Page 24 of In the Dark

CHAPTER 8

Karsia couldn’t shake him, not even when she shoved him back and raced toward the car.

“If you know what’s good for you, you’ll go back and keep working on finding your notes. This is not your problem.”

She didn’t know what it was.

She breathed in the night air and pushed down the eels wriggling inside her. Whatever had happened, it wasn’t good.

“Please, wait a minute!” Morgan hurried to grab his coat and scarf, following her out and swinging around on an afterthought to lock the door. He fumbled with his keys and nearly dropped them in the process. He finally managed to get everything in order, hastening after her before she reached her vehicle. “Jesus, you’re fast. Tell me what’s going on before my imagination conjures up a number of horrible scenarios.”

He lunged forward and took hold of her elbow, unprepared for the rapid-fire fists which assaulted him on contact.

Karsia plowed her hand into his gut, delighted when he stumbled away with a grunt. She succeeded in landing a second punch to his shoulder before moving back to the car. “I need to leave. Get back in the house, Morgan.”

“Wait.” His voice croaked and he took a moment to breathe past the pain. Damn, the woman knew how to throw a punch. If he were mortal, the blow would have whacked him to the ground and bruised a rib or two.

Knowing he didn’t have time to give in to the discomfort, Morgan tripped forward and dug his fingers into her shirt, struggling to keep hold. “I’m not leaving until you tell me what’s gotten you so worked up you rush out of the house at midnight.”

His heated words drew an answering response from her. Karsia ground her teeth before spitting at him, “Get off me.”

She dragged him along, uncaring when his feet drew deep grooves in the fresh snow. Morgan clung to her tenaciously. “No. I need answers from you.”

“You don’t need shit!”

Snow fluttered in an unnatural wind around them and the antique lampposts casting dusky yellow halos in the night. For an instant, Karsia thought she saw the shadowy outline of wings behind her, their heft blotting out the light. She blinked and the moment passed.

Slowly, Morgan spoke, straightening and at last releasing his hold on her. “I refuse to leave you until you tell me what’s going on. Why you’re acting crazy without provocation.”

“Since I’m not in the business of letting anyone in on my personal affairs, and if you refuse to be rational and let it go, then you might as well get in the damn car. Because I’m leaving,” she said with deliberation, enunciating each word. The pain in her gut refused to abate.

“We’re taking my car.” Morgan jingled his keys in her face. “And you better get comfortable with it, because I’m driving.”

Karsia grabbed the lapels of his coat and drew him to her. “Look,” she threatened, voice dropping. “Whatever your deal is, you listen to me. I need to get to the Lake Forest area of Chicago as fast as physically possible. Unless you can keep your foot glued to the goddamn gas pedal, then go back inside your comfortable house and keep working on my fucking research. Got it, Professor?”

Astonishingly, Morgan grinned. “Got it loud and clear.”

She never gave him the opportunity to question her or pack a bag. She barely gave him the time to let the car warm up. They both piled into the comfortable front seats of his Crown Victoria and set out for her childhood home.

Engine rumbling and tires gripping the road, Morgan turned unerringly toward the highway to take them east.

Karsia let her head drop against the leather rest and forgot about the darkness inside her, her worry encompassing everything else. It grew with each mile they pushed forward and later, when she could finally think, she was grateful to Morgan for his intervention. For his complete silence on their journey toward Illinois and over state lines.

The torture in her stomach continued, like a vise gripping her internal organs. She didn’t know how she knew, how the knowledge came to her with a clear, bell-like tolling, but she did. And it was worse than she’d expected. A tether sank into her abdomen and tugged her forward with a firm yank from whomever, or whatever, held the other end. She hadn’t wanted to go. She must go. It was absolutely essential.

An accident, she understood from those disjointed visions. Something unavoidable but premeditated.

Each minute stretched on infinitely as the distance closed between her and her destination.

“Can you please drive faster?” she told him at last when the speed limit increased.

“No matter how fast I go, it’s never going to be enough for you.” Morgan brought up the GPS coordinates on his phone and headed in the right direction. “Not when you need to get somewhere fast. I’m doing the best I can.”

“Do. Better.”

Morgan stole a peek at her and pushed down ever so slightly on the accelerator. “Try not to chew a hole through your cheek. We’ll get there.”

She refused to rest, keeping her eyes trained on the road ahead.

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