Taking Passion by Storm by Ravenna Tate Read Free Book Online Page B

her.
    Right.
Like that would be so fucking easy now, after what he’d told her.
    “ Nadine, what was it like growing up with a father
who’s a genius?” Alesia sounded genuinely interested, and Addison was grateful.
She was one of the youngest Storm Troopers in the country, but she held her own
and was fearless.
    “ I never got away with not doing my homework.”
    The
others laughed, and Addison smiled. Nadine adored her father, and he loved her
fiercely. That was enough reason to stay away from her. He respected Dixon, and
Nadine needed her dad. They had to find him. They simply had to.
    “How
is it you didn’t end up in the same field?” asked Suzanne . “I’d have
thought he wouldn’t give you much choice.”
    She
shook her head. “He wasn’t like that at all. This is his passion, but he always
encouraged me to do what made my heart sing. That’s how he phrased it. Do what
makes your heart sing.”
    “ What makes your heart sing?” asked Addison. He held
his breath as he watched the emotions cross her face. What was rumbling
underneath the surface? Did it have something to do with what she wanted to
tell him? She was in pain, but from what? What the hell had happened to this
girl?
    “ I don’t think I’ve figured it out yet.”
    “ You have plenty of time. Maybe this adventure will
reveal something to you?”
    Merrill
cleared his throat loudly , and it was at
that point Addison realized how sexually provocative his comment sounded,
especially in light of what Lee had come across earlier. He thought about
saying something else, but realized that would only make him look guilty.
Instead he simply waited for Nadine to speak, hoping she hadn’t interpreted his
comment the same way Merrill had.
    “ I can’t see myself doing what you all do. I was
terrified up there when that storm came up so suddenly.”
    “ We all were,” said Suzanne. “Don’t let our actions
fool you. There’s nothing predictable about any of this, and we know that.
We’ve simply been doing it for a while and know what to look for, but we’ve
been fooled plenty of times and had to scramble to reach safety.”
    “ And the radar isn’t always available,” said Gina. “The
satellites are all fucked up, and sometimes we have to go on without it.”
    “ Then why do you do it?” asked Nadine.
    “ I’m doing it for the same reason Addison and the other
Weathermen have teams looking for the hackers,” said Alesia, her voice quiet
but commanding. “To take back our planet. I hate living underground. It’s like
I can’t breathe.”
    “ Same here,” said Merrill. “This is my home, and I’m
not going to let some two-bit assholes who figured out complicated code force
us all to live like moles. Fuck that. I’ll walk into those damn storms and
collect data, and will likely die doing so one day, but at least there will be
data for someone else to analyze.”
    “ I guess that leaves us,” said Lee. “The procurement
teams.”
    “ What you do is no less brave,” said Nadine.
    He
grinned and bowed his head slightly. “Thank you for saying so. We take a lot of
shit at times for being what some call pirates.”
    “ No one here would call you that,” said Addison,
quietly. Lee wasn’t someone he’d been working with very long, but he’d chosen
him for this mission because Addison had never seen him rattled. However, he
didn’t like the way the guy was now openly flirting with Nadine. He’d have to
speak to him, soon and privately.
    “ No, no one in this room would, but I’ve heard others
do so.”
    Addison
narrowed his eyes. “On my procurement teams?”
    Lee’s
face colored slightly. “No … no. Rumors, you know. You hear things.”
    “ Ignore the rumors. I’ve never heard of any open
animosity between what you do and what the Storm Troopers do. Regardless, we’re
all here for the same purpose right now. To find Dixon. Let’s concentrate on
that, all right?”
    Lee
leaned back in his chair, his gaze