Page 92 of Healing the Heart

Her colorful bathrobe, bright turban, and pink fuzzy slippers made the unconscious woman easy to find in the dark-gray smoke. Fiona checked her breathing while she felt for the pulse in her wrist. Both were normal.

“She’s unconscious.” She glanced at him over her shoulder. “Can you carry her? I don’t think I can.”

Axyl dropped to one knee and scooped her up. “You’re stuck to me like glue,” he commanded, in an inflexible tone, unhappy with her as much as their situation.

“Of course,” she agreed. As she rose along with him, a coil of bright-orange hair fell out from under the woman’s turban. She’d only seen that gaudy color on a human once before. On Naomi.

“Axyl!” she screamed in warning. He turned to her rather than taking the stairs, and she soon realized her mistake. A shadowy figure emerged from behind him and struck the back of his head—hard. She couldn’t see what with, but Fiona watched in horror as he crumpled, taking Naomi with him.

Suddenly awake when she hit the floor, she scrambled to her feet, surprisingly spry for someone suffering from smoke inhalation.

“You walloped him too hard,” she accused Axyl’s attacker. Although a respirator obscured his face, she recognized him. Fiona backed away as Naomi went on protesting. “You never said anything about aggravated assault. I’m outta here,” she declared as she fled down the stairs.

Her heart pounding, lungs burning with each wheeze, Fiona wanted desperately to follow, to save herself and get help for Axyl. But with the rapidly increasing smoke and diminished oxygen, she wavered on unsteady legs, each breath a struggle.

When she fell to her knees, she heard laughter, the same that haunted her nightmares.

“Jor-dan,” she gasped, her body trembling with fear and exhaustion from simply trying to breathe. It was all she could manage before her strength gave way and she collapsed in a limp heap on top of Axyl’s motionless form.

Chapter 23

It’s Payback Time

“HE PIPED IN SMOKE THROUGHthe ventilation system. It has the look and smell of an actual fire without the flames and heat. It’s a sure-fire way to get everyone out of the building if that was his goal.” Lieutenant Reynolds, with the LA Fire Department, glanced at Axyl, strapped to a stretcher, an oxygen mask covering his face, being loaded into an ambulance. “Everyone who was mobile, at least.”

“And you’re sure there’s no one else on the fourth floor?” Noah asked for the third time.

“The building is clear, sir. We searched every room on every floor. All we found was your man and a scared-shitless cat in a closet. If your girlfriend was inside, she must have gotten out.”

Noah whirled on Keiran, who stood at his shoulder. “What about surveillance?”

“The feeds went out three minutes before the alarms sounded.”

“How did that happen?” he demanded to know.

“We’re still checking into it.”

“Don’t bother. Someone took them out, and that someone has Fiona. It has to be Parra.”

“Agreed, but there has been no sign of him at his apartment, and we have no leads on his whereabouts. Neither do the police.He hasn’t been to work in weeks, and he has no family in LA that we know of.”

Noah whirled again and strode away, running his fingers through his hair in frustration. “Everyone has a past. We’re missing something.”

“I’ve got the team on it. Including every available man in San Antonio. They’re running whatever Jonas feeds them. If there’s something to find, we’ll find it.”

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