Chapter Fifteen
Twist helped Raven into Storm Sweeper, putting her bag in. Hoax came running over.
“Hey, I heard through the grapevine that you play guitar but didn’t have yours. This is one of the extras we keep on hand, so like, if it gets blown away in the storm you’re chasing, it’s okay. The sound is good enough to sing to, but it’s not so expensive we’d miss it,” Hoax said.
He heard Raven chuckling behind him. “What about us? Will you miss us if the storm blows us away?” Raven asked.
“Well, of course I’d miss you. I’m just saying if you’re running to take shelter somewhere, don’t worry about the guitar. And here, practice safe sex too,” Hoax said, handing Twist two different boxes of condoms. One was size extra large and the other was a multi-pack of other sizes. He laughed as Hoax turned and ran back toward the house.
“Why two boxes?” he asked.
“She didn’t want you to be embarrassed if you needed the extra smalls,” Snipe yelled from his place on the porch. The heckler was grinning and waggling his eyebrows at them.
Twist handed the boxes to Raven and followed her in. He stashed the guitar case against a cabinet and wrapped a bungee cord around it to keep the item stationary during their chasing.
Raven had been so excited after he asked her to chase today. He’d wanted to do something that was fun and share with her a little bit of what he did.
Last night had been a heavy night, but his girl was strong as fuck. She’d talked about what had happened to her and that she’d never really dealt with it. It had happened about eight months before they lost Charity. Raven had pushed everything into a deep, dark place in her mind to deal with later, when she could.
Before she could grieve the innocence she’d lost regarding dates, they’d lost Charity. Her grief had bloomed again, and she’d been overwhelmed.
Twist had held her close while she told him, her voice strong and her eyes dry. Once he’d told her he was amazed at her strength, she’d relaxed against him. His heart hadbroken when he’d kissed her forehead, telling her that his arms would always be the safe place she could tell him anything, cry, or scream.
His strong, former Army, fierce woman had finally let her emotions go. She’d sobbed against him until he didn’t believe she had any more tears inside. Once she’d finished, she’d kissed his lips and told him thank you.
Explaining to her that being a shelter for her was his privilege and fed a part of him he didn’t know was there was healing for both of them. Now, he was going to show her a part of his life that he hoped she’d love. They had their whole lives ahead of them, and he wanted her to enjoy this part with him.
He’d texted Snipe to find out if he could do research and locate what auctions forhard-to-find Legos Raven was following. His girl deserved the world. Whether it be books, Legos, or maybe a custom tank for her motorcycle, he planned on spoiling her.
He sat in the front seat, double-checked behind him to make sure everything was secure, and turned on his computer.
“You ready to chase some storms?” he asked.
“Yes, let’s do this. I promise I will not be lying on the floor screamingI’m Gonna Dieat any time tonight.”
Twist smiled and headed northeast, which was where he thought had the most possibilities for storms. For now, he was ignoring the condoms because he had enough issues, not walking around with a hard-on all the time with Raven. Everything she did was sexy. Her licking the cream filling out of the doughnut she had at breakfast just aboutdid him in. And she wasn’t trying to be sexy. It was just who she was.
He and Raven chatted as he drove the hundred miles to their holding point until he saw where exactly the storms would intensify. They took turns picking the music. They had similar and complementary tastes, so there was no fighting over the music. Raven had grabbed them some popcorn to snack on. Twist wasn’t really hungry, but there was something about road trips that made him munchy.
He pulled into a travel plaza with a gas station, a restaurant, a dog park, and a place for motorhomes. He’d used this place a couple of times to stage while he waited on the weather.
They could have a bite to eat, relax a little, and wait for what would happen next.
Raven had no idea that the storm would grow and they’d be running to the van to take off. Twist had shown her what he wanted from the video. They were, she guessed, two miles from the storm. It was still daylight. She could see the sheer size of the base of the tornado as they drove toward it.
Twist was driving, talking to the camera and keeping them safe from the tornado. She listened with half an ear to what Twist was saying because she was focused on the tornado. Twist had set a course to keep them parallel instead of driving into it. Two large pickups sped by them, then cut acrosstheir lane to race into a field. They were driving directly toward the tornado.
“Are we following them?” Raven asked, hating how her voice quivered.
“Nah, we’re plenty close. I want this first time to be fun, not scary. They’re heading directly into the path,” Twist said.
“Do you think they have those augers like I saw in that movie?” she asked.
“I’ve never seen them on an actual storm vehicle. I guess it could work, but it would all depend on the surface you sent them into. Think if you tried to do that in a freshly plowed field where the dirt has been loosened. So, depending on how strong the winds are, you might be okay, or you might be pulled along with the tornado,” Twist said, checking the tornado, then pulling to the side of the road and turning backaround. He motioned for Raven to video the tornado.
“It looks like it’s headed away from us but look at the base of that one. It is a monster. As always, don’t do this unless you’re a trained spotter. I want all of you to stay safe. Remember, if you like my videos, hit the subscribe button to not miss out,” Twist said.
Raven turned the camera off. Twist had said to turn it off when he mentioned the subscribe button. He opened his door and came around to her. He helped her out of the van and pulled her into his arms.
