Page 76 of Jacques

“We’ll be right behind you,” Jacques said.

Beau and Caleb managed to maneuver through the crowded doorway.

Jacques had just stepped around the elderly couple when the man’s cane caught against the doorframe, and he dropped it. His knees buckled.

Danny reached out and caught his upper arm. Jacques dropped their bags, wrapped his arm around the older man, and took his weight.

“We’ve got you,” Jacques said. “Hold on.”

His wife retrieved his cane and pushed her way through the throng to get to her husband.

“Step aside, please,” Danny called out.

People were still coming down the stairs, pushing closer.

A hotel employee directed folks around Jacques and Danny, who were still holding up the old man.

“Let me help.” A security guard appeared beside Danny.

She moved through the door as the guard stepped in to help the old man through.

Jacques turned to grab their bags. When he straightened, Danny was a couple of yards ahead with several people in between them. She stopped suddenly. A man in a dark windbreaker and baseball cap held her upper arm.

Jacques dropped the bags and moved.

The woman with the cane stepped in front of him, looking for her husband.

He sidestepped her, but the gap between him and Danny had widened with people packed tightly, all trying to get out of the building.

His heart thundered in his chest as he fought to get to her.

When the hand gripped her arm, Danny thought at first someone was just trying to steady himself in the crush.

“Keep walking,” a low, distinct and familiar voice said against Danny’s ear.

Danny stopped, blood draining from her head, making her dizzy. She stood motionless for a fraction of a second until the hand on her arm dragged her forward. “You’re coming with me,” the voice said.

It was the voice she remembered. The one thing she’d never forget.”

Jeffries pulled her toward the side of the lobby, away from Jacques.

This was the man who’d changed her life so completely. The man who’d hurt Melanie Ellis. The man who’d gotten away with it for years.

“No.” Danny dug her feet in, refusing to go with him.

When he tried to yank her forward, she turned into his grip, stepping in front of him so quickly the movement caused him to stumble.

Danny pushed him, sending him off balance. He fell to the floor, taking her with him.

Danny landed hard on her knee, pain shooting through her, but she grabbed the man’s flailing arm, twisted it behind him and drove it up between his shoulder blades. She shifted, planted her knee in the middle of his back and held him.

Jeffries bucked, but Danny held her ground.

“Get off,” Jeffries gritted out.

“Not happening,” she said.

He rocked beneath her.