The MORE Trilogy (54 page)

Tiernan snorted.

“—I just think if the Rogues, or whoever’s set me up for this, aren’t thinking about them yet, I’d like to keep it that way. It’s probably safer to keep my mom and dad as far away from all of this Race stuff as possible, don’t you think?”

“Probably.” They rode in silence for a while, and Tiernan glanced at Emma in the rearview mirror, a slight frown on his face.

“You don’t trust her,” Ava said.

He shrugged. “I don’t know her.”

“You heard what they did to her.” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “She’s just a kid.”

“Kids can be dangerous, too.”

Ava wasn’t sure how to respond to that, so she just squirmed around in her seat, trying to stretch muscles cramped from being in the car for so long.
 

“What’s in Ontario?” Tiernan asked suddenly.
 

Ava jolted, surprised at the question. Then she panicked. Again. All afternoon she’d been trying to come up with a plan of action. A way to deal with the fact that she knew—well, she
suspected
—where Caleb was heading.

The Guardian Colony.
 

The Colony where Caleb had wanted to take her, to hide her from the Council when they’d been on the run.
 

Rogues were definitely a threat to the Colony, but so was the Council. She didn’t know who to go to for help—how to warn the Colony about what was happening. She didn’t have any of Caleb’s contact numbers—Audrey, who’d relocated to the Colony after the safe house was attacked by Rogues, Bel, or any of the others. Only Caleb knew how to reach them. And Caleb was currently under the control of the Rogues.

“You going to answer me?” Tiernan snapped in an irritated growl. “If you expect me to trust you or trust her
 . . .
” He flicked his eyes toward the rearview mirror again. “It works both ways, you know.”

Ava squeezed her eyes shut, the lights from a passing car flickering red and orange behind her lids. “It’s not Ontario. But somewhere near there.”

“What is?”

“You have to promise me this stays between us,” she said. “If I tell you this—if I
trust
you with this—you can’t tell anyone. Not even the Council.
Especially
the Council.”

Tiernan’s jaw tightened, the dashboard lights casting his face in harsh shadows accented by the jagged length of his scar. “You can’t ask me to do that.”

“Well, I am. If you want to know where Caleb’s heading—where I
think
he’s heading, it needs to stay between us. We’re going after Caleb, and that’s all.” She turned in her seat, fixing him with a piercing stare. “This is nonnegotiable. Caleb. No one else.”

“What do you mean?”

“I want your word, Tiernan.”

“How do you know my word’s worth anything?” His lip curled, the question bit off by clenched teeth.

She was quiet for a long moment. “I know,” she said at last. When he looked at her in surprise, she shrugged. “Well?”

“Why do I get the feeling I’m making a deal with the devil?” He scrubbed a hand over his shaved head and exhaled heavily. “Fine. All right. You have my word. I won’t say anything to the Council. Now, where are we going?”

Ava eyed him nervously, the Jeep suddenly seeming way too small. “To a Guardian Colony.”

“What?” Tiernan shouted. Emma stirred in the backseat, and he lowered his voice to a near-hiss. “Are you out of your mind? I can’t keep that from the Council!”

“We have to.” Ava leaned toward him, panic twisting in her gut. “You know what will happen to all of those people if the Council finds them.”
 

“They’re criminals.”

“Come on, Tiernan,” Ava said with an exasperated snort. “Even you know that’s not true.” She reached out to touch his arm.
 

He flinched, but didn’t shake her off as he glared out at the road ahead, the headlights making his mismatched eyes glitter.
 

“They’re people trying to do what they think is right. Trying to survive,” she said. “And you promised.”

“You tricked me,” he said a little petulantly.
 

Ava laughed. “Nice try.” But somehow she felt she could trust him, that Tiernan would keep his word.

“Can I ask you something?” she asked, desperate for something to lighten the mood.

He shot her an irritated look. “Haven’t you done enough of that already?”

“Not a favor, a question,” she clarified. “You and Katherine. Who’s older?”

He huffed out a surprised laugh. “That’s what you want to know?”

“I’m curious.”
 

He eyed her as though he thought she might be a bit unstable. “We’re twins,” he said finally. “But she’s older. By one and a half minutes.”

“Does she lord it over you?”
 

He smirked, his eyes softening slightly. “Constantly.”

“How long have you known Caleb?” she asked, encouraged by his unusual openness.

“Oh, let’s see.” He rounded a bend in the road, lost in thought for a moment. “Katherine met him first. He was only a kid then. I was in South America at the time.”

Ava blinked in surprise. Caleb had finally confessed, after much prodding on Ava’s part, that Race had a lifespan about five times that of a normal human. It had been a lot to take in, finding out that—at nineteen—she was dating an eighty-five-year-old, but she thought she’d gotten used to the idea.

Apparently not.

“I didn’t realize you were older than him,” she said.

Tiernan raised an eyebrow. “Considerably.”

“Really?” She turned in her seat, tucking a leg underneath her. “How old are you?” She flushed immediately. “Wow. Is that rude? Sorry
 . . .
”

“It’s fine,” he said with a short laugh. “I’m a hundred and sixty-two.” He smirked, sliding her a sideways glance. “Katherine’s a hundred and sixty-two, plus a minute and a half.”

Ava burst out laughing. “Oh, she’s going to be mad you told me that.”

He grinned. “I’m counting on it.”

“So, tell me again why we can’t use one of the regular border crossings?” Ava slapped away a branch, her feet sinking into the wet mud of the riverbank.
 

The moon cast a bluish glow on the landscape when it emerged periodically from behind the cloud cover as they slogged through a wildlife refuge in north-central North Dakota, heading for the Canadian border. Emma trudged silently behind them, apparently lost in her own thoughts.

Tiernan held up a hand as they neared a narrow gravel road. He searched in both directions before waving them across.

“And why did we have to ditch the Jeep, if there’s a road right here?” She groaned, kicking up gravel as she darted across the road.
 

“Jeep’s probably been reported stolen by now,” Tiernan said after a heavy sigh Ava found completely uncalled for. “We couldn’t risk trying to cross the border with it. And I’d prefer not to have my bag searched by the border patrol.”

“Couldn’t you just”—she waved her hand toward his head—“push them? You know, the compulsion thingie?”

He glanced at her sideways. “I’m not very good at that.” After a moment, he asked, “Could you?”

Ava shook her head. “I’m not very good at it either. Most I can do is get someone to scratch their nose or something like that. Caleb is much better at it.” She fought off a wave of sadness at the thought of Caleb and darted a look over her shoulder. “I bet she could have done it.”

“I totally could,” Emma said, kicking off a glop of mud on her shoe. “I’m excellent at compulsion.”

Ava cocked a brow at Tiernan, but he only ground his teeth in response. She knew what he wasn’t saying. That he still didn’t trust Emma. That he didn’t really like people in general. That he actually preferred to stomp through brush and mud rather than rely on someone else for his safety.

They hiked in silence for a few minutes until they neared a clearing, and Tiernan held up his hand again.
 

“The border’s right there,” he said, tilting his head to scent the air. “When we get across, we’ll need to find transportation as soon as possible.”
 

Ava kind of appreciated the fact that he didn’t point out she was the only reason they
needed
to get a vehicle. Actually, she wasn’t sure about that. Maybe Emma was slow, too.

“Go.” Tiernan waved her forward, the planes of his face sharp in the moonlight. “Go now!”
 

Ava ran across the clearing, only to find Tiernan and Emma both waiting for her in the overgrowth on the other side.
 

Okay, so wrong about Emma.
 

They walked quickly along the riverbank as it wound north, passing fields and finally spotting a farmhouse with a beat-up pickup truck parked next to a weathered barn. A low growl drew their attention to the front porch, where a German shepherd watched them, his snout curled in a snarl.
 

“I got this,” Ava whispered. “You get the truck.”

Her gaze swept the yard in front of the house, finally landing on a stuffed bear discarded in a pile of toys under a newly budded apple tree.
 

The dog, still growling in a low rumble, took a slow and tentative step down the porch stairs, hackles raised and ears pinned down.
 

Tiernan and Emma stepped back quietly, and the dog’s attention centered on Ava as she smiled. “That’s right. Don’t pay attention to them,” she said under her breath. She felt for her gift, and it responded quickly, reaching out toward the stuffed bear as if it had been just waiting for a chance to help out.
 

The bear twisted on the ground, then got to its feet and bounced slowly across the lawn toward the porch.
 

The dog’s attention snapped to the toy, head tilted and ears cocked as his growl turned into a confused whine.

“Doesn’t that look like fun?” Ava whispered, cartwheeling the bear toward the dog, and bringing it to a stop at the bottom of the stairs.
 

The dog took a tentative step down as the bear danced back and forth, taunting him. He eyed the stuffed animal with a predator’s eyes, a low growl rumbling through his chest.

Ava swept the bear forward to tap the dog on the nose and quickly back, as though it was running away, the stuffed legs barely touching the ground.
 

With a playful yap, the dog gave chase.
 

Ava grinned, sliding the barn door open a crack and leading the dog into its dark interior. She tossed the bear across the barn and slid the door shut with her mind, laughing at the playful growls of what she was sure was a German shepherd tearing a teddy bear to bits.

The crunch of gravel tore her attention away from the mayhem in the barn, and she saw the truck rolling silently toward her, Tiernan pushing it with one hand on the steering wheel as Emma helped him shove on the other side. With a last glance toward the house, Ava rounded the truck and hopped in the passenger side after Emma. Tiernan pushed it—Ava helping a little with her gift—until they rounded a corner in the drive. Tiernan popped the clutch and the engine roared to life.
 

“Nice job,” he said once he’d settled behind the steering wheel. “You ever think of taking that show on the road?”

“Maybe if I can find a beautiful assistant. You up for the job?”

“I look terrible in fishnets.”

“Why do I get the feeling you know that from experience?”

Tiernan laughed loudly, and Ava couldn’t hold back her own giggles.
 

Emma looked back and forth between them as though they’d lost their minds. “I don’t get it,” she said, shoving her hair away from her face. They kept laughing, and she shrugged, curled up on the seat, and closed her eyes. “You guys are weird.”

Ava watched the girl for a moment, an idea forming that she was pretty sure Tiernan wasn’t going to like. “Emma?”
 

The girl opened her eyes, but didn’t sit up.
 

“When you said you were excellent at compulsion
 . . .
”