A Storm Is Coming (15 page)

The entire room quieted down. It was a one-sided conversation where Braylee didn’t offer too much.

“That’s interesting Mr. Mayor. Ummm. I see. Well, that would be a waste of your legal team’s efforts. Why don’t you call me to set up an appointment and we can go from there? Great…goodbye, Mr. Mayor.”

Braylee looked up, and every pair of eyes in the room was staring at her. The Cheshire cat-like smile returned, “That went exactly the way I hoped it would.”

She wasn’t prepared to give anyone else in the room any more information than that. Not while they were still trying to decide, who could be trusted.

Her phone vibrated again, this time it was her forensic IT guy. She read his text. Distractedly she responded to everyone, “I’m sorry guys, I’m going to have to meet you all back at my office. I’ve got to go.”

Braylee had just thrown a bomb into the room and little Ms. Hinsdale was going to go off and disappear? No way.

His tone was gruff, “Where are you going?”

“I just received some information regarding your case and I don’t want to let it sit. Gail, can we switch cars? You parked in the underground lot right? The paparazzi will be following our car, and I don’t want that kind of attention for where I’m going.”

Gail nodded, “Yes, I did and of course.”

Alex looked from Gail to Braylee, “I’m going with you.”

“There’s no need for you to come. I can handle this on my own. Jeanine traveled all this way to be supportive. Leaving would be rude.” Braylee didn’t know where that came from. Man oh man not only did her Mask slip it had a huge crack in it.

Alex did his best to hide the smile that threatened to appear. Was she jealous…of Jeanine? It was absurd, but a good sign. Even though he’d told her before that there was nothing but a friendship between them. Nevertheless, it bothered her. “I’m sure you can handle it, but I’m still going.”

He glanced at Jeanine, “You understand right?” Without waiting for her to respond, he focused his attention on Giovanni, “Gio, can you ride back with Jeanine, Joseph, and Marcus?”

Giovanni had had enough of Alex and his secrets for one day. He was his goddamned lawyer for goodness sake. And, clearly after all these years, he didn’t trust him. It was probably best that he went back to the office. Otherwise, he might just strangle Alex. Which wouldn’t be such a bad idea other than the whole prison thing. Then, all of Manchetti Enterprise’s problems would disappear.

He nodded.

Lisa chimed in, “Well…I’m canceling my appointment and heading straight home. The weather is awful. The National Weather Service has already issued tornado warnings for certain areas, so you two be careful out there.”

Braylee hugged her friend, “Yes, of course. I’ll call you later.” But, right now, she only had one thing on her mind…getting her hands on that information. It was one of the final pieces to this puzzle.

And, Alex had one thing on his mind, getting Braylee alone so they could talk.

Chapter 20

It was a quiet ride in the elevator down to the garage. You could cut the tension with a machete. There were a million things Alex wanted to say, but they would have to wait.

Instead he asked the obvious question, “Where are we going?”

Being so close to him was having an effect on her. But, Braylee needed to put her silly emotions away and focus. “My IT guy has the video and the paperwork on who ordered that production run.”

“You’re kidding, right? This is the answer to…everything!”

She couldn’t keep the excitement off her face, “I know. That’s why I didn’t want to waste any time. And I didn’t want him to send it electronically. No need to tip anyone off just yet.”

The elevator opened. As they stepped off they bumped into a security guard who’d been making his rounds. He stopped in front of them, “Leaving…?”

Braylee nodded.

“It’s pretty crazy out. The weather report said that a tornado-like storm is headed this way.”

“Don’t they always say that?” She was skeptical, “But, we’ll be careful.”

Alex turned to Braylee, “Toss me the keys, I’ll drive.”

Although she didn’t think the storm would make it this far, it was also not one of those times that Braylee was going to argue, so she tossed him the keys.

*****

The door opened, and they pulled out of the garage into the rain. The wind was blowing so hard that the rain poured down the windshield at a rate the wiper blades could barely keep up. It was difficult to see directly in front of them but manageable, as long as they took their time and it didn’t get any worse.

Braylee programmed the address into the GPS.

It didn’t take long as they drove out of the city for the storm to get more and more intense. Sheets and sheets of rain battered the car but especially the windshield. Visibility was almost zero. She’d never seen the weather like this and now realized how bad the weather was.

She touched his arm, “Alex, it’s nastier than I thought, and it’s getting worse. We can barely see. Maybe we should reschedule for tomorrow.”

He’d been thinking the same thing and slowed the car to a near crawl. “Can you turn the radio on? Let’s see if we can get something on the radio. Maybe we can pull over and wait it out.”

It wasn’t hard for Braylee to find something on the radio because apparently, a tornado had touched down in one of the northern suburbs causing major damage. According to the weather report, the storm was moving south on I-94. They were on the I-94. As a matter of fact, the eye of the storm was heading straight for them.

The rain had been falling heavily, but Braylee jumped at what sounded like a million pennies hitting the roof of their car. She shouted, “What the hell is that?”

His voice was ominous, “That’s hail. We’ve got to get off of this road.”

As soon as she’d asked the question, the round balls of ice pelting the car got larger. There was no mistaking what it was now.

Somehow, Alex managed to pull them into an underpass. He knew that if they were getting hail, that something more serious was soon to follow, but he didn’t want to panic Braylee.

He reached out to touch her cheek, “Are you okay?”

“A lot freaked out but okay. Wait…the rain and hail seem to be easing up. Maybe we can find someplace to pull over and stop.”

“That was exactly my thought too.”

“Look….” She pointed towards the skyline, “Is it getting darker?”

It was not only getting darker but was darkening into a hellish looking grayish green. While it was only five o’clock, it appeared as if it could have easily been late evening.

After a few minutes, it was clear that they couldn’t continue to sit underneath the underpass. Alex made the decision that he needed to quickly find somewhere for them to ride out the storm. He wasn’t sure how much time he had but looking at the sky; it wasn’t much.

Braylee could not only feel the tension but see it all over his face. This was serious.

Alex sucked in a deep breath and whipped the car out from underneath the underpass. Jerking Braylee’s body back into her seat as he took off and got back onto the road. He knew the storm was heading straight for them, and they may only have a few minutes at best to get somewhere safe.

He gunned the car down the highway looking for an exit. Luckily, there was an exit ramp close by, and he took it. As they came off of the ramp, he did his best to speak calmly, “Let me know if you see a house, building, or any kind of structure. Maybe it’ll have a basement.”

Almost as soon as he asked Braylee spotted something that could have been a house, “Look over there! There’s a house.” She pointed to a brick ranch-style home with a for sale sign in front of it. She hoped it had a basement.

While it had only taken moments to get to the house, it felt like an eternity. They pulled up onto the curb since the driveway was blocked off and quickly got out of the car. Although, it wasn’t raining as hard as before, it still felt like needles pricking her skin. However, when Braylee turned around her mouth dropped open. What she saw was an image that she’d only seen in movies.

There was a large dark funnel-shaped cloud rotating around and around and seemingly moving at a rapid pace.

Alex had hoped like hell that they would be able to avoid a twister, but he knew the moment he saw Braylee’s face a tornado was on the ground.

He turned around too. It was still a little ways off but moving quickly. While it was unlikely, he hoped it would change course. But as of now they were in the direct path.

She was frozen.

“Braylee!” He yelled her name.

She jumped out of her trance, “Yes…yes.”

“The house looks empty. Go to it and see if there is a key. I’ll see what’s in the trunk. Hurry!” Alex knew more than likely there wasn’t a key, but he needed to keep Braylee busy and focused. He opened the trunk and thanked god there was an emergency bag. He grabbed it. There was also some kind of car jack. He grabbed that too.

Braylee snatched up her purse and did as she was told. She ran to the house and searched everywhere but couldn’t find a key.

Alex was only a few steps behind her as he ran to the door. Breathing hard and yelling over the noise, he asked, “Find anything?”

Her hands were shaking as she gazed at the monster twister destroy everything in its path. The demon’s howl was getting louder, “No! I…I couldn’t find anything.”

The door had one of those real estate padlocks on it. He wasn’t going to be able to kick that down. Instead, Alex took the car jack and ran over to the bay window in front of the house. He put his hands up to his face to cover his eyes and burst the front window with the jack.

Once he’d knock the larger shards of glass out of the way he called for Braylee, “Hurry, come on…climb over!”

She didn’t hesitate and climbed inside the house with him right behind her. Alex spotted a door that he hoped was to a basement and not a closet. He went over to the door, turned the knob and opened it.

Looking heavenward he grabbed Braylee’s hand and thanked the Lord that the house had a basement. The stairwell leading to it was pitch black. He took the flashlight out of the car emergency kit and turned it on so that they could see. She ran down the steps ahead of him. Alex closed the door and followed closely behind.

It was an unfinished basement. It appeared no one had been in it for a while considering how thick the cobwebs were. The basement was empty for the most part. There were only a few pieces of furniture covered in cloth.

The home was older so there weren’t any windows and the walls were cement. That was all Alex cared about. All the exterior walls were concrete.

Alex ushered Braylee into a corner on the floor and pulled her down with him.

While everything seemed to be happening in slow motion, it had only been a matter of minutes from the time they got out of the car until they made it to the basement.

He pulled her trembling body into his. The noise went from the sound of a freight train to a high pitch screeching. The house shook and rocked violently. Sediment from the ceiling fell on top of them.

There was an intense howling of the wind and then the sounds of glass being shattered as heavy objects banged about. Then, the sound of an explosion.

Braylee screamed. All he could do was hold her in his arms and pray that the house wouldn’t fall in on top of them.

Chapter 21

What was only a matter of seconds felt like forever when all of the violent rocking finally stopped. The noise seemed to go further and further into the distance. They made it. They’d survived this unbelievable nightmare seemingly intact. Alex inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly.

His breath was a warm welcome against that tender skin behind her ear as he spoke, “Are you okay?”

Her eyes were still closed. Braylee had never been more terrified in her life as she started to shake uncontrollably.

She was already wrapped securely within Alex’s arms, but he tightened his hold. Was that his heart beating so fast or hers? Braylee couldn’t be sure. It didn’t matter because it signaled that they were both alive.

Initially, when Braylee opened her mouth to speak…no sound came out.

Alex’s voice was strong and calming, “You’re safe Braylee. I’ve got you, and I won’t ever let you go.”

The shaking slowed to tremors. She raised her head from his shoulder and looked into his eyes. Whispering, “I…I think I’m fine. You?”

“I’m okay knowing that you’re safe.” He kissed her softly on the forehead. Then, he kissed the tip of her nose, and finally he touched his lips to hers.

No way could she deny this man. At this moment…he was life. Braylee’s eyes closed as she allowed his kiss…his touch to warm her. How was it possible for lips to be so gentle, and yet so firm as they captured hers?

Alex held her chin within his hand. His touch was feather light as he used the tips of his fingers to caress her cheek. He couldn’t help but think she felt like heaven. Those same fingers slid slowly down the side of the inner curve of her neck. He wrapped his hand around the back of her head and pulled her closer. Just a little more of her was all he needed. Alex traced the outline of her lips with his tongue.

Braylee’s intake of breath allowed him to slip skillfully inside. What started out as an innocent kiss seemed to quickly escalate. Stroking their tongues with each other in a fiery frenzy.

He couldn’t get enough as he devoured her lips…her tongue…her mouth. There was no denying the passion that still existed between them. This situation was the gas to their still-smoldering flame.

Braylee sat up on her knees as she continued to hold on tightly to his shoulders; pressing her body into his.

Even though their clothing was soaking wet and they should be freezing, Braylee was on fire. From knees to chest, she molded herself into him as she desperately wanted…no needed to be closer. Her breasts were incredibly sensitive and begged to be touched.

She couldn’t help but remember the last time when he’d pinched and rolled them between his fingers. They were so responsive, and when he’d scraped his teeth around them before drawing them into his mouth, the memory alone was enough for her pulsing core to detonate.