Page 13 of After The Storm

Before she could argue anymore, a loud banging on the door a few rooms away stunned the two of them. A voice bellowed out, “Kate Sheridan! This is the New Orleans police! Open up!”

Roman reached back to pull out his gun from his pants and turned back to look at Kate. He saw all the defiance she’d displayed since he arrived disappear. Terror filled her eyes at the sound of the police officer outside.

But were the cops really the people she should be afraid of? He had a hard time believing they had any part in her boss’s death or that of his client’s.

Kate grabbed hold of his hand, her blue eyes full of fear, and pleaded, “I swear to you if they find me, they’ll make me disappear. They think I know everything about the case. I don’t, but it won’t matter. I can tell you’re a law and order kind of guy, maybe even a former cop yourself, so you instinctively think the cops are good, but they’re not. Not in this case. You can’t let them take me.”

Roman wondered if Persephone and Nicholas had been wrong about this woman. Was she in danger, or was she the one who’d killed her boss and his client? The papers were already claiming a love triangle lay at the bottom of this case. Were they right? Going against the cops felt wrong to him, but something about Kate made him want to help her.

Even more than want. He needed to help her, even though he couldn’t understand it since up until the cops arrived, she’d fought him every step of the way so far.

The pounding started on the door next to the room where they stood, and she begged, “Please just get me out of here and then you can go back to your happy life and forget all about me. Please, Roman.”

How wrong she was when she described his life as happy. When he returned to the estate, he’d go back to being alone, even in a house filled with people, and he’d crave the time when he received his next assignment just so he could fill his days with work.

The cop outside began barking orders to open the door, and Roman knew they didn’t have much time to escape. Taking her by the hand, he pulled her toward the bathroom as she grabbed her bag.

“We’ll go out through here,” he said as he threw up the window and looked out to see a short drop to the concrete pad below. “You first.”

She hesitated, unsure about escaping this way. “I don’t know if I can do this.”

“You can. I’m right here. You’ll be fine. It’s just a few feet to the ground.”

After she tossed her bag out, he lifted her up to ease her out the tiny exit barely big enough for her to fit through and watched her land safely on the concrete. Stuffing his gun back in his pants, he began to squeeze through the window, careful of the small backpack he carried on his back. Just then, the police banged on the motel room door just feet away from him and he knew they’d run out of time.

“Kate Sheridan! We know you’re in there! Open up!” the cop bellowed just as Roman got his shoulders and chest out the window.

While the pounding continued on the motel room door, he wriggled his body to fit through the narrow space. Suddenly, he felt a searing pain in his side! Looking down, he saw a hole torn in his shirt and blood where a nail on the windowsill had cut him. But he didn’t have time to worry about how bad it was.

As pain streaked down his side, he made it out and down to the ground below where Kate waited. He grabbed her hand and they ran as fast they could from the Bayou Motel and the cops who wanted to speak to her.

Roman didn’t know if he’d just saved a woman in danger or helped a murderer escape. All he knew was he had to help her.

Even if he didn’t know why.

Chapter Five

Roman tugged herarm, practically dragging her down the street as they headed toward the French Quarter. Kate had no intention of going back there where that suspicious man had followed her and Eve the night before, so she pulled away and stepped into a doorway to hide.

“Nope. Whatever you’re thinking, we’re not going back to the Quarter. No way.”

He narrowed his eyes to angry slits and stared down at her in disbelief. “What? Why? We need to get to a nicer place than that fleabag motel you were hiding out at. I need somewhere I can start to work on this case in peace and quiet where the cops aren’t going to be threatening to bust down the door.”

“I don’t care. The first place they’ll look is in the Quarter.”

“At six o’clock in the morning? I doubt it. The cops probably think you have no money or very little to be spending on places to hide out. They’re not going to suspect you of being at a five star hotel.”

She hated to admit it, but what Roman said made sense. Plus, the idea of a five star hotel with a bathtub where she could wash off the grime of the past twelve hours and a bed she didn’t have to worry would have something waiting to crawl on her sounded incredible.

Looking up and down the street, she saw people beginning to head to work. If they wasted any more time discussing his plan, the sun would be up and the cops might see her. They needed to get to the hotel right now.

“Fine. I hope you have money because I can’t afford much more than The Bayou.”

He wrapped his hand around her forearm and gently pulled her out onto the sidewalk. “Don’t worry. I’ve got it covered. Let’s go. I don’t want to be out once the sun comes up.”

They hurried down the street with Kate keeping her head down and Roman guiding her, his hand holding her steady. With every step, she wondered if they’d actually be able to escape being noticed by the police, but then she reminded herself where she lived.

New Orleans had its fair share of bizarre people, so a woman walking down the road with her head bowed while a man held her tightly to him likely wouldn’t arouse any suspicion whatsoever. Now if they were half-naked and wearing feathers on the half of their bodies that were covered maybe, but dressed as they were in ordinary casual clothes, they wouldn’t even be noticed by most people who passed them by.

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