Page 36 of Tucker

He reminded himself that he was known for his calm demeanor, but it didn’t help. He needed to know she was safely out of the storm.

After that, he settled a dispute in a fender bender, while also fielding calls from Kady’s family. They wanted reassurances that she was okay, only he couldn’t give them since he hadn’t yet heard back. He imagined she was as busy as he was, and he didn’t want to distract her, but damn it, he needed to hear her voice.

When he turned down his own street, he found elderly Mr. Cummings on the porch, trying to flag down help.

Tucker got soaked as he ran up to the porch, and he was relieved when he found that Mr. Cummings only needed help in moving his disabled wife downstairs.

The warning sirens, in addition to the fierce wind and the ever-blackening sky, had everyone nervous, him included.

Kady, where are you?

Given the debris on the street, the missing shingles on houses and a few mangled trees, the storm was getting worse instead of better.

Driven by urgency, Tucker was already on his way back out to his car when his phone buzzed. Hoping it would be Kady, he glanced at the screen.

Instead it was Cleets, and damn it, that scared him even more.

He answered by asking, “Is Kady with you? Is she safe?”

“She told me to call,” Cleets said quickly. “She was on the way to your house, but then she spotted a tornado to the west of the main road.”

Standing in the open doorway of Mr. Cummings’s house, Tucker froze. Only one thing mattered. “Is she safe?”

“I was hoping you could tell me. I haven’t heard back from her and—”

The call dropped.

With his heart pounding painfully, it took Tucker a second to realize what had happened. He stared at the phone.

Until he felt it.

The ground beneath his feet began to tremble, and a roar swelled in the air. The wind tore against him, nearly taking him off his feet.

God, Kady.

Staring at the devastation, he fought the urge to go out anyway. What if she was still on the road? What if...

He closed his eyes. Kady was smart—hadn’t he said so repeatedly? The weather was her area of expertise. She understood the danger better than most, and she knew what to do.

None of those facts made him feel better.

As indecision held him, the wind tore a heavy branch from a tree and sent it whirling down the road where it collided with a parked car.

The wind sucked at him, trying to drag him from the dubious safety of the house, and finally Tucker put his shoulder to the door. It took some effort but he got it closed, then numbly joined Mr. and Mrs. Cummings in the basement.

He’d have to wait, when he’d already waited for far too long.

As soon as he had her with him again—and he would, he had to believe that—he wouldn’t wait a second more.

* * *

HOWLONGTHEstorm lasted, she couldn’t say, but it suddenly dawned on her that the lightning had stopped and only a gentle rain washed the window. She caught her breath, her head cocked as she listened, but all was quiet—quieter than usual since the electricity was out.

That silence was the most beautiful thing she’d ever heard.

Peering around the boxes, she looked to the window but couldn’t see much.

After only a moment of hesitation, she crept out of her hidey-hole, moving a box to block in the dog so she couldn’t follow yet, not until Kady made sure it was clear. At the bottom of the basement steps, she listened again, but all was calm.

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