she wants to.” He waved off Roman’s glare and disappeared into the hallway, his laughter trailing behind him.
Chapter Twelve
When the front door of his house opened, he took one look at Finley's sleep tousled hair, her half-closed eyes, and he pulled her into his arms, breathing in the scent of her hair and trying to ignore the ache in his chest.
She pressed a kiss to his shoulder, her hands smoothing over the knotted muscles in his back. “Thank God you're finally home!”
Home.
The tight grip of fear around his heart squeezed tighter for a moment and then her hands combed through his freshly washed hair and cradled the back of his head as if he might break.
A groan fell from his lips a moment before he slanted them over hers. If there was any lingering doubt over how much Finley cared for him, it fell away as soon as she leaned into him. One hand pressed hard against the back of his head, and the other splayed on his back, her fingers digging into his shoulder, he had no way to escape.
He didn't plan to try.
Having Finley held tightly in his embrace, her mouth feeding from his, he barely heard the clock on the mantle chime the early morning hour. “I'm sorry to wake-”
“Don't apologize.” She pressed a quick kiss to the strong line of his jaw and felt him relax into her touch. “You came home. That's all the matters.”
She stepped back and drew him deeper into the house. “Matt’s been waiting to see his dad.”
His hand trembled in hers as he saw his son asleep on the couch. “I wish I could let him sleep.” Roman let go of her hand and crossed the room.
As soon as Matt felt someone lift him up, his eyes flickered open. The gleeful squeal of joy nearly dropped Roman to his knees, and he ignored the pain as Matt climbed up his body like a monkey in a tree until Roman felt Matt's arms wrap around his neck, threatening to cut off the air in his lungs.
“Hey, buddy, ease up.”
But it was hard to argue with the boy, because just a few hours earlier, Roman wasn't sure he'd be able to go home. Matt’s sleepy eyes were fixed on his face, but the boy was exhausted. "Let's get you in bed." Even in the dark, Roman easily navigated around the furniture.
#
With one last lingering kiss to his son’s forehead, Roman stood and stretched, his body curving in a long muscular arc. Standing in the doorway, her back against the frame, Finley felt her mouth go dry and other parts of her weep in relief.
She placed a carefully cultivated smile on her face as he crossed the room to stand before her, but as soon as his eyes settled on her face, all pretense fell away.
Roman reached out and drew her into his exhausted embrace as they moved into the hall. Nearly swallowed by his larger frame, Finley felt his hands travel over her back, skim her waist and up her arms. They stepped into the hall as he kissed her and she sighed into his mouth as her hands climbed the broad wall of his chest, stopping only when an involuntary hiss escaped his lips, bursting against hers.
“Oh my- I'm sorry.”
She pulled her hands away, but he took her hands in his and pressed a kiss to each of her palms.
“Don't apologize,” he tugged her along toward his bedroom, “it doesn't hurt nearly as much as before.”
“Roman, wait.”
He shook his head and pulled her along, toeing off his shoes, and half-crawling onto the bed. “I just want to hold you, Fin.”
Her cheeks blushed furiously, knowing she'd been caught up in the idea of making love to him. “I thought you wanted to-”
His lips pressed against hers in a sigh. “That is definitely in the plans,” he assured her, and guided her down beside him on the bed, gathering her up into his arms, “but right now, I just need to know you're close to me.”
Kicking off her sandals, she heard the soft chime of the metal charms as they touched each other on their way to the carpeted floor. “That sounds good to me.”
Scooting as close as she could get, Finley laid her head on his shoulder and fitted their bodies together from their ribs to their knees. Hearing the rhythm of his heart beating through the wall of muscle and, based on the odd bumps she felt under his shirt, a few bandages, Finley took each breath in time with his. Smoothing a hand over his chest, she tried to soothe the driving beat of his heart.
“It's not going to work you know.”
She froze, her hand on his bound ribs. “What?”
He covered her hand with his. “Trying to get me to relax.” He placed a kiss on her fingertips and then trailed them over his lips back and forth as he continued to breath in the scent of her skin.
The subtle caress of his lips against her skin made her skin pebble as shivers rolled through her body and everything underneath heated up.
Turning on his side he brushed her hair back from her face. “Once I came to in the hospital, I focused on one thing, getting back to you and Matt.”
She didn't say a word. She waited for him to process what was in his head. She could almost see his mind working in circles over and over as if he'd gotten on the merry-go-round but couldn't seem to find a way off. If he needed to go over things a thousand times, she’d let him.
“The house wasn't anything like I remembered,” he drew in a long breath. “It was nearly double the size it was when we went there together.”
Finley hooked her fingers in the waistband of his borrowed scrubs and tugged him closer so he could share her warmth.
“I took a few of the men in, looking for any sign that Mr. Berger was there.”
Finley reached out and wiped a tear from his cheek.
“W
e'd taken in rope with us to find our way out,” he looked at her and she saw the flare of his pupils, making his eyes nearly stark black against the white, “but that was all we had. It was a labyrinth of plain walls, one identical to the others.”
She touched the sides of his face with her hands, giving him her warmth.
“I thought I heard something and went further in, but a beam cracked and fell beside me. I got Will out of the way and that's when the walls began to fall around us. I gave the order to leave, and a moment later, I think the floor collapsed.”
She reached around him, her palm pressing against the curve of his lower back, adding her heat to warm his clammy skin.
“I wasn't sure,” she whispered softly to him, “but I told Adam everything I remembered, hoping that it would help them find you.” She looked up into his eyes and blinked away her tears. “I had to do anything I could to help,” she explained, “because I need you too much.”
For a moment Roman wondered if he was still trapped under Mr. Berger’s house, flat on his back, low on oxygen. He’d had some interesting dreams down there too, but he wanted this to be real.
“I need you too much.”
But Finley Thomas didn’t need anyone.
He wanted to ask her to say it again and make sure that he wasn’t hearing things… hallucinating from brain hypoxia.
Her lips opened against his.
She groaned and he opened his mouth, letting her tongue dance over his, letting her take what she wanted and he realized oxygen wasn’t a problem anymore.
Finley was kissing him, giving him her breath, her fingers tunneling through his hair, making him harder than he’d ever been. Not because they were about to make love, they both knew that it wasn’t safe with Matt just a few doors down, but because the finest woman he’d ever known needed him.
If that didn’t give him a rush of power surging through his veins, nothing would.
He wasn’t sure who moved first, but suddenly he was looking deep into her eyes and knowing that the only falling that he would be doing from now on, was deeper in love.
