He opened the door and she just sat there. In the next moment, he was pulling her out.

Cait looked up to see two vehicles, both at forty-five-degree angles, in a ditch that she knew led down to a creek. “I don’t know where Cooper is,” she said.

“He’s at my house and safe. Your dad is out looking for you. Pauly called me in a panic because no one could find you.”

It was Adam Hatten. She could hardly hear him over the noise of the wind.

“We have to go now!” He grabbed her hand and they began running. He led her across a field, the one that her uncles wanted to buy for their fruit trees.

The tree branches overhead were bent nearly double. She heard a loud crack, then watched as Adam tossed a broken branch aside to expose a weathered door flat in the ground. He lifted it to expose stairs that led down into darkness.

He went down the steps, then held his arms up to her. She took his hands and went down until they reached the floor.

“Stay here while I turn on the lights.”

She heard him move along the wall. Then a switch flicked and the lights came on. Adam ran up the stairs to pull the door closed and the noise was greatly reduced.

She looked around. It was a big room of what looked to be the basement of a house, and it was quite nice. Someone was taking good care of the place. There was a living room, a kitchenette and a bed against the back wall. Except for the absence of a bathroom, it was a nice apartment.

Adam was standing to the side, watching her, seeming to be waiting for her questions or, more likely, to ask her questions.

Caitlyn wanted to run back up the stairs. A tornado couldn’t be worse than being alone with Jared’s father. He was sure to ask her questions that she did not want to answer.

“Are you all right?”

“Fine.” She felt her forehead. There was a lump but no blood. “It’s just a bruise. I’ve been hit on the head by apples harder than this.”

He was looking at her as though trying to decide if she was telling the truth.

“I better go. Dad will be really worried. I should—” A crash above their heads made her stop.

Adam ran up the stairs and she watched him try to push the door up but it didn’t move. “I think a tree just fell over the door. We’ll have to wait to be rescued.”

“Who’s going to do that?” Cait asked. “No one knows this place exists.” Adam raised an eyebrow.

Since it was clean and well kept, it certainly was known about. “What is this place?” Adam didn’t reply. “I’m all grown up. If you secretly meet someone here—”