Loving the Chase (Heart of the Storm #1)

by Sharla Lovelace

  Hannah met Zach’s eyes. “Like something.” She looked disgusted. He agreed. Nothing about this was going to be good.

  “Holy hell,” Zach said under his breath, getting back behind the wheel. “Rudy, you gonna be all right, bud?”

  “I’m good,” he said, speaking for the first time.

  Rudy didn’t appear to be all that good, but Zach had the impression he didn’t have much choice in the matter.

  “All right,” Zach said, glancing back at Hannah and Maddi, who were both in the process of tying up their hair. He shook his head at the surrealness of it. “Get your game faces on. We may hit this thing a little sooner than expected.”

  “What are the little radar things on the top of the truck?” Maddi said as they pulled away. “I don’t remember that.”

  “Portable anemometer,” Simon said. “We didn’t have that before. Measures wind speed.”

  “And what’s the laptop for?” she asked him.

  “It’s what I use to spot the storm-cell activity,” Simon said, pointing out the radar screen he’d pulled up. “I can see exactly what it’s doing, what direction it’s moving, and where the really bad shit—stuff—is.”

  “So I know where to go,” Zach finished.

  “Don’t you mean where not to go?” she asked.

  “Yeah, you’d think that, wouldn’t you?” Hannah said. “But you know Zach.”

  “You’d think that, wouldn’t you?” Maddi echoed.

  Zach met Hannah’s gaze in the rearview mirror and let out a long slow breath. It was going to be that kind of day.

  “I can also report directly to the National Weather Service from here,” Simon said, keeping the subject rolling. “We can call it in or do it online. Depends on conditions.”

  “I thought you said you had two vehicles you did this with now,” Maddi said. “Where’s the other one?”

  “We don’t always bring both,” Zach said. “This isn’t supposed to be a huge event, and Eli had something to do.”

  Eli came up with something to do. Probably doing crossword puzzles in his office or rearranging his files or anything to avoid being a part of Zach’s evil plan.

  “So, are you married, Maddi?” Simon asked, making Zach want to pull the car over and pummel him. “Kids? Dogs?”

  Maddi chuckled behind him. “Nope. I’d love to get a big dog one day, but that requires a yard, which requires a house.”

  “Which requires money,” Simon added.

  “Exactly,” she responded. “Which requires the crazy hours I work—and allows me no time for my dream dog.”

  “So what do you do?” Simon asked.

  “I’m the assistant to the associate producer,” she said. “And yes, that’s as useless as it sounds.”

  “Hey, you’re there,” Simon said. “It’s a start.”

  “It’s been a start for a long time,” Maddi said dryly. “I’m ready for a move.”

  “Didn’t you want to go be a big shot on CNN? Or Fox News?” Hannah asked.

  Zach gave his sister a look in the mirror. That was kind of mean.

  “Yeah, well,” Maddi said. “Real life, and all that.”

  For twenty-nine more minutes, Maddi asked questions, commented on the vehicle, the clouds, the equipment, and Zach endured it because he had to—and the subtle sweet aroma of her scent, and the sound of her voice got him through it. Until a big fat raindrop splatted against the windshield.

  “Here we go,” Zach said.

  “Pull over,” Hannah said.

  “Why?” Maddi asked.

  “Look at that shelf cloud,” Hannah said. “Damn, that’s beautiful.” She grabbed her other camera from a bag on the floorboard as Zach pulled to the side of the road.

  “So you just stop and take pictures?” Maddi asked.

  “Somebody has to,” Hannah said, pushing open her door. “Remember?”

  More big drops hammered the windshield. “It’s raining,” Maddi said, as if that would change her mind.

  Hannah chuckled, her eyes lighting up. “Yes, it is.” She shouldered her bag and the video camera as well. “Just a few shots, Zach.” Two minutes later, Hannah was back in, stray curls blown free and stuck to her wet face. “Wind’s picking up.”

  They pulled out onto the highway again, the van following them amidst pummeling rain. Chatter on the radio increased as other storm chasers in the area chimed in. The darkness loomed over them like a claw, and even through the slicing windshield wipers, Zach could see it. Feel it. The promise of what was to come as the air changed.

  That’s how he always knew. Regardless of Simon’s reports, of what anyone on the radio said, he knew when it was coming. The change of the pressure on his skin, on his brain—it fueled him like a drug.

  But Maddi had grown quiet, and he wished she was sitting where Hannah was, so he could see her face in the rearview mirror. He wanted to know she was okay. It felt more and more wrong, her sitting through this.

  “You all right, Maddi?” he asked finally, needing the reassurance.

  “I’m fine,” she said, attempting cocky that didn’t quite play that way. “Just worry about what you’re doing.”

  “We’re good back here,” Hannah said, palming her camcorder.

  “Talk to me, Simon,” he said as the rain became a wall of white, blowing at an angle he could only see by where it hit his window.

  “Jesus,” Maddi breathed, gripping his seat.

  Damn it, he could feel her fear behind him, and he couldn’t stand it. If something happened to her again because of him . . . but it wouldn’t. He just had to keep his wits about him.

  “It’s moving southward, slow,” Simon said. “Really slow. Stalling over the Mossy Cove area. There’s rotation there.”

  “Shit, we’re almost there,” Zach said, although his speed was down to a crawl. He handed the handheld radio over his shoulder to Maddi. “Hit that button and tell Rudy where we’re going.”

  She did, and then another voice made his muscles twitch.

  “We have one on the ground, I repeat, on the ground.”

  Jonah Boudreau.

  “Give me that,” Zach said through his teeth. Maddi held it over the console, and Zach snatched it from her hand. “What’s your location, Jonah?”

  There was a pause, and Zach’s patience with the rain dispersed with the knowledge that Jonah was where he was supposed to be. He glanced at Simon’s screen, and a perfect rotation danced beautifully.

  “Identify,” came Jonah’s voice over the radio.

  “You son of a—” Zach cut off his words and pressed the button. “You know who this is, Jonah. What’s your location? We are approximately one mile out of Mossy Cove and it is a full whiteout.”

  The telltale sound of hail thwacked against the windows and made a metallic sound against the hood.

  “Shit,” Maddi said from the backseat.

  “Hope your station’s van has good insurance,” Simon said.

  “West side of Mossy Cove,” came Jonah’s curt reply. “Unstable funnel on the ground—it’s bouncing. Best to stay where you are.”

  “I’ll bet,” Simon said.

  “Oh, my God,” Zach heard Maddi whisper behind him.

  “It’s okay,” Hannah said. “We’re fine.”

  “Damn it,” Zach said, banging the steering wheel. “We’re not fine, we’re missing it. We’re like sitting ducks here.”

  “Still rotating,” Simon said. “Still traveling south—no, south-southwest, we may run right into it.”

  “Right into it?” Maddi said, her voice pitching upward. “Are you—do we want to do that?” A gust of wind slammed into the side of the vehicle, making her gasp. “I mean, shit, you can’t see a foot in front of us.”

  “Part of it, Maddi,” Zach said. “This is why it’s hard to get
where you want to go when this starts.”

  She didn’t respond, and the disappointment that was raging through him gave way to a stab of satisfaction. Maybe for once, she’d see that it was harder than it sounded. That it was work. That he hadn’t just been out joyriding seven years earlier while the world caved in around her.

  The noise got louder and louder, the wind harder. A piece of plastic siding bounced off his hood, making her suck in an audible breath, and the gust that pushed them afterward nearly made him do the same. He’d felt wheels leave the ground that time, just for a second. That was actually a first.

  “Fuck, it’s almost on top of us!” Simon yelled, staring at his screen. That was the only place to see it. To see anything. “Stop!”

  “No!” Maddi cried, and through the roar, Zach’s stomach tightened at the fear in her voice.

  “I’ve lost visual,” Jonah’s voice said then through the radio.

  Zach slammed the vehicle in “Park” and grabbed the receiver. “It’s on us,” he said, throwing the receiver down. A tree limb hit the roof and the anemometer, and he saw money go up in smoke. “Y’all hold on! Maddi?”

  He twisted and found her hand, holding on for dear life. She would not be alone this time. His siblings knew how to handle it. She didn’t.

  And she didn’t pull away. He felt the bite of her nails digging into his skin, and squeezed tighter. The air around them changed, moved, breathed, as if the solidity of the vehicle was just a farce. His ears popped at the pressure, making the deafening roar even more overwhelming. Maddi’s other hand grabbed his seat like she was hugging it, and she buried her face in the seat, releasing a guttural scream just behind his neck.

  The terror in that sound knocked the air from his chest.

  “Keep your eyes closed,” he yelled, squeezing her hand tighter. He felt her violent shaking as the vehicle rocked.

  “It’s pulling up,” Simon said then through his teeth, still typing madly on his keyboard. “Damn it.”

  “What do you have?” Zach asked, his voice sounding cracked and dry.

  “Rotation is breaking up,” he responded. “It’s a bust.”

  “For us, not Boudreau,” Zach said, his head coming back to reality. “He got it when it was in town. Son of a bitch.”

  Maddi let go of his hand, and he had to shake his head free of the need to grab it again. That was crazy. That was bullshit.

  The storm was over. There was still rain, but even the hail had been short-lived, and it was lightening up. He was able to see a good twenty yards and to start driving again just in time to see the sign for Mossy Cove come into view.

  “What do you mean, it’s a bust?” Maddi exclaimed. Her voice was shaking, and her breathing was labored. “Fuck, we had a damn tornado on top of us. How the hell is that a bust?”

  “We got nothing on it,” Hannah said. “No video and possibly no data—Zach, that sounded like one of the cups broke off up there.”

  “I know, I heard it,” Zach said.

  Like so many weird-ass storms before this one, the rain immediately reduced to a sprinkle. As if the tornado itself sucked the life and the water and everything from the clouds.

  “It’s—it’s done?” Maddi asked, her voice sounding strained.

  “It’s done,” Zach said, disappointment lacing his voice. “Guess you should have been riding with the Boudreaus today.” And then he wanted to kick himself for putting that out there.

  They rolled into town amidst light debris. He’d seen worse. There were tree limbs and a few downed power lines to avoid, but other than that, the few pieces of random debris scattered here and there were nothing on some of the destruction he’d witnessed. He’d seen trees driven through buildings, cars on top of houses, and an entire Holiday Inn wiped from the slab as if it were never there.

  As they rounded a corner, they found ground zero. A supermarket with very little roof left; it and the surrounding buildings in a strip mall were mostly destroyed.

  “Here we go,” Zach said, pulling in an empty space.

  “What are you doing?” Maddi asked.

  “Hannah will want to get pictures of something,” he said. “And she’ll find a jewel in this, she always does. In the meantime,” he added, opening the door, “we can walk around and get some information on how it hit. If they had any warning, that kind of thing.”

  He opened her door and didn’t back up as she got out and leaned back against the vehicle. Her face was ashen, tear tracks lining her cheeks, eyeliner smeared under her eyes. Fuck. Everything in him wanted to act on something he hadn’t felt in years. Protective.

  “Are you okay?” he asked quietly, shoving a hand in his pocket before it did something idiotic like touch her hair or pull her in to comfort her.

  The look in her eyes as she looked up at him about brought him to his knees.

  Chapter Six

  Maddi tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear and tried not to react to his nearness, to the wishes that ran through her brain that wanted stupid things like his arms around her. He’d always had the sexiest eyes she’d ever seen on a man, and unfortunately that hadn’t changed. When she saw them land on her shaking hands, she clasped them together.

  “I’m fine.” Her voice sounded strong enough, but the fiercely protective vibes coming off him coupled with the look on his face made her breath stick in her throat. Shit. She needed to quit looking at him. Think of something she hated. Mustard. She’d think of mustard.

  “Maddi—”

  Her knees almost gave way at the catch in his voice. At the immensely personal and familiar sound of her name on his lips. Damn mustard wasn’t doing its job.

  “Let’s just do this, Zach. Okay?” she said, her voice barely a whisper as she crossed her arms over her chest. He was so close that the move caused her hands to brush his torso, and for one second, everything went upside down. Maddi shut her eyes tight, knowing it was the wrong time to be so close to him. Her legs were still wobbly from the experience in the truck, and she wasn’t entirely sure her stomach was stable. If she looked him in the eye again, she’d break, and he’d hold her and—hell, no.

  Taking a deep breath, she opened her eyes and moved away from him, willing her legs to work. She would not show weakness. She would not be another notch on his belt or damsel in distress for him to sweep off her feet. She had a job to do.

  “Over there, Zach,” Hannah said, breaking his attention away as she came around the back of the vehicle. “Jonah’s already interviewing.”

  Maddi sighed with relief, thankful that Hannah had a job to do, too. Zach turned for a last glance as he walked away, and she purposely held her chin up and followed him at a distance. She would not be weak. She would not be reduced or maneuvered by Zach Chase, the tornado-chasing stairway-fucking dick. Ever again.

  Yes, she thought, her sandals crunching the gravel under her feet. Keep thinking like this. Write it on a Post-it note. Have cards made. Recite it over coffee every morning.

  She followed him toward an elderly woman with dirt all over her, clutching her purse, sitting on a concrete bench.

  “Ma’am, do you mind if I talk to you?” he asked, kneeling next to her.

  She looked lost and scattered. “No,” she said, her voice small. “I’m waiting for my husband.”

  “Is he coming to get you?” he asked. “Was he with you when the tornado hit?”

  She shook her head. “He’s at home. I just walked over here to get milk.” She looked him in the eyes and Maddi’s heart twisted. The woman had that look. She remembered seeing it in the mirror. Haunted. Invaded. Betrayed.

  “Are you okay?” Maddi asked, moving to sit by her.

  “It was like God took the roof off and decided to vacuum,” the lady said. “Everything just—went up.”

  “I know what you mean,” Maddi said softly. “I’ve seen that before,
myself.”

  Zach’s face clouded over, and before anything could be said to go down that road, she jumped into business mode, gesturing to Rudy to come with his little handheld camera.

  Zach frowned. “What are you doing?” he said under his breath.

  “Catching this,” she said. “Ma’am, do you mind if we ask you some questions on camera?”

  He looked at her like she’d lost her mind. “No.”

  “Yes.”

  “I guess that’s okay,” the woman said, her voice faltering. “I’d ask Henry, but . . .”

  Zach shook his head and focused on the woman, his eyes flashing disapproval. “Are you okay?” he reiterated, trying to position himself between the woman and Rudy. “Were you hurt?”

  She shook her head. “No. My husband is coming. He has to walk because our car is upside down in the yard.”

  “Oh, my God, was he hurt?” Maddi asked.

  “No, he was in the bathroom,” she said. “But he can’t find my little Dolly.”

  “Who’s Dolly?” Zach asked.

  “My little dog,” she said, her eyes brimming with tears as if the thought had just registered with her. “My sweet little Dolly.”

  “I’ll stay with her,” Hannah said, putting a hand on Zach’s shoulder. “Go do what you need to do.”

  “Turn that off,” Zach said to Rudy, getting up. “It’s—”

  “It’s what you’re signing up for,” Maddi said, pushing to her feet as well. “What do you think a reality show is, Zach?” she asked, swiping fingers under her eyes, and looking up at him with disdain. “Whatever it takes.”

  Whatever it takes. Zach would be okay with never hearing those words again.

  Once upon a time, it was his mantra. Back when rules were meant to be broken and boundaries to be breached. Back before the day he arrived home to dig the woman he loved out from under two stories of rubble, and she’d thrown those words at him repeatedly.

  He still lived them to a degree. He still pushed the limits. But those words were less bragging rights now, and more of a concept to live up to. Hearing them from her again just set every nerve in his body on edge, but even as his ire rose, something in her face didn’t match up with what she was saying.