Storm Warning - By Kadi Dillon Page 0,9

he’d slept in were disheveled and she just knew they carried his scent. Some may have found it all romantic. Tory found it infuriating.

Grey eyes seared into hers and she knew. She would get one hell of a storm. She shook her head to clear it and stepped back out of his range. “Trucks leave in twenty minutes, Mr.—”

“Gabe.”

“Twenty minutes. Be ready or you’ll be sticking out your thumb.” With that, she swept out of the room.

Twenty-two minutes later, Gabe sauntered out to the trucks. Tory was already fuming from the scene in his hotel room. Now the man had the nerve to be purposely late just to spite her.

She glanced around at her crew and each and every smile vanished from their faces—except Adam’s. Gabe strolled up to Tory and took the bag she was holding. He hefted it easily into the back of an SUV.

“Nice of you to show up,” she commented and jumped into the passenger seat.

When she realized Gabe had climbed in the backseat, she tensed and then deliberately turned to stare out the window. Adam climbed in and gunned the engine. “Here we go. Storm’s developing in North West Kansas. Doesn’t look like much, but it’s early yet and everywhere else is clear.”

“You’re a prick, Adam.”

“Love you too, sis.”

“I think you’re a pretty good guy,” Gabe commented

“No one asked you,” she growled.

They drove most of the three hour drive in silence. Gabe would occasionally snap a photo on his smaller digital camera and Adam would use the two way radio to communicate with the other two trucks.

“Kary probably misses her husband,” Adam said after hanging up the microphone.

“Probably so,” was Tory’s clipped response.

“She could bring him with us next season.”

Tory snorted. “You know how I feel about excess baggage.”

“Kary would keep him out of the way.”

“So, tell me about the team,” Gabe said as they crossed the Kansas state line. Since Tory remained silent, Adam shrugged.

“Well, you know Billy. He and his wife live here is Kansas. We stay there whenever there’s a storm down that way. He started the team with Tory and I. Joel and Jack are bachelors.” He turned the truck down a narrow road. “We met them at a convention one year and they’ve tagged along ever since. This is Kary’s second year with us. She’s a great scientist. Frankie is my cousin. He’s been hanging around a few years. What is this, Tor? His fourth year?”

“Something like that.”

“Yeah, fourth year. He kinda does his own thing,” Adam continued. “My Aunt Martha is his Mama. Ah, that’s about it. You know me. You know Tory.”

“You guys work great together.”

“Enough about us, though. I want to know all about the lifestyles of the rich and famous,” Adam drawled.

Gabe snorted. “I’ve lived in L.A. all my life. Snapped the picture that made me famous by accident. Got noticed. That’s about it.”

“Awe, come on. How do you spend all that money?”

Tory glared at her brother, but he paid her no mind. She didn’t like him being chummy with the enemy. She didn’t want to know all these things about Gabe. It made him more human.

“I’ve got a penthouse in L.A. and a cabin in Colorado. Otherwise, I do things like invest in crazy storm chasing teams so I can tag along and get spectacular pictures.”

Adam laughed.

Tory closed her eyes. Some people had it so easy, she mused. She remembered all too clearly the days after she’d turned sixteen. She’d waited tables every day—saving every penny she could—so that one day, she could fly.

Then she remembered being eighteen years old and meeting her brother for the first time. She had been standing in the café after working a double shift on a Saturday and he walked in.

“Are you Tory Fairchild?” he had asked. “I’m Adam. We have the same father. He doesn’t know about me.”

They had stuck together ever since. Even after she’d told him their father had died ten years prior, he’d stayed. She’d pulled out the eight thousand dollars she had saved and he’d had some money to spare. Sam and Lou’s Café sponsored their first year of storm chasing.

They’d met Billy Small during a weather seminar in Tulsa, Oklahoma and the three of them set out—Billy for his research, Adam for the adventure, and Tory for atonement.

Tears welled up in her eyes. At eight years old, she knew what it was like to have her home and heart ripped away when it was right within her reach.

For years, she was so angry