My family didn’t know the things I did, didn’t understand and weren’t willing to listen to the truth. They didn’t know about the sweet, loving woman Evie really was. As I tried to figure out a way to get her out of danger, I had to fight my desire to check on her—I worked so hard to keep my eyes from trailing over her hiding place.
My stomach twisted each time I looked in the direction of my sister, who’d pretended to be dead just to convince me of an evil within Evie that didn’t actually exist. That she could be so callous, that my whole family could be, proved that my allegiance to Evie was well-placed.
Formulating a plan on the fly, I tried to convince Eth that Evie had leapt over the side. As I approached the ledge behind him, I grabbed a rock. If I could convince Eth to peer over the edge, then I could knock him out when his attention wasn’t on me.
Maybe it wasn’t a great plan, but it was the only one I had.
I lifted my arm as he stared over the ledge, but before I could let the rock fall, he swung around and shoved the barrel of his revolver in my face.
“Nice try, little bro,” he said, “but your reflexes are a bit rusty.”
Instead of buying Evie’s freedom, I’d only made it worse. I should have known better than to try to surprise Eth, but I had to do something. Without any further plans—good, bad, or otherwise—I tried to reason with him, but with Lou there, it quickly became impossible.
Regardless, I needed to make my family see that whatever they said, whatever they tried, it wouldn’t change my opinion of Evie. The only way they could tear us apart now was for them to kill us both. My brother and sister would have to sacrifice everything they were apparently trying to save.
“I know you’re up here,” Eth taunted Evie while aiming his weapon at me. “Come out now, or I’ll shoot.”
His fingers closed around the trigger, but it was all for show. I just had no real way of telling Evie that without giving away for certain the fact that she was nearby.
“You’d shoot your own brother?” I said in an attempt to show her how ridiculous the notion was.
Moments passed with an absolute silence as Eth played the patience game as only he could. His hold on the gun never faltered. His arm didn’t even drop a fraction of an inch. In the deathly silence, I worried that Evie might decide that Eth might actually shoot, and give herself up in order to save me.
I couldn’t allow it, so I broke the silence before she cracked. “Look, just let Evie go, all right? She hasn’t done anything wrong.”
“Lou’s right, that monster definitely has you under some kind of spell,” Eth said in a weak attempt to get me to reveal Evie.
I never would.
In response to his words, I stared steadfastly ahead, not allowing my eyes to fall on any patch of shrub around for fear of giving away her position.
“The worst part is you don’t even see it, man.”
I couldn’t listen to Eth’s comments that Evie had me under some spell any longer. He thought I didn’t understand—that I didn’t “see” it, but he was so wrong.
“I see it,” I said in a last ditch effort to get him to understand. “I see it clearer than I’ve ever seen anything in my life. There’s so much that you are blind to. She’s opened my eyes to the truth, and I see now that it’s the Rain that’s the lie!”
Eth ignored me and looked around. The only thing my outburst had done was convince him that Evie was nearby. “I’m going to count to three and then your lover boy is going to experience heaven firsthand. One.”
“Evie, don’t!” I warned. He wouldn’t shoot me. At least not fatally.
“Two.”
I held my breath and prayed she didn’t take the bait. There wasn’t much I could do to warn her.
“I’m here.”
I closed my eyes as Evie’s terrified voice issued from her hiding spot.
Within a second, she’d pulled herself to her feet and was at my side, trying to comfort me. Neither of my siblings seemed to find it even the slightest bit odd that this supposed monster was more concerned about my safety than her own. Idiots. They were so fucking blind.
Eth looked between us and uttered the words that I just knew would be on the tip of his tongue. “Did you really think I would shoot my own brother in cold blood?”
“You lied to him about his sister’s death.” Evie stuck out her chin, stepped around me, and confronted him. “So I wasn’t willing to risk it.”
I couldn’t believe that not only was she standing up to the man I knew she feared, but that she was doing it for me. The sensation that rolled through me at the thought was unlike any other I’d experienced before. Pure love—agape—redoubled within me to echo through my whole body and capture my heart.
Each time I thought I’d discovered the greatest awe I could, Evie did something else to wow me again. Before I’d even had a chance to fully process the fact that she was willing to go toe to toe with an enemy on my behalf, I saw the murderous intent in Eth’s eyes. He wouldn’t hesitate to pull the trigger on her, especially if she continued to provoke him.
“Eth, don’t do this, please?” I pulled Evie back, shielding her with my body as I turned to my brother to beg for her life—for our freedom.
When he continued to stare past me, with his finger hovering over the trigger of the revolver, I turned to Evie to plead with her instead. As quietly as I could, I begged her to run. Told her the truth—that I’d step in front of the bullet for her. I’d do anything to ensure her survival. The fact was simple—I wouldn’t be able to cope with her death, especially not if it happened right in front of me. Because of me.
Almost to remind me of the lies my family had told me for so long, Lou stepped closer to us, and Evie backed away. She may have been afraid of Eth, but she was terrified of Lou.
What the hell did Lou do to her in Detroit?
I clenched my fists at my sides as the thought raced through me. One day, I would make Lou suffer for the things she’d done.
“There is no escaping this time,” Lou said.
Evie clutched my hand and met my gaze. “I love you.”
The words were fatalistic, like she was saying good-bye. “What are you doing?”
“Louise is right, there is no escape. Not right now.”
There was a defeat in her voice that I’d rarely heard before and it slayed me. Through everything we’d endured, she’d was brave—not fearless, but willing to fight for her life regardless of her fear—but now she was giving up. I frowned at the sight and reached out for her, but she stepped away from me. With a warning about how serious my brother and sister were on my lips, I tried to follow her. “Do you have a death wish? They will kill you.”
When I reached for her again, to pull her into my arms and offer what limited safety I could, her skin flamed hotter and hotter. It raged so hot that holding onto her for any length of time was like trying to rescue a burning log from a fire. Despite that, I tried. I held on until my fingers felt like they might melt if I held on any longer, and then I held on a moment more.
“I don’t want to die,” she murmured as she put further distance between us; moving closer to Eth with every step. “But I won’t let you die because of me.”
“No,” I whispered, voiceless in my fear of losing her again—of having to watch her die.
I focused on Lou as she closed in like a lioness stalking her prey until movement from Eth drew my attention. Evie was right, we were defeated, and there was no way around it.
With the exception of Evie’s gift, which I doubted she would use because it might endanger me, we were without weapons. We had no chance against two armed assailants. If I tried to stop Lou’s knife, Eth would squeeze off a shot. If I reached for the gun, Lou’s knife would end Evie’s life.
My mind reeled as I ran through every possible scenario I could think of, but every one ended with Evie’s death. Some ended with my death too, and I decided that if I could buy her even a second more, it was worth the sacrifice. I glanced ba
ck at Evie, my gaze mixed with an apology to her and anger at my family. She mouthed two words at me. “Trust me.”
She has a plan?
I couldn’t see any way out of the situation, but obviously, Evie could.
She was close enough to Eth that she might have been able to topple him off balance, but I didn’t think she would do that. The heat radiating from her skin sizzled in the air; the fire over her body was almost visible in the night air.
Before I had a chance to figure out what her strategy was, she lifted up onto her toes and then did a reverse swan dive off the cliff. Her name rushed from me in an exclamation of horror even as a shot from Eth’s revolver rang out into the night, whistling through the place she’d occupied not even a second earlier.
“No!” I cried, flinging myself forward toward the ledge.
Eth’s arm smashed around my midsection, stopping me from hurtling off the edge after her. Shaking loose of his hold, I fell to my knees as her name ripped from my chest on a sob. “Evie!”
I barely had a moment to relive the horror of watching her purposeful dive off the cliff when a fireball-like explosion erupted from below.
“And there’s the whoosh!” Eth said with smug satisfaction a second before I launched myself at him.
CHAPTER FOUR
IT TOOK BOTH Lou and Eth to wrestle me into submission at the top of the ledge. Once they had, I went limp in their hold and then fell to the ground when they loosened their grip.
“She’s gone.” Eth’s tone was a touch more sympathetic than it had been when he had celebrated Evie’s demise only a few minutes earlier. The difference could have been due in part to the moisture that stained my cheek and blurred my vision. “It’s over, bro.”
Unwilling to move from my perch near the rock edge, I muttered Evie’s name like a chant, as if uttering it enough times would create an incantation that would bring her back to me. I rocked back and forth on my heels and pressed the base of my palms against my eyes to stop the sting. Nothing helped; nothing beat back the pain of watching her fall.
Of watching her . . .
No! She’s not dead.
“Clay, we need to get out of here,” Eth said, as he tried to pull me to my feet.
I fought free of his hold and moved toward the edge of the outcrop that had swallowed Evie. When I peered over the side, I was certain that I could see something shift amongst the carnage below. It could have been Evie, or it could have just been the smoke curling around the flames before emerging from the darkness to meet me. With the smoke rising from the ground and the raging fire below, it was impossible to see anything clearly. The ash lifted into the air by the heated wind burned my eyes and mingled with the tears on my face, smudging the world black.
“Dad will be waiting for us.” Eth grabbed at my shoulder, prompting me to stand once more.
“Dad can go fuck himself.”
“Clay!” My sister’s admonishment was too much for me to cope with.
“All of you can go to hell,” I spat. “I just need to get down there.”
“There’s no way down there, Clay,” Lou said, placing a hand on my shoulder.
I twisted away from her touch, rolling over and standing just to avoid her being near me.
“You—” I couldn’t think of an insult bad enough to cover how much I hated her. From the moment I’d recovered from her apparent return from the dead, there was no doubt in my mind that she had been the one tracking Evie. Whether she’d done it alone or with the assistance of Eth and Dad, I didn’t know, but I was certain it had been Lou who had ransacked Evie’s hotel room.
I lifted my finger and waved it in her face while I tried to come up with something terrible enough to encompass the way I felt about her, but the words eluded me. And with the image of Evie leaping off the outcrop still in my mind, I didn’t care to waste a single second more on my sister.
“You’re not even worth it,” I muttered as I walked away.
Lou charged after me and grabbed my shoulder again, spinning me in place. “I did this for you.”
I yanked my shoulder out of her hold for the second time and turned away. My voice was ice and death, not willing to play the happy family role any longer. “No, you did it for you! But you’re too much of a selfish bitch to even see that.”
“Clay, please.” Her vulnerability broke through her mask. With the twisted scars that trailed along her neck and up onto her cheek, it was even more noticeable.
It wasn’t enough to soften the hard edges of my anger toward her. Not now. Not ever again.
“For the last year and a half, I thought you were dead,” I seethed. “Maybe you should have stayed that way. I preferred that sister to the one standing in front of me now.”
“That’s low,” Eth said. “And not fair.”
Spinning on my heels, I glared at him through the narrow slits my eyes had become. “Don’t even get me started on what’s not fucking fair.”
I walked back over to the edge and crouched down, the movement sending a few loose pebbles skidding on the long journey to the bottom. With an effort, I took a deep breath and reminded myself that Evie had a plan. She hadn’t fallen. She hadn’t slipped. She’d leapt off the cliff in an almost graceful arc. Deliberate.
It was possible her plan might have gone awry, but something, call it faith or intuition, made me suspect everything had gone exactly as she’d planned it. She wanted us to believe she’d died, or at least she’d wanted my siblings to believe it.
“Trust me,” she’d mouthed just before she’d leapt. I nodded to myself. “I trust you,” I whispered as if my words would be carried down the ravine and into her heart. “Just please, don’t let me down. Don’t be dead.”
“Where’s your GPS?” I asked Eth, knowing he always had one nearby when he was hunting. It was part of the usual toolkit.
After giving me a questioning look, he tossed it to me. I added our current location and pocketed the device. As soon as I could, I would find a way to get back to the bottom of the cliff and find her. Right then, it was too dark to attempt to pick a safe path down, and I would probably break my neck trying. Killing myself would not have been part of Evie’s plan.
After making my decision to return as quickly as I could, I stalked back in the direction we’d come from with both Evie’s and my backpacks slung on my back, one over each shoulder. Although I was no longer rushing, the journey was quicker without having to hide under the cover of the bushes. A few times, Eth tried to initiate a conversation with me, but I steadfastly ignored him and Lou.
When we left the concrete tunnel that I could barely remember racing through to get into the forest, I saw the car that Evie and I had fled in and had to hold back the cry that threatened to escape from me. With my heart in my throat, I glanced back over my shoulder, as if I would still be able to see the spot where she’d fallen if I tried hard enough.
I hope you know what you’re doing, Evie.
I prayed that I was doing what she wanted me to. Rushing headlong after her wouldn’t help the situation. The better plan—if she wasn’t dead—would be to sneak away when I had the chance and—if she was alive—reunite and try once more to escape.
The reality of the fire, and exactly what that meant for Evie, kept creeping back into my mind. For all I knew, she’d been battered and broken at the bottom of the outcrop until the flames had consumed her.
Leaving a child to rise from the ashes.
The thought almost sent me racing back to the place where she’d gone over. What if that had been her plan? To have me repeat her father’s life—raising a child who wasn’t my blood but that I cared for above any other just because of the link she offered to the woman I’d loved. I closed my eyes as the thought washed over me. Even if I’d wanted to, I couldn’t return yet.
“I’ve never seen anything more pathetic in my life.” Dad wore a scowl as he assessed my appearance.
It had been eighteen months since I’d seen him, and that was the first thing
he could say to me.
“Fuck you.” I pushed past him and up the road without a backward glance. If my family thought I had an attitude problem before, they hadn’t seen anything yet. I would make them all regret trying over and over again to destroy everything that Evie and I could share if they would just leave us alone.
Dad spluttered for a second behind my back and seemed like he was about to say something more when Eth cut him off. “Don’t. Just leave him be. It’s been a long night.”
Dad’s Chevelle sat on the side of the road, waiting to ferry the four of us to some unknown destination, but I wasn’t going to allow that again. There was no way I would willingly go with any of them. I started to walk along the road until Eth rushed up behind me and stopped my progression.
“Dad and Lou are going to wait for a ride with the locals, let’s go.” He nodded toward the Chevelle.
“Why should I go anywhere with you? With any of you?” I spat. “And don’t pull the ‘family is key’ bullshit, because obviously that’s meant jack all to the three of you in the last few years.”
“We’re helping Atlanta with a case in there.” He indicated back to the forest behind us. “There’s a few of us all staying at a motel a little ways south of here. Come back and freshen up, you’ll feel better for it.”
I sighed.
“You can shout and rant at me all you want on the way.”
“And how do I know that you’re not going to take a straight-shot drive to Atlanta to force me into more of the Rain’s particular brand of enforced loyalty?”
His mouth twisted into an unhappy knot. “After all I’ve done for you, that’s the thanks I get?”
“What exactly am I supposed to think?”
“It’s just me, bro. Not some conspiracy.”
Glancing over his shoulder to where Dad and Lou stood in conference, I frowned. If it was either of them, I would have a reason to doubt them. However, other than keeping their secrets, Eth had never done anything wrong by me. He’d even helped drag my ass out of trouble often enough that I owed him the benefit of the doubt—for now at least.
Court the Fire (Son of Rain #3) Page 4