But what didn’t happen the first time she crawled through, but was happening now that both of them were crawling through, was debris and small rock falling down onto them from the top of the hole. She could hardly breath getting through there, and Hawk’s grunts were getting louder and harder as he crawled behind her.
But Janita couldn’t even ask him if he was okay because she knew that dust-like debris would blow into her mouth. She remained silent and hurriedly got through onto the other side. She was barely out before even more debris and rocks began to fall down in sheets inside that hole.
Which caused her to panic when she got out and realized Hawk wasn’t crawling through right behind her. She got down on her knees and saw that he was stuck in that hole. She knew he was too muscular for that tight space. She knew it! She should have forbid him from going through. Her guilt overwhelmed her.
But she wasn’t so thrown that she couldn’t quickly began crawling back into that hole to help him.
And although he knew that dust could clog his system too if he spoke up, he yelled out angrily anyway. “Don’t you come back in here! You’ll get trapped! Go get help. Don’t come in here, Janita, now I mean it! Go get help!”
But she wasn’t about to heed his commands. She saw how that hole was caving. There was no time to get help. She crawled back into that hole and reached out her hand to him.
Inside, Hawk was in misery. She told him it was tight and that his big ass couldn’t fit through that small space. But he wentthrough anyway. Now he was stuck. He was in serious jeopardy. And the last thing he wanted was to jeopardize her too!
But when he saw that she wasn’t listening to him and was crawling through that space anyway, he knew it was no use trying to protect her. Her stubborn ass was going to do what she was going to do and she was coming back for him. He was more worried about her than he was about himself.
But Janita knew she was his only hope as the debris kept breaking loose and falling on him. She continued to crawl into that unsafe space and reach out her hand to him until she was close enough for him to grasp it. The rocks were breaking loose from above that hole even at a faster rate, and that dust-like debris rendered both of them nearly blind. “Grab my hand!” she yelled out to Hawk as they both were coughing from the dust. “Grab my hand!”
It took several seconds for Hawk to find her hand in the blinding dust, but he found it as the rocks began to break loose even more.
“Put your feet against the wall for leverage,” she yelled to him between her coughs. And he did as she said.
And then she began to pull his hand with all the strength she had. She put her other hand on his wrist and was pulling even harder. She was crawling backwards trying to pull him out of there. But he was barely moving.
“God help me,” she was praying as she was pulling. “God help me. Help me, please, help me!”
And in seconds he was moving a little more. And then a little more. And then, just as an avalanche of rocks broke loose and nearly tried to bury them, part of her body was out of the hole. That gave her more leverage and she pulled that big man with all she had within her. She just knew she was going to break her arms or his hands or all of the above, but she kept pulling. She fell back on her ass she was pulling so hard.
And it was enough. His final push of his own body, and her pull of his body did the trick. And he got out too.
But as soon as he got out, that hole caved all the way in.
Janita fell backwards when she finally released him. But still half-blind, he crawled right on top of her. She felt his weight immediately, but she was just overjoyed to have him safely out of there.
But it wasn’t until he pulled out his handkerchief and wiped his eyes was he able to see that he was on top of her. He was within an inch of her dust-covered face. And in that moment, even with the dust all over her, it was still the sweetest face he’d ever seen.
And what was remarkable to him, besides the incredible fact that she had risked her life for him, was how she wasn’t complaining at all. His big body was on top of her small body, and she didn’t even yelp.
But he knew it had to hurt. He wiped her eyes with his handkerchief and rolled off of her. And then they both leaned up on their elbows and looked at the hole. It was now completely caved-in. Then he looked at her. “Are you okay?” he asked her. “Did you harm yourself?”
But she was shaking her head and still staring at that cave. She hated close calls, and it didn’t get much closer.
Then after a few more moments, Hawk gathered the strength to stand up, and then he reached down, took her by her narrow waist, and stood her up too. And when he did, he was so grateful to her that he couldn’t help it. He pulled her into his arms and held her so close and so tight that it felt as if he could hold her forever.
He already knew there was something special about this young lady. He sensed it when she was at his house in L.A. She proved him right again when he was at that rehearsal hall and refused to make any excuses for what happened to hismother. But the way she was willing to risk her life for him by crawling back into what was obviously a dangerous situation did something to him. Not even seasoned bodyguards would have crawled back in when anybody could see that that hole was about to cave. They would have went for help and equipment rather than get buried alive too.
But she was willing to get buried alive, too, just on the highly unlikely chance that her little self could have pulled his big, muscle-tight body out of that tight space. His eyes squeezed shut as he held her. It took a special kind of incredible human being to risk her life on such an off-chance.
And even the way she felt in his arms felt different too. This girl of all the girls he’d ever known was the only one that did something to him.
Janita could feel his big body against her smaller frame and it did something to her too. The warmth of it was what she mainly felt. He had a loving touch. And it was a touch, she realized in that moment, that she desperately needed.
She was scared to death when she crawled out of that hole and realized he wasn’t behind her. The thought that he could die in that hole terrified her. And her terror wasn’t in the fact that his whole family would blame her, and probably all of Brackenridge too. Chief Donnally, who couldn’t stand her, might even arrest her for somehow causing his death.
But that wasn’t where her terror was coming from. It was coming from a simpler place. He was a good man. Some how she felt it when she first saw him at his house in L.A., and again in his parents’ parlor, and yet again as she sat in that car side by side with him. She had an overwhelming feeling of protectiveness about him. A good man like him was hard to find, and she felt she had to hold onto him at all costs.
Waitwhat?
Hold onto him?
