The air flew from his body in a huff, and he fell to the ground, but he hadn’t finished fighting. He yanked out a knife he’d tucked into a sheath in his boot. Even while fighting for a breath, he launched himself at me.
I curved out of the way of his blade as it whistled through the air. The tip of the knife nicked my arm, but his motion turned his body, exposing his side. I kicked out, smashing the bottom of my foot against his side.
Using the momentum of my body, I reached for his hair, yanking his head backward and smashing it against one of the porcelain basins. He sagged in my arms as the fight left his body and he slumped into unconsciousness.
I supported his fall so that he didn’t smash his head against the tiles. Then I pushed his unconscious form underneath the basins so he wouldn’t be spotted from the door before I was ready for him to be found.
“I won’t let anyone hurt her,” I added as I patted his chest.
Taking a quick second to get my heart rate back under control, I stood and met my own reflection in the mirror. My gaze was haunted. Guilt gnawed at me. I had taken down someone I’d once worked with, someone who had trusted me. For Evie. Splashing my face with cold water, I took another deep breath.
For her, I’ll do anything.
I turned and left the bathroom. When I reached the lockers, Evie was already standing by them waiting for me. Her red and gold hair was pulled up under her hat, and her gaze sought me out. Pushing my panic down, I offered her a comforting grin. The Rain might be minutes away, but she would never know.
I would keep her safe.
“Sorry, I just needed to—” I pointed toward the restroom’s door.
She grinned at me. “Did you check out the times?”
“Yeah,” I said, grabbing her hand and leading her out through a side-door. “There’ll be a long wait here. Let’s get a taxi to the train instead.”
“Sure thing. Let’s go.”
On my way out, I stopped and stepped away from Evie just long enough to tell one of the station attendants about the person passed out in the men’s room.
CHAPTER TWO
A SICKLY YELLOW fluorescent light flickered overhead.
To one side of me, a row of metal chairs, each one complete with shackles and chains to secure any guests.
In front of each chair stood a smooth metal table, and behind, a case I knew contained tools of torture. Although I didn’t recognize that specific room, I knew its purpose well enough.
It was a treatment room.
A place that would inspire fear in the heart of most people, and all paranormal creatures, if they knew of the existence of the Rain’s torture chambers.
It was just one method they used to keep the world free of all others. The last time I’d set foot in one of those rooms had been the day I’d broken down and submitted myself back to a life bound to the Rain. Back then, I’d thought all hope was lost and I had little choice but to follow my family and continue my life as a Rain soldier.
Only, Evie had found me. Against all the odds, she’d returned to my side. Together, we’d found our way free of my family. Free of the Rain. That was exactly the reason my heart smashed against my ribcage when I glanced up and saw Evie in the treatment room with me.
How did we get here?
I locked gazes with her and saw the fear flickering in her eyes, widening her pupils.
The gun in my hand was heavier than it should have been. The reason for the extra weight was where the barrel was aimed—straight for Evie’s heart.
“Clay,” she murmured as her eyes dropped to stare at the gun in my hand. “No. Don’t. Please.”
Even though I tried to let go of the gun, it refused to drop from my hand. I wrestled with it, trying to tug it away from Evie. The crack of the gunshot rang through my ears, but was soon drowned out by Evie’s voice screaming, “No!”
I woke with a gasp.
In my arms, Evie cried out again. Trying to wrestle my breathing back under control, I gently stroked her cheek.
“Shh, Evie, it’s okay,” I murmured into her ear before pressing my lips against her neck. “It’s just a dream. You’re okay.”
It was just a dream, I repeated to myself, even though I could almost feel the ghost of the gun weighing down my hand and recall the look of pain on Evie’s face as the bullet ripped through her heart. It was a dream I’d had once or twice before, and it always stopped my heart.
It was one that might prove prophetic if the Rain ever caught up with us. It was up to me to make sure they never did.
To distract myself from the sensation and my worry, I wrapped my arm around Evie’s waist and brushed my palm over her side.
Our position lying across four chairs had her resting almost on top of me, with her back to my front—pressing me into the backrests of the barely padded seats. Her curves pressed against me and made me hyperaware of her proximity. It was almost enough to make me forget our surroundings.
For the last nineteen days, we had been on the move to save her life.
We’d crisscrossed the country in our desperate attempt to evade not only my family but all of the Rain operatives.
Though we’d found the occasional opportunity to bed down in dodgy motels and had even managed to spend a night squatting in an abandoned house in the Deep South, we had spent most of the time there catching up on much needed sleep and not nearly enough on other vital tasks—like the further exploration of each other’s bodies. I needed at least a week of seclusion, hidden away somewhere safe with Evie, in order to even begin to satisfy the longings I had for her. Desire rushed through me as I imagined losing myself in her embrace and holding her in my arms in return.
As I glanced down over her thin frame, I was almost sick with need at the thought of pressing every inch of myself against her smooth, warm body. To once again feel the heat of her skin beneath my fingertips as I tasted her sweetness on my lips. While we traveled, I had to constantly remind myself that we were in public and the kind of consideration I wanted to give her body would attract unwanted attention.
She shifted in my arms, and I held her tight to make sure she didn’t fall off.
“Clay?” Her voice was groggy and still filled with sleep, but it was clear she was waking up.
“Hey,” I murmured against her ear. “How’d you sleep?”
Her mouth curled down into a little frown.
“That well, huh?”
She shrugged. “How about you?”
“Yeah, about the same.”
She stretched against me before untangling herself from my arms. I missed her warmth almost instantly. Moving to the seat beside me, she looked at me with a grin. When I met her gaze, I had to stifle the hungered moan that rose in my throat.
Despite the constant travel, the life that she and I had been able to live in the short time since she had found me exceeded every dream I’d ever had. The reality of sleeping while wrapped in each other’s arms—even if it was in the back of a bus depot or on a train while it whisked us to the next city—and of waking to find her at my side every morning was almost unbelievable.
Those innocent little moments were more perfect, heartfelt, and intense than even the hottest session with any of the girls I’d slept with when I’d thought there was no hope for a reunion. Looking back at my attempts to push memories of Evie into the past, they were almost laughable. No one could make me feel the things she did, and I was stupid to have tried.
“So, where to now?” The question rolled off Evie’s lips without hesitation. It was almost as if she were simply asking what I wanted for breakfast, not seeking my input into a decision that would shape our foreseeable future. Evie’s gaze, though filled with the same longings I felt, had a more desperate need overriding her lust—she wanted an answer.
For a brief moment, we’d found a temporary sanctuary, tucked away in the Amtrak station in Detroit, hidden in the far corner of the vast, almost deserted waiting room.
The muted sunlight that poured in throu
gh the dusty, arched windows gave the place an otherworldly feel. The shoes of the few people who did move through the concourse squeaked against the linoleum. Together with their quiet voices, it formed a soundtrack to fill the silence that had fallen between Evie and me.
Her question was fair. We’d spent the better part of the night in the Amtrak station, and by rights we needed to be moving again to ensure we weren’t spotted.
“Where do you want to go?” I asked.
She shrugged and then chuckled. “I hear Norway’s nice this time of year.”
Although Evie’s statement was said as a joke, I understood the undercurrent of desire in it. Going overseas would solve some problems, but perhaps not as many as she might assume. The Rain didn’t only exist in the States. Every country had their own divisions and in many ways, it was more unified than the U.N.
Regardless, given the number of Rain operatives that were certain to be at the airports, there was no way to sneak her out of the country. Protocol dictated that the Rain operatives at airports and cruise terminals would be extra wary while Evie and I were unaccounted for. They’d probably be looking at heat signatures of all international travelers. No doubt they would use disease control as an excuse to justify the extra scanning to the public. At least for the short term.
It might have been possible for me to slip through security unnoticed, especially if I could use the chain around my neck as a supplement to my passport, but getting Evie through as well would prove problematic from any airport in the U.S. Even sneaking her across the Canadian or Mexican borders would be hard, and she was—understandably given the number of guns and patrols around border points—unwilling to take the risk.
Even though leaving the country was impossible, I understood Evie’s need to escape. Her desire to be anywhere else. Watching her twitchy movements and furtive glances around the depot, I could see that now she was fully awake, she was desperate to do something soon.
Despite the need to move on, I was in no hurry to get onto any form of public transportation. I’d had enough of tiny seats, cramped cabins, and rude people—a lifetime’s share of odd smells, strange sticky spots, and noisy passengers.
I was tired.
I was hungry.
And God was I horny.
It all combined to make me more than ready to stop and do things my way for a while.
To find somewhere defendable to hole up for a while. At least for long enough to have more than a few stolen moments alone with her.
I was positive we’d done enough since leaving Salem to cover our tracks. Having not encountered any other Rain operatives since South Carolina, I was certain they’d grown weary of being extra watchful by now. They had other missions and more pressing tasks.
Only my family would still be committed to the search, and I didn’t think they’d be able to find us. I knew the tactics they would use, and I had covered our tracks carefully. The fact was Evie had been able to keep herself off the radar without knowing the Rain’s tricks. With me, and my arsenal of knowledge, at her side, there was little risk. Together we could brave the world from a secure fortress, for a little while at least.
Whenever I raised the idea with Evie though, she didn’t seem quite as enthusiastic. She’d spent so long on the run that I doubted she even knew what it felt like to stay in one place for more than a few days anymore.
“So?” Evie prompted, cocking her eyebrow at me in question.
I sighed. The silence that had passed between us was heavy and pregnant with expectation, but not awkward. She knew I was weighing our options, but she was running out of patience.
“I wish we didn’t have to go anywhere,” I said. It wasn’t the first time the sentiment had passed my lips.
Every day, I promised her the running would all stop one day soon and we’d have a normal life. In return, she would give me a somewhat indulgent smile, as if I were discussing how we might spend some random millions won from the lottery, before buying a single ticket, and then would remind me once more that there was no such thing as normal for her. Regardless of what she said, I wanted to find a way to provide one. More than anything else, I wanted that for her.
“You want to stay in an Amtrak station?” she asked. A chuckle fell from her lips, but it wasn’t easy or carefree. Even though we hadn’t spent much time together, I knew her well enough to hear the difference.
“I’m just . . . not used to this, you know?”
She tilted her head in question.
“This running. The constant movement. Yeah, with . . . well, you know,” I didn’t want to say the words—the Rain, “it was all structured. Organized. We’d have hotel rooms or stay with other people. Unless we were out camping, we almost always had a roof over our heads and food on the table.”
The experience over the last few weeks had given me a taste of what Evie’s life had been like ever since her dad’s death eighteen months earlier. Her past was so much worse than what we had to do now though, because she’d had to endure it alone. Yet as we moved, she took every mile in her stride, as if the constant battle for freedom didn’t weigh her down like it did me.
Each time we stopped for a brief pause, she’d simply duck into the ladies’ room and freshen up. Then she would come back out, her multihued red, bronze, and gold hair tucked back up into a tight, neat ponytail or braided close to her skull. Her eyes would search for me, and the instant her gaze landed on me, her mouth would tip up into a warm grin that reinforced the vows she had made when we’d reunited—the promises to never be apart.
She would cover the distance between us before pressing a kiss to my lips and brushing her palm over the stubble on my cheeks or tousling her fingers through the growing mess of hair on my head.
She frowned. “I’m sorry, Clay.”
Shaking my head, I gathered her hands in mine. “I don’t regret it, not even for a second. I just wanted you to know why I really don’t want to get on another train right now.”
“We’ll take a bus then.”
“If I have to sit on a moving vehicle—any moving vehicle—for even one more hour I might snap.”
Evie’s frown deepened, but there was nothing more for me to do but voice my desires.
The words had been stuck in my throat for so long because if something happened, if I begged for us to stop and it caused her harm, any injury she sustained would be my fault.
Two years ago in Charlotte, I’d inadvertently forced her onto the Rain’s radar, which had been the catalyst for her father’s death. I never wanted her to be hurt again.
I swallowed down my fear, and my hope. “Why don’t we stop here?”
My voice lacked volume as I found the nerve to ask the question she probably didn’t want me to ask.
She looked over her shoulder, as if someone would be right there, watching her with a weapon ready in hand, before giving me an uncertain smile. “I don’t know . . . I think it’s still too soon.”
I suspected that we might have been able to spend the next few years moving between bus stops and Amtrak stations and it would always be too soon. My hopes of getting the chance to find some substantial alone time with her fell. I wouldn’t make her do something she wasn’t comfortable with. Still, I refused to give up entirely.
“Sitting here isn’t making a decision, so why don’t we just take a walk instead? I hear Detroit is lovely this time of year.”
She laughed, clearly seeing the compliment I’d given the increasingly run down city for what it was: a ploy to get away from the Amtrak station, at least for a few hours. Regardless of seeing through the ruse, she humored me and nodded. “Okay.”
I stood and offered her my hand. “Shall we?”
After I helped her to her feet, she glanced around. “I’ll just . . .” she pointed toward the restrooms. “Check my hair,” she finished under her breath.
“Why?” I offered what I hoped was a confident smile. “You look perfect.”
Despite the fact that she’d been asleep
until recently, very little of her hair peaked out from beneath her beanie, far less than would risk drawing anyone’s attention. I would have told her if that weren’t the case—or just fixed it for her.
“You would say that.” She slapped my arm playfully, but the action was slightly off and her voice fell flat as she glanced toward the amenities again. “You’re biased.”
I reached for her arm, curling my fingers around the top of her bicep, and met her eye, hoping she’d understand what I needed to say. “I mean, you look perfectly normal. Nothing out of the ordinary.”
Her eyes fell away from me as she frowned. I wondered whether it was the fact that I paid close enough attention to her to know she wanted to ensure her hair was completely hidden beneath her beanie that made her break her gaze away from mine—or because I was asking her to put all of her trust in me.
“Still,” she murmured. “I’ll just be a minute.”
Watching her walk away, I sighed. She ducked into the restroom to check her camouflage herself. There was a barrier between us that I hated. It wasn’t that I didn’t think she loved me, or that she regretted finding me. She simply didn’t trust me like I wanted her to.
It was hard not to be offended that she couldn’t put her faith in me. Closing my eyes, I reminded myself that it wasn’t that she didn’t believe me. She’d just done this solo for so long it would take her a while to be able to place her trust in someone else. Especially when that someone else was the one who’d put her in the position of having to run in the first place.
I tried to convince myself her lack of trust wasn’t a lack of faith. It was the equivalent of me going on a mission with a new team, one that wasn’t my family and that I didn’t know as well. I shuddered at the thought.
A few minutes later, obviously satisfied she was covered, she returned to my side.
“Better?” I asked, trying to show her that I understood in the only way I could.
She offered me a weak smile, letting me know she saw straight through my question, and nodded.
Among the Debris (Son of Rain #2) Page 2