Chapter 7
“Smile,” Noah said into her ear.
“Ma’am?” the man asked again. The camera lights were blinding, the force of the wind making her feel like she was standing in the path of an oncoming train.
Noah pulled her against his side like they were a couple. “We’re fine, just getting blown away out here,” he said. The men’s eyes moved to Hannah.
She hesitated.
This was her chance to get away from Noah.
She remembered the fear she’d felt when she found him in the backseat of her car.
How he’d wrapped a gun inside Brady’s sweatshirt and forced her to take him home with her.
The dead body of the police officer on the side of the road, for God’s sake, and the realization that Noah had killed him.
But she remembered other things, too. Lizzie Ryker at the hospital, always smiling, even laughing at lunch with her coworkers. Hannah had been shocked to learn of her suicide. Noah’s version of events almost made more sense.
And she remembered her beloved Joe as she performed CPR, her movements practiced and efficient even as her heart seemed to rip from her body. The autopsy report that added to her confusion instead of settling her mind. The hundreds of nights afterwards when she skirted the abyss of doubt.
This was her chance to find out the truth.
Her stare went to Brady, then Noah, beseeching. Would her baby be safe with this man?
“I’ll take good care of him,” said Noah. “I promise.”
Her mouth opened in shock. How many times had Joe used those exact words? Her husband and his little buddy off on some adventure, a quick wink in her direction.
I’ll take good care of him. I promise.
She knew what she had to do.
“Yes, I’m fine. I’m sorry I worried you,” she yelled to the men. “The wind is so strong.”
She was struck again by how physically fit Noah was, the muscles of his arm and chest wrapping around her body, and she prayed she had made the right decision.
“Do you mind if we ask you a few questions on camera?” asked the man.
“I don’t think—” she said.
“Sure,” said Noah.
“Why didn’t your family heed the mandatory evacuation order?”
She was about to correct his assumption that they were a family when Noah said, “Just go along with it.”
She met his eyes, that same steely stare she’d first seen in the corner store that had shot a bolt of longing through her body.
She wasn’t sure what was happening here, who he was or how his story related to hers, but his question about how her husband died might have been the first honest thing she’d heard in more than a year, vibrating in tune with the piece of her that had known something was terribly wrong.
She would help him now. Play along if need be. She turned toward the camera, a smile on her face. “I’m a physician. I wanted to stay in the area in case I was needed.”
“Where are you going?” asked the weatherman.
“Higher ground,” said Noah. “You can’t be too careful with a storm surge like this one’s packing.”
The weatherman looked to Brady. “What about you, little guy? Is your daddy taking good care of you?”
A smile burst onto his face. “Yeah.”
A little piece of Hannah shriveled up and died. Brady was so desperate for a father he’d clung on to this stranger after a bullet wound and one ride on his shoulders. She must be doing a terrible job as a stand-in dad if that’s all it took to replace her.
“How much longer do we have until the worst of it comes on shore?” asked Noah.
“This parking garage is your saving grace at the moment. Out there are sustained winds of eighty miles per hour. I’d say we’ll be up to ninety in the next twenty minutes, and into the eye wall where it’s currently a hundred and thirty miles per hour.”
“Wow,” said Hannah.
“Then the eye of the storm after that,” he continued. “Maybe half an hour, thirty-five minutes until it will be quiet for a little while, then the other side of the eye wall will hit.”
“We’d better be on our way,” said Hannah.
They reached the car, Noah putting the boy down and holding out his hand for the keys. It was a small gesture that seemed much more profound. A shift in their relationship. A token of trust.
She put them in his palm and moved to the passenger side, the wind blowing the car in gusts and waves as they drove along the roads she’d driven all her life, things that should have looked familiar now strange and frighteningly new.
The hurricane tugged at the landscape, ripping trees from their roots and tossing branches and palms everywhere.
He pulled in behind the pickup truck they’d passed earlier with a cover over the bed and two flat tires, and Hannah made a point not to look at the dead body on the ground.
Noah got out, angling his body against the wind as he made his way in front of the truck. He came back carrying two large gas cans and she popped open the trunk, a strange sort of numbness taking over her mind. It was too much to absorb—all of it. Especially after she’d had so little sleep.
The sudden depth of her returning fatigue seemed to alter her consciousness.
She watched him make several more trips until all the gas cans were stowed away, then he filled her tank.
How long had it been since a man had done the hard work while she stayed safely inside?
Joe had always done the heavy lifting while she stayed dry—literally and figuratively—and she didn’t realize until that moment how exhausted she’d become from doing everything herself.
She was mother and father to Brady, the wage earner, the grocery shopper, the laundry doer, the homework helper, the playmate, the car mechanic, the every-fucking-thing doer. And she was so damn tired it hurt.
He climbed back into the car, a wet wind whipping through the vehicle until he slammed the door. “All set.”
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“My sister’s place. It’s not far.”
“Is it really on higher ground?”
“No.”
“Shouldn’t we get away from Oscar like you told the camera crew?”
“I think that ship sailed a while ago. With so much debris on the road and in the air, we’re better off just to batten down the hatches and wait out the storm. I have plenty of supplies at her place for all three of us.”
“Were you close to your sister?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Thanks. It hasn’t had a chance to sink in yet. I got angry when I found out. Mad at the whole damn world. I made some bad choices and probably lost my job.”
“HERO Force.”
“That’s right. I’ve only been there about six months and I don’t think they’ll put up with that kind of shit.” His eyes went to mirror and Brady. “Sorry. I have to watch my mouth.”
“That’s okay,” said Brady, cheerfully.
“I think you’re walking on water right about now,” she said quietly.
“I noticed that.”
“Sorry. It’s been hard for him.”
“I like it.” He turned to her and smiled, a killer grin that made her insides dance. “Only standing next to a kid can you feel like you’re ten feet tall.”
“Do you have any?”
“Kids? Nope.”
Wife? Girlfriend?
She bit her lip on the inappropriate question.
You’re just as bad as Brady.
That was it, wasn’t it? She’d been alone for so long her body was reacting to the pheromones in the air. It was basic biology. Human beings’ bodies were always looking to reproduce, no matter the circumstance. Probably even more so in the face of danger.
Satisfied with that explanation, her thoughts went back to Noah’s sister. “How close in age were you and Lizzie?”
“I was ten when she was born.”
“That’s quite an age difference.”
“That’s a built-in babysitter.” He laughed. “I didn’t mind, though. I liked playing with her. My mom married Lizzie’s dad when I was eight. It was just the two of us before that.”
“What did she do?”
“She’s a therapist. Alive and well and living in Florida with my stepdad. Lizzie’s condo actually belongs to them.”
His voice was full of love for his family, giving Hannah a glimpse at the side of him beyond what she’d seen so far, and letting her picture what it must be like without Lizzie in their lives.
A lot like my life has been without Joe.
“Do you really think she was killed?”
He was quiet for a moment, so that she didn’t know if he was going to answer.
“I know I want to believe it. It even seems more likely to me. When I first heard she’d killed herself, all I could think was she’s always so happy.
Then I heard it was a self-inflicted gunshot wound and that didn’t seem possible. ”
Maybe he was chasing a fantasy.
She didn’t say it, but she suspected she didn’t need to.
“You’re safe with me, Hannah. I’m not going to let anything happen to you or your son.”
All the men in the world, and she’d either hitched her wagon to a cop-killing monster or a military warrior, without a way to know for sure which one he really was.
“I think I have to trust you. I don’t have much of a choice.”