Silent Echoes Part 31

She wanted to reach out and grab his hands to get him back close to her. "Something happened on campus one day. Two men fell from the top of a bell tower they were in the process of renovating. I didn't see what was going on until ... well ... until they hit the ground." The memories sent a jolt of pain through her heart. "The third lost his footing right afterward, and I couldn't see him dying when I was standing right there, so I pushed the wind toward the tower." She took a deep breath. "That current nudged a branch from one of the big oaks into the scaffolding and then him against the facade of the building, so it looked like he slid down to a safe level."

"And Tanner saw you?"

She shook her head. "Not exactly. He was the third guy." Her throat dried up on her. "Can I get some water?"

Ian scrambled up and dashed into the kitchen. "Evian or Voss?"

"Straight from the tap. I'm not a fancy girl."

Clatter emanated from the kitchen. He came back with a gla.s.s and a bottle with big lettering on it.

"Very cultured, Ian."

"It's New York. Who knows what's in the pipes?" He took the same spot again, tucking his leg up under himself and twisting off the cap.

"How much did you pay for this?" Taylor smirked at him.

"Does that really matter?" He took a swig.

"Humor me."

Ian raised an eyebrow. "Probably about five bucks."

Her eyes popped open. "Per bottle or a case?"

"Does it matter?"

"I'm trying to get a handle on you. Mid-thirties, single, uptown New York apartment that I know you put up as collateral for me."

He stopped in mid-sip. "Is this confessions day with Ian and Taylor?" A small chuckle accompanied his sip. "Should we be lying on a couch as if talking to the best shrink?"

"Confessions, yes. Shrinks, no." She held out her gla.s.s.

Ian clinked it. "So, yeah, I put up my apartment."

"Even before you got to know me?"

"Isn't that obvious?"

"Why?"

"Finish your story about Tanner, and maybe I'll tell you."

"Fine." She set the bottle on the gla.s.s coffee table. "So, he'd been up there, watched his buddies fall-they didn't die, by the way. For some reason, they'd surrounded the base of the pedestal with tarps and both of them fell into them. Broke a couple legs and a few ribs, but that was the extent. Talk about lucky." Taylor waved the thought away. "So, Tanner's up there, and down below is me, and he said when he felt the air push him back up, he turned, and I was standing there. My hair was blowing in a breeze that didn't affect anyone else, and my hand was held out in such a way that he knew I'd had something to do with it. He asked me out as soon as he got down. And, on our first date, that's all we talked about."

"Kinda selfish, don't you think?"

Taylor busted out a laugh. "Ian, you're too funny."

"I try. Though, I'm not sure what I did to make you laugh like that. I'll do it again if I get a repeat performance."

She bit back the bubbling giggle. "Nothing. Nothing. Just being you. So ... on Tanner, it's selfish of him to talk about things that can't happen in this world? Wouldn't that peak your curiosity enough to have endless conversations?" Her hand landed on Ian's leg. "He was curious. Unfortunately, that turned into an obsession I didn't even see coming. He wanted me to try stuff, to practice, to test the limits of what I could do."

"And. did you?"

"Yeah. That's also how I learned to really control it, and why I don't use it unless I need to."

"Tanner's dead, you know."

Taylor nodded. "Riley told me. I don't believe it."

Ian flinched.

She waved her hands back and forth. "Not that you're lying. But he faked it before. For all we know, he needed to get out of town because he'd set up another woman of his dreams."

"He really is. They confirmed with DNA and dental records."

"Which can all be faked."

"You really are cynical." He leaned in, his lips a breath from hers. "I kinda like that in a woman."

Taylor chuckled and gave him a quick kiss. "You haven't answered my original question. I think I ponied up enough. It's your turn now, mister." She poked a finger into his chest. The touch made her want him more. "So, tell me, Ian ..." Taylor teased his lips with her tongue. "... why did you agree to potentially lose this place?"

"What else would I do for a friend in need-especially a hot one." His smile crept in.

She sucked in air but kept her lips glued to his. "You didn't even know me at the time." Her words came out barely a whisper.

"You might have had dreams. You might have spent days dying under the watch of a dozen doctors. Remember what I said about the phone calls? That and the wedding made me insane for months-kept my life out of balance. I felt it. Knew it."

"Love at first sight?"

"Or first lives." His lips formed into a smile a second before they crushed Taylor's again.

The buzz of a fire alarm tore them apart.

"Son of a b.i.t.c.h!" Ian said as Taylor covered her ears.

Ian braced his hands against his own and nodded toward the door. The emergency lights flickered. The scream of the siren grew and retreated. Ended and restarted.

"This isn't a test." Ian's head shook. "We gotta go."

Taylor couldn't move. Thirty-gazillion stories up. Fire below or above, she didn't know. Didn't care. Just as with a pool or a house falling down around her, she froze.

Ian tugged at her arm.

Her body failed to move even as her mind called out to her to snap out of it, to go, to take the stairs and get out.

Ian's face appeared in front of her. His hands clamped around her arms. A small shake had her looking down at him, seeing but not seeing him. The mere thought of a fire that could consume the whole of her sent her body into a panic.

Another blast of sound hit her ears, but Taylor couldn't make herself budge.

Ian disappeared from view. A jingle of keys followed. A second later, he winged her into his arms and ran out the door.

a a a A one week course in fire safety in college did not prepare Ian for three dozen flights of stairs with a one-hundred-and-thirty-pound weight in his arms. On the landing of his floor, all four doors remained closed. He headed toward the stair exit, b.u.mped it with his hip and headed in. The blink of the emergency lights flashed through the well, adding a red haze with each new appearance and blare.

With each of Ian's steps, Taylor's stiffness relaxed until her weight evened out in his arm. He kept her tucked in, refusing to get them both stuck in a high rise fire. No way this is how I kill her.

After one flight down, the scent of burning plastic made his nose twitch.

At the second level below, they met with the couple who'd moved in across the hall from him. The man clung to his wife, who Ian had to guess would pop her watermelon-sized belly at any moment.

Their slowness pushed him to a stop as the alarm made them all jump.

"Go around us," Jacob said.

Ian started to do just that, but Taylor wiggled out of his hold. He pulled her back in.

"I'm okay. Don't know how, but I'm okay, now." She stirred until her feet hit the tread below them.

Jacob and his wife continued down, one step at a time, she heaving great breaths as he held her hand and mumbled at her ear.

Way too many flights to go.

Jacob and his wife came down two more steps, and she cried out.

"Carry her!" Staring at Ian, Taylor pointed at the struggling couple.

Another three people broke through from the fire door, their voices a jumble of sounds that Ian couldn't pick out. He spun to Jacob. "You know how to hold in a chair position?" The look Jacob gave Ian said *no'. Another glance to Taylor got a *do it'.

The newest folks in their group pushed past without pausing as Ian walked up three steps and showed Jacob how to hold his hands. "I'm Ian," he said as Taylor nudged the woman into their arms.

"Ellen," she said between pants. With a turn to Jacob, she added, "And, I want to move to the *burbs."

He chuckled as she settled into their hold.

"Keep your pace with mine," Ian said. "Slow around the corners."

"I heard someone say there was a kitchen fire and to stop on twenty for the elevators there," Jacob said.

Ten flights to go then.

Ian's arms burned as he kept Ellen's weight on his side and maneuvered down the steps. His body may have been tuned to the woman in his arms, but his mind stayed fixed on Taylor, one step ahead of them and calling out obstacles.

Two more flights down and they met up with another group chitchatting and meandering their way. "I heard this was just a test." "Someone said a toaster blew up." "d.a.m.n high rises. Can't keep their fire contained." Each of the voices gave Ian a picture of the face, yet he refused to look, keeping his gaze trained on Taylor.

Another thirty stairs and his legs cramped, but he pressed on, gritting his teeth and willing his ear drums to deal with the continued siren.

Twenty stairs later, the foursome stopped, along with at least two dozen others as four firemen waved their arms in the air. "From here you can take the elevators. Everything is contained on thirty-two. Nothing to worry about. Just a small kitchen fire. You'll be back home soon, but we do want to complete the evacuation."

Ian helped Ellen to her feet as they stood in front of the bank of four elevators.

Taylor tugged on Ian's s.h.i.+rt. "Can we keep going? I don't like being up here knowing there might be flames above us."

He switched toward where Jacob and Ellen stood, still clinging to each other as she continued her pants and breaths. With a ding, the elevator opened, and the crowd rushed forward.

"Please, Ian. I'm a little claustrophobic and a lot fearful of fire."

"All right, then. Let's go."

Unenc.u.mbered, the trip down took just over five minutes. As soon as they exited the lobby, along with a rush of people from the elevators, Taylor turned to Ian. Behind them, four fire trucks waited, their lights flas.h.i.+ng. A few police cars sat caddy-corner to the building, blocking traffic or redirecting it. People stood, crammed together on the sidewalk and in the street, some moving away, others staying in place as if to snub the would-be fire.

"Ian," she said as he said, "Taylor."

She ran a hand through her hair as Ian wiped one across his scalp.

Never before had he been so in tune with a woman.

"Let's go back to North Carolina," he said as she said, "I really can't stand New York."

Her mouth opened wide. "You want to go ... back?"

Ian slid his palm against her cheeks and touched his lips to hers. "My brother once said that my place is wherever Tripp is, but I think he was wrong. My place is wherever you are." Someone jostled him from behind, and Ian repositioned himself and Taylor farther into the mixing crowd.

"Do you mean that?" she asked.

"I just carried a woman down almost ten flights of stairs not knowing if the building was really on fire or not. If that had been Lexi and Tripp and I had to do that, my heart would have been pounding in my chest. I'd have had one of your panic attacks not knowing if we'd get her out. And, she's just a sister to me. G.o.d, Taylor, what if that was you?"

"But, isn't New York your home? Isn't this where you're meant to be? I've been in your life a couple weeks and some of that I've been in a coma-like state, and others I've been in ja-" She stopped at Ian's glare.

"What really made you come up here?" People bustled about in Ian's peripheral vision, jockeying for s.p.a.ce, moving in and out and probably pick-pocketing a few of those standing around idle.

Taylor didn't respond.

"Something else?" Ian asked.

Her lips firmed.

"The real reason. Tell me the real one. Not about the daring duo of womanhood who love to meddle, especially in my life."

Taylor's smile brought Ian's out. "I never wanted you to leave. Even with the story and conclusions you made, and when Riley explained why you left-all the coincidences. Lexi and Emma reminded me what those are." Her eyes closed.

He sighed, dropping his forehead to her. "I really did think leaving was best, that if I weren't in your life at all, there'd be no chance I could hurt you. But, Taylor, I've been going out of my mind again just like before."

She opened her eyes.

"I'd planned to get the plane and fly down today. Was just pacing my apartment waiting for the phone call that would tell me it was ready. I didn't tell anyone what my plans were, except Tripp."

Taylor snorted a laugh. "And now, I see where his wife gets it. Master manipulators, wouldn't you say?"