Free Loving the Chase (Heart of the Storm #1) by Sharla Lovelace Page A

as he had when Maddi left. Then she got mad.
    “You okay?” she asked.
    He looked at the woman chatting with his brother like old times. The woman he thought he’d never lay eyes on again. The woman that currently had his fucking hands shaking and his head on a rotisserie.
    “Jesus,” he muttered, shoving his hands in his pocket. “Yeah.”
    Hannah’s left eyebrow rose as she took in the movement. “I can see that. Don’t let her get to you.”
    Zach swallowed hard and closed his eyes for a second so he could get where he needed to be. He needed cold, analytical thinking. No emotion. He blew out a slow breath and tuned out the sound of Maddi’s laughter just three feet away.
    “I’m good,” he said, opening his eyes and winking one of them at his sister.
    Hannah smiled. “And she’s going to sit through a possible tornado? Really?” she asked under her breath.
    Zach closed his eyes again and clenched his teeth together. “This is so fucked—” Inhaling sharply, he turned and slapped a hand on Rudy’s back. “This is Rudy,” he said. “Rudy, this is my sister, Hannah, our photographer and videographer.”
    Hannah gave her most dazzling smile and held out her hand. “Hi, Rudy, ready for some fun?”
    “Okay,” Zach said, pulling himself back to business. “Here’s the plan. See that band of nasty over there?” Maddi and Rudy looked where he was pointing, at the line of looming darkness that had grown even more in the last twenty minutes. “We’re driving straight into that.”
    “Yay,” Maddi said, adding a little laugh that Zach didn’t buy.
    “Stay right behind me, and be careful,” Zach said, reaching for the radio Hannah was already holding out the window. “This handheld radio is already tuned to ours. If you get into trouble and you can’t get a cell signal, just press and talk and we’ll hear you.”
    Maddi handed the radio to Rudy. “He’ll take that. I’m supposed to ride with you.”
    “Say what?” Hannah asked, her eyebrows lifting.
    Maddi smiled at her. “Yep.” She opened the back door, forcing Hannah to back up and move over. “My boss wants me in the thick of it—her words—and asking questions. I can’t very well do that from the other car,” she said, getting in and closing the door. “Rudy has a roof cam so he can film from behind and maybe catch something good.” She smiled at Hannah. “Like old times, huh?”
    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