Page 69 of His Girl Hollywood

“Put me down.”

“No, you’re hurt, you’re tired—”

“Arlene, I can make it the rest of the way. Put me down. Or we’ll both be stuck here.”

She released her grip on his legs and sighed in exasperation. “Fine.” He let go and gingerly lowered to his feet. His jaw still hurt like hell, and his legs were as shaky as if he’d just stepped off a months-long sea voyage. But he could do this. He pressed both his hands against the door, next to hers, and looked at her.

She gave him a look of deep concern, but then she nodded. “Okay, on the count of three. One, two, three.” They both pushed all their body weight against the door and it gave way. They fell forward with it, landing on a concrete floor much like the one in the warehouse they’d just left. The room was hot, and it smelled like smoke.

“Shit,” she swore.

He followed the direction of her voice and looked up from his position on the ground to see the orange flickers of fire at the far end of the warehouse. The room was hazy, a thin layer of smoke filling it from end to end. They had quite literally jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire.

“Let’s turn back,” he grunted.

Arlene looked panicked, her eyes darting from the fire back to the door they’d come from. “No, you’re too weak. You can’t fightthem off. Let Dash and Flynn handle it.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Flynn? Flynn Banks is part of this rescue mission?”

“It’s a long story. One we don’t have time for right now.” While she spoke, her eyes searched the room and she landed on something glinting in the firelight on the catwalk above them. “There, that’s the only way out.”

He squinted and struggled to make out what she saw.

“That’s the chute for collecting the fish from the docks,” she explained.

He groaned. “I hate to break this to you, Lena, but I’m a lot bigger than a sardine.”

But she was already climbing the ladder to the catwalk, extending her hand to him. “Think you can manage?”

He gritted his teeth. He didn’t really have much of a choice, did he? He pushed himself up and reached for her hand as she strained to help him lift his legs the few feet off the ground required to get purchase on the bottom rung of the ladder. He squeezed her hand so tightly that he could see her wince. “Sorry,” he ground out. But she merely bit her lip and held on. This woman. Was there anything she couldn’t do? If they got out of this alive, he’d spend every day reminding her what an extraordinary creature she was if she’d let him.

With a monumental effort, he swung his other hand to grasp at the metal bars, already warm from the flames across the room. He grunted, sweating with the effort as he wrapped his hand so tightly around the rung that his fingernails dug into his palm. He fumbled at the ladder with his feet, finally balancing on the points of his toes. He leaned his head against the bar and struggled to catch his breath, coughing as the smoke grew thicker. The fire on the other side of the warehouse crackled menacingly and leapt farther up the wall.

“We’ve got to go,” Arlene hissed.

He nodded. “I’ve got it. You go ahead.” She gave him a look of uncertainty, but then she let go, scurrying up the ladder like a monkey up a tree. It reminded him of their backyard days, scaling trees and imagining they could see other worlds from the branches. He had to move. Lena had assembled her friends, faced off against Frankie’s goons, and carried him across a warehouse—all to save his hide.

He grunted again, biting into the side of his cheek that was injured and bracing against the pain as he reached for the next rung of the ladder. Each movement upward seemed to take an eternity, the combination of his pain and semiconsciousness making his limbs feel as if they were moving through molasses while being slowly roasted over hot coals. When he reached the top, Lena was standing there waiting for him, her eyes darting between the cloud of smoke growing beneath them and the circular metal contraption on the other side of the catwalk. He was sweating in earnest now, and he used the last of his strength to pull himself onto the catwalk, heaving his body onto the wooden planks with what he feared could be his last breath.

He lay on his back, gasping for air, and before he knew what was happening, Lena was pushing him upward and wrapping her hands around his waist. “Whaddya—”

“Shh, it’s harder when you talk.” He didn’t have the strength to argue, so he let her pull him to his feet, wrap his arm around her shoulders, and shove her own hand under his armpit. She struggled to take a step forward, practically dragging him as she made her way nearer their goal. He chuckled in his delirium. This was the most pathetic three-legged race anyone had ever run. But somehow, miraculously, through great determination, they made it.

The clouds of smoke were thick now, and Arlene began to cough,the effort of carrying them both getting to her. He leaned against the wall, pushing his body weight into it so that he could put his feet down and remain upright. He didn’t have the energy to talk, so he gave her a thumbs-up. She studied the chute that was their only exit. It had a heavy door, and she pushed the handle down, practically sitting on it to get it to move. It shrieked with the distinctive sound of metal grinding against metal, and she pulled it open. She wiped at her brow, while he leaned against the wall. “Thank God,” she muttered.

“What?” he choked out.

“Some of these have blades for sorting the fish as they come in for cleaning and filleting, but this one is open.”

He gave her a wan smile. “Small miracles, right?”

She stuck her head into the opening, disappearing into the darkness. “It looks like it empties onto the dock.” Her voice echoed off the metal tunnel. She pulled her head back out and waved her hand in front of her face. “And it reeks!”

“I thought I was going to die surrounded by that smell,” he whispered.

“Don’t count your chickens. You still might.” She peered down the chute once more. “Should I go first and catch you? Or help you into the chute and go after you?”

“The latter,” he grunted, pushing himself off the wall with both his hands. He reached for her, nearly falling into her arms, and let her take control as she tried to lift him to the opening in the wall. He pulled himself up while she pushed on his butt, going to her knees as she hoisted him upward. He couldn’t help himself. He giggled.