“Leave me alone!” Shrugging her blouse back into place, she buttoned it as she ran for the back door of the house that opened to the sunroom. The door was locked, and she’d dropped her purse when Barry grabbed her in the garage. She ran around the side of the house to the front, checking the side door on the way. It was locked too. Where was Grady? Was anyone else here? Even if she made it inside, he’d come after her if they were alone.
Lightning lashed the sky, crackling into a nearby tree. The horrifying crash made her jump. She needed to get inside. Rain was coming down in buckets now, and every inch of her body was drenched. She reached the porch and went to the door. It was unlocked. She practically fell inside, cradling her stomach protectively.
Shivering, she slammed the door shut and considered locking it, but that would only slow Barry down. And anger him. But maybe he was in control of himself again. Maybe it was his father’s death that had made him react so violently. She stood in the hallway and considered her options. She could talk to him calmly, sensibly. She could watch for him to come in, then go out the back door and leave. Or she could go to her room and lock the door.
None of the options was giving her any comfort. She needed thinking time. This was a big house. She could park herself somewhere until other people came back. It would give Barry time to cool off and herself time to think things through.
But where? Barry would look for her in her room right off. The ballroom was out for the same reason. There were other rooms in the house, but he’d be likely to search them all.
His locked room.
The thought came out of nowhere. What if he wasn’t mad anymore and decided to go there to do some work? But no, he’d been up there last night. He usually only went in every two or three days. It might be safe. Besides, if she had the key, he couldn’t get in anyway.
Rain thundered on the roof, sluiced over the windows, battered at the door. Through the window, Alanna saw Barry stumbling toward the front porch. No time to get to the second floor. She turned and raced for the kitchen door. Unlocking it, she locked it again before she stepped out into the rain. She ran for the garage but realized it was impossible to escape by car. The rain was coming down too hard, and even the driveway was flooding.
Her cell phone.
Rain dripped from her to the garage floor as soon as she stepped inside. She retrieved her purse from the floor. At least Barry would think she was inside. It was hard to think past the pounding rain. The sound of it filled her head, numbed her panic. She locked the garage door, then went to the car and got inside the backseat and locked it, then squeezed on the floor where she couldn’t be seen if Barry looked inside.
She shivered from the cold rain that had soaked every inch of her clothes. If only she had a towel. She squeezed the water from her hair and hunkered down even tighter to warm up. Fishing out her cell phone, she checked it. No power bars. She punched in 9–1–1, but it didn’t have enough juice to go through, so she dropped it back into her purse.
She peered up over the bottom of the window. The storm had intensified, and she heard nothing but thunder and rain. Easing open the door, she crawled out of the car and to the exterior door. She raised her head far enough to peek out into the yard. Through flashes of lightning, she saw mud puddles but no Barry.
The rain was coming down too hard to see to drive. Jesse sat in the car outside Mark’s apartment and tried to decide what to do. The radio blared out the news that this wasn’t just a spring rain but a hurricane moving in for a direct hit in the Charleston area.
The announcer’s excited voice bellowed out. “This is a category two storm, but don’t let that fool you. The rain bands in this storm are particularly bad, and we can expect heavy flooding. The outer edges will reach us in half an hour.”
So it was going to get worse. He could go back inside and take refuge with Mark and Ginny, but the less time he spent with them, the better. His mother would be happy to have him home for the evening, but he wanted to be with Alanna. She was afraid of storms like this. And after the attacks, he didn’t want her alone in that house.
He stopped and shook his head. These weird certainties kept hitting with no warning. In spite of the intensifying storm, he wanted to try to make it back to the house. The small car hydroplaned along the streets, but he managed to keep the car on his side of the line. Headlamps barely pushed back the dark of the storm as he drove rain-swept streets in a line of traffic that intensified. Others were trying to get somewhere before the worst of it too.
He reached the road out of town and turned off where the road dipped before climbing a small hill. And found the basin flooded. An SUV was stalled in the middle of the water, but the occupants had already fled the vehicle. He’d never make it across in this small car.
His cell phone rang, and he saw Ciara’s name flash across the screen. He answered it, “Ciara, is Alanna all right?”