Page 54 of Crossing Paths
A hand grasped her wrist, tugging her forward.
“Dash?” she croaked, relief flooding her. He’d come to save her. Of course he had. After all, leaving her in his apartment to die of smoke asphyxiation would be the height of bad manners. Her semihysterical burst of laughter at her mental joke came out in a cough. She blinked rapidly, trying to make out his features, but the dark shape in front of her was…wrong.
This isn’t Dash.
Setting her feet, she pulled back against the hold on her arm, her stomach twisting as she realized the person in front of her, the one who had her in their grip, was much too small andslight to be Dash. The hand tightened, fingers digging into her, painfully grinding the bones of her wrist. Her instinct was to keep pulling back, to try to yank away so she could run…but there was nowhere to go that wasn’t on fire.
The training session with Dash replayed in her brain, and she forced herself to lurch forward, toward the person who held her so cruelly. The darkness made it hard to judge the distance, so her shoulder plowed into them. Norah heard a muffled grunt as their bodies collided, and the pressure on her wrist immediately lightened. Not allowing herself to resume the pulling contest, she immediately sent a palm-heel strike toward their nose—or where she thought their nose might be.
By the hard bone she hit as well as the clack of teeth hitting together, Norah was pretty sure she’d hit a chin rather than a nose, but she still plowed through the motions she’d practiced over and over with Dash. Her stomp landed, but it didn’t seem to cause any damage, and she wished she were wearing boots rather than being uselessly barefoot. Without wasting any more time, she swung her free arm, sending the elbow toward the person’s midsection.
It actually worked. The grip fell from her wrist as not-Dash grunted. From the sound, she’d hit them hard enough to make them instinctively bend at the waist. Reaching out, she grasped the back of the person’s head with both hands, yanking down as she drove her knee up toward their face. This had been her favorite part of this exercise when she’d practiced with Dash, and she realized she was actually smiling fiercely as she felt her kneecap connect with something both hard and squishy and a little bit wet.
The sensation was unexpected and off-putting, and she released her grip as she jumped away. From the groan she heard, her hit had hurt, and Norah was a little shocked at how glad she was about that.
Now run.It was Dash’s rumbly voice in her head, telling her over and over that the whole point was to get away. She’d unconsciously retreated until the heat of the closed door radiated against her back, and she knew she needed to get past the person and down the stairs while they were still incapacitated. If they caught her again, it would be harder to escape, because she’d have lost the element of surprise. Now they’d be expecting her to fight back.
Go. Just go.Taking a deep breath that was tinged with smoke, she forced her feet forward in a rush, staying to the right of the still-groaning form. One heel hit the edge of a step before sliding painfully to the next. The thump as she hit vibrated through her body, but she ignored it as she scrambled down the rest of the stairs.
Her first step on the landing was heavy and hard, since she’d expected more steps, but she recovered quickly, hunting for the next set of stairs with her toes. She located them just as a roar of anger echoed from her attacker, and clattering boot soles thundered down the steps toward her. Not allowing herself to look behind her—since all she would see would be darkness—Norah flew down the rest of the stairs and hit the release bar on the door with both hands.
The door swung open, revealing the gym. Even though just the emergency lights were on, it was much brighter than thesmoky apartment or the inky black stairwell. Norah dodged through the equipment, the familiarity of the space weirdly reassuring, allowing her to race confidently toward the door.
Just before she reached it, it swung open, and Norah tried to skid to a halt. She’d been traveling too fast and wasn’t able to stop in time. She crashed full force into the huge shape filling the doorway. Panic snapped through her as strong arms latched around her, holding her tightly. In an instant, however, she recognized Dash, and her terror leaked out of her in a rush, leaving her limp against him.
“Are you hurt?” His hands roamed over her urgently as if checking for injuries.
“I’m okay.” She was pretty sure she was at least, although she imagined that adrenaline plus the reassurance of being held safely in Dash’s arms could mask a whole lot of pain. “There’s someone chasing me though, so we might want to move.” With Dash there, whoever had grabbed her at the top of the stairs didn’t seem like such a threat anymore.
His whole body stiffened as he growled out one word. “Who?”
“Not sure.” She tried to shrug, but he was holding her too tightly against his chest. “It was dark. He was right behind me though.” Despite the strong urge to bury her head in the sand—or Dash’s well-developed pectoral muscles—and pretend no one else existed, she turned as well as she could in his grip and looked behind her.
The gym was empty…or at least it appeared that way.
“Maybe they’re still on the stairs?” she suggested, peeringinto the shadowy corners. “Or they went into one of the dressing rooms.”
“Or out the stair exit.” Reluctantly releasing her, he moved between her and the rest of the gym. “Come on.”
He gave one last glare around the gym before ushering her outside. The fire above them lit up the building, flickering red, yellow, and orange in a display that was both too bright yet caused deeply dark shadows in the alley around them. She shivered as she glanced around, wondering if someone was lying in wait for them. As much as she believed in Dash’s strength and fighting skill, there were ways he could lose—too many opponents, an ambush, or a gun would bring him down like Goliath.
Headlights lit up the space around them as a squad car turned into the alley, followed closely by several fire trucks. Dash guided her to the far side of the alley across from the neighboring building so they weren’t directly next to the gym.
“How’d they know there was fire involved?” she asked, her voice shaking a little as she spoke loud enough to be heard over the sirens. The last few words echoed in the sudden quiet as the vehicles cut their sirens.
“Someone probably saw the flames and called it in,” Dash said.
“Oh. I did too, but I only got to the broken window part before I dropped my phone. Although the dispatcher might’ve figured it out before my phone burned up.” Norah’s gaze went back to the flickering flames in the broken windows of his apartment, the fire glowing brightly even in the red and white flashes from the emergency vehicles’ overhead lights. “I’m sorry aboutyour home. I tried to put it out, but the fire extinguisher didn’t hold as much foam as I needed.”
His grunt was displeased. “You shouldn’t have even tried. You should’ve left at the first sign of fire.” Before she could respond to that, he continued. “I should’ve brought you with me when I left. I just thought you’d be safer up there.” He looked at the smashed-out windows as his hand ran up and down her arm. He hadn’t stopped touching her since he’d caught her running out the door. Norah didn’t mind. It was reassuring, reminding her that he was right there.
“Did you catch anyone?” she asked, watching as the emergency vehicles parked, the police car pulling closer to where they were standing while the fire trucks stopped on the other side of the building, keeping the space right in front of the gym clear.
“No.” He didn’t sound happy about that. “As soon as I stepped outside, someone clocked me in the back of the head.”
A worried sound escaping her, Norah turned away from the flames to look up at Dash. “You’re hurt? Do you have a concussion?” She reached up toward the back of his head before hesitating. If it still hurt, he wouldn’t want her prodding at it, and if it were bleeding, she would just add her germs to the mix, which wouldn’t be helpful. Lowering her hand back down, she frowned, hating this feeling of helplessness when Dash was hurt.
“It’s fine.” He patted her as if she were the one who needed comfort. “Just dazed me for a minute. Long enough for them to set everything on fire though.”
