Dark and Stormy: Sacred Hearts Coven (8 page)

CHAPTER TEN

Regina and Alita Talk

REGINA TRIED TO get in touch with Serena first, but her cell went straight to voicemail. She considered calling M
ichelangelo, but he was probably busy with Serena. Not to mention, she rarely spoke to him on the phone and felt a little uneasy about ringing his cell.

Alita, on the other hand, always answered her phone. If not by answering the call, she was texting you back to find out what was going on. She loved her some gossip. Regina had fun with Alita when they went shopping or out for lunch, but they were birds of a different color for sure.

“Hello?” a squeaky voice said from the other end of the line.

“Hey. It’s Regina.”

“Hi, what’s up? Can you believe this storm? Do you know if we have to work tomorrow yet?” The questions often came in rapid fire. She reminded Regina of a young child sometimes.

“The weather is getting crazy. The power started to flicker. I really hope we don’t lose it. Reddick is checking the news for an update now. As far as I know, we will be open tomorrow, but that can always change.”

“Did you just say Reddick? Where are you guys? Having another
private
meeting?” She enunciated private in a taunting way.

“Yes, Reddick. We’re still at the office, like we are almost every other day of the week.” Regina sighed.

“Yeah, I see the way the two of you dance around each other. I can't believe I’m the only one that sees it. You’re like two stars about to collide. How have you not collided yet?”

“Even if that were true, I am not ready to
collide
with him, or anyone for that matter.” Regina made her stance.

“I’m not convinced. What’s the problem? It’s not like you would actually consider getting back t
ogether with Paul. Would you? It’s been almost six months.”

“I don't know. His handsome face still sneaks into my dreams from time to time. I thought I saw him driving on the highway last week, and I did get those nervous butte
rflies in my belly.

“On the other hand, I guess we broke up for a reason. After two years, our relationship was pretty stagnant. We never did exchange the L-word. I thought it from time to time
, but refused to be the first to say it.”

“You thou
ght you were in love with him?”Alita drilled her.

“I don’t know. Maybe I was just in love with the idea of him. He was perfect on paper. He was over six feet tall, always a must have. His crisp blue eyes were the perfect contrast to his silky black hair. He just made VP of his division at his marketing firm. He was still driving a used car, but I guess you can't fault the guy for being frugal.”

“Uh-huh, so why the breakup then?” Alita pressed on.

“I didn't feel like it was going to the next level, and he couldn't give me an indication that he wanted it to. Who knows? Some guys will never let you know how they feel.

“At the end of the day, the biggest thing that was missing was the magic I felt when I first laid eyes on him. I think I built up a fake image of our feelings based on that one moment.” Regina picked up the moonstone and rolled it around in the palm of her hand.

“He was a magnificent kisser, though, and even with his Italian heritage and dark hair, he had the softest face. It was almost strange how his facial hair grew in soft and not stubbly. I never got scratched by a five o’clock sha
dow. Every kiss, morning or night, was silky smooth.”

“So at least you had great sex. You could always hit him up for a booty call,” Alita suggested.

“Nah. Sex was good. His body was sculpted like an NFL linebacker. But because of his long days at the office, he was often too tired. I'm sorry, but I’m too young to be to be too tired to have hot sex with my hot-body boyfriend. Ya know?” Regina realized more about her relationship with Paul in that moment than she did the two years they dated.

“Really? That sucks. I always thought he was kind of a bore. He was nice to look at, but he didn't have much to say. What did you guys do anyway? You never really talked about going anywhere.” The questions never stopped.

“He was big on ordering pizza and watching sports. I learned a thing or two about the rules of basketball and football. I guess at least I walked away a little bit smarter.” Regina laughed a little even though she knew it wasn't funny. Hearing her talk about Paul out loud caused her to feel pity for herself. She squeezed the moonstone and held it tight in her hand and tried to imagine absorbing the energy from it. She was ready to find success, not only in business.

“I know you didn't call me in the middle of a hurr
icane to talk about Paul. What’s up?”

“Oh, we wanted to know if you knew how to transfer the calls from the landline to our mobile phones.” Regina looked over at Reddick reading the manual for the phone system. She thought about how hard he worked and how he was always full of energy. He probably wouldn't ever be too tired to service his woman. “And we aren’t having a hurricane, Alita. You are always so over the top.”

“First of all, get on that computer you’re always attached to and check the weather report. Second, of course I know how to work the phone system. That is part of my job and I worked with the phone tech when he installed the system. I am your go-to gal.”

“Great, I’m going to transfer you to Reddick. Do you think you can walk him through it. I’m going to go look up the weather.”

“Absolutely, and you guys should really get out of there and go home or somewhere more inland!”

“Reddick!” she yelled over to him. “I’m transferring Alita over to you. For the phones.”

He gave her a thumbs-up. She hit a few buttons and his phone buzzed.

Regina opened the screen to her laptop. First she checked to see if she had a full charge. Even if she lost the Wi-Fi connection, she could still work on their PowerPoint presentation as long as there was enough juice. Emails could always be written and scheduled to be sent in the morning. She loved having her emails go out before eight a.m. She felt like it showed people she was eager to get her workday star
ted. People could trust her to work for them if she worked that hard for herself.

She also wanted to make sure she had an opportunity to take a look at what was happening with the storm. Maybe Reddick wasn't just teasing her when he said they should be evacuating the area. She just thought he was trying to get a rise out of her, or for her to go home so he could outwork her.

She found a reputable weather site. She was about to punch in her zip code for her local weather when she realized the weather warnings on the home page were for Blue Beach County. Sure enough, there were large red letters spelling out the words
hurricane warning
. She clicked on the link for mandatory evacuation areas.

Sure enough, the town her office was in was at the top of the list. Her heart dropped into her stomach a little. She had never experienced a hurricane, and as far as she knew, there had never been one in their area.

One thing was for sure; she wasn’t about to find out. She started to pack up her bag and grab her phone. She closed her laptop and slipped it into the soft case. She decided to go to her cousin’s house. Even if Janice wasn’t home, she knew where the hidden key was located.

Regina planned to call her neighbor to let her know she wasn’t coming home. Hopefully she would be there to look in on Crunch and feed him. She was glad her neig
hbor was her dog walker.

Regina opened one of her desk drawers where she kept a spare umbrella. Of course it was red. She tucked it under her arm and tossed her bags over her shoulder. She scooted over to Reddick’s desk.

“Come on, we have to get out of here.” Regina was almost out of breath. She’d never packed up so fast.

Flashes of a childhood storm forced their way to the front of Regina’s memory. Thunder and ligh
tning had made her jumpy since she was a young girl. She thought back to when she was eight years old. She vividly remembered her dad teaching her how to calculate how far away the lightning flashes were. He called it the
flash to bang
theory.

He taught her that for every five seconds between lightning and the thunder equated to one mile. So if there were twenty seconds between the flash and the boom, then the lightning was four miles away. They counted the s
econds together. The lightning started out at least eight to ten miles away. Regina felt good about it not being too close to home.

As the storm worsened, the seconds between the flash and the boom started to diminish. Within minutes, there was little distinction between the two. A crack came that was so loud that Regina felt the house shake. She felt like a bomb went off. Even though it felt like an eternity, only seconds passed before she heard the screams.

Regina followed her father downstairs to find her mother screaming. Her sister Amelia was pinned under a tree that had just crashed through the front window. The walls around them were ablaze, and the rain was coming into the living room behind the tree.

Regina’s father yelled for her to run to the kitchen and call 9-1-1. Regina called, but all she could hear was the screaming and crying from her mother and sister. Her hearing was off from the shock or the pro
ximity of the lightning cracking at their home. Lucky for Regina, her mother came into the kitchen and took the phone from her.

Regina ran back to her father and sister. She vaguely remembered her mother’s voice in the bac
kground, telling the operator what happened and their address. Her father was soothing Amelia and telling her to stay calm. He told her that he didn’t want her to move. He was afraid to attempt to pull her out and cause more damage to the young girl’s body.

Regina would never forget the fear she felt in the pit of her stomach and the fear that flared out from her sister’s eyes dripping with tears. Regina sat beside Amelia and held her hand until the emergency teams arrived. Her mother took her outside because the smoke was getting worse in the house.

Regina and her mother sat outside in the back of an ambulance, wrapped in blankets, waiting to see them bring her sister out of the house. There were firemen, policemen, and an assortment of emergency medical people all over the front lawn. The lights from the vehicles lit up the entire block.

Regina’s sister was pulled from the house and rushed to the hospital. Their house was almost co
mpletely destroyed by the fire and the tree. Regina and her parents stayed at her grandparents’ house while Amelia remained in the hospital. She wound up losing one of her legs.

Reddick told Alita to hold on and lowered the receiver from his face. He looked up and saw the su
dden fear in her eyes.

“What's wrong? Where are you going?” he asked.

“I just looked up the weather. They said the hurricane is about to hit here, and no, it isn’t Hurricane Regina.”

“First of all, you need to calm down. It’s just a warning right now. I told you before they suggested evacu
ations.”

“Well, I’m out of here.” She turned and headed for the stairs.

Reddick lifted the receiver to his ear. “Did you hear her?”

“Yeah, don't let her leave,” Alita demanded.

“I gotta go. I’ll call you back. Thanks for your help.”

Reddick was concerned about where Regina was going. The storm was getting worse. He just had the radar pulled up on his laptop and had been watching to see where the worst of the storm was headed. He wasn't sure where she lived, but he needed to make sure she wasn't about to drive into the heart of it.

Reddick took the steps two at a time. He heard the jingling of the front door before he made it to the bottom landing. He took the last three steps at once. He had strong, long legs so it didn’t slow his stride in the least.

Regina had just stepped out the front door. Before the door could close, he grabbed it and went out a
fter her. The cold rain struck him in the face. The droplets felt more like ice pellets. It was a drastic change from the sunny, mild weather they had early that morning.

“Regina!” The wind was howling and his voice came out muffled. She didn’t respond, either because she was stubborn and set on getting in her car, or she just didn't hear him.