He nodded.
I smiled and rested my head against his shoulder and simply enjoyed being with everyone.
At least until my phone rang.
I checked the number then answered. “Hey, Rory.”
“Hey, kid, listen … I’m in the emergency room.”
* * *
It took us longer than I’d like to gather our new bodyguards, stuff everyone into the cars and get across town.
But when we got there, we learned they’d only let me back there. The bodyguards didn’t like it, but eventually agreed to wait. The guys took up spots in the waiting room with Lucy while I went through the door.
By the time I reached his curtained off section, Rory was sitting up in the bed and smiling at the nurse like nothing had happened.
“Dad, will you lay down,” Tara snapped from her chair beside the gurney. “For crying out loud.”
The nurse left the curtained off area, blushing.
Rory was chuckling as I walked in. “Oh, let me have a little fun, Tara. I could have died.”
“Exactly, you could have died. You should be resting, not flirting with the nurses.” Tara shoved her hair behind her ear roughly.
Rory was still smiling when he turned to me. “Hey, kid.”
“What happened?” I asked as I took a good look at Rory. There were a few scratches here and there on his face, a bruise near his temple. Otherwise, he seemed fine.
“Someone ran me off the road. Hit and run.” He shrugged as if it were no big deal. “The car rolled down an embankment, the doctor said I’m fine.”
“The doctor is waiting on tests to say he’s fine,” Tara corrected. “Tell her the rest, Dad.”
I turned to Rory. “What else happened?”
Rory shot a censuring look at Tara before turning back to me. “Someone set my car on fire before driving off. I distinctly remember hearing another language before it went up.”
My belly turned to water and I felt sick. Stepping closer to the gurney, I lowered my voice. “You think it was witches?”
Rory shrugged. “The other cops think it was a Molotov cocktail, but I didn’t smell any gasoline.”
I cursed. Jadis had tried to kill Rory. Again. “You’re leaving first thing in the morning.”
Rory’s smile faded as he nodded. “And I’m taking you with us.”
I shook my head. “No, Rory. You’re not.”
The heart rate monitor started beeping rapidly as Rory and I locked eyes in a contest of wills. “This isn’t a discussion.”
“If I go, I’ll make you and Tara a bigger target,” I reminded him. “And that’ll defeat the entire purpose of you leaving.”
“You’re leaving with us, and that’s final,” Rory ordered.
My heart ached. A part of me did want to go. Just leave and not come back until Uma and Brody took care of Jadis. But I couldn’t, wouldn’t leave the guys. And Jadis would only follow me. “I can’t.”
“Yes, you can,” Rory decided. “This isn’t a fight you’re in, it’s about you. You don’t have to be here.”
I rubbed my temples, trying to alleviate some of the tension that had been building. “Maybe. But I’m not leaving.”
“Dad.” Tara drew his attention. “She needs to stay here and deal with it. You can’t make her—”
“The hell I can’t,” Rory roared. “You will get in that car tomorrow.”
“No, I won’t, Rory. I won’t risk your lives any more than I already have.” I met his gaze. “I can’t leave.”
“We’ll talk about it at home,” Rory grated harshly.
“Rory.”
He held out his hand, trying to block out my words.
“If I go with you, I’ll probably get you all killed.” I shook my head, as my throat went dry. I had to make him understand. “I can’t do that to you guys. I won’t.”
“Dad. Please, listen to her,” Tara pleaded. “She knows the situation better than we do. If she says it’s too dangerous, it’s too dangerous.”
A vein ticked in Rory’s temple as his heart rate monitor continued to race. As he looked over at Tara, his eyes softened. “We can’t just abandon her. Family doesn’t do that.”
“It’s not abandoning me.” I sat down at the end of his gurney. “It’s about getting you guys out of harm’s way.”
“Lexie …” Rory sighed and seemed to search for patience.
“Rory, I have to stay and see this to the end,” I said. “I don’t have a choice here.”
“But you do, you can leave with us tomorrow,” he countered.
“And probably get you killed,” I all but hissed. “If we leave, and Jadis comes at us with everything she has, with Lucy we’d have a good chance against witches. But if there are shapeshifters, we’d be nothing but meat to them. An easy meal.”
Rory flinched. “I’m not a civilian.”
“But you don’t have supernatural abilities, Rory,” I reminded him. “Once you ran out of ammo you’d be done for. And these people, they won’t just kill you, Rory. They’ll torture you first to get to me. And not just you, but Tara too. Don’t make loving me be the reason you die.”
Rory was silent for several heartbeats before he sighed. “I want to speak to Uma and Brody. I want to know what their plan is to protect you.”
“Okay.”
His eyes were shadowed as they met mine. “I don’t like this, Lexie.”
My smile was humorless as I looked at him. “Neither do I.” I gestured over my shoulder. “Let me go tell the guys you’re okay.” With a heavy heart, I turned and headed out to the emergency room waiting area to tell the guys.
Chapter 7
“What is going on down there?” Jake’s voice made my head pound.
“Look, I’ll explain everything when you come down.” I sighed as I paced in front of Rory’s house the next morning. The guys were helping pack the SUV with Rory and Tara’s stuff when I got a call from Jake.
“Why can’t you explain now?”
I grimaced. “Because we’re trying to get everyone out of here and Rory suddenly has a bug up his ass over taking me too.”
“Hurry up, Asher!” Zeke shouted from beside the SUV in the driveway. “They need to get on the road today.”
“Tara’s got like ten suitcases!” Asher called back from inside the house.
“And I have to have every one of them!” Tara shouted, laughter in her voice.
“So, Tara and Rory are leaving?” Jake asked in my ear.
I sighed. “Yeah, along with Maria and Jess.”
“Where are they going?” Jake asked. “Are you going with them?”
“South, I think. I wasn’t really asking. And no. Rory would have to get me in the car by force and he’d never do that. I’m just expecting a fight soon.” I shrugged, even though he couldn’t see it. “Just be careful, someone ran Rory off the road last night and now we’re worried about everyone we’ve been seen with.”
“Oh my God. Yeah, I’ll be sure to keep aware of my surroundings and all that. I’ll let you go deal with that, then,” he said. “Just, be careful. I expect the full story later.”
“You got it, hon.” I hung up the phone and rubbed my eyes. Turning, I started to go into the house only to freeze.
Stepping onto the front lawn was a woman about my height. Lackluster brown hair and sunken hazel eyes, my mother had obviously been pretty once, but years of drug and alcohol abuse had aged her horribly. The lines of Lisa Delaney’s face deepened as she saw me. Her smile was yellow and crooked. “Baby girl.”
“Why are you here?” I asked, my voice catching on the last word. A storm began to build inside me, jumbling everything up until it was all I could do to stand there facing her.
“Well”—she glanced at the door to Rory’s house then back to me—“aren’t you going to give me a hug?”
Every muscle in my body went rigid at the thought. “Why would I? Last time I saw you, you were beating me.”
“Lexie?” Zeke came
around the SUV to my side. “What’s wrong?”
My mother looked up at him, drawing in a frustrated breath. “Who is this?”
“None of your business,” Zeke told her before turning back to me. “Lexie?”
“She’s my mother,” I said in a clipped tone.
His hand went to my shoulder, urging me back several steps. “You don’t have to talk to her.”
Her nostrils flared and I watched her jaw sawing back and forth. “Excuse me, but this has nothing to do with you, young man, so you should just go on inside.”
“Not happening,” Zeke snapped at her before turning back to me. “What do you want?”
Still struggling, I looked up at him, wrapping my arms loosely around myself as I shifted my weight from one foot to the other and back again.
“Do you want me to go inside?” he tried.
I shook my head.
“Do you want me to get Miles? Or Isaac?”
Casting a quick glance back toward the house, I shook my head again.
“Take your time.” His eyes were shadowed as they ran over my face.
I took a deep shuddering breath and let it back out slowly. What I wanted was the last thing my common sense said I needed. With everything going on—the war, Jadis, the threat to our lives—I wanted to walk into my mother’s arms and have her tell me it was all going to be okay. A single tear slipped from the corner of my eye as I tried to convey that to Zeke without words. He got it.
“Whatever you want, Baby,” he whispered as he reached up and wiped it away before anyone saw.
I turned back to her, emotions simmering below the surface. “What are you doing here?”
She visibly wilted, head bowing slightly. “The last time I saw you I was so out of it I didn’t know what I was doing.”
Was it real? Could I believe her?
“But I’m clean now and it’ll never happen again,” she assured me.
I wanted to believe her. Wanted it almost more than anything. She was my mother, and it still felt like I needed her to be okay. “That doesn’t answer my question, Mom. What are you even doing here?”
Her face softened. “I came to town hoping you’d see me. I’ve missed you.”
Questions swirled around in my mind, all fighting for supremacy, but there was one above all else that I needed to ask. “Why? Why did you beat the shit out of me?”
Her eyes narrowed as her lips pressed into a thin line. “It’s in the past. Let’s not go over it. This can be our fresh start, sweetheart.”
I began shifting my weight between my feet again. “Why did you call me a demon child? You knew the truth.”
Her gaze flicked between Zeke and me. “I really don’t see why we need to go over it, Lexie. Let’s move forward and rebuild what we have.”
She just wanted to spackle over the past and pretend it never happened? I couldn’t do that. Once I might have, but now? No. I wouldn’t do that anymore. “If there is hope of any kind of relationship, we have to deal with the past.”
She clenched her jaw as her body leaned toward me. “It was all the drugs. Can’t we leave it at that?” she hissed.
“No.” I wasn’t going to back down. I couldn’t. “I’m not going to just sweep all this under the rug and pretend it didn’t happen. Not this time.”
“Lexie!” Mom bit back. “Don’t you dare talk to me that way, you know I don’t like it.”
“I don’t give a fuck what you like or don’t. I didn’t like being called a demon child, but you did it. For years!” I bellowed, the words tasting bitter and acidic as I spat them at her.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Rory demanded as he strode out of the house and to my side.
Mom turned to Rory, squaring her shoulders as she lifted her chin defiantly at him. “I wanted to see my daughter.”
Rory dropped his hands to his sides where they formed fists that were clenched so tightly his knuckles had already turned white. “We had a deal. You take the check, and you don’t contact her,” he growled.
My stomach tightened into a painful knot. “Check?”
Rory nodded. “She came to town three days ago to borrow money so she could set back up in Los Angeles.”
Mom turned to me. She reached for my arm. “I also wanted to see you.”
I stepped out of her reach and looked around me. The twins had hands on Maria as they watched from the front porch. Her jaw was clenched, her eyes hard as she watched my mother. Rory stood beside me, tense and on stand-by. Every one of them was waiting, waiting for me to make a decision.
All the anger and fear and anxiety drained from my body as realization dawned on me. She hadn’t come for me. She’d just come for money. I shook my head. Suddenly everything I’d ever wanted to say to her surged forward but died on my lips as I remembered the beating, the pain. The things she said. My throat tightened as I opened my mouth to say everything I had ever wanted to say to her, only to find that the words were no longer there.
The woman standing across from me wouldn’t care. Not like Maria cared about the twins, all of us really. Not like Sylvie cared about Zeke. Not like Rory cared. He had two daughters who weren’t biologically his and it didn’t bother him in the slightest. This woman wouldn’t, couldn’t, give me the answers I wanted. She’d never been able to. My questions simply didn’t matter enough to her. I didn’t matter to her. I looked back at the people who were now surrounding me. I mattered to them. And she wasn’t worth my time, not anymore.
So, I did the hardest thing I had ever done in my life.
I let go of the hate, the fear, the pain that I’d been wrapping myself up in for so long. The knot in my stomach eased as my mind and emotions finally calmed. “Goodbye, Lisa. Don’t ever contact me again.”
Zeke squeezed my fingers.
She stood there blinking for several heartbeats, mouth hanging partly open. “Lexie … I’m your mother. We’re family.”
“No. We really aren’t,” I said, making sure to enunciate every word for her before I turned and looked up at Rory. “Make her leave, please.”
Zeke blocked her view of me as I walked back into the house, past the guys. The crowd split for me, each of them touching me as I passed into the house. The love that radiated from them warmed my heart. They were my family.
* * *
Uma, Brody and Rory ended up talking for a full hour before Rory finally agreed to let me stay. Though, to be honest, he didn’t really have much of a choice and he knew it. Eventually it was time to say goodbye.
“That’s everything,” Rory announced.
My heart felt heavy as I got to my feet and followed them out to the car where Tara, Lucy and Jessica waited. “Are you sure?” I knew it was coming, but that didn’t make it any easier.
Rory turned to me on the walkway, jaw clenched. “Yeah, kid. We need to get on the road and put as much distance between us and this town as possible.”
Maria and the twins began talking animatedly in Spanish on the other side of the SUV. Asher met Jessica on the sidewalk a little way from the others.
I chewed the corner of my lower lip as I nodded. “I know.” I just didn’t think it would be this hard to say goodbye.
His face was stony as he took a breath. “It’s not forever. Just until all of this is over.”
I nodded again. “It’s better this way.”
“Safer,” he agreed begrudgingly.
“Then you guys better get going,” Isaac said from the other side of the car.
Maria looked at us over the hood of the SUV. “I hate this plan.”
“We know,” the twins said at once.
Maria’s eyes filled as she pulled her sons into her arms and held them tight. “You two stay safe. Promise me?”
“We will,” they answered in unison as they hugged her back.
Asher hugged Jess to him fiercely, still whispering to her.
Rory turned to me. “I can stay a few days.”
I shook my head immediately. “No, y
ou’re the best protection they have beside Lucy, Tank and Kita.” The massive dogs were already inside the SUV, panting away between the seats. I still couldn’t believe that Zeke was letting them out of his sight, let alone sending them with Rory and Maria.
“You handled your mom well,” Rory said softly, pride in his voice.
I huffed. “I’m just barely avoiding becoming a blubbering mess at this point.”
He grinned. “You hide it well.”
I snorted.
“I’ll see you later, kid.”
My throat tightened.
Rory pulled me into a warm hug and held me tight. “No tears. You get this done and we’ll come home.”
I nodded and took a deep breath for strength before letting him go.
Rory gave me one last concerned fatherly look before moving towards the car that Miles had supplied. Maria wiped her face and came to me.
“Take care of them?” I said as I turned to Maria.
Maria wrapped me in a warm hug. “You know I will.”
I hugged her back tightly. “I’m going to miss you guys.”
“Stay safe, mija, okay?”
“That’s the plan.” My throat grew tighter as I fought not to cling to her. “Keep an eye behind you at all times.”
Maria squeezed me one more time before stepping back. “We will. Just get this finished.”
I nodded. “As fast as I can.”
Maria’s eyes shone for a split second before she turned and went to the passenger side of the car.
I moved to the end of the walkway and waited with the twins.
Jessica began to get into the car and paused. She looked over her shoulder and met my gaze. “Keep them alive, okay?”
I nodded. With every breath in my body, they were going to come out of this safe.
Jess nodded once before climbing into the back seat.
Tara climbed into the seat beside Lucy and reached out to close the door only to stop. Her eyes locked with mine. “Be careful.”
Stunned, I could barely nod before she was slamming the door shut.
We watched the vehicle until it turned the corner. And then some. They’re going to be okay. Safer. And out of Jadis’ reach. I hoped. It still didn’t ease the ache in my chest.
When the Grave Calls Page 11