Loving the Chase (Heart of the Storm #1)

by Sharla Lovelace

  “Rudy,” she said, gesturing. “On Zach in three.”

  “Maddi, stop,” Zach said.

  “You wanted this,” she said, turning to look him dead-on. “Now jump in there and show the network you can do it.”

  “They want reality,” he said under his breath, glancing back at the elderly woman clutching her purse. “This isn’t what we do. We don’t exploit the victims.”

  “These shows have nothing to do with reality, Zach,” Maddi said distractedly. “You’re not wired for sound, but we’ll call it a field run,” she added, flipping into business mode. “Rudy, did you get any footage from the tornado?”

  “It was running,” he said, wiping his damp face with his shirt. “But I have no idea what it looks like.”

  “Good deal,” Maddi said, turning back to Zach. “I have some from inside the car, too.”

  “Wait, what?” Zach said. “When did you—”

  “From my phone,” she said, patting the pocket of her jeans. “Nothing special, but the rawness of it may work.”

  Who the hell was this woman? Zach stared at her, unable to reconcile her busy robotic actions as belonging to the terrified tear-streaked face of just fifteen minutes earlier. The one who had gripped his hand for dear life as the tornado passed over them.

  “Rolling,” Rudy said, looking ridiculous behind a handheld camcorder.

  Zach stared at him first and then at Maddi, who looked at him expectantly.

  “Ask her what you did before,” Maddi whispered as if he needed a prompt. “That was all really good.”

  He narrowed his eyes, his gut burning with Eli’s words. Parade around like show ponies . . . If making this show proved Eli right, Zach would never hear the end of it.

  To hell with that.

  He turned his back to Rudy and knelt in front of the woman. “Ma’am, what’s your name?” he asked softly so they wouldn’t hear him.

  The woman wiped at her wrinkled face and sniffed. “Beatrice,” she said, her voice thin and wobbly.

  Zach squeezed her hands. “Can we give you a ride home, Beatrice? When your husband gets here, of course,” he added.

  She looked at him with reddened eyes and nodded. “Yes, probably,” she said on a whisper. “If it’s okay with Henry, that would be very nice—he has a bad back, so—” Her words trailed off as her gaze moved on down the street, looking for Henry.

  “I’ll be right back to check on you then,” Zach said, nodding at Hannah. “My sister will sit with you, and bring you home as soon as you’re ready, okay?”

  He put the keys in Hannah’s hand and got up and turned, turning Rudy with him as he did, guiding him toward the rubble of a taco stand that had once flanked the side of the supermarket.

  “What are you doing?” Maddi said, following behind them as Rudy’s head swiveled back and forth to each of them in turn.

  “My job,” Zach said, not stopping. Not caring.

  Maddi snorted behind him. “Well, your job is the show right now, and the show is back there with Beatrice.”

  Zach wheeled around so fast that both Rudy and Maddi had to grab each other to keep from colliding.

  “My job is everything you see in front of you,” he said through his teeth. “It’s that building, that woman, that group of kids over there—it’s what you just rode through.” Maddi backed up a step, and Zach had to resist the urge to fill the space. “The show is to follow us, not the other way around.”

  Her eyes darkened again, her chin coming up in defiance. He remembered that look, even after all these years.

  “Well, yes, sir,” she said, her voice dropping to an icy level. “I’ll be sure to remember that.”

  Zach shook his head and clenched his jaw as he turned away from her, resuming his pace and not really giving a damn anymore if they followed.

  “I’m not trying to be a dick, Maddi, but—”

  “But you’re managing it pretty well,” Maddi finished, her steps crunching in the gravel behind him. “Same old same old.”

  Zach stopped again, this time continuing to stare ahead of him at what was left of the taco stand. It was beaten and sagging and he was beginning to feel its pain. Slowly, he turned around and held out his arms before letting them drop to his sides. He met her gaze, ice for ice.

  “Do tell, Miss Hayes.”

  She paused, as if the formality slapped her. “You haven’t changed a bit,” she said, more to herself than to him. “It’s still all about the rush. And you controlling it.”

  Zach felt his eyebrows lift on their own. “Controlling it?”

  “Um, maybe I’ll go back to the van,” Rudy said, looking from side to side for a clear escape.

  “Stay,” Maddi said, laying a hand on Rudy’s shoulder. She gestured to where the old lady sat with Hannah and turned to Zach. “Back there just now, it had to be your way. In the car, it had to be your way, too. Driving straight into it.” She scooped the hair back from her face, most of it falling from the ponytail, the muggy air causing the smaller strands to cling to her.

  “That’s what we do,” Zach said, holding out his hands. “You know that.”

  “That’s what you do,” she amended. “And that’s why Nicole wants you for this show. Not everyone pushes the envelope like you.”

  “It’s not about that—”

  “It’s totally about that, Zach,” Maddi said, looking incredulous. “You can wax on all you want about all the technical stuff and the weather alerts, but that’s just side candy. This is a TV show. Viewers want that danger, that rush you drive them into.” Her jaw tightened. “And I’m here to provide.”

  He stared at her, feeling the heat rise to the surface. “You know there’s more to it than that.”

  “Is there?” she said, her voice barely a whisper. “With you, I mean. Do you ever think about all those other things? Or is that just something you let your team worry about while you do what you do best?”

  Zach’s blood felt like hot oil rushing through his body. “Don’t pretend to know me now.”

  “I don’t have to,” Maddi said, dropping her hair. “It’s all over you.”

  He pointed over her shoulder to where they’d come from. “Excuse me, Mother Teresa, who wanted to film an old woman in pain?”

  “That’s my job,” she said, color flooding her cheeks and neck. “I’m supposed to catch the emotional cues. I don’t have to like it.”

  “Well, it’s my job to catch the storm,” Zach countered. “Not play on people’s bad luck.”

  “Please,” Maddi muttered, putting hands on her hips. “Don’t play hero, Zach. I’ve seen your news clips. You’re in it for the glory.”

  “And you’re in it for the ratings,” Zach fired back. She wanted to play? He could play, too. “What happened to you, Maddi?” He pointed behind her again. “Did you see her face? That lady just saw her life flash by, and may have very well lost everything.”

  Maddi’s eyes filled with tears, stabbing him in a place he hadn’t felt since—oh, ten minutes ago? “I’ve been there,” she said, her words thick and acidic.

  “Exactly!” Zach yelled. “You should know how vulnerable she is right now. Where’s your compassion?”

  “Where the hell was yours?” she yelled back. Zach flinched at the pain in her voice and the sudden shift in timeline. “I was vulnerable and alone because of you. I dealt with that beast by myself.”

  “And I would have killed anyone who tried to put a camera in your face,” Zach said through his teeth, his jaw muscles tight as he closed the inches between them. Anger, hot and fast, lit him up as he could feel her breath on his face, fueled by an old hurt he’d thought was long buried.

  Maddi sucked in a breath, and her hard expression faltered. He could feel the heat coming off of her. Blinking rapidly, she backed up another few inches and tried to compose herself. Zach
had to back up, too. Out of the weird zone they’d just created for themselves where no one else existed. Not even Rudy, who stood just two feet away, shuffling his feet like a teenager and sweating through his T-shirt. Zach wanted to shake her until her teeth knocked together, but he didn’t trust himself touching her.

  “And I don’t remember anyone tying you to the hood or begging you to get in the car,” he said, his voice sounding hoarse. “That was your choice.”

  “Someone’s getting tied to the hood?” said a voice behind him. A voice that set his already frayed patience on the edge. “This job just got more interesting. Now, Maddi Hayes—there’s a blast from the past.”

  Maddi’s eyes went neutral again as Jonah Boudreau and his cocky grin landed next to Zach and he reached for her hand.

  “Jonah,” she said, a cool smile morphing her face back into the professional mask. “How’ve you been?”

  “Good,” he said, still holding her hand. Zach had the unnatural urge to sock him in the neck to make him let go. “Always good. One thing that never goes away is weather.”

  “Very true,” she said, pulling her hand back and tucking it in a pocket. “So you’re still running around doing this, too, I see?”

  Jonah’s smile stuck there for a second as he probably tried to decide if that was a dig or not. Once upon a time, Maddi and Zach were a team, and she never hesitated to put any of the Boudreaus in their place. As Zach watched her now, with her careful mannerisms and polite coolness, he had no idea where she stood.

  “Yeah, still running around,” Jonah said softly, holding his hands out as if everything was his kingdom. “What can I say? Best office in the world.” He laughed, and to Zach’s disgust, Maddi laughed, too. Jonah had that charm, much like Simon. “So, what brings you here?”

  “Work,” she said, darting a glance Zach’s way. “Zach’s—helping me with a project.”

  Zach narrowed his gaze to hold hers, a little amazed at what she was doing. A yip broke their eye contact, as they both turned to see an old man being pulled by an older mutt on a leash. The dog was straining to get to Beatrice, and she all but threw her purse on the ground to get to her husband and little dog.

  Zach breathed a sigh of relief for the old woman. The important things were still there. He looked back at Maddi, remembering her covered in concrete dust and dirt, her arms and hands scraped and bloody and her face streaked with tears, and thinking he’d never seen anything more beautiful.

  Now she was gazing on the elderly couple with an expression he couldn’t read. He saw her blink two tears free that she quickly wiped away before looking his way again.

  “Gotta go,” Jonah said then, apparently bored with the lull in conversation. He squeezed Maddi’s shoulder on his way past. “Good seeing you.”

  “You didn’t sell us out,” he said, when Jonah was out of earshot.

  She blinked a few times. “I didn’t sell the show out.”

  Of fucking course. “Well, as long as you have your priorities straight,” Zach said, his voice hard, his patience shot. “That’s the good stuff, by the way,” he continued with a head tilt in that direction. “Not her pain, but her joy. But if you’d rather follow me around filming rubble, be my guest.”

  He turned and walked away, eyes closed for the first few seconds. What the fuck was all that? Where the hell had all that fire come from before Jonah had arrived?

  Simon was already at what was left of the taco stand, chatting with a couple of girls in shorts and bikini tops. Zach’s practiced eye pegged them around twenty. The melodic laughter they shared as they took Simon’s cards and sashayed away told him that might be optimistic.

  “And they call me the man-whore,” Zach said, rubbing his neck. He took a look over his shoulder at Maddi’s retreating figure. She and Rudy were headed to the family reunion after all, thank God. He needed five minutes away from her to get his head straight again. But she hadn’t told Jonah about the show. She could have gotten the Boudreaus all up in it and really spiked some reality-show drama. “You know those two were barely legal, right?”

  “Do I look like a perv?” Simon asked, pretending to be insulted.

  “Is that candy in your pocket?”

  “Very funny,” Simon said. “They asked me if I was that guy on TV,” he said with a shrug and a grin. “I have fans, what can I say?”

  “Yeah, they probably see you on the news after dinner with their parents,” Zach said. “Before a game of Scrabble and Wild Kingdom.”

  “Wild Kingdom? Really?” Simon said, nudging a fallen metal sign with his shoe.

  Zach pointed at the cards Simon still held in his hand. “You have business cards?”

  Simon gave him a look and shook his head. “Of course, doesn’t everyone—oh, that would be people with jobs, sorry.”

  “I have a job,” Zach said, putting a vise grip on the back of Simon’s neck. “It’s driving you freaks around.”

  “Ah, a chauffeur, I knew there was a name for it,” Simon said, ducking when Zach aimed for his head. Laughing, he added, “Besides, Blonde and Blonder can now tell their parents they met me, and one day when we’re reality stars they can say they met us at a storm site after they rode it out in their car. They’ll have a story to tell.”

  “Did you autograph your cards?” Zach asked.

  “Oh, hell,” Simon asked, stopping short. “Should I have done that?”

  Zach laughed. “No, I think you’re good.” He gestured at what was left of the building. “Anything here? It looks vacant.”

  “It was,” Simon said. “Guy told me it’s been shut down for two months.” He looked around. “Damn good thing. This could have been worse.”

  “No shit,” Zach said, his mind already moving on. His eyes went back to Maddi. He couldn’t stop himself.

  There was a pause, and he felt Simon’s eyes on him. “What’s going on with that?”

  Zach watched Maddi as she shook the old man’s hand and smiled at Beatrice. She’d pulled her ponytail loose and raked her dark hair back with her fingers and let it fall, her head tilted slightly as she listened to what Beatrice’s husband was saying.

  “The death of me.”

  Chapter Seven

  Maddi rubbed her palms against her jeans for the seventh time since she’d seen the sign announcing their upcoming exit. Nicole’s voice droned on and on about how excited she was, how impressed Brown was, how amazing the real deal was going be after seeing the raw footage. All the while tapping her fingernails against the steering wheel in the nanoseconds between words. Maddi needed quiet to steady her nerves. Hell, she probably needed a bottle of something. Going back to Cody was never in the plan.

  “This is going to end up so prime-time,” Nicole said, scooping her dark-red hair back and resuming her finger tapping. “Thank you for agreeing to take this on and coming out here this week.”

  Agreeing to take it on? Maddi cut her eyes at Nicole, but she didn’t see. “Yeah. No problem.”

  “And hey, don’t let Brown get to you,” Nicole said. “I wanted to tell you that the other day. He’s a tool, just brush him off.”

  Maddi raised one eyebrow. “Is that what you do? Brush him off?”

  Nicole shrugged, displeasure washing over her face. “I just have to be more delicate about my brushing. I think sometimes he lies in wait to screw me over.”

  “He doesn’t like me very much,” Maddi said.

  Nicole frowned as she glanced over at Maddi. “He doesn’t like anyone unless it benefits him in some way,” she said. “Don’t take it personally. And he’s shoved so far up Woodbriar’s ass, he hasn’t seen color in years.”

  Maddi snickered. “Well, I just wish he’d stop seeing me as an invisible peon and take me seriously. Hayseed Hick Maddi or not.”

  Nicole laughed. “Keep turning in footage like this and he will. God, I wish I could ride along
with y’all,” she said, continuing. “How cool would that be?”

  “Feel free,” Maddi interjected, garnering a surprised glance from her boss. “Seriously,” she continued. “I’ve sailed that ship more than once. I’ll be glad to share.”

  When it came to pass that she and Nicole were going to Cody, she’d had to fess up. Not about Zach per se, but about knowing the family. About being from Cody. Which had only excited Nicole more, figuring that would give them the inside scoop.

  Nicole snickered. “No such luck, Madison,” she said with a grin and an eye roll. “I wish I could be more hands-on with this one, but with The Flip Side going into production next week, I’m not even going to see the light of day for God knows how long. I’ll have to pay a neighbor kid to feed my dog.”

  “Yeah,” Maddi said, “that’s true, but—”

  “And this could up your cred,” Nicole continued. “Don’t forget that.”

  Don’t forget that. It was the only reason Maddi’d gotten in the car.

  She pinched the bridge of her nose and forced a smile as a sign loomed ahead: “Cody—Next Three Exits.” Breathe deep, she told herself. It would be fine. She’d keep her distance; there would be no close-proximity heated exchanges about the past, the present, or anything for that matter. This was business. This wasn’t about the feel of his hand finding hers during a tornado passing over. It wasn’t about how everything turned upside down when he got up in her personal space. It wasn’t about the fire and emotion in his face when he—

  “Exit here,” she said, her voice sounding funny.

  “But the GPS says we have another half mile,” Nicole said, gesturing to the dashboard map.

  “This one’s closer,” Maddi said, suddenly feeling sweaty. It wasn’t closer. This exit led to the paper mill. Logistically, the GPS was correct. Mentally, Maddi didn’t think she could stomach the gleeful smiling family that probably still graced the “Welcome to Cody” sign at the next exit. Or the quaintness of the old downtown market.