There was a light drizzle falling. I got my probe launcher out so I’d be prepared to fire it fast if needed. I felt the same nervous energy I’d gotten when going into a fight as a soldier. This time I wasn’t fighting other men, but a tornado. It was the brother of the one that had taken my family from me, which made it my enemy.
I was up for anything that would help save people from the wrath storms could bring. They blew in and changed people’s worlds in a matter of minutes. The more we could learn about them, the more warning people would have. This was the only way I could honor my family.
Drew stood alone, studying the murky sky. I got a pen and paper from my truck’s glove box and approached her.
“Hey,” I said.
“Hey.” Her voice wasn’t cold or warm, just neutral. I didn’t like it. I was used to her voice sounding the way honey tasted—sweet and rich.
“So, if you want to record conditions and times in this notebook…we never know how big a storm will be, and sometimes it’s nice to have notes to look back on. Just keep track of rain, lightning, wind and anything else you see. Note the time if something changes.”
I went to hand her the pen and notebook, and the pen slipped out of my hand.
Fucking hell. I’d dropped it right at her feet, and I’d have to get within a few inches of her bare legs to retrieve it.
I bent down to get it, keeping my gaze focused on the ground. But once there, the urge was too powerful to resist. I glanced at her toned, smooth legs. My mouth was so damn close to her thigh. Close enough to lean in and taste her skin. Run my lips up to the frayed edge of her cutoffs. I wanted to put my hands on the backs of her calves and slide them slowly up, taking in every inch of her skin.
The sound of a closing car door distracted me. I looked over at Murph, who had pulled out the bright yellow bag he kept his balloon in and dropped it to the ground.
“Gotcha,” Drew said. “Take notes on what I see.”
I handed her the pen and walked over to the spot next to the road where Murph was opening the bag.
“Decision made, then?” I said.
He nodded, not meeting my eyes. “If we can get probes in from the gun and the balloon, I won’t launch a balloon next time. I have to get probes into a twister this season. There’s competition for research funding and I can’t risk losing my program.”
“Okay. I didn’t realize.”
Murph sighed deeply, looking from side to side to make sure no one else was in earshot. “We stopped early last year, which was the right call after Colby’s death. There’s a lot on the line this year.”
I bent down to help him get the equipment out. “So we launch both. We’re gonna make this work, Murph.”
He still wouldn’t look at me, but I could see uncertainty in his eyes as he pushed his glasses up. “If your probe gun works, you’re gonna be in high demand.”
I gave a grunt of surprise. “High demand?”
“Other teams will want you. Bigger teams. Rock star ones. You could get funding for a team of your own if you wanted.”
His insecurity hit me in the gut. Even after all this time, he didn’t get me.
“Murph.” He looked up at me. “It’s our probe launcher. I never would’ve developed it without the experience I got on this team. I like storm chasing, but my rescue classes and climbing expeditions are my work. I’m not giving those up. If the gun works, you take the credit for it.”
His eyes widened with surprise. “It’s not that I want the credit, but…I don’t want to lose you from my team.”
“We’re good, then. This is the only team I plan to be on.”
A corner of his mouth crooked up in a smile. “Good.”
I furrowed my brow at him. “You sayin’ we’re not rock stars? ’Cause I think we’re pretty badass.”
A loud whistle made us both turn. Millie was waving us over. We grabbed our gear and hustled to the grassy spot where she stood with Drew and Tex.
“I think it’s close,” she said softly. “I have a feeling.”
Sometimes gut feelings were our best guide. I agreed with Millie. The sky had been swirling when we got here but was completely still now. It was time.
“I’m a good runner,” Drew said. “I want to help with the balloon. I was always just as fast as Colby.”
Murph nodded. “We need everyone. Just make sure you listen for my directions.”
“Stay next to me,” I said, moving to her side.
“Got it,” Tex said, pointing toward the horizon. I followed his finger to the gray funnel swirling in the distance. My stomach clenched with a knot of excited tension. The twister was blowing our way, asking me if I was ready to go.
Fuck yes I was. I set my launcher on my shoulder and located the tornado in the makeshift scope I’d added to it. It made its way closer and I waited. Timing was everything. Too soon and the probes wouldn’t make it far enough.
“Into the cornfield,” Murph said, yelling over the sound of whipping wind and flying cornstalks. “Everyone grab onto the balloon.”
“Be right there,” I said.
The twister came closer, taunting me. Asking me if I could keep my cool long enough or if I was dying to shoot it too soon. I kept my finger light on the trigger. Dirt and sand showered my face and arms, taking me back to the times when I’d kept cool under gunfire in sandstorms. My peripheral vision picked up a tree flying in an arc nearby. Near, but not so close it would hit me. I kept my eyes focused on the funnel cloud, bending my knees to fight the wind’s powerful pull. One shot, and it had to be right on. My heart pounded rapid fire.
Within seconds, it was time. I fired and tossed the launcher into the back of my truck, taking off to join the team. I didn’t even look to see if the probes made it.
They were already spreading out the massive balloon. The twister’s wind whipped Drew’s ponytail straight into the air. I grabbed an edge of the balloon’s fabric and watched as it filled with wind and came to life.
“Hold it,” Murph yelled over the roar of the approaching storm. “Not yet.”
I turned to Drew, my heart ready to explode in my chest from worry for her. “When we let go, you turn and run like hell for my truck. Don’t stop for anything. Get inside and keep your head covered.”
She nodded, her lips set in a determined line. Surely she was scared out of her damn mind right now. Being this close to a tornado for the first time would do it to anyone. But she’d volunteered, and I couldn’t help admiring her strength even as I worried about her.
The wind was whipping at our clothes now. I dug my heels into the muddy cornfield, the roar of the storm invading my senses. Murph needed to call this within a few seconds.
“Now!” he yelled, letting go and watching the balloon. I released it and watched as Drew did the same. She lost her footing for a second but steadied herself quickly.
We ran like hell was at our backs, because it was. I felt the pounding of footsteps around me and knew we were all in a tight cluster. The mud should’ve slowed us down, but we didn’t have time to let it.
Drew was fast. She was a couple steps ahead of me, where I could keep her in my line of sight. That was how I saw her slip in a mud puddle in the field. Her hands went out to brace her fall. I reached an arm out to get her before she hit, but Tex beat me to it.
He put an arm around her waist and tucked her against him like a football on its way to the end zone. This was no game, though.
“Drive!” he yelled. I knew he meant me. My truck could haul ass better than Murph’s Funnel Finder.
I got in just as Tex tossed Drew into the backseat of my truck. Then he grabbed Millie and did the same. I started the truck and looked in my rearview mirror, where I spotted Murph still running. His wiry arms pumped furiously and his dark curls flew back as he sprinted toward us.
“Come on, motherfucker,” Tex said in a low tone.
“Fuck.” I smacked the steering wheel. “He’s not gonna make it.” I looked at Tex. “Drive. Leave us
if you have to.”
I jumped out of the driver’s seat, hearing Drew scream my name. Murph was still thirty feet out. I took off toward him, not letting myself think about the swirling gray cloud of death on his heels. A small tree branch flew toward me and I raised an arm to block it, grunting as I felt it bruise me bone-deep. I was so close. Had to make it.
When I got to him, I grabbed his arm and pulled him toward the truck. When we reached the tailgate, his chest was heaving with exertion. I picked him up like a sack of potatoes and tossed him into the bed of the truck, jumping in behind him.
The truck’s tires squealed as Tex peeled out. I lay on my stomach and covered my head with my arms, hoping like hell we could escape the powerful pull of the twister. Tex had to be going ninety. Despite his swagger, he was a good man to have by your side when it counted.
We’d gone a few miles when I finally chanced turning my head toward Murph.
“I have to start working out,” he said, still panting as he turned onto his back.
My laugh let out some of my tension. “It’s that or smaller balls, my man. Your call.”
Chapter 12
Drew
I raised my glass and clinked it against the other four as Murph toasted our success.
“To airborne probes,” he said, grinning. “And big balls.”
He met Aiden’s gaze and they shared a laugh as we all drank the beer we’d ordered a pitcher of.
“Drew, you’re officially one of us now,” Murph said, his eyes alight as he looked at me.
“Yeah, no shit,” Millie said, nudging me. “Who needs balls, anyway? You kicked ass out there today.”
“Thanks. I’m so happy we got the job done.”
Murph gave a yell and a fist pump. “Two sets of probes! Do you guys have any idea how hard it is for me to be here right now instead of on my laptop looking at that data?”
“You need to be here,” Millie said. “There’s plenty of time for that later.”
Murph’s smile widened. I realized we all needed to make a better effort to let him know we wanted him around when we went out for dinner or drinks. Even if he didn’t come, he should know we liked it when he did.
This small group was starting to feel like a family to me. I felt the same easy closeness I had with my brother and sister. Except for Aiden. My closeness with him wasn’t easy. Whatever we had was wound tight and loaded with tension.
I couldn’t stop looking at him. Not just because I was getting hooked on his hazel eyes, but because of what I saw on his face right now. His expression wasn’t just happy, but peaceful.
When Murph had looked on his computer and announced that the probes from Aiden’s launcher and the balloon made it into the storm, Aiden’s eyes had glistened. We’d pulled off to the side of the road and were waiting to go back for Murph’s vehicle where we’d left it to escape the storm. Aiden had walked toward a wooded area and spent a few minutes alone.
Was he thinking about planning the probe launcher with Colby? Wishing he could have been there to see it work? Or was it about his family?
Whatever it was, it was hard for me to watch him walk away alone. I wanted to put my arms around him and comfort him. If he wanted to talk about it, I wanted to be the one he turned to.
Two enormous pizzas were delivered to our table and everyone dove in. Other than a quick stop at a gas station earlier, we hadn’t had time for food today.
Murph scrolled through his phone as we ate, his brows shooting up as he read something.
“You’re checking the probe readings, aren’t you?” Aiden asked.
Murph nodded. “The readings are incredible. I’ll make up some charts to show you guys when we get back to the motel.”
We were staying at a small roadside place with dial-up Internet and rooms with green carpet that had seen better days—likely in the 1970s. But it was air-conditioned, a bonus during this hot June, and I had my own queen bed in the room Millie and I were sharing. I planned to sprawl across it and enjoy a night away from my small motorhome bunk.
Murph had paid the check and we were all getting up to leave when Aiden turned to me.
“Ride back with me?” he said.
“Sure.”
I hoped my answer had come out sounding casual. Inside I was doing a happy dance. I’d hardly gotten any time alone with him today, and I wanted to move past our awkward encounter last night.
“You feel like making a stop on the way to the motel?” he asked.
“Um…yeah. What’d you have in mind?”
The corners of his mouth turned up in a heart-melting smile. “Something to counterbalance the excitement from earlier.”
Less than an hour later, we were lying side by side in the bed of Aiden’s truck. He’d found an empty field in the country, away from the lights of town, and we were surrounded by darkness.
“They’re so bright,” I said as we both looked up at the sky full of stars.
“Stargazing is so much better out here in the country.”
This was the very definition of contentment. Aiden had his arms folded beneath his head and I used a flannel shirt from the backseat of his truck as a pillow. The chorus of humming bugs was the only sound other than the occasional breeze ruffling the tall grass in the field.
But I couldn’t fully relax. Aiden was more than a foot away, deliberately sticking to his side of the truck bed. I sensed he was trying to put last night behind us and get back to the place we’d been before that.
I didn’t want that, though. I’d finally gotten the nerve to tell him how I was feeling about him, and having it ignored hurt.
“So,” I said, sighing deeply. “Did you bring me here to let me down easy?”
He turned his head to the side to look at me, his brow creased with confusion.
“Let you down?”
“I was pretty much hitting on you last night, yet we both went to bed alone. So…”
He let out a single note of laughter. “You’re a handful, you know that?”
I grinned at him. “Like you’d know, Aiden. Your hands have never been on me.”
He stared up at the sky and gave a loud groan that sounded frustrated. “Not because I want it that way, Drew. You deserve the best, and I’m not it.”
“That sounds like a line to disguise the fact that you aren’t interested. It’s okay to say it. I’m a big girl.”
He scoffed. “My dick is rock hard right now just from lying here next to you. I’m a hell of a lot more than interested.”
My heart pounded with excitement. “Well, me, too. So come closer. Give me more than the smell of you on this shirt. It’s driving me crazy.”
“I want to. You don’t even fuckin’ know, Drew. I’ve wanted you for so long. But what then? I fuck you into next week, and then what?”
“Hopefully you’d do it again.”
“I’m serious,” he said, an edge in his tone. “Do you just want sex from me?”
“No. I don’t know. I didn’t plan this…to feel this way. But I do, and…I don’t know, do you think it’s possible something could happen with us?”
“No. Nothing worth having, anyway. It’s been years since I loved anyone, Drew. Many years. I’m not going there again. Even the guys who became like family to me are gone now.”
“You mean Colby?”
He looked back up at the dark sky. “Army buddies, too.”
“I didn’t know you fought in a war until you said so today.” I turned on my side so I could see him.
“Yeah.” His voice was tight with tension.
“I’m sorry. About your friends and your family, too.”
He closed his eyes. “You know how my family died, don’t you?”
“I know it was a tornado.”
“I was at a football game out of town when an F-5 hit the town we lived in. We were in Iowa then and it was the worst storm ever to hit there. Killed sixteen people. My mom and sister were buried by our house and my dad’s body was found a quarter of a
mile away. Carried there by the storm.”
My heart twisted with hurt as I listened. His tone was measured, emotionally removed, but I knew he was anything but detached.
“How old were you?”
“Thirteen. I helped dig their bodies out. Took two days to get to my mom and sister.”
The thought of thirteen-year-old Aiden digging for his family’s bodies and seeing them that way made tears burn in my eyes.
“I’m so sorry.” It was all I could think of to say.
“I moved in with my uncle in Lipton after that. He was retired from the Army, never had kids. I know he loved me in his own way, but…I don’t think I ever recovered, Drew. I closed up and put my head down and found a new way to be. I’ve jumped out of planes, climbed mountains, run through enemy fire…and none of that scares me. No one would miss me if I was gone anyway.”
“Don’t say that, Aiden. All of us here would miss you. I’d miss you.”
He shook his head. “I’m not like Colby. He had a mom and a fiancée. His students. Lots of friends. I’m a loner.”
I leaned up on an elbow and looked down at him. “What’s the point of this? Nothing’s going to happen to you.”
“The point is that I’ve got no fear of anything but feelings. I can’t go there. The way Colby used to kiss you for no reason and text you his undying love…I’m the opposite.”
“All right.” I sat up, breaking out my most serious tone. “Let’s just stop right here. I need you to stop bringing him up. There are two people here right now and that’s you and me. He’s gone. I’m not interested in you as a replacement for him, Aiden. I like you for you.”
He cocked a brow at me. “You know what? I’ve never seen anything as beautiful as you are right now, with the moon behind you like that.”
I smiled, my body warming as he looked at me. “So do something about it.”
“Take your hair down for me.”
I reached up to pull out my ponytail holder and shook my hair out. He took me in, filling me with a sense that I wasn’t just beautiful, but also sexy.
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