30 Seconds (10 page)

“Danielle, come quick,” her younger sister shouted. “You have to see what pulled up in front of the house.”

Curious, Dani left her room. When she stepped into the living room, three gasps hit her at once—one from her mother, one from her father, and one from Ashlynn, who had been staring out the window. She twirled for them, receiving applause and words of praise.

“Come here,” Ashlynn beckoned her to the window. “You have to see this. He sent you a limo!”

Dani’s jaw dropped. Sure enough, a black limo was out front. When she told Blake she wanted a Cinderella experience, he promised she’d have one. The limo was her carriage and it was going to whisk her to the ball where Prince Blake would be waiting for her.

“Come on, Danielle,” her mom called. “I want to get a picture of you outside.”

She walked carefully across the lawn, trying to keep her heels from digging into the grass. She stood in front of an oak tree and smiled so her mom could take a picture of her, to document this monumental moment of her adolescent life.

After she hugged everyone, she slipped into the back of the limo. She fiddled with her fingers nervously, thinking about Blake, and saw the semi seconds before it slammed into the limo.

****

Pain shot through every bone and muscle in her body as she was jerked back to the present. The yearbook fell out of her hands and hit the desk with a loud bang. She clamped her hand over her mouth as tears flowed from her eyes.

“Everyone called you Elle in high school.”

Dani’s head jerked up. Blake was standing in the doorway wearing his uniform and his utility belt. “I thought your name and hair was a coincidence then I started to piece it together after you told me about the car accident. I didn’t want to believe it but…” He glanced down at the yearbook. “It’s hard to deny it when the evidence is right there.”

He stepped closer to her. “Dani…” He reached out to her, took her arms, and rubbed them. “We met in twelfth grade English class and started dating in October.”

She closed her eyes, squeezing out fat tears, and drew in a shaky breath, “I remember everything. Everything I had forgotten about my senior year, prom night…” She opened her eyes and looked deep into his hopeful gaze. “You. I remember you. I remember the first movie we saw together was a horror film. I remember our first kiss was in your car. I remember I gave you my virginity and you were so sweet and thoughtful the whole time. I remember prom night, and being so nervous as the limo brought me to you.”

“Being a doctor, I don’t believe in miracles as a rule. Sometimes I don’t even believe in fate, but this is both.”

Blake kissed the top of her head. “Yes, it is,” he agreed.

“I have something for you from that night. Stay here.” She hurried into the bedroom and reached under the bed. “My mother took this picture of me before I left. I had completely forgotten about it,” she told him when she came back and held out the old photo.

He took it. “You were gorgeous.”

“You can have it.”

“Thank you.”

“And since we never got to dance at the prom.” She turned on the radio. A rock ballad was playing. “Now we can finally have our dance.”

Blake set the photo down, took off his utility belt, and draped it over his desk. “We’re going to have many, many dances to make up for the ones we missed that night,” he promised, as he took her into his arms.

The music throbbed and the lyrics aroused Dani. Her lips began a tasting tour along Blake’s jaw and down his throat where her tongue teased his Adam’s apple. Her hands roamed over his back. She tugged his shirt from his hips, unbuttoned it, and stripped it from his shoulders. He pulled his undershirt off to let her hands roam up his chest. She looped her arms around his neck and brought her mouth to his shoulder. Her teeth scrapped seductively over his muscles.

“I want you,” she breathed against his skin. “All of you. Forever.”

He cradled her in his arms. “Always,” he vowed and kissed her so deeply her soul sighed.

An hour later, they lay in each other’s arms, their bodies’ slick with sweet-lovemaking sweat. When her heart calmed, Dani spoke, “I think I love you more now than I would have if my accident had never happened.”

Blake’s arms tightened around her. “So do I.”

She nestled against him “I want to make dinner for you tomorrow.”

“You’ve made dinner for me plenty of times,” he reminded her.

“Not a special dinner. There’s going to be wine, music, and candlelight. And I am going to wear a dress.” She smiled thinking about the icy-blue dress and matching high heels. She had never worn them before, never had any reason to, but she did now.

“But you can’t be late.”

“I won’t.” He kissed her temple. “I promise.”

****

Dani spent all day preparing for the dinner. She set the table with white candles, linen napkins, and silverware. It took her hours to select the music before finally settling on Phil Collins. She poured over the cookbooks she found in his kitchen, scrounged in every cabinet for the ingredients to make her dinner, and slaved in front of the hot stove.

As the peach cobbler baked, she soaked in a bath, bubbles up to her neck, and then slathered on rich cream from toes to earlobes. Back in the kitchen, wearing Blake’s robe, she continued to cook. With the steaks marinating in a beer and brown sugar marinade, she did her hair and makeup. She applied a bit of blush to her cheeks, swept mascara over her eyelashes, and smacked on lipstick.

Trying to stay away from the heat, she pan-fried the steaks to a perfect medium-rare, slid them onto white plates, and covered them to keep them warm. She carried all the dishes to the table then hurried upstairs to finish getting ready. She checked her makeup, making sure her mascara hadn’t run down her face, spritzed perfume on her wrists and the backs of her knees, slipped on the silk dress, fastened her feet into the two-inch heels, and slung her grandmother’s pearls around her neck.

Happy, excited, and feeling beautiful, she descended the stairs and sat at the table to wait for Blake.

Chapter Ten

The candles had burned down to little stubs of hot wax. The flames flickered. In another minute they’d be out. The steaks were cold and hard. Inside the gravy boat, the gravy had a thick, dark layer of skin over it. The asparagus was wilted, the seasoned and diced new potatoes were shriveled, and the peach cobbler had dried.

With her shoulders hunched over her plate and her temple resting on her fist, she imagined punching Blake the moment she saw him.

The candle closest to her sputtered and died. With a sigh, she bent over, released her screaming feet from the killer heels, and chucked them, one at a time, across the room. Getting up slowly, she looked down at the deep wrinkles in her silk dress. She clenched her teeth as she grabbed the plate with the steaks on them and walked into the kitchen, turning on all the lights as she went.

In the kitchen, she dumped the untouched steaks in the trashcan. On her way back to the dining room, she snatched her jacket off the couch and tugged it on over her dress, hiding the long string of pearls. She continued to the dining room, her bare feet padding on the cold tile. When she picked up the cobbler, wanting to spoon it into the garbage disposal, all the lights went out and the music died.

She looked about blindly. The last time she had looked at the clock, it was just after ten p.m. and the moon was behind a thick layer of snow clouds. She set the cobbler back on the table and made her way across the room using her hands and feet to guide her. After a moment, she found the entrance to the dining room and moved along the wall, searching for the gun Blake always left for her. Her body bumped into the stand and her hands snatched up the gun.

A bang sounded behind her. She spun about, pointing the gun at the front door. Her heart beat against her breast as though it were a punching bag.

What’s happening? Why is the electricity off and what was that noise?
She held her breath in her lungs when she heard the sound of a shotgun being pumped on the other side of the door. She backed away. She knew what a shotgun could do to someone’s body; she had seen it many times in the E.R. But, if she had to run, she knew she wouldn’t get far. She was bare foot, in a long dress, and couldn’t see a damned thing. Her one hope was the gun growing hot in her sweaty grip. If the door opened, she wouldn’t run. She would shoot!

She took another step and backed into a solid body. A firm hand clamped over her mouth before she could scream, and a strong arm held her still.

“Don’t fight,” Blake told her. “The Mob cut the power line. They’re outside planning on ambushing the house. My men are in the woods, waiting to ambush them.”

She put her hand on his wrist and pulled it from her mouth. “What if they know your men are in the woods,” she whispered, “and they have their own men in the woods ready to ambush yours?”

“We have plenty of back up.” His words conjured a picture of a blood bath in Dani’s mind as he took her hand and pulled her toward the back door. “I need to get you out of here
now
.”

Right at that moment, the sliding glass door exploded. Blake shoved her to the floor and covered her with his body. Glass shards showered over them, but Blake didn’t waste any time. He jumped to his feet, lifted her over the glass, and rushed her up the stairs where he yanked the attic door open.

She turned to him. He was in all black. Even his forehead, cheeks, and nose were black. He had on green goggles to see in the dark, and weapons up and down his body.

“Go up to the attic and hide,” he told her. “Stay there until I come and get you.”

She didn’t budge.

“What are you waiting for? Go!” She turned to climb up but he forced her around, pulled her close, and kissed her hard. “I don’t want to lose you again.”

“You won’t lose me,” she promised.

Their lips collided. It scared her to think this could be the last time they’d kiss, and she hated it felt that way. She let go of Blake, crawled up to the attic, and looked at him over the edge. “Don’t you dare get shot.”

He gave her a lopsided grin. “Yes, ma’am.” He picked up the ladder. “I’ll be back for you.” Dani nodded and he shut the attic door, casting her into darkness. While she waited for her eyes to adjust, she listened to the gun battle outside. She didn’t want to be up there when a war was going on between police officers and mobsters, especially since one of those cops was her man.

She balanced herself on the wooden beams and inched her way to the back of the attic to a little window. She peered out the dusty glass at the sparks below.

Please, don’t let any of those bullets hit Blake
, she prayed.
Please, don’t take him away from me. Please—

The sound of the front door being broken down paralyzed her prayers. Her heart shot up to her throat when she heard heavy boots stomp up the stairs to the second floor.

“I know you’re in here, Dani!” Her breath hitched. “And I know your boyfriend is one of those filthy pigs out there.” Dani’s heart sank like the Titanic. “When I find you, I’ll find him.”

A loud crash collided against her eardrums. Red and his minnows were ransacking the place while they searched for her. It wouldn’t be long before they got smart and headed up to the attic. She lifted up sheets of insulation. Carefully, she braced her hands on the beams and stretched herself between the last two-by-four and the wall. She grabbed a clump of insulation and covered her feet with it. The pink fluff reached her knees when the stampede started up the stairs. She paused, waited for the sound of breaking glass to resume, and draped her thighs with another layer of pink fluff.

They were destroying Blake’s room. Glass shattered. She heard loud thuds and splintering wood. She pictured Red kicking open the closet door and flipping the mattress off the bed frame. She lay flat on her back and covered her jittery stomach and aching chest with attic camouflage. The thumps of heavy boots grew louder.

“Dani!” A loud crash sounded. “Dani!” Red’s angry voice was beneath the attic. “Dani!”

She took a deep breath before hiding her face in the insulation. As Red pulled down the attic door, she slid her arms beneath her pink blanket. With each thud up the attic steps, her body tensed. Every muscle in her body cramped, her lungs shut down. She held every fiber of her being perfectly still, despite her urge to scratchy her itchy skin.

“Dani!” Red’s voice bounced off the walls of the attic. After a moment of silence, the small window above her blew out with a deafening bang. Her spine jerked in fear, but she stayed down.

“She’s not up here,” Red barked down to his men. “Go outside and start looking for her. Kill every damn police officer you see.”

She listened to his retreat down the ladder and the slam of the attic door. Tearing the insulation off her face, she took a deep breath and rubbed her tickling nose. Deep in her nostrils a tornado whirled. She plugged her nose. If she sneezed, she would take the gun in her hand and shoot herself with it. She’d be damned if she let a sneeze get herself killed. Thankfully, the windy storm in her nostrils died. She released her nose, satisfied it wouldn’t betray her, and sat up. The thin board beneath her body released a loud creak from its wooden throat. She froze. Even her blood felt like it became ice.

Pink fluff exploded into the air beside her from a shotgun blast. She screamed and sprang onto the two-by-four to see a gaping hole in the middle of the ceiling where she had been lying. The sound of the shotgun being reloaded with shells pushed her out the window.