Page 30 of Run to Ground
“Before you go, would you mind grabbing another flat of eggs out of the walk-in?”
Jules tried not to make a face. She hated going into the walk-in cooler. She’d hated small spaces—especially small,darkspaces—ever since her father had remarried for the fourth time when Jules had been a shy fifteen-year-old. One of Courtney’s favorite punishments had been to lock Jules in one of the linen closets. Most of the time, it had been only for a few hours. A few memorable times, though, Jules had been trapped in the tiny, dark space overnight. Although she’d mostly gotten over her claustrophobia in the years since she’d escaped from that house, something about the cooler made all Jules’s old fears flare to life.
She had to suck it up, though. There was no way out of going into the cooler, unless she wanted to sound like a big baby. “Sure.”
Flipping on the light switch, Jules closed her fingers around the metal handle. After taking a breath, she hauled back on the door. There was a brief hesitation before the heavy door released its seal and swung open, releasing a gust of chilled air. Jules shivered, although it was more from nerves than the cold.
She glanced over her shoulder and caught Vicki watching her. As soon as she saw Jules returning her gaze, Vicki focused on the grill, whistling tunelessly as she poked at some hash browns. Jules frowned but turned back toward the cooler. The longer she stood there, dreading it, the longer it was going to take. She needed to just go in, grab the eggs, and get out.
Jules stepped into the cooler, reluctantly letting the door close behind her. In three quick strides, she’d reached the egg boxes lining the bottom shelf. Crouching, she eyed the top of the container and sighed. The box was taped shut, but she didn’t want to go get a utility knife and have toreturnto the cooler. Instead, she just picked at a corner of the packing tape until she could pull it up and off the top of the box.
As she reached to open the flaps, everything went dark.
Jules froze. Her whole body flushed cold and then hot, and her fingers went numb. She couldn’t feel the cardboard under her hands anymore, and she lost all sense of direction, all sense of balance. It was as if she were underwater, unsure of which way was up. Her legs gave out, and she sat down hard on the cold, tiled floor.
There. I felt that.She pressed her palms against the floor next to her hips, increasing the pressure until pain darted up her wrists into her arms. Strangely enough, she was relieved by the discomfort. It grounded her, made her feel like she was rooted to the floor, rather than floating in the dark space.
She heard someone gasping, short pants of air, and Jules realized the sound was coming from her. Even though no one else could hear it, she was embarrassed by how pathetic she sounded. She was much, much too old to be scared of the dark.
“It’s just a power outage,” she whispered, her voice coming out unsteady, her words interrupted by her shallow gulps for breath. “The door is right there.” Her eyes blinked, trying to adjust to the absolute blackness, and a light-green glow caught her attention. At first, she thought it was nothing, just a blob of false light caused by her squeezing her eyes shut too tightly, but the green shape was there each time she opened her eyes to stare into the darkness. Finally, she realized it was the glow-in-the-dark emergency release handle.
Her relieved breath came out too close to a sob for comfort. Vicki would never let Jules live it down if she came out of the dark cooler crying. Her head still spun from fear and the dizzying darkness, so Jules crawled toward the green glow, her apron catching between the hard floor and her knees.
She’d made it. The emergency release knob was right at eye level, and Jules forced herself to stand. Crawling out of the cooler would be almost as bad as being in hysterics. Jules’s hands followed the metal-lined surface of the door, helping her keep her balance as she rose to her feet. Once she was upright, she pushed against the door.
Nothing happened. It didn’t budge.
Her breathing immediately sped up again. Was shetrappedin the dark space? Jules could hear her heartbeat pounding in her ears, the thumps so close together that it created a steady thunder. Cold pressed against her like a living thing, filling her lungs with each rapid, futile inhale. There wasn’t enough air. Each breath felt tight and empty, and she panted faster, trying to suck in oxygen.
Stop it!she snapped at herself.Thereisair.Fighting back the panic wanting to take control, Jules forced her breathing to slow. Gradually, her heartbeat followed enough for her logical brain to begin working. Maybe the door automatically latched in a power outage. She twisted the emergency release knob one direction and then pushed against the door again. Nothing. She tried the other way. The door remained stubbornly closed. Jules pushed and pulled and finally yanked so hard that the handle came off in her hand. She stared at the green, glowing,uselessobject in her hand and then burst into tears.
“Help!” she screamed, the panic rushing in and taking over. There were no rational thoughts left in her brain—just the desperate need to get out of the cooler. “Get me out!”
She pounded on the door, but its thick construction muffled her hits so even she could barely hear them. She wasn’t going to get out. She’d be trapped in that shrinking space forhours, even days, until she died of hypothermia.No!She couldn’t do it, couldn’t be stuck in this tight, airless blackness for even one more second. Forget hypothermia; her heart was about to explode in terror. Bracing her hands on the door, she shoved with all her might. It didn’t budge, immobile and horribly still…until suddenly the door was gone and everything was blindingly light and she wasfalling.
Theo caught her. Jules wasn’t sure how she knew, but she did, the instant his arms wrapped around her and her face pressed into his uniform shirt. It was stiff with starch, and a button pressed hard against her cheekbone, but she’d never felt anything better. His hand cupped her head, pulling her tighter against his chest, and his other arm wrapped around her back. It took a few seconds for Jules to realize that Theo was shouting.
“You’re a fucking psycho!”
Her head jerked back at that. She might be a kidnapper and a criminal and a liar, but she thought it was extremely unfair of him to call her a psycho. When she managed to focus her tear-blurred eyes on Theo’s face, though, he wasn’t looking at her. Jules followed his glare to Vicki, who was just a few feet away, doubled over with laughter. Jules blinked a few times, trying to tear herself free of the panic that still wanted to cling so she could figure out what was going on.
“C’mon, Theo,” Vicki finally wheezed, wiping her eyes. “I was just joking around. God, that was hilarious. When I pulled the same trick on Megan, she just sat on a crate of potatoes and played on her phone until I got bored and walked away.”
Theo snarled, “You—”
“What’s going on?” Hugh burst into the kitchen with Megan at his heels.
“Theo’s being a fun-wrecker. Again.” With a final hiccup of laughter, Vicki turned to the sink and started washing her hands.
Megan looked at Jules, then the walk-in cooler door, then Vicki, and understanding washed over her face. She groaned loudly. “Vicki, Theo’s right. Youarea psycho. Did you do the whole turn-the-lights-off-and-hold-the-door-shut thing on poor Jules? You know she’s scared of the walk-in!”
“That’s what made it so funny!” When everyone just glared at Vicki, she threw her hands in the air. “You guys are no fun.”
Megan turned to Jules. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah.” With everyone’s eyes on her, embarrassment was starting to set in. It didn’t help that Jules realized she was still leaning against Theo’s very muscular chest. His hand was smoothing circles on her lower back, and she would’ve been very happy to stay there for the remainder of the morning. At that moment, resting against him, Jules gave in. It wasn’t just attraction; she was way too far gone for that. This was a huge, unmistakable, unignorable crush. ShelikedTheo…a lot.
When Megan and Hugh began to look more curious than concerned, Jules forced herself to take a step back, out of Theo’s tempting hold. He resisted for a fraction of a second, but then let her go. “I’m fine.” Her quivering voice turned her words into a lie. “I just don’t like small spaces.”
