Page 10 of Keeping Kara

Chaos felt a little guilty that the attention of his team would be spent on finding him rather than rescuing others, but not so guilty as to hope they’d put him on the back burner. He needed to get Kara to safety, to a doctor, to figure out what she needed to get her feet back under her. It was a compulsion, and one he wasn’t about to fight.

He’d watched most of his friends fall head over heels in love, knew how happy they were. He wasn’t going to fight his attraction to the woman in his arms. But he also wasn’t going to rush her. She was skittish enough. He had no idea how things would work between them, with her being here in North Carolina and him being in Norfolk, but they weren’t that far apart. Maybe six or seven hours? Perhaps they could meet in the middle, in Greensboro or something.

He was getting ahead of himself, that was for sure.

Kara was grateful for his help, of that he was certain, but he didn’t want her gratitude. She might not want anything to do with him once they were found. She may want to put this entire life-threatening episode behind her. Bad memories and all that.

Chaos hoped not, but he’d respect her decision. He couldn’t force her to want to see him again. If she didn’t feel any spark with him, if she didn’t feel the crazy attraction that he felt, he’d have no choice but to back off. It would upset him, as he truly felt a connection with this woman, but he’d abide by her wishes.

It was probably two hours later when the rain stopped, the wind died down to a whisper, and the sky finally began to lighten. It wasn’t sunny, not at all, but at least he could see more clearly.

And what Chaos saw first were the bruises on Kara’s face.

She had two black eyes and finger-sized bruises around her throat. His earlier thought that she’d had reason to be scared of him was confirmed in that moment, and it made Chaos’s anger rise dangerously close to the surface once more.

He was right.

Someone had hurt her.

Badly.

He did his best to tamp down his fury. The last thing this woman needed after everything she’d been through was to wake up to his outrage on her behalf. He took a deep breath and tried to figure out what his next steps were. After they were rescued—and they would be rescued, of that he had no doubt—he needed to make sure Kara was safe. That whoever had hurt her wouldn’t come after her again.

Though, that was easier said than done. He was well aware that many women couldn’t find the strength to leave their abusers. He didn’t blame those women, some of them had endured a lifetime of being oppressed. Of being told they were worthless. Or they had kids who they couldn’t leave behind. Or money was an issue. Or they truly loved the person who was abusing them mentally, physically, or both.

But he literally couldn’t stomach the thought of this woman choosing to stay with whoever had put those marks on her.

His arms tightened around the woman who was currently snoring lightly against his chest. He couldn’t imagine hurting her. It made his stomach roil.

Lying there on the ground, Chaos thought about his own mother. How much she’d like Kara. She was amazingly strong. She had to be, in order to cling to that tree in the middle of the river for however long she had before getting swept away. But it was more than physical strength. She hadn’t panicked when he’d caught up to her. She’d done what she could to help him move through the water. And when he was on the verge of letting go of that tree, she’d acted. Saved him.

He suspected she was exactly the kind of partner he wanted. Someone who’d remain strong on her own when he wasn’t by her side, yet welcome him home with open arms and a happy heart.

Of course, there was no way to truly know what Kara’s personality was like. He’d just met her, after all. But how someone acted in an emergency said a lot about them as a person. And Chaos liked what he’d seen so far.

As if she could somehow sense all his thoughts about her, Kara stirred.

He knew the moment she remembered what had happened and where she was, because she stiffened.

Hating that she was still afraid of him, but honestly not surprised after seeing the bruises and knowing someone had put them there in acts of violence, Chaos loosened his hold.

“Morning,” he said quietly.

“We made it,” she returned, just as softly. “I honestly wasn’t sure we would.”

“Yeah, it got hairy there for a while,” Chaos agreed.

After a moment, she said, “You should know something about me.”

Chaos waited eagerly for whatever she was going to say. He wanted to know everything about her.

“I’ve got the worst luck.”

He chuckled.

“No, I’m serious. If something bad can happen to me, it will. Growing up, kids called me Kara the Terror, because stuff always seemed to happen to me. Swings broke while I was on them. Fuses blew when I used electronics. Teams lost anytime I was picked. So, yeah, I’m kind of surprised these rocks didn’t collapse on top of us last night. Or another river didn’t form from the water, leading right where we were sleeping. Or a bear didn’t find us in the middle of the night and become mad that we’d stolen his den.”

She sounded completely serious, and thinking about this woman being teased and bullied when she was a kid made him both angry and sad at the same time.