Page 45 of Storm Warning

“Do what you said you were doing. Get out of here. Remi, Hawk is the man of the hour.” The sheriff’s forehead beadedwith sweat as the medics attended his ankle in the back of the ambulance. “Go. Get out of here.”

Apparently, the sheriff had resigned himself to Hawk and Remi’s decision, and maybe he was a little out of his head with pain at the moment too. Hawk had hoped someone else, someone more competent than himself, would take this on, but right now, he was the one invested. The man of the hour, as the sheriff put it.

He had to get to Cole and end this before someone else was hurt.

Or Remi was killed.

Remi, however, shook her head, unshed tears in her eyes. “This is because of me. All because of me. I can’t hurt another person.”

Hawk gently grabbed her arm and urged her toward her Bronco. The keys were still inside. He assisted her into the passenger seat. His mild concussion wasn’t a foregone conclusion, and Remi didn’t appear to be in the frame of mind to drive.

Steering them up the highway in the opposite direction that Cole had gone, Hawk said nothing. He needed time to think. He might have spoken with too much confidence when he told the sheriff he knew how this guy worked and how he thought and that he knew how to keep Remi safe. That was all partially true. But hedidknow where to get answers.

John had sent Hawk here for one reason, and that meant he knew details about Cole’s whereabouts or where he was suspected to show up. John was in the intelligence business, after all, so Hawk shouldn’t be surprised. He would know why Cole was after Remi.

“Where are we going?”

“To talk to the man who knows more than we do about what’s going on.”

Her breath suddenly quickened. “Not yet. If you’re in this with me, then help me, Hawk. Take me to Dr. Holcomb. I need to see her as soon as possible.”

Hawk didn’t know how to tell her that could be a mistake.

19

Heart pounding, Remi had let Hawk take the wheel of her Bronco, and it felt like she was letting him take charge of her life too. She remained unsure if that was a good decision or not, but this entire situation was unfolding on her faster than she could keep up. Her life was at the mercy of this fierce storm blowing through her.

He sped around the curvy two-lane road so fast she thought her Bronco might fly right off the road, and after the experience they’d just had, her anxiety was sky-high. She should say something to him. Tell him to slow down, but his expression was intense as he squeezed the steering wheel. Breaking his concentration could be a bad move. In Remi’s opinion, Hawk drove entirely too fast for a man running on no sleep, who’d been hit in the head. To be fair, he was trying to get her as far away from Cole as he could. She should be grateful.

The events of the last many hours seemed to have infused him with adrenaline, the same as her, only now she was crashing. She couldn’t seem to let go of the intense fear and shock of the county vehicle rolling, and those same grippingemotions mingled with the intensity of the flashback she’d had earlier that night.

The image of the man reaching for her from the helicopter, the darkness surrounding her, kept flashing in and out of her mind, fuzzy one moment and clear the next, but then gone so fast she couldn’t wrap her thoughts around it. She’d give anything to lose the gut-wrenching sensations that came with the flickers of memory.

Anything.

Lord, can I just remember without reliving it?

Memories can’t hurt you. Memories can’t hurt you.

That’s what Dr. Holcomb had told her. True enough. Those events themselves couldn’t harm Remi now. They were over. Done. But she still faced an unknown danger stemming from what had happened.

“I know it’s almost four thirty in the morning, but I don’t care. I’m going to call my doctor and tell her I’m coming. She’ll understand. I have a signal here, but in about three miles, as we get deeper into the Olympic National Forest, I’ll have zero bars.”

Hawk said nothing. She got on her cell, but she didn’t want to make the call until—“I’m telling you this to confirm that’s where we’re going. Because if not, let me off at the lodge. I’ll do this myself.”

He glanced her way intermittently while driving. What was he thinking? Why wouldn’t he say something?

“Can you please slow down?” she asked.

“No. I want to get us off this road as fast as I can.”

“I understand that, but what good is it if we’re killed while doing it?”

“The longer we’re on this road, the more danger we’re in. We have to get somewhere that he isn’t watching and can’t follow us. I’ll take you to see your doctor if you believe it’s important, but how well do you know her? Can you trust her?”

Her pulse skyrocketed. Seriously? Incredulous, Remi looked at him while she used her cell to contact Dr. Holcomb. “I know her better than I know you. Of course I trust her. What kind of question is that? And I need you to pull over before the signal’s lost.”

Hawk grumbled under his breath but found a turnout and slowed to a stop. Mr. Lumberjack and his blue eyes and broad shoulders reassured her that she was in good hands. It felt good to have someone at her back, someone she could trust—at least, in Hawk’s case, wanted to trust.

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