Total pages in book: 48
Estimated words: 46257 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 231(@200wpm)___ 185(@250wpm)___ 154(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 46257 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 231(@200wpm)___ 185(@250wpm)___ 154(@300wpm)
“I won’t… I can’t,” she cries.
Stack does his best at talking her down, and in seconds we have four officers plus me and even a half dozen spectators who offer to help hold the tarp. All eyes on Bridget.
Every arm is taut and flexed.
Ready to take the fall if only she’d agree to jump.
“Ah, shit!” Stack groans, his head shaking.
Despite his plan, running my own eyes over the tarp, I can see a definite tear in it, running straight up the center.
No way would that catch a kitten, let alone a person.
“I thought it was the fucking drill, okay? That’s why I didn’t call it sooner,” Stack adds.
His comment makes my brow furrow in a question, throwing my mind into chaos as I try to think.
I need to think of a way to get Bridget down.
Another low thud from inside the building sees the crowd behind me swoon and move back.
Bridget screams loudly. A shower of glass and office supplies rush past her, tinkling at my feet.
“Bridget. Listen to me,” I command her in a firm, loud voice. Ignoring everyone and everything, my eyes bore into hers. My whole body tense as I hold out my arms.
“You’re gonna let go of the pillar, and step off that ledge…,” I start to say, but she only shakes her head harder.
“I…I can’t,” she sobs, and I only look away long enough to bark some orders of my own to the chief and the other men from our unit.
“Get on those fucking hoses, dammit. I got this!” I roar, and they all scuttle back to action.
Everyone except Stack, who gives me a knowing look.
“You can do it, Ash. I know you can. But can she?” he asks somberly.
“She will,” I growl. Telling myself, telling the flames.
Telling her.
“You have to jump, Bridget,” I go on, not meaning just because of the flames and smoke.
“I’m too heavy,” she cries. “It won’t work…I’m too fat.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Bridget
There. I said it.
I said it so loud the whole street could hear, even over the roar of flames and the crumbling building.
But it’s true.
Apart from being terrorized by the height, there’s no way anyone could catch me from up here.
Not even a man Ash’s size…at least, I don’t think.
Even I can see from up here that he stands a full head and shoulders taller than the biggest guy in the office.
His leather jacket is tight on his body over his uniform, but I can see plenty of his broad chest and chiseled abs, flexing and pulsing under his clothes.
Those massive arms probably could lift even me without much effort, come to think of it.
But catch me from a three-story drop?
His face is set with determination. The silver grays at the sides of his thick dark hair only add to his natural authority, his command over the world around him. But this is one situation he can’t control a hundred percent, and I know he needs me to meet him halfway if I’m gonna get out of this in one piece.
I feel the sting of smoke in my eyes, but my frightened tears stream down my cheeks, making me feel stupid on top of paralyzed with fear.
But Ash’s eyes are clear and determined. His jaw is set like granite as he shakes his head in reply, curling his lip a little in a way that makes me feel just like I did this morning when I felt someone watching me.
It couldn’t have been him, could it?
Somehow I just know it was.
“You can, and you will,” he demands again, making my breath catch. Suddenly making me feel like I’d do anything he told me to.
The out-of-place rush of heat to my mound makes me think of the million other things I’d like him to do to me apart from getting me out of this jam.
“Bridget!” he calls up again, bringing my mind back into focus.
“Just trust me. Trust me enough to know I’ll catch you. Know that I’ll never let you go,” he adds.
And that’s it.
The moment I somehow know that he’s not just saying it to get me to jump.
He’s saying it because he means it, and a big and suddenly very wet part of me hope’s he’s not talking about catch and release either.
“I mean it, Bridget,” Ash says firmly. “Now get down here, into these arms where you know you belong.”
Even if I wanted to, which I suddenly don’t anymore, I couldn’t hang onto this pillar another minute.
It’s getting too hot, and the invisible line I feel from Ash reaching up to me, right into me, is too strong a pull to resist.
All the smoke and flames, the crowd below calling out, disappear for a few seconds.
I feel my lips widen to a smile, and my eyes fixate on Ash’s as I calmly let go of the pillar and feel myself taking a step toward the edge.