Wild Embrace (Wilder Irish #11) - Mari Carr Page 0,8
and joked around with his sons reminded her of her close relationship with her own dad, Aaron.
However, it was safe to say that most of the time, and with the exception of the boys, Ryder was serious and reserved, a sexy mystery, which simply ensured he kept Darcy captivated.
Ryder didn’t glance her direction as they stepped onto the elevator. Instead, he pushed the button to the bottom floor and waited as the doors closed.
The man was completely oblivious to her feelings for him. Which she could admit was her own fault. After all, she worked overtime to act completely natural around him, though she knew her family suspected her feelings.
It was hard enough to know her crush was one-sided, so there was no way she’d make a jackass of herself mooning over him or making him uncomfortable with unrequited feelings.
They’d only descended a few floors when the lights flickered. The elevator stopped rather abruptly, and Darcy had to quickly reach out to the side wall to steady herself. The lights went out completely for a second or two before emergency backup lights flashed on. They were much dimmer than the real lights—more pale gold than bright, fluorescent white.
Darcy took a deep, steadying breath and closed her eyes. “Please start moving again,” she whispered. Their offices occupied the entire fifteenth floor of one of Baltimore’s tallest skyscrapers. If she had to guess, she’d say they hadn’t passed the tenth floor yet.
Ryder sighed. “Dammit.”
“No.” Darcy shook her head. “Not dammit. Don’t say dammit.”
He turned to look at her and grimaced. “It would appear the power has gone out.”
“Can we open the doors?”
Ryder shook his head. “No. I’m fairly certain we can’t.” He pressed the emergency call button, and Darcy could have cried in relief when a voice responded.
“This is Ryder Hagen. The elevator has stopped.”
“I’m sorry, Mr. Hagen. This is Rodney at the security desk. There’s a power outage and it appears to have taken down a large chunk of the city. I’m trying to find out now how long they anticipate it will be out.”
“Okay. Will you let us know when you find out?” Ryder asked, looking put out, but also at ease, considering their situation.
“Of course, sir,” Rodney replied.
“There’s no way to get us out of here?” Darcy asked Ryder, hating how breathy her voice sounded. It was as if her throat had closed and she suddenly couldn’t get any sound through.
“Is it possible to open these doors manually?” Ryder asked the man on the other end of the call button.
“I’m afraid not, sir. Are you alone?”
Ryder glanced around the elevator. “Isn’t there a camera in here, Rodney?”
“Camera is down due to the power outage.”
“I see. There’s another person trapped as well. Darcy Young.”
Darcy swallowed hard, wishing Ryder wouldn’t use the word trapped.
“Are you both okay?” Rodney asked.
“We’re fine.”
Darcy wouldn’t use the word fine, either. Because she was not fine.
“I’m sorry to say I think you’ll both have to sit tight at this point. As I said, I’ll let you know how long the expected outage time is as soon as I find out.”
“Thank you,” Ryder said, taking his finger away from the button, then looking at her. “So we’re stuck.”
Darcy nodded slowly, working overtime to contain the freak-out threatening to erupt.
She must have been successful because Ryder didn’t appear to notice her distress. He put down his briefcase, took off his suit jacket, loosened his tie, and leaned against the back wall of the elevator casually. Like he didn’t have a care in the world.
Meanwhile, she was struggling not to throw up.
They both stood there, silent for a few minutes, as the reality of the situation sank in. Ryder was taking it in stride, though she knew him well enough to know he was probably more inconvenienced than annoyed.
As for her. Well, she was trembling inside so bad, she didn’t know how she wasn’t breaking bones.
Darcy jumped when Rodney’s voice crackled through the speaker again.
“Mr. Hagen?”
Ryder stepped back to the call button. “Yes.”
“I’m afraid I have some bad news.”
Darcy shook her head. “No, no bad news,” she muttered.
Ryder glanced at her as he spoke to the man. “How long?”
“Looks like several hours. Pretty bad transformer fire in a substation. A lot of the city is currently without power. Nine-one-one is being bombarded with calls, so I’m not sure I can get anyone here to help you out.”
“I understand,” he said.
Darcy didn’t. She really fucking didn’t.
“No firefighters?” she asked Ryder. “Can’t they break people out of elevators?”
“You heard him, Darcy.