Read Under Fire for Free Online Page A

even if Zack held his breath for the first couple of minutes.
    Another squad car pulled up. A cop got out and shuffled over, joining the first two. “The firefighter still under?”
    “Yeah,” one muttered, sounding glum. “Looking more like a recovery than a rescue.”
    Oh, God! She refused to believe that. Zack Knight couldn’t pay with his life for saving hers. Don’t let it be true.
    Paxton’s head broke the surface again—along with the burden in his arms. The lieutenant nodded, and a collective burst of relief from the group was quickly replaced by greater anxiety as they began to haul the men out of the water.
    Paxton had both arms wrapped around Zack’s chest, holding the man’s back against his front. The lieutenant gritted his teeth, neck corded, every muscle straining with his friend’s limp, sodden weight.
    To Cori, it seemed to take forever for the team to bring the two men up and onto the bridge. In reality, mere seconds passed. Paxton released his burden to the care of his comrades and rolled to his knees, coughing, broad chest heaving from exertion as he watched.
    Tanner and the Hispanic man—Salvatore, the lettering on his coat revealed—laid Zack flat on his back. Eve ran for the ambulance, and a fourth firefighter crouched close at hand, letting Tanner and Salvatore take over. The three cops hovered several feet away, obviously wanting to assist, but out of their element. At the moment, no one paid Cori any attention.
    Salvatore checked Zack’s neck for a pulse. Shook his head. “Nothing.”
    Tanner ripped open Zack’s coat and Salvatore started chest compressions. Heart in her throat, she wobbled forward on shaking legs. Stared down at the man who’d saved her life.
    Black hair was plastered to his skull, his fire hat and glasses gone. His sculpted lips were blue. Long, thick, spiky lashes curled against pale cheeks. The right side of his face bore a raw, scraped imprint where the chain had struck, from his hairline, across his cheek and jaw. He’d have a nasty, swollen bruise for weeks, possibly some broken bones—if he survived.
    Eve returned, rolling a gurney with a plastic backboard and a portable defibrillator unit on top.
    “Come on, Knight.” Salvatore pumped his chest furiously. “Goddammit, don’t do this. Breathe , you little shit!”
    Nothing little about Zack. He was six feet of lean, graceful male. The glasses hadn’t detracted from his appearance, but without them, his good looks were even more noticeable. He’d been blessed with high cheekbones, a sharp blade of a nose leading to full, sensual lips. A strong jaw. His was a kind face, and she prayed he’d open those laser blue eyes and smile at her again.
    Salvatore paused long enough for them to quickly slide the backboard under Zack’s body. Cori wondered at this, until Eve grabbed the defibrillator from the gurney and placed it on the ground next to Salvatore. Of course.
    They couldn’t afford to waste precious seconds getting Zack settled into the ambulance before jump-starting his heart. With the rain, however, there was a chance of electric current zapping whoever handled the patient. The backboard would keep Zack grounded so this shouldn’t present a danger to anyone else.
    Eve handed Salvatore a small pair of scissors, and he cut Zack’s shirt in two up the front, parted the material. Next, he wiped his friend’s chest with the torn edge of the shirt and stuck two pads to his skin, one over his heart and the other to the side of the left pectoral. Wires ran from each pad to the defib box. Cori had seen these new units before, hands-free types that were slowly replacing the traditional paddles used to deliver the shock to the patient.
    “Clear,” Eve said.
    Salvatore pushed a button on the unit. Zack’s body jolted, then lay unmoving. Eve noted the readout and shook her head. No dice.
    “Again.” Her mouth flattened into a thin line.
    Another jolt. But the shocks weren’t working. Belatedly, it