Chapter 2 #2
Looking up, Kara blinked. They were standing in front of two massive rocks that were leaning against each other, forming a kind of shelter. There was a tiny space between them that didn’t look large enough for one person. Both of them certainly wouldn’t fit.
“Crawl in,” the man said.
She looked at him in disbelief. “Where are you going to stay?” she asked.
His lips twitched upward. “There,” he said, nodding toward the space between the rocks.
Kara looked at it again to see if the space had somehow grown in the last few seconds since she’d last studied it. It hadn’t.
“It’ll be a tight fit, but the rocks should help protect us from any falling trees. And while it’s not waterproof, it’ll get us out of the wind. Downside is that it’ll hide our heat signatures, but my team won’t give up.”
Kara stared at him for a beat. “What’s your name?” she asked.
This time, his lips curved in a true smile. “Arrow. But I’m known as Chaos.”
Kara couldn’t help but snort. She’d just known he had some sort of romance novel name. Arrow was way better than Zane, Axel, or Jax. “Let me guess, because everywhere you go, you leave Chaos in your wake,” she said.
“For the bad guys, yes,” he said simply. “What’s your name?”
“Kara.”
“Go on and get in there, Kara. We can’t possibly get any wetter, but I need to get off my feet. I’m hurting.”
Kara blinked. A man who admitted he was in pain?
She could hardly wrap her head around that.
The men she remembered her mom dating would have rather stuck knives in their ears than admit they were in pain.
Except when they were sick. Then they acted as if they were on their deathbeds when they had a simple head cold.
Since she was hurting as well, she did as he asked, getting down on her hands and knees and doing her best to scoot into the narrow opening in the rocks. The space was actually roomier than she’d thought, but when Arrow joined her, it was still an extremely tight fit.
Being this close to a man instantly had bad memories surging to the surface. She closed her eyes and tried to block them out. Arrow wasn’t Nolan. He wasn’t going to hurt her. He’d saved her from certain death, getting himself hurt in the process.
“I can sit outside if it makes you more comfortable,” he said softly.
Her eyes popped open, leaving her face-to-face with her rescuer. There was no way in hell she was going to kick him out of the shelter after he’d rescued her from floodwaters.
“No. Stay.”
He stared into her eyes for a beat, and it felt as if he were reading her mind. Eventually, he nodded. “Thanks.”
He was thanking her for letting him stay in the shelter he’d found?
This man, he was…
Kara didn’t know what he was. Different from anyone she’d met before, that was for sure. Though, she’d also thought Nolan was different at first. He’d been a perfect gentleman. Considerate. Attentive. Sweet.
Despite that, Kara hadn’t felt even the slightest spark with the guy, which was why she hadn’t initiated intimacy with him, and why she’d tried to break things off.
He’d morphed into a monster in seconds. Two months of being a perfect boyfriend, only to become someone she could only imagine in her worst nightmares.
He accused her of being a cock tease—then took what he claimed she “owed” him.
And proceeded to tear her comfortable life to shreds in less than two weeks.
She wasn’t going to trust Arrow. Not when she’d been burned by someone who’d acted just like him in the beginning.
He shifted, moving around a little, trying to get comfortable in the small space and leaning his head on his hand before he asked, “You got a last name, Kara?”
“Yes.”
His brow lifted at her terse response.
She took a deep breath. She was being a bitch, and she needed to chill the fuck out.
She didn’t want this man to regret saving her.
The truth was, she needed his help. She had nothing to her name.
No clothes, no money. Nolan had forced her to log into her bank account and send everything she had in her checking and savings to his account, and if Arrow left her in these woods because he was disgusted with her attitude, she’d be in big trouble.
“Sorry. It’s Guthrie. I assume you have a last name too? Or is Arrow like Chaos…a one-word name kind of thing?”
He chuckled, and the sound seemed to reverberate around her and settle into her chest. So far, he was acting a lot like Nolan had when they’d met…but the feelings coursing through her over something as simple as his quiet laughter? They were nothing like what she’d felt for her ex.
“Porter. I’m in the Army, stationed out of Norfolk. I’m a helicopter pilot. My team and I were deployed down here to help with evacuations.”
Kara frowned. “I thought it wasn’t safe for anyone to fly in a hurricane?”
“Generally, it’s not. But we aren’t just any pilots. We’re Night Stalkers.”
Kara waited for him to explain. When he didn’t, she asked, “Is that supposed to mean something to me?”
He laughed again. “Sorry. That was a bit conceited of me, wasn’t it? To assume everyone knows the history of the Night Stalkers. I’m used to being around people familiar with the military. We’re a specialized group of pilots known for our ability to fly at night and on special operations missions.”
Kara nodded. “Cool.”
For some reason, Arrow smiled. “Yeah, cool.”
“Did you…were you flying when you fell out?”
“Fell out?”
“Of the helicopter.”
“I wasn’t flying. My teammates were. And I didn’t fall. I jumped when I saw that the tree you were in got uprooted.”
Kara’s mouth fell open. “You jumped? Are you insane?” she asked, her voice rising.
To her amazement, he chuckled yet again. “My friends probably think so. And they’ll chew my ass out when they find us. But I don’t regret it. We’re here, aren’t we?”
He was right. But still. Kara couldn’t wrap her mind around someone willingly jumping into the raging floodwaters, as he’d done. “I…Thank you,” she said softly. “You saved my life.”
“I’m not sure about that. I think we saved each other.”
He really was insane. Because if he thought for one second that she’d done anything to save his life, he was wrong. The only reason she was alive right now was because he’d done the unthinkable. For someone he didn’t even know.
“I hate to ask this, but I need your help.”
“Anything.” She’d do literally anything he wanted. It was the least she could do after what he’d done for her.
“I’ve got something in my shoulder. I can’t reach it, but it hurts like a motherfu—um…it hurts bad. I know it’s dark, but maybe you can see if something’s stuck in there and pull it out for me?”
The thought of something being embedded in his shoulder made Kara shudder with revulsion, but she hid her reaction as best she could. She couldn’t exactly say no and leave him to suffer. “You can say fuck. I don’t mind,” she told him.
He grinned. “Good to know. I try not to swear too much, it’s a bit too stereotypical for the big bad Army pilot to swear like a sailor, no pun intended, but unfortunately it’s become kind of a habit.”
“Well, you can’t exactly go around saying ‘golly gee’ or ‘shoot’ or ‘dagnabbit.’”
He laughed loudly this time. It was a carefree sound. So out of place for their current situation, but it felt good that she’d been able to make him laugh like that.
“You’re so right.”
“I write books,” Kara blurted.
He lifted a brow in question.
“Thrillers. Spies, espionage, things like that. And my characters swear a lot. I sometimes get flack from readers about it, but occasionally a situation warrants a good swear word over something like ‘darn’ or ‘oh no!’”
“You write under your real name?”
“No.”
Arrow smiled. “You gonna tell me your pen name? Maybe I’ve read your stuff.”
“I doubt it. I don’t have an agent, and I’m not with a big publishing house or anything. I’ve only self-published.”
“I read a lot. Love browsing the ebook stores for a good book.”