Page 21 of Her Honorable Hero

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Miranda swallowed.She’d never really told Griff all that had gone on with her. Part of it had been that she’d had a tough time remembering everything after the wreck. But when her memories had resurfaced, her natural inclination was to keep things to herself.

“I really want to know. Not just what happened, I want to know how you felt. It’s time.” How could his voice be both firm and coaxing? But he was right. It was time.

* * *

Three Years Earlier

Miranda woke up to darkness.Something was wriggling underneath her belly, and something hard and heavy was pressing against her leg, and God, did it hurt. Everything hurt. What the hell had happened?

She tasted copper. Her mouth was full of blood. She opened it and let it drip out. Then her ears popped and that’s when she heard loud metallic groaning. This was some bad shit.

“Mommy! I want my Mommy!” The wriggling turned to kicking.

Train. She was on the train. There’d been a crash. The wriggling was the little boy who’d been sitting on her lap.

The angry little voice turned tearful. “Where’s my Mommy?”

Miranda tried to answer. The little legs packed a punch, the kicks hurt. She could move her arms, and she tried to stop the blows, but something was blocking her. Why was it so dark? She spit out some more blood before she gagged.

“Jeremy,” she croaked.

“Mommy!” came the frantic cry.

“Honey, we’ll find your mommy.” Miranda thought about moving off the boy, but she didn’t want him to scramble away. Why was it so dark? Hadn’t it been late morning? Had she been unconscious for hours? Was it night? It didn’t make sense, rescue workers would have been here by now if it were night.

She turned her head and saw that a seat was covering her. Her shoulders were blocked by the arms of the seat, and something was pressing down on her right leg. She tried to move it and the pain made the darkness turn to red. “Mother—” she bit off the foul curse.

“Mommy?” the boy asked again.

“No, I don’t see your mommy yet. Jeremy, are you hurt?”

“My arm hurts.”

The boy started to cry. Shit, she shouldn’t have asked, now he was focused on what was hurting. Miranda tried to expand her scope of hearing, listening for all she was worth to see if there was anybody else alive.

“Derek, wake up! Wake up!” The woman’s shrill voice was far away. She kept repeating the same words over and over again, until finally she subsided into sobs. It drove home the fact that she and Jeremy were lucky to be alive.

She needed to figure out what was on her leg and get moving. It wasn’t the seat, so what was it? She wiggled her shoulders and was finally able to touch the leather of her computer bag. She shoved her hand in and found her cell phone. She powered it on, and dialed nine-one-one.

“What’s the nature of your emergency?”

“I’m on the Amtrak train heading to San Diego. We’ve crashed outside of Del Mar.”

“We know, first responders are on their way. What is your name?”

“Miranda Slade.”

“Can you tell me where you are? What is your situation?”

“I want my Mommy.” Jeremy grabbed at her phone and knocked it out of her hands.

Shit.

Miranda picked it up and heard, “Ma’am. Miranda. Can you describe what is going on?”

“Look, just get help,” Miranda said. “I’m going to use the flashlight on the phone to figure out how to get unstuck. I’ll call back when I can.” Miranda disconnected while the woman was talking.