The Torn, Book One of the Holding Kate Series (16 page)

“What? Like they’re sentient?” Dirk cocked an eyebrow.

“Silly, I know,” I mumbled.

“Not silly, just…hmm.” Now Dirk was pacing.

“Can they hurt us up here?” Greg asked, his voice squeaking.

I stopped in front on him, sat down beside him, and put my arm across his shoulders. “Can they?” I asked Trip.

Trip looked at Dirk and Dirk shook his head. “I don’t think so, steel frame. I mean, it could shatter the glass and stuff, but as long as we are in an interior room we should be relatively safe…unless.”

“Unless, what?”

“Well, there is always debris to worry about.” He threw his hand over his shoulder like it wasn’t much of a worry.

I didn’t buy it. I had seen pictures of the debris tornadoes could toss. I am pretty sure a flying subway train car would be able to hurt us pretty bad. I kept my opinion to myself, though. Greg was tense enough without my cheery disposition adding to his stress.

“Isn’t that the street we came up on?” Trip nodded his head toward the window.

We all pressed our faces to glass and watched the tornadoes slink down the very street we had taken to get here.

“I don’t like this,” I muttered and Trip was there by my side like my own personal genie. He took my hand and squeezed it.

“Anybody hungry?”

I whisked around and headed to the kitchen. Greg followed. “Yeah, what’s in the freezer?”

We opened the freezer door and the light came on. Trip and Dirk both yelled.

“Shut the door!”

I slammed the door and froze. They watched out the window for a minute, and then Dirk said. “Crap!”

Trip spun on his heel and ran toward me. “Where are we safest? Up here or in the basement?”

“No time! They are here! Get in a closet!”

Trip grabbed me around the waist and carried me to the coat closet in the center of the apartment. He jerked out all of the hangers the pressed me into the far corner.

“Sit down Kate.”

“Here,” Greg chunked cushions from the couch to me and he crawled into the opposite corner. Dirk and Trip pressed inside and closed the door. Trip scooped me into his arms and held the pillow over our heads.

I took three breaths and the sound of a train roared through the apartment. It was pitch black in the closet, and I pressed against Trip trying to lose myself in his strong protection. The feeling of being vacuumed through the cracks started again, and I felt like I couldn’t breathe. “Trip? Trip?” I panicked.

“I’m here, love. I’m here. We are gonna be fine.” He kissed my face and hair, and I pressed into him, desperate to feel his strength. I wrapped my arms around him and ran my hands along his muscles.
Trip is strong. Trip won’t let me go.

The storm raged. Large items were hurled at the walls and door we hid behind. Boards splintered, beams twisted, glass shattered, and wind screamed for hours. Trip held me through all of it. At one point in the tumult, it felt as though we had been fused together. As though we phased into one person and shared a core, Trip’s strength seemed to grow from inside of me. I sheltered him in my love and his need of me became my strength. I had never felt more connected to him than in that moment, sitting in his embrace in the dark with his lips against my brow and the howling storm outside.

I stilled. All of my trembling and indecision melted away.

My heart stilled. It settled on this moment, this was real. It wasn’t perfect or blissful, but it was real. My love for this beautiful man was real.

He sensed it and stilled. Intense longing erased the tumult of the storm raging outside and the storm that raged internally, both eclipsed by my need of Trip and everything he meant to me, everything he did to me. My desire and love rose to climax in the only choice imaginable.

I turned my face up to his and whispered his name. There is no way he could have heard me, but he knew and I reached for his lips and kissed him with such passion and need and commitment, abandoning everything and everyone for this man, this great protector, my foundation.

“What are they doing?” Greg asked.

I pulled away from Trip, suddenly. Had they heard us or something?

“It sounds like they are leaving,” Dirk answered.

Oh. The tornados. The noise was moving away. I kissed Trip again, and he reciprocated with strength and intensity.

“What do you think, Trip?” Dirk’s voice was directed toward us.

Trip kissed me three more times before answering. “Sounds like they are leaving, but we should wait just a bit more before leaving the closet. Just to be sure.”

I could hear a smile in his voice, and I ran my arms up his shirt and kissed him some more.

“I don’t know,” Dirk said. “I think they’re gone.”

Trip didn’t respond, he just kept kissing me for as long as he could.

Dirk scratched at the door, searching for the knob and Trip took that as his cue, and we broke apart a bit. The knob turned and a crack of light widened as Dirk pushed the door open. He crawled out on his knees then stood. Greg crawled out after him.

Trip stood and lifted me next to him. “Katie, girl,” he whispered. “That felt different. That felt decided.”

I nodded and stretched up to kiss him again. He lifted me off my feet and carried me through the door and sat me down. Our faces were beaming at one another, eyes locked in mutual love and hope of things to come. When we finally looked away from one another, the sight stole every good feeling and left our hearts crashed somewhere around our feet.

The sun broke
through the distant clouds as it peered over the horizon and beamed its rays through the bare walls of the skyscraper. Our taxi cab was lodged into the space that had once been our breakfast bar. Every wall, every piece of furniture, every board of mahogany had been stripped away. Metal beams, the skeletal structure was all that was left of our apartment. The wind blew through the steel structure with scathing force and we all turned to see the tornados dancing around the perimeter of the town. It seemed as though the sunlight kept them away and only under the cover of darkness could they resume their frenetic search. No one believed they were regular tornados anymore. We all knew they were sentient or being directed by a sentient entity determined to destroy us.

“Okay,” Dirk said. “Okay. We need a plan.”

“We need to get out of this building and find another place,” Trip stated flatly.

We moved to the stair case and started our descent. “I could’a got used to that place,” I grumbled. The three floors below had sustained damage, but the remaining 36 floors were completely intact.

Dirk refused to let us stay in the building. He no longer trusted the structure to hold.

“I don’t want to be anywhere that those tornados know about,” I stated.

“I think we can confuse them,” he said.

“Lay a false trail?” Greg caught on quickly.

“Yeah, divide, spread out and then convene for the night.”

“So you really think they sensed where we were and what—sniffed us out?” Trip asked.

“Can you explain why they only went down streets that we had been on?”

“No.”

“So no light at night,” I held up one finger.

“Drive every street and circle around during the day to lead them away.”

“That won’t help if we all converge in one area. I think they will catch on pretty quickly to that one.”

“We need to go underground.” I dropped my fingers.

Dirk stopped at the bottom step at the lobby level and turned to look at me. “I wonder.”

“If that is where all the people went?” I asked.

“Yeah, and why everything seems to still be working.”

“Maybe, but it doesn’t answer every question.” Gregory said.

“Like?”

“Who are those tornados after? What can we possibly do to defeat a tornado? Why did the people leave so suddenly and so recently?”

“Well, we know more than we did this time yesterday,” Dirk said.

We stepped out onto the street and I paused. “Hold on a sec.” I ran back in and flipped through the brochures at the front desk, found one with a map of the city, grabbed a few and stepped back out to the guys. They had each found a car and had parked it in front of the apartment complex. We spread the maps out onto the hood of Trip’s black Dodge Avenger.

“I’ll take Broad to Wimberley, you take Cleburne to Main. Drive every street ally and side road you can.”

“While you guys lay a false trail, Greg and I will go here.” I pointed to a subway station sign. “We will find us a place to stay, and then we can all meet back here at a specific time.”

“No.” Trip said forcefully. “You are with me.”

“Trip, we can’t do both jobs in one day. We have to use all the time we have.”

“Kate, I am not going to make the same mistake twice. We stay together.”

I searched his eyes and saw fear lived in the depths of his being over losing me. “Okay,” I leaned into him. “Together.” My soft voice was laced with understanding.

The tension seemed to slip from his shoulders. “Good.” He wrapped his arm around me and turned to dare anyone to defy him on this issue.

“Okay,” Dirk turned to Greg. “Can you drive?”

“Not officially, but how hard can it be on deserted streets, right?”

“Right. You two,” he pointed to me and Trip, “go find shelter in the subway. We will meet right here.” He pointed to a place about eight blocks away where another subway sign marked the map. “We will go down here at 4pm.”

He passed out watches to each of us.

“Nice Rolex,” Greg said as he slid his onto his wrist.

“Yeah, I guess my penthouse owner had a thing for watches. I have synchronized them all. See you at the rendezvous.” Dirk jumped into the maroon Buick and waved.

Trip gave Greg a little lesson in driving and we waved him off in the opposite direction. Trip and I jumped into the Avenger and drove in the direction of the subway mark on the map. We passed a market and Trip stopped, then backed up.

“Let’s go shopping.”

We jumped out of the sporty car and peered into the window fronts. All of the lights were on, but not a soul roamed through the aisles. We skimmed the shelves of the market for any canned foods and staples we might need. I loaded the trunk of the car with water bottles, batteries, and flash lights and Trip filled the back seat with the food, then we headed down to the subway.

I pulled out the flashlights as we entered the dim substation and we panned the lights around. There was nothing here, a small ticket booth and a row of plastic chairs.

We had the same experience at the next four subway stations, but at the fifth we found a large area with restrooms, a diner, and a massive terminal area with offices and sectioned off rooms. We looked at each other, nodded and started bringing down the supplies.

I found a utility closet filled with cleaning supplies and dove into the tasks of sweeping, mopping and sanitizing. Trip moved furniture around and installed dead locks he borrowed from the market on all the doors. He turned the offices into three separate sleeping quarters with a pull out sofa bed in one, a divan in another and an actual cot in the third room.

I frowned when he showed me the sofa bed and added it up in my head, two singles and one double. “I guess this means we are sharing?” I asked him.

“I told you, I am not letting you out of my sight.”

“Trip, we aren’t married. I mean we can’t keep tempting ourselves like we did last night. I am not strong enough to stay away from you.”

His eyes brightened. “Married, huh? We could fix that.”

“Wha? I…wha…” I stammered until he laughed and scooped me into his arms.

“Steady there, Katie girl. That wasn’t a proposal. When I do propose to you it will be in a way that will sweep you off your feet.” He twirled me around and kissed me. “And it won’t be in a dirty subway on a quantum jump.”

“Trip.” I didn’t know what to say. “You completely missed the point of what I was saying.” I pointed to the bed.

“Kate, this room is for you, just you, and whoever you invite to share it with. We only need three beds, because someone will always be on watch.” He lifted his eyebrows several times. “But I like it that you just assumed we would be sharing.”

My face flushed and embarrassment washed over me. “Oh. Well. I…uh…hmph.” I slapped at his arms and wriggled until he put me down. I walked to the diner area that we had deemed the kitchen and began setting the water bottles along the bar for easy access.

At 4pm we retrieved Greg and Dirk and brought them “home.” Greg had found a MP3 player in the back seat of the car he used and we hooked it up to the overhead speaker. We listened to music with our dinner of soup and crackers.

One of my favorite country crooners came on. “I love this song,” I sighed.

Trip jumped up. “May I have this dance?”

I giggled and he carried me to the center of the terminal and held my cheek to his while he swayed and twirled me around. My feet barely touched the ground. I felt like a rag doll in his arms most of the time. The big bear and the little rag doll–that is what we must have looked like to Dirk and Greg.

Another song came on and Trip continued to hold me close and sway to the music. I smiled and pressed my cheek into his chest and let him lead. The next song was some Tina Turner rug burner and Dirk cut in.

“Let me show you how it’s done.”

He was amazing! I felt like a klutz next to him. He whipped me around, threw me into the air and spun me until I was dizzy from laughing, as well as twirling.

Another song came on and I looked at Greg. “Your turn.” I held my arms out and he jumped up to fill them, gladly.

“I don’t really dance,” he said shyly, holding me at arm’s length.

I leaned over and whispered in his ear. “I’ll tell you a secret if you promise not to tell the others.” I glanced over at Dirk and Trip.

“Okay,” he chuckled.

“I don’t dance, either.” I wrinkled my nose at him and he burst into laughter.

“Well, we should fake it really good, then, so they won’t catch on.” He laughed as a new song came on. We spun around until the singer got to the chorus and she sang the words “I have loved you for a thousand years, and I will love you forever more.”

My heart stuttered. Corey! He was out there somewhere in some quantum mess, waiting for me. I could almost feel him reaching through the dimensions, calling to me. I closed my eyes to listen for him. I could feel him whispering my name into the night, being faithful to our eternal love!

My Corey! Had I really given up hope on Corey? It felt like I had chosen completely in that closet with Trip’s god-like body pressed against mine. That connection was so real and intense that in that moment I felt completely committed to Trip.

I was so conflicted, suddenly. Corey was a part of me. Corey owned my soul, and Trip owned my body. No…that wasn’t entirely true. I flushed as I remembered Corey’s soft lips running down my neck, touching me just right, making my flesh burn with desire in ways that only Corey could. I couldn’t give up on Corey! What was wrong with me? I was going to throw away a thousand years of pure bliss for what? Playing house? Physical temptation by a Greek god!

Trip was more than just physical temptation. He was physical protection. He was physical strength. He was honorable and good. I realized I was trying really hard to force myself toward Trip. Why? Because he was here? Was I really that faithless and fickle? I felt sick. I was going to be sick right here. The song died out and I could see Trip making his way back to me. I didn’t want to be in Trip’s arms right now. I longed for other arms to hold me.

“Hey, heh. Thanks, Greg! We sure showed them, huh.” I stepped away and told him, “I’m tired.” I took another step. “I’m just gonna go to bed.”

I turned and ran to my room without looking at Trip. I slammed the door behind me and backed away from it until my legs bumped the sofa bed. I whirled around, suddenly hating it and all that it stood for. I stripped the sheets off of it and folded it up nice and shut, tucked the cushions back in tightly and wrapped myself in the blanket and laid down on the floor across the room from the hated couch, the representation of my infidelity.

I dreamed of Corey that night. I ran through green mist calling his name, unable to find him while dragons flew overhead and tornados turned their black eyes onto me and chased me.

When I woke, I was on the couch wrapped in the blanket and Trip was asleep on the floor where I had been. I cried silent tears for this awful mess. I had led Trip down a false path, made his pain so much worse. I would have to break his heart, too. I hated myself and swore I would never let myself love again. It was too terrible, too hard.

I had to get home to know that Corey was safely back from his jump. Then, I would push away from both of them; push them into other arms that would be true to them, arms that would hold them and make them happy, arms that weren’t poisonous.

Jealousy knifed through me to think of Corey in other arms, I couldn’t imagine it. My mind shied away from such a horrible thought. Trip, though, I knew exactly what arms were best for him and it gave me a spike of pleasure to think of them together. There it was. Plain. Clear. I couldn’t bear to think of Corey with anyone else, but I knew exactly who Trip should be with. That had to mean something.

I stifled a shudder and glanced at Trip through tear sprinkled lashes. His head rested on his bulging bicep, but he was awake and watching me with steady eyes.

“What was it that brought him back to you so strongly?” He whispered.

I swallowed and grimaced. How did he know?

“You called his name in your sleep.” The soft skin under his eye twitched.

“A song.”

“I thought so. Thousand years thing, right?”

I
nodded and my face broke into despair. “I am so sorry, Trip.”

“Shhh.” He moved to sit by the couch and kissed my forehead. “Don’t. I know you love me. You know you love me. We just both know that Corey…”

I touched his lips. “Don’t.” I couldn’t bear to see him make excuses for me. “You deserve so much more.”

“Come here, love.” He pulled me off of the sofa and held me while I cried silent tears into the sheets.
Trip, my protector, how can I do this to you?

Something nudged inside of me, a sense of dread had been building since I woke. At first I assumed it was just the idea of hurting Trip that caused the anxiety in my stomach. Now, I wasn’t so sure. Something more pressed me to a sense of urgency.

I sat up and listened.

“What’s wrong?” Trip asked.

“I don’t...” I stood up. “Something is very wrong.” I cut fearful eyes down to Trip.

He stood in full warrior mode.

“Who is on watch?” I asked.

“Greg. Why?”

“Trip, we have to find him…he’s doing something dangerous…he’s in trouble.” I pressed my fist into my gut.

Trip was out of the door before I had completed the sentence.

“Greg!”

I followed him into the terminal.

“Greg!” He called again. No answer.

Dirk came out of his room rubbing his eyes. “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know. We can’t find Greg.”

We followed Trip out into the subway station and called for Greg. I looked up the stairwell into the darkness.

“You don’t think…” I pointed up the stairs.

“Why would he?”

“No, he is terrified of those things.”

“Not terrified, fascinated,” I corrected.

“What?” Dirk came and stood beside me.

“I got a sense of him being afraid, yes, but also curiously drawn to them.”

“Kate, what are you talking about?”

“She’s our
team leader
, Dirk,” Trip said. “She knows.”