The Devil's Storm Read online

  Lee glanced at Emily. She was chewing on the inside of her bottom lip and her leg bounced nervously. “I’m gonna grab a beer,” she suddenly stood and announced. “Want one?”

  His face screwed up in a wince. Emily’s face fell as she realized what she’d done. “Oh. Lee…I’m...I am so sorry.”

  It was so tempting to say yes. Especially after making such an awkward, vague statement. A beer would have been a comfort and he could already taste a smooth IPA filling his mouth and—“A Coke would be great,” he forced himself to mutter.

  “I didn’t mean—”

  “No, no. Really, it’s fine.”

  “You don’t look fine,” Emily said with her arms crossed right across her chest and shoulders drawn inward.

  Lee shook his head. “It…” he sighed, trying to explain it. “I’m still getting used to experiencing certain events without it. Like charity balls and baseball games. But that doesn’t mean everyone around me has to play by my rules. Go get yourself a beer.”

  Emily turned and left, but quickly returned from the suite fridge with two bottled Coca-Colas. “Emily, you can drink what you’d like.”

  She sat back down next to him and cracked open her own Coke, raising it toward him. He gave a single-syllable laugh, twisted the bottle cap and lifted his bottle to hers. “Here’s to never drinking in your presence ever again.”

  “It would be okay if you did.”

  “I’m not going to do anything that makes you uncomfortable.”

  Lee’s mouth spread into a grateful smile as something welled up

  inside him. He wasn’t sure what it was, but he liked it. “Like this

  chair,” Emily announced, standing up and staring at it in disapproval. “It’s very uncomfortable.”

  “They’re the best seats in the—”

  “This is is better,” she announced as she daintily settled across his lap.

  “Happy?” Lee laughed, looking up at her as his arms wrapped around her waist. His eyes focused from her lips and that gorgeous smile, then traveled up to her deep, brown eyes. He heard the entire park cheering and whistling, too caught up in her to care what was going on.

  “I think I am happy,” Emily breathed.

  Lee kissed her more intensely than he planned. It didn’t matter that they were on a balcony surrounded by other business suites inhabited by executives he knew, or that there was one hell of a baseball game being played below them. All that mattered was her body pressing up against his, and the blazing heat spreading from their lips, across their bodies, settling into their hearts. Lee didn’t know where this was going, but it didn’t matter. He was the happiest he’d been in two years.

  “Lee?”

  Lee’s heart stopped. He and Emily turned to see Brent standing there on the balcony with them. Lee hadn’t even heard Brent open the door or step out onto the balcony at all. Emily slid from his lap and back into her seat, cheeks coloring.

  It was time to play the part of CEO. Although tonight, he’d much rather be a regular man spending Tuesday evening wrapped up in the arms of a woman who made him happy. “Hey Brent,” he began in a casual tone. “Come to catch a game with us?”

  Brent barely held in a laugh. “Is that what you call it?”

  Lee glared at Brent, but he just snickered and went on. “It’s been a while, Emily. How’ve you been?”

  Emily flashed him a smile that her eyes betrayed with visible resentment. “Just peachy,” Emily said through her strained smile. “And how are you, Brent?”

  “Better than good. Just closed out a huge deal with Kobayashi Corp, and I’ve brought Mr. Kobayashi and his crew with me to celebrate.”

  Lee’s eyes widened. “Really wish you would have called me first.”

  “Who knew you actually did things outside the office?” Brent shrugged. “I thought all you did was sleep and work.”

  Emily tried to stifle it, but her laugh rolled right out. Lee threw a mocking glare at her but watching Emily laugh made him smile. “I hate both of you,” he snickered.

  “Yeah, you look like you really hated her a minute ago,” Brent joshed.

  Lee figured he’d better change the subject and quick. “Where’s Kobayashi?” Lee asked

  “He wanted an authentic American hot dog straight from a ballpark, so they’re all in the suite chowing down.”

  Lee raised a brow. “We’re feeding them hot dogs? That’s the best we could do?”

  “Um, that’s what the boss wanted, so that’s what he got,” Brent shrugged.

  Lee sighed as he followed Brent into the suite. When he got to the door, he noticed Emily was lingering back at their seats. “Em, are you coming?”

  “Um, do you want me to?”

  “You can do whatever you want. If you pop in for a bit, I might prove to everyone I do have a life outside the office.”

  Emily raised a brow. “But you don’t have a life outside the office.”

  The corners of Lee’s mouth ascended slightly. “I have for the past four days,” he said, staring at the ground. “And I’ve got three more.”

  “Maybe more.”

  “If you don’t come to your senses first,” Lee scoffed.

  She took a shaky breath, then stood and walked up to him, wrapping her hand around his. Lee felt his heart travel in a pounding trail from his chest to his throat. “Coming to my senses is not looking likely.”

  Lee didn’t stop smiling until he’d fallen asleep with her in his arms later that night.

  Chapter Twenty Six

  Madeleine and Adrian’s eyes were glued to the television, chests tight and lungs refusing to work more than half their capability. The phrases “life-threatening” and “devastating winds” had peppered every newscast on every network. Hurricane Beatrice was being hailed as the strongest hurricane to hit Savannah since 1893. Water was already beginning to surge on the Savannah River, and River Street flooded in just a matter of hours. Soon, Beatrice would make landfall, and the damage could be devastating.

  Freya still had not called her back. Fear and anxiety crept into Madeleine’s veins.

  To make matters worse, she was going on seventy-two hours without medication. In the past, it had taken a week for her to feel a difference without it, but Doctor Moore had prescribed a different medication after the Swan Ball debacle. While it was more effective, it wore off much faster. When she and Adrian had gone to the pharmacy to refill her prescription around noon, the pharmacist had simply shaken her head. “I’m sorry, but I’m unable to fill this for another three days. Your prescription is a thirty-day supply, and you’re on day 27.”

  Madeleine looked over to Adrian, who opened his mouth to speak, but she quickly beat him to it. “Look, I understand, but we’re evacuating from Hurricane Beatrice, and I forgot my meds at home.”

  The pharmacist winced. “I’m so sorry. I wish I could help, but—”

  “They’re antidepressants,” Adrian spoke up. “It’s kinda important she keeps them in her system. It’s already been two days, another three could be—”

  “Fine,” Madeleine said with finality, eyeing Adrian. “It’ll be fine. I can make it another three days without throwing myself off a building.”

  The pharmacist’s mouth dropped. “Do I need to call anyone? Someone who may can help?”

  “No. No, you don’t. Look, there’s not any exception for an extenuating circumstance?” Adrian protested.

  “The only way I can fill it is with the express permission of a physician,” she huffed in response.

  Madeleine scoffed. “Well, you see, that would be possible if my doctor wasn't trying to evacuate a hurricane, but seeing as we’re all from the same area—”

  “I’m really very sorry, but there’s nothing I can do.” With that, she turned on her heel and retreated to the back of the pharmacy, leaving Madeleine scrambling to keep up a calm front, even though she felt everything starting to mount up inside.

  “Think Adrian will still love you when he sees the ugly
side Lee saw?” Evelyn asked. She took a golden tube of lipstick from the rack and applied a fresh coat of candy apple red to her lips. “You pushed him straight into the arms of another woman.”

  “Adrian’s seen the worst, thank you. He’s still here,” Madeleine muttered. Evelyn checked a mirror on the lipstick display and smiled in approval.

  “He didn’t see the woman who couldn’t stop sleeping for months on end or bother to wash her hair. Jesus, you were a miserable cunt.”

  Then it got harder to breathe. She took a gasping breath, praying Adrian wouldn’t hear.

  “Maddie?”

  She walked on ahead of Adrian, which wasn’t an easy task. Madeleine tried to calm herself before he noticed.

  Visualize something good, she urged herself. It was a technique Doctor Moore had taught her and it always seemed to work. Madeleine tried to picture Adrian’s cliche beach wedding. Somewhere warm with turquoise blue waters. Or at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Savannah, if it wasn’t blown away in a hurricane…

  Thinking about the impending hurricane made her heart ran wild and erratic as if it had escaped the confines of her chest and was running for cover from her demons. Her mind raced with thoughts in full panic mode. What if there was nothing left of their home? What if they didn’t get her medication? Could she cope? What if Evelyn was right and Adrian hadn’t seen the worst? What if he couldn’t love her at her worst, just like Lee?

  “Maddie, stop.”

  He whipped around her in front of a display of colorful umbrellas. His hands grasped her arms just above the elbow as he studied her reddening face. It was still so hard to breathe. If she could just take one gasp —

  “Baby, breathe.”

  Madeleine shook her head. “I’m—trying—”

  “I know you are. You’re doing great. Listen, do it with me. Big breath in—-”

  She did her best to breathe in deep, but she could only swallow a shallow mouthful.

  “Good, now hold it…and let it go…Keep going. Breathe in…”

  Madeleine kept going through the cycle of breathing, holding and exhaling. Breathe, hold it, let it go…Breathe, hold it, let it go…

  “You remember that stupid senior hiking trip in high school?”

  Madeleine nodded but continued to breathe. She knew exactly what Adrian was doing — trying to distract her from continuing the downward spiral into a full-blown panic attack. She had never had one in his presence, but Madeleine knew he’d done his research into how to help her through one, just in case.

  “Every time we’d stop for a break, there you were, whipping out a book, getting all comfy, and then getting pissed off every time we had to go. I should have known right then I was gonna marry you. All I thought about was how cute you are when you’re mad.”

  Slowly but surely her heart began to slow, and she breathed in deeper. He smiled as her color returned. “I wished we had just veered off on our own,” he said. “I would have been happier watching you read all weekend.”

  Madeleine took one more deep breath in, then managed a wan smile through her watery eyes. “I’ll bet you’ve had your fill of watching me read and write now.”

  Adrian kissed her forehead and wrapped her up in his arms. He rested his cheek on the top of her head and took his own, big, deep breath. “I’m gonna watch you read and write for the rest of my life.”

  “Is that a proposal?”

  “You want a proposal right here in the middle of a drug store?”

  he laughed. “That’s not very romantic.”

  “I don’t need romantic. Just real,” she sighed, resting her forehead against his collarbone. “I feel so drained now.”

  “Let’s get back to dad’s. You can rest there,”

  By the time they got back to Richard’s, Beatrice had been hours away from hitting the shores of the Savannah River. Maggie Beth had already been paying rapt attention to the news all day, flipping between networks. She didn’t say much when they walked in together, but Madeleine could tell from her face that conditions were worse than expected.

  Watching the destructive force of Beatrice became mesmerizing. Madeleine didn’t think they’d moved an inch from the second they sat on the sofa that afternoon.

  At eleven thirty-eight p.m., Beatrice made landfall in Savannah. By this point, Madeleine was wiped out from a panic attack and fear of what would happen. All she could think about were the two towering oaks in the front yard and the time she forbade Adrian from cutting back some branches he’d deemed too close to the house. Or that living in Adairsville or Atlanta all their lives, where flooding was rarely an issue, had rendered them clueless about protecting their home. Did they even have flood insurance? Why was she worried about this now? Could she have been any more naïve? What was wrong with her? Lee never would have let this happen. He was a stickler for making sure everything was insured. Why couldn’t she be more like him?

  “Stop,” Adrian murmured in a tired yawn.

  “Stop what?” Madeleine returned, eyes still glued to the screen as winds blew solid white walls of water towards the shops and hotels that lined River Street. The large, neon, art deco style sign for the Bohemian Hotel fell and busted all to pieces in one of the few shots that was actually clear. Madeleine remembered just two years ago she’d sat at the rooftop bar, calling Adrian much too late, worried that he may never speak to her again if she were to divorce Lee. Now she was laying her head in his lap, her mind racing with anxiety as his fingers played through her hair.

  “You’re worrying.”

  Madeleine shook her head. “No, I’m not.”

  Adrian gave a throaty laugh. “Yeah, okay…”

  Madeleine rolled on her back to stare up at him. “Aren’t you

  worried?”

  He shrugged. “It is what it is. Lucky for us, we’ve got the means to rebuild a house if it came down to it. But there are people in our area who might lose everything they have tonight, and they don’t stand a chance of getting it back.”

  Madeleine looked up at him, an odd mix of shame, sadness and love swirling in her chest. “You’re too good for me,” she said with a furrowed brow.

  Adrian shook his head. “Why would you ever say that?”

  “Because it’s true. I’m sitting here regretting I didn’t let you cut those limbs back and you’re thinking about what really matters.”

  “Trust me, I thought about us first. But putting things into perspective helps. I’m not as worried about it anymore. No matter what, we’ll be fine. Once you realize that, it’s a lot easier to worry about everyone else,” he said with a sigh. His eyes made it obvious. He was just as worried as she was, it only manifested differently, a more beautiful way.

  “Move over,” he said. “I wanna lay down too.”

  Without responding, Madeleine moved to let him lay behind her on the sofa. Adrian cradled her in his arms, and Madeleine rested her hands over his arms. Held tight against him, it felt like everything might turn out alright.

  Chapter Twenty Seven

  Maggie Beth hadn’t had a peaceful night’s rest since the night she’d found Adrian with Madeleine wrapped up in his arms. At first, her sleeplessness had been caused by the shock. Later, it was due to the heartbreak of losing Adrian.

  Maggie Beth had known for a very long time that Adrian loved Madeleine, but she never expected him to act on it. She especially had not figured that Madeleine would ever find it in herself to hurt Lee.

  But Madeleine did hurt him, and Maggie Beth didn’t blame her. She also couldn’t blame her for falling for Adrian. Her youngest son was a top-notch man—kind and slow to anger, faithful and loving. Lee possessed all those qualities, but he hadn’t shown them in far too long. As much as it pained her to watch Lee face the consequences of his decisions, Maggie Beth knew all too well how it felt to watch the man you married transform into someone unrecognizable.

  Instead of blaming Madeleine, as Richard was quick to do, Maggie Beth blamed herself. Adrian had loved Mad
eleine since he was only seventeen. It couldn’t have been more obvious if the boy had it tattooed to his forehead. If only she had taken a seventeen-year-old’s first encounter with true love seriously. If only she didn’t ignore how hurt Adrian was when Lee started dating Madeleine. Maybe things would have turned out differently. Maybe her family wouldn’t have shattered into so many tiny, irreparable pieces.

  When she stepped foot into the kitchen that fateful night to help Madeleine with the dishes, for a split second her mind had screamed finally.

  Then the realization sank in that what she was seeing before her eyes would mean the absolute devastation of her family. Her boys, who had loved each other from the day she and Richard had brought Adrian home from the hospital, would never speak again. Other mothers had envied the easy friendship that her sons shared. It hurt to know Adrian would have to sacrifice thirty-two years of brotherhood for the love of his life. That Lee would suffer most of all.

  So when Maggie Beth awoke at 4 a.m. the morning after Beatrice made landfall, she knew better than to fight it. Waking in the wee hours was just her body’s routine. She sat up in bed, leaned over to kiss Richard on the temple and made her way from the bedroom to the kitchen. She would brew a pot of coffee and catch up on the news of Beatrice before Adrian and Madeleine woke up. If they were lucky, she could greet them with some good news.

  When she shuffled into the living room, however, the television was still running on CNN, the bright light from the screen piercing her eyes. Adrian and Madeleine were fast asleep on the couch, her son’s arms wrapped tight around the woman she knew he would marry. For better or for worse.

  They needed to be in a comfortable bed. Good rest would be essential in the days to come. Maggie Beth turned the television off. “Adrian,” she whispered, nudging his shoulder, and he awoke with a start.

  “Hey,” he began in a tired groan. “What’s going on?”