SuddenHeat Read Free Page B

time passed and the
bathroom was cold and quiet.
    Unease trickled up her spine. “Do you think that…man will
come back?”
    “Maybe. A SWAT team should be in position soon. Then again,
it hasn’t been very long. They might not be here yet.”
    A low rumbling sound came from somewhere and then the light
from the store outside the bathroom extinguished.
    “Shit,” he said.
    “I wonder if the police turned off the lights.”
    “They might have. It could make things more difficult for
the shooter. It could also make it harder for us.”
    She drew her knees up and rested her head on her folded
forearms. “I’ll never complain about another thing again as long as we all get
out of this in one piece.” She sighed. “But I have a feeling someone won’t be
coming home tonight. The man must have killed or wounded people.”
    “But we’re going home tonight. In fact…” He drifted
off, and it immediately brought her to full attention.
    She looked over at him even though she couldn’t see him,
total darkness making her feel like they were isolated on another planet. “In fact?”
    “Before the shooting started I was going to ask you out.”
    Surprise held her silent.
    He cleared his throat. “I know. Bad timing. Forget I said
anything.”
    She’d heard the uncertainty in his voice and found it
endearing. Her tongue felt too thick, the words difficult to form. “No. I…yes.”
    “Yes?”
    “When we get out of here, let’s go somewhere and talk.
Obviously after the cops talk to us. They’ll probably have a million questions,
right?”
    “Right.”
    She rubbed the back of her neck. “After that, I’ll need to unwind.”
    “That’s good, you know.”
    “What? Unwinding?”
    “You’re keeping the good thought. We are getting out of here
in one piece, I promise.”
    She liked the conviction in his voice and suddenly she felt
one hundred percent safe, as if he’d placed a huge safety net under her.
    Her stomach growled and heat crept into her face.
    He laughed. “We’ll go out to eat.”
    She rushed into the next thought. “There’s a diner in town
that serves a wonderful breakfast twenty-four hours a day.” She refused to
imagine they wouldn’t be out of here in time for dinner. Even a late dinner.
“God, you wouldn’t think I’d be hungry at a time like this.”
    “The body reacts in strange ways when you’re in danger.”
    “It’s what I get for skipping lunch.”
    “There’s no way I’d skip lunch if I could help it. A man’s
gotta eat when he gets the chance.”
    Somehow she knew exactly why he believed it. “Survival
mode.”
    “You could say that.”
    She rubbed her arms as a cold chill crawled up from the
floor and into her body. She took a deep breath and tried to calm the
twitchiness that still flittered and skated through her muscles. “This is the
first time I’ve been in danger. But you were in Afghanistan, right?”
    “Yeah. Two tours. I’ve been back less than two weeks.”
    “Were you in dangerous situations? Wait, don’t answer. Dumb
question.”
    “No problem. Yeah, a few times there was danger.” He made a
self-deprecating sound. “Who the hell am I kidding? Afghanistan is danger. There isn’t a safe place.”
    “Anything this scary?”
    “They’re all scary.”
    She hadn’t expected him to admit it. In the back of her mind
men like the Frasier brothers had seen violence yet had become hardened by it.
“I don’t know how you do it.”
    “Training. It becomes second nature.” His voice dropped
lower, quieter. “I do it because my fellow marines rely on me to watch their
six. And I rely on them. If we’re damned lucky, we come home to our families
and friends.”
    “My father would never have said that much about it. About
being in war, I mean.” An ache started in the middle of her chest. “My mother
said he wouldn’t talk to anyone. I was too young to understand and after he
became a cop he finally…”
    She stopped and the silence grew.
    “He