Fresno, California wasn’t my destination.

It was merely a stop off.

I wasn’t sure what the final destination would be, but I’d figure that out. I needed to do it soon, though.

The hotel we were staying at was one of the stay-by-the-week places, and I’d paid in advance to get the cheapest rate. My plan was to be out of there before the week was up, preferably on a bus out of the state. I wasn’t planning on taking the car. While Papa didn’t have friends on the police force, Vano did, and I wasn’t taking the risk that the car could be traced to us.

I’d already done a few things to make it harder to link it to us for the time being, but that wasn’t going to solve the problem for good. I’d stopped by the Los Angeles International Airport and visited the long-term parking area, removing a few license plates at random and putting them on various cars, a bit of musical chairs, as it were. I’d left mine on a car that was a similar color to ours and the same make and model, then put the license plate to that one on a completely different car and taken one of the other license plates to put on mine. I had no idea whose plate I had.

It was a risky game, and as soon as I could, I was ditching the car.

Right now, it was parked in the hotel parking lot across the street, and if I didn’t need to go back and get it, I wouldn’t. I’d chosen a hotel within walking distance of the bus station so we could always hike it and leave the car there. I wouldn’t miss it.

There wasn’t much from that life I would miss.

An image of Kian’s face flashed through my mind, but I banished it. I couldn’t let myself think about him, or what I’d done to his mother. I had my own problems, and one of them was sleeping in the bed behind me. Joelle hadn’t slept much at all the night before, and it had finally caught up with her. She was worried about everything we were doing – so was I, but I couldn’t convince her to stop worrying and let me handle it.

I knew, because I’d tried.

Sighing, I got up and paced over to the window, staring outside.

For now, we were safe. It hadn’t been that long since we’d left Papa’s house, and even though I knew they were looking for us, they wouldn’t be able to track us down as quickly as that.

Once we got out of the state, we’d be safe.

You could always go to the police…

I cut that thought off before it went any further. Going to the police would be the last step now, especially after what I’d done. I would go if I had to, if that’s what it took to save Joelle, but unless it came down to that, and that alone, it wasn’t happening.

I didn’t want my little sister ending up in foster care.

I didn’t want me ending up in jail, even if I deserved it.

“You’ll figure something out,” I told myself, shoving my hands into the pocket of my sweater. Something crumpled under my hand, and I frowned, pulling out the picture I shoved in there the day before.

The woman and the child stared out at me from the picture as I studied it. The little boy reminded me of somebody, especially his smile, but I couldn’t figure out who. Were they somebody in the clan? Flipping it over, I eyed the two names scrawled on the back.

Catherine and Nicco. There was also a year – it had been taken close to thirty years earlier.

I couldn’t think of any Catherine I knew, or a Nicco, but I didn’t know every single person in the clan.

Still, that smile…

With time to kill, I sat down at the small desk near the window and pulled out the laptop I’d brought with me. I’d bought it myself from somebody in the clan. I’d told Papa I needed the money, true, and he’d given it to me, true, but I’d bought it, and I was the one who used it, therefore, as far as I was concerned, that made it mine.

He wasn’t the one who did all the research on the cons that got ran out of our house anyway.

As the old thing whined its way to life, I pulled out the hotel card with the WIFI connection information on it and hoped the damn thing would actually stay connected.

One of my favorite tools online these days were ancestry websites. It helped to have a little more than a first name, but I was still going to take a stab at it. I plugged in a couple of last names from the clan as I searched but came up short.

When it finally occurred to me that there was one name that should have been the first to try, it hit me with the impact of a hammer swung at my gut. Automatically, I shied away from the idea, even as part of me already knew it was right.

In the search bar, I punched in Catherine Marks, then picked up the picture, studying it closely. She looked young. Like maybe even as young as Joelle was.

“Please don’t let that be the case,” I muttered. But I already knew it was.

In the search area, I added in a year of birth that would have made her roughly eighteen at the time the picture was taken, with a margin of error for five years on either side.

“Let the search begin.” Hitting enter, I leaned back and waited.

Her name was now Catherine Alexander.

According to the records I’d unearthed, the boy – well, he was a grown man now – was Nicco Alexander. His name had been officially changed at some point.

I had a brother.

Catherine had been married to my father.

I had a brother.

And neither of them were part of the clan.

My breath came in harsh bursts as I struggled to deal with that knowledge. I wanted to hurt Papa for keeping this from me. How dare he!

Yet, at the same time, part of me wanted to dance.

I had family – family outside the clan.

Somebody I could turn to, maybe.

My hands shook as I hunted for more information on them. Bit by bit, more of it turned up, although the hardest piece to find was a way to contact one of them.

I finally did manage to get an address.

Just over three hours away.

In Monterey, California.

Monterey.

I had family in Monterey.

Behind me, Joelle made a soft sighing sound in her sleep, and I closed my eyes.

We had family in Monterey.