Through the Fire (Daughter of Fire, #1)(14)

“At your house?”

“Where else?”

“With your Dad?”

“I want him to meet you.”

“But will he want to meet me?”

“He will when he realizes that you’re important to me. And you are, you know? Important to me.”

“You’re important to me too,” he whispered. “I wouldn’t be in Charlotte otherwise.”

“How did you find us here?” I asked, remembering that just a week earlier being found by Clay, or any of the Rain in fact, had been my most pressing concern. How quickly things had shifted—I hadn’t given it a second thought whenever I was with him.

“It wasn’t easy even with all the tools I had at my disposal.”

“Tools?”

He rolled his eyes at me. “Evie, we’re the Rain. We have access to every Government database you can think of, and some you’ve probably never even dreamed existed. It’s not easy for anyone to evade our capture if we’re determined to find them. I’m still not entirely certain how your dad has managed it.”

My expression twisted as shock and revulsion rushed through me. “So how did you find me in the end?”

“Through our system we have access to every Internet based CCTV and camera feed. Apparently your boss doesn’t trust anyone very much because he has the visuals from the camera in his shop feeding to his home PC.”

“But, I was so careful,” I said in a revolted tone that I barely recognized as my own. “I never left the house without my disguise.”

“The program we run looks for similar facial features, not petty things like hair and eye color. It picked you up the day you started working at the shop. Luckily for you, I was the interested party this time.”

My cheeks burned red as the reality of his words sunk in. I’d spent so many hours fighting Dad over the job, something that wasn’t important in the grand scheme. That job was how Clay had found me. My heart pounded as the consequences of the discovery struck harder. It hadn’t been easy, but he had found me. Fear flushed through my body, dragging heat behind. Any of the Rain could have found me the same way.

“It’s okay, Evie,” he said, pulling me against his chest and holding me tightly to help me calm down. “I promise no one else will be able to find you. Before I hitchhiked down here, I removed all evidence of the search from the files. No one knows where I am. It’s why I’m staying here—it’s off grid.”

I nodded against his chest and tried to push the thoughts of what the Rain would do to me if they found me out of my head.

“You better go before your dad sends out a search party,” he murmured. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“You’ll come?”

He nodded as he flashed me a silly grin. “Try to keep me away.”





CHAPTER SEVEN


“YOU LOOK very keyed up this morning.”

I jumped in surprise, and my heart pounded against my ribcage at the unexpected sound of Dad’s voice.

“Are you going to tell me what this is about yet?” he asked as my heart slowly calmed again.

I turned in place to look at him, unable to wipe the goofy smile off my face or stop my leg from bouncing with nervous energy. “You’ll see soon enough.”

I’d come home the previous evening to an expected torrent of shouting and concern, but, as he always did, he’d huffed and puffed himself into submission before too long. After his rant, when he’d talked himself into a state of almost calm, I’d told him that I’d quit my job—it was the truth, just a week late. When he asked why, I’d explained that all would be revealed today. Even though I planned to tell him everything, I hadn’t wanted to give him too much warning that a boy was coming over—lest he kidnap me away to a new town in the middle of the night. It seemed ridiculous to even think it, but I’d learned to never underestimate the lengths Dad would go to in order to keep me safe.

“Exactly how much longer am I supposed to wait to learn about these secrets you’ve been keeping from me?”

“I haven’t deliberately kept secrets,” I said, in another slight embellishment of the truth. “I just haven’t told you the whole truth.”

“Isn’t that the same thing?”

“I don’t know, Dad, why don’t you tell me?” It might have been a low blow reminding him that he’d done the same thing to me for years, but I really didn’t need him to heap more guilt onto me. It was beginning to ruin my mood, and I didn’t want to be sour or fighting with Dad when Clay arrived.

His face echoed years of self-doubt and pain, making my stomach twist. “I thought we were past that.”

I climbed off the couch and crossed the room to him before wrapping my arms around his waist.

“We are. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. I’m just too excited and nervous to even think straight.”

“About the thing you can’t tell me about yet?”

I nodded. “I will soon though.”

“You know that I know it’s a boy, right?” he asked in a whispered voice against my hair.

I stepped away from him. “How did . . .?”

He raised an eyebrow at me. “You’re my daughter. I know you well enough to know when something has changed. And the only thing I know of that can put that faraway look into my daughter’s eyes is someone who’s very dear to her. You had that same look most of the time that we were in Ohio. I just didn’t recognize it then.”