After The Storm

by K. M. Scott

Roman ended the call and made a beeline toward an old brown sedan. Finding it locked, he lifted his right elbow and smashed through the driver’s side window. Glass fell all around him, but he didn’t have time to care. Opening the door, he pointed at the opposite side of the car as Kate stared in shock at the shattered driver’s side window.

  “Get in!”

  Brushing the glass off the seat, he hopped in and unlocked her door before bending down to hotwire the engine. He hadn’t done this in years, but in seconds, he heard it start.

  Happy he hadn’t lost his touch, he sat up as Kate complained, “Why did we have to steal a car older than me?”

  Roman ignored her and shifted the car into reverse. As he backed out of the parking spot, she said, “Why couldn’t you find something nicer?”

  “As much as I’d like to get into how it’s practically impossible to hotwire newer cars, we don’t have time. Hang on,” he said as he floored the gas and drove out of the parking garage.

  Handing her his phone, he said, “When Butcher texts the directions, read them to me. I’m heading toward his place on Lake Pontchartrain. In the meantime, you’re going to have to get me going in the right direction.”

  “Okay. Let me think for a moment.”

  He looked over at her as he raced down St. Louis Street. “We don’t have time for thinking. Just tell me how to get there, Kate!”

  Pushing her down in the seat, he turned the wheel so the car took the corner sharply onto Basin Street. She stammered out a few words before Roman barked, “Get down so no one can see you!”

  “You don’t have to yell! I’m down. I’m down. What street are we on now?” she asked frantically.

  Leaning forward, he looked up through the windshield to find the street name but saw no signs. “Damnit! Where are the street signs in this town?”

  “I don’t know,” Kate yelled at him. “I never look at them, so I don’t know. Just keep going and there must be one coming soon.”

  He weaved in and out of a line of cars that suddenly appeared and finally at the next corner saw a street sign. “Orleans. Or is it Basin? Damnit! The signs are all fucked up.”

  Kate pointed out the window. “Orleans? Good! Take Orleans and head toward I-10.”

  I-10? Roman searched for a sign to tell him where to go. Again, no goddamned signs that he could see. “There is no sign for the on ramp.”

  Peeking her head up, Kate pounded on the window. “Right! Take the right and then the ramp onto the highway.”

  He followed her directions and cut across the lanes to head onto I-10. Looking in the rearview mirror, he checked for any sign of the cops following them and saw nothing but a few cars behind them and no police cars.

  Kate still sat crouched on the floor, and Roman didn’t want to risk it letting her up just yet. “Stay down for a while longer. I just want to make sure we aren’t being followed.”

  “That’s okay,” she said with a wry smile. “It’s not too bad down here, other than the shards of glass and the empty cigarette packs. Whoever’s car this is, they treated it like a garbage can.”

  “Just a few minutes more. What exit am I looking for off this road?” he asked, trying not to smile at how frustrated she sounded.

  “You’ll need to look for Lake Pontchartrain Causeway. Your friend just texted the address, so since I’m assuming this heap of junk doesn’t have GPS, I can just use your phone to find the house. Give me a few seconds and I’ll have it for you.”

  He couldn’t stop himself from smiling at her irritation at his choice of cars to steal. “Next time, I’ll try to find a newer make and model. Does that make you happy?”

  Rolling her eyes, she grimaced. “What will make me happy will be a shower and a change of clothes. Any chance your friend has a female friend or a wife who’s my size?”

  Roman watched the road and thought about her question. He had no idea about Butcher’s private life. That’s not the kind of friends they were.

  “I’m not sure. Maybe. I don’t know.”

  “Real close, huh?”

  The kind of friendship he and Butcher Richards had stemmed from their time in war. They were brothers in arms, far more than mere friends. Others might think they weren’t close because neither one of them knew about their personal lives.

  But they knew something far deeper about one another. No matter what, they were there for each other when the need arose. That’s the kind of close they were.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Kate didn’t know how long she sat on the floor of the passenger side of that brown 1980s piece of crap car Roman had hotwired, but when her legs began to cramp up and send shooting pain up to her hips, she had to move.

  “Hey, is the coast clear yet? I’m tired of doing my stowaway act down here. Can I get up?”

  Roman nodded as the car turned left. “Yeah. We’re almost to his house.”

  Happier than she thought she could be at hearing those so simple words come out of his mouth, she pulled herself up onto the passenger seat and stretched her legs as she looked out the window. In all her time living in New Orleans, she’d never come over to this side of Lake Pontchartrain. The sight of the enormous million dollar homes and their perfectly manicured properties told her why. She had a feeling she couldn’t even pay the cover price to get into this area of the city.

  “So you know a bajillionaire?” she asked while they drove past each gorgeous home.

  He laughed, like she’d said something outrageous. Maybe he didn’t know how much the houses around there cost, but she didn’t have to be a realtor to understand it took some serious cash to afford a place on the lake in Mandeville.

  “I’m not kidding. These homes are certifiable mansions. Your friend must be loaded,” she said, staring at the double staircase up to the porch on the house they drove past.

  “What’s the address again?”

  She checked the text. “1819. It should be just up ahead. So you didn’t answer me. Is he a bajillionaire? They must pay you guys a bunch to swoop in and do your knight in shining armor thing.”

  Turning to look at her, he raised his eyebrows at her mention of his job. “He and I don’t work together. We knew one another in the Army. He was my captain.”

  Who knew the US Army paid their people so well? If she’d known there was so much money in enlisting, she might have considered it. Since she’d never made enough at her job as a legal assistant to even drive out near homes like these, she had to believe she’d made a mistake in her employment choices.

  “So was he higher in rank or lower than you?” she asked, suddenly curious about this man she knew so little about who had come into her life just days before.

  Roman pointed out the window at a house and pulled into the driveway. “I wouldn’t call him my captain if I was higher rank than him.”

  The disgust in his voice came through loud and clear, irritating Kate. Feeling defensive, she tossed his phone into his lap as he shifted the car into park.

  “Sorry. Those of us who are mere civilians don’t know the Army nomenclature. Whatever he was in the service, he clearly has money. This house might not be a mansion like the ones further down the street, but it’s still nicer than anything I’ve ever lived in.”

  She hadn’t exaggerated. As she stared at the raised Acadian style home in front of her and looked at the mere two block distance to the lake, she knew this friend of his had spent a pretty penny on this property. As anyone in real estate could attest to, the most important thing was location, location, location.

  And this house had it in spades.

  Roman didn’t seem fazed in the least by the impressiveness of the home in front of them. Instead of gawking at the stairs that led up to a gorgeous wrap around porch, he instead acted workmanlike, walking around the house like he was searching for something. Kate looked around to see if anyone else was watching him act so strangely.

  Thankfully, no one else seemed to be around to see him. Walking up behind him, she asked, “Uh,
are you checking for the water meter, or is this just the way you act when you arrive at someone’s house?”

  He glanced back and gave her a scowl. “I’m looking for the key. Maybe you don’t announce it to the whole world?”

  Jeez. What changed to make him so cranky all of a sudden?

  “Can I help?” Kate asked, trying to be helpful.

  “No,” he answered tersely. “Just stay out of sight and wait for me.”

  The shortness of his answer stung. She thought they’d developed into a team who did things together, but since they left the city, he’d changed somehow. Kate couldn’t put her finger on exactly what was different, but it was unmistakable.

  She did as he said and stood behind the air conditioning unit. As she hid from neighbors’ eyes, she wondered if her life would ever go back to the way it had been before all this madness. She’d never been anyone important—certainly no one people would notice—and even though more than once she’d wished for a more exciting life, this hadn’t been what she meant at all.

  A new boyfriend and some more interesting ways to spend her nights were all she’d hoped for. Being on the run for her life hadn’t been any part of her fantasies.

  Roman poked his head into her hiding space and waved her out. “Found it. Let’s head in.”

  Kate hurried past him and practically ran up to the front door, not hating those stairs as much as the thousand or so others she’d been forced to deal with in the past couple days. He took his own sweet time making his way to where she stood, and she saw by the smirk on his face that he’d noticed how she didn’t complain this time.

  He turned the key and opened the front door. As she walked past him, she said, “Not one word about my running up those stairs. Got it?”

  Chuckling, he didn’t respond and simply walked into the house behind her. Kate stopped just a few feet in and stared at the all-white décor. She’d expected something different. Something far more masculine. Maybe something with more exposed wood. This friend of Roman’s must have had a woman in his life who had a say in the design of his house because all Kate saw around her was beautiful.

  “I think I’m in love,” she murmured before walking straight ahead through the open floor plan toward the all-white kitchen.

  She’d never seen a more gorgeous kitchen in her life. At least not in real life. This place was the kind of home you saw in magazines.

  Swiveling her head left and right to take in all the incredible details in the chef’s kitchen, she eyed up the six by six foot white marble topped island with a six burner gas stovetop and enormous hood above, stainless steel double ovens and refrigerator, and beige and brown stone backsplash. She could live in this room for the rest of her life and be more content than she’d ever been before.

  Roman walked away, seemingly unimpressed by his friend’s home so far, and she wandered around falling more in love with every step. When she walked into the master bath, she stopped and held her breath at what she saw.

  As with the other rooms, the bathroom had been decorated in white, and similar to the kitchen, brown accents warmed up the space. A deep marble tub sat against a beige and brown marble tiled wall that hid the glass shower enclosure.

  Oh, how she yearned for the moment when she’d slide into that tub and wash off the remnants of the past few days.

  She didn’t feel right calling dibs on the master bedroom, so she found another of the four bedrooms and fell onto the bed as exhaustion overcame her. Between running down two flights of stairs not ten minutes after being awakened from a sound sleep and then having to crouch down on the floor of the car they stole to get out of the city, it had been one hell of a day already.

  Hopefully, life would settle down for a few days so she could catch her breath.

  Kate opened her eyes and for a moment didn’t know where she was. It took a minute or so to remember she and Roman had come out to his friend’s house on the lake and she’d fallen asleep in one of the bedrooms.

  Now all she had to figure out was what time it was. Rolling over, she looked out the window and saw darkness. Had she slept all day again?

  She listened for a moment for any sign of her partner in crime, but she heard nothing but silence. Maybe Roman had fallen asleep also. Not that she could blame him. He’d gone through almost as much as she had, by her side from almost the very beginning of this nightmare.

  Or adventure. She didn’t know which better described what they were stuck in.

  Beside her lay Jonas’s laptop, so once she fully woke up, she set to figuring out how to follow the leads he’d left for her in his files. What made Samuel Darnell so interesting that the cops bothered him over and over? Were the state police really involved like Roman believed, and if so, how? Time and time again, she searched for information and found a dead end. No wonder Jonas hadn’t gotten any further.

  Frustrated, Kate didn’t know where to find the answers. She angrily pushed away the laptop as she wished she had the ability to figure out what her boss couldn’t before he died. He deserved her to at least do that for him, but so far, she’d failed miserably.

  Maybe she just needed to get some fresh air. Maybe that would give her some perspective that would help her solve this mystery.

  She rolled off the bed and padded across the hardwood floor out to the kitchen. Everything looked the same as it had when she walked through earlier. Clearly, Roman hadn’t decided to make something to eat.

  After walking around the entire house, she still didn’t find him, so she looked out the window to see if the old brown car still sat in the driveway. Still there. Well, at least she could be reasonably sure he hadn’t abandoned her.

  Not unless he planned to walk back across the Causeway. Then again, for all she knew about him, he might. She wouldn’t have thought that yesterday, but something about him had changed today.

  The sun had set and a chill in the air had set in, sending goosebumps along her skin as she stepped outside onto the front porch and began walking down the steps to search for him. A full moon shone across the water of Lake Pontchartrain, and lights from the million dollar mansions along the lakefront cast a golden glow on the shore. The scene looked so calm, she stopped to take it all in for a moment. Peace and calm felt so wonderful after what she’d been through.

  Her mind wandered to the possibility that someday it would be the norm for her again. She wouldn’t argue with having that peace at a house like this one either.

  She walked down toward the lakeshore and saw Roman sitting alone near the water just past a giant oak tree nearly covered with Spanish moss hanging from every branch. He must have sensed her as she crossed the road to join him because he looked back at her and watched as she approached him. Kate felt his eyes on her, making her nervous since he seemed like a different man now.

  Unsure what to say, she fell back on a joke to break the ice. “So this is how you protect a woman in danger? You leave her alone in a strange house? I woke up and had no idea where I was.”

  She punctuated her comment with a chuckle, but it didn’t work. He didn’t crack even the tiniest smile and simply just stared at her as she spoke. When she finished, his face remained stony.

  Not that he’d ever been a really emotional guy, but this person seemed entirely foreign to her now. What had changed?

  She wanted to ask but didn’t know how to. He wasn’t exactly the chattiest kind of man at any time. Since no matter what she said seemed to irritate him, she figured she might as well just go the direct route.

  “What’s wrong, Roman? You seem different ever since you woke me up this morning.”

  He drew his eyebrows in and then looked away toward the water. “No difference. Just trying to figure out what our next move should be.”

  No difference and yet he couldn’t even bother to face her when he said that. Nope. She wasn’t buying it.

  Had he finally reached his limit with her arguing?

  “I tried to do some more research, but I keep running into de
ad ends, so I figured I’d see what you were up to. You weren’t in the house, so I figured I’d look outside and saw you here.”

  His response to her explanation? Utter silence.

  Something had changed between them. The problem was she didn’t know why.

  She walked around him so he didn’t have a choice but to look at her. Staring into his emotionless face, she quietly said, “I’m sorry I’ve been such a pain. I don’t mean to be. I guess I’m just used to being on my own.”

  Roman said nothing for the longest time but didn’t look away, so she had to fight the urge to fill the empty space in the conversation. Hell, who was she kidding? A conversation took two people talking. One person doing all the talking and being stared at by the other person resembled more a scene out of some psycho killer movie than a conversation.

  Finally, he smiled, the corners of his mouth lifting just a tiny bit. “You’re not a pain, Kate. There’s nothing wrong with questioning things.”

  “Well, if you’re not angry about that, what’s wrong? It seems like ever since this morning, you’ve been upset about something.”

  He shook his head and shrugged, as if nothing was bothering him. “I’m not upset. I would have liked a little more time to make a plan, but the desk clerk put an end to that idea. It’s not bad, though. Butcher’s house is a whole lot better than even the Allton.”

  Since she had him talking, she wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to keep him communicating, so Kate sat down next to him. “How do you know this Butcher guy? He must be pretty trusting to let you stay at his house like this.”

  Roman tilted his head left and then right, as if he was debating the truth of what she said. “I don’t know if I’d call Butcher trusting. That might be the first time I’ve ever heard him described like that.”

  “His house cost a fortune. That he’s given us free reign of it for as long as we stay sounds pretty trusting to me. Is that because he was your captain and he knows you?” she asked, becoming more and more curious about this friend of his.

  “I guess,” Roman answered in a faraway voice. “When you spend time with someone as people are shooting at you, I guess you grow to trust the people you serve with.”