Trent removed his cell phone from his pack.
“No service.”
The expression on Monica’s face didn’t change. “I didn’t think there would be in here. Did you tell Reynard where we were going?”
Trent shook his head. “He’ll know something’s wrong when we don’t come home.”
“The clinic staff will call Walt.”
Trent wedged himself between her and the wall and gave her someone to lean on. “We have some food. Water.”
Monica nodded.
“Someone will find us.”
Someone would. The question not asked was when.
Chapter Fourteen
If I don’t move… if I don’t breathe. It didn’t matter what she did, her leg hurt like a bitch and there was no escaping it. She had six ibuprofen and antibiotics, though probably not the ones she needed, to last for a couple of days. The water in the pool was fresh but neither she nor Trent thought it was a good idea to drink from it. Not right away in any account.
“You know those little white lies you’re against telling?” she asked Trent as night fell and the light from above started to fade.
“Yeah?”
“I need you to tell me we’re going to be OK even if you think we’re not.” There weren’t many times in her life when Monica had been scared. This was one of them. What if no one found them? What would they do when they ran out of food?
“My car is on the road. Someone will spot it.”
She didn’t want to remind him that the road had appeared abandoned. And it wasn’t as if the islanders were looking for places to play these days. Most were just trying to survive.
“How did that earthquake compare to the first one?” she asked.
“Hard to say,” his soothing voice said in her ear. “My house made a lot of noise but the walls didn’t come down.”
Her vision was adjusting to the darkness of the cave but it was still impossible to make out the entrance.
“The first one could have loosened those rocks. Made it easier for them to fall this time.” At least his words sounded good to her ears.
Trent shifted beside her and she sat up. “You should lie down. That wall on your back can’t be comfortable.”
“Sitting up will keep me awake.”
Monica couldn’t make out his expression in the dark. She rested her hand on his chest in hopes of comforting him. His voice was tight and his entire frame was rigid. “We might as well try and sleep. Even when Reynard realizes you’re not coming home, it will take time for the clinic to get word to the doctors and for anyone to actually search for us. No one is going to spot your car in the dark.”
Trent sighed and shifted his weight down from the wall. Monica had her leg propped up on her backpack and Trent used a rolled-up towel for a pillow. She used his shoulder as hers.
Once she was snug against his chest, and as comfortable as she could be for a night in a cave with a broken leg, she attempted to close her eyes.
She could tell that Trent was just as awake as she.
“You know,” she whispered, “before the earthquake and the wall crashing down on me, I was having a really good time.”
Her chest rumbled with his soft laugh. “I know how to show a girl a good time.”
“I didn’t think it would be possible to have any desirable memories from this crazy week.”
“And now you’re stuck in a cave all because I wanted you to myself.”
She winced at the tone he was using against himself.
“Hey.” She poked his chest with her finger. “I wanted you to myself, too. You had no way of knowing this was going to happen.”
“I’ll remind you that you said that in the morning.”
She wiggled against him and jostled her leg with a hiss.
“You sure you don’t want to take two of those Motrin now?”
She wasn’t sure of anything. “I’ll wait until I can’t bear it anymore.”
His hand stroked her hair and down her arm. The rhythmic movement lulled her eyes closed. She heard Trent mumble in her ear three words.
“I’m sorry, Monica.”
“It’s not your fault,” she whispered back before she fell asleep.
The phone rang, jolting Jessie from her dreams. Beside her, Jack reached for the phone next to his side of the bed.
Her eyes swung to the digital clock across the room and noticed the time, 4:23 in the morning. Nothing good made the phone ring at this time of night… or day.
“This had better be good,” was how Jack answered the call.
Jack paused and listened to the caller. “This is her husband.”
Jessie leaned over and turned on the lamp. Jack was sitting up in the bed with his eyes wide open. He glanced at her, and his brow furrowed.
Jessie’s heart sank. “What’s wrong?”
“Ah, huh.” He held up a hand, asking her to hold her question. “She didn’t call? When was the last time anyone has seen her?”
Monica!
Panic gripped Jessie by the throat. She dug her nails into Jack’s thigh. “Is it Monica?”
“Hold on,” he told the person on the phone. “Monica didn’t show up at the clinic last night. She and Trent haven’t been seen since yesterday afternoon.”
Jessie’s jaw dropped. “What? That’s not like her.”
Jack returned his attention to the phone. “I didn’t know there was a second quake,” Jack said to the caller.