“Is… everyone here?” Rebecca asked.
“Yes,” I yelled. “Go!”
She looked in the mirror, slammed the van into reverse and hit the gas.
The guy was just coming out of the front door as we shot out onto the street. I craned my neck to watch him as Rebecca threw the van into drive and peeled out. Something about him made me want to stop her, to get out and go back and find out everything about him. He raised his hand and the van jerked to the right, causing Jaime to hit her head on the window and Rebecca to pull the wheel to the left, over correcting and sending the van screeching into the left lane.
A car in the other lane slammed on its horn, swerving to miss us. Rebecca jerked the wheel and we were back in our lane.
What was that? Had he done that to us?
Nina turned from the front to glare at me in the middle set of seats. “Who was that?”
Jaime was crying softly in the back seat. I turned around and gave her the rescued teddy bear, trying to avoid the question. Nope, not going to work if the look on Nina’s face was any indication. Rebecca glanced at me in the rear view mirror, clearly hoping for some type of explanation also. I looked at Jaden who had moved to the back seat, but he was too busy worrying about Jaime.
“I don’t know.”
“Does someone want to let me in on what just happened?” Nina asked, sending death looks around the van. “If no one is talking, I’m calling the police. I don’t know why I shouldn’t anyway.” She waved her cell around in the air as if to prove she was ready to call at any time.
Rebecca caught my eye in the rearview mirror. I shrugged. I had no idea what to tell her. “My husband, well, he was mixed up in some things,” Rebecca said. “We’re trying to move on, that’s all.”
“What kind of things? And how did you get in the middle of this?” Nina asked me.
Good question. No good answer.
“Can you blame her for wanting to help people?” Rebecca asked.
“No, but that doesn’t make me any less curious about how we ended up out here.”
“Trish?” Jaime said from the back seat.
“Yeah?”
“Thanks for saving Dudley. Was that man bad?”
“You’re welcome.”
“Whoever that guy was, he was hot,” Lucy said.
The moms in the front looked at each other and stopped talking. Whew. The assist was going to Jaime here. No one wanted to fight in front of the kid.
“Can we at least talk about where we’re going?” Nina asked.
“Fort Wayne.”
“Fort Wayne? Indiana?”
“Yep.”
“What’s there?”
“A new home,” I said, twitching my head toward Jaime, using her as the excuse to not have to explain things further.
“How big of a reach do these people have? And how many are there? I think we need to get Dan involved.”
“No!” Rebecca and I said at the same time. She didn’t even know who Dan was, but she probably didn’t want anyone else involved at all. Not when she had Jaden to worry about.
“We should be fine now,” Rebecca added.
Nina gave me a look that screamed we were going to have quite the conversation later. I was going to have to avoid her when we stopped for gas. She leaned toward me and I took that as an order to do the same. I unclipped my seat belt and moved closer, our foreheads nearly bumping.
“I’m all for helping people, Trisha, you know that, but what are we doing here?” she whispered. I glanced at Rebecca, hoping she couldn’t hear us. She was staring straight out at the road. “If these people are in trouble we are just going to make it worse. They need to get law enforcement involved.”
And now to convince her without lying or telling too much of the truth. “Stuff happened and they don’t trust the cops. We are free and clear from here on out. We just need to help Rebecca with the girls. You can take turns driving. Nothing else is going to happen, we left the bad stuff behind. It’s like a five hour drive, with potty breaks, what could go wrong?”
She raised an eyebrow, definitely not looking convinced. But she didn’t look ready to yell at Rebecca to pull over and let us out anymore either.
“Serious, Nina, it’s smooth sailing from here to Fort Wayne. And then we can catch a plane back to Chicago from there. Or rent a car. Please?”
She grunted and sat back in her seat, staring out the front window. I sighed and moved back, putting my seatbelt on just in case I was wrong about the whole safe now thing. I’d heal, but I didn’t want anyone in this van knowing that.
“It looks like we can take 30, which will run us south, or 80, which goes east and then down. I checked this morning, but I didn’t know if there was a reason to choose one over the other. Does it matter?” Rebecca asked after some time driving in silence. I really hoped she hadn’t been able to hear my conversation with Nina, but I didn’t know how she could have missed it.
“I’ve heard 80 is a nice drive,” Nina answered when no one else did. “It’s a toll road, so we can make good time.” She was still shooting me death glares, but at least she was trying to be polite to Rebecca.
I had no idea about this route stuff though. My fae job was just to be bait. Cray was the one that could tell us which route to avoid.
“Don’t let them take 80,” Jaden said from the back seat.
“Why?”
“Do you always talk to yourself?” Lucy asked. “Or are you pretending my brother is here? Mom told me about how you say you can see Jaden. I don’t believe you.”
I shot a glance at the moms, but they were talking about driving and hadn’t heard Lucy. Try to make friends, or ignore? Obvious. I was never any good at making friends. “Is there something along 80 we need to miss?”
“I just have a feeling,” Jaden answered.
I stared at him hard for a moment, trying to get him to give me more than that. It didn’t work. He just sat there with a blank expression covering his face. Where was he getting these feelings from? Was his power coming in stronger? Lucy huffed and sat back.
“80 it is then,” Rebecca said from up front.
“Fix it,” Jaden said, face no longer blank. Now he was looking worried.
“I think we should take 30.”
“Okay, any specific reason why?” Rebecca asked.
“We’re trying to avoid places we have to slow down,” Nina said. “30 would take us through a lot of small towns, places it would be easier to get stopped.” Somehow she’d gotten a map while I was snarking with Lucy. Rebecca must have had it. That was one prepared woman. And how did Nina know how to plan like that?
I jerked my head toward the back and widened my eyes at Rebecca. “Oh, a little voice in my head just thinks we should take 30.”
“Oh!” Rebecca looked to the back seat, straining like that would help her see her son. “Okay, 30 here we come.”
Nina shrugged, turned the page in her book of maps and bent over it. She was adjusting fast. Maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad thing for her to be along. Especially with a new player in the game. Who was that guy? And what did he want? Had the Council gotten tired of Starren failing and sent someone else? How much did he know about me? The Martans? It didn’t matter now. We were on our way. Fae Sanctuary, here we come.
I settled back and tried to get my body to relax. Might as well. Today might me the day I sat the most in my entire life.
Chapter Thirteen
We didn’t make it an hour before Jaime was complaining she had to pee. I’d been impressed how she was sitting there, riding so well until she brought that up. Nina had been sending me looks and asking Rebecca gently probing questions, which Rebecca had been avoiding amazingly well. Rebecca pulled in at a gas station and sent Lucy inside with Jaime. I got out of the van to stretch and try to keep an eye on things.
Nina hopped right out too, headed over to an empty area and pulled out her cell. Uh oh. Big trouble now,
if the man ended up mad. I squinted against the sun to watch as she held it to her ear without saying anything. A minute later she said a few words, then hit the end button. Safe. Until Dan got his voicemail anyway.
“Trish, can I ask you something?” Rebecca said from over by the pump. I moved her way. This was probably something she didn’t want overheard. She shivered, reminding me that it was cold out, even if I didn’t really feel it. “So Thomas, my husband, he’s somewhere back in… Milwaukee? Why hasn’t he tried to come back?”
Well here was a great chance to show someone I knew nothing about my ‘homeland.’ But then, I was getting good at faking my way through things. “I don’t think it’s that easy or everyone would be doing it. I’d have to ask Jaden, though, to know for sure. And we appear in a specific place when we go back, so they might have been waiting for him…” Rebecca went white at the implication and I got slightly nauseous about the fact that I’d just destroyed a flicker of hope that I’d accidentally given her. But it was true. He was probably dead. Fae weren’t very forgiving, and disobeying one of the Council’s few laws was the ultimate slap in the face.
“Where is Jaden right now?” Rebecca asked. “Is he doing okay?”
“He followed the girls inside. He’s a pretty protective big brother, isn’t he?”
“You have no idea. The only times he’s ever been in trouble, it was over those two sisters of his. He loves them.” She turned back to the pump and hung up the handle.
The gas station door chimed open and the girls came out, followed by their guardian angel. Made me kinda wish I had a brother, one that would have been with me at Waterton Heights. Or maybe if I’d had one, Mom would never have left us in the first place. She wouldn’t have had to worry about me as much.
The girls got back and piled in, Jaime in the back again in her little booster seat and Lucy with me in the middle. Jaden slid in back with Jaime. His long legs nearly took up the whole area back there.
Rebecca stuck her head in. “I’m going to hit the bathroom too, real quick.” She passed me the keys. “You can start it if you want, keep it warm in here. I’ll be right back.” She headed toward the station, Nina meeting her part way there and they went in together. She must have given up trying to get a hold of Dan.
“Jaime, switch me seats,” Lucy said. “I want to lay down.”
“No, it feels safe back here.”
“Come on, I’ll give you some of the Runts I just bought.”
Jaime thought about that for a second. “Okay.”
They wiggled around each other. Lucy dropped the booster seat in the middle chair and plopped across the back seat, throwing her legs into Jaden’s chest. He let out a whoof of air and coughed. That was interesting. Must have just been a gut reaction because his mom hadn’t been able to touch him the night before. Or could he feel things, just people couldn’t feel him? So many questions. But answers led to caring, and I wasn’t going to risk that.
“Um, you can’t spread out like that,” I said after waiting a moment to see if she noticed that she was sitting on her brother. She hadn’t, and I was totally being weirded out.
“Why not?” Lucy asked.
What a jerk. Did she really have to use that tone? I was just trying to help. I opened my mouth to let her have it.
“Don’t get her mad, please. She doesn’t calm down easily. And I can’t really feel her there anyway, it’s just kind of disconcerting.”
He thought it was disconcerting? He wasn’t the one in the next row of seats, squinting to figure out where one body ended and the next started. But that did answer my question.
“Okay, if that’s the way you want it. You’re kind of creeping him out, though.”
“Trish, a little nicer, please,” Jaden said from his seat.
“Oh, here we go,” Lucy said, slumping down in the seat, a defiant look covering her face. “Quit with the ‘Jaden is here’ crap. Mom might be falling for that, but I’m not.”
“What?”
“I heard you talking in the back yard last night. Just because you know some stuff about him doesn’t mean you’re talking with him. Maybe you met him online or something, I don’t know.”
“Lucy, don’t say that!” Jaime said. “He’s here, I can feel him. I’ve been telling you that.” She turned her accusing gaze on me. “Why didn’t you tell me you can see him?”
“Jaime, we talked about this before.” Lucy reached out and picked up Jaime’s small hand in hers. “He’s gone. I’m here for you, but you need to let Jaden go. I miss him too.”
I watched Jaden, the muscles twitching in his jaw. “What?” he asked roughly when he noticed.
“Nothing,” I said.
Lucy gave me a look that said I was either an idiot or some type of con artist. I couldn’t really blame her. If I didn’t know about the fae then I’d feel the same way. It didn’t look like Rebecca had explained as much to her as she’d said she would. That or Lucy was in denial.
The front car doors opened at the same time and the moms slipped into their seats. “All set?” Rebecca asked as she buckled her seat belt. She sounded kind of funny. Crap. I shouldn’t have left her and Nina alone. Had Nina said something to her? More importantly, had Rebecca told Nina something I wasn’t ready for her to know?
“Yes,” Lucy answered quietly.
I looked out the window, pretending not to notice that she looked like she was about to cry. Whatever problems she had, she obviously loved Jaden if she got this upset when he was brought up. I was going to have to try not to talk to him in front of her. Losing family hurt like nothing else, and she didn’t even have the hope that one day he’d show up with some explanation why he’d left like I did when it came to my mom.
I handed her the keys. “We didn’t need them.”
“Trish, over there,” Jaden hissed.
I looked to where he was pointing. The guy from the house, standing along the road a hundred or so feet away, no car, no motorcycle, nothing. How had he kept up with us? Or found us, or whatever? “Rebecca.” I pointed.
“What is he doing here?” She cranked the key. The van turned over but didn’t start. She tried again and still nothing.
I looked back toward the guy just in time to see Starren come flying out of a portal, sword drawn and ready. I ducked behind the headrest of the seat in front of me. Please don’t see me, please, please, please, I begged internally. All of this was for nothing if she saw me in this van. If she knew I was helping the Martans. Actually, if she even thought.
She stepped out of the way and instantly Wade was at her side, his sword also at the ready.
“Oh that’s great,” I heard Jaden mutter in the back.
“No kidding,” I answered, ducking even lower. She wasn’t looking this way, but that didn’t make me feel much better about her being here. “Rebecca, we really need to get out of here.” I looked back at Jaden, trying not to panic. Nina was here. Nina was here and so was Starren. Starren could not know I cared about my foster parents, period. We needed to get out of here, now.
Rebecca cranked the engine again, right at the same time Starren and Wade caught sight of the other guy. They did not look happy. He straightened and glared at them, even more unhappy than they were. Who was this guy? Hadn’t he been the one that called for them? Starren yelled something that I couldn’t make out over my racing heart, the sound of Rebecca turning the key and being inside the vehicle.
The yelling stopped and Starren launched herself at the guy. She was caught in mid-air by a ball of light and blasted backward. Wade dodged to the side and ran straight at him.
“Try it now!” I shouted at Rebecca.
She turned the key again and the beautiful sound of the engine catching was the only thing I cared about for a second. “Get us out of here!”
I grabbed onto the seat as Rebecca tore out of the drive. It was barely a second before we were on the road, then right off the exit ramp back onto the highway.
I twisted around in my seat to watch behind us. He was gone and Wade and Starren were arguing wildly, arms waving all over in the air. How had they found us? Was Cray okay?
“Who is that?” Nina asked. “Do you guys know him? Is he part of the problem? I thought you said it was going to be smooth sailing.” That last part was directed at me. And it wasn’t happy. “How did he find us?” Of course they only wanted to know about the hot guy. They couldn’t have seen Starren and Wade. No one but Jaden and I could have. We exchanged glances, but he didn’t have any great explanation.
Rebecca looked at me. “Trish? Do you know who that was?”
“Me?” How could she expect me to know what was going on? I hadn’t gotten involved until yesterday, and now I was starting to wish I hadn’t. The family would have been fine, right? The fae were after Jaden, not his sisters. Jaden. That’s probably why Rebecca was asking me what was going on. He’d said back at the house he didn’t know who the guy was.
“No idea.” I didn’t even know how Starren and Wade had found us. Unless Cray’d switched sides again. I wanted to believe that Starren wouldn’t hurt him to try to force him to help, but I knew that wasn’t the case. I shivered, trying not to think about what it would take to make Cray talk. Probably not much. What if he’d never been on our side in the first place, and this had all been some plot? Ah, too many things to consider!
“What do we do about him?” Rebecca asked.
“Any chance he knows where we’re headed?” Nina asked.
“I really doubt it. I don’t know how he could. We didn’t even know until last night,” Rebecca answered. “But then, he did find us here.” She sighed. “Let’s just get on the road, the sooner we get to Fort Wayne, the better.”
“And you’ll be safe there?”
“Yes, they will,” I answered. Hopefully. If Cray hadn’t tricked us, somehow found a way to twist the truth enough that his fae blood didn’t think it was a lie. “He probably just followed us. We’ll lose him.”
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