After The Storm

by K. M. Scott

  “That’s my phone,” she said sweetly as she slid off him to grab her pants.

  Still lost in thought, he only heard her speak but didn’t process what she said. “What?”

  Holding her phone up in front of her, she swiped her finger across the screen and explained, “It’s just Eve. She must have forgotten to tell me something when we talked.”

  Now fully understanding her words, Roman sat up in bed and looked down at her. “Forgot to mention? When?”

  Kate reached up to run her hands over his chest and kissed him. “When I called her while you were sleeping.”

  He pushed her hands away in horror and jumped out of bed to get dressed. “Jesus Christ, Kate! You called the person who told the police where you were? We have to leave! Now!”

  How could she have been so careless? Furious, he didn’t know what to say, even though he wanted to yell at her for how stupid she’d been.

  Storming through the house as he slid his shirt over his head, he made a beeline to the kitchen to find his watch he’d taken off when he returned to the house earlier. Fuck! She had no idea what she’d done to everything they had there.

  He returned to the bedroom to find Kate nearly dressed and began pacing back and forth in front of the window watching to see if anyone had arrived yet. Grabbing her cell from on the bed, he turned it off and stuffed it into his pocket.

  “I’ll keep this. You’ll get it back if we make it out of this alive.”

  She followed him as he stormed around the bedroom to grab the laptop. “It’s okay, Roman. Eve knows better than to tell the cops again. We can trust her.”

  He spun around, so angry he could barely speak. “What were you thinking calling her? If someone’s after you, they’ve been waiting for that so they can trace the call. They’re probably on their way right now. We need to get the hell out of here!”

  She started to say something, but he pushed past her to grab his stuff from his room and walk out toward the front door. “Let’s go.”

  “I swear, it’s okay. She’s good. I promise,” she pleaded behind him.

  “Stop talking, Kate. We need to leave.”

  She grabbed his sleeve and tried to stop him as they rushed down the stairs toward the old car. “Please, stop. We’re okay. We don’t have to freak out about this. Talk to me.”

  He turned around at the bottom of the steps and glared at her. “This isn’t freaking out, Kate. This is us having to go because you just called someone on your phone and likely let anyone who wants to find you know exactly where you are.”

  Climbing into the car, he leaned down and hotwired it once again to get it started. Kate sat down in the passenger seat and started to say something, but he didn’t want to hear it.

  “Roman, it’s the middle of the night.”

  His frustration with the mess she’d created threatened to explode out of him, so before he said anything, he reminded himself she hadn’t intended to completely screw up everything.

  Hanging his head, he pressed his face against the steering wheel. The coolness of the metal felt good on his skin and calmed him just enough to be able to speak to her without barking what he wanted to say.

  “You don’t seem to understand. The people who are likely looking for you at this very moment also likely have the ability to know when you make a call on your cell phone and where that call was made. When you called your friend, you helped them to find you. I’m trying to keep you safe, so now we have to leave this house and go somewhere else.”

  Finally, his words seemed to sink in, and she asked in a worried voice, “Somewhere else? Like where?”

  Roman looked over at her and hated the answer to that question. “Like the place I found you at probably.”

  Her disappointment at hearing that showed on her face. Frowning, she began to speak, but he stopped her. “I just need to get this car to somewhere out of the way for now, okay? Don’t say anything more. That’s all I ask.”

  For one of the first times, she did as he asked without asking any questions or arguing with him. At least there was that saving grace. As he drove, he tried to find some upside to their having to leave Butcher’s gorgeous home with every amenity they could want.

  But he couldn’t think of a single thing. Now they’d have to hide out in some shithole motel on the outskirts of town because there was no way they could risk trying to find a room in any of the nicer ones in New Orleans.

  “Put your head down and pretend like you’re looking in your purse for something.”

  “Why?” Kate asked, once again with the damn questions when all he wanted her to do was follow his directions.

  “Because I have to pay this toll to get across the bridge and the less people see of you, the better. Now put your damn head down and do as I say.”

  He prayed to God she didn’t ask another question or argue with him over this as he rolled up to pay the toll. The guy in the booth smiled at him, probably wondering where they were going in the middle of the night or more likely wondering what kind of person lived in one of those beautiful homes on that side of the lake and still drove a piece of shit car.

  “Gorgeous night, huh?” the worker asked in a very thick southern accent.

  Roman handed him the money and tried to keep his disgust tamped down. “Yeah, gorgeous. Have a good one.”

  “You too! Night, y’all!”

  They drove off across the bridge with Kate’s head still down, and as they reached Metairie on the other side, the car began to buck, jolting forward once and then again before it rolled to stop on a side street. A few seconds later, it made a wheezing sound Roman knew couldn’t be good.

  “What happened?” Kate asked, popping her head up.

  “I don’t know,” he answered, feeling his anger begin to bubble up inside him.

  He tried to start the engine, but it was no use. It was dead.

  “Let’s go. We need to get out of sight. Somewhere there aren’t so many streetlights,” he said as he threw the driver’s side door open.

  Stepping out into the street, he slammed the door shut and hurried around to Kate’s side. “Come on. The longer we’re out in the open like this, the better chance someone will see us.”

  She looked up at him in disbelief. “What are we going to do? Walk? To where? Where are we going?”

  Roman had already had enough of this interruption of their night and her questions. Pulling her out of the car onto the sidewalk, he slammed her door shut and pointed down the street. “Walk. Quickly.”

  “Where?”

  Just then out of the corner of his eye, he saw a police car turn onto the street where they stood. His heart began to pound as he scanned the area to find a way out. He saw nothing closer than a block away.

  Sliding his arm around Kate, he began walking with her toward the next intersection. “I need you to walk faster. There’s a cop just down the street. Don’t do anything to draw attention to yourself, okay?”

  “Okay. I won’t,” she said nervously, clinging to his arm as they walked.

  The blue and red lights on the cop car began to flash in the windows of a shop as they passed, and Roman knew they had to get out of there fast. “Kate, run! Don’t let go of my hand, but run!”

  She tried to look back to see why they needed to leave so quickly, but he pulled her along down the street toward the intersection and hopefully someplace they could hide until he figured out where the hell to take her. They made it to the street and he saw houses with yards.

  As the police car came up behind them, they ran into the side yard on the second home in and raced toward the back of the house. The cop turned on the siren, which began to blare through the neighborhood, and Roman pulled on Kate’s arm to make her run faster.

  “Catch up! We need to find a way out of here!” he barked back at her.

  She didn’t answer, but he felt her hand slip from his hold and seconds later, he saw her on the ground writhing in pain as she held her foot. “I twisted my ankle.”


  Roman stopped and looked around for the cop. “You need to get up, Kate. Now.”

  “I can’t. I twisted it or something.”

  Lifting her onto her feet, he took her hand again. “We have to get out of here before that cop finds us. Try running.”

  She put pressure on her right foot and nearly collapsed to the ground. With tears in her eyes, she cried, “I can’t! What are we going to do?”

  They had no choice. They needed to get out of that yard before they were trapped. Scooping her up into his arms, he held her close to his body. “Put your arms around my neck and hold on tight. I’m going to get us out of here. Don’t worry.”

  “I’m sorry, Roman. I’m sorry I messed everything up.”

  He looked into her tear-filled eyes and tried not to be furious with her for fucking up their perfect hiding place. “It’s fine. Just hold on tight.”

  For five blocks, he ran at top speed between yards and parking lots until he saw a red neon motel sign. It wasn’t a five star hotel or Butcher’s place, but as long as it gave them somewhere to hide for the next day or so, it would have to do.

  Roman gently set Kate down on her feet in the shadows at the end of the building and pointed toward the bushes nearby. “Stay in there and don’t come out until I get back.”

  She nodded and frowned up at him. “I will. I promise.”

  He hurried down to the motel office and found a nice young girl no older than eighteen working the check-in desk. She looked up from a magazine and smiled at him as he walked in, tucking her blond hair behind her ears.

  “Well, hello there! How are you tonight?” she asked as she stood up to her full height.

  “I’m good. I need a room for the next two nights,” he said as sweetly as he could, still trying to hide his disgust at how bad this night had turned.

  “Two nights. Sure. That’ll be one hundred and twenty-two. Cash or credit?”

  He handed her a credit card with another of his aliases and signed the bill when she slid it across the counter. “There you go. Thanks.”

  She handed him the red plastic keychain with the room key and smiled at him. “You’re in Room 17. To get there, just go out, turn right, and head down the sidewalk. Have a good night, Mr. Stanton.”

  Forcing a smile, he mumbled, “I can only hope.”

  He returned to the bushes to find Kate leaning against the building and favoring her sprained ankle. “Come on. Just don’t step really hard on it and you’ll be fine.”

  Kate pouted. “You aren’t going to carry me?”

  “I’m trying not to attract a lot of attention. A man carrying a woman might make people notice us, so just take your time. We’re in Room 17 just down here a few doors.”

  He opened the red motel room door and flicked the switch on the wall to turn on the light. The Louisiana Motel was only slightly better than the one he’d originally found Kate in. The room was basically a white ten by ten foot box with exposed pipes painted white in an effort to hide them that hadn’t succeeded. An old, yellowed air conditioning unit sat in the wall up near the ceiling, its frayed cord hanging down beneath the unit. A particleboard dresser stood nearby with a mirror propped up against the wall on top of it. Next to that sat a full size bed with a hideous red and green floral bedspread covering it. Another piece of particleboard furniture that was supposed to be a dresser sat in front of the bed holding a TV that had first been watched in the eighties.

  Kate followed him into the room and looked around. “It isn’t so bad. It’s definitely better than the Bayou. You have to admit that.”

  She sat down on the bed while Roman called Xavier again. If he found out anything they could use, maybe they wouldn’t have to spend much time at all in this place.

  “Sorry. I haven’t gotten very far yet, Roman.”

  “I need something here, Xavier,” he said, pacing back and forth across the room in front of Kate as his anger began to boil over.

  “Whoever’s behind all this is good and well-funded. I’m going to need more time to make the connections. What’s the hurry anyway? You’re supposed to be enjoying a few days and nights at that lake house. Relax and kick back while I work on things.”

  Barely able to contain his disgust, Roman said, “We had to leave, so there’s no more lake house and no more relaxing. I’m stuck in a shithole motel, so get going so I can get the fuck out of this place.”

  “Oh. Okay, man. I’ll put a rush on things as much as I can.”

  Roman ended the call without even saying goodbye and tossed his phone on the bed as he continued to pace back and forth, choosing to remain silent.

  This night had gone from bad to worse.

  Chapter Eighteen

  From the bed to the door and back again, over and over Roman paced without saying a word as Kate watched him grow angrier by the second. The smile he’d worn just a short time ago when they lay together in each other’s arms after making love was gone, replaced by a scowl worse than any she’d seen on his face before.

  That said something since she’d certainly tried his patience repeatedly since the night they met.

  She wanted to say the words that would make things better, but every time she tried, he shut her down. Was calling Eve really that huge a mistake?

  Opening her mouth to ask him that very question, Kate saw him draw his eyebrows in tightly and changed her mind about saying anything. Better to not make things worse. He looked like he might explode if he got any angrier.

  Instead, she pulled the laptop across the bed toward her and opened it up to keep herself busy. Maybe if she made some headway in her research on Jonas’s leads Roman would forgive her.

  Before she could read a word on the page in front of her, he yanked the laptop away and slammed it shut in her face. Then he walked off with it, like she couldn’t even be trusted to go online.

  “What the hell? Why’d you take that?” she asked, furious at how he was treating her like some kind of prisoner, or worse, some kind of moron.

  Roman glared at her and said nothing. But now she didn’t want to stay quiet any longer.

  “What’s the problem? You said his laptop couldn’t be tracked, so why can’t I do some work while you pace back and forth fuming?”

  He put the laptop on the flimsy dresser next to the TV and turned to glare at her again. “That’s to make sure you don’t do something stupid like try to message your friend that way.”

  God, he knew how to stay angry at a person, didn’t he?

  Looking up at him, she tried to find the kindness in his eyes she’d seen just a short time before. It wasn’t easy since he insisted on pacing back and forth.

  “Can you stop moving for a minute and talk to me?”

  Her request finally got him to stop moving, at least for a second, but only long enough for him to snap, “No.”

  As he turned on his heels and started across the room again, she said, “I’m sorry I screwed up. I should’ve been smarter. I really am sorry.”

  But even that didn’t make Roman stop pacing, and he said nothing in response to her apology, even though she meant it sincerely.

  Maybe if she tried again. She had to reach him.

  “I really am sorry, Roman.”

  That finally got him to stop right in front of her, but what she saw on his face didn’t look like understanding or forgiveness. His frown deepened and he stared down at her angrily. “I’m sorry doesn’t help, Kate. I’m trying to keep you safe, but I can’t do that if you keep making mistakes like that.”

  His words stung, but the way he said them made it all ten times worse. She didn’t hear a hint of caring in his voice at all. How could he be so cold and unfeeling after what they’d done together?

  “So you’re not going to accept my apology?” she asked, staring up into his eyes filled with anger.

  He didn’t respond to her question but just stood there glaring down at her.

  “What do you want from me, Roman? I’m sorry.”

  Shaki
ng his head, he finally answered. “I want you to understand mistakes in my business get people killed. I have this thing with living. I like it.”

  “I made one mistake. I get it, but I think I deserve forgiveness.”

  He leaned down close to her face. “Which one do you think I should forgive, Kate? The one where I had to run after you before someone saw you and got you punching me for my reward, or the one where you screwed up and forced us out of a comfortable bed in a nice place to come here to Motel Roach and Flea?”

  His expression was so angry she had to look away. “I’m sorry for both of those things, Roman. I am. I didn’t mean to mess up. I feel like shit,” Kate said quietly.

  “Oh, so you feel like shit. Well, that makes it all better then. We’ll be fine now that you feel bad.”

  “You don’t have to be so sarcastic. I just meant that I’m really sorry, Roman. I’m sorry I’ve been such a hassle the whole time. I thought you understood.”

  Embarrassment washed over her as she felt him standing there still angrily looking down at her like she was some kind of criminal. She’d thought he liked her inquisitive way. That he’d found her spunkiness charming.

  That despite everything that had happened that he had felt for her what she felt for him.

  She waited for him to say something, hoping he’d at least give her a reprieve from his anger if he couldn’t forgive her yet, but he said nothing and simply returned to pacing back and forth across the room. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see that miserable scowl remained on his face even now after all she’d said.

  It was no use. She’d screwed up so badly he’d never forgive her. Kate knew what she had to do. As soon as he stopped pacing and fell asleep, she’d leave and head out on her own. It’s what she should have done all along. She may not have had a group to help her, but she had things she could use to try to figure out who had killed Jonas and Samuel.

  She just wished she didn’t care so much about Roman now that she had to leave him.