He let himself out the back door. She walked to the window and peered out at the house across the way. Lance and Mac were heading for the barn. Yeah, she needed to rest. A chase was always exhausting, even if it was a big fat bust like this one had been. Three days of traveling all across the Midwest pursuing promising data, and not even a measly funnel had peeked out from the dark clouds. She could hear Peter’s outraged blubbering now. The downside of doing her research under someone else’s thumb, especially a person who had no inkling about weather, was starting to surface. Real storm chasing wasn’t like in the movies. If Peter gave her too much grief, she’d tell him to take his high-tech gadgets and stuff them. She’d been doing just fine on her own. She could do so again, if need be.
She eyed the phone. Nah. He could wait.
First she had a fighter she needed to see.
She strode across the field, opened the barn door, and stepped inside. Silently, she moved off to the side as Mac and Lance were grappling on the mat. She couldn’t tell what they were doing. Lance was trying to bend Mac’s arm in a direction it definitely wasn’t supposed to bend. Mac finally slapped Lance’s shoulder and he released him. Both rose to their feet.
“Better,” Mac said. “We need to work on that a little more, but you’re getting the hang of it.” Mac’s eyes flicked to where she stood, then flicked back, and he stiffened. A fierce frown tightened his lips.
Lance looked over his shoulder and grimaced when he saw her. That wasn’t like Lance at all.
Unease made her swallow. What had happened?
Not one to cower, she smiled and strolled farther inside. “You guys getting your sweat on?”
Lance moved forward, running a hand through his hair, casually stepping between her and Mac. “Uh, yeah. Been going at it pretty hard the last couple of days.”
She glanced around Lance at Mac. “Hi, handsome.”
If anything, Mac’s scowl became even scowlier. Wow. She’d thought she’d seen him transform into the fighter a few times when he was trying to deal with her antics, but she was wrong. Way wrong. The man before her right now was intimidating as hell, and if he’d been the one she’d met on that first day, there would’ve been no way she’d have been so bold as to ask him out. A handsome but grumpy curmudgeon she could deal with…but a lethal, looked-like-he-could-snap-a-tree-trunk-in-two fighter, no way, nuh-uh.
Why was all this hostility suddenly directed at her?
Lance took her arm and steered her toward the door. She gaped at him. He was trying to make her leave. What the hell?
“I was going to come by your place in a little bit and see if you’d mind watching Skylar for a couple of hours. I have a voluntary pickup scheduled.”
“Sure. No problem,” she said, yanking her arm away and turning back toward Mac. “Why don’t you come over and hang out with us?” she asked him.
“I don’t think so.” His hands tightened into fists at his sides.
“Why not?” His attitude was starting to piss her off, but she managed to ask nicely.
“Mac.” There was a cautioning rumble in Lance’s voice that made Gayle shoot a glance at him.
That did it. “What the hell is going on? I couldn’t have done anything. I haven’t even been here.”
It was like she’d taken the cap off a shaken bottle of soda. Mac advanced on her so fast she almost retreated, but she held firm, notching her chin up in defense.
“You’re all about living in the moment,” he mocked, his voice getting a little louder, a little more cutting, with each word. “Throwing caution to the wind, having no regard for safety. You take life for granted. You embrace danger.” He raised a finger and jabbed it at her. “You don’t give a good goddamn about the wellbeing of others.”
Every word hit her like the blast of a rifle, ripping away at her bit by bit.
The last time she’d felt this shell-shocked, she’d just learned she’d lost everyone she loved.
But unlike the time before, pain didn’t engulf her. Anger did. And as the stunningly cruel words sank in, that anger grew. “You don’t know a damn thing about me,” she said, slowly, calmly.
“Oh, I know plenty. You’re a fucking catastrophe waiting to happen. Reckless. Impulsive. Careless—”
“Bro,” Lance interrupted with a stronger warning note in his voice. “You need to step back.”
“Bat-shit crazy.” An unmistakable shadow of disdain darkened Mac’s eyes. “You get off on risk-taking, no matter who will get hurt, and it makes me sick.”
Lance raised his hands in a calming gesture. “Everyone needs to take a timeout.”
“Fuck. You.” She flipped him off with both hands, then spun around and slammed out the door.
Lance’s, “Fucking not cool, man,” followed her out into the field.
Fury vibrated through her entire body. She took life for granted? Didn’t care for the wellbeing of others? Screw his judgmental ass. If he wanted to jump to conclusions on how she chose to live her life, then so fucking be it. She didn’t owe anyone an explanation.
“Gayle. Wait!” Lance called after her.
She kept striding. Fuck that.
His hand finally latched on to her arm and whirled her around. “Listen, I’m sorry about Mac.”
“Don’t you dare apologize for that dickhead.”
Lance groaned. “I warned you. Mac has some serious baggage.”
“Everyone has baggage, Lance. What that man has is serious”—she tapped her finger to her temple—”mental issues that could really use a good dose of shock therapy.”
She started to spin again, but Lance stopped her.