Chapter 14
Fourteen
HAVEN
“How did it find us?” I ask, my voice wobbly.
“I don’t—” Becks starts and then cuts himself off.
His hands squeeze the steering wheel, white-knuckling it and he mumbles something to himself about being so stupid.
“We need to ditch this car. Rental car companies can track their vehicles. Someone from the Order could have easily looked up my reservation and come up with some story to con the rental car company into giving up our location.”
I hadn’t even thought of that, but he’s right.
“We need to go somewhere truly off-grid.”
I nod my agreement, suddenly feeling exposed even as we’re barreling down deserted country roads.
With one hand on the wheel, Becks grabs his burner cell, his eyes never leaving the road. After punching in some numbers, he lays it on the console between us. It only rings once before a deep voice I now recognize as Talon’s says, “You weren’t supposed to call.”
“We had an incident.” Becks dives right in, quickly recapping the attack in the hotel.
“You need to get a new car,” Talon says when Becks is done.
A muscle in Becks’ jaw jumps. “I know.”
It’s quiet on the other end of the line, and then, “We had a bit of a situation here as well.”
My heart jumps into my throat. “What happened? Are my parents all right?”
Talon falls silent again and I want to reach through the phone and drag the words out of him. “Haven?”
“Yes,” I snap, only feeling a little bad for being short with him. My mind is already conjuring all sorts of gruesome scenarios. “Are my parents okay?”
“They’re safe. Now,” Talon says, but it feels like there’s more to it than that.
“What happened?” Becks asks.
“A few creatures were sniffing around. We think their goal was to try to get Haven’s location out of her parents, but we took care of them.
No one was hurt.” He pauses. “Well, I should say none of us were hurt. They were in pretty bad shape when we finished with them. We moved David to a different hospital under an assumed name.”
“But he’s okay?” I ask again.
“He’s stable. We’d join you right away, but he needs surgery.”
“Surgery?” I say, panic starting to make my limbs go numb.
I startle when Becks takes my hand and squeezes.
“They think he has some internal bleeding or a perforated intestine that they didn’t catch right away. They’re prepping him now.”
I put my free hand up to my mouth as tears begin to well. This is a nightmare.
“Can Haven talk to her parents for a few minutes?” Becks asks, and Talon agrees.
I hear some shuffling on the other end of the line, then my mom picks up, her voice as anxious as I feel as she quickly asks me if I’m okay.
I tell her I am, not mentioning the most recent attack.
She tells me they’re okay and not to worry about my dad, that he’s strong and that Talon and Locklyn are keeping them safe.
I want to ask my mom all about Locklyn, but it’s not the time or place, so after only a few short minutes we’re saying we love each other and the phone is getting handed back to Talon.
His voice lowers, and I think he’s left the room when he says, “I was just about to get rid of my phone, so don’t try to call Locklyn or me on our regular numbers anymore. I’m going to send you an address from my burner phone. Go there and lay low.”
“Where are you sending us?” I ask.
“It’s our personal safe house. No one knows about it except for me and Locklyn. It was purchased with cash under an alias, so no one at the Order knows about it.”
“You have your own safe house?” Becks asks, his eyebrows raised.
“Did you forget how I grew up?”
“Good point,” Becks responds, even though I don’t understand what that has to do with it.
“For now, it’s best if David gets the medical attention he needs. When he’s okay to travel, we’ll meet you there.”
Someone in the background calls for Talon and my heart starts to beat quickly. The voice is at once both familiar and unfamiliar. “Tell Becks to stay safe, and to take care of my sister.”
Sister. I have a sister. It’s still hard to believe.
“Did you hear that?” Talon asks, and Becks cuts his eyes to me.
“Yeah, we did,” he says. “You stay safe too.”
“Always. And don’t forget to ditch that car,” Talon says, and then disconnects.
Becks rolls his eyes at the parting comment, and it’s only then that I realize he’s still holding my hand.
I glance down at our intertwined fingers. I should probably let go, but it feels . . . nice. Comforting and grounding. In this moment, that’s exactly what I need.
Becks’ phone chimes with an incoming text and he releases my hand to check it. After taking a quick look at the screen, he pulls a U-turn in the middle of the road.
“Looks like we’re headed to the Black Mountains,” he says. “But first, we need to find ourselves a different ride.”
Finding another car isn’t easy out here, but we finally come across a small town with a rundown twenty-four-hour big-box store and a half-empty lot. Becks is specific about needing a vehicle with four-wheel drive to handle rough terrain. Apparently, Talon’s safe house is off the beaten track.
We find an old Bronco tucked on the side of the building in what we assumed is the employee parking area. After hotwiring it, a skill I didn’t think someone like Becks would have, we’re barreling down another country road headed southwest.
Becks handles the unlit curves in the road with ease, and before I realize it, I start to doze, leaning my head against the cold window. I sleep for hours, the hum of the engine and the low drone of the radio combined with the sway of the vehicle lulling me into a deep sleep.
When I come to, the sky is only just starting to lighten, and I have a painful crick in my neck. I release a low groan as I straighten, rubbing the soreness gently.
“We’re almost there,” Becks says beside me.
When I glance over, his eyes cut over to me briefly, a slow, amused smile lifting the corner of his mouth before he trains his gaze back on the road.
“Feeling refreshed?” he asks. “You seemed to sleep pretty heavy.”
A quiet, miserable realization hits me. Sometimes when I’m really exhausted, I snore . . . and drool.
I clear my throat, and turning my head toward the window rub around my mouth, feeling for dried drool, relieved when I don’t find anything.
“Yeah, I guess I was pretty tired,” I say. “I’m sorry you had to drive all night.”
He shrugs. “No big deal. I don’t need a lot of sleep. And once we get to the safe house there will be plenty of time to rest. I’m glad you got to rest. Your body needs it.”
I glance out the window as the early morning sun starts to brighten the scenery around us. We’re in a wooded area. A fine layer of snow covers the ground and tree branches.
“Snow? Isn’t it a little early for that?”
Becks shakes his head. “Not at this elevation.”
“Where are we?”
“The Black Mountains,” Becks answers. “We’re less than an hour from the safe house. I haven’t seen another vehicle or dwelling in over twenty minutes.”
“Well, that’s good. Because it—” I cut myself off with a gasp when I get a peek of my reflection in the window.
I may not be covered in drool, but I have a crease cutting through the side of my face like a scar from leaning up against the leather seat, and the hair on one side of my head looks like birds decided to nest in it.
Fumbling with the visor, I finally flip it down for a proper look at myself, but the reflection in the small mirror isn’t any better than the peek I caught in the window.
“Oh gosh,” I mumble, finger-combing my hair.
Becks releases a low chuckle beside me. “It’s not that bad.”
“I was snoring too, wasn’t I?”
He doesn’t immediately answer, and when I glance over he’s biting down on his bottom lip to keep from smiling.
“Would you like the answer that will make you feel better, or the truthful one?”
I drop my face into my hands and groan, “Just kill me now.”
“Naw. You shouldn’t be embarrassed. I’ve seen way worse bedhead than that from my sister. And the snores were feminine.”
“Feminine snores?” I ask, skeptical.
“Like a little kitten purring. Kinda cute actually.” When he takes a quick peek at me, there’s warmth in his gaze that makes my stomach flip.
“Snoring is never cute,” I argue, and he chuckles again.
“Agree to disagree,” he says with a shrug, and then slows the Bronco to turn into the parking lot of a small grocery store.
“This is the last stop before the safe house. Talon probably has some sort of food stored up there, but unless we want to be eating cans of Spam and freeze-dried fruit, we should probably grab a few things here.”
I’m surprised to find the store is open at this early hour, but I’m not surprised to find we’re the only shoppers.
Becks and I split up to grab some rations. The store is sparsely furnished, with some items looking like they’ve been on the shelves for years. A fine layer of dust is on the mac n’ cheese boxes when I grab one, but I figure that stuff never goes bad, right?
I add a modest amount of food into the cart, meeting Becks back up at the front after about fifteen minutes of shopping.
Our carts couldn’t be more different. Becks’ is loaded with frozen meats and veggies, and mine is a pile of processed foods.
It’s only now that I realize my selection looks like it was made by an eight-year-old, not a grown adult.
Becks’ gaze flicks to my cart. He doesn’t comment, but I don’t miss the smile he tries to cover.
We load everything onto the counter and the clerk, a pimple-faced teen who barely looks awake, starts ringing everything up.
“I grabbed some shower stuff as well,” Becks says.
Clearly, he’s the adult between the two of us, because between my SpaghettiOs and potato chips, I didn’t think to get any necessities like that.
“Thanks.”
“No problem. You’re welcome to add some of the chicken to your mac n’ cheese for protein too if you want,” he offers, amusement clear in the tone of his voice.
“I’ll have you know there is already protein in there,” I say haughtily.