I swallowed heavily and cleared my throat. “Yes, sir.”
“None of that ‘sir’ guff here, okay? We’re just old friends catching up.”
I nodded. “Yes, sir.”
Sitting on the other side of Abe, Eth guffawed before pressing his hand over his mouth to silence himself.
“Why don’t you tell me about your time with Charles at Oxford? Before the trouble at least.”
I almost choked in surprise that he’d come to it so quickly. “It was definitely an eye-opener.”
“In what way?”
It proved that some of the others we hunt aren’t evil. I couldn’t say that to him though. “Charles’s granddaughter, Ton—uh, Antoinette showed me some techniques we don’t use here.”
“I heard you were quite taken with young Antoinette.” He leaned over toward Eth. “Apparently love was in the air.”
My mouth twisted with shame. “Out of everything that happened there, I regret hurting her the most.” For all the time I’d spent at Bayview when I was younger, I’d never had such an honest conversation with Abe, even if it wasn’t actually completely honest.
He nodded before patting my hand. “I don’t think anyone holds you responsible for fae trickery. We’ve been there ourselves, remember.”
I wondered whether he was referring to Ben’s doppelganger or something darker. Does he know about Fiona? I forced myself to make a neutral expression. “Thank you for your understanding, sir.”
He offered me an indulging smile, something you might offer a moron when trying to explain a simple task before turning to my brother. “And what about you, Ethan? What trouble have you been finding here in New York?”
“Trouble? Me? I’m not sure whether I should be offended.” Eth was his usual self, as if he wasn’t plotting to betray everything he’d known for a mother who’d only just returned to his life a day earlier.
I wish I could be that calm and certain under the circumstances. Eth didn’t have the weight of every watchful gaze on him though. They had no reason to suspect anything underhanded from him—they practically expected it from me.
Abe chuckled at Eth’s statement. “I know you well enough to know you take trouble as a compliment.”
I glanced over my shoulder toward the elevator as the two of them continued their talk and had to hold the table to steady myself when I saw Evie standing in the vestibule. The flames around her body danced between the coiled flames of stress and anger and the dimmed, lazy flame of nervousness. Even without the benefit of talking to her, I could tell that she was feeling out of place—just as she had at the airport—on top of her fear over the Rain presence.
I shot Eth an angry glare. I had no idea he would draw her to this particular spot rather than keep her on another floor where she might be safe. I couldn’t even ask him about it because Abe sat between us. Turning back to Evie, her gaze met mine and my doubts over the entire plan were echoed on her face.
As much as it pained me to do it, I had to turn away from Evie again and put my faith in whatever plan Eth and Evie had concocted together via text. It was too late to change it now without drawing extra attention to her. I tuned in halfway through a story Eth was telling Abe about a werewolf that Lou, Dad, and he had hunted a month earlier. I wasn’t really listening. Instead, I was trying to find any reflective surface I could in an attempt to see what Evie was doing without staring at her outright.
While I was watching her movements in the shiny prison-style bars that decorated the pass-through area, Abe stood. “Ah, the last of our guests are here. We can get started properly now.”
I turned to follow his gaze, past Evie and to the elevator beyond. With horror, I saw Dad and Lou exit the car and close in on Evie’s position.
If I’d had any lingering doubts about our real heritage, it was all washed away with my first glimpse of the bright blue light that surrounded Lou’s body like a shroud. It was odd compared to every aura I’d seen at the court, almost like a second skin that coated her body rather than a flickering burst of light, but it was present and so obvious that I had no doubt left in me.
Lou and Dad stepped around Evie without a second glance and then headed toward us. I sunk deeper into my seat, wishing a hole would open beneath me and swallow me. The headache that had been building steadily grew to a dull throb. Kill me now.
I did the best I could at shooting Eth a look that was both, “Get Evie away from here,” and, “Did you know they’d be here?”
Despite the longing in my chest to go to Evie and drag her into the elevator and out of the building, my involvement would make things worse for her. I knew it, and yet part of me didn’t care. I wanted to hold her and tell her it would be okay, if only to convince myself that it possibly still could be.
Evie shook her head in a curt movement, and it was enough to warn me I was staring. For the second time, I dragged my gaze away from her and tried to find her reflection in the bars again.
“I thought a proper reunion was probably in order,” Abe said in a tone that gave no doubt he’d deliberately instructed Dad to be there.
My fingers clenched into a tight fist as I tried everything I could to contain my anger and not let the outburst of rage that was just inside my throat tear from me in a shouting match that probably would have been heard in every room regardless of how many inches of sound-deadening material there was in the place.
I risked a sideways glance at my sister as she sat in the seat beside me. The scars on her arm were barely visible, and yet—as always—I could practically see them glowing like stars.
If it had just been me, I probably would have had it out with her and Dad before demanding answers about her childhood, but I had Evie to consider. Almost as the thought ran through me, Eth jumped up.
“Just give me a minute,” he said absently as he departed from the table.
“Where’s he going?” Dad demanded of me.
“How the fuck should I know? I’m not his keeper.” The tone was harsher than I’d meant for it to be, but once the words had been issued, I felt better. It might have been only a minuscule amount better, but it was something, especially with the way my heart thumped against my ribcage. A quick glance confirmed he was going to Evie, but I didn’t want to say anything in case it made it look like a setup.
“Looks like he’s going to hit on that tidbit over there,” Lou said with obvious disdain, pointing in the direction of Evie.
I clenched my jaw tightly so the words that leapt to my tongue in Evie’s defense couldn’t break free without permission.
“Leave your brother alone,” Dad said before glaring pointedly at me. “At least Ethan’s affairs are relatively harmless.” I could hear the “and human” he didn’t actually add.
A maniacal laugh threatened to escape me at the fact that in telling Lou the “tidbit” Eth was hitting on was harmless—unlike Evie—Dad was defending the exact person he was defaming. I bit it down—I could see myself having to do a lot more of that while my father and sister were present. My jaw already ached at the thought.
Evie’s laughter floated to me across the crowded space, and I twitched my head to the side just long enough to see her and Eth pretending to flirt. At least, I hoped they were pretending—after Eth’s comments about her appearance when we’d met him at Starbucks, I couldn’t be sure that he wouldn’t take the opportunity to make it all appear as real as possible.
“Maybe you can ask him for some pointers now that the love of your life is dead,” Lou said, somehow making the phrase “love of your life”—the most positive thing in the world—sound negative. I wondered whether she was making small talk for the fun of it or whether she’d seen me glancing furtively at Eth and Evie.
“Fuck off.”
“I can see your vocabulary hasn’t improved much with fatherhood. Where is the little freak anyway?”
I didn’t miss Dad’s hand shooting out to silence Lou with a touch, but I could tell she was itching to say more. There was nothing I
could say to retaliate though. If I denied that there was a child, I was confirming that Evie was alive. If I falsely confirmed there was one, I was risking starting a manhunt for someone that didn’t exist. Although that might give us some breathing space.
I was debating the merits of the plan when Eth came bounding back over.
“I got her room number.” He held his tongue between his teeth. “So how long’s this reunion going to go for? Because I want to get clean before I get dirty.” He waggled his eyebrows.
“Ew, gross, Eth!” Lou exclaimed. “I don’t need any images of your sex life in my head. Not now, not ever.”
Seriously, just kill me right now. I stared at the back of my hand, the skin stretched paper white with the tightness of my clenched fist. It was better than the view anywhere else at the table. Eth sat with a smug grin on his face and the number 407 written near his thumb. When he caught my eye, he gave his eyebrows another waggle. In the glint of fun in his eyes I could see that he knew exactly how much it bothered me that he was liaising with Evie when I couldn’t.
Jerk!
“Can’t we just eat?” I asked, trying to take the focus away from the gossip about Eth and his potential love interest—who was actually my love interest.
“With the images Eth put in my head, I don’t think I’ll be able to eat ever again,” Lou joked.
“Maybe you’ll starve to death,” I snapped. “Or at least pretend you have,” I muttered under my breath.
“Cut the crap, Clay.” Dad’s voice was as sharp as I’d ever heard it.
Over the pounding and buzzing in my head, I heard a ticking sound start. It took a moment for me to understand that it was my jaw clicking from the pressure I was exerting on it to stop from shouting at them all. My teeth would probably be ground away to stumps by the end of the lunch.
To my surprise, Abe raised his hand. “Enough. Clay’s had a rough few years, and I think the fact that he has reached out to come back into our family should be reason enough to let sleeping dogs lie.”
I resisted staring pointedly at my dad and sister.
Just.
Dad opened his mouth to say something more, but Abe ignored him and called over a waiter. Less than ten minutes later, everyone had an incredible looking meal placed in front of them.
The food was stacked perfectly into a tiny circle in the middle of fine white china plates, resting on quality silverware trays that appeared designed to look like a refined nod to the plastic trays used when the place was a prison. The shape of the silverware was a risky decision. It could have easily been kitsch and tacky, but it actually worked. Or at least, I thought it did. I didn’t exactly have a lot of experience in Michelin starred restaurants though.
While everyone else ate the delicious looking food, I could do little more than push mine around on the plate while my mind was a few floors below, imagining what Evie must be going through while waiting for us in the hotel room. She had to be feeling impatient, which made me want to get through the meal that much quicker. Although I was starting to think that maybe she’d been right when she’d said it was just as dangerous for me to be back at Bayview as it was for her.
It wouldn’t be easy breaking away from everyone to go find her once I’d finished the research I needed to do.
The conversation flowed around me, but I tuned it all out. Even when I heard my own name mentioned a few times, I couldn’t care enough to listen to the words.
Lou leaned over toward me and whispered words that were meant just for me. “Clay, I really am—”
I held up my hand to silence her. “I really don’t care.”
“So you’ve forgiven Eth, but not me or Dad, what gives?”
“I know Eth didn’t go along with the plan with malicious intent.”
“And you think I did?”
“I thought you were dead. Do you understand that? I thought you’d fucking died.” Once the words started, they wouldn’t stop. Each one grew louder than the one before it. I couldn’t get enough air into my lungs, but the words flowed from me in a cathartic release anyway. “But worse, so much worse than all of that, was that you tried to kill Evie! You hunted her relentlessly, again and again. You never stopped, regardless of how I felt about it, about her. You never once tried to see my side or understand that maybe, just maybe, you were wrong. You did it all because apparently, she’s the monster? But you know what? From where I’m standing, the monsters are here at this table with me, not—”
“Clay!” Eth’s voice cut through my rant, and I saw the danger.
I’d come damn close to giving away the fact that Evie was alive and in the hotel. “Not dead,” I muttered in defeat. “You know, whatever, this was a fucking mistake.” I grabbed my napkin off my lap and threw it down onto the table before stalking away from them all.
Eth raced after me, grabbing my arm and stopping me from going. “Don’t do this,” he said in a growled whisper. “Think of Mom.”
When I tried to continue walking, he yanked me backward.
“Think of Evie—how will she get out if you leave now?”
How will she get out even if I stay?
“I can’t deal with her, Eth,” I said, indicating Lou with my chin. She’d always been able to finely balance on the tightrope between pissing me off and being someone I needed to protect. Now, just looking at her made me think of the ultimate betrayal, hers and Dad’s, and I couldn’t cope with it—not with my already highly strung emotions.
“It’s just for a little longer. Hopefully, Evie will have finished clearing the anti-fae protections of the secure areas soon.”
“She’ll be what?” I practically shouted it at Eth. The restaurant fell silent as every eye in the place turned toward us. Eth grabbed me by the bicep and dragged me further into the vestibule. I never in a million years would have imagined that he’d send her on such a suicide mission. That she’d agree to go along with it didn’t surprise me nearly as much. After all, she’d been willing to walk into what she thought was a trap just for one more sight of me when she met me at the warehouse in Charlotte. If she thought she could save my life by risking her own, she’d do it without hesitation.
Fuck! I kicked the wall beneath the elevator call buttons. “How could you?”
“She’s a smart girl, probably smarter than you give her credit for.”
“I know she’s smart. She’s beautiful and clever and will do everything that she can to complete the task. Did you even stop and think that the stress of it would make her temperature skyrocket though? Did you think for even a moment that if just one Assessor catches her on those levels, she’ll be straight into a treatment room for God knows what sort of torture?”
“I’m not stupid,” Eth whisper-shouted back. “And she knows the risks as much as we do. I offered her the choice.”
“I can’t believe this. I can’t believe you. I have to get down there.”
“Okay, look I think everyone is finished. I’m sure it’ll be easy enough to get Abe to move the rest of the meeting to his office. You know how he likes to show off the case files.”
Eth’s words—and the stress they inspired—made the headache I’d suffered through most of the day worsen, so I pressed my fingers against the bridge of my nose to try to ease it while I continued to mentally berate his stupidity. “I don’t want to go with the group. I want to find Evie and get her out of here.”
“The best way you can help her now is by sticking with the rest of them.”
The elevator dinged beside us, and when the doors opened, Ben stood just inside with his phone to his ear. He gave us a quizzical look before finishing up the call.
“Not enjoying the food?” he asked.
“It’s fine,” I lied.
“Clay’s just eager to catch up on some of the finer points of New York living.”
Ben’s lips peeled up into a serpentine smile. “I bet he is. Months away, doing God knows what has to be dull. Clay’s a man of action.”
He slapped
my back, and it took everything in me to force my lips into something like a smile and not just twist around and punch him in his smug fucking face.
“We have a few things we want to run through first, but if you like, we’ll head out on the town together tonight.” He indicated that his father should come to us.
“As great as that sounds, I’m out,” Eth said. “I already have a hot date.”
I glared at Eth. He was letting Ben believe that I wanted to go out.
Then I understood what it would mean. I’d need time to myself to shower and change before heading out into the Chelsea district. It was a window of opportunity to explore and escape. I would have issued a thank you, except it would have drawn too much attention.
When I looked at him in silent thanks, he indicated that I should look behind me. When I did, I saw Abe, Lou, and Dad making their way over to us.
“Sounds like a plan,” I said as I straightened my back. “I could definitely use a chance to let off some steam. When can we go?”
“Hold your horses,” Ben said. “As I said, we’ve got some stuff to run through first.”
“Like?”
“Like a debrief about exactly where you’ve been for the last three years,” Dad said as he joined us, “and what precisely you’ve been doing.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
AFTER DAD’S LITTLE announcement, we were all bundled into the elevator. Eth headed straight to the back, I assumed because he didn’t want to risk needing to swipe his security card—the one he’d no doubt passed onto Evie so she could head off on her suicide mission.
Idiot!
“I haven’t been doing anything,” I said in reply to Dad’s statement as the elevator doors slid closed when everyone was inside. “I just found a little shack somewhere in the middle of nowhere and kept to myself. After discovering the way everyone betrayed me, and then losing Evie on top of it, I didn’t want to be around anyone.”
“Relax, Clay, you’ll have a chance to tell us everything soon.”
Court the Fire (Son of Rain #3) Page 23