Page 91 of The Devoted Game

She couldn’t. Couldn’t move.

“Reach for me, dammit! How the hell are we going to catch the son of a bitch who did this if we’re both dead?”

Somehow her trembling hand moved upward ... She watched in morbid fascination as his fingers grabbed on to hers.

He pulled her upward. Her feet found a perch on a rung beneath his.

“Let’s just hold still a moment,” he whispered against her hair. He held her tight against him with one arm. “Catch our breath.”

She started to tremble ... couldn’t stop.

Worth was dead.

Oh God.

She hadn’t been able to hang on to him.

“Pull it together, Grace,” he urged. “This wasn’t your fault. Right now we have to concentrate on getting out of this shaft before that car starts moving.”

Fury whipped through her. He was right. She couldn’t get Fincher if she didn’t get out of here alive. And she wanted to nail that son of a bitch.

She nodded. “Okay.”

“No looking down,” McBride reminded as he helped her onto that narrow, narrow ledge.

Slowly, she made her way back to the door. He stayed right next to her. Ready to go down trying to save her if she slipped.

He had saved her life.

But Worth was dead.

She had failed.

8:30 a.m.

Worth’s body had been taken away.

Vivian felt numb.

SAC was dead.

As soon as she and McBride had gotten out of that shaft, he had rushed down to the first floor and pulled Worth’s body out of the shaft in case the elevator moved before forensics arrived. Vivian couldn’t bear to look.

How could this have happened?

Why did some sick bastard have to do this?

For his dead son? His dead wife?

Was Worth’s death going to bring either one of them back?

No!

Raised voices dragged her attention to the far side of the lobby. McBride and Pierce were going at each other like two slobbering dogs.

McBride had done all he could.

Even if they had risked calling in backup, there had been a problem with the rope that held Worth. Even before her weight had been added to his, the rope had given somehow. There was nothing else they could have done. It wasn’t like either of them had had a free hand to phone a friend.