Echoes From The Past (Women of Character) (24 page)

He pulled the paper out of his
back pocket and placed the flowers in the center, then wrapped the paper around
it for the ride back. He smelled the flowers, not even thinking about looking
for bees this time. They smelled pretty good.

Garrett had formed a picture in
his mind of Christie’s early life. Deep loneliness, and except for her sister,
there hadn’t been an abundance of love, something that would take time to
overcome. If that was Christie’s early life, then it must have been Judith’s
also.

Garrett parked his bike in the
shed behind the house and crossed the yard to the back door. Looking up he saw
Christie waiting for him on the steps.

"Hi." She grimaced.
"Sorry for being a wet blanket. I wanted to apologize before we went in
for dinner."

If she was a wet blanket, she
could wrap herself around him anytime. "Don’t worry about it. I do
understand." Garrett held the newspaper-wrapped flowers out to her.
"These are for you. Hope you like them."

Christie took the paper with both
hands. Darting him a glance, she opened it and let out a small cry. She stepped
forward and the warmth of her body was momentarily against him, her cheek
resting on his.

"Thank you," she said.
"You’re the most thoughtful guy I know."

Garrett cleared his throat. "Glad
you like them."

He followed Christie into the
house, liking the happiness in her face, the way her dark hair slid along her
cheek. Why hadn’t someone snapped her up? She was strong and special, but there
was also something so vulnerable in her joy that it scared him. Again he
wondered, did he want to risk becoming involved and thereby embrace everything
that came along with Christie?

The dream hit Christie with
terrifying force. Smoke swirled around her head and the air was choking with
it. She heard horses whinny in distress, hooves kick the walls and the
splintering of wood.

Christie coughed, opening her
eyes. The dream was real. She felt disoriented. The clock seemed to swirl, then
cleared. One a.m. Muffled sounds reached her from below and the fear escalated
into terror. Something was very wrong. She had to get out. Where were Garrett
and Hannah? She thought a moment. She’d left the house only three hours ago.

She rolled out of bed, landing
hard on the floor. Drawing a gasping breath, she tried to separate herself from
the terror of waking in a smoke-filled room. She had to get her bearings. The
doorway should be straight ahead.

Crawling on her knees she found
the opening but the smoke was worse when she tried to go down the stairs.
Christie leaned against the still cool walls, unable to see anything. If she
attempted the stairs she might walk into an inferno.

She crawled back across the room
and managed to find the staircase that led down to the inside arena. With a
clutch of panic she realized the horse barn below her apartment must be on
fire. She thought achingly of the horses.

Without giving herself further
time to think, she plunged down the stairs. She half-slid, half-bumped her way
down the last two steps. Christie landed near the bottom on her back, her
nightshirt riding up her thighs. Her legs felt scraped and a warm stickiness
covered the toes of one foot. She bit back the pain and clamped her lips on the
moan that wanted to escape.

Dazed, she stumbled into the arena
and pulled in gasping breaths of clean fresh air. Half a dozen horses ran
around in the enclosure, nostrils flared and their tails straight out. Christie
felt the same fear they were exhibiting. All she could think about was she had
to get into the barn and make sure the rest of the horses reached safety. She
was hardly aware of the soft dirt beneath her bare feet as she dodged the
scared horses. She counted in her head, fifteen horses in the barn. She turned
toward a small side door and entered the main barn over which her apartment
sat.

Choking smoke hit her face. She
held her shirtsleeve over her nose, her eyes immediately gritty and burning,
terror making her steps falter. She felt her way down the barn, finding the
first stall open. She went down the line, thankful to find all the stalls
appeared to be empty. A horse brushed against her and she fell to the ground.

Christie didn’t see any flames or
feel the heat of fire, just an overwhelming, thick smoke. She leaned against a
wall. She couldn't remember if she was at the end of the barn or closer to the
middle. Panic began to set in.

She felt her way as she crawled on
her knees.

"Christie! Where are you?
Answer me!" From far off she heard Garrett. She kept her head down but
turned toward the sound of his voice.

"Garrett!" Her voice
came out a pitiful croak, the taste of smoke acrid on her tongue. Christie
pushed her sleeve into her mouth but the taste wouldn’t go away. She closed her
eyes, feeling smoky grit behind her lids.

###

Garrett told the others to stand back
away from the smoke billowing from the barn opening, but then he thought he saw
something inside.

"Sam, somebody’s in
there." He put a wet rag over his mouth, a burning pain in his chest. Fear
clawed up into his throat and joined the smoke to choke him. Christie. Where
was she? He had to find her.

He tripped over something and fell
to his knees on the hard barn floor. Reaching forward, he felt a bare leg.
Dread knotted his stomach muscles. He pulled Christie toward him and then he
lifted her on his shoulder and lunged to his feet. She lay still.

Terror lent him extra strength.
Garrett turned and ran as hard as he could from the barn, Christie bouncing
like a lifeless doll on his shoulder. Once outside and away from the blinding
smoke, he lay her on the ground and checked for a pulse. Sam was instantly at
his side, his voice saying something, but Garrett didn’t hear. He pushed the
wild tangle of hair away from her face, pain and fear clawing at him. She
didn’t seem to be breathing.

He ignored the stinging in his
eyes. He shook her shoulder, but her head lolled to the side. Black soot
outlined her mouth and nose. "Christie!" Tilting her head back he put
his mouth over hers and breathed.

Pulling back, he tasted deepening
anguish through every pore of his body.

No response.

He lowered his head once more.

Christie suddenly lifted her head
and shoulders and coughed. Garrett let out a hoarse cry, barely aware of his
own relief as he supported her head and neck.

"Okay ... I'm okay," she
croaked, her eyes opening, dark, tear-studded eyes in her soot-blackened face.

"Christie." Was that
hoarse voice his? Sitting back on his heels, Garrett lifted her from the ground
and cradled her limp body in his arms. He couldn’t do anything else. He held her
close to reaffirm that she hadn’t died. He held her without words, conscious of
the tremble of his arms. He had almost lost her.

"The horses, what about the
horses?" she asked, jerking forward, looking back and forth. "We’ve
got to get them out."

Garrett laid a gentling hand on
her cheek, aware of the terrible shake in his hands and arms as she clawed at
him and tried to rise. "Easy, Christie. Sam got everybody out."

"The road?"

"The main gate is closed,
they can’t get out on the road."

She looked at the barn with the
smoke still pouring out the windows.

Garrett felt her shudder. He
wanted to absorb her fear, take it away, but there was nothing he could do,
especially when the remnants of his own fear were gripping him so tightly.

"Boy, that was close," she
said weakly, going limp against him. Garrett clenched his teeth in an agony of
reaction. She didn't know how desperately close it had been.

"While Sam was pulling the
horses out I tried to find you." He cleared his throat, overcome with the
memory of not knowing where she was. He had raced up the stairs and been pushed
back by the smoke. "The smoke had gotten so bad, I couldn't see anything.
I tried to get into the stairway on the arena side, but it was locked. I ran up
the front stairs but I had to double back." Garrett never wanted to
experience that fear again. For a ten-minute period, she had been lost to him.
It had felt like hours.

"I was hoping you got
outside. When I came back down the horses were all out." Garrett blanked
from his mind the sick terror that had gripped him. "In the chaos Sam
couldn’t find you."

"I’m okay, Garrett." Her
voice had become reassuring, as if she would soothe him.

Her nightshirt was stained and
streaked with dirt. "I thought you were dead," he muttered starkly,
staring into her eyes, seeing the evidence of life for himself. He tightened
his arms.

"Garrett, I went down the
stairs into the arena because of the smoke. I knew we had to get the horses to
safety. You carried me out here?" she asked shakily, burrowing into him.

Garrett nodded his head jerkily.
"You lay so still." The adrenaline still had him in its grip. He
couldn’t shut up. "Come on," he said, "you’re coming to the
house."

Garrett helped Christie to her
feet. When she swayed he muttered a curse and lifted her into his arms.

"Boss -- Christie -- I’ve got
the medical personnel coming to take a look. Christie, are you okay?"

She nodded.

Christie let the paramedics do a
cursory examination, but pushed them away firmly when they wanted her to go in
the ambulance. "I’m fine."

Garrett moved away and lowered his
voice. "Sam, did you see anything?"

"Looks like the fire might
have started by the office," Sam said grimly.

"The painters were in there
today."

Sam nodded. "Yeah and I told
them there was no smoking in the barn and made one of them put out a cigarette.
It looks like some rags they’d bundled into a trash bag might’ve been
smoldering for awhile, that’s why there's so much smoke. There's a wall gone
but it's not a supporting wall. Luckily everything was cleared out of there
before they started."

"Do me a favor," Garrett
said slowly. "Call and see if my brother’s on duty tonight. I’ll have him
get those guys together and get to the bottom of this."

"The fire company is on its
way, too," Ruth said.

Garrett looked at her as she came
up behind Sam. Her head was covered with a cap and she wore a man’s black robe.
She clutched the neckline and pulled it up to her neck as if she were cold.

"Christie, are okay?"
Ruth asked.

Garrett turned to find Christie
behind him. "I’m okay, thanks to Garrett."

"You’re going to the
hospital." He put an arm around her shoulders and felt her stiffen.

"No hospital."

Garrett swore. "You need to
be checked out."

She crossed her arms over her
chest and shook her head. "I won’t go." Her gaze met his squarely.
"It’ll take more than you to get me there."

"Stubborn woman. We’ll talk
about it inside." Garrett glanced quickly at Sam. "When the fire
chief arrives let me know. I'll be at the house."

"Sure, boss, but I saw Marcus
from the sheriff's office around here somewhere so I'm guessing he's been in
contact with Randy. I’ll double check." Sam looked at Christie. "Are
you sure you’re okay?"

"Fine."

Garrett reached out and lifted her
off the ground and into his arms. She squirmed to pull her nightshirt down
where it had ridden up over her knees. "Put me down, Garrett, I'm
okay."

Garrett turned and strode with her
to the house.

"Do you think it was
deliberately set?" she asked, her voice shaky. "I still feel kind of
confused. When I blacked out in the barn I don’t remember anything until I saw
you looking down at me."

"It could have been
catastrophic." Garrett felt sick thinking of the losses to human and
animal life. "Every animal in the barn could have been wiped out." He
tightened his arms when he felt a shudder shake her. Losing all of his animals
didn't bear thinking about, but he couldn't deal with the thought of losing
Christie. "God, Christie, you could have died."

"But I didn’t," she said
firmly. "I’m okay."

Garrett let out a long breath.
"I had an uneasy feeling and couldn’t sleep, so I checked the grounds. By
the time I got to the barn, smoke was already beginning to pour out. I phoned
Sam as I got into the barn but within seconds the smoke engulfed
everything."

He shouldered his way through the
kitchen door. Christie's arms had crept around his neck and he needed them
there. He didn’t want to put her down, but he knew he would have to. He
tightened his arms on her slim frame, the remembered fear skittering down his
back.

"You can put me down
now," she said. He continued through the house. "Garrett, really, I’m
okay. The smoke was just so choking in there I got disoriented. Nothing
happened."

Garrett entered his bedroom and
stood just inside the threshold with her in his arms. Watching her look around
the simply furnished room, Garrett was reluctant to put her down. "Sorry,
the room’s a mess."

His arms tightened involuntarily
as he thought of her sharing his queen size bed with him. When her attention
settled on the rumpled bed Christie turned dark eyes to him. "Um, why
don’t you put me down?"

He walked past the bed to the
opposite side of the room. He decided it wasn’t a good idea; he and Christie in
close proximity to a bed.

"I’d feel better taking you
to the hospital," he said in a low voice.

"Let’s not argue about it. I
won’t go, and you’re needed here. If I start to feel sick, I’ll let you know. I
just need to get cleaned up."

"You can take a shower in
here. I’m re-grouting the shower in the guest room." Garrett opened the
door to his bathroom and flicked the light switch. "I’ve got to talk to
the fire inspector. Randy will be here too, no doubt. The room is all yours.
Take a shower and go to sleep. You look exhausted."