Sounded like something on the patio had blown loose and was slamming into the sliding glass doors in the living room.

Alan frowned, turned the tape recorder off, and muttered, “The hell with this.” He’d been an idiot to think he was going to get anything done anyway.

He hurried down the stairs, listening to the screaming storm outside and to that unending pounding. What was it? The gate? A tree limb blown down? Patio furniture?

He pulled back the verticals and tried to look outside, but the heavy tinting on the windows and all the rain made it impossible to see. So he turned off the inside light and turned on the porch light.

Phoebe was looking in at him for one instant, banging on the patio door with both fists. But when the light came on, she went belly down onto the patio and rolled right up against the house.

He turned off the light as fast as he could, opened the patio door. Instantly, horizontal rain soaked him and blew into the house.

He half dragged, half carried her inside. She felt like ice, even though the rain was blood-warm.

His phone started ringing almost immediately. Dripping wet, staring at the bedraggled Phoebe, he answered it.

“Agent Toeller here. You got a problem there?”

“No. Patio furniture hit the sliding glass door. I had to drag it inside before it broke the glass.”

“All right. Saw you come out on the porch and look around. I was just checking.”

“Thanks,” Alan said, and hung up the phone, and turned to Phoebe.

“What the hell are you doing? Why are you out in this? Are you crazy? Do you have any idea how dangerous this is? What if Michael had been waiting on your patio to grab you? What if one of the agents saw you sneaking around and shot you or something? For that matter, what if the wind just blew you away?”

“I’m fine,” she said. “Now. But something was wrong over there. I— ” She stopped and looked down at herself, then said, “Oh, I’m sorry. Look at the mess I’m making on your carpet.”

“The hell with the carpet. I hate beige anyway. What’s wrong?”

“I just got this... warning. That I had to get out of there right then. That we had all missed something big. You and me and the police and the FBI. Like a hole in our defenses that was so obvious we didn’t see it; we were all looking right past it,” she said. “I think I heard Chick telling me to get out.”

“You think?”

“It got cold in there. In my head, I heard this warning. ‘You have to get out of here.’ But I don’t know if it was Chick or if it was just me. Me being panicked.”

“Maybe the panic is because of the storm.”

“Maybe. I thought I loved storms, but there’s something vile about this one.”

He looked at her and sighed. “And now the truth comes out. My beautiful Phoebe is a freak after all.”

“You don’t like storms?”

“They scare the piss out of me. Especially around here. I don’t like water. I don’t like high winds. I don’t like thunder or lightning.”

“I’m sorry. I just love the wildness of it all.”

He hugged her close. “You’re insane. But I think I like that about you. And I’m glad you’re here. I was going crazy trying to keep my mind occupied, telling myself you were going to be fine, and worrying about you anyway.”

She kissed him once, a gentle kiss on the cheek that wasn’t sexual. And she said, “Thank you for worrying about me” in his ear just as something huge crashed outside, and he about jumped out of his skin.

“Tree down,” he said. “Close.” But it hadn’t hit the house; he could tell. And the lights were still on.

Alan held Phoebe tighter, because he was glad not to be alone in the midst of this storm that was a hell of a lot worse than what he’d expected. He kissed her, because she was both strong and soft and he loved her, but he didn’t dare tell her that yet — it was too soon, and now with the mess in her life almost over, they were going to have time. He could tell her when the time was right.

He kissed her again, and her hands slid under his shirt, and he started to peel her out of her soaked clothes.

She laughed and said, “Cut them off if you have to. I don’t know if there’s any other way I’m ever getting out of these jeans.”

And, deftly, he showed her another way.