Thunder Road (Rain Chaser Book 1) (12 page)

Keeping a table between us was a good idea.

Being in my Mustang with him for the next two days would be…interesting.

A slim part of me hoped someone else would attack us just so we’d continue to be distracted until we got to New Orleans. Fighting for our lives was a sure-fire way to keep my mind off getting into his pants.

I pulled a slim tablet out of my bag and set it on the table so he could also see it. The restaurant, though promoting a vintage vibe, also had a Wi-Fi password listed next to the pie specials. The password was MMMPIE. Because why not?

The waitress came by and didn’t bat an eyelash when I ordered two cheeseburgers, a side of fries, and a slice of apple pie a la mode. Instead of assuming I’d ordered for us both, the waitress then looked to Cade and asked, “And for you?” I grinned. The farther south we went the less anyone judged me for eating my weight in fried foods.

That said, if I didn’t get a few days’ rest from using my powers, I was going to run into some serious trouble. The extra calories certainly helped settle me, but what I really needed was sleep and an opportunity to recharge.

Fat chance of that on this road trip from the depths of the underworld.

I opened the browser on the tablet and navigated to a P.I. website. I had a login but rarely had reason to use it, unless a prayer request involved doing something to a specific person. The service helped me locate the right person the prayer was being directed at. Didn’t want to crash a tree branch into the wrong John Smith’s bedroom window, right?

Cade had looked Leo up that morning, but I wanted to do my own research. I typed the name Leo Marquette into the search box, hoping Leo was his birth name and not a nickname. The program thought, and Cade fidgeted with his spoon while the wheel spun. The waitress brought us both coffee and a pile of creamers. “Looks like y’all are going to be here awhile,” she explained politely.

Her tip just doubled.

She didn’t look twice at the angry red fractal scars visible on my arms. My jacket, which I’d rescued from the tub, would need to dry overnight, so I was stuck in shirtsleeves for the time being. It made me feel exposed, and I was wishing I’d packed more long-sleeve shirts in spite of the August heat.

The search results popped up, showing information for seven Leo Marquettes. Two were deceased, which helped eliminate them instantly. Two more were on the West Coast, one in Portland and the other in San Jose. One lived in Kansas and another was in a New York State prison. The seventh Leo, who had a prison record but wasn’t currently incarcerated, had a last-known address in Louisiana.

I entered the address into the search and used the street-view feature.

A burnt-out husk of a house looked back at me.

“I think it’s pretty safe to say Leo has moved on.” Cade continued to spin his cutlery, his knees bouncing constantly underneath the table. He was a ball of barely restrained energy, vibrating in his skin.

I almost told him to stop, but it might have been the outlet he needed, so who was I to take it away from him?

I looked forlornly at the burnt building on the tablet screen. Our only solid lead on Leo had literally gone up in smoke. Going back to the search page, I entered Jacqueline’s information, and just as Cade had said, she had an address listed in LaPlace.

“I’m still not convinced he’s an adult.” I entered Jacqueline’s address into my phone so I could avoid looking it up later. “Seth doesn’t function on the same timeline as us, what with the whole immortality thing messing up his internal clock, but he called Leo a child. Could he
really
believe he’s still a kid? That’s an enormous mistake to make.”

“How long do you think it’s been since Seth saw him?”

I shrugged. I honestly wouldn’t have put down money that Seth had ever made an effort to meet Leo. His other children were around more often because they sought him out. There were a lot of benefits associated with being a confirmed demigod. Along with a longer life, better looks, and having a parent who is an actual god, there was also the added perk of instant celebrity status. Demis took up more tabloid cover space than actresses with drug problems.

Our waitress delivered the food, and I eyed Cade’s chicken-fried steak, wondering if the cheeseburgers had been a mistake.

No. Cheeseburgers were
never
a mistake.

We lapsed into silence as we ate, the quiet only broken up by my occasional mumbled sounds of satisfaction. Diners never failed when it came to making great grease bombs. It might have been the magical exhaustion talking, but this was possibly the best burger I’d ever eaten.

I looked up to find Cade staring at me, barely touching his food. The intensity of his expression reminded me of how he looked when he was angry, but there was no rage in his eyes. His jaw was set tight, and he couldn’t seem to move his eyes from my face.

I paused mid-burger, making sure there was no mustard on my cheek. “What?”

He seemed to realize that he was staring then, because he shook his head like coming out of a dream. “You’re something else, Sparky.”

Placing the burger back on the plate, I smiled at him. “I’m one of a kind.”

“Thank the gods. I’m not sure the world would survive if there were two of you.” He laughed.

He couldn’t have known, but the words hit me like a punch in the solar plexus. All the air in my lungs escaped in a
whoosh
. I’d done it to myself with the
one of a kind
line, but for some reason I hadn’t thought anything he said would get to me.

Yet he’d accidentally found the perfect knife and stabbed me in the heart with it.

Cade must have seen a change in my expression because his smile vanished. “Sorry. I offended you.”

“No.” I gave my head a gentle shake.

“I did, you’re upset.”

I
so
didn’t want to get into this with him right now. It’s just when it came to Sunny, reminders were hard. There were days her absence felt like a death, like part of me was gone forever instead of living in Arizona.

Twenty years was a long time to live without half of yourself.

There were days I barely thought of her, and that made it harder when something would come out of the blue to remind me of her, and I’d feel hollowed out all over again.

I picked a slice of bacon out of my burger, then dropped it on the plate.

“Well, now I
know
something is wrong.” He touched my hand, and that only managed to make things worse, reminding me of everything going on between us and more stuff I could add to the list of things I shouldn’t be wasting my time thinking about.

“It’s not you, I promise.” Grabbing the tablet, I shut it off and jammed it in my bag. “We’ve got a long day ahead of us tomorrow. Let’s get some sleep, okay?”

Cade opened his mouth like he wanted to argue, but I shut him up with one stern glare. If he kept pushing this, there was a chance I’d start crying, and I did
not
want to cry twice in one night. Blame it on being run-down by all the magic use, but I was hanging by a thread.

Plus, I knew now that Cade had no finesse when it came to dealing with an emotional female.

We paid and walked back across the lot to the motel. He ducked inside to check the room, making sure no surprises had appeared while we were gone. Dropping my bag next to an Adirondack chair in front of our room, I plopped down into the low seat, kicking my legs out in front of me.

I had a gun in my bag, something I rarely had cause to use, but I was grateful to have it right now. As useless as it would be against an immortal, not everyone coming for us would be a god. And thinking about attackers was a great way to distract myself from thoughts of Sunny.

Cade reappeared in the doorway and glanced down at me.

“You sleeping out here?”

“Watching.”

A deep furrow formed between his brows. “Tallulah, I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”

“And I’m not sure it’s a good idea for me to be in there with you at the moment.” I tilted my head up and gave him a meaningful nod.

He smirked. “I won’t try anything.”

I snorted. “I’m not worried about
you
.” The man clearly had no concept of how much sexual charisma was radiating off him at any given moment. I was not immune to it.

“Want me to join you out here?”

The offer was sweet, and under different circumstances I’d have said yes, but one of us needed to be well rested in the morning if we were going to make decent time. We had to get at least as far as Shreveport the next day. I was hoping between the two of us we’d be able to push the full twenty-hour drive, but that would only be possible if no one else tried to kill us between now and then.

Fat chance.

Shreveport was still a fifteen-hour haul, and if we stopped there for the night, we could formulate a plan for what to do when we got to New Orleans.

It didn’t matter if our goal was Shreveport, Fort Worth, or all the way to NOLA. Cade would need to sleep. I could catch intermittent shut-eye in the car, because honestly there was no way I’d be able to sleep now, even if I tried.

“I’ll be fine. It’ll make me feel useful, keeping an eye out for trouble. Get some rest.”

“I’m not the one who needs it the most. You saved us back up in the mountains.”

I couldn’t handle the look of admiration in his eyes. It made me feel guilty. Yes, I’d saved us, but I was also the only reason his life was in danger in the first place. I didn’t want him patting me on the back because he hadn’t gotten killed.

“I’m not tired.”

His audible snort told me he wasn’t buying my bullshit. Not that he ever had. “All right. Just don’t get into any trouble.”

I barked out a laugh, and it felt good to be honestly amused. Some of the tension building inside me released along with the laugh, and I sank more comfortably into the chair. “No more than usual, I promise.”

Without saying anything else he returned to the room. Once inside I could hear the rumble of his voice as he spoke to Fen. I couldn’t make out the whole conversation, but I’m pretty sure he was asking if the fennec was hungry. The timbre of his words was warm, friendly, not full of annoyance that he was stuck feeding my familiar.

Maybe he realized that the hungry creature wouldn’t let him sleep if the food dish was empty.

I let out a yawn in spite of my earlier assurances that I wasn’t sleepy. If I got too worn down, I’d head back inside, but for the time being I needed this moment to myself to breathe.

Without having my phone out to check the time I didn’t know how long I’d been outside—it might have been mere minutes, or perhaps I’d dozed off and hours had passed. But suddenly I was nearly blinded by headlights. The rumble of an engine cut through the previous silence of the night.

It was as if the car had appeared out of nowhere.

I scrambled for my bag, yanking the gun out and aiming it in the general direction of where the driver would be.

“Please, Tallulah, that’s not necessary.” The female voice was rich and friendly, like cinnamon and chocolate. I’d never heard anyone with a voice like hers, so in spite of being momentarily unable to see, I knew precisely who had arrived.

“Sido.” I let my breath out all at once and set the gun down on the arm of the chair.

The lights turned off, and I blinked away the orbs they left behind in my sight. Sidonie Barker was leaning against the door of my Mustang, looking every bit like the cat who got the cream. Her tightly curled hair was a halo around her head, glowing faintly under the parking-lot lights. Her skin was a lovely warm brown with a pink undertone that gave the impression she was constantly blushing. Although she was in her forties, she didn’t look a day over twenty-five. Her complexion was flawless and only improved upon by her bright smile.

“Hello, darling.” She closed the gap between us and gave me two friendly kisses, one on each cheek. When she attempted to withdraw, I grabbed her and pulled her in for a tight hug.

Sido was the kind of comforting presence that made you feel better simply by being near her. It had been a scant few weeks since I’d been in Seattle, yet it felt like I hadn’t seen her in months.

When I’d been delivered to the temple on my seventh birthday, Sido had taken me in. She had been in her mid-twenties then, and still looked exactly the same today. If someone told me Sido was a hundred years old, I wouldn’t doubt it. Her face was young, but her brown eyes were filled with a century’s worth of knowledge.

She was a special case among the Rain Chasers.

There’d been a missed generation, where no chosen were born, and the fear at the temple had been that worship of Seth was diminishing, and as a result no one had arrived to serve him. Sido had taken the job.

In a way she
was
born to abide by Seth’s will, in as much as she was his daughter.

And so she served him until I was born, and when I arrived, it had been up to her to train me. She’d taken on the role of sister, mother, and friend, and was the closest thing I had to a companion as I grew up.

Without Sido I probably wouldn’t have survived my tempestuous adolescence. Surely someone at the temple would have killed me if not for her endless patience to guide me through.

“I brought you your baby.” She nodded towards the Mustang.

It couldn’t have been more than four hours since I’d texted her to request it. “You think whatever flying-car magic got you here might get Cade and me to New Orleans overnight?”

She gave me a thin smile and didn’t laugh at my joke. “No.”

“I was—”

“Do you think it’s wise to be traveling with the Luckless One?”

“Cade,” I corrected.

“Cade Melpomene is not going to do you any favors.”

“Like Seth did me favors by pitting Manea against me?”

“Tallulah Corentine, you forget yourself.” Sido’s expression was fierce and serious, and I knew instantly I’d made a mistake in speaking ill of Seth in front of her.

“I didn’t mean anything by it.”

“You can’t blame the gods for your trouble.”

I bit the inside of my cheek. Was she seriously trying to pin all this on me? Sido was great, but sometimes she leaned a bit too heavily on
the gods are never wrong
side of things. That never made sense to me. They were definitely wrong fairly often. But to say such things out loud was not only frowned upon, it was actually forbidden. My sass mouth could get me in a lot of trouble if the wrong person heard what I said.