SAY YOU LOVE ME (Eva Rae Thomas Mystery Book 4)

by Willow Rose

  My children. All three of my children were there.

  Alex was the first to throw himself at me, hugging my legs, asking to be held. I grabbed him in my arms while Christine and Olivia approached me as well. They looked pale and tired.

  “Thank God, you’re back.”

  Chad came out of the kitchen. He hurried to me and leaned over to kiss me, but I pulled away, then put Alex back down.

  “W-what the …? Chad? What on Earth are you doing here? And with the kids?” I asked, barely able to find the words. I was fighting not to explode.

  He exhaled, resigned. “The kids were scared. I was scared, and we didn’t know what else to do. They wanted to see their mom, and frankly, I’ve never been in a hurricane before, so I had no idea what to do. Christine was crying for her mother, and all they wanted to do was to go make sure you were all right.”

  “Let me get this straight. You drove them here, to an island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean during a hurricane?”

  He nodded.

  “Are you insane?

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t know what else to do.”

  “Chad, dammit. The entire area is about to flood. Have you seen how high the water is outside?”

  “Yeah, well, we … I parked in one of the neighbor’s driveways. We didn’t know how bad it was until we got here, and it wasn’t that bad about an hour ago. I thought we’d be safe here.”

  “The bridges have closed; there is no way off the island anymore. If anything happens, no one can come to our rescue since we were supposed to have evacuated. No one will come. This is not safe; this is dangerous, and you … you bring the kids here?”

  “Yeah, well … I’m sorry, Eva Rae. I thought you’d be happy to see us. We had everything packed, and so I thought we might as well come up here. There was nothing to do at the hotel.”

  “Well, you thought wrong,” I said, hissing at him. I felt like my blood was boiling and I couldn’t stand looking at Chad right now. Instead, I went outside on the porch where the water was now licking the top steps. It would only be a matter of time before the porch was flooded and with it the rest of the house.

  Chad came out behind me. The trees in the neighboring yard were angled in the wind, and the storm was howling.

  “I’m sorry, Eva Rae,” he said. “How many times do you want me to say it?”

  I bit my lip, shaking my head. “I just … argh … I was just so happy to know that you were all safe inland down south and I didn’t have to worry about the kids.”

  “I didn’t mean to …”

  I turned around and faced him. I felt so confused, so frustrated that I wanted to scream.

  “What do you want from me, Chad? Huh?” I yelled, trying to be heard above the howling winds.

  “What do you mean, what do I want from you? I’ll tell you what I want. I want you to say you love me. Because you do. I know you do. I see it in your eyes. You and me, we’re not done yet, Eva Rae. Far from it. I still love you, and you still love me. We were meant to be together. There, I said it. Nothing should come between us anymore. No storms, no new boyfriends.”

  “Need I remind you that you were the one who had a new girlfriend first, huh?” I moaned. “For about a year without me knowing it, as I recall. You were the one who left overnight and didn’t even have the decency to face me when you told me. You did that, Chad; you did all those things.”

  “And I am sorry for it. I hate myself for what I did to you and the kids. It’s all I think about from when I wake up in the morning till I go to bed. How I messed up. How I destroyed everything. I didn’t know how much I had, how rich I was till I lost it. And now, I want it back, yes. I want to make everything up to you. I want to love you the way you need to be loved. The way you deserve to be. Don’t you understand, Eva Rae? It was always us; it has always been us.”

  I stared at my ex-husband on the porch, the wind grabbing his hair, the spraying water soaking it. He had never looked more vulnerable, never looked more fragile, yet determined. And I had never loved him more than in this moment.

  Yet I had no way of telling him. Nothing was clear to me right now, especially my love life. No matter how much I wanted my family to get back together, I still couldn’t let go of Matt, the man I had loved all my life. And this wasn’t the time or the place.

  “Argh!” I screamed in the wind. “Not now, Chad! Of all the times you could have chosen, you tell me this now? In the middle of a hurricane? Have you completely lost your mind?”

  With that, I groaned loudly, then walked past him inside and slammed the door behind me. As I stepped into the kitchen, Eileen looked at me from the end of the room, and I saw the terror on her face. Water had started to seep up from underneath the floors.

  Chapter Ninety-Six

  “It’s time to leave. We have to get out of here.”

  I stared at Eileen, who was trying to stop the water using towels.

  “The water will just keep rising,” I said, “and soon we’ll have to be on the roof waiting for someone to come fetch us by boat. I don’t think you want to sit on the roof in the middle of a hurricane. We are only on the front side of the storm; the back side is when there’s a real risk for a surge. We can’t be in this house when that happens.”

  Eileen shook her head. “There’s a shelter at the elementary school for those who didn’t evacuate the island in time. It’s on higher ground, and the building is safe.”

  “Great,” I said. “It’s not that far away. Let’s go.”

  Eileen gave me a faint smile. For the first time in the short while I had known her, she actually seemed her age. She was suddenly nothing but a tired and fragile old lady.

  “I think I’d like to stay here. I don’t want to leave my house.”

  “But … Grandma?”

  She gave me another smile. “That’s the first time you’ve called me that; you do realize that, right?”

  I looked down at the water coming in, soaking my grandmother’s toes, then rushed into the living room where I found Chad with the children.

  “There’s a shelter at the elementary school,” I said, heart throbbing in my chest. I needed to get those kids out of this house before it was too late. Then I’d deal with my stubborn old grandmother afterward.

  “You should take the kids there now.”

  “I can’t drive in this weather,” Chad said. “Have you seen how high the water is outside? My car won’t go through that much water.”

  “I’ll take them … and Sydney,” David said, coming up to me. “In my truck. It can go through anything.”

  “Thanks,” I said relieved, thinking that if I trusted anyone to get my children safely through a hurricane, it would be him. “I appreciate it.”

  “But … what about you, Mom?” Olivia said. “You can’t stay here? There’s water coming up in the bathroom too.”

  “I’m going to try and help Grandma get out of here. I’ll be right behind you, okay, sweetie?”

  “I’m scared,” Christine said, tears welling up in her eyes. Water was splashing against the plywood outside, the wind howling even louder, pulling at the wood.

  I grabbed her and held her very tight. “Go now. I’ll get to the shelter, and we’ll meet there, okay? You’re safe with your granddad. He has a very safe car, and he knows this area like the back of his hand.”

  “She’s right,” David said reassuringly and grabbed Christine’s hand in his. “I do. Do you trust me?”

  Christine thought it over for a second, then nodded.

  I kissed her forehead, then sent them all on their way with the bunnies in their cage in the back. I stared at the big pick-up truck as it left the garage and drove slowly through the water, then wondered if I was ever going to see my family again.

  Chapter Ninety-Seven

  “I’m not leaving. And you can’t make me.”

  I stared at the old woman in front of me. The water had reached her ankles now and was slowly rising inside the living room too. Still, I cou
ldn’t — for the life of me — convince her to leave with me.

  I walked to the door and looked outside. My car was still on the grass next door, but the water was soon going to reach it as well. Once it did, I wouldn’t be able to make it out anymore. So far, there were several lawns with no water on them that I could drive across as I had seen David do when he left with the kids. I had tried texting my children to ask how far they had gotten, but my messages weren’t sent, and when I tried to call them, the phone was dead.

  We had been cut off from the world.

  I ran back into the kitchen where Eileen was trying to block the water with a kitchen table.

  “You have to come now, Eileen. We need to leave now.”

  “It’s my house, and if I want to go down with it, then it’s my business, isn’t it?” she said, hissing. “I’ll go upstairs and ride out the rest of the storm.”

  “And if the water gets up there too? Then where will you go?”

  “The roof,” she said.

  I stomped my foot. “Why do you have to be so stubborn?”

  “That is my privilege. You go, Eva Rae. No one is stopping you.”

  “I’m not leaving you,” I said, tears rolling down my cheek. “I refuse to leave you to die.”

  “Well, you have to,” she said with a snort.

  I stared at her, unable to grasp how anyone could be so stubborn. If I left her here, it would mean her certain death. No eighty-year-old woman would survive anything like this.

  I shook my head.

  “Nope.”

  Thinking she couldn’t be very heavy, I ran to her, grabbed her around the legs, and lifted her into the air, then took off with her slung over my shoulder.

  “I’m not letting you go,” I said when she complained. “Not now. Not when I’ve just gotten to know you. It’s as simple as that.”

  I kicked the door open and rushed outside where the water was splashing against the sides of the house, flooding the porch. Carrying my small grandmother on my shoulder, I walked through waist-high waters until I reached the neighboring house, whose yard was on higher ground, and where I had been clever enough to park the car. My grandmother was still yelling for me to let her go when I threw her into the back seat, jumped into the front, and prayed to God that it would start.

  Once I heard the engine roar, I took off. I drove across the neighboring yards, going through puddles, water splashing the sides of the car, crashing through small fences, bushes, and even hitting a trash can on the way, but staying on dry ground for the most part. When we reached a section of the road that was still dry, I floored the minivan, leaving my grandmother’s drowning house behind.

  Chapter Ninety-Eight

  The dry land didn’t last long, though, and soon we were driving through water again, often having it splashing through the sides of the car. I couldn’t stop thinking about my kids and praying they had made it to safety.

  As I took a right turn, I reached an area with marshland, and as I drove through it cautiously, a strong current suddenly grabbed the car, and I lost control of it.

  My grandmother screamed in the back as the car was pulled sideways off the road. I tried desperately to steer it back, but nothing worked. The car was being pulled by the rushing water, and I had no way of controlling where it went. All I could see out the windows was water and more water.

  “It’s getting submerged,” my grandmother yelled from behind me. “The car is being pulled under!”

  It all went by very fast, and I could barely react. Water was filling up inside the minivan and had soon reached my waist.

  “Help!” Eileen screamed. “What do we do?”

  “Stay calm,” I said and rolled down the window next to me, letting even more water inside. “That’s the most important thing right now — remaining calm. We have to wait for the car to be filled with water. Stay in the seat till the water reaches you, and you can’t breathe anymore. Once it is completely full, we can get out. Then you hold your breath and swim to the surface. Can you do that for me, Grandma? Do you think you can do that?”

  The water was now at my neckline, and I was stretching my neck to stay above it as long as possible. Eileen was fighting to breathe behind me. Water kept coming up, and I took one last look at her while holding the steering wheel, clutching it so I could use it to push me out of the car once it was time.

  “Now, take in a deep breath, as deep as you can, and then we swim. It shouldn’t take more than thirty seconds to get out and up to the surface. Do you hear me?”

  She answered with a whimper but did as I told her to. I filled my lungs with precious air, just as the water reached my nostrils. I then took off my seatbelt and used the steering wheel to push myself out of the window. I remembered training for this in the FBI and was relieved to know what to do. I knew we wouldn’t be able to open the doors because of the pressure put on them by the water outside. I also knew that the air in my lungs would help take me to the surface.

  But training was one thing; reality was another. It was a lot harder than I thought. I could hardly see anything as I swam, and I didn’t know what was up or down. I lost track of Eileen on the way and didn’t even know if she made it out of the window.

  Desperately, I turned in the water to see if I could find her, but she was gone. Panicking over this, I swam back toward the car but realized I was about to run out of air and continued upward. I could see the surface, but was struggling to make the air last. It was like in one of those dreams where you fight to get somewhere, but you keep going backward instead. I kept swimming and swimming, but it felt like I was sinking instead, and the surface was getting further and further away.

  I had almost given up reaching the surface when something moved in the water above me, and I felt a forceful pull.

  Chapter Ninety-Nine

  I gasped loudly and coughed. It felt like my lungs were on fire. I threw up water on the grass next to me.

  Then I saw his face. His sweet eyes stared down at me.

  “Eva Rae?”

  “Matt?”

  I almost screamed his name out when realizing it was him.

  “Eva Rae,” he said and held my face between his hands, his eyes looking nervously into mine. “Were you the only one in the car? Was there anyone else besides you in that car? The kids … were they with you?”

  I sat up straight then felt sick and threw up more water. I was disoriented, then I remembered.

  “Eileen. Where is Eileen? Did she make it out? I can’t see her anywhere; is she still down there?”

  Matt stared at the water in front of us. He didn’t think about it twice before he jumped in. While holding my breath, my heart racing in my chest, I glared nervously at the lake of water where Matt had gone in. I hadn’t come this far to lose her now. I simply refused to.

  Please, let her be all right. Please.

  Matt suddenly reappeared, dragging Eileen’s small body after him. I helped him pull her to dry ground, where I immediately performed CPR on her. I pressed on her chest, praying under my breath for her heart to beat and for her to start breathing.

  Eileen coughed, and water came out of her. I breathed, relieved. Matt wasted no time. He took her in his arms and carried her to his pick-up truck, where he put her in the back seat. The wind was still howling, and the rain pouring down on us. I jumped in next to him in the front seat, and we took off, leaving my minivan submerged in the water.

  “Where did you come from all of a sudden?” I asked, still gasping for air as the truck roared through and across the grass, staying on what little dry ground was left.

  “I came back for you. I drove up into your grandmother’s street just as you left. I saw your car take off across the lawns and followed you. My truck had trouble getting through the water on the way here, and it brushed me off the road. It took a while before I could get back on track. I made it over the bridge just before they closed it.”

  “You have no idea how glad I am that you came,” I said.

&nb
sp; “Me too,” he said. “I almost didn’t.”

  He made it to a drier road where we could actually see the asphalt and where the houses were still intact. We rushed across a small neighborhood until we reached Jasmine Street, and I breathed a sigh of relief. I could see the school in the distance and it looked intact and safe.

  My heart beat faster as I thought about my family. When Matt parked the truck in front of the school, we lifted Eileen in our arms and carried her toward the front door while the strong winds pushed us back and the rain whipped our faces.

  Chapter One Hundred

  “Mom, what happened to you? You’re soaked!”

  I hugged both my daughters anyway and held them very tight to my body. Alex had found some kid he was playing with across the room. He gave me a quick hug, then ran back.

  They had set up some beds in the commons and the gym, and a lot of islanders had sought shelter there the past few hours while the water rose, bringing chairs and sleeping bags. I was happy to see both Lauren and Chris there, along with Deputy Corel and Detective Foster, who were supervising the shelter and greeted me as we came in. Even Allyson’s father, Ryan was there, sitting on a chair, hiding his face between his hands.

  We placed my grandmother in one of the few beds there, and David pulled up a chair next to her to keep an eye on her. Meanwhile, I hugged and kissed my kids and gave Sydney a huge hug, thanking God for bringing all my loved ones to safety. It was hard to put into words how relieved I felt in this moment.

  We were all safe.

  Chad came toward me, but then he saw Matt and his smile froze.

  I pointed at him, then at Matt. “You two behave. This is an emergency situation, and the last thing I am having is you two fighting.”

  They both nodded in agreement, hopefully realizing this was not the time nor the place. Alex called for Chad to come to see something and he backed off. I sat down on the foot of my grandmother’s bed with a deep exhale. Matt sat next to me. The storm howled outside, but inside, it was nice and calm.