Covered in Darkness

by Heather Sunseri

  “That doesn’t change the fact—”

  “That she’s a beautiful young twenty-something woman who Senator Reiner just happened to meet in the airport and connect with.”

  “You said it, not me.”

  I smiled. “You’re crazy. That was just an incident of a smart woman being in the right place at the right time.”

  “Don’t be naïve, my dear Brooke.”

  “He is good-looking. Sort of. If I liked older men.” I grinned at Declan.

  My phone chimed again. Another text from the governor. “Mac’s blood pressure must be sky high right now,” I said. “Maybe I better call him and talk him down.” I dialed the governor’s number.

  “Are you watching this?” Mac said in answer.

  “I’m watching the lighting approach. Is that what you’re talking about?”

  “No. Have you seen the radar?”

  “Not in the last twenty minutes, but I’m on my way home, and I’ll pull up the radar when I get there. Kentuckians know how to prepare for thunderstorms, Mac. The meteorologists, the news reporters, and my team at Homeland Security made sure everyone was aware of the potential seriousness of these particular storms. All of our first responders are on standby. Now get some sleep. You’ll receive a call if we need to take action on anything before morning.”

  He sighed. “You’re right. I think I will get some sleep.”

  “Good. I’ll speak to you soon, Governor.”

  I started to hang up, but then heard Mac again. “Brooke?”

  “Yes?”

  “I’m glad you decided to head up Homeland Security. I feel safer with you there.”

  “Thank you, sir.”

  “And stop calling me sir or Governor in private.”

  I laughed. “Goodnight, Mac.”

  When I hung up, Declan smiled at me. “He’s going to have a long night.”

  Declan drove us along the bucolic back roads of prime Kentucky horse country on our way to Shaughnessy Farm. A streak of lightning zigzagged in front of us, followed instantaneously by a piercing clap of thunder. Sparks and splinters flew from a tree that had been struck less than a quarter mile away.

  “I’m afraid we all might,” I said.

  Chapter 2

  It was an electrical storm to compete with all electrical storms. Declan and I watched it from his office, above his bedroom on the third level of his ridiculously large home. With a skylight above us and a large arching window on the back wall, we had a beautiful view of the storm as it approached from the west. It wasn’t exactly the safest spot for us, but we’d seek shelter in the basement if the radar and news reports announced a tornado warning.

  Cloud-to-ground and spider lightning lit up the sky, illuminating the barns and open fields behind the house as if it were the middle of the day. Thankfully, all of Declan’s broodmares and retired horses had been put away in their stalls for the night. A night watchman was keeping an eye out for possible barn fires, which was always a fear for thoroughbred horse owners during storms such as this one.

  An emergency signal blared through the television, announcing another severe thunderstorm three counties west of us. In a lot of states, that wouldn’t raise an eyebrow, but Kentucky has one hundred and twenty tiny counties, so a three-county separation could well equate to less than fifty miles.

  Declan sipped on a glass of bourbon. Neither of us drank at the party, and I refused to drink now. Something about the severity of these storms and the anxiety of Kentucky’s governor had put me on edge more than I liked to admit.

  Since taking the job as director of Kentucky’s Office of Homeland Security, I hadn’t been tested much. Which was good. It was a nice change, after first being nearly poisoned to death while taking down a homegrown terrorist hell-bent on murdering people attending several Bluegrass Derby events, and then almost being roasted alive in my cottage while investigating an outlaw motorcycle gang. Working in Homeland Security had been blissfully quiet in comparison—so far.

  Declan liked my change of pace as well. Although I was just starting to believe that Declan would support me in anything I decided to do with my career, I could tell he was pleased when it appeared that my new position would provide a little less drama and danger than did my position as a special agent with the FBI.

  Of course, I knew that could change at any time. Terrorist attacks of one kind or another occurred around the world on a daily basis, and attacks in the homeland were at an all-time high. In the realm of intelligence and Homeland Security, the saying was: It’s not a matter of if an attack is coming, it’s when.

  I stood in front of the multiple screens that took up most of one wall in Declan’s office. I had put my favorite weatherman, who had a flair for dramatizing storms, up on one screen, and he was now tracking the storms with maps of green, yellow, and red. The red—the most severe areas of the storms—was intense. Every once in a while he would take a break from discussing the path of the storm to tell the residents of a specific neighborhood or small town that they should take immediate cover.

  “I swear the weatherman is about to have an orgasm over these storms,” I said.

  Declan laughed and offered me his glass of bourbon.

  “No, thank you,” I said. “I don’t know what it is about tonight’s storms. I mean, I’ve certainly seen bad ones before, but I’ve got a bad feeling.”

  We continued to study the screens. On the others, I had pulled up live video of streets in several counties to our west, plus one showing downtown Louisville—Kentucky’s most populated city, with a million residents in the metropolitan area. It was great to have such easy access to all of this; it was like Declan had his own personal fusion center right here in his office. And I knew he liked that, because it made me feel more comfortable spending time here, as I wouldn’t lose the ability to monitor anything the real fusion center was capable of viewing.

  Declan set his glass on the desk, then stood behind me. He placed his hands on my shoulders and massaged the tension there. “You’re worked up.”

  I rolled my shoulders a little. “I know. I’m not sure why. I usually feed off this kind of energy.”

  Thunder shook the windowpanes.

  Declan’s voice whispered next to my ear; his breath warmed my cheek. “I think I know how to relax you.”

  I angled my head to look over my shoulder. “Are you really thinking of sex at a time like this?”

  “It’s hard not to,” he said, humor coating his words.

  As lightning flashed again, the power flickered.

  One of Declan’s hands pressed to my stomach. The other one snaked up and around my neck, forcing my head to lean back against his shoulder. His fingers traveled further upward to my cheek, and he physically turned my head so he could place his lips on mine.

  When he forced my lips to part, he sucked in my bottom lip. His other hand slowly massaged my lower belly.

  When I couldn’t take anymore, I spun around and threaded my fingers through Declan’s hair. We kissed with a hunger and electricity that rivaled the thunderstorm now raging outside.

  With the next monstrous clap of thunder, the electricity went out, leaving Declan and me in the dark, the screens now black mirrors. Lightning strobed the room.

  “No worries, the generator should kick in any second now,” Declan said.

  Instead, an alarm blared from the weather radio on Declan’s desk.

  “That is the most annoying sound I’ve ever heard,” I said.

  “Yes,” Declan smiled against my lips. “But it is alerting us to a possible tornado. And since the damn generator doesn’t seem to be working…”

  “We better take cover.” I lifted my head toward the window. “I’m guessing standing in front of that huge-ass window on the third floor of your house is not the best idea.”

  “Got your phone?” he asked.

  I held it up between us.

  “Good. Grab the weather radio. I’ll grab the flashlight. It’s off to the basement fo
r us.”

  Tangled up in blankets and naked, Declan and I lay in the middle of a king-size bed in a basement guest room, basking in the flickering glow of half a dozen candles that smelled of lavender and vanilla. Thanks to no electricity, a September heat wave, and mind-blowing sex, we were a hot, sweaty mess.

  I wrote my name with my finger across his chest while we listened to the emergency broadcast of weather updates and destruction around the state.

  “The storms aren’t done with us yet,” I said softly.

  “It doesn’t sound like it, does it?”

  Two lines of severe weather had moved through the area and were still making their way eastward. A third and final line was prepared to hit the Louisville metro area around two a.m. That line would reach central Kentucky, where we were, about an hour later.

  Declan shifted in the bed and turned the radio down so low that we could barely hear it. “Let’s try to get some sleep. We’re already in the safest part of the house. If another severe storm or a tornado threatens, the alarm will wake us. And if something major happens that needs attention from either one of us, someone will call.”

  He was right, but I still couldn’t calm down. I lay there in the unfamiliar guest bed, unable to even hear the sound of the storm one story and several thick walls away. Every few minutes I would push the home button on my phone and light up the screen to see the time.

  Finally, around three a.m., the siren on the weather radio went off, alerting us to another severe thunderstorm warning. Minutes later, another loud and more obnoxious alarm signaled a tornado warning.

  Simultaneously, my phone began ringing. It was the governor.

  “Mac, what’s wrong?”

  “The city of Louisville is completely dark.”

  I sat up in bed. “The entire city?”

  “All of Jefferson County.”

  I thought about that for a minute, about what it would take for that to happen. “Okay, I’ll head in to the fusion center as soon as the last line passes. I’ll make sure all emergency responders are able to communicate. Have you received reports from police in other areas?”

  “Yes. Tornadoes hit the western part of the state, but nothing too bad—no reports of fatalities at this point. Lots of property damage. Roads are blocked with downed trees. The eastern part of the state is still getting hit. Call me when you make it to the fusion center.”

  “Will do.” I hung up and moved to find my clothes.

  “Where’s the worst of it?” Declan asked.

  “Apparently, Louisville and surrounding areas are in a blackout. Now that the worst is passing us, I need to get into the fusion center and start contacting emergency personnel in Jefferson County.”

  “I’ll go with—” Declan was cut off by the sound of his own phone.

  He picked it up. “Aidan?” As Aidan spoke on the other end, Declan’s face turned serious. He was up and sliding into his own clothes while he spoke. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.” When he hung up, he pulled me close. “Looks like I’ve got a crisis of my own. Kensington received major wind damage. One of my horses got loose.”

  “Did they get him back?”

  “Not yet.”

  “Do you know who?”

  “On Liam’s Watch.”

  “Oh, no!”

  On Liam’s Watch was this year’s Bluegrass Derby winner and a hopeful for the Breeder’s Cup in November. I had a special fondness for him since I had exercised him several times leading up to the big race—at least, I did so until Romeo, my confidential-source-turned-stalker, caused me to sprain my wrist.

  After blowing out the candles and clicking on the flashlight, Declan started for the door. I grabbed his arm and forced him to face me. “They’ll get him. He’ll be fine. Animals have some sort of sixth sense about staying out of the path of storms.”

  “I hope you’re right.”

  I smiled. “Of course I’m right. It’s my secret superpower.”

  “Being right is your superpower?” A partial smile lifted his cheeks, but it didn’t mask the worry in his eye.

  “Yes. Just like yours is knowing how to force me to relax.”

  He peered over my shoulder at the tangle of sheets on the bed. “I’m not sure I got you to relax, but I think we were able to distract each other from the storm.”

  “Maybe we can meet back here later after the current crisis passes and distract each other again.”

  “Definitely.”

  As we turned to walk out the door, we heard the sounds of the house coming back to life. Lights flickered back on, and the air conditioning kicked on. And as we made our way to the main staircase, I could hear a television in the distance.

  “We seem to be back in business,” I said. “I hope Louisville’s power comes back up just as quickly.”

  Chapter 3

  I walked into Kentucky’s fusion center at a pre-dawn hour with David, Declan’s assistant, on my heels. Declan had insisted that David drive me to Frankfort in case I ran into downed trees or flash flooding. Declan’s overprotectiveness often annoyed me, but in this case, I was happy to have a driver—it allowed me to scan the storm news on my phone and make a few calls.

  I spotted Ty at one of the computer terminals. In front of him was the fusion center’s wall of monitors, six times the size of the setup in Declan’s office.

  “Hey,” I said. “How did you get in here so quickly?”

  Ty looked up. “Hey, Brooke. David.”

  “Tyler.” David nodded beside me.

  “I came straight from the party,” Ty continued. “With you getting a dozen texts from the governor and the radar lit up like a freaking Christmas tree, I thought I might as well go ahead and get ready for what was coming.”

  “You haven’t slept?”

  “I napped on the couch in my office. I’ll be fine.”

  “I suppose I’m not much better off. I barely slept.” I didn’t choose to explain how Declan and I had kept each other awake for much of the night. “Trees and limbs are all over the roads, but I didn’t see any damage that looked like a tornado had touched down between Shaughnessy and here. Frankfort seems to have been spared from the worst of the storms.”

  “That’s good to hear,” Ty said. “I’m sure you got the news that Louisville hasn’t been so lucky. The National Weather Service out of Louisville is dark. NWS out of Paducah indicated there hasn’t been any tornadic activity near Jefferson County, but straight line winds could well have exceeded sixty miles an hour.”

  “Yeah, I heard. I tried calling Louisville’s mayor and the metro police on the way here, but no one’s answering.”

  Tyler pointed to some screens on the far right of the wall. “Our video feeds in downtown Louisville are down, too. And cell phones must be spotty. There’s hardly anything on social media coming from inside Louisville. You know that even with the power out, people would be lighting up Twitter and Facebook, posting about the blackout from their cell phones. But most of the social media activity we’re seeing is from people outside Jefferson County trying to figure out what’s going on in the metro area.”

  “I’m sure the networks are overloaded. What about the news outlets? Anything being reported yet?”

  “Nothing specific. Just national news talking about areas hit the hardest. I’m sure the local stations have power generators.”

  “Enough to power their news feeds?” I asked.

  “I don’t know about that. Their internet sites haven’t updated since late last night. I’d say the Louisville reporters and producers are scrambling.”

  “Probably. I did manage to get hold of both Jude and Carson on my way in.” Jude was the lead analyst of the fusion center; he was pretty much a cyber geek, much like Ty, which was why they got along so well. Carson was the analyst in charge of critical infrastructure. “They should be here soon. I want them monitoring intelligence and open-source information.”

  “And Carson can explain the electric grid, and the potential impact of this
power outage to our state.”

  “Have you tried our liaisons at LMPD?” I asked. Maybe he’d had more luck than I had. The Louisville Metro Police Department would already be on the streets now that the storms had passed.

  “I did, and like you, I got no answer. I know they have backup generators for emergency lighting and basic needs. This should include the phones, which would need electricity in order to work unless they have a system of plain old telephones, which no one has anymore.”

  “What about the 911 call center?”

  “I got through to them. They’re completely overwhelmed but are doing their best. The lady I spoke with said calls are coming in faster than their people can respond. I didn’t stay on the phone with her too long, for obvious reasons.”

  “At least their backup generators are working.” My phone buzzed in my back pocket—Declan. I answered. “Hey. Hold on a sec.” I covered the receiver and said to Ty, “Call Marti and Alli. See if you can get them in here. We can use their help with the phones and who knows what else that will be coming our way over the next few hours.”

  Ty smiled. “Called them an hour ago.”

  I returned the smile. “You always did read my mind. Thank you.” Remembering the state Marti was in when I saw her last, barely six hours earlier, I wondered how her head would feel. “Keep trying LMPD and the news stations. Let me know as soon as you have anyone on the phone from inside Louisville. We’ve got to get a handle on how widespread the power outage is and the extent of the storm damage.”

  “On it.”

  I lifted my phone to my ear as I walked to my office, David following. “Declan, did you find On Liam’s Watch?”

  “We got him. He received a contusion to his back. Best we can tell, maybe a small tree limb fell on him. The night watchman said debris was flying, and lots of trees were down all over Kensington.”