Page 55 of Storm Warning

Hawk stood under the awning as the rain picked up. He took in the full parking lot and, across the way, the ferry station.

A figure rushed toward him from the side of the building. “Hawk.”

He grabbed Remi and pulled her with him under the awning and out of the rain. “Are you okay?” He sounded too harsh. “What happened?”

“Can we just go?” Discouragement edged her voice.

They took a cab back to his helicopter, and once inside, he powered the bird up. Turned on the heater to blast away the chill. They hadn’t spoken while in the cab, where the driver could overhear.

She shrugged out of her wet rain jacket, donned the headset, then rubbed her arms. “Where to next?”

What had happened? “That depends on what you learned from Dr. Holcomb.”

Remi relayed the conversation to him. He took everything in stride. He’d made a list in his head of possible outcomes.

So, they wanted something inside Remi’s head. What was Cole up to? Preventing that from happening? She sagged against the seat. He worried that she was exhausted and on the edge of collapse.

“So, you didn’t get to talk to Dr. Holcomb. You didn’t need her anyway. Remi, talk tome. I’m here to listen. You’ve already remembered a military guy in a helicopter, reaching for you. That’s something, and we’ll figure this out. Thinkabout the last thing you remember before waking up at the hospital. Where were you?”

“The café across from the cathedral in Novograd. I was there to take pictures for my travel blog.”

“What happened to your camera?” he asked.

“I didn’t have it on me in the hospital. It wasn’t recovered. It was lost.”

“Or maybe itwasrecovered. Someone could have it.”

She gasped. “The puzzle pieces. I only have two pieces, so I can’t be sure, but what if I was the one to take the picture that someone is sending me? What if it’s one of my pictures from my trip?”

“If you were to get more pieces—and saw the completed picture—would you remember if you’d taken it?” he asked.

“Or would it even jog my memory?” She huffed.

He hated seeing her frustrated. “It’s already coming back to you, Remi. Just relax.”

“If only it was that easy.”

“What can I do to help?”

“Listening is good. But honestly, I wish I had brought my camera with me. It’s beautiful here.”

“I wish we didn’t have to leave and that we had time to explore. You could get a camera and take pictures as long as you wanted.”

She glanced at him. “Where are you taking me now?”

“My former CO that I mentioned. John Marshall. He has to know something.” Hawk suspected the reasons why John hadn’t been up-front. He was probably monitoring Cole’s activities under some classified status. John had been connected to the intelligence community before exiting the military and apparently had remained plugged in. And since Hawk had shown up to stop Cole, his brother might be onto John now and could possibly target him. That fear gnawedat the back of his mind, but John knew how to take care of himself.

“And where is he? Local?”

“Seattle area.”

“Can’t we just drive from here?”

She really didn’t like flying. “I don’t want it to take several hours to get there and I’d have to come back to get the bird. Besides, I know just where to land. It’ll be a short trip, I promise. I’d say this trip to Port Angeles has been a waste of time, but now we know what lengths someone has gone to. Think about it, Remi. You’ve been monitored since you arrived at Hidden Bay. Someone has known where you were all along, while you thought you were hiding.”

Was there someone at the lodge—a guest, or staff—that was part of watching Remi? His gut tightened.

She didn’t respond, and he left her to her thoughts while he finished filing a flight plan and then flipped all the required switches on the dashboard. The rotors started up but needed time to warm up before he took off. In the meantime, he could check the weather again.

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