Page 2 of Keeping Kara

Chaos had no idea how she’d gotten there, but he was determined to get her out.

Because even as Edge and Casper maneuvered the chopper closer, so he could throw her the rescue harness, something clicked inside him. He didn’t know a single thing about the woman he was about to pluck from the tree, but with one look into her eyes when the spotlight shone on her upturned face…he instantly felt almost desperate for intel.

Name, history, likes and dislikes. It was visceral, this burning need to know her.

Nothing like it had ever happened to Chaos before.

Anxiety ramped up as he tore his gaze from hers and studied the water around the tree. Even in the dark, he could see that it was full of debris. Remnants of houses, trees, even cars were being shoved downstream at an alarming rate. It seemed as if nothing in the path of the river had escaped the wrath of the storm.

Just as the helicopter descended low enough for him to throw the harness to the woman, the tree she was clinging to lost its fight with the surrounding water. It seemed to rise up, hovering for a terrifying moment, before tipping forward and disappearing into the flood.

“No!”

The word escaped as a shout, and before Chaos could think about what he was doing, he’d ripped off the headset he was wearing to communicate with his teammates and jumped from the chopper into the waters below.

Casper was going to be pissed. Same with his other teammates. They’d been warned time and time again never to leave their helicopters. Night Stalkers were to stay with their choppers, no matter what. But Casper, the team leader, and Buck had both defied their training in the past.

Which was why there’d been such a renewed emphasis on not leaving the very expensive machines.

But Chaos wasn’t flying. He wasn’t acting as a pilot. And something within him was screaming to get to the woman. That there was no way she could survive being in that water without assistance.

Hell, it was likely he couldn’t survive either, but all Chaos could think about was going after her.

His mom was what many people would call a hippie. She lived in Maine, off-grid for the most part. Had a huge garden, animals, and she was an excellent hunter. She was also a big believer in karma and fate…and a sixth sense. She’d taught him from a young age to use all his senses, not just the five common ones.

Chaos honestly believed that’s what made him a damn good pilot. When the hair on the back of his neck stood on end, he listened.

His mom also swore that when he found the person who was the other half of his soul, he’d know. More than once, he’d asked her how. She’d always simply shrugged and insisted it would be a feeling of rightness deep in his core.

And amazingly, Chaos had finally experienced that feeling—as he’d hung out the side of the chopper a moment ago. When he’d seen the woman’s upturned face. The hope in her expression that rescue was imminent.

Which was why he didn’t hesitate to jump into the water. His team was going to be irritated as all get out, but they’d have his back. Of that, he had no doubt. They’d scour the area to find him. His only job was to get to the woman and get them both out of the water.

Easier said than done.

Because as soon as he entered the river, his body was immediately battered and thrown about. He couldn’t see more than a few feet in any direction. Debris smacked against him, turning his body around and around. He forced his head above the water and took a deep breath, desperately trying to spot the woman.

There!

He thought he saw her quite a ways ahead of him. It was hard to tell with the darkness and the water crashing over his head every few seconds.

Turning so he was swimming with the water instead of against it, Chaos kept his gaze locked on where he thought he’d last seen her, ignoring the debris that struck him along the way. His only goal was reaching her.

It worried him when her head appeared less and less frequently. He had no idea how long she’d been holding on to that tree, but she had to be exhausted.

Just when he thought he’d lost her, that she’d either gotten hung up in another tree or some other storm debris—or worse, that she’d lost the strength to fight the current—he saw her head pop up only a couple yards in front of him.

Adrenaline was already surging through his bloodstream, but with an extra burst of adrenaline, Chaos surged forward and reached for the woman. His hand closed around her forearm and he tightened his hold as the water angrily tried to rip her away. Pulling her closer and moving his grip to her wrist, Chaos did his best to serve as a buffer between her and the objects in the water all around them.

He felt something hit his back, but now that he had her, he wasn’t letting go. Glancing around, Chaos tried to get his bearings, but it was difficult with the water constantly washing over his head, with huge chunks of houses and cars in the churning water.

Using all his strength and his free arm, Chaos began attempting to move them out of the middle of the river, closer to one side.

How long they were washed downstream, he had no idea. All he knew was that his energy and strength were waning much faster than he would’ve liked. This wasn’t like falling out of a boat while whitewater rafting. This was literally a life-or-death situation.

The woman he was holding on to with a death grip wasn’t fighting him. In fact, he could feel her attempting to help move them out of the deadly floodwaters.

The odds were against them, Chaos knew that better than most. He’d been on plenty of search and rescue missions for people who’d been washed away in situations not nearly as bad as the one they were in, and who were found deceased weeks later.