looked uncomfortable. Why? Was she about to snow him, saying something about how busy this missing doctor was or something equally as unacceptable?
“Stuck,” the nurse responded.
“Stuck where? In some paper-pushing meeting?” he asked contemptuously. He was ready either to demand another doctor or ask where the meeting was so that he could go there and speak with this so-called “really excellent physician” as his grandmother’s doctor had called this person. And then carry the man back if need be.
“No, in an elevator,” Estelle corrected. “Maintenance just called to tell me that she had set off an alarm because she was stuck in an elevator.”
So that was what all the noise earlier had been about. Why wasn’t anyone doing anything about it? “Get her unstuck.”
Estelle shook her head. “Not that simple. They just told me that they can’t get a repairman here for at least another hour. Maybe more.” The answer, she could see, was not the one he wanted. “Between the flu and cutbacks, it’s like the whole world is shorthanded,” she explained, obviously far from happy about the state of affairs herself.
Another hour spent waiting was unacceptable. Especially the “maybe more” part. There had to be something that could be done. It took him less than a minute to think about it. Cole was accustomed to taking matters into his own hands. G had raised him that way.
“Where’s the elevator now?” he asked.
“They said it’s stuck between the third and fourth floor.”
“Show me which one it is,” he instructed. There was no room for argument.
Estelle looked at the police detective uncertainly. Then, compelled by the no-nonsense expression on his face, she rose to her feet. She didn’t have to be told that this was not a man people said no to.
“This way.”
It surprised Nika how fast the temperature could rise within the enclosed elevator car. She’d already taken off her lab coat and unbuttoned her blouse as far as she could and still remain decent for the repairman when—and if—he showed up.
She was grateful that she wasn’t overly claustrophobic, but this little incident could definitely send her in that direction. Growing increasingly restless, Nika raised her eyes to the ceiling. In between the two waning fluorescent lights there was what looked to be a trapdoor.
Was it a way out?
Not that it did her any good, she thought darkly. She had nothing to stand on in order to access it. Not even if she stood up on her toes. At her tallest, she measured five foot six, the ceiling was at least a good foot and a half above her, if not more.
Nika continued looking up at the trapdoor. That had to be what it was. What other use could it have? If she jumped up, she thought, rising to her feet, she just might be able to push it open—provided the door wasn’t bolted down.
Of course it was bolted down, she silently argued, mocking herself. Why wouldn’t it be?
But then, she’d just seen a memo that said the elevators were scheduled to be renovated in another month. The rest of the hospital had already gone through a makeover, but the elevators had been left out of the last two updates. Consequently, they were all incredibly old-fashioned. Maybe the bolts or screws or whatever it was that held that section of the ceiling in place were weak, ready to break.
At the very least, even if she couldn’t get out, if she jarred the trapdoor open she’d be able to get some air into the stifling elevator car.
The promise of that was all the motivation she needed.
Bracing herself, Nika jumped up, her hand outstretched above her head. Missing contact, she jumped again. And then a third time, managing to stretch her fingers up a little farther each time.
On her fourth jump, she screamed. Half in triumph and half in stunned amazement.
The section she was trying to move moved all right. All the way off.
The next second, there was a man hanging upside down in the immobilized elevator car. His dark brown hair flowed away from a chiseled, hard-looking face. It was the kind of expression that inspired instant obedience. Oddly enough, she wasn’t afraid.
“Give me your hand,” he ordered gruffly.
The words, Come with me if you want to live, echoed mockingly in her brain.
This was no time to recall movie trivia, Nika upbraided herself. And yet, there it was.
Because this definitely felt like a scene out of some old action movie.
Chapter 2
Nika snapped out of her semi-dazed state a moment later. “What?” she cried.
She was fairly certain that an elevator repairman would have been trying to do something with the cable’s mechanisms in a far more stable, accessible place, rather than lowering himself into the stalled elevator car like a frustrated trapeze artist trying to make a dramatic comeback.
Blood rushed to Cole’s head. This was not exactly an ideal position to be in and definitely not something he would have chosen to do if there was any other way to go. But according to the nurse he’d talked to on his grandmother’s floor, the company that handled maintaining the elevators wouldn’t have a repairman out for at least another hour. That was completely unacceptable to him. He needed to speed things along and this was the only way open to him: rescuing the trapped doctor.
Stretching his hand out toward the stunned blonde looking up at him, his legs securely wrapped around the cable, which was most likely permanently staining his gray slacks with grease, Cole could only reach down so far. She would have to make up the difference. “I said, give me your hand.”
He had to be kidding, right? “Who are you?”
“The tooth fairy,” Cole growled.
He was in no mood for twenty questions. He wasn’t sure just how much longer he could hang down like this. Each second that passed by made it that much harder. The hastily conceived plan was to pull her up out of the elevator car and get her to stand on top of it. From there, he was fairly sure he could get her out to the fourth floor. Fortunately, the elevator had gotten stuck closer to the fourth floor, rather than right in between the two floors. Every little inch helped.
“Now give me your damn hand,” he demanded. “Unless you want to stay inside this box until that mythical repairman turns up.”
He had a very persuasive argument. There was no way she wanted to stay here a moment longer.
“No!” Nika cried.
She stretched first both hands up, and then leaned into stretching just one. That got her a tiny bit closer, but she still couldn’t reach him. Standing on her toes didn’t help. It was a matter of “almost, but not quite.”
Frustration raked over her, making her thin blouse stick to her skin as perspiration slipped over her. Dropping her hands to her sides, she looked up at him. “How…?”
He anticipated her
