Page 107 of Keeping Penny

But in the back of his mind, he heard his mother’s words again…telling him not to rush finding a life-partner. When he met her or him, he’d know.

And in that moment, looking down at the woman who was about to be dumped into the frothing river filled with debris, Chaos knew.

Without a doubt.

Nothing was going to keep him from rescuing this woman.

And spending the rest of his life, if necessary, attempting to convince her that they were meant to be together.

It was crazy talk. Probably a result of all his friends being ridiculously in love with their own women. But deep down, Chaos knew that wasn’t it.

This woman was special—and he’d be damned if she died on his watch.

He kept his gaze locked on her as Casper moved the chopper closer and closer. He coiled the rescue harness in his hand in preparation to throw it to her, holding his breath and praying the tree held.

* * *

If it wasn’t for bad luck, Kara Guthrie wouldn’t have any luck at all. For the hundredth time, she asked herself what she’d done to deserve anything that had happened over the last two weeks. She was a good person. Tried to be kind. Put her grocery cart back in the corral in the parking lot every time. Complimented strangers when she could. Let aggressive drivers pass her on the interstate, even when she was going the legal speed limit.

Yet, when she’d tried to break up with her boyfriend, Nolan, who she’d only been seeing for two months, and who she hadn’t even slept with yet—because she was waiting to see if any romantic feelings for him formed, which they hadn’t—he’d lost his ever-loving mind.

Declaring that if he couldn’t have her, no one could.

Then he’d locked her in his house, took away her phone, and told her that he’d love her enough for the both of them.

Kara had been terrified, but certain that at any moment, someone would come pounding on his door, demanded to search it to see if she was there.

Her hopes were quickly dashed that one of the people she worked with would raise an alarm when she didn’t show up at her job, after Nolan told her he’d been using her phone to text her friends. Her boss. Even the nice older lady who lived next to her in her apartment complex.

Apparently, he’d pretended to be Kara, saying that she’d gotten a new job opportunity in California and was leaving immediately. He’d sent her boss a text, saying that she quit. Told her neighbor that she’d arranged for her things to be packed up and moved.

He’d also done just that, paid some of his friends in beer to go to her place and pack everything. They’d brought it all to his house, and he’d put a few boxes of clothes into the room where he’d locked Kara, telling her everything else was in the basement.

It was a nightmare—and she’d had no idea how it would end.

When he’d gotten tired of begging her to reconsider, Nolan turned violent. Hitting her, raping her…all the time saying it was because he loved her so much. Declaring she could never leave him. That she’d love him soon enough.

How he’d gone from the slightly nerdy man she’d been dating to a complete monster was beyond Kara.

Just when she thought things couldn’t get worse…it started raining.

And didn’t stop.

Nolan’s house was by a cute little stream, which had quickly overflowed its banks and filled the yard, then nipped at the house itself. One night—why did bad weather, tornados and hurricanes especially, always seem to be worse in the dark of the night?—the water rose to the doorway…then continued rising.

It was the sound of water lapping at the bed she was lying on that had Kara leaping up and stepping into six inches of water. She’d pounded on the door of her prison, begging Nolan to let her out. But she’d heard nothing. He either wasn’t home or was ignoring her.

So much for his declaration of undying love. Not that beating and raping her said any-damn-thing about love.

As she continued to shout for Nolan, to pound on the door, the water got higher and higher. Just when she was sure she was going to drown in that room, the door popped off its hinges.

Kara made her way through the waist-deep water toward the front door. The water swirled around her, and Nolan’s belongings were floating everywhere, making it difficult to reach the door. It wouldn’t budge, and once again, Kara was afraid she was a dead woman. But then she realized she couldn’t open it because the water was surging through the cracks. She couldn’t compete against the power of the water, so she turned and made her way back through the house toward the back door.

By the time she got there, the water was almost to her chest, and she wasn’t short by any stretch. She was nearly six feet tall. Five-eleven. The door was rattling with the pressure of the water, and with shaking hands, Kara undid the dead bolt and turned the knob.

It swung open almost violently, the water in the house rushing out to join the rest of the churning waves outside the house, taking Kara with it. She had time to take one deep breath before she was washed into the raging flood.

Remembering something she’d heard once from one of her coworkers, who’d just gotten back from a white-water rafting trip, she tried to put her feet first, so when she hit debris, it would hit her feet and not her head.