Page 42 of After The Storm

After walking around the entire house, she still didn’t find him, so she looked out the window to see if the old brown car still sat in the driveway. Still there. Well, at least she could be reasonably sure he hadn’t abandoned her.

Not unless he planned to walk back across the Causeway. Then again, for all she knew about him, he might. She wouldn’t have thought that yesterday, but something about him had changed today.

The sun had set and a chill in the air had set in, sending goosebumps along her skin as she stepped outside onto the front porch and began walking down the steps to search for him. A full moon shone across the water of Lake Pontchartrain, and lights from the million dollar mansions along the lakefront cast a golden glow on the shore. The scene looked so calm, she stopped to take it all in for a moment. Peace and calm felt so wonderful after what she’d been through.

Her mind wandered to the possibility that someday it would be the norm for her again. She wouldn’t argue with having that peace at a house like this one either.

She walked down toward the lakeshore and saw Roman sitting alone near the water just past a giant oak tree nearly covered with Spanish moss hanging from every branch. He must have sensed her as she crossed the road to join him because he looked back at her and watched as she approached him. Kate felt his eyes on her, making her nervous since he seemed like a different man now.

Unsure what to say, she fell back on a joke to break the ice. “So this is how you protect a woman in danger? You leave her alone in a strange house? I woke up and had no idea where I was.”

She punctuated her comment with a chuckle, but it didn’t work. He didn’t crack even the tiniest smile and simply just stared at her as she spoke. When she finished, his face remained stony.

Not that he’d ever been a really emotional guy, but this person seemed entirely foreign to her now. What had changed?

She wanted to ask but didn’t know how to. He wasn’t exactly the chattiest kind of man at any time. Since no matter what she said seemed to irritate him, she figured she might as well just go the direct route.

“What’s wrong, Roman? You seem different ever since you woke me up this morning.”

He drew his eyebrows in and then looked away toward the water. “No difference. Just trying to figure out what our next move should be.”

No difference and yet he couldn’t even bother to face her when he said that. Nope. She wasn’t buying it.

Had he finally reached his limit with her arguing?

“I tried to do some more research, but I keep running into dead ends, so I figured I’d see what you were up to. You weren’t in the house, so I figured I’d look outside and saw you here.”

His response to her explanation? Utter silence.

Something had changed between them. The problem was she didn’t know why.

She walked around him so he didn’t have a choice but to look at her. Staring into his emotionless face, she quietly said, “I’m sorry I’ve been such a pain. I don’t mean to be. I guess I’m just used to being on my own.”

Roman said nothing for the longest time but didn’t look away, so she had to fight the urge to fill the empty space in the conversation. Hell, who was she kidding? A conversation took two people talking. One person doing all the talking and being stared at by the other person resembled more a scene out of some psycho killer movie than a conversation.

Finally, he smiled, the corners of his mouth lifting just a tiny bit. “You’re not a pain, Kate. There’s nothing wrong with questioning things.”

“Well, if you’re not angry about that, what’s wrong? It seems like ever since this morning, you’ve been upset about something.”

He shook his head and shrugged, as if nothing was bothering him. “I’m not upset. I would have liked a little more time to make a plan, but the desk clerk put an end to that idea. It’s not bad, though. Butcher’s house is a whole lot better than even the Allton.”

Since she had him talking, she wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to keep him communicating, so Kate sat down next to him. “How do you know this Butcher guy? He must be pretty trusting to let you stay at his house like this.”

Roman tilted his head left and then right, as if he was debating the truth of what she said. “I don’t know if I’d call Butcher trusting. That might be the first time I’ve ever heard him described like that.”

“His house cost a fortune. That he’s given us free reign of it for as long as we stay sounds pretty trusting to me. Is that because he was your captain and he knows you?” she asked, becoming more and more curious about this friend of his.

“I guess,” Roman answered in a faraway voice. “When you spend time with someone as people are shooting at you, I guess you grow to trust the people you serve with.”

Kate knew nothing of that. She’d never even seen a gun up close until she caught a glimpse of Roman’s sticking out of the back of his pants and then later saw it sitting on the hotel bathroom vanity. She didn’t even know anyone who owned a gun before him. Before the other day, the nearest she’d come to a gun had been those in the movies and on TV.

She couldn’t even imagine what it must be like to have people shooting at you. The mere thought of it sent chills down her back.

“What’s that like? Is it as terrifying as it sounds?” she asked, genuinely wanting to know what he’d experienced.

Turning his head to look at her, he remained silent, studying her for a moment before he answered. “The first time it’s the scariest thing you’ll ever go through. You pray to God you’ll make it out alive. You’re afraid like you’ve never been afraid before in your life.”

“And after that?”

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