“What happened to Mel, Suds, the rest?” My heart races. Am I alone?
“They’re fine. Keep talking to me, luv. Don’t fall asleep. Promise me.”
The nasty headache throbs to the point where I wish I was unconscious but he’s right. I need to stay alert, whatever it takes.
“Remember the day we met?” Smiling, I stretch out as best I can.
“How could I forget? The moment you lowered your scarf, you stole my heart. Prettiest sheila I ever saw. I knew right then I had to have you.”
“I love you.” My heart bursts with love.
“I love you, too. Standby, the blokes with the heavy lifters say we’re only five or ten minutes away.”
Engines roar, a brick topples onto my leg, and I scream. “Lucky, tell them to stop. I’m getting buried alive.”
While my heart races, he curses like mad. It’s a good thing I got oxygen or I’d hyperventilate. By the time he returns, I’ve worried myself into a full-blown panic attack.
“Get me out. Now. I can’t do this. Not one more second.”
“They’re coming in another way. You need to hang tight, luv. No worries.” My husband’s reassurances don’t fool me in the least.
I may never see the sunlight again, never be a mom, never hold my husband in my arms. “Lucky, I’m scared. Really scared.”
I pray.Hey God? I never figured I’d be one of those begging for forgiveness at the end of my life but here goes. But this prayer isn’t for me. It’s for my husband. When me and my baby are with you in heaven, he’ll be on earth, all alone. Make sure to take care of him. Deal?
Done with the big guy, I take a deep breath. “Loch? Promise me you’ll move on after I go. I need to know you won’t mourn me the rest of your life.”
My husband’s voice cracks. “Don’t talk like that. We’re going to get you out.”
Tears roll down my cheeks and I sob. “Promise me if I don’t make it, you’ll marry again, have kids, have a nice life.”
“Don’t you dare give up, Calliope James. You’re no quitter.”
“I’m so tired.” I close my eyes and when I open them there’s a small tunnel at my feet and… Oh my God, there’s blessed sunlight.
A guy in a yellow hard hat clears the building’s wreckage off my legs. When a flashlight beam fills my cave, I gulp. Holy shit, nothing is holding the shit overhead from falling.
“Mrs. James? We’re going to pull you out real slow-like. Don’t push. Don’t pull. We’ll do the work.”
“One, two...” On three, bricks scrape my back and I’m tugged out of what was to be my grave. I don’t cry out for fear they’ll stop.
Seconds later, I blink until my eyes adjust to the bright sun overhead. Two firemen help me to stand in this wide hole and fasten me onto a stretcher. Then, I’m pulled head first, up through the narrow space.
At the top, people cheer, a helicopter roars, and Lucky shouts out my name. He cups his hands to my face and kisses my dry lips. I’ve never seen him cry.
I sob, too. “It’s okay. I made it, sweetheart.”
We kiss again and when done, he wipes a filthy sleeve over his gorgeous eyes. “Fook me. I thought I lost you.”
“Never.” I still can’t tell if this is real. What if my unconscious mind has taken control and I’m dreaming.
A paramedic wraps a blood pressure cuff around my upper arm and he listens to my heartbeat with a cold stethoscope at my chest.
“We should take her to the hospital.” He starts to insert a needle into my arm but I slap his hand away.
“No, no drugs. I’m fine.”
“You need fluids, luv.” Lucky holds my hand but something is off.
