Set Me Free (A Fugitive #2)(27)

"Are you coming?" Lucy snapped from the front door.

Zach shuffled out of the car and dug out his keys as he approached her. Her heel bobbed erratically, her fingers clenching and unclenching as she waited for him to unlock the door.

"You either need to pee real bad...or you need to calm down."

She threw an evil glare at Elliot's dry statement, which just made Zach laugh manically. The harrowing day was catching up to him. He coughed back his snicker and pushed the door open. She charged past him and made a break for the stairs.

"Lucy!" Elliot shouted as he flicked the door closed behind us.

She froze on the stairwell, clutching the railing as if it was the only thing keeping her upright.

"You can't quit now."

Her blue eyes were vivid as she slowly spun to face him. With her dark hair and pale skin, she looked like Snow White...after eating the apple.

Zach threw Elliot a look of warning, but he ignored it, approaching the bottom step with a pointed finger.

"Lucy Tate. That is who you are. No matter what you call yourself or who you become in this life, you will always, underneath it all, be Lucy Tate...the daughter of Jack and Edith Tate."

The tendons in her neck strained as she drew in a sharp breath.

"You owe it to your parents to keep going."

"Elliot, we screwed up! There's nothing left and now we have to deal with the FBI looking into this! We'll be identified! They'll find us. We're screwed!" She slapped the railing.

Elliot's tongue darted out the corner of his mouth for a second. "They haven't found us yet. We still have time." He sighed, dragging a hand through his hair. "I didn't know your parents, okay. And you probably think I have no right to be talking about them, but I know you and..." He swallowed. "And I actually think you're kinda awesome, which means they must have been pretty cool."

Lucy's eyebrows shot up, her blue eyes growing wide. Zach was pretty sure his face was doing the same thing. Elliot was never this nice to people. Zach knew his marshmallow interior existed, but the guy never let anyone else see it.

Elliot walked up the first three steps so his eyes were in line with Lucy's. "Let's just forget about the whole FBI thing for a second and focus on why we're really doing this."

Her forehead creased.

"Because your parents...and you...deserve justice. If it were me, I'd want to honor them, and you can do that by exposing their killer."

Lucy's hands were shaking as she let out a sigh and gripped her forehead. "I want to, but it's too hard. He's too powerful. He'll win."

Flicking a look down the stairwell, Elliot pointed at Zach. "Isn't there some sort of quote about the hardest things to get, being the most rewarding or something?"

There was a stunned pause in the room, before Lucy suddenly snickered.

"You're such an ass, Elliot." She pressed her palms into her eyes and dropped onto the stair. "Why do you have to be right?"

Spinning on his heel, he slumped down beside her, throwing his arm over her shoulders.

"Zach and I are with you all the way...and Alex. You know none of us will be able to let this rest now. And you know we'll have a stronger chance of beating this jackass with your help. He won't win, because we're not going to let him. The little mishap today has just added a certain urgency to our quest."

"Little mishap?" Lucy looked at him incredulously.

"Yeah, well..." Elliot tipped his head. "Okay, a pretty, big, shitty mishap, but still....nothing we can't overcome."

Her jaw shifted to the side as she closed her eyes. "What if you guys get hurt?"

"We'll heal."

"What if he kills you?"

"Then we'll die fighting for something we believe in. That's a worthy death, Lu—"

"You don't understand anything about death!" She slapped his leg. Her lips quivered as she drew in a breath. "Have you ever seen life leave someone's body before? Have you been there when they took their last breath?"

"Yes."

Elliot's quiet response made Lucy's face drop. Her anguished crinkles vanished, replaced with a look of sympathy that only she could really muster.

"I watched my grandmother die." Elliot swallowed. "She was only fifty-five and she'd been raising me since my mom split. She was the closest thing to a mother that I had. And she was beautiful and awesome. Her death was slow and painful. I was nine-years-old and I can still picture it like it was yesterday. I was holding her hand when she passed and it wasn't lovely and romantic like they make it out to be. It tore my heart out."

Lucy gently slid her fingers over his hand. "I'm sorry."

With a shake of his head, Elliot cleared his throat and sat up straighter. His final sniff let them all know that the conversation was coming to an end. "You might disagree with me, but it almost doesn't matter how you lose them. It kills your soul, regardless." He shook her fingers off his hand and pierced her with a stern look. "I just don't see how you can sit back and let this guy win. I mean what if he takes someone else's parents. Hell, Lucy, he probably already has. You can't keep hiding behind your fear. It's selfish. If anyone ever threatened my family I would go after them and tear them apart any way I could."