Page 85 of Storm Warning

The fight drained from her body almost immediately, her limbs growing heavy and distant, as if they belonged to someone else. She tried to keep struggling, tried to command her arms to claw, her legs to kick, but the signals wouldn’t translate into movement.

She sank into warm water, wrapped in heavy blankets, drowning in slow motion.

No, I have to fight. Have to stay conscious. Have to?—

Her thoughts fragmented, sliding away like silk scarves pulled from her grasp. The world around her softened and blurred, the sharp edges of panic becoming fuzzy and indistinct. The vibrant greens of the foliage bled together. The blue of the sky dimmed.

The hand over her mouth vanished, and she gasped for breath, but her lungs wouldn’t cooperate. Each inhale was shallow, insufficient. Her heart hammered, as if trying to fight off the chemical invasion, but even that desperate rhythm slowed.

Nick!

His presence blazed through her fading consciousness like a flare. His face materialized in her mind’s eye—those intense eyes, the curve of his smile, the way he’d looked at her that morning with such tenderness her chest ached.

She tried to scream his name, to reach for him through the darkness creeping in. Tried to hold on to the memory of his arms around her, the sound of his laugh, the warmth of his lips against her forehead.

Kate?

For one impossible moment, she swore she heard his voice, distant and concerned, echoing as if through water. She tried to answer, to tell him where she was, what was happening, to beg him to find her.

But her mouth wouldn’t work. Her tongue lay thick and useless.

The world tilted and swayed. She was being moved, carried, but she couldn’t tell in which direction. The dappled sunlight through the leaves became a strobe of light and shadow that made her dizzy and nauseous.

Please. Nick. I love you. Please find me. Please.

But it was too late.

The darkness that had been creeping at the corners of her vision rushed in like a wave, overwhelming and absolute. She tried to fight it, tried to cling to consciousness with the same desperation she’d used to claw at her attacker, but it was useless.

The last thing she registered was the sound of water—waves against stone, eternal and indifferent—a sound that had been beautiful moments ago and now sung a haunting melody that followed her down into the void.

Then there was nothing.

Chapter 45

Missing

Nick!Kate’s voice, drenched in fear, echoed through Nick’s head, snapping his head up. His heart slammed against his ribs as he scanned the room, pulse roaring in his ears. Did he actually hear Kate in his head? He never had before. And she had sounded terrified—the raw edge of panic in that single word tied knots in his stomach.

Kate?Nothing but silence. A vacuum lay where her presence should be.

Find me.The words drifted in his mind, so soft, so fragile, he wasn’t sure if he heard them, or imagined them—a whisper through his consciousness that made the hair on his arms stand up.

Kate! Can you hear me?A cold sweat broke out on his skin, trickling down his spine. Something was wrong. Every instinct he possessed screamed it.

He grabbed his phone with trembling fingers and called her, but it went straight to voicemail. The generic greeting scraped his nerves like nails on a chalkboard. Jumping up so fast his chair toppled backward, he ran downstairs and across thehouse, hating the size of the mansion that kept him so far away from her. His boots thundered on the marble floors. Each second passed like an eternity.

Bursting into her suite, he called her name, voice cracking. “Kate! Silence answered—a horrible, oppressive quiet that pressed against his eardrums and made his chest tighten until he couldn't breathe.

David, Zach: Something’s wrong with Kate. We have to find her.He knew his own fear would be echoing in their minds, bleeding through the mental connection like blood in water, but for once, didn’t care about appearing strong. Nothing mattered but Kate. Nothing.

Where are you?Zach: calm, steady—an anchor in the storm raging through Nick’s mind.

Kate’s suite. I’ll meet you in the conference room.Nick forced the words out, though his throat felt like sandpaper.

On our way.

Nick paced back and forth in the meeting room, his hands clenched into fists so tight his knuckles ached and turned white. He fixated on a single thought: finding Kate. He couldn’t bear the thought of her being hurt, of her being in danger. Images flashed unbidden—Kate scared, Kate injured, Kate calling for him and him not there. The scenarios twisted like knives in his gut. He had to protect her, had to keep her safe.