Page 23 of Whirlwind

“He’s telling the truth,” I say.

“You were on that chase?” Finley asks.

I try to hide my shock that she’s finally addressing me directly by keeping my eyes on the road. “That’s how Joey and I met.”

“He speaks facts, Fin-Fin.”

“I never saw you on any of the streamed chases with TT,” she says.

My grip on the steering wheel tightens at the knowledge she’s seen all my live chases. I knew she watched them and that she’s always admired what I do with my team, but I didn’t know she has continued to watch religiously while being my student andour relationship developed—or at least seen enough to know that Joey hasn’t made an appearance in the recent ones.

“I’ve organized a couple of chases with Channel 5 and had Ryker and Hawk tag along.”

“You saw the EF4 in Ironwood together?” she asks, her excitement shooting sparks of electricity under my skin. The sparks I’ve been attempting to tamper.

“Indeed. Daddy didn’t have Thor with him for that chase, so I didn’t get to be inside the tornado. But we got some good data with a sensor we taped to a fence post at the last second before we had to get out of its path. It was fucking wild!”

“I’m not your daddy, Joseph,” I groan.

Joey cackles from the backseat, loud enough that I wince. “You may not be my daddy, but you were that tornado’s daddy. God, you’re such a fucking beast. Seeing you in action, it’s like watching Mozart compose music or some shit. I can’t wait for you to see him, Fin. You’re gonna love it.”

The truck goes quiet after that last sentence, and the tension between Finley and I that had slightly subsided since Joey’s arrival tightens like a bowstring.

I see Joey bounce his gaze between the two of us in the rearview mirror, his brow furrowed in confusion. “Am I missing something?” he asks. “T-Daddy usually loves praise.”

I want to groan. He’s right; I’m not a person who shies away from praise unless it’s unfounded. But that has nothing to do with the awkward silence.

“What did I say?” Joey asks again.

I glance at Finley in my periphery. She looks uncomfortable, staring out the window at the plains of Oklahoma. I guess she’s going to let me decide how to handle this—I should be the one to do it, anyway.

“She’s already been on a chase with me,” I say.

“No shit?” Joey’s hand reaches between the seats and nudges Finley gently. “Then you know what I’m talking about!”

She exhales a breath and looks back at Joey, being sure not to look at me as she says, “He’s amazing.”

My heart thumps in my chest, and my joints ache from white knuckling the steering wheel. She’s got to be lying after what happened. I almost got us killed, for fuck’s sake—not my greatest moment—and this is exactly the kind of praise that’s not warranted.

“I’m not that great,” I voice, sharing my inner turmoil.

“Horseshit!” Joey retorts so loud it hurts my ears. “Don’t get all humble on us now, Twister Tamer.”

I want to argue with him, but I don’t know if Finley wants to get into what happened last night right now. Joey’s going to find out, anyway, when we meet up with the rest of the team, since I debriefed them late last night about everything—minus the fact I had sex with my student.

I also know my guys, and they won’t let me forget I was nearly sucked up by a tornado and survived. Had I gotten a choice, I would’ve pretended shit was fine then told them today, but since I’d been in communication with Ezra before everything went sideways, he panicked when he couldn’t get ahold of me.

Minutes after Finley and I found her totaled car about half a mile down the road, an emergency vehicle showed up. I cursed myself and took out my phone that miraculously had survived to find it blown up with missed calls and messages in our TT group chat. Ezra had been panicked that he couldn’t reach me—he’d seen the storm turn unhinged and tried to warn me, but it was too late.

“Okayyy…” Joey clicks his tongue against the back of his teeth. “Tell me what’s going on.”

“Nothing,” Finley and I say at the same time, making it obvious that something actuallyisgoing on.

Joey looks between us, and before I can say anything, Finley sighs. “We chased last night in Kansas.”

There’s a pause before Joey asks, “That EF2 in Cattle Creek?”

“Yeah.” Finley pushes a lock of hair behind her ear, hair I can still feel between my fingers from when I kissed her.

---