Page 5 of Keeping Kara

“We need to get to shore!” she yelled, trying to be heard over the roar of the water. She thought she saw him nod, but it took another fifteen seconds or so for the man to move. He got up on his hands and knees, and together they made the precarious journey across the mass of trees that had been pressed together by the water.

Kara’s hands were shredded and aching, but she was alive, and she’d been through much worse not too long ago, so the pain took a back seat to the urgency to get both her and her rescuer off the damn logs.

When they got to the edge of the logs, there was a gap between them and solid ground. Well, semi-solid ground. Even in the darkness, Kara could see it was pretty much just a bunch of mud.

“Can you stand?” she asked.

The man nodded before slowly standing.

Without thought, Kara reached for his hand, and she was relieved when he took hers in a firm grip. They helped each other step off the shaky logs into freezing mud. Kara grimaced when the muck squished between her toes, only now remembering that she wasn’t wearing any shoes. Her feet were already cold, but now it felt as if she’d plunged them into a bucket of ice-cold water. It took half a dozen steps, but finally the ground under them felt sturdier.

Another dozen steps, and the feel of grass under her bare feet was like winning the lottery. And she basically had. She’d cheated death. Not once, not twice, but probably more like four or five times. She’d escaped Nolan, she’d made it to that tree in the middle of the river, she’d been seen by the rescuers in the helicopter, and then she’d made it out of the debris-filled water.

She couldn’t help but wonder when the next shoe would drop. Because good luck wasn’t something she was used to having.

Kara stumbled and would’ve fallen, but the man’s grip on her hand kept her upright. Without a word, he let go of her hand and wrapped his arm around her waist. She did the same to him, and it made walking much easier. She wasn’t sure who was holding up who, then decided it was a mutual thing. Kara was just a smidge taller than the man, but they fit perfectly, which made hobbling together much more comfortable.

She had no idea where they were going, and she didn’t really care, as long as it was away from the water. Kara figured the man next to her felt the same way. He kept looking behind them, as if gauging how far they’d gone.

They were walking through trees now, and when she looked back, she couldn’t see the water anymore. She could hear it, rumbling along as if pissed they’d escaped its wrath. And despite the darkness, the wind still howling and the rain still pounding, every step felt like a new beginning.

A crash off to her right made Kara jump, and the man’s grip around her waist tightened.

“Tree falling,” he said.

Her heart was beating hard in her chest, and even though she knew the chances of Nolan being in these woods, exactly where they’d managed to pull themselves out of the water and hours after the cabin had been swept away, were a million to one, she couldn’t help but remember the look on his face when he’d sworn she belonged to him, and he’d never let her go.

Nodding, Kara continued walking next to her rescuer. Now that the immediate danger was over, reaction was setting in. She was freezing. And sore. And hungry. And in pain.

She stumbled again.

“Just a little farther. We need to find a place to hunker down. My team will be looking for us, but I have no idea how far downstream we went and the storm is getting worse. We’ll probably be spending the rest of the night out here.”

His voice was low and calm…soothing.

And as much as she didn’t want to spend the night in the storm, it was a thousand percent better than being in that tree in the middle of a freaking flash flood. She nodded, concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other and not falling on her face.

The trees creaked and groaned as the wind whipped through them, sounding as if it wanted to rip them from their roots. It was entirely possible they’d end up getting crushed by a falling tree, but Kara felt kind of removed from her situation at this point.

She had no idea how long they’d walked, but the sound of the water had been fully replaced by the whistling of the wind. It was a huge relief, even if she was still miserable.

“This is going to have to do for now.”

Looking up, Kara blinked. They were standing in front of two massive rocks that were leaning against each other, forming a kind of shelter. There was a tiny space between them that didn’t look large enough for one person. Both of them certainly wouldn’t fit.

“Crawl in,” the man said.

She looked at him in disbelief. “Where are you going to stay?” she asked.

His lips twitched upward. “There,” he said, nodding toward the space between the rocks.

Kara looked at it again to see if the space had somehow grown in the last few seconds since she’d last studied it. It hadn’t.

“It’ll be a tight fit, but the rocks should help protect us from any falling trees. And while it’s not waterproof, it’ll get us out of the wind. Downside is that it’ll hide our heat signatures, but my team won’t give up.”

Kara stared at him for a beat. “What’s your name?” she asked.

This time, his lips curved in a true smile. “Arrow. But I’m known as Chaos.”