CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX #4
Nova smiled. “Yeah. I’m okay.”
“Jesus, Nova.” He pulled her against him again and pressed a kiss to her temple. “You scared the hell out of me.”
Something warm tightened around her heart.
“You’re the one who shoved me into an air duct.”
“I did not shove you.”
“You pushed.”
“I assisted.”
“That’s a very convenient distinction.”
Snow laughed softly against her hair before drawing back. “You did damn good, sweetheart.”
“I crawled through a metal tube, almost got eaten by a screw, and fell onto a pile of boxes.”
“And you got us out.”
Nova looked up at him, and the pride in his expression did something ridiculous to her chest.
“Yeah,” she said softly. “I guess I did.”
“You absolutely fucking did.”
For just a second, despite the alarms and the smoke and the fact that some psychopath was apparently trying to burn down the platform with them on it, Nova let herself enjoy the way he was looking at her.
Then a heavy boom sounded somewhere beneath them. And the floor shook.
Nova grabbed his arm as the moment disappeared instantly. “Please tell me that was something normal.”
Snow turned toward the storage-room entrance, his entire demeanor changing as he took in the smoke beginning to curl along the ceiling. It was thicker now, spreading through the room in dark gray ribbons while the alarms continued screaming throughout the platform.
“I’d love to. But we better move.”
Another boom echoed from somewhere below, louder this time, and Nova didn’t need Snow’s military experience to know that whatever was happening was getting worse quickly.
He grabbed her hand and started toward the exit.
“Come on. We need to get off this platform.”
Nova tightened her fingers around his and hurried beside him, her aching hip protesting every step. “You know, yesterday I was worried the storm was going to kill us.”
Snow glanced at her as they reached the doorway. “Your point?”
“I’d like to formally apologize to the storm. Clearly, I judged it too harshly.”
Despite everything, he barked out a laugh. “Move your ass, counselor.”
“I’m moving.”
They stepped out onto the second-level walkway and immediately encountered thicker smoke drifting up from somewhere below. The alarms were deafening out there. Snow pulled her toward the route they had used to reach the storage room, and another distant crash reverberated through the structure.
Nova stayed close to him as the platform started to come apart around them.
◆◆◆
Snow kept Nova close as they moved through the smoke, one hand wrapped tightly around hers while the other stayed slightly out in front of him, feeling his way through the haze.
He was still thinking about what she had just done.
Not because he had time to dwell on it, but because he couldn’t quite help himself.
She had crawled through a damn air duct while scared out of her mind, dropped into another room, shoved half a storage rack out of the way, and gotten him out.
She’d done all of it while still finding time to give him shit.
Fuck was he proud of her. He’d tell her later. Really tell her. When they weren’t choking on smoke and trying to outrun whatever Brett had set in motion. Right now, he just needed to get her off this platform.
“Stay with me,” he said over his shoulder.
“I’m right here.”
Snow tightened his grip on her hand anyway.
The smoke was getting worse. It stung his eyes, scratched at the back of his throat, and made it harder to see more than a few feet ahead. Somewhere below, something cracked loudly, followed by the groan of stressed metal.
That sound didn’t make him feel any better.
Knowing Brett, there was no way the bastard had started a fire and walked away. Snow would bet damn near anything the bastard had rigged the platform to blow, and the only thing he didn’t know was how much time they had left.
The stairs were ahead. Once they made it down, they would get as low as possible and go into the water. The Gulf was still rough from the storm, but Snow would take his chances with the ocean before he stayed on this platform one second longer than necessary.
Nova coughed behind him.
He glanced back and saw her pulling the collar of her shirt over her nose.
“You okay?”
“I’m fantastic.”
Snow spotted the railing for the stairs through the smoke and started toward it, already thinking about where the safest jump point would be.
Then something moved to his left, and he turned. But he was too late as something slammed into the side of his head.
Pain flooded his senses, and the floor rushed up at him.
His shoulder hit first, followed by the rest of him, and his grip on Nova’s hand disappeared. The alarms seemed to fade into the background as his vision blurred and the entire world tilted sideways.
What the hell? He tried to push himself up, but his arm gave out beneath him, refusing to hold his weight.
“Gabe!” Nova’s scream tore through the air.
But the darkness closed in faster than he could fight it.
The last thing he heard before everything disappeared was Nova screaming his name again.