A BREATH OF HOT AIRPENSACOLA BEACH, FLORIDA
THE POUNDING CAME FROM somewhere outside her nightmare. Maggie O’Dell fought her way to consciousness. Her breathing came in gulps as if she had been running. In her nightmare she had been. But now she sat up in bed and strained to hear over the drumming of her heartbeat as she tried to recognize the moonlit room that surrounded her.
It was the breeze coming through the patio door that jumpstarted her memory. Hot, moist air tickled free the damp hair on her forehead. She could practically taste the salt of the Gulf waters just outside her room.
The Hilton Hotel on Pensacola Beach, she remembered.
A digital clock beside her with glow-in-the-dark numbers clicked and flipped to 12:47. She was here on assignment, despite a category 5 hurricane ba
