Page 22 of Knox

“On three,” he said and counted.

They moved her in one smooth transfer into the body of the case.

“We need to slide the case up the girder.” Knox’s gaze seemed to be calculating the how of his words.

“You could get on top, and I’ll push her up to you?”

She wasn’t sure where she’d dug up the words, but she nodded in the wake of them, as if trying to convince, well, herself.

He took a breath. “Okay. Help me get her on the girder. I’ll climb up with her, and you push. Stabilize.” He shined his light on the angled supports that braced the inside of the girder, then on a hinge at the top of the girder.

It hung half torn from its bracing.

She got up, considered the ten-foot rise to the next floor. “Maybe—”

“She could go into shock. We can’t wait for help.”

That’s not what she was going to say. And the suggestion that she climb the girder nearly escaped anyway. But he had already moved the case into the girder, balancing it as he stepped onto one of the spokes.

It groaned, and she straddled the girder, securing the case. “Go.”

He climbed fast, threw his leg over the top of the girder, turned to look down at them, and started to inch his way up, climbing backward as he tugged her up.

It was working. Kelsey stretched out, climbed up on the spokes, and tried to ignore the shuddering of the girder.

“I’m almost…there,” Knox said, his hand white-gripping the case as he reached out for something above him in the darkness.

The metal groaned. “Hurry!” Kelsey shouted.

He slid onto the lip of the floor above, turned, and lay on his stomach, grabbing for the case.

In a second, he’d pulled Tori up and into the darkness beside him.

Voices echoed above, and she heard Knox shout back.

“Over here!”

They’d found them. She closed her eyes.

And in a moment, the past rushed up, light scraping over her body, nearly frozen through, a dog barking, warm hands on her. Someone draping a coat—

“Kelsey, c’mon!”

Knox was holding out his hand to her, lying on his stomach. She started to climb, hooking her feet on the spokes.

The metal shook, twisting with her exertions.

“Knox—?”

She reached out for his hand, brushed it.

The metal snapped off its mooring and in a second, she was falling, her footing sliding free.

A scream cut through her and she wanted to brace herself for impact—

Except a hand clamped onto her wrist. A vise that halted her midair as the world crashed around her. She dangled there, looked up.

Knox held her, his jaw tight, eyes in hers. “I got ya. I told you, I’m going to get you out of this.”