Page 33 of Love Is A Draw
His arms strengthened their grip in response, and he leaned closer, his breath steady against her ear. “Hold me,” he said, low and sure, the words carrying weight she hadn’t realized she needed. “I’m here.”
His offer of comfort should have soothed her, but it sparked conflict inside her, only deepening the ache. She wanted desperately to believe him, to accept the solidity of his frame, but the thought ofhimbeing too close to danger made her chest tighten with a different kind of fear. The fire above could snap its greedy fingers and take him first. The basket could pitch one way too far, and she would lose him forever. Her breath hitched at the thought, something sharp and panicked breaking from her throat before she could stop it.
Victor’s arms shifted, his hand brushing over hers where they clung uselessly to the edge. “Gail.” He invited her to focus entirely on him, away from the smoke above and the searing heat so close. “Breathe.” He threw the single word as an anchor thrown into a storm, and she tried, though her breath caught halfway, shaky and strained.
“I don’t…” she tried to answer, but words failed her, carried off by the roaring wind and the suffocating smoke.
“Yes, you do.” His hand steadied hers, firm against trembling fingers. “Our position is stronger than we think.” Something in his certainty flared warmth through the ice in her veins. She could borrow steadiness, even if it wasn’t her own.
The smell of him surrounded her now, a familiar blend of leather and something faintly spiced, but the acrid tang of burning silk clawed at her senses, refusing to release its grip.Above them, the fire hissed and popped, flames licking unseen edges of the fabric. The basket swayed again, a precarious tilt sucking air from her lungs. He shifted, as if preparing to shield her from anything, even the unraveling sky above.
“Victor,” she whispered, her panic bleeding into his name. Her throat burned as bile threatened to rise, but she swallowed it back, forcing her body to stay still within the cocoon of his arms.
Tears stung her eyes now, only partly from the smoke, and she pressed herself deeper against him. The basket jolted so violently that Gail’s breath left her in a panicked gasp. Above, the flames crackled louder, hungrier, the smoke curling downward like a living thing.
The pilot’s boots scraped against the floorboards as he fought with the ropes. His clipped shout cut through the windy, smoky, and noisy. “Ready! Hold on!”
His command came like the crack of a whip, sparking something wild and desperate in Gail’s chest. She didn’t have time to think, to wonder what would come next. The basket dipped again, the sky pitching at an angle that made her stomach churn. Her grip on Victor’s arm tightened, her nails digging into the fabric of his sleeve as though holding him might somehow keep them tethered to the earth they were about to meet.
Victor didn’t flinch. “Gail,” he said sharply, his voice taut with purpose.
She couldn’t bring herself to meet his gaze—not when her world had shrunk to the heat of his arms locked firmly around her. One of his hands curled around her head, steadying it against his chest as he wrapped the other around her waist. His grip was unyielding, holding her tighter than she thought possible without crushing her.
The basket heaved again and tipped hard to the right, so sharply that even crouched at the bottom she could see over thewicker rim. Her shoulder slammed into the side as if the basket meant to spill them out into the open sky, the swell of its motion knocking her knees against the wicker. She bit the inside of her cheek to keep from crying out. The acrid sting of smoke clung to her senses, filling her nose and making her eyes water as her heart pounded with a frantic, almost deafening rhythm. Victor ducked his head low, his breath brushing hot against her temple. The closeness made every sensation sharper, every nerve brittle and raw. She could sense the faint tremor in his chest as he exhaled, though his hold on her never wavered.
Gail’s nails bit deeper into his coat. Her body shook uncontrollably, but her focus narrowed to the heat of his hand splayed protectively across her back. The impact they both dreaded seemed to stretch time, measuring each labored second more cruelly than the last.
Above them, the ropes groaned perilously, a creak that sent a shock of cold dread slicing through her.
The pilot’s curses under his breath rose to her ears again, barking unintelligible orders into the wind. She couldn’t focus on him. She couldn’t focus on anything except the crushing fear clawing at her stomach and Victor’s frame surrounding hers like armor.
The basket tilted sharply, and Gail whimpered, her face pressing harder into his chest. She tried to force her breaths into some kind of rhythm, but couldn’t control the hopeless flutter of terror in her ribs.
Victor’s voice broke through the noise, steady but growling with tension. “Soon.” His lips brushed her hair as he spoke. “Head down.”
She nodded against him, small and frantic, unable to speak. Her fingers clenched the heavy fabric of his coat into trembling fists as she pressed herself deeper into his embrace. If the impact came now, if they fell from the sky like the burning wreckage shefeared they’d soon become, she didn’t want her final moments to be spent searching for something to hold onto. She had Victor, and no one else would do.
The ropes whined, and the deafening sound of the flames roared like a beast intent on devouring its prey. Each second lingered unbearably, the weight of dread bearing down on her chest until it felt as though she might choke on it. Victor shifted slightly, his grip unrelenting, his legs bracing them even harder against the relentless sway of their dying vessel.
The wind screamed around them, the slap of the ropes echoed like a harbinger of doom, and Gail held her breath, bracing for the jarring, inevitable moment when the earth would meet them with all its unyielding force. Whatever words Victor might have said were lost to the wind, but his lips barely left her hair, his presence a silent defiance against the fear threatening to consume her.
And though panic gripped every wasted corner of her mind, she held to one singular thought, if only to keep from unraveling completely. If this were the end, she would not be alone.
CHAPTER 15
The basket crashed in a jarring, final thud. Pain lanced up from Victor’s spine to the base of his skull. It left him breathless. Gail winced in his arms, her soft, fragile weight trembling against him. So small, she pressed her head against his chest as though she could curl herself into him to stay safe from the madness surrounding them.
Cold hit him, all at once and merciless, seizing his body like an iron grip. Water surged in, climbing fast over his legs and sending a shock of icy sharpness through every nerve. His boots slipped on the basket’s now-submerged floor, water swirling around his calves and rising fast. The sting of it dragged his breath into uneven gasps, but his attention was laser-focused on Gail. She clung to him, her fingers tight on his coat, her weight anchoring him to a purpose he couldn’t abandon.
A sudden shift. She loosened her grasp. Her fingers, so desperate only moments before, slackened. He felt her move away, her arms slipping from his sides.
“Gail!” he shouted, his voice rough, cracking against the cold air that knifed through him.
He reached for her, his palms skimming the sodden fabric of her skirts before the darkness swallowed her. It happened soquickly. Unbearably fast. One moment, she was trembling and alive in his hold. The next, the silk canopy overhead tore loose, sagging down in a burning sheet before the flames hissed out in the water. The great fabric collapsed over them, heavy as drowning cloth.
Victor surged forward, the basket already half-submerged, tilting hard and lurching him sideways as his hands scrabbled for a grip. Icy water surged up to his chest, dragging fiercely at his legs, filling his ears with its roar.
He shoved against the basket’s rim, leaning toward where he’d last seen her, heart pounding as though it could force her back into his reach.
