A Stranger on the Beach(65)

“Thanks, Kel,” he said. “But I should be going.”

Kelly studied him with concern. “Where exactly are you going, Aidan?”

Kelly tried to manage Aidan’s life for him like Tommy did. He took it better from her than from him. He and Kelly had a big-sister/kid-brother type of friendship that meant a lot to him. She treated him with kindness rather than the scolding Tommy defaulted to. And she had this wide-open face—round and serene, with freckles and big hazel eyes. He was never able to lie to her, and he couldn’t now.

“A friend of mind has a house. It’s right in the path of the storm. I told her I’d check it out for her.”

Her face scrunched with disappointment. “I know about your friend. From what Tom says, she’s bad news, and you got in trouble once already tonight going in her house. Is it really smart to go back there?”

Aidan wanted to explain. Caroline was a flame to him, and he was the moth. If he ended as a pile of ash, that was the risk he took. His only regret would be the disappointment he caused his brother and Kelly.

“Maybe not. But I promised her,” he said.

“Promises are important. But I still think it would be better if you stayed here with us. We’re your family, Aidan. We don’t want to see anything bad happen to you. And I’m not only talking about the weather. Will you stay? Please?”

He couldn’t deny Kelly’s claim on his loyalty. He’d always been welcome in her house, even at his lowest. She’d picked him up and dusted him off more times than he could count over the years. He had a place at her table for every holiday. She was asking him to stay. As much as it pained him, he felt obligated to say yes.

“All right, I’ll stay, Kel. For you.”

“Thank you. Now get up and let me make your bed.”

She made up the sofa quickly, then pecked him on the cheek and went off to bed. Aidan tossed and turned in the darkened living room, listening to the shifts in the wind. He tried, but he couldn’t get comfortable with the decision to stay here and leave Caroline’s house undefended. Not just that, though. He was afraid that she hadn’t listened. That she was driving through this mess on her way to the beach. That she might be harmed. Half an hour passed. He got up and wandered to the kitchen, where he looked in the refrigerator. But nothing in there appealed to him. He felt too worried to eat. He went back to the living room, where his phone was buzzing on the coffee table, lighting up with Caroline’s number. He grabbed it breathlessly.

“Caroline. Are you all right? Where are you?” he said.

“At my house. It’s a disaster. Somebody broke in, set off the alarm, and ran away. Was that you? Don’t lie to me.”

This was the worst outcome imaginable. She’d driven out from the city despite his warning, only to find the place abandoned and thrown open to the storm. She’d never trust him again.

“It was me. But I can explain,” he said.

“Explain?” she said. “What the hell—”

The line began to crackle and pop. The next words out of Caroline’s mouth were garbled into a tinny, incomprehensible squawk.

“What?” he said. “You’re cutting out. Caroline? Caroline, are you there?”

Nothing.

“Caroline?”

But the phone was dead in his hand. Caroline was all alone on that wild, exposed stretch of beach, facing down the storm with no protection, believing that Aidan had betrayed her. He couldn’t stay here, protected from the storm, cozy with his family, and leave her alone to face the hurricane. He had to go to her, or he would never be able to live with himself.





42


It was after midnight, and the streets were empty, littered with downed branches and debris. The traffic lights at the intersection swayed like crazy, and Aidan had to fight the wind gusts to keep the truck going straight. When he crossed the highway, he saw a live power wire down, throwing off sparks. The drive seemed endless, because he didn’t know what he’d find at the other end. Would Caroline be safe? Would her beautiful house be reduced to a pile of rubble? If she was safe, would she allow him back into her life? Or would she close her heart and mind against him because of the very things he’d done to protect her?

He drove down her road with his heart in his throat, peering through the sheets of rain. When he reached her house and saw her car in the driveway, he jumped out of the truck, crazed with fear. A branch had landed on the Escalade, a big one, and Aidan got it in his mind somehow that she might still be inside, crushed and bleeding. He ran over, playing his flashlight across crumpled glass in the pounding rain. When he saw that the car was empty, he nearly cried with relief. Then the flashlight beam caught graffiti scratched into the side of the SUV. “DIE BITCH,” it said, and his blood went cold all over again.

This vandalism must be the work of that thug Jason Stark had hired. Was he here? Caroline’s house was completely dark. Had he tracked her to this place, defaced her car, hurt her? Aidan ran up to the front of the house and looked in through the glass sidelights that ran on either side of the mahogany door. It was dark inside. The rain streaming off the hood of his jacket made it even harder to see. He swept the flashlight beam from his phone back and forth, and gasped when he caught a movement. Caroline materialized out of the darkness and floated toward him like an apparition. She came up to the door, looking through the glass at him.