Chapter Fifteen

It had been a long drive back west into Washington to reach Carnation from the cabin in Idaho where Betty Quentin and Landon were staying. Landon offered to drive out alone, but Betty insisted on performing this errand herself. They did consider sending an anonymous letter instead, but both agreed it could be too easily traced and used as evidence against them.

Much better to stroll up to the Darrow family fruit stand, as she was doing on this frosty, clear November day, and speak to Terry Darrow directly.

Betty wore large sunglasses, and had the hood of her thick quilted coat pulled up around her head—all decent as a disguise, as well as keeping her warm on a cold day. She beamed like any cheerful old lady in search of a good deal on pears as she walked up to the middle-aged man.

Terry wore a brown bomber jacket and a battered Mariners baseball cap, and was unloading a crate of apples. His latest customer had just driven away from the gravel parking lot.

“Morning,” he said to Betty. “Just got some great red pears in. And some gorgeous sweet potatoes.”

“Marvelous.” Betty leaned on her cane, picked up a sweet potato from its display case, and turned it over to examine it. “Your lovely daughter’s not helping out here anymore?”

“Nope, she’s off to college. Means I’m getting old.” Terry stacked the apple box on top of the other empty ones.

“I’ve seen her a few times. Smart girl. But here’s the thing.” She set the sweet potato down. “She’s seeing a new boy. He’s a dangerous article, Mr. Darrow.”

Terry’s smile vanished. Sharp wariness entered his hazel eyes. They resembled Sophie’s, now that Betty looked at him. “What are you talking about?”

“Sophie’s new boyfriend. Ask her about him. Ask her if his name’s Adrian Watts, and if he’s in the country legally. Because I can assure you that he isn’t. He’s from New Zealand, shouldn’t be over here at all. Slipped in without going through the proper authorities. And he was involved in those attacks on your daughter.” All true, though misleading, and in any case hardly Adrian’s most dangerous features. Nonetheless, it would alarm any good father and might cause trouble for Adrian with law enforcement. Which was only fair, after he’d put her into similar trouble.

“How the hell—” Terry shut his mouth, and his posture stiffened. He stepped back. “Actually, you know, hang on. It’s cold out. I’ll find my gloves—I left them in the back room—and we’ll talk. You stay here, all right?” He skittered toward the cash register. “Just wait right here,” he repeated, and darted into the shed at the back of the produce stand.

Betty, of course, had no intention of waiting. The man was almost certainly dialing 911. Besides, she had delivered her message. She hobbled to the car and got in. “Time to go,” she told Landon.

He had kept the engine running. Before she’d even clicked her seatbelt on, he hit the gas and they took off from the parking lot, and left Carnation behind.

“She said what?” Phone pressed to her ear, Sophie stopped walking in the middle of the crowded campus sidewalk. Someone’s backpack slapped against her and sent her sideways. She dodged around the other students and hopped up onto the steps of a lecture hall. “Dad. Did you call the police?”

“Course I did. Obviously it was the woman you warned me about, so I told her to wait right there and I’d come out and talk to her. Then I got into the shed and called 911. But she had a getaway car ready. Heard them peeling out a few seconds later. By the time I got out there to look, they were too far off to make out a license plate. Cops haven’t found her.”

Sophie clamped her teeth down against a selection of words her father wouldn’t like to hear from her. “Did you get the make of the car?”

“Silver SUV. Think it was a Toyota. About the most common thing in the Northwest.”

Sophie expelled her breath through her nose. Fear had caught up to her, and her hands were shaking. “But you guys are okay?”

“Yes, we’re fine. No one laid a hand on me, and your mom and Liam weren’t even there. But Sophie, you have not answered my question. What is this about some New Zealander named Adrian who isn’t supposed to be in the country?”

She leaned back on the cold bricks of the building. “She’s crazy, Dad. I have no idea what she’s talking about.” She wanted to sob already. Lying so blatantly, about something that mattered so much, to the father she loved dearly.

“It was weirdly specific, you know?” he said. “You can tell me. I want to help you. I trust you here.”

“I really think she was only trying to cause trouble.”

“That guy David we met. Where’d you say he was from?”

Uh-oh. “Um. Why?”

“Just asking. Where was he from?”

“He’s moved around a lot. Some time in the South, also some here, in Oregon.”

“His accent sounded a little weird.”

Training Adrian on a better American accent: another item for the task list. “Yeah, probably from the time in the South,” she said.

“Then, you two, are you…?”

“Oh. I don’t know.” She looked around, distracted, as if someone was at this moment about to stroll up and stab her. “It’s, um—Jacob’s still pretty recent, you know, so…”

“No, that’s good. You’re taking your time.”

She rubbed her temples with trembling fingers. No, I’m not, Dad, I’m completely rushing into madness. “But you guys are okay?” she repeated.

“Yeah, yeah, we’re fine. And believe me, I’m keeping a baseball bat with me next time I’m manning the stand. And 911 on the speed dial. It’s going to be required for anyone working out there.”

“Good. I hope they catch her. And keep her this time. This is…it’s scary.”

“I know, honey.” He sounded like her properly commiserating dad at that moment. He’d hug her if they were together; she could tell from his tone. Then he shifted back to suspicion. “But it’s awful damn strange, all these attacks on you lately. I’m sorry, but I’ve got to wonder: is there something you got mixed up in that’s causing this? Even if you didn’t mean to? Something some friend was involved in, let’s say?”

This. This was exactly what was bound to happen when you had a relationship with an immortal, and a family who actually cared and noticed what happened to you.

“They’re a crazy cult, Dad. Who knows what they think or why they think it? I probably said something about…I don’t know, being agnostic, or curious about Wicca, or something, where someone overheard me. Who the hell knows.”

“You’ll tell me if you figure it out, all right? We’ve got your back.”

Oh, how she wished they could guard her back—and that she could guard theirs. But none of them were equipped to do that. “Okay. I love you. I’ve got to get to class.”

“I love you too. Don’t worry, baby.”

After she hung up, she tapped out a quick text to Adrian. Scared as hell. Q showed up at fruit stand and told my dad I’m dating you, then took off. I said it was a lie but what if they hurt my family??

Before sending it, she navigated to Tabitha’s number in the contacts, and added Tab as a recipient for the text too. She sent it off.

It was now a week and a half into November, ten days or so since Tab’s first video with a rock star. Since then, she had posted two more. Two separate parties, two new celebrities, either singing for Tab or telling her an embarrassing story while at amusing levels of tipsiness. The celebrities themselves surely didn’t even mind these things being posted; the videos made them look endearing and human. Each one had gotten over a hundred thousand views, and climbing. Tab was well on her way to becoming an Internet celebrity. Sophie couldn’t imagine how she found time to study, and doubted Tab would want to do anything else serious either, such as protect Sophie’s family. Still, Tabitha was her best friend, and turning to her in an hour of trouble was Sophie’s instinct. It had felt wrong during that recent phase of getting involved with Adrian when she couldn’t tell Tab about it. At least now she could, even if Tab wasn’t able to help.

Sophie shoved the phone into her coat pocket and set out miserably across the muddy ground to her chemistry lecture.

Still, it was Tab who answered first, her text coming before Sophie took her seat in the lecture, beating out even Adrian’s response.

Bastards!! Tab texted. I am on this. Don’t worry. We’ll talk soon.