Taking Passion by Storm (8 page)

Chapter
Eight

Nadine
loved George Markus on sight. His weathered face and the way his gray eyes
twinkled reminded her of her grandfather. Everyone seemed to know him, and they
were all gathered around him, sitting on the floor in the main room at his
feet, as though he was an ancient wizard about to impart the secret of life to
them.

Addison
introduced her, and he shook her hand, his eyes narrowing. “You look so much
like your father. Prettier, of course, but you have his eyes and his coloring.”

The
others laughed so she did, too, but hearing him mention her dad brought back
why they were all here. Guilt washed over her as she heard her voice thanking
George. She’d been about to make love to Addison when they all should be outside
right now looking for her father. What the hell was wrong with her?

“
I hope you all don’t mind if I catch my breath for the
rest of the day before we go in search of Dixon. I had to dodge a hurricane on
the way here.” He shook his head. “Can you believe that? An inland hurricane.”

Addison
and Nadine took a spot on the floor next to Gina and Merrill. “Did you travel
here all the way from your home in what used to be Tennessee?” she asked.

“
No, I was in a shelter near what used to be Salt Lake
City when I heard from Addison that your dad went missing. I was there helping
some of the Storm Troopers try to access one of the weather satellites that
started sending signals again about two weeks ago.”

“
Oh?” Addison sat up straighter. “Was it the same
situation as the one from which we collected conversation?”

George
shook his head. “I wish it was. This was something different. We’re not sure if
someone tried to access it, or if it was simply a solar flare or something
else. It’s non-functional again, so we may never find out what was going on.”

When
Lee asked George another question, Nadine leaned closer to Addison. “What did
you mean when you said you had collected conversation from a satellite?”

“
Homeland Cyber Security and Barclay Hampton, the data
mining expert among us, managed to snatch conversation between what we now
believe are the hackers either responsible for the Tommy Twister virus, or
close to them. They tried to use a weather satellite as a relay station but
encrypted data on the hard drive instead. We imagine that bit was accidental.
The satellite was either shut down by them or someone else, though, so that’s
all we recovered.”

The
others were engaged in conversation with George, so she scooted away from the
group and Addison followed. “What did you do with the information?”

“
Nothing yet.” He grinned. “First, we need a laptop
that friends of
Viggo’s
plan to procure from a home
in
NorthCentral
on Saturday. Then we’ll have more
answers.”

She
didn’t have the chance to ask him any further details because George took out a
large map and unfolded it against the wall of the bunker. Suzanne produced a
roll of two-sided sticky tape from her backpack, and George used pieces from it
to pin the map to the wall.

“
Why would she carry that with her?” asked Nadine.

“
We use it to leave notes inside structures where we’ve
recovered items. We record what storms we encountered on the way there, what
day we encountered them, and where we traveled from. It’s a way to keep each
other apprised of what’s going on in a small area. Then when we return
underground, we give all the data on the storms to the Storm Troopers.”

“
Won’t the notes get destroyed eventually?”

“
Probably, but it’s not unusual to find a team someone
else has employed searching in the same area, or even for the same item. The
notes are primarily for the Storm Troopers. If there are any in the general
area, they serve as an old-fashioned, unreliable form of communication, but up
here that’s often all we have for the short term.”

“
Do you update your website with the items you’ve
found?”

“
Not always. Most of our clients don’t want to
advertise they have certain things in their possession, for obvious reasons. We
specialize in secrecy.”

She
turned her attention to George when he mentioned her father’s name.

“
This is the area where Dixon was last seen.” He
pointed toward an area about two miles from where they now were. “The Storm
Troopers who were with him are searching the caves in what’s left of the North
Cascades. We’re headed for the caves that now line the Pacific Ocean coastline
and were formed by what’s left of the Olympic Mountains.”

He
gave them all a chilling gaze. “I don’t have to tell you how dangerous this
will be. The coastline is constantly being eroded from flood waters. We not
only have tornadoes to contend with in this area, but hurricanes now. Last week
a group of Storm Troopers in what used to be New England swore there was a very
powerful earthquake. Anything can happen to us up here.”

He
fixed his gaze on Nadine. “If you want to go back underground and wait for
word, any one of us will be happy to escort you.”

She
squared her shoulders and sat up straighter. “Not a chance. He’s my father. As
long as you all don’t mind how green I am, I want to stay.”

George’s
huge smile reassured her he’d only been giving her an out, not telling her she
wasn’t wanted. “I’d have expected nothing less from Dixon’s daughter.” George
took down the map. “We’re honored to have you with us.” He addressed Addison.
“You’re the boss of this expedition. Okay if we leave at first light?”

“
I’m counting on it.”

“
Great.” George patted his stomach. “What do we have to
eat? I’m starving.”

The
group watched movies on a monitor screen they hooked up to a computer while
George warmed up some soup and made himself a sandwich. Nadine felt like she
was going to jump out of her skin. Now that George was here, it was real. They
were going out in the morning to find her father. She was torn between
excitement at the new adventure, and absolute terror as the group did more
talking than watching, describing all the storms they’d each been in.

At
one point, Addison asked her if she was hungry again, but she told him she was
too nervous to eat. “Is that because of me?” he asked quietly.

“
No. I’m wondering what I got myself into with this
rescue mission.”

“
It’s not too late to go back.”

She
studied his face. It didn’t look like he wanted her to leave. “That would be
the coward’s way out.”

“
I don’t agree, but I understand why you feel that way
and I admire you for it. I also believe you’re going to do just fine. You’ve
shown more strength and resolve than you realize is inside you.”

“
You make me believe that.”

Addison
stared into her eyes for long, luscious moments, and then he glanced toward the
group. They were absorbed in their stories, the movie still playing but no one
watching it. He stood and held out his hand. “Would you like a tour of the
bunker?”

She
didn’t miss the look of lust in his eyes, or the implication in his question.
Her heart pounded. This was it. She could back out of this, too, and then spend
the rest of her life wishing she’d taken Addison up on his offer. She didn’t
want to be afraid any longer. He wouldn’t hurt her, and if she waited until
they were underground again, it might not happen at all.

“
Why don’t you grab your stuff?” he said, nodding
toward the pile of backpacks. “That way you can choose a room.”

“
Great idea.” She walked on shaky legs toward her
backpack, keeping her gaze glued to it, not glancing toward the others. If they
noticed her and Addison going off alone, she’d be too self-conscious to leave
the room with him. Nadine scooped up her things and turned, her focus now on
Addison’s beautiful face.

The
man was seriously the most handsome creature she’d ever seen up close and
personal. The five o’clock shadow she’d admired Saturday was now even more
pronounced, but that only served to make her skin tingle. His words came back
to her. He wanted to make love to her.

His
eyes flashed with lust and happiness, and that look sent her heart fluttering.
No one had ever looked at her that way. Her one consensual experience with sex
had been a hurried affair in the back seat of a car when she’d been sixteen.

Four
years before everyone had been forced underground, Nadine had gone on exactly
three dates with Lonnie Farrell, one of the most sought-after boys in her high
school class. She’d been happy, proud, and a damn fool because as soon as she
gave him what he really wanted, that third date was the last one.

He’d
parked his car next to a lake frequented by high school kids with more than
swimming on their minds, and fed her a line of pure bullshit that she’d never
seen through. Or perhaps she hadn’t
wanted
to see through it. The next morning, she was awoken by a phone call from one of
her friends, asking if she’d really had sex with Lonnie Farrell. Apparently
he’d texted everyone the night before. By Monday morning the entire school
knew.

He
also had kept score because he told everyone that he must be losing his touch
since it hadn’t taken him three dates to get what he’d wanted in a while. It
had been nothing more than a game to him.

She
hadn’t been half as upset by that as she’d been about the sex. It was boring,
and not at all like the experience
she’d
been
imagining. Real sex was somewhere between the less than stellar experience with
Lonnie and rape, but she had no clue on which part of that continuum it lay, so
she wasn’t sure what to expect from Addison. She certainly hoped this didn’t
turn out to be a huge disappointment, or she’d feel like the biggest fool on
the planet all over again.

More
importantly, she hoped it would help her forget that experience four years ago.
On the heels of that thought came the realization that if she was only using
this to help herself, that would be horribly shallow. It wasn’t the right
reason to have sex with someone.

Addison
was charming and gorgeous, and she had never really put him out of her mind in
all these years. That should be the real reason to go through with this,
because he certainly hadn’t been unclear about his intentions beyond the sex.

She
touched her lips as she remembered his kisses. They didn’t suggest boring sex
or an act that would leave her hurt and humiliated. They suggested the same
arousal she’d felt using her imagination to conjure up the perfect encounter
between herself and a man who cared about her. A man who wanted her and could
love her, and would give her an intimate experience that lived up to her
fantasies.

But
what part of those fantasies was real, and what part was over the top because
of her past? Would she find out in a moment if reality came close to what she’d
been imagining?

Nadine
took Addison’s hand, resisting the urge to turn around and see who might be
watching them. It wouldn’t do any good, and might cause her to change her mind,
or at least be reluctant to do this. That wasn’t fair to her or Addison.

There
really wasn’t much left of the bunker for her to tour. She’d already seen the
room where the majority of the computers were kept, and she’d already been in
the kitchen. The only common area left was the storage room behind the kitchen,
and she took a peek inside only because he’d brought her back there.

When
they walked past the main room again and into the maze of hallways leading from
it, she held onto Addison’s hand like it was a life raft, drawing strength from
his warm touch.

“
Do you want to choose a room?” he asked.

She
wasn’t really thinking that far ahead. “Is the one next to yours taken yet?”

He
smiled. “No.”

“
Then I’ll take that one.”

They
placed her things inside it, and then Addison pulled her into his arms. “This
is your choice, Nadine. No matter what you say, it won’t change how I feel
about you. I can wait until we’re underground again so we can do this right.”

Her
pulse raced. “Do this right? What does that mean?”

“
Take you out. Court you. Go to dinner and the
symphony. Show you off.”

“
Will all of that make you want this more than you do
right now?”

He
smiled. “Not even close. But that’s what women expect from me before I get them
into bed.”

Ouch
. She didn’t want to think about
him in bed with other women. “Does that mean you don’t enjoy all of the other
things?”

“
That’s not what I meant. I do enjoy all of the other
things, but most of all I simply enjoy being with someone I can talk to. I like
being with someone who finds me interesting in return.”