Page 17 of Bond Strength

Today was going swimmingly.

Which could be literal given the amount of water pummeling the landscape. I enjoyed watching storms, but considering this one started with a tree down in my front yard, trapping both me and Noah here…well, enjoyable wasn’t the term I’d utilize.

I switched on the flashlight phone and used it to lead the way to my kitchen, where I kept extra flashlights and emergency supplies in the cupboard. Power outages were something I loathed, due to the unpredictability. Case in point, the lovely tree decorating my driveway.

“Shit, want me to call a guy I know who does trees?” Noah asked. He was close enough behind me I felt his presence, magnified in the dark.

“If you think they could get here fast, sure. My plan was to hit up my brothers for a contact.”

“Except I’m right here and equally invested in getting the tree out of your driveway.” Noah’s voice remained steady, despite the shift inour circumstances. He’d been preparing to head home. The last thing he probably wanted was to be stuck in my house. In the dark.

I managed to grab the flashlights, emergency candles, and lighter I had stored in a bag, and I handed a flashlight to Noah.

“We should get all the blinds up,” he suggested. “Bring in some of the natural light.”

I nodded, which was silly because he could only see what the flashlight illuminated. “Yeah.” My voice came out a little hoarse, and my adrenaline pumped hard. I hated the dark, a stupid, irrational problem of mine that had existed since childhood. I used to need a blue nightlight and the hall light on and the door propped open. Thank fuck I’d shared a room with Ollie. He could sleep in almost any condition.

The flashlight bobbed, highlighting a small scrap of the space until Noah flung open the curtains and blinds on one of the windows. Even with the dark skies, more light still came from there than inside the house.

The wind howled, and the house creaked and groaned horribly.

“Is this going to turn into aWizard of Ozscenario?” I asked, my voice echoing in the quiet inside here.

“Well, since you’re not donning the ruby shoes, I think you’re safe,” Noah said, his voice the same calm and even as before. I latched onto that. It wasn’t that I couldn’t handle the dark as an adult, but purposeful dark versus forced were two different scenarios. I wasn’t a fan of the latter.

“How bad is this storm supposed to get?” I asked.

“Just a typical thunderstorm, however, I can say since we’ve got a downed tree in your front yard, it’s a pretty fair guess we already hit the worst of it.” Noah sucked in a sharp breath, which made my shoulders tense. “Fuck, we should check your basement.”

“Go from a dark upstairs to an even darker basement?” The sense of that wasn’t computing at all.

“Yeah, in case there’s flooding,” Noah said. “With the issues in your walls, there’s a high chance the water will trickle into the basement. I hope it’s not finished.”

“No, it’s mostly storage and—”

Oh, fuck.

My workshop.

I bolted in that direction at once, my heart thumping hard. All the work I’d done remained down there, and I hadn’t kept my project off the ground. Sure, the actual data and formulas I had in backups and hard drives, but the demo model I’d been tooling with was on the floor. Papers I hadn’t scooped up rested in piles. Flashlight bouncing in front of me, I ran and tugged open the basement door.

My feet slapped against the stairs, echoing in the quiet.

Thunder cracked, a boom that made the whole house tremble, and I felt the reverberations deep in my soul. I reached the bottom of the steps and swung the beam of my flashlight in the direction of my project.

Noah bumped into me from behind. “Sorry. You darted away, and I wanted to catch up.”

“Yeah, I needed to check…” I directed the flashlight toward the table my battery design was on.

Fuck.

The glimmer of wetness snagged my attention at once. Water pooled on the floor around the table it lay on.

My chest squeezed tight as I approached with slow steps. Noah outpaced me, crouched, and placed a finger in the water.

“Some is coming in but not as much as I would’ve expected, given the shape of your walls.” Noah touched the piece of the battery I wasconcerned about. The charger that had been on the floor. “Oh, shit, this is sodden.”

My throat thickened. Was it getting harder to inhale?

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