Page 9 of Keeping Kara

She let out the breath she hadn’t known she was holding. She certainly did not want to talk about Nolan right that moment. How terrified she’d been. How badly he’d hurt her. How he’d insisted she belonged to him, and there was nowhere she could escape that he wouldn’t find her…and make her regret leaving him.

She began to shake. In reaction to what she’d been through, both tonight and with Nolan.

“I’d like to…I promise you’re safe with me. Can I…can I hold you? Try to warm you up? And myself in the process?”

He sounded so unsure. So sincere.

She nodded.

Slowly, and very carefully, Arrow shifted and pulled her against his chest. He was lying on his side, as was she, and even though the ground was hard beneath her, being in this man’s arms made her feel as if everything was going to be all right.

Eventually the shivers faded and Kara grew tired. She’d been up for hours and hours, and the adrenaline dump suddenly made it feel as if she’d taken a handful of sedatives.

The last thought she had before she succumbed to the lure of oblivion was that she hoped Arrow Porter was a man of his word. That she hadn’t jumped from the frying pan into the fire.

CHAPTER THREE

Chaos wasn’t tired.

Okay, yes he was. Exhausted, but he wasn’t going to fall asleep. Not when they were in the middle of a freaking hurricane, when his shoulder was on fire, and when the woman in his arms was so vulnerable.

Something terrible had happened to her. Of that, he had no doubt. And he wasn’t talking about finding herself stuck in a tree in the middle of a flash flood. No, it was more than that. He could tell from how skittish she was and what he’d inferred from some of the things she’d said.

He would stay awake as long as it took to make sure she was safe and as warm as he could make her. Which wasn’t as warm as he’d like. He was cold himself, but his flight suit and boots did a good enough job of keeping him from freezing, despite being wet.

Kara was in a T-shirt and shorts. No shoes.

As much as he hoped his team would find him tonight, he had a feeling they were currently grounded, and probably pissed way the hell off about it. The wind had gotten worse, and not staying out in the storm was the right call, even with him missing and more people needing rescuing. They were good at what they did, but even they knew when they needed to stand down.

He hated that his friends were probably worried about him. Wondering if he was even alive. Because it had been a very stupid thing he’d done. Jumping into a flood wasn’t something any sane person would do. But Chaos hadn’t thought twice. Seeing the woman, Kara, disappear under the water while still clinging to that tree had sent him into a panic.

But they were safe now. Cold, hurting, and hungry, but safe enough.

Chaos had time to think about the things he’d learned. And to worry about how hurt she really was. It was too dark to see her well before they’d climbed into this hidey-hole. But the feel of her ripped-up palm had been worrying. He’d kissed it before thinking of how weird that might come across to someone he’d just met.

She’d been gracious enough to accept his apology, but Chaos vowed to not do anything else to scare her. Because he had scared her. He’d felt it in the way her body stiffened, how her fingers had curled into a fist. If they hadn’t been plastered against each other with rocks at their backs, he had no doubt she would’ve immediately moved away from him.

He hated that he’d frightened her. And a familiar niggling in the back of his mind said it was more than just her being wary of a stranger. He had a feeling it was the intimacy of his actions that had really alarmed her, rather than the comfort he’d meant to convey with the barest brush of his lips against her skin.

Which likely meant she’d been hurt. By a man.

How he knew that with such certainty, Chaos had no idea. His sixth sense kicking in again, no doubt. Whatever it was, it made him want to rage. He’d just risked his life to save her, to pull her back from the brink of death in those floodwaters. She’d been through enough tonight to last anyone a lifetime, and the idea that someone had purposely mistreated her, hurt her, had him wanting to use everything he’d learned in the military to hunt down whoever had dared to touch her.

Willing himself to relax, to stay calm, Chaos took a deep breath. He had no proof that Kara had been hurt by anyone. But that sixth sense he’d relied on all his life was working overtime. He wanted to ask her a million questions. Find out how she’d found herself in that tree in the first place. Where she’d been before she was swept away. If she had a family. A husband…

That thought made him feel sick, but he pushed it down. Surely she would’ve said something if she was married? Begged to know if he and his team had managed to rescue her husband? Any possible children? At least asked about them. Told him she was anxious to get back to Asheville so she could find info on her family.

Thinking about if—God forbid—Laryn, Mandy, Zita, or Penny had been in her shoes, he knew the first thing they’d demand was to get back to civilization so they could be reunited with their men. Even if it was impossible, they’d still ask it of him.

But Kara hadn’t seemed concerned about anyone else. True, she was probably in shock, but still.

His mood lightened just slightly when he thought about the thriller books she’d written. He was determined to discover her pen name, so he could download one of her stories.

His arms tightened around her a bit, and the movement made whatever was embedded in his shoulder shift. He winced. Motherfucker, it hurt. Whatever was in there was big. He needed to get it out, but Kara needed sleep more.

The wind was slowly dying down, and Chaos knew the hurricane was supposed to have dissipated by morning. It was probably already at tropical-storm strength now, and by the time the sun rose over the horizon it would have moved out to sea.

That’s when the real work would start for most people. The devastation the rain and winds had wrought on the area was immense. It would take time for a search party to find them. To find all the people, alive and dead, who needed finding.