Her brain tried to command her to leave before she caused any more damage.
“Dr. Pierce.” Her voice was weak and wet.
“Goodbye, Elaina.”
“But, if you’ll just let me—”
“Let you do what? Insult me more?” His words were wrapped in razor wire. “Go. You’re done here.”
She opened her mouth once more. She wasn’t above begging. Wasn’t above anything right now.
Even earthworms had a leg up on her. Before she could dig much further underground, Heath’s chair scraped against the floor and he pushed past her.
The anger rolling of him was strong enough to ignite a super cell.
He was nearly out of the building before she was able to catch up to him.
“I messed up in there, big time,” Elaina said, grabbing his arm to slow him down.
Heath jerked out of her grasp, but he didn’t walk away from her.
“I’m sorry. I’m not sleeping, or really eating. My only excuse is my mom.”
“Look, I’m really sorry about your mom,” he said, not looking at her, but his shoulders caving in partial defeat. “You know I’d do anything for you, but—” he paused, shifting his weight on one leg and back to the other before facing her. “It’s not just my future at risk; it’s mine and Chloe’s future. I’ve sacrificed so much for this. I can’t fail now.” Heath’s eyes glistened for a moment before he cleared his throat and looked out over the quad.
He was right. Everything about the last few months had been through the murky haze of what she needed; the perfect positioning for a storm, the answers to the visions, the forgiveness of their mentor. Her friend had been on the field with her all along, but she’d been sacrificing him to the opponent.
And, for what?
“You’re right.” She swallowed against the stubborn lump in her throat. It’d been there so much lately she considered that it was an actual growth. “What can I do? How can I fix this?”
Heath continued to stare out over the quad.
Warm, dry air whipped up her hair, the long curls lashing across her face and stinging her eyes. It was only appropriate to get her ass kicked by her hair. Other parts of her body were likely lining up to go next.
When her friend couldn’t find an answer looking over the campus, he shifted his gaze down to his feet, toeing a dandelion growing out of the sidewalk crack. Finally, he looked up. Multiple emotions danced across his eyes. Sympathy, contempt. Friendship, anger. Betrayal even flashed briefly. Heath shook his head. “You can’t, Elaina. Just, leave me alone.”
Elaina could barely see his retreating figure through the tears. They clung to her chin until the levee broke and she could feel them bouncing off the toe of her boots.
He was wrong.
She could fix this.
Even if it meant she’d have to resign from consideration as a doctoral candidate just to remove the stain from his research. She had no one else relying on her future. Nimbus wouldn’t care as long as he spent every day with her. Her mom would prefer to learn she’d given up field work to wait tables if it meant she stayed safe. Seth would find another young storm chaser to flirt with.
The earth would keep turning. Storms would keep forming. The rain would fall, with or without her.
She rubbed the wetness from her face and sprinted back into the building. Her knees popped as she took the stairs two at a time, but she made it to Dr. Pierce’s office faster than ever before. The only sound in the entire wing was the clopping of her boots against the linoleum. Elaina slowed to a fast walk before rounding the corner into his office. “Dr. Pierce, I know you said—” She stopped at the empty office. In her hurry back to right her wrongs, she’d forgotten he was in class.
She hovered in the doorway. She’d never been in his office without him there. She felt like she was snooping, like a kid taking a peak into mom’s closet right before Christmas.
Well, I already made it this far.
Elaina glanced around his messy desk, scanning the mounds of periodicals, books, papers, maps and charts for something as simple as a sticky note. The darkness of his office cast weird shadows, making something as innocent as a stapler look sinister. “Oh for Pete’s sake, he’s not a vampire.” She sighed, banging her hand against the light switch on the wall.
The yellow florescent light cast a glowing beam down on a notepad and she quickly penned her ninety-eighth apology of the afternoon along with her resignation from the program.
Behind his desk was a gaping abyss with the absence of his wheelchair. Elaina reached over to stick the note on one of his dark computer screens, but her shifting backpack banged into the keyboard tray, startling the mouse and waking the computer.
Her hand froze midair, inches away from words that were as familiar as a favorite song. Numbers and figures danced in the white space below and her eyes followed them as far as the screen allowed.
Those were their words.
Her and Heath’s data.
Elaina didn’t remember dropping her hand to the mouse, to rolling the cursor up to the top of the document.
They might have been their words and data.
But, it was very definitely Dr. Tom Pierce’s name at the top of the paper.
30
A bar on the outskirts of Oklahoma City was the only place Elaina felt safe enough to whisper her accusations.
After ten begging voicemail messages, Heath finally agreed to meet her. She could almost hear his eyes rolling on the other side of the line, but it didn’t matter.
As long as she could see him. So he could look her in the eye and know she wasn’t crazy when she told him Pierce was stealing their research. It was also easier to present her solution for finishing their research in person.
A smear of white clouds mottled the clear blue sky. The temperature stretched into the mid-nineties. If there was just a little more moisture in the air, this mid-May heat wave would spawn a round of thunderstorms.
Sweat rolled down her back as she shut off her truck. It was definitely going to be the last summer she could make it without air conditioning. Then again, perhaps the perspiration was more a product of the internal cauldron that’d been bubbling since the previous day.
The bronze ballerina swung in the dry wind. Now the good luck charm felt different. It felt more like a key into a secret room than a sentimental childhood memento.
Elaina’s sense of self had been blown off the foundation. These past few weeks had been a futile attempt to clean up the debris in the midst of a raging storm. What she’d found was mangled, wet, dirty.
Ruined.
The roadside bar was as dusty on the inside as the near-empty parking lot. She traced circles on the table with the bottom of her sweating beer. She was early, mostly because if she didn’t leave her house she feared losing her nerve. That was the one thing she couldn’t afford to lose.
Heath’s lanky frame was backlit when he pulled the door open. His shoulders were still hunched, head lowered and hands stuck in his pockets.
She even imagined his eyes cast down, studying his feet as he shuffled toward her.
“You’re early,” he said, tossing his keys on the table.
Elaina wagged the nearly empty beer in the air. “I needed a little liquid courage.”
He sighed and looked over her head toward the bar. “Yeah, me too. Another drink?”
“Might as well. I’m not feeling brave yet.”
When Heath returned, his posture had loosened and he sat across from her, his dark eyes staring directly into hers. This was one of the rare moments when she saw him as she imagined Chloe saw him. Handsome, self-assured, intelligent.
It wasn’t that she had a crush on her research partner; it was like seeing a place after the storm had washed away all the dust that hung in the air. The light was always softer, the air fresher. Everything looked new after a storm. As if revitalized from a brush with nearly being blown away.
“So,” her best friend said, popping the
beer bottle from his lips. “It’s a helluva long way to drive for you to buy me a drink to apologize.”
Elaina took a deep breath. “It’s more than that. I mean, yes, I’m sorry, but…”
The door pulled open and she jumped.
Pierce would never come to a place like this, but she couldn’t help feeling like he could sense her mutiny.
The truck driver nodded as he passed their table.
She leaned forward, lowering her voice just in case the trucker was a spy for their advisor. “Yesterday afternoon, I went back to resign from the program.”
“Elaina.” Within her name, Heath managed to pack a whole monologue of chastisement.
She held up a hand before he could launch into it. “No, let me finish. I’m serious. I’ve got too much going on with my mom…” And, the crazy visions in my head. “It was only fair, but never mind. It didn’t happen. He wasn’t there, so I was going to leave him a note. And, that’s when I found this.” Elaina pulled the printed copy of the paper Dr. Pierce had been working on out of her back pocket. The tightly rolled papers unfurled a little.
Her partner looked up at her and back down. His nose wrinkled, as if the papers reeked.
Which they did.
She took a long sip of beer as his eyes traced down the pages.
Red rose up Heath’s neck from just inside the collar of his T-shirt and the papers shook as he went through them a second time. Finally, he tossed them back on the table. “It doesn’t mean—surely he was going to. Maybe this is just the first draft.” His voice climbed the octave with each word. If he added another thought it would surely be as a soprano.
“Maybe.” She shrugged, glad she’d a day to process what Pierce was doing to them and she could guide him through the hell of betrayal. “All he’s missing is a final piece of storm data, a summary statement, and, oh yeah, our names.”
Her friend cupped his chin in his palm, as if the burden of holding up his head was becoming too great. “Why would he? He doesn’t have anything to prove.”
“I thought the same thing, so I did some digging.” Elaina pulled the last piece of paper from her back pocket. “He hasn’t published in five years. He’s co-authored, consulted or has been referenced in some papers and journals, but nothing to call his own.”
“He’s tenured.”
She shrugged again. “Even tenured professors have a boss. And, an ego.”
They sipped their beers in silence.
The bar remained empty aside from the grizzled bartender and somber truck driver. Disappointment draped over the bar, linking this band of wallowers together in a chain of grief and loss.
“What do we do?” he asked.
Was the question more for himself or her?
“Does he know we know? Do we go to him with this, or the department chair? University president? Or, do we just play the role of lowly doctoral students so we can shuffle across the stage?” He took a long pull from his beer, finishing the bottle and slamming it on the table with a thud. “Or, do we just quit? Walk away?”
“We don’t quit, but to answer the rest of your questions. I don’t know, but,” Elaina glanced at the time on her phone. Thirty minutes to convince him. “But, I have a solution. You might need another beer for this.”
Her friend raked his hands down his face and sighed. “When you say it like that, it makes me think I need to remain sober.”
“How much more data do we need to complete the research?”
“I dunno.” He shrugged. “One good outbreak with multiple touchdowns might get it, but likely we need at least two more.” Heath sucked on the inside of his cheek and looked over her head. “Atmosphere is stabilizing though. Spring’s almost over so to catch anything in the next few weeks we’ll have to move fast. What’re you thinking?”
The time ticked down on her phone. What would be the appropriate moment to mention her plan? How long would it take to convince Heath?
Elaina could run the risk of firing off the suggestion too soon and he’d leave. Or, maybe this concern is all for nothing and he’d readily agree.
There was only one way to find out.
“Pierce needs us more than we need him.” Her voice was low and thick with contempt.
Heath huffed. “Not entirely true, we need him to sign off on taking the equipment out, and oh, he signs our paychecks. As meager as they are.”
“What if I told you we can chase those last two storms without him?” She sucked in a deep, calming breath. “We might even be able to make more money than we do now.”
He squinted at her through his thick glasses and pressed his lips together until they became a thin, white line. “I’d ask you who you sold your soul to.”
She opened her mouth to answer, but the door to the bar opened and the silhouetted figure of a man filled the entryway.
He stood there with it open, blinding everyone inside. It only took him a minute before he swaggered to their table.
Dammit. Of all people to be early.
Tuck flipped an empty chair around and straddled it, propping his elbows on the top as he smiled at Elaina, then at Heath.
“Well, hello kids.” The older man reached over and grasped each by a shoulder. “This’s going to be a blast.”
“I should’ve known it was the devil,” Heath murmured, standing. “I think I’ll have that other beer now.”
“Grab me one too, Heathcliff.”
Elaina’s friend wrinkled his nose down at Tuck. “It’s just Heath.”
“You promised to play nice,” she said to Tuck when her partner was at the bar.
“I can play nice and have some fun at the same time, Moo-Moo.” He shrugged. “You geeks need to learn to let loose out there.”
“If this is just a game to you, we’re out.” She pushed herself to standing. This was a terrible idea. She’d grab Heath from the bar and they’d just go home, back to Dr. Pierce and his data-stealing-commander-in-chief teaching methods.
“I could’ve just as easily let you set up in the path of the storm.” Tuck flicked open a pocketknife and began cleaning out his dirty fingernails. “Actually would’ve opened up the field some for me and my patrons. It might be a game on a sunny day, but I assure you, Elaina, when the barometric pressure starts dropping, I play no games.”
She studied him, looking past his shaggy gray hair and scruff that sat between forgot-to-shave and growing-a-beard for a man who would uphold the promise he’d just laid out.
Faded mustard stains on the pocket of his Hawaiian shirt were one or two washings away from blending into the pattern. That was assuming this shirt got washed regularly. Underneath the open shirt she could make out part of his company logo.
Uck Ours. Gawd, I hope we won’t have to wear those shirts. Uck was right.
Tuck held her gaze, his chin dropping once in a firm nod.
She nodded back, sealing the silent pact.
Heath returned with a round for the entire table. He must’ve felt that even Elaina deserved a drink at the prospect of working with Tuck.
“Why?” her partner asked, not directing his question at anyone in particular.
Tuck and Elaina exchanged quick glances.
“You seem like a couple of nice kids,” the old storm chaser said.
“He can get us into perfect position in the storms,” Elaina chimed in on top of Tuck.
Heath took a long sip of his drink. “What’s in it for you?”
It was a more than fair question, one she should’ve asked when Tuck had too-quickly agreed to her request. Elaina prayed that whatever answer tumbled out of his mouth would satisfy her friend.
“I’m a son of a bitch, Heath,” he said after popping the top of his beer bottle out of his mouth. “I’ve been known to lie, swindle, steal and—”
“You mean like the circuit board you stole from the lab?” Elaina stabbed the accusation at him.
The man shrugged. “Things get lost every day.” He turned his palms up. “Let’s just say,
I’m sympathetic. I’ve had something very important taken from me. I know how betrayal stabs at the heart.” Tuck took another long drink of beer. “Plus, it’s going to be really active over the next few weeks, I’ve got some big tour groups lined up and I need the help.”
“The atmosphere’s stabilizing,” Heath said. “We’re almost at the end of storm season.”
“You need to spend a couple of weeks with Professor Tuck, kid. Get out from behind those computer screens. You’ll see that it’s not over until I say it’s over.”
Heath’s jaw flexed, as if chewing on the man’s surprising honesty.
Elaina had been hoping he’d be on board with the idea all morning, but seeing the skepticism cutting deep creases in her friend’s face made her worry that this was just another bad, impulsive idea.
“How will this work?” Heath directed his question at her. One side of his mouth pulled up in an understanding smile.
Relief cooled her body, like a gentle misty rain washing over her. She could see it in his eyes; he trusted her.
With his research, with his career and with his life.
Despite everything that’d happened over the past several weeks, their bond was still there.
“More importantly,” he added. “Do we have to wear those ugly-ass shirts?”
31
The maroon T-shirt could have been a dress. It swallowed Elaina with a gulp, burping out her legs at the knees. It didn’t matter if she forgot the shirt, soiled it or burned it; Tuck had another triple extra-large ready for action.
She’d even considered trading shirts with Heath. He’d barely have to lift his arms before the shirt would ride up to show pale skin.
“Nimby, if I ever think about doing something as stupid as this again will you rip out my jugular?” she asked through a mouthful of toothpaste from the motel bathroom.
Her dog smiled from his perch by the a/c unit, the blast of dry cold air blowing his yellow fur.
She studied her reflection as she braided her long hair. How had she gotten here?
An almost-doctor of meteorological science holed up in a dank motel room in middle-of-nowhere Kansas, getting ready to greet a tour group of retirees with a smile—not how she’d imagined she’d spend her weekend.
Vortex Page 19
