Page 34 of Storm Warning

“Asking me that question doesn’t make it easier.”

“I know. Try smiling.”

Erika’s smile appeared unnatural.

“So, forget what I said. Don’t smile.”

Erika’s lips flattened, then she frowned. Remi glanced away. Raked her gaze over the others, who seemed relaxed, unaware of the possible danger. The danger wasn’t directed at her guests, but still, she wasn’t sure if she shouldn’t justtell everyone to load up their vehicles and go home. But that would be sending them out in the danger of the storm.

She squeezed Erika’s shoulders and smiled, trying to act natural. “I’ll keep you informed. In the meantime, could you get Shawna to make up three cups of hot chocolate without drawing attention? Set them at the back and I’ll grab them.”

Erika nodded.

Hawk had disappeared up the stairs. It wasn’t like he could look inside the rooms with all the guests downstairs, but it made her feel better that he was up there looking around all the same. But when he was done with the lodge, he would head outside into the night to check the cabins again and then she could worry. Remi was concerned about that aspect of his plan, and maybe she should go with him. Have his back. The guests were her responsibility, after all, and not his.

Hawk was already making his way down the stairs. Erika was over talking to Shawna, and by the look on the barista’s face, Erika was spilling everything. Her features grim, Shawna glanced at Remi. Remi slowly edged away from the gathering and toward the side door that led out to the stairway to the beach to make sure it was locked.

The door was barely closed.

Water and debris remained on the rug and then the wood floor leading into the lodge. Heart pounding, Remi followed the footprints back into the great room and then eyed each of the people there. One of her guests was the attacker and Jo’s abductor. Had come here to Cedar Trails Lodge, the place she thought she’d found refuge until she could remember.

Her breathing turned shallow, and she needed to calm down.

She had to get out of here, put some distance betweenher and the lodge. She’d put her heart into this place and almost forgotten her need to find what was lost.

Someone had found her and reminded her. She slowly moved around the group, making her way to the fire. Watching all the shadowed corners where the light flickered. She tried to act natural as she glanced around, looking at each of the guests, and then her eyes caught his.

He was staring at her.

For a moment, her heart might have stopped. Then her lungs screamed, and she sucked in a breath.

He wasn’t the man who’d attacked her. The eyes were different somehow, and this man looked at her with interest, not a death wish. Still, memories could trick a person. She couldn’t be sure.

Suddenly she couldn’t move. Fear gripped her. The gathering and the fireplace faded. Other images bombarded her mind. Pulse roaring, sweat bloomed on her palms as she was transported to a different time and place.

A man. Dark hair and equally dark eyes, dressed in military fatigues, stared at her from inside a helicopter. He leaned out the open door and reached for her.

He was like a ghost stepping out of the hidden places in her mind.

14

Hawk stood at the door of Remi’s office—the one that would let him outside into the turbulent, dark night. He bundled up and tugged his hood on. Extra ammo and a knife were stowed in his truck, and he’d grab those before going into the forest.

Remi stepped close and snapped the top button of his jacket as she looked up into his face—her action came across as personal. Intimate. Concern filled her soft, warm eyes. An image skittered across his mind—he was holding her, looking down at her, and leaned in to kiss her. Hawk shook off the outrageous thought. What had gotten into him? He must have been so completely exhausted that his mind was playing tricks. He didn’t have time for an emotional connection. Once Remi was safe and in the clear, her attacker behind bars, he could take time to clear his head and then get back on track with his own personal mission to find an assassin he’d been hunting for far too long.

Remi stepped even closer and looked at him long and hard. A knot lodged in his throat, and for a split secondhe had the strange feeling she might lean in and kiss him goodbye. And even weirder—he would have let her. He really had to stop having these thoughts.

“Be careful out there.” She squeezed his hands around the radio she pressed into them. “I want updates, Hawk. If I don’t hear from you, I’ll come out there and find you. Do you understand?”

“I believe you.” He almost smiled at the idea of someone coming to his rescue. “But don’t you dare. I’ll be fine.”

Before he got in deeper with this conversation—or, God forbid,hekissedherbecause he was losing his way in this pressure-cooker situation—he opened the door and stepped out into the violence of nature. That was the good, hard slap in the face Hawk needed.

He didn’t know Remi.

She didn’t know him.

The wind tried to take off his hood. Hawk tugged it forward and shined the flashlight around. He’d memorized the brochure map of the Cedar Trails Lodge layout, including the cabins, the trails, and the currently empty campground behind them. But he also kept it in his pocket in case he needed to refer back to it, though it would get soaked if he tried.

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