Leaving. The thought brought a slight frown to her lips, halting the song she was singing. This was going to be her last night with Luc as his “wife.” Tomorrow, Jacob and Janice would be gone and with them the need for any kind of pretense.
Would Luc still want to see her after this? Would what had been started behind closed bedroom doors abruptly end, as well? She wished she knew. She’d opened her heart to him last night and now she didn’t want that to change.
But she couldn’t very well come out and talk to him about that even though she didn’t like hanging back. She’d always taken the proverbial bull by the horns rather than adopt a wait-and-see attitude. But she couldn’t ask him what the future held for them after his friends boarded the plane. That would be putting pressure on him and she knew how men were about pressure.
This was going to be frustrating as hell, she thought, but there was nothing she could do about it.
Maybe he was even glad the charade was going to be over. He’d already mentioned that he didn’t like carrying on the pretense. Another man would have used it to his benefit, to keep her in his bed.
But Luc wasn’t another man and that was why she loved him.
“What are you doing here so early?”
She didn’t jump, she realized a second after she turned around to look at Shayne in the doorway. Feeling like a person in the throes of a magical cure, she indicated the files. “I thought I’d catch up on what I left behind yesterday.”
Woman was one in a million, he thought. Shayne slipped on his lab jacket. “Remind me to thank Luc again.”
She paused, her fingers holding her place between Smythe and Smurmir. “For what?”
“For you.” He unlocked the cabinet where he kept his supply of prescription medication. “All those endless months of beating the bushes, trying to find a nurse to come up here, all I can say is, you were certainly worth waiting for.”
She’d always been a hard worker, but she’d never been one to garner praise. Maybe because she’d never been one to know how to accept it graciously. That, too, was about to change, she told herself. “You make it hard to think about leaving.”
The words froze him in his tracks. “Are you? Thinking about leaving?”
She slipped Esra Poole’s file into its place. “Well, when my internship is over, I’d have to decide if—”
Shayne didn’t let her get any further. Experience had taught him to nip things in the bud. “I’ve never resorted to bribery before, but whatever it takes to keep you here, I’ll get it for you or steal it for you. And if I can’t, Ike can. I’d ask Luc to do it since you two are closer, but if they ever created a man more honest than him, I’ve never met him.”
Not that she wasn’t about to sing his praises, but it seemed that Shayne was overlooking something very basic here. “He lied about being married.”
Shayne knew all about that. Ike had told him the circumstances surrounding the lie. Now that he thought of it, it was fortunate for all of them that Luc had lied. Otherwise, she might never have come here to them.
“That was just an unfortunate misunderstanding.” Shayne took his instruments out of the container where he sterilized them. “He did it under the influence of a few drinks too many.”
She thought of her own first foray into lovemaking with Luc. “I guess things happen when we let our guard down.”
There was something in her voice that gave Shayne pause. As private as Luc, perhaps even more so, he debated how far to venture. These were friends and the rules changed for friends.
“You know, Sydney says I have to be hit over the head with a moose before I notice the oncoming, stampeding herd. But if it’s not butting in too much, I would like to say that I’ve noticed a change in Luc lately. This charade the two of you have been caught up in seems to have taken root.”
Her brows drew together in confusion. “What do you mean?”
How did he put this? “There’s a certain spring to Luc’s step whenever you’re around.” The assessment sounded incredibly corny to his ear, but it was true.
Alison stopped filing. The edge of Jason Evers’s file wrinkled as she clutched it between her thumb and forefinger. “Do you think?”
“I think.”
And then the front door of the clinic slammed against the opposite wall as someone pushed it open. “Shayne!”
“Back here, Ike.”
Alison caught her breath when she saw him. Ike was dirty, with dust and soot on his clothes and face.
“What the hell happened to you?”
The answer wasn’t direct. “Shayne, bring your medical bag. There’s been a cave-in at the mine. At least fifteen men have been hurt and there’re still some trapped inside. I’ve sent out the alarm for every able-bodied male in the area.”
A single thought came to Alison. Luc!
Chapter Sixteen
It amazed her how quickly her heart could launch itself into her throat. Alison was at Ike’s side instantly. “Is Luc there?”
“Probably by now. I sent Yuri to get him. Yuri’s pretty shook up,” Ike told Shayne. He was talking to the latter’s back as Shayne quickly went to the medical supply cabinet and gathered together what he felt he’d need at the site. “He was supposed to go in today, but he was sleeping off a hangover in the back room when we heard about the cave-in. We figure a minor earthquake might have triggered it.”
Shayne turned around, closing his bag. “How bad is it?”
“Bad.” It was the first time Alison had ever seen a grim expression on Ike’s face and it chilled her down to the bone. “I don’t know if we can dig them all out. It looks like one of the main bracing structures just gave way. We won’t know until we clear everything and get inside. But that could be days.”
Or longer, Alison thought.
Ready to leave, Shayne looked at Alison. “Think you can handle the clinic on your own?”
Shayne’s question pulled her up short. It hadn’t occurred to her that she’d be remaining behind. The clinic wasn’t due to open for at least half an hour yet. “Couldn’t I go with you? You might need the help,” she tagged on, hoping it would sway him.
In response, Shayne glanced at Ike. Ike nodded grimly. “Couldn’t hurt.”
Shayne opened the front door for her. “All right, Alison, let’s go.”
She didn’t remember crossing the floor.
She didn’t remember the trip there, either. It was as if she was suspended above time and space. Nothing registered. All she could think of was what if somehow, something happened to Luc while he was trying to help rescue the miners. She knew he wouldn’t hang back or put his own safety above that of others. That wasn’t in his nature.
She wanted to tell him things, so many things, pour out the contents of her heart. But there was no time.
Oh, please let there be time.
She sat on the edge of her seat the entire way.
The Halliday Mine was located five miles out of the center of town. Close enough for a determined miner to walk to the Salty if his thirst was strong enough, far away enough so most of the noise involved in running a mine didn’t bother the local residents who lived in the town proper.
The scene at the mine looked like the heart of a storm. Chaos was ensuing as men were hurrying to and fro, trying their best to handle this unexpected curve that nature had thrown them. There hadn’t been a cave-in at the mine for over ten years.
More than fifteen injured men lay on the ground, made as comfortable as possible under the circumstances by their comrades. The ones who had gotten out in one piece were trying to dig out the others who hadn’t been so lucky. The cave-in had been destructively thorough, taking out the gaping mouth of the cave and reducing it to barely a leering crack.
Quickly climbing out of the vehicle, her heart pounding, Alison lost no time in looking for Luc. Ike was right behind her.
She found Luc, along with Jacob, trying to clear the entrance.
It looked almost impossible without ma
chinery to help them, but the Bobcat used to shovel large rocks away, Ike had told her, was down and inoperable.
Relief washed over her when she saw Luc. She saw surprise in his eyes. “What are you doing here? Don’t you know it’s dangerous?”
“I could say the same thing to you.”
There was no time to waste arguing. All he could do was shake his head.
“Can’t you blast them away?” Alison gestured toward the haphazard wall of rocks.
Luc raked his hand through his hair, frustrated. “Not without knowing what it’s like inside the mine. Any kind of blast might cause more cave-ins. Hennessey says the powder man’s inside.” He nodded toward the man for Ike’s benefit.
Alison looked from Ike to Luc. “Powder man?”
Ike resumed his place amid the rubble and began removing rocks. “The man who knows just what kind of a charge to use and where to put it.”
“There’s nobody else?” She couldn’t believe they’d have only one man who was knowledgeable about the process.
Luc stopped, considering. There were plenty of explosives on hand, there just wasn’t anyone to put them to use. He wiped his hands on his jeans, looking at Ike. “I might be able to do it, but I’d still need to get inside first.” He was aware of the stunned way Alison was looking at him. He couldn’t help the grin that came to his lips. “Told you I did a lot of reading.”
“Reading what?” she demanded, her heart beginning to constrict. “How to blow things up?”
“Books on how to operate a mine,” he answered.
Luc saw the worry in her eyes. He wanted to talk to her, to tell her what he’d been thinking, what he’d felt this morning, waking up and not finding her there. He wanted to tell her that all he wanted out of this world was to find her there every morning for the rest of his life. But this wasn’t the time or the place. There were men’s lives to think of first.
Later he could pour out his heart.
Ike stared at the rubble, doing a little quick calculating. “If we all work together, we can probably clear away enough rocks to get you in at least part of the way.”
Luc nodded. “That might be all it’ll take.”
What were they saying? A salvo of panic went straight to her belly. Alison grabbed Luc’s arm, commandeering his attention. “You’re not going in there?”
His eyes met hers, silently asking her to understand. “I’ve got no choice.”
She didn’t want to hear that. “Yes, you do. You’ve always got a choice.”
His voice was low, calm. The calm within the center of the storm. “Alison, what if those were your brothers trapped in there?”
She couldn’t argue with him. His point was taken. She knew she had no right to ask him not to do this. Even if their relationship was more binding, even if he was her husband and not just the man she suddenly knew she belonged with, she still had no right to have him turn his back on his conscience.
Dropping her hand, she nodded and stepped back. “If there’s a chance, you have to go,” she agreed quietly.
The next second, she felt him grab her by the shoulders and kiss her hard on the mouth.
“For luck,” he told her, already hurrying away to get the explosives he was going to need.
It was only after she’d caught her breath that she realized he’d called her Alison in front of Jacob. The latter hadn’t blinked an eye.
“You know?” she asked.
Jacob nodded. “Since this morning. He told me. Luc hates lying, always has.” There was nothing but admiration in his voice. “Great guy.”
There was no need to tell her that.
And then there was no time to say anything at all as more volunteers arrived to diligently try to clear away the rocks from where the mouth of the cave had once been.
Knowing she could be more help elsewhere, Alison turned away and hurried to find Shayne.
For the next hour, Alison moved from man to man in Shayne’s wake, doing what she could to help. There were wounds to clean and bandage, broken limbs to temporarily set and judgment calls to make as to who was going to have to be airlifted to the hospital at Anchorage and who was just going to be sent home.
She worked tirelessly, not allowing herself to focus on anything except the injured man beneath her hands. She certainly couldn’t allow herself to think about what could happen once Luc finally had clear access to the mine’s interior.
“He’s going in,” someone called.
Alison slipped and poured too much alcohol onto the cotton swab, turning it into a soggy sponge. Dropping it to the ground, she hurried away from the miner whose wound she’d been cleaning. He’d been one of the lucky ones. Three cuts and a bruise, none of which required much attention.
“I’ll be right back,” she tossed over her shoulder.
“I’ll be here.” But the miner was saying it to her back.
Oblivious, Alison flew to where all of the commotion was originating.
The men had managed to clear away enough of an opening for Luc, a flashlight and the explosives he was bringing to squeeze through. Two feet by two feet.
It didn’t seem nearly enough room to squeeze in her whole world, she thought.
Tears of panic filled her eyes. She blinked them back, determined not to cry. That was for later, when he came back to her. Without thinking, Alison clutched at Ike’s arm.
Moving it, he silently slipped his arm around her shoulders in mute encouragement.
There had to be another way, there just had to. “I’m smaller,” she heard herself saying to Ike. “I could crawl in there and—”
He knew that desperation rather than logic was goading her to make the offer. “That’s just the point. You are smaller,” Ike told her. “Too small to drag out a man, especially if he’s injured. And unless you know your way around explosives—” Defeated, she shook her head. Ike gave her shoulder a quick, reassuring squeeze. “He’s going to be all right.”
“Sure he is,” she murmured. She only wished she could believe it herself.
It was as if time stood still. Certainly her breath had, lodging itself in her lungs as she stared at the mine’s opening, willing Luc to emerge again.
Every noise, every faint rumble whether from the vicinity of the mine or not, had her heart stopping, as well. Stopping and then beating wildly. Hard enough so that she felt as if her head was spinning.
Damn it, where was he? Why hadn’t he come out by now? What if—?
She wouldn’t let herself go there.
When she finally saw someone coming out of the opening, she felt like crying out for joy. But a moment later, the joy faded. It wasn’t Luc.
“Hey, it’s Riley,” someone shouted.
The man, no more than twenty, looked visibly shaken and shaky. A woman cried out with relief as she came running toward him. Alison assumed it was his mother.
“Luc got me out,” Thomas Riley told the man who took his arm to help support him. “I was pinned under this beam. Thought I was dead for sure.”
Alison pushed forward through the clustered throng. “Where is he?”
“Back there,” Riley answered weakly. “There’re two more guys down there. Sawyer and Crenshaw. Behind some rock. Luc said he was going to give me five minutes to find my way out and then try to set a charge so that he can get to them.”
Everyone knew the risk that was implied. Unless set exactly right, there was a very good chance that none of them would be coming out. Any miscalculation could be fatal.
A fresh wave of panic clutched at her throat.
“Isn’t there anything we can do?” Alison pleaded with Ike.
Frustration clawed at him, as well. “Praying comes to mind.”
She felt so stymied, so frustrated she could scream.
She needed to be doing something, making something happen. Digging her way to him with her bare hands, not just standing and staring at the cave, not knowing if she was standing on top of Luc’s tomb.
Ike could see the
turmoil in her eyes. “Why don’t you go back and help Shayne? It’ll take your mind off this.”
It was too late for that. She shook her head. “Nothing’s going to take my mind off this,” she whispered quietly.
She stayed where she was, hoping that Shayne would understand. She couldn’t wrap her mind around anything else, except for what was happening right now beneath the ground.
Ike held her hand tightly and felt her nails sink into his flesh when the blast came. He heard her stifled cry.
Smoke belched out of the opening the miners and volunteers had cleared and they felt the ground beneath them shudder and tremble. It felt like another earthquake, a localized one.
As if possessed of a single thought, the men converged around the mouth again and began trying to clear away the remaining rocks. Alison was right there with them, taking her place beside Ike, working as fast as she could.
Drenched in fear, Alison began praying.
She prayed that that hadn’t been an earthquake and that Luc would come back to her so she could tell him what was in her heart.
Keep him safe, God, and bring him back to me.
She’d never prayed so hard in her life.
More than five minutes went by. Five minutes in which everyone was digging and no one was talking, afraid of blotting out even the smallest of sounds coming from inside the mine. Afraid of somehow missing the one telltale noise that might signal a rescue.
And then a hand pushed through the newly created opening.
Men scrambled to grasp it, while others continued dragging rocks aside.
Alison was afraid to hope. Afraid not to hope.
A minute later, covered with dust from head to foot, Luc came stumbling out half dragging one man while another followed in his wake. All three were gasping for air and coughing.
The moment he surrendered the man he was supporting to someone else, Alison launched herself at Luc. Wrapping her arms around him, she kissed his mouth hard, ignoring the dust that covered his body and the grinning stares of the men around them.
Found: His Perfect Wife Page 20
