“GET OUT of my room, Dad!” I screamed in response to the threat in his voice. I sat up and tried to force my eyes to adjust to the morning brightness. When I could finally see again, the sight horrified me.

Dad barely acknowledged me as he stood with his rifle in one hand, aimed squarely at Clay. “I said get away from her!” he growled.

“Dad, stop it!”

“Evie, come over here.” Without taking his eyes off of Clay, Dad nodded his head to indicate he wanted me to get behind him. “He has three seconds to get out before I pull the trigger.”

“Don’t do this,” I warned, wondering where the easy-going man from yesterday had gone. The man in front of me now was someone new—more extreme than even I ever imagined he could be. “You’re making a fool of yourself.”

“He’s Rain,” Dad hissed.

I turned to Clay, wondering how my dad could so easily tell his history. There were no outward signs of his past, at least none that I could see. Aside from a scar that ran over the length of his left bicep and the hint of another couple of scars that the inch or two his shirt revealed on his stomach, he was just an ordinary young man. In fact, his hair was almost laughable, with each strand of the dark chocolate mess sticking up in random directions, and it hardly screamed danger. A thick gold chain hung loosely around his neck, the circular gold pendant attached to it lying on the pillow near his head.

With a concerned expression on his sleep-strained face, Clay held his hands up in surrender before pulling himself up to a sitting position. Then, taking care to move slowly, he grabbed the loose pendant and slipped it under his shirt before giving me an apologetic smile. Seemingly unwilling to make any sudden moves, he climbed off the bed with extraordinary care, his hands held high the whole time.

“No, Clay. You’re not going anywhere.” I moved to stand between them. “Dad, put the gun down before you hurt somebody.”

“I’ll hurt someone all right,” Dad hissed.

“Dad, this is the boy. I wanted to tell you, but I didn’t think you’d understand that he’s different until you actually met him. That’s why I wanted you to meet him yesterday.”

“You mean to tell me that you know he’s Rain?”

“He’s the boy,” I clarified. “The one from Ohio. And I love him.” I slapped my hands over my mouth, and my face flushed red the moment the words came out. I’d never meant to add that because it was crazy—as Clay had pointed out, we’d only really had a few months in high school to get to know each other. Even if we’d slipped almost straight back into that same relationship like a pair of comfortable shoes, I couldn’t love him yet. Regardless, I cared for him a lot and didn’t want him riddled with holes.

As if my confession spurred him on, Clay came and stood by my side before wrapping his arm around my shoulder. “Sir, I care for Evie very deeply as well. I couldn’t imagine ever hurting her. The reason I was waylaid yesterday was because my family learned that I was in Charlotte, and I didn’t want to tip them off. I couldn’t bear it if they found out Evie is here.”

“Where are they now?” I could see in Dad’s careful assessment that he was taking the time to consider what he saw in front of him, but was also ready to react if it was necessary.

“It was only my sister who came, and she left in a mood last night after I refused to go with her.”

My Dad lowered the gun a little. “Why are you still wearing the pendant then?”

“Pendant?” I asked.

“That thing around his neck.”

“It’s a symbol of the oath I made to the Rain,” Clay explained to me. “But it’s also a family heirloom. It originally belonged to my great-grandfather. Nana Jacobs had my name engraved on the back when she gave it to me for my sanctification.

“So you won’t get rid of it?” Dad challenged.

Clay pressed his hand against the pendant beneath his shirt for a moment before sighing and looking toward me. “I will if Evie wants me to.” He clearly didn’t want to if he could avoid it though.

Both Dad and Clay stared at me, and I shrunk back a little. It was clear they each wanted me to take their side on the issue, and although I didn’t want to hurt either of them, my next statement would have to go against the wishes of one or the other. There was nothing else to it, I would have to try and be as diplomatic as possible. “I don’t care what it means to some organization,” I said thoughtfully. “I only care about what it means to you. If you want to keep it, I understand.”

As I was talking, Clay’s hand had shifted from my shoulder into my hair. For a moment, I was lost in his eyes.

“Thank you, Evie,” he murmured. “I promise you that the Rain dove on it means nothing to me anymore.”

“I don’t believe it,” Dad said finally. “A sympathetic Rain. I never thought I’d see the day.”

I smiled because that was his way of giving his approval.

“Pack up, honey,” he said to me. “We’re leaving today.”

“But—”

“It’s a good idea,” Clay said, seemingly unaware that he’d both cut me off and sided with my father. “Lou only gave me a small window of opportunity, and the longer we stay, the more likely it will be that she’ll find out about you.”

Dad gave Clay a thoughtful look. “I’m not inviting you to come with us.”

Before I’d even opened my mouth to argue, he stopped me with a glare.

“But I can’t stop you from following us either, can I?”

“No, sir.”

“I guess it’s probably better if I keep you where I can see you.” He lifted the gun to demonstrate his point.

“Yes, sir.”

“We leave in an hour.”

“Thank you, sir.”

The moment my bedroom door clicked shut, I blew out the breath I’d been holding in while I waited for Dad’s response. With my exhale, I released my stress over Clay’s safety that had been a palpable lump in the back of my throat.

“You don’t know how close you were to having to spend the rest of the day picking shot out of your body.” I laughed.

“I’m glad you find it funny!” he said in response, with a playful growl as he reached his hand around my waist to tickle me. I collapsed against the arm around my back in an attempt to get away from his roaming fingers, but he shifted and allowed me to fall onto the bed instead.

With his hands free, he assaulted my sides relentlessly until I squealed with the delicate balance of pleasure and pain. Just as I was becoming breathless from the constant giggling, he stopped and, with a contemplative look on his face, shifted his body over mine and claimed my mouth roughly. His body settled between my legs and the sensation sent me to the same pleasurable place his fingers had so often lately. Hooking my legs around his waist, I arched my hips to create the most wondrous friction between us. I tugged at his hair and pulled his lips closer to mine to stop myself from moaning out in pleasure.

“As much as I’d love to keep doing this all day, and I really would,” he said in a breathless murmur. “I wouldn’t be surprised if your dad dragged you from here in exactly an hour whether I was ready to go with you or not.”

I laughed because it was true. “In fact, he might be happier with not.”

“Well then, I guess I’ll just have to win him over with my charm, the same way I did with you.”

Chuckling at the things he’d done to win me over, I said, “It would be interesting to watch his reaction to the dates you arranged for me.”

“You’re going to be trouble, aren’t you?”

I grinned at him. “Always.”

He pulled out of my embrace, leaving me bereft on the edge of my bed. “I’m going to go gather what I have at the warehouse before your Dad makes good on his promise and leaves here with you in tow.”

“You didn’t bring it with you?” I asked, confused that he wasn’t ready to go. If I’d gone to him in the same circumstances, I would have had my travelling bag waiting somewhere just outside the window.

“I didn’t think it through,” he said, before his hand reached for his neck in a now very familiar action. “I didn’t really think further ahead than apologizing.”

“Is there anything important there?” I asked. “We can always get more clothes when we stop again.” I didn’t think Dad would mind helping Clay out with a few outfits if it came down to it.

I could almost see his mind racing. His jaw ticked with the pressure he exerted on it while considering my suggestion. “There are some things I’d rather not leave,” he said. His tone had a finality that made me reconsider pushing him to abandon his things.

My gilt frame came to mind, the one link I had to my mother, and I considered how devastated I would be if I ever lost it. It reminded me that a certain degree of sentimentality was understandable, especially when leaving everything important behind.

“I’ll drive you,” I said. I didn’t want him to have to carry whatever stuff he was bringing with him back to our house, but I also had another reason for wanting to drive him to the warehouse. One I wouldn’t admit out loud.

“But you need to pack your stuff.”

“Pack what exactly?” I asked, sitting up and waving to indicate the practically empty room. “You forget. I’m used to this life. I don’t unpack. Everything I wear is washed and repacked every day.”

“What about this?” he asked, moving to the dresser and picking up the photo of Mom and Dad. His fingers brushed the now completely wilted magnolias as he reached for it and a wistful look crossed his features.

I longed to be able to know what he was thinking in that moment—was it memories of me or his mother that made that dreamlike gaze cross his features? I walked up behind him and took the frame from his hands. “It’s always the last thing I put away,” I said. “It’s a reminder that once upon a time, we didn’t have to run all the time. I want that again one day.”

“I want that for you too.” He wrapped his arm around my waist, and I put my head on his shoulder, leaning against him as the weight of the memory anchored me to the spot.

“I’ll just be half an hour,” he said. “I’ll be back before you leave.”

“How? It’s a fifteen-minute drive on the highway. It’d take you at over an hour to walk there. There’s no way you’d make it back in time.”

“I have my ways, Evie.”

“I want to drive you.”

“I don’t think your Dad will like it if I take you away right now.”

“Don’t you want me to come with you?” I huffed as I pulled away from him.

“Of course I do, I just . . .” He gave a nervous chuckle. “I’m not used to waking up with a Remington in my face, and I don’t want to push my luck with your father.”

“Dad’s a pussycat really.”

“I’d rather not see his claws.”

I laughed. The adrenaline pumping through my body from the rude wake-up call, and the excitement that coursed through my heart over the fact that Clay was going to be coming with Dad and I, left me slightly giddy and extremely playful. “I thought you were a big, bad, monster-hunter.” As I said the last few words, I trailed my fingers up his chest and then touched his lips with my fingertip.

“You’re not going to give up are you?”

“Nope.” I grinned at him. “I’m not going to let you leave here without me driving unless you can give me a damn good reason.”

“What about Lou?”

“You said she was gone.”

“Maybe she came back?” There was no conviction in his voice as he said it. It was clear he truly believed that she’d left, which meant I had no reason to worry.

“That’s more reason I should come with you,” I said with false bravado. It was only because of his assertions that his sister wouldn’t be there that I would even dare to go. “At least we’ll be in the truck and able to make a quick getaway if she’s there.” I didn’t mention the fact that there was no way Dad’s old truck would be able to outrun her Chevelle.

He assessed my determined face for a moment before sighing. “Fine, let’s go then.”

It took a little bit of coaxing for Dad to agree to lend me the truck so that I could drive Clay to get his things, but as I’d anticipated, he had a difficult time saying no to me.

The actual drive to Clay’s warehouse was probably one of my best ever starts to an escape. Despite the need to rush to get back home as fast as we could, I wanted the journey to take as long as possible, so I avoided the highway and took the side roads instead. It was a perfect day for it. The morning sun wasn’t hot in the sky but shone through the multi-colored foliage of the trees lining the road. Clay held my hand whenever I didn’t need to shift gears. It was almost like we were driving to a date rather than planning to leave the state. We laughed and joked as a way to hide the fear that I was positive lingered in both of our minds.

“I’ll never forget your face when Dad had the gun pointed at you though,” I teased.

Clay laughed in response. “Because you were the epitome of calm: ‘Get out of my room, Dad!’” he said in a mocking impression of me.

“You’re just lucky he didn’t come in a few minutes later,” I said, remembering the way his hands had tickled across my stomach.

“Why’s that?” The confusion was evident in his tone.

“It wouldn’t have been long before I made you move that hand.”

He shifted in his seat. “Oh yeah?”

I nodded and bit my lip.

“Which way?” he whispered.

I cleared my throat—I’d wondered exactly the same thing myself earlier, but I wasn’t ready to admit that to him.

He laughed in victory as he won the little game. For now.

It was almost a shame when we arrived at his warehouse. Only almost though because I still had a little surprise for him.

“Okay, I’ll just be a minute,” he said.

“I’m going in with you.”

“Why? I’m just going to be one minute.”

I held his hand between mine for a moment, before guiding it to the side of my face. He seemed to take my hint and caressed my cheek softly.

“You don’t really appreciate what you’ve agreed to with my Dad do you?” I asked.

“What do you mean?”

I laughed at his naivety. For someone who claimed to have spent a lot of time on the road, it was clear his moves must have usually been planned and well executed, not mad rushes for survival. “We’re about to be stuck in a car with Dad for at least a few days while he plans the next step, and then there’ll be the drive to wherever the hell that is. Just because you’ve been almost invited to come with us, doesn’t mean he’ll make it easy for you. We won’t have any alone time for a little while yet.” If I wasn’t going to be able to enjoy his long caresses and tender kisses for almost a week, I wanted to spend a few minutes getting my fill now.

“I see,” he said as he bit his lip and adjusted his position in the seat. “In that case, shall we?”

My voice was almost breathless as I murmured, “We shall.”

I raced from the car so I could try to beat him to the entrance. Running as hard as I could, I managed to get there before him, and when I turned back, he was fixing his shoelace. Ignoring him and figuring I could beat him to his room, I reached for the metal door. Just after I’d given the roller door a tug and opened it, he came up behind me and grabbed my waist, causing me to jump and give a squeal of surprise.

He twisted me in his arms, and before I’d even caught my breath from the shock of his move, his lips were on mine, and his hands explored the skin of my waist beneath my shirt as he pushed me back against the wall just inside the door. I tugged his shoulders, pulling him closer to me and then, using the wall as leverage, wrapped one of my legs around his waist.

Without having to be concerned that Dad was in the next room, all of my inhibitions dropped away. It seemed Clay had the same idea. His lips left mine only to trace a glorious trail along my cheeks, over my ear, and then down the column of my throat. His hands grew more confident and he slipped his fingers underneath the cups of my bra. He moaned almost as loudly as I did when his fingertips grazed over my nipples.

His warm breath and wet mouth over my collarbone sent my body into overdrive. I fisted my fingers into his hair and tugged his mouth back to mine. My body must have almost been hot enough to singe all of my clothing away. If we continued too much longer, I was likely to lose my virginity right there against that wall in the abandoned warehouse.

That thought stopped me cold. What did I really know about Clay? He’d said he didn’t want our first time to be something like this. Did that mean it would be his first time as well? Did he understand it would be mine?

I was about to call a stop to our kisses when Clay pushed up my shirt and dropped down before me to kiss and caress my stomach and chest. When his tongue drew patterns across my skin, I was left utterly breathless. There was little more than a series of incomprehensible thoughts in my mind.

Eventually, I found the self-control I needed. “Stop,” I murmured.

“Is something wrong?” he asked as he stood upright and leaned heavily against me, pushing me into the wall with every part of himself. Resting with his forearms on either side of my head, his breaths came in soft pants as he kissed my mouth softly once, twice, three times. Each time his lips lingered a little longer, and on the third, his tongue scraped along mine.

“No, not wrong,” I moaned desperately. “So, so right. Too right. If you keep going . . . I don’t know what I’ll be responsible for.”

His eyes danced with mischief as he grinned at me. “You were the one who wanted some alone time.”

“You were the one who wanted our first time to be special.” I wrapped my arms around his neck.

“Touché.” He went to pull away.

“Where do you think you’re going?” I asked.

“To get my things,” he answered, clearly confused.

“I didn’t say I was finished with you, just that we should keep it PG-13 for the moment.”

“You’re insatiable.”

“Only for you.”

 

 

AFTER ANOTHER few moments in the entryway, we finally pulled ourselves apart and headed toward Clay’s makeshift bedroom. Almost the instant the door was open, he rushed around and packed up the few things he had. As he packed, I saw one of the reasons he was insistent on coming back to grab everything. Among the bags was a stack of cash that easily had to be a couple of grand. When he pulled it from its hiding space, he gave me a coy look and called it his traveling money. “It’s so I don’t have to use a credit card, they can track me with that.”

I didn’t ask him how he got it—I’d learned long ago not to ask questions you didn’t want the answer to.

While shoving the last of his things that he’d decided on bringing with him into the bag, he suddenly stopped.

“Do you actually want me to come with you?” he asked.

“Of course I do.” My voice was filled with confusion.

“I just realized I never bothered to stop and ask you what you wanted.”

“I still don’t know exactly what I want, but this—you—it’s a good start.”

Reaching for my hand, he swung the backpack onto his back and took one last glance around. “I think that’s everyth—”

“Was that a car door?” I asked after a sound from outside cut him off.

“I think so,” he whispered before putting his finger to his lips to indicate that we should be quiet.

I could hear two male voices in a quiet discussion outside. I couldn’t make out all of the words, but “Clay” and “tricked” were among them.

“Shit, it’s Dad and Eth.” Clay turned to me with a dismayed gaze. “We need to get you out of here.”

I barely heard him over the blood pulsating through my head and the hammering in my chest.

“This is definitely the truck Lou mentioned,” the younger sounding voice said. “See, Maryland plates.”

“It probably means that creature is in there with him.”

I swallowed heavily as I the understanding that I was “that creature” sank in. The breath that was burning my lungs slipped out in a stuttering exhale.

“What do we do?” I mouthed to Clay.

“Stay here,” he mouthed back as he made overly emphasized hand movements and pointed at the ground.

I nodded as he silently dropped the backpack off his shoulder and left it on the floor, before dragging something out of it, but I couldn’t make out what because of the angle his body was in. Whatever he grabbed, he tucked into the back of his pants.

He reached out for me, pulling me to him for a moment. My skin blazed with fear, but it didn’t seem to faze him. I glanced down to where his hand clasped my wrist. His finger traced a small circle against my pulse point.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I never meant for it to be like this.”

“What do you mean?” I rested my hand on his chest and stared at the spot where the thrumming vibrated beneath my hand.

“When the moment comes, take it. Don’t look back.”

“I don’t understand.”

He stepped closer to me, drawing me to him with his steady grip on my arm. His other hand caressed my cheek again, and a moment later his soft lips were on mine. His lips dragged over mine in gentle, sad movements. His fingers twined into my hair, and he drew my face closer to his. He placed his forehead on mine for a fraction of a second. “I love you.”

Without giving me a chance to respond, he let me go. He took a moment to run his fingers through his hair to tidy it. With a sigh, but not even a glance back at me, he shoved both hands in his pockets and casually strolled out toward his family.

All I could do was stare after him as my heat rose by the second.

How were we going to get out of this?