A Slow-Burning Dance (14 page)

Sela’s
body tingled every time he said those words. She’d never felt this way about
anyone. “I love you, too.”

He
kissed her, only to sigh and pull away as his phone rang again. “Considering
everything that’s going on, I’d better answer it.” He glanced at it, frowning,
then swiped it to answer the call. “Tomás, what’s going on?”

A
nasty shiver ran down Sela’s spine, but she couldn’t say why. As she watched
Damien’s face, her fear grew until it felt like someone had let fire ants loose
in her veins. He answered Tomás in monosyllables, and then told him they’d
leave for SouthWest in the morning. When he disconnected the call, he cupped
her face gently. “We have trouble at home and have to cut this trip short. I’m
sorry.”

“What
is it?”

At
first she didn’t think he’d tell her, but then resignation filled his eyes.
“Tomás fired Ernest and every crew member he brought with him yesterday, and
today he received a phone call from a voice he didn’t recognize. The man
threatened him, and said he would pay for betraying Ernest.”

“Maybe
it’s just an empty threat?” Even as she said it, she knew it wasn’t true.

He
pulled her close again. “Don’t you worry about it, all right? I won’t let
anything happen to my friend, and this mall project will go on as scheduled.”

Sela
wished she could feel as confident as Damien sounded, but she had a strong
premonition that they hadn’t heard the last of Ernest or the men he worked
with.

Chapter
Fifteen

Sela
was so busy the week following their trip to CentralWest that she didn’t have
time to think about Ernest’s threat to Tomás. She had hired five part-time
instructors, and wanted to hire at least three more. The unit would be done in
less than two weeks, and she suddenly had more to do than she had time in which
to finish it.

She’d
asked Damien only once whether Rob Marin’s laptop had been stolen, but he told
her Viggo’s associates were watching the house to get an idea of Rob’s and
Olivia’s schedules. Damien told her it might be a month or two before it
happened.

Sela
and Angela emailed back and forth all the time now, and Sela was happy to have
her as a friend. It connected her to Damien’s other friends in a way, and she
felt like part of an elite group. Angela told her they were all going to
Liane’s and Emmett’s wedding in June, and she hoped to see her there.

When
Sela asked Damien about attending it with him, he looked at her like she was
crazy. “Of course we’re going together,
niña
.
Did you think I’d leave you behind?”

“I
don’t want to make assumptions.”

Damien
pulled her close. “Make them, please. Make them every single day,
mi amor
. You’re mine forever, and I
intend to share my entire life with you.”

A
week before her unit and three others were ready to open for business, Sela had
hired all eight instructors. She told Damien she wanted to work in the unit
most of the day, and might be there past dinnertime as well. Everything was in
place. All her furniture had finally been delivered, and she was putting up the
barres
along the mirrors herself to save time and
money. She also had her office behind one of the walls to set up, and about a
million little details to take care of.

****

Damien
was knee-deep in a project across town, and told her he’d be busy late into the
afternoon as well, but promised to bring take-out to her on his way home so
they could sit in her new unit and eat. She loved that idea, and said it was
the perfect way to bring good karma to it before her official launch.

By
late in the afternoon, he was tired and hungry, and all he wanted to do was
pick up some food and meet Sela at her studio. He couldn’t wait to see what
she’d done with it today. He’d already arranged to take the day off for her
official launch because he wanted to be there with her to celebrate it.

Finally,
they were finished, and he made his way across town on the tram, exiting two
blocks before the mall to stop at his favorite take-out place to buy their
dinner. He was chatting with the owner while his food was being prepared when
they both stopped, startled by an explosion. There was no mistaking the sound.
A few seconds later, an air horn siren split the air, and Damien didn’t stop to
think. He knew where that sound was coming from. Those were the fire alarms at
the mall.

Sela!
She was still there, working. He had
to get to her.

Damien
ran.

****

Sela
turned on music while she worked, swaying and singing along to
La Concepción
. It was late in the
afternoon, but she knew Damien would be there eventually. As she gazed out the
front windows over the deserted parking lot, a shiver ran down her spine, but
she hugged herself and smiled. Everything was fine.

Damien
told her nothing had come of Ernest’s threat, and the new crew and foreman had
been working now for two weeks without incident. Viggo’s associates were still
watching the Marin house, but Damien said none of the Weathermen were worried.
They knew when the time was perfect, the job would be completed.

Sela
went back into the room behind the studio to work, and after a few minutes she
felt the ground shake, as though something heavy had been dropped close to her.
Almost instantly an air horn split the air. She froze.
What the fuck is that?
When the smell of smoke tickled her nose,
she realized it was the fire alarm. “Oh my God…”

She
tried to fight rising panic as she glanced around for her phone. There it was.
Should she call for help? No. The fire alarms were wired straight to the
nearest station. They were on their way already. She wanted to hear Damien’s
voice, but she knew she needed to get out of there first.

Tears
stained her cheeks as she made her way to the back door, but she wasn’t able to
approach it because the air was hazy. She began to cough, and her lungs and
eyes burned. She had to get into the studio and out the front door. She turned
around and tried to access the flashlight app on her phone because it was now
too dark to see, but her fingers were shaking so badly she couldn’t do it.

Sela
felt along the wall for the door, her lungs on fire now and the coughing
constant. She could hardly breathe. She hadn’t been this afraid since the
flooding above ground, and she fought to keep those memories from overwhelming
her. Instead she pictured Damien’s face. It would be all right. She had to get
out, then call him. She could do this.

She
dropped to her knees, crouching along the floor. She swore she heard Damien’s
voice calling her name, but that wasn’t possible. He was clear across town. The
smoke was fucking with her brain. She had to stay focused.

This
close to the floor, it was possible now to breathe, but when she found the door
into the studio and touched the handle, she yelped and pulled her hand back. It
had burned her, which meant the fire was behind it, in the studio.

She
turned around and crawled along the floor toward the back door again, staying
low, below the smoke, but she was so afraid now she could barely breathe. She
was trapped in here. There was no way out. She’d never look into Damien’s eyes
again, or feel his arms around her. She’d never hear his voice, or snuggle
against his warm, hard body. She was going to die behind these walls.

****

Damien
couldn’t get near the corner studio. It was part of several units engulfed in
smoke. Flames shot out the back of one of them, further down the row. He heard
sirens, but there were no fire trucks in the parking lot yet. Several police
cars were pulling in, and people were running from the apartment building next
door, but Damien ignored all of them.

He
sprinted around the back of the corner unit because one look at the front told
him he’d never get in that way. There was too much smoke inside the studio. He
couldn’t get the back door open. Fighting horrible panic that threatened to
overwhelm him, he pounded on the door, calling Sela’s name.

The
sirens were closer now. He sprinted around to the front and waved down several
firefighters jumping off a truck. “There’s a woman in there!”

They
ran around to the back door with him and one of them pushed him aside, but
Damien wasn’t going to move until he got Sela out. They pried open the door and
he saw her, crouched down near the floor. The smoke poured out, but he dropped
to his knees and covered his face as she reached for him.

One
of the firefighters scooped her up first, but Damien was right beside him as he
ran with her toward an ambulance that had pulled into the lot. Her skin was
covered in soot and her eyelids fluttered. She was still alive! He crawled into
the back of the bus with her and glared at the paramedic who opened his mouth,
ready to tell him he couldn’t ride with her. “I’m not leaving her.”

“Then
ride up front.”

“Thank
you.”

He
kept turning around on the way to the hospital to see if Sela was all right
until the driver asked him to let them do their job. Damien was too worried for
Sela
to argue. The streets of the cities underground
had not been made for heavy traffic, so going anywhere in an electric vehicle
took longer than it would have in gasoline engines on the surface. The ten
minute ride to SouthWest Medical Center felt like it took ten hours to Damien.

He
followed the paramedics inside and was stopped by a stern-looking man who
actually held up his hand. “You’ll have to wait in the waiting room.”

Damien
puffed out his chest. “I don’t think so.”

“Damien?”
Her hoarse voice drew their attention. “Is that you?”

He
pushed his way to her side as the paramedics rolled her stretcher into a room
inside the ER. “I’m here,
niña
. It’s
all right.”

She
sighed and then closed her eyes again, but Damien’s heart soared anyway. She
was alive. She was going to be all right. She had to be.

The
ER physician recognized him. Roger McVoy was Mark McVoy’s cousin, and Mark
worked in Damien’s PR department. “Do you know her?” asked Roger.

“Yes.
She’s very special. Take good care of her.”

Roger
placed a hand on Damien’s shoulder. “We will. I promise. Wait where you’re
supposed to as a favor to me, okay? I’ll come and find you as soon as I get her
stable. I swear it.”

Damien
was suddenly so tired. He nodded, and then he gave her one last look as she was
surrounded by nurses and doctors. She was in good hands now. She would be all
right, and he had a few dozen people to call, starting with Santino and Tomás.

****

Sela
drifted in and out of a haze that at times felt like a dream, and other times
sent her into a panic as she realized where she was. Her throat hurt, her eyes
hurt, and she couldn’t get the smell of smoke out of her nose. She remembered
seeing Damien, but every time she asked where he was, either the person she
asked didn’t know, or she was told he’d be allowed to see her soon.

Had
she hallucinated seeing him when they pulled her out of the back of the studio?
She remembered hearing his voice, but then she also heard pounding and what
sounded like axes on the door. The men who had pulled her out had been dressed
like firefighters, and she remembered hearing a lot of sirens over the blare of
the fire alarm.

Her
studio … she choked back a sob because it hurt to cry as she realized her
studio was gone, along with everything she’d put inside it during the past two
weeks. There were framed pictures of her in various costumes that she’d found
on the Internet from old competitions. She’d had them made for the front studio
wall.

They can be replaced.

As
Sela went over everything in her mind, she realized
all
of it could be replaced. The only thing that mattered was that
she was alive. She longed to see Damien, though, and hold him, and reassure
herself that he was all right.

She
was tired of being poked and prodded, tired of having this damn oxygen mask on
her face, and tired of not knowing what was going on. Snippets of conversation
from the doctors and nurses filing past her bed reached her ears, and each time
she heard something else about the fire at the mall, her panic grew. What the
hell had caused that explosion? She remembered the ground shaking and guessed
that’s what had happened.

Finally,
she heard a familiar voice, and struggled to sit up higher. She yanked the mask
off her face, only to put it back on as soon as she found she still couldn’t
breathe without difficulty. Tears pricked her eyes, and this time she couldn’t
stop them as Damien’s face came into view. Damien’s beautiful face, and his big
dark eyes, filled with love and relief.

“Sela,
oh
mi amor
. It’s all right. Don’t
cry. I’m here now. You’re all right. You’re going to be okay.”

His
arms were around her, holding her close as she cried through the pain and the
fear. His hands stroked her back and her hair the way she loved, and suddenly
everything was right and perfect in her world once more.

“You
saved me,” she whispered. “I called to you in my head and you saved me.”

“The
firefighters saved you,
niña
. I was
merely close by, and thank God I was.”

He
was wrong, but it didn’t matter.
He
had saved her. She knew it, and she would hang onto that thought for the rest
of her life, because she was never leaving his side again.