Chapter 25

TWENTY-FIVE

S amantha's throat still felt bruised from Walter's attack. Her mind flashed with an image of him above her, squeezing the life out of her. Determined to end her. She fought through the nightmare to consciousness. Aware something was wrong.

Very wrong.

Her nascent faith flared to life in a moment of fear, erupting into flame like a smolder coming to life. She needed that flame, the hope it brought with it rather than destruction. Fire meant warmth. It meant light in the darkness.

Lord, help us.

She didn't even know what she was praying for. Until she fought far enough through the haze to blink her eyes open. Everything rushed back in that instant.

Smoke filled the air. Darkness surrounded her, and she pulled in a breath she had to cough out.

Samantha recalled the explosion, that recent memory mixing with the time she'd been blown out of that house. The day she lost their baby.

Julio.

No words escaped her lips. She cried out for him in the recesses of her mind.

The firehouse.

They'd been at the table, and then everything washed in noise and heat. The past and the present collided in a wash of sensations. But unlike that day, Julio had been here with her. They'd been cooking. Looking at files. Trying to find an arsonist.

He'd found them.

Samantha took stock of herself first, as was that old adage: Rescuer safety first . She couldn't help anyone else if she was a victim.

Arms. Legs. Something lay on her left thigh. A heavy weight that wasn't drywall or the frame of the building.

She kept one hand on the weight pressing against her leg and dug for her phone. Had it been on the table, or was it…

There.

In her pocket, back right side where she usually kept it.

She dug the device out and squeezed the button on the side. The screen illuminated, nothing but shattered glass. At least, the backlight still worked. She pulled down the top menu and tapped on the flashlight, pretty sure she also cut her finger on the broken glass of the screen in the process.

Samantha let out a breath, now able to see around her. Around them.

She shined the phone around, lighting the small space between what looked like the table and a part of the wall that had collapsed. Which meant they were in a small space, against a load-bearing wall. In a pocket of air, such as it was.

She didn't think beyond that assessment.

No signal. No way to dial out, if she even could with the smashed screen.

"Julio." Her voice emerged, barely a whisper. Just the act of inhaling set her off into a fit of coughing.

He groaned, shifting very slightly in the small space. The weight on her eased and then increased a second later.

"Julio," she repeated, patting his shoulder. Then she shined the light on him and gasped, coughing some more.

Blood tracked down the side of his face. A lot of blood.

He was turned toward her, his shirt covered in dust.

"Sammy?"

"Yeah, I'm here."

He shoved up, leaning against her leg while he forced his upper body upright. It was at that point she saw the unnatural angle of his shoulder.

Samantha gasped. She coughed again.

Julio groaned. He slid his arm against his body with his other, holding it there while he looked around.

She used her phone to show him the space they were in.

"Side wall collapsed. Must've been a bomb." He inhaled through his nose. "Something ignited. Maybe the gas in the kitchen."

"There's a fire?" she croaked.

"We need to call out." He looked around, then at her. "Does your phone work?"

She handed it over, her head still full of everything. Barely able to process what had happened and what they were going to do about it.

He looked at the screen. "It's busted. We might be able to get a callout, though." He tapped the screen, his other arm still tucked against his chest. "Maybe."

She stared at him. The man she had loved for as long as she could remember. The guy she had never stopped having feelings for, no matter how hard she tried.

Samantha shifted her legs, trying to move them now that he was off her.

The space around them groaned and shifted.

Julio's head jerked up. "Hold still."

"I don't know if I can. I need to move my legs." She gasped.

"I don't know if I got a callout." Julio set the phone aside, facedown so they could see the light.

He touched her cheek with his good hand. Just a brief glance of his warmth on her face, then his fingers sank into her hair. It took her a second, but she realized he was checking her for injury. Shoulders. Arms. "You're not bleeding anywhere as far as I can see. Which is a miracle."

Thank You, Lord.

"Amen to that."

She'd said it aloud?

"What about your legs?"

Samantha pulled her feet toward her, bringing her knees up. Nothing else around them shifted. Until she had settled, she didn't exhale. Then she was able to release the breath. "I feel okay. Just shaken."

Plus a whole lot of aches and pains that would probably feel like whiplash tomorrow. Bruises. But his shoulder was dislocated.

"Julio…" She motioned to it.

"I know. Don't worry about me. We need to get out of here or survive long enough for someone to reach us." He looked at the phone screen, the light turning to shine on the smashed photo beside him. Firefighters in aprons, holding a trophy. "Doesn't look like the call went through. But there's no way no one noticed what happened. Help will be here soon enough."

She figured that was true. But who wanted to be trapped, unable to get free and forced to do nothing until they were rescued?

At least when she'd been blown up before, she'd landed on grass outside. Unconscious until she woke up in the hospital and realized that everything she'd been thinking was her future in the minutes before the explosion had changed.

Her life had changed.

Samantha shivered.

Julio touched the back of his hand to her forehead. "You're in shock."

Was that why his hand felt far too warm?

He looked at her with that same concern. Like she couldn't handle things on her own and he needed to be with her. To stand in the gap. To take the blow for her. As if she wasn't strong enough for whatever life sent her way.

She could be strong.

"I'm fine," she stated.

"You seriously expect me to believe that?"

"I don't have a dislocated shoulder." That's probably why he wasn't currently trying to dig their way out. "Tell me what to do, and I'll get us out of here."

"We need to wait for rescue, Sammy."

"I don't like waiting."

"And yet, we've both been doing it for two years."

She whipped her head up to look at him. He wanted to talk about this now? Frustration and pain laced his features. She knew him well enough to know he had no filter right now. He needed to distract himself and taking a shot at her was the easiest. She was close to him. And he wanted a result—an end to the distance between them.

"You haven't dated anyone since." He waited at beat. "Have you?"

She wanted to lie and tell him she'd been swept away by something—anything—that proved as powerful as what was between them.

But she hadn't been.

"Have you ?" she countered.

"I tried. I should admit that at least." Julio didn't quite meet her gaze. "I have dated. But nothing stuck, because they weren't you."

She didn't know what to say to that.

Julio leaned over so his face was close to hers. "You know how I feel. How I've always felt. Even when you were pushing me away, I knew it was just because you were in pain."

Tears burned in her eyes. The smoke. The wealth of emotion that had always been between them. She had never known what to do with the powerful feelings that just existed, tying them together.

Forever.

Samantha blinked, and twin tears rolled down her face. "Do we have to do this now?"

"I can't think of a better time when we have nothing else to do but sit here."

"And rehash everything?" Did she want that?

Yes, okay. She did.

More than anything.

But she'd never been able to keep the good things she had in her life. And if things with Julio ended again, what was she going to do? It had destroyed her before.

If they split up again, she would have nothing left.

"Do you want things to stay the way they are now? Or do you want something better?" Julio used his good hand to swipe a single tear from her cheek. "Because I don't want to live another day, if we even get the chance after this, without knowing you're in my life. That you know how I feel. That I wanted you always, no matter what. To raise a family with you and all that entails. The right way. Eventually, we'd get it right. Take our kids to church. Teach them to do better than make the mistakes we made."

Samantha sniffed. "It's been two years. Why does it still hurt like this?"

"I need you to let it go. To let the fear go and take a chance with me." He stared at her with so much warmth in his dark eyes. "Can you do that?"

Given everything Bristol had told her, she was pretty sure the only way to do that was with God's help. To let Him have the fear and the hurt. "I need to figure out how."

Julio nodded slightly. "I can't do it for you. It's always been something you need to work on for yourself."

He understood that she'd had to be alone? Maybe not that she'd needed two years. But still, he'd always been waiting. Aware it was only them…

Looking for the time they'd be able to get back together.

"I love you, Julio." Her voice was a scratchy mess.

His lips curled up, just slightly. As if he had a secret no one else knew. "You know, when I first fell for you, I told you. My feelings might have grown as we did since that day you waded in to rescue Bristol from those bullies. But it's never quit. I've never stopped being in love with you."

He leaned in and touched his lips to hers.

Samantha settled into his touch. Not quite the same as before. It was different now, and she felt the sliver of grief between them over what they'd lost. Not just time but a life. One they would have raised together.

A little of her grief eased, knowing he understood. That he felt the same way.

Samantha held on tighter.

A thump made her flinch. Julio leaned back.

To their right, a section of drywall lifted. Slowly. So slowly. As if it weighed more than she'd have been able to move. And a face came into view, firefighter uniform and helmet. "Cap?" It was a female firefighter. "You good?"

"We're good. Get us out of here."

"Hold on. Got to get the wall braced so it doesn't come down on you." She disappeared out of sight.

Samantha wanted to move toward the hole and climb out of the opening.

"Wait," Julio said. "Until the timing is right."

She glanced at him. Wasn't that what they'd been doing all these years?

What was a few more minutes going to cost them?