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No. No. "No!" I scream at the wind. As I reach the shore, the turbulent water soaks my feet. I can't say no to anyone up there, but down here I can scream it and get away with it.
"No!" I scream until my throat burns. Hard, heavy, sideways pellets of rain hit my white sundress.
"It's not safe out here right now." A deep male voice startles me.
It's Foster and his mocking eyes. He's standing on the berm behind me. He has to yell to be heard above the wind, but he seems restrained and easy-going even though his shirt is changing color as it gets wet.
He steps down from the dune and walks toward me, squinting through the rain as it gets thicker. Angry waves slam down at my feet.
"Stay back!" I hold my palm up to him.
His eyebrows crease. "You need to hunker down."
The thought of going back up to the house and facing my father makes me want to puke.
"I'll stay here," I say.
"You can't stay."
"What does it matter?" I turn my face back to the waves and open my arms to let the rain hit me. "Who cares if I die? Let the forces of nature decide my—Oomph."
A blow to my waist makes me double over. I'm flipping over and catch a glimpse of black jeans marching up the shore toward the house. He's carrying me over his shoulder! My fists pound on his back, but he's rock solid.
"Let me go!"
He doesn't reply or slow his pace.
"Put me down!" My skirt is flying around and now my ass is getting wet. At least I'm wearing a bathing suit underneath.
The wind pushes him off course, and he has to dig in and bend forward to keep moving up the steep hill of grass.
"I don't want to talk to anyone!" My wet hair smacks me in the face.
"No one is here!" he answers.
"They aren't?"
"They all left. There's a fucking tornado watch or did you not hear me while you were yelling your manifesto into the wind?"
He carries me into the house and stomps around. Pat Benatar is singing "Love is a Battlefield" and the place is empty. Everyone is gone.
"Put me down."
"Not till I find a safe spot to sit out the tornado."
A ferocious gust of wind rattles the mostly glass house. A tornado would shred it—and us—to bits. "We can't sit it out. We need to evacuate." I hate talking to his backside, but it's all I can see right now.
He chuckles. "Welcome to the party, sweetheart. Your chance to leave came and went. We're stuck here." He marchesfrom the main dining room down the hallway to the bedrooms before spinning and returning to the living room.
"Who told you that?" We probably have plenty of time to evacuate.
"You see anyone in this house? No. You don't. Everyone left. You? You go for a walk on the beach. Who the hell goes to the shore to duke it out with a tornado?"
He keeps mumbling low, cursing under his breath. Drops of water mark the floor in a trail following his path as he wanders from room to room with me hanging over his shoulder. "Here we go," he says in the kitchen as he opens the door leading to the wine cellar in the basement.
Oh hell no! I scream and pound his back with all my might. "No!" There's no way I'm going down into the basement with him. But I have zero say in the matter as he heads down the stairs.
At the bottom, he flips me over and plops me on my feet. "Are you insane?" he yells at me, his chest heaving.
