No Ordinary Day , Tate, Harley [ebook offline .TXT] 📗

the charade and take care of them both. But Tyler didn’t deserve it, even if he was a distinct pain. John rolled over and lit up the dark shaft with his phone. No emergency ladders. The closest doors were three feet up and shut tight. Unless he turned into the Hulk in the next few minutes, he needed help to escape.

He swiped the screen to read a waiting message. Klein confirmed. Bravo II compromised. Add Sanchez to your list. Current location unknown.

John frowned. He’d planned to take care of Cross and hit the road. The longer he stayed in Atlanta, the riskier the mission. If he needed to track down Gloria Sanchez… It could take days. Not ideal.

In the concrete chute of the elevator shaft, his satellite phone couldn’t transmit, but he could queue a message to send. He typed a quick response. Logistical problem. Power’s out. ETA now unknown. Sanchez will add to the timeline. Confirm necessary. He pocketed the phone and reached into his back pocket.

If he was going to pull Emma and Tyler free, he needed insurance. From his wallet, John extracted a small, folded paper. He peeled a sticker from the interior, adhering it to his thumb before rolling back onto his stomach. “I’ll lean down,” he offered to Tyler. “You grab hold and I’ll hoist you up.”

“No way, man,” Tyler balked. “I’m way too heavy. You’ll pull your shoulder out of place or something.”

“I can go last.” Emma offered. “If I help hoist you up, you can do it.”

There she goes again, helping out. John wished she would stop being so annoyingly nice. It didn’t make his job any easier. He held out his arm. “She’s right. It’s the only option unless you want to stay here.”

Tyler pried himself off the floor. “Not a chance.” He turned to Emma. “Are you sure?”

She nodded as she lowered into a half-kneel. “Use my thigh as a step.”

“It’s going to hurt.”

“If we get out of this, it won’t matter. Go on.” Emma patted her leg in encouragement.

After a moment, Tyler acquiesced. “Ready?”

“Let’s do it.” John straightened his arm as Tyler braced himself on Emma’s leg. With a heave, a garbled string of curses, and a muffled cry from Emma down in the cab, John yanked Tyler through the opening. He landed hard on John’s shoulder and it took all his willpower not to shove him away.

“Sorry.” Tyler scrambled off and almost fell back into the open cab, his foot catching on the electrical cables. He glanced up at the cavernous dark above them. “I don’t think I’ll ever take another elevator.”

John snorted. “Give it a week and you’ll be sick of the stairs.” He twisted back to the open cab and his target.

Emma stood patiently, her arms wrapped around herself, as she waited.

“Don’t worry, this won’t be that hard.” He held down his arm. “Just don’t let go.”

She reached up on her tiptoes and grasped his forearm with slender fingers. He wrapped his hand around her arm and dug in until she winced. On the count of three, he lifted, pulling her straight up and over the lip of the ceiling. She wobbled as she stood and he grabbed her hips, covertly rolling the sticker off his thumb and onto the waistband of her pants. “You can steady yourself on those cables. Worked for me.”

Emma did as instructed, practically hugging the wires as she pulled out of his grasp.

He smiled as big as he could muster. “See? Definitely easier.”

She nodded but kept holding on. “Now what?”

Now I figure out a way to ditch your friend here and finally finish my job. He pretended to care about the dust on his pants and sweater. “We pry the doors open and we’re free.”

With the experience of the first set of doors behind them, it took only a few minutes to disengage the second set. They slid open to a dark office and fractured conversations. A beam of light bounced over the ceiling and walls before landing smack in John’s face.

“Oh my gosh! Are you okay?”

He held an arm up as a shield.

“Oh, sorry.” The light lowered to reveal a middle-aged woman in a skirt suit and a reflective yellow vest.

“We’re ready to get out of here is what we are.” Tyler palmed the floor of the office and pressed himself up until he cleared the edge. “You have no idea how difficult it is to escape an elevator without the fire department. What’s going on?”

The woman answered with a question. “Which floor are you from?”

“Fifth.”

She lifted a clipboard to her face and squinted to read the words. “The laboratory? Oh, okay. For a minute I thought you might be clients. Wouldn’t that be a pickle.” She smiled at all of them. “I’m the volunteer emergency coordinator for the law firm.”

John pulled himself out of the elevator and held a hand out for Emma. “As you can see, we’re fine.”

“Aren’t you a client?” Emma asked as he lifted her free of the elevator.

“Excuse me?”

“I thought you got off on the third floor this morning.”

Damn. He flashed a tight smile. “Opposing side, actually.”

“Oh, dear. Oh, my, well—” The clipboard woman stammered, her mouth opening and closing as she ran out of words.

He held up a hand. “It’s fine. No harm done.”

“Speak for yourself!” Tyler rubbed his shoulder. “I’m going to bruise like a dropped apple.”

Emma ignored the complaint as she turned to John. “Thank you so much for helping us, John. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it.”

He hesitated for a beat before managing to smile. “Don’t mention it.”

Chapter Six

Emma

Emma couldn’t read the expression on John’s face, but she had more pressing things on her mind than his mood. Ever since the elevator stalled, all she could think about were the news reports from the morning about the sun and a potential widespread blackout. Was this it?

She stepped up to the woman with the clipboard. “Have you seen any news? Any information about what’s going on?”

The woman shook