Page 36 of Into the Tempest

He looked incredibly mad.

I’d seen the whole thing unfold on the security cameras along with Doreen, but I hadn’t heard what he’d said.

Did I even want to know?

Then I read the subheading.

Storm brewing at the weather station.

Good lord.

Who wrote that drivel?

I clicked on it, expecting to read the article, but the video clip auto-played.

“You wanna be careful,” a reporter said.

Tully spun around and pointed his finger at him. He was seething mad, his jaw clenched and that vein down the side of his neck popped out. “And you might wanna watch yourbeeeepmouth.”

Oh boy.

He really said that?

“You all come here for what?” he asked. “This office is trying to do a job, obtaining information that will save lives, and you’re all here forbeeeeepwhat? You wanna broadcast footage of a mother dying in front of her kid, for ratings, then expect him to, what? Come out for an interview?” He pointed his finger at all of them. “Every single one of you canbeep beep beep. You want news? Go back to your offices and wait for official bulletin releases. Or do what they suggested yesterday and leave Darwin. Do us all a favour and just keepbeeeepdriving.”

Oh my god.

He really saidall that?

He defended me. He defended my work and told them how awful they were for showing that dreadful clip of my mother...

And then Doreen entered the screen. She was swinging her bat, her shirt was pixelated—not surprisingly—and almost every word she said wasbeeeeepedout.

Also not surprising.

But they did that for me.

No one had ever defended me before.

The bathroom light switched off and the silver outline of Tully’s naked form crossed the room before he climbed into bed. My phone screen illuminated him when he snuggled into my side. “Whatcha watching?” Then he saw the screen. “Oh.”

“I hadn’t watched it until now.”

“Yeah, I’m sorry. I kinda lost my shit. I’m sorry you saw that.”

“I’m not.” I switched my phone off and slid it onto the bedside table. The room was now completely dark, and I tightened my arm around him. “No one’s ever defended me or my work before.”

He sighed and manoeuvred his arm under my neck so he could hold me instead. “Get used to it from now on.”

I settled in against him, his warmth and strength everything I needed. So much had happened today, it was hard for me to get my head around the gravity of it. From the footage on TV, the phone call with my dad, Tully dropping everything to be with me, his rant at the media, then dinner with his family.

Him telling me he loved me.

Yeah, it’d been a day, that was certain.

And tomorrow was day one. Tropical Cyclone Hazer would begin its descent into Australian waters tomorrow, and we’d begin to see rain, winds, sea swells, and rising waters by tomorrow night.

Then it’d be a full twenty-four hours of hell, probably.

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