He straightened and, leaving his brother lying on ground soaked with rain and blood, started off to claim the woman he’d decided belonged to him.
THIRTY
RAIN gushed over the windshield of the Jeep, overpowering the wipers. The road was turning to mush under the wheels, so Giff had to fight for every yard of progress.
“We’re heading in,” he told Kirby. “Brian’s got more sense than to be out in this, and so do I.”
“Just take the west route back.” She prayed it was the storm making her heart thump and freezing her bones. “That’s the way he’d have gone. Then we’ll be sure.”
“South road’s quicker.”
“Please.”
Abandoning his better judgment, Giff muscled the Jeep to the left. “If we get back in one piece, he’s going to skin me for keeping you out here five minutes longer than necessary.”
“That’s all it’ll be, five extra minutes.” She leaned forward, struggling to see through the waterfall streaming down the windshield. “What is that? Something on the side of the road up ahead.”
“Probably some gear that fell out of somebody’s camper. People were scrambling to get the hell off before—”
“Stop!” Shouting, she grabbed the wheel herself and sent them into a skid.
“Jesus Christ, you aiming to send us into a ditch? Hey—” Though he reached out to stop her, he only caught the tip of her slicker as she bolted out into the torrent of rain. “Goddamn women.” He shoved open the door. “Kirby, get back in here, this wind’s liable to blow you clean to Savannah.”
“Help me, for God’s sake, Giff! It’s Brian!” Her frigid hands were already tearing open the bloody shirt. “He’s been shot.”
***
“WHERE could they be?” While the wind pounded the walls, Lexy paced the main parlor. “Where could they be? Giff’s been gone nearly an hour, and Brian twice that long.”
“Maybe they took shelter.” Kate huddled in a chair and vowed not to panic. “They might have decided not to try to get back and took shelter.”
“Giff said he’d be back. He promised.”
“Then he will be.” Kate folded her hands to keep from wringing them. “They’ll be here in a minute. And they’ll be tired and wet and cold. Lexy, let’s go in and get coffee into thermoses before we lose power.”
“How can you think about coffee when—” She cut herself off, squeezed her eyes shut. “All right. It’s better than just standing here. Windows all boarded, you can’t even look out for them.”
“We’ll get hot food, hot coffee, dry clothes.” Kate reeled off the practicalities, picking up a flashlight as a precaution as she took Lexy with her.
When they were gone, Jo rose. Her father stood across the room, his back to her, staring at the boarded-up window as if he could will himself to see through the plywood.
“Daddy, he’s been in the house.”
“What?”
“He’s been in the house.” She kept her voice calm as he turned. “I didn’t want to say anything to Lexy and Kate yet. They’re both frightened enough. I’d hoped they’d get on the last ferry, but with Brian still out ...”
Sam’s stomach began to burn. “You’re sure of this.”
“Yes. He left—he’s been in my darkroom, sometime in the last two days. I can’t be sure when.”
“Nathan Delaney’s been in this house.”
“It’s not Nathan.”
Sam kept his gaze hard and steady. “I’m not willing to take a chance on that. You go in the kitchen with Kate and Lexy, and you stay with them. I’ll go through the house.”
“I’m going with you.”
