Hell on Wheels: A Loveswept Classic Romance Read Online Free Page A

despite the fact that the heat of a West Texas day was already building. She’d watched Roan’s hurricane videos—roofs and billboards flying through the air, palm trees bent almost to the ground, people fleeing for their lives.
    Watching the video, she’d felt for a minute that she was actually in the middle of all that violence, bringing back painful, frightening memories.
    “I wouldn’t,” she finally answered. “The study of storms is strictly a spectator sport for me. I don’t like getting in the middle of one, and I never will.”
    “Oh.” He actually looked disappointed. Maybe the man did have a death wish, as Amos feared.
    Of course, Roan had no idea how ferocious a tornado could be. Although much smaller than hurricanes, tornadoes could pack more punch, driving metal through wood, picking up cars—and tractors—and carrying them hundreds of feet into the air. At least with a hurricane, people knew it was coming and could get out of harm’s way.
    Not always so with a tornado.
    Shaking off her grim thoughts, Victoria slammed shut the back doors of the van. “Ready?”
    “Ready, but can we make one stop before leaving town? I need to return my rental car. Is there a Pennywise office around here?”
    Victoria stared openmouthed at his gray midsized four-door sitting in the driveway. “That’s a rental car?”
    “Yeah. You don’t think I’d own something that ugly, do you?”
    Victoria owned a similar model, which was tucked away in Amos’s garage, but she decided not to tell Roan that. “Did they rent it to you in that condition?”
    “What condition? It runs great.”
    “I mean the broken headlight, cracked windshield, crumpled fender, missing hubcaps …”
    “Oh, that. I did some pretty hard driving the last couple of weeks.”
    Couple of weeks? Amos wasn’t kidding when he’d warned her not to let Roan drive. “There’s a Pennywise office on the way out of town.”
    Amos was standing on the front porch, watching their preparations. Victoria went over to give him a farewell hug. “Take care of yourself, now,” she said. “I’ll really miss you.”
    “Somehow, I kind of doubt that,” he replied with a wink. “A couple of young people with two weeks and endless stretches of highway ahead of them don’t need an old man around.”
    Victoria started to object to his assessment, but he shushed her.
    “Roan really means no harm,” he said in a low voice. “Give him a chance. He’ll settle down, and I bet the two of you will have a good time.”
    “Don’t most men settle down after they leave their teenage years?” she whispered back. But she softened the question with a smile. She didn’t want Amos worrying too much about her.
    Even Roan gave Amos a quick hug and a blithepromise that they would be careful. With one last wave and a honk of the van’s horn, they were off—toward what, Victoria wasn’t sure.
    Roan followed her in his car to the Pennywise office. Well, followed wasn’t exactly accurate. He apparently didn’t like lagging behind anyone, so he alternated between tailgating her and pulling up into the lane next to her. He shot through one yellow light while she was able to stop in plenty of time, and he had to pull over and wait.
    “Serves you right,” she murmured. When the light turned green, she accelerated with deliberate slowness.
    He spent an undue amount of time in the rental car office—probably trying to explain away the damage. When he came out, he held up one finger, indicating she should wait one minute, and then he sprinted across the parking lot to the convenience store next door. When he joined her a couple of minutes later, he had a big white bag.
    “Fuel,” he explained as he extracted a large coffee and two paper-wrapped sandwiches that appeared to be sausage and cheese. “The bran muffins were great, but I need something a little more substantial. I have a fast metabolism—burn up food as quickly as I can put it away.”
    Victoria didn’t