Marie Ferrarella - Fortune's Heirs - Reunion

Exasperated by the situation and by the fact that there didn’t seem to be anything he could do to negate the mounting anxiety in her eyes, he snapped, “Because I didn’t have any breakfast this morning and I’m hungry.” Taking her arm, he pulled her over to the wall. “I need it for leverage, that’s why.”

Removing his shoes, Jack clamped his hand on her shoulder. She wobbled a little, then braced herself. The phrase “iron butterfly” teased his brain. “You’re sturdier than you look.”

“So they tell me.”

He raised his foot as far up as he could, getting it onto the railing. Gloria spread her legs apart, taking a stance as he pushed off her shoulder and rose up parallel to the wall. There was a space between the ceiling and where the sides ended. He secured his fingers along that ridge. Moving in half inches, he managed to make it to the trapped door.

Holding on with one hand, he pushed the panel with the other. It took a little doing, but the panel finally gave way. Jack moved it to the side. Clearing an opening large enough to accommodate him, he pulled himself up with his arms.

Watching his every move, Gloria held her breath. She saw him disappear through the opening. For a moment she was alone. Alone in a small space. Just as she had been all those years ago. Perspiration was forming all up and down her spine. She could feel her blouse adhering to her back.

Damn it, stop panicking. It’s not going to do you any good, she insisted silently.

Gloria forced her feet to move until she was standing directly under the opening that the panel had covered. She craned her neck. There was nothing but darkness outside the car.

“What do you see?”

“Nothing.”

“Nothing?” Disappointment resonated through her like a death knell.

“Nothing,” he repeated. “No lights, not even slivers of light between the floors. No nothing.” Which, as far as he could see, could mean only one thing. “It looks like there’s some kind of power failure going on in the building.”

Her breath felt almost jagged as it caught in her throat. “Do you think it’s affected the whole city?”

“Probably just us,” he told her in the calmest voice he could muster.

And then he looked down into the car. She’d been right. He had to do something. “Look, I’m going to try to see if I can get to the next floor.”

“No!” Her sudden cry surprised him. Her next words surprised him even more. “Don’t leave me.”

She wasn’t being rational. “Gloria, I—”

“Don’t leave me,” she repeated, the urgency in her voice growing.

He supposed there was no way of knowing just how far up he was going to have to climb before he could get out. And if he left her, there was no telling what condition she’d been in by the time he could get back to her. He made his decision.

“Okay, stand back,” he ordered. “I’m coming down.”

She moved to the opposite wall, pressing her back up against it, her eyes never leaving his face. Gloria held her breath as she watched him jump down. He winced as he landed.

“Are you all right?”

He’d landed wrong on his ankle. Testing it now, he shrugged. “I’ll live.” And then he looked at his clothes. “But I don’t know about my suit.”

She tried to smile and succeeded only marginally. The space around her was growing smaller. “Can’t stay clean around me, can you?”

“Doesn’t look like it.” They both jumped when the elevator phone rang. Jack grabbed it. “Hello?”

“Hello? This car number seven?” a deep male voice rumbled against his ear, carrying beyond the receiver.

Jack glanced up at the certificate housed behind glass. It okayed the car for service. He squinted to make out the number.

“Yeah. We’re stuck.”

“So are all the other elevator cars.” The technician sounded harried and resigned at the same time. “Power’s out throughout the building. You’re going to have to hang tight.”

Gloria was directly behind him. Desperate, she grabbed the phone from his hand and yelled, “How long?”

“Dunno. We’re working as fast as we can.” There was a pause, as if the technician was calculating time. “Couple of hours, maybe more.”

“A couple of hours?” Her eyes widened as her claustrophobia threatened to take over every square inch of her. She could feel it cutting off her air, making her want to gasp.

“Can’t be helped,” the technician informed her.

Jack looked at her as she handed him the phone. “Is the blackout confined just to this building?”

“Looks more like a few blocks. As close as I can tell, a grid went out.” Then, because nothing could be solved on the phone like this, the technician said, “I’ll get back to you.”

And suddenly the line went dead.

A fresh assault of panic struck Gloria. She felt as if they’d been abandoned.

“No, wait, wait,” Gloria cried as she grabbed the receiver from Jack. But there was no one on the other end to hear her.

They were alone, she thought, anxiety coarsely rubbing against her. Alone for who knew how long?

Very gently, Jack pried the receiver out of her hand. The woman had a death grip, he thought as he removed her fingers from the phone and hung up.

The annoyance he’d initially felt had turned to protectiveness. “He’ll call back when he has something to say.”

Lips pressed together, she nodded. But when she spoke, there was despair in Gloria’s voice. “We might be dead by then.”

Maybe he could kid her out of it, he thought. “You always exaggerate like that?”

Instead of answering him, she turned desperate eyes up to his face. “Talk to me.”

“I thought I was.”

But she shook her head. “No, talk to me. Get my mind off this.”

Maybe if he could get her to talk about her fears, it would help her to deal with the situation. “What is it with you and tight places?”

Ordinarily she might have said something flippant, or even denied that there was a problem the way he was implying. But the man had eyes. He could see there was a problem. Could hear it, too. There was no disguising her reaction, no matter how hard she tried. “I don’t like them.”

He laughed shortly. “That’s rather obvious. Any particular reason?”

Instead of answering him immediately, Gloria took off her jacket, tossing it on top of her coat. She opened the top two buttons of her blouse. Even in this light, he could see the perspiration along her forehead and on her cheeks. It wasn’t that hot in here, he thought.

Jack watched in fascination as she pulled her blouse out from the waistband of her skirt, fanning her middle with the shirttails.

When she paused and raised her eyes to his, he said, “Don’t stop on my account.”

She hated the feeling of desperation that was eating her alive. She should have outgrown it by now, risen above it. “It’s hot in here.”

It wasn’t the heat she was feeling and they both knew it, but he let her have her lie.

“And panicking is going to make it seem hotter.” He waited for a second, certain she would continue. But she didn’t. That alone told him that the situation was dire. The woman never missed a chance to talk. “You didn’t answer my question. Any particular reason confined spaces make you break out in a sweat?”

“Yes.”

They weren’t making any progress. “And that would be?”

Gloria’s eyes shifted from his face. This wasn’t something she talked about, at least not to anyone outside of her own family and even that was rare.

She glanced toward Jack. He was still waiting. Okay, maybe he deserved to know why she’d clawed his arm. At the very least, it would pass the time.

She took as deep a breath of the increasingly hotter air as she could and began.