Page 69 of After The Storm

Just as they got to the front door, she turned in his hold and rushed toward the light switch on the back wall. “Wait! The lights! We don’t want anyone to see us coming out of here.”

Roman watched her flick the switch and then turn back to come toward him, but in the dark, he suddenly saw a shadow come up next to her and then a second one. She cried out as one of them grabbed her, and Roman rushed toward them. Before he could reach her, a fist slammed into his jaw, sending him reeling backward. A second later, he got his bearings and charged the man, sending him over a desk onto the floor. He got a few punches in before something hit him in the back of the head.

Before he blacked out, he heard Kate scream his name, but he couldn’t reach her. As he faded into unconsciousness, he heard one of the men say, “We need to take them to the hangar.”

And then he heard nothing.

***

Roman’s eyes slowlyfluttered open, and instantly, his head began to throb. He moved to lift his hand to touch where he’d been hit on the back of the head, but he couldn’t move his arms. Struggling to see because everything in front of him appeared grey and blurry, he strained to focus on why he was immobile.

He sat on a hard, concrete floor with a rope holding his wrists tightly behind his back. A second later, he tried to move his ankles and found them bound also. As his eyesight cleared, he strained to make out where he was. He vaguely remembered hearing someone say they needed to go to the hangar, and now as he scanned the open space around him, he saw that’s exactly where he’d been taken.

An airplane hangar.

Roman turned his head left and right to look for Kate, but he couldn’t see her anywhere. Panicked they’d taken her somewhere else, he called out her name.

“Kate! Where are you? Can you hear me?”

Behind him, he heard a noise that sounded like her. He tried to see where she was, but he couldn’t turn far enough.

“Kate! Talk to me! I can’t see you,” he called out.

“Roman? I can’t see you either,” she said in a tiny voice.

A mixture of dread and rage surged within him. Had they hurt her? Is that why she sounded so small and frail?

“I’m right here, Kate. Don’t worry. I’m right here. You’re not alone.”

“I can hear you and you sound so close, but I can’t see you,” she said louder now, and he figured out they were both bound on the floor near one another.

“I’m behind you, I think. Are your hands and feet tied?”

She made a small grunting noise and then answered, “Yes. My hands are tied behind my back. Oh God, my shoulders hurt so much.”

Roman extended his fingers as far as they could reach, but he couldn’t touch hers. She was just too far away. He couldn’t give up, though. He had to find some way to get to her and then get them out of there.

“Where are we?” she asked, her voice laced with fear that struck directly at his heart.

“We’re in an airplane hangar at an airport somewhere.”

He listened for sounds outside and heard nothing. It had to be a small, local airport or airstrip. “I’m not thinking a major airport, though. There’s no noise, no people around working on planes.”

Without saying it, he knew what that meant. They weren’t in New Orleans anymore.

The heavy sound of a large metal door opening alerted him to someone coming, so he quickly told Kate, “Don’t say a thing. Don’t answer whatever questions you’re asked. Understand?”

She answered, her voice trembling, “Okay, I won’t say a thing. Are we going to be okay, Roman?”

His heart tightened in his chest at the sound of her fear. He needed to make her feel like everything would be okay.

Even if he didn’t know if it would be.

“I promised you I would protect you. I know things look bad, but trust me, okay? Just don’t tell them anything. And no matter what you hear me say or what they do to me, don’t tell them a thing. Promise me, Kate.”

“I promise. I won’t.”

“It’ll be okay. We’ll be out of here soon and then we can go anywhere you want. Okay? We can go back to Butcher’s and I’ll make you dinner this time.”

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