the wall. No danger there unless they suddenly regained power. Then the wire would be hot and could start a fire.
“Help!”
He stopped in his tracks. The call had been weak. Female.
“Help me!” she cried again.
He followed the sound. “Keep talking, lady. I’ll find you.”
“In here.”
Giving his shoulder to a jammed door, he pushed it open and swept the room with his flashlight. A broadcast studio, he realized, and his adrenaline kicked up a notch. Kimberly did the six o’clock local news. He ought to know. Like most of the men in Paseo del Real, he caught it as often as he could. The earthquake had struck at 6:14. It was probably 6:45 by now.
Whoever was here had been stuck for a half hour. Dangerous business.
The beam of his flashlight zeroed in on a woman with collar-length blond hair. His gut clenching, he called on all of his professional training to keep calm. Not to race in there and make matters worse.
Pressing the talk key on the mike attached to his jacket, Jay said, “I’ve got a female victim on the second floor, third door on the right. I’m going in.”
Gables’s voice warned him to be careful. His male victim was conscious and Mike was moving him to safety. He’d be back.
“Please…I’m…hurt.”
“Stay put. I’m on my way.” Jay worked his way around toppled cameras and other debris. The roof had collapsed on the far side of the room, bringing down part of the ceiling with it. A wooden beam, one of those heavy Spanish-style numbers, had fallen into the middle of things. It’d be hell to drag out of there on his own and he saw immediately that the beam was resting right across her legs.
He knelt down next to her, forcing a calmness he’d been trained to communicate but one he wasn’t feeling at all. “Hi. How’re you doing?”
“Outside of being scared to death, you mean?”
He grinned behind his visor. One tough lady—
Then he noticed her bloody face. From what he could see, there were deep lacerations on her left cheek, her creamy complexion already showing signs of discoloration.
Pulling out a sterile compress stored in the lining of his hat for this very purpose, he fought a wave of nausea as he ripped open the package. Hell, he’d seen injured people before. Dead people, too. But not Kim—every man’s dream woman.
“Looks like you’re doing a little bleeding. Let me put this compress on your wound and then we’ll see if we can get you out of here.” He placed it on her cheek and she winced but didn’t cry out. Tough. And brave. “Can you hold it in place for me?”
She nodded, watching his every move.
It didn’t take Jay long to determine he’d need help to lift the beam off Kim’s legs. He couldn’t get enough leverage with his ax. Sitting back on his haunches, he keyed the microphone—
And that’s when the second quake struck.
Instantly he grabbed his hat and placed it over Kim’s head to protect her from falling debris. He covered the rest of her slender body with his own to shield her as best he could. She felt fragile and vulnerable as more stucco and plaster rained down and the building shook on its foundation. Wood splintered and metal groaned. Sirens wailed.
Finally the ground stopped shaking. But he didn’t. A good, solid quake could give even a professional a bad case of the jitters.
“You still with me?” he asked, lifting the hat from her face.
“I wouldn’t think of leaving the party early when it’s as exciting as this.” She gave him a tremulous half smile.
He chuckled.
Over his mike, Gables said, “Jay, you okay?”
“We’re both enjoying the ride,” he replied. “But any time you can get us some help, I’m sure the lady would like to dance with somebody else for a while. She’s pinned under a beam. I’m going to need a pry bar and some extra muscle. A paramedic would be helpful, too.”
“Gotcha. Unfortunately, that last roller knocked the staircase loose. It may be a while before we can get to you.”
Jay checked on Kim. She wasn’t bleeding heavily but he was worried about her pinned legs. Loss of circulation could have serious effects. But he couldn’t do much about that at the moment.
“We’ll be here when you get here, buddy,” he said into the mike. “Just don’t take a long lunch break, okay?”
“Understood.”
Looking up at him, Kim said, “If there’s another quake, this whole building could go down. Maybe you ought to—”
“I’ve got no plans to leave the dance without you, Kim. Just relax. My buddies will get us out of here.”
“You know my name?”
“Sure. Everybody in Paseo del Real knows you.”
A little frown tugged at her forehead, though it didn’t appear to be because of pain. Probably experiencing some confusion from the trauma she’d experienced.
“Should I know you, too?”
“Probably not. But we did go to Paseo High together.”
She studied him a moment before her eyes widened—eyes the shade of the blue lupines that grew on the hillsides around Paseo del Real in spring. “Jay? Jay Tolliver?”
He grinned, pleased in spite of himself that she recognized him. “Guilty as charged.”
“Oh, my gosh—” She winced, this time from pain.
“Easy, Kim. It’s best if you lie still.”
“I know…” Her battle not to panic was bright in her eyes along with the courage it took to stay calm. He held her hand and felt it tremble. “I remember you.”
“I’m flattered.”
“You shouldn’t be—” She groaned and bit down hard on her lip.
“Let me see if I can get some of this weight off of you.” Using his ax, he worked to wedge another piece of wood under the beam. Raising it only a fraction of an inch would help. But he couldn’t get much leverage and the beam was damn heavy.
“Wait!”
Her cry stopped him.
“Why don’t we just talk till someone comes? I mean—”
“Sure.” Her lips had grown pale and that worried him. She was likely going into shock. Where the hell were his buddies? This woman was in deep trouble or would be soon enough if someone didn’t get her out of here. “So what would you like to talk about?”
“You.
