Lightning Strikes Page 6

  Dear Lord, things were going from bad to worse. How was she ever going to cope? She had to put distance between them. His presence seemed to have sucked all the air and energy out of the room and out of her. For her own protection, she should walk out instead of exchanging insults or trying to reason with him.

  Or better yet, she should’ve asked him point-blank if the rumor was true. But she’d cut her tongue out before she’d asked him if he’d married another woman.

  However, he didn’t have the same problem.

  “Are you seeing someone else?”

  She gave him an incredulous stare, then snapped, “That’s none of your business.”

  “You’re right, it isn’t.”

  His voice held a deep sadness and his face a deep anguish. She wondered what had happened in the intervening months to put them there.

  “Look, it’s obvious we’re going to be working together until this nightmare ends,” he said, breaking into her disquieting thoughts. “So—”

  He paused, as if uncertain how to finish the sentence, and rubbed his rough chin. That was when she noticed the beginnings of a dark stubble surrounding his jawline, which merely added to the beauty of his face.

  “So what?” she asked, turning away and swallowing hard.

  “So can we call a truce? Already, this has been the night from hell.”

  “It’s just starting,” she said in a taut voice, again wondering why she was standing there carrying on a conversation with him.

  “I’m not talking about just the hospital situation.”

  She didn’t say anything.

  “Randi’s disappeared.”

  His low but gruffly spoken words caught her completely off guard. “Excuse me?”

  “Yeah, that was my reaction, too.”

  “You’re not making any sense, Noah,” she said, despite her reluctance to have any kind of conversation with him.

  He sighed, then rolled his shoulders forward then back as if trying to work some of the fatigue out of them. She wanted to turn her eyes away again as his long, narrow fingers ended up digging into one shoulder—that same flesh that she’d playfully bitten while riding—Heavens, she had to get hold of herself or she was going to be a basket case before the night was over.

  “You did know Randi was getting married tonight?”

  “Didn’t everyone?”

  His eyebrows shot up at the unvarnished bitterness in her tone, and when he spoke, his voice was soft. “She would’ve wanted you to be there.”

  “I hardly think I would’ve belonged.”

  Her rudeness was obvious, and his mouth stretched into a thin line. “Anyhow, just about the time I was supposed to walk her down the aisle, her attendant, Patsy Fuller, ran up to me and told me that Randi had gone, that she was nowhere to be found.” He paused. “Apparently, she decided she didn’t want to marry pretty-boy Hal, and cut out.”

  “Really?”

  His gaze strayed to the curve of her mouth. “Is that all you have to say? At one time you and Randi were friends.”

  “We still are, but—”

  “You don’t really give a damn about my family’s problems, do you?”

  “I wouldn’t put it exactly like that.”

  “Then, how would you put it?” he probed in an unyielding tone.

  “Okay, so that’s how I feel. They, or rather you, are no longer my concern.”

  “True,” he shot back in a bitter voice. “How stupid of me to forget.”

  “What’s this all about, Noah?” When he opened his mouth, she held up her hand. “Don’t answer that. It doesn’t matter anymore. Actually, I don’t want to hear anything you have to say, unless it’s professional.”

  “So it’s professional or nothing?”

  “Yes.”

  His features twisted, and for a moment he looked more haggard and beaten down. She forced herself to quash any feelings of sympathy toward him. He was the enemy. She could never forget that.

  “Why the hell don’t I just go lie down on a railroad track and let a train run over me and be done with it?” He took a step closer to her, his nostrils flaring. “That would make you happy, wouldn’t it?”

  “What would make me happy,” she flung back, glad she had forced another cloak of hostility between them, “is for you to stop playing the victim here and get out of my way.”

  Then, thrusting aside the panic that he was the one now in control, she stepped past him.

  “Dammit, Amanda—”

  Instead of finishing his sentence, those sensual fingers grabbed her hand. “We can’t continue like this,” he added with quiet but desperate force.

  Amanda struggled for the ability to function, mortified that his touch still had the power to set off a silent earthquake inside her.

  Where those fingers touched, her skin trembled and burned, feeling as if it were being pricked with hot needles, sending unwanted sensations shooting through her body. For that split second, his hand seemed to have become the focus of her entire being.

  Her heart pounded in her throat.

  “Let me go.” She tried not to overreact, knowing to do so would give him that much more ammunition to use against her.

  “Amanda, please, things don’t have to be this way.”

  “Don’t you dare whine to me,” she hissed, jerking her hand out of his, curling it once more into a ball so as not to slap his face. “We’re forced to work together. There’s nothing we can do about that. Otherwise, you stay the hell away from me. Is that clear?”

  Noah’s face was as unrelenting as hers. “So this is the way it’s going to be?”

  “It’s the only way it can be.”

  She walked out the door and slammed it behind her.

  Chapter Eight

  “Will she be all right?”

  Josie! Olivia Stuart recognized the voice of the young woman who was like a second daughter to her. And thank God she was there.

  “Please, answer me,” Josie wailed.

  Why was Josie asking such a stupid question? Olivia screamed, fighting off her confusion. Of course she was going to be all right! Yet she knew no one heard her, that her protest had been a silent one.

  “We’re doing the best we can.” The paramedic gave the distressed woman barely a second glance before he slammed shut the door of the EMT vehicle, then hurried to the passenger door and climbed inside.

  “But—”

  “Lady, please, we gotta go.”

  Where are we going? Olivia screamed again. But no one answered her. Why? She wanted them to stop talking as if she weren’t there, as if she couldn’t hear them.

  “I love you, Olivia!”

  She heard Josie’s agonized cry at the same time she heard a godawful wail. Although she couldn’t identify the noise, it sounded like a siren.

  What had happened to her? Where was she? Was she going to die? Had she already died? Was that wailing coming from angels? No. If she were dead, she’d be at perfect peace, wouldn’t she? She’d be in heaven where there was no pain.

  Right now, she was in terrible pain. Her chest felt as if someone was standing on it and stomping the hell out of her. So, did that mean she was in hell?

  “Oh, please, God…”

  “Sh, ma’am, don’t worry.”

  Olivia licked her dry lips and tried to open her eyes to see who was talking to her. She knew it was a man. Was it her son, Hal? Where was Hal? Why wasn’t he with her? She needed him so much.

  “We’re on the way to the hospital, Mrs. Stuart,” the voice said again. “Try to hold on.”

  That voice wasn’t her son’s. Oh, God! She thrashed from side to side.

  “Try not to move, okay?”

  “Please…help me!” Olivia licked her dry lips, but she still couldn’t open her eyes. “I’m…hurting.”

  “We’ve given you something for the pain.”

  “My…chest!”

  “Shh,” the voice said again. “It would be better if you could stay still.”

/>   “Wedding!”

  “Ma’am?”

  Olivia tried to speak again, but the words wouldn’t come. The pain. It was unbearable, especially in her chest and in her arm. She had to make it go away.

  Her eyes popped open, but she couldn’t see anything. It was as though she were in a closet with a wet blanket tied over her head. She couldn’t breathe….

  “My chest! My arm!” she cried.

  “You have an IV, ma’am.”

  “Take…it out.”

  “I’m sorry, I can’t.”

  Olivia looked around, her pupils dilated. “Where am I?”

  “In an ambulance, on the way to the hospital.”

  “Why?” she mouthed.

  “We think you’ve had a heart attack.”

  Olivia clutched her chest. She couldn’t be having a heart attack. There was nothing wrong with her heart!

  “No!” She thrashed from side to side. “Mistake!”

  “Hey, take it easy. You have to stay still.”

  “No! I have…to get to the wedding. I’m late…please.” Her eyes growing wilder and more frantic, Olivia clutched at the man’s arm, holding on to him with a deathlike grip.

  “It’s okay. You’re in good hands,” he said in a soothing tone, unclenching her hand and placing it gently by her side.

  “No, it’s not…okay!” Olivia raised that same hand, searching for the source of pain.

  “No, don’t!” the paramedic cautioned in an alarmed tone.

  His warning came too late. Olivia jerked the needle out of her arm, then cried out as another hot flush of pain darted through her. She began sobbing.

  “It’s all right. You pulled the needle out, but we’ll get it back in.”

  “No! Don’t…want…it! Want…Hal! Wedding!”

  “We’re almost there,” the man said. “It won’t be long now.”

  Suddenly the vehicle swerved, then bucked, then spun. Olivia moaned at the same time the man beside her hollered, “Hey, Mac, what the hell happened?”

  “We hydroplaned, dammit. That’s what!”

  Olivia opened her mouth, and although she still couldn’t speak, she heard her companion mutter, “Damn.”

  She moaned again as another sharp pain hit her.

  “We’re going to get you there. I promise.”

  She didn’t care about that. Hal! She had to get to the wedding. Why couldn’t this idiot understand that?

  Another pain, worse than any of the others, stabbed her chest. She cried out.

  “We’re here! We’re going to get you help.”

  It wouldn’t matter. She was dying. She had to be, but she didn’t want to. There was so much she wanted to do, so much she had yet to do. Her work! She had to stop the strip-mining from destroying her beloved Grand Springs. She had to marry her son off. She had to hold her first grandchild. She had to…

  Clutching her heart, she cried out, “Help me, I don’t want to die!”

  *

  “Dr. Howell, report to ER! Dr. Howell, report to ER!”

  The test message came across a second before his phone started ringing, something that rarely happened, which meant something major had happened. No reprieve for the weary or the foolhardy, Noah reminded himself as he rushed out of the Collier girl’s room where she was barely clinging to life.

  As he made his way toward the emergency room, he could still feel her parents’ eyes begging him to save their daughter’s life. Moments before he’d been summoned, he had touched Mrs. Collier on the shoulder. “Don’t give up on her.”

  She had smiled lamely before clutching his hand and squeezing it. Damn, he felt so helpless, yet he had done everything he could do. It was up to a higher power.

  His phone rang again.

  “I’m coming. I’m coming,” Noah shouted into the phone before hanging up, quickening his steps. Whatever had occurred would require his skills. Otherwise, Amanda would have taken charge, he reasoned, only to then remind himself that doctors were in short supply. For all he knew, it could be just a routine case. He doubted that, taking into account Amanda’s feelings toward him. Besides, she had Karen Sloane, who was a crackerjack internist.

  Noah cast a glance out of the huge plate-glass windows. The lightning continued to rip up the sky, while the rain came down in torrents. This weather had to behave itself soon or the town and especially the hospital would be in a world of hurt, more so than they already were. He and Amanda couldn’t keep up this pace forever.

  He sure as hell wouldn’t want an exhausted surgeon or doctor working on him. But then Amanda was amazing. If anyone could pull off the impossible, it was she.

  Amanda. Man, had she done a number on him. While he hadn’t relished being on the receiving end of that verbal tongue lashing, he did admire her spunk.

  How had he let her go? Looking back, he honestly didn’t know how he had done it, and survived.

  Correction. He hadn’t survived. Not really. He’d just existed, from one day to the next, praying for darkness to overtake him.

  But it had never been quite dark enough to stifle his dreams. Even though that disastrous part of his life was behind him, he couldn’t seem to go forward, at least not after seeing Amanda. Since then, he’d done nothing but backpedal.

  Noah almost laughed at his thoughts. What did he expect? When you deliberately walked out on a limb, then sawed that limb off with your own hands, you had to pay the consequences. Amanda had made it plain that he was the scum of the earth, and she hadn’t wasted any time cutting him to ribbons with that sharp tongue.

  He flinched just thinking about it. In all the time they had spent together, which was as often as their schedules permitted, he had never seen that side of her. Heretofore, she’d always been soft-spoken, slow to anger, and supersensitive to others’ feelings.

  No more, or at least not where he was concerned. She’d developed fangs. After what he’d done, who could blame her? He sure didn’t, but it rankled, nonetheless. And it made him mad that it rankled.

  He didn’t want to give a damn what she thought. But he did.

  He didn’t want to care how she looked. But he cared.

  He didn’t want to want her. But he wanted her.

  That last admission almost sent him to his knees, knowing he would never again have her. Still, he couldn’t put out of his mind how lovely she’d looked when she’d been putting him in his place.

  Her anger had sent a flush to her cheeks that added another dimension to her already lovely skin. And for the second time, he hadn’t been able to stop his eyes from drifting to the taut thrust of her breasts. He’d paid for that, too. The tightness in his loins had been uncomfortable as hell.

  But she’d been uncomfortable, as well, though maybe not in the same area, although he wouldn’t have bet on that. When he’d grabbed her hand, he felt the tremor dart up her arm and some of her rigid control had slipped.

  Hell, she was probably as wet as he was hard.

  That would make perfect sense, as he had picked up on her shock, her uncertainty and her vulnerability.

  The thoughts rattling around inside his head appalled him. Disgusted him, too.

  Thank God, he’d finally reached the doors to the ER, where he was greeted by shouts from two paramedics wheeling a gurney toward trauma three.

  He watched as Amanda met the stretcher. “What do we have?”

  “It’s the mayor.”

  “The mayor!” Amanda wheezed just as Noah joined her. For a split second, their eyes met, and again Noah saw the hostility leap into hers. He clamped his jaws together and held his tongue.

  “What happened?” Amanda demanded, grabbing hold of one end of the stretcher.

  “Has all the markings of a heart attack,” the paramedic said. “Not only were the streets hell to get through, but she gave us hell, as well.” He paused and took a deep breath. “Kept talking about a wedding.”

  “How bad is she?” Noah asked, understanding now why Olivia never showed up at the lodge, thou
gh she’d obviously been headed that way. Her teal-colored silk dress was perfect for a wedding.

  “Get Garland!” Amanda cried suddenly.

  Liz Roberts shook her head. “Just tried, and he can’t get in. A log’s fallen into the middle of his house.”

  “Great!” Amanda muttered.

  “Should we notify the police?” another of the paramedics asked. “After all, she’s the mayor.”

  “Forget the police,” Noah said in his no-nonsense tone. “Thanks, guys, but we’ll take over now.”

  Amanda turned to Noah. “What if it is her heart? Without Garland—”

  Her voice trailed off, but her meaning was clear. Garland Havard was the main heart man. Noah knew he should be the one who tended to Olivia. “What about Dickens?” He twisted around to Liz. “Call him.”

  “I tried. No answer.”

  Noah’s eyes and voice turned brooding. “Damn!”

  “We’ll have to do what we can,” Amanda put in. “Which I pray will be enough.”

  Noah’s gaze darted to the monitor. “We’re losing her! Get the paddles!”

  Amanda looked at him across the table. Noah nodded. “Go for it.”

  Without saying a word, he handed the paddles to her.

  All eyes were on Amanda as she placed them against the mayor’s heart, then cried, “Stand back!”

  She zapped Olivia with the current.

  No response. Noah held his breath, then cursed. “Try again.”

  Could they save her? Or had she arrived too late? Only time, and their combined skill, would tell.

  He moved to Amanda’s side, his face grim. “Want me to try?”

  “Dammit, we need Garland!”

  “Sorry,” Noah responded, “I’m afraid we’re it.”

  Amanda moved away from the gurney and without hesitating handed him the paddles.

  Noah bent over the mayor. “Come on, Olivia, don’t give up.” He laid the paddles once more against her chest, and her body bucked.

  All eyes swung to the monitor.

  Chapter Nine

  The Squaw Creek Lodge and its occupants seemed oblivious to the power outage and the severe weather—nonstop rain, thunder and lightning. Melissa Howell’s eyes circled the large room where the wedding reception was in full swing, minus the bride and groom, and she thought the rustic atmosphere would have been perfect.