“So we’re supposed to believe a tracker saved our butts and concealed your identity just because he’s a nice guy?” Seth’s scowl was enough to disintegrate gum off hot pavement.
They had taken their conversation indoors as another family wandered out of a nearby cabin and was headed toward the picnic table. Not that the cabin was exactly sound proof. The walls were so thin Jael felt sure a family of termites had been feasting on it for the past decade.
She sighed and plopped down on the bed, resting her head against a stack of pillows. Her mom and dad had taken up positions at the small round table in the corner. There were only two rickety chairs available so Seth stood like a bully in the doorway, arms crossed and stance wide.
“Why can’t you ever see the good in people, Uncle Seth? You are beyond paranoid.” She rolled her eyes toward the ceiling for emphasis.
“I may be paranoid but it’s kept us safe this long, hasn’t it?” He shook his head. “What’s to keep him from calling them back as soon as we set foot in town? Maybe this is just a trap.”
“It’s not a trap!” Jael said, her voice rising with anger. She was tired of him treating her as if her naivety was beyond comprehension. She was not a stupid teenage girl as he so often tried to insinuate. “I trust Shad. He wouldn’t do that. This is not the first time he’s saved my butt.”
Her mother gasped and Jael inwardly cringed at her choice of words. Not only did her mom hate when she used the word for rear-end with two T’s, but she’d just admitted to prior association with a tracker.
“I knew it!” Seth said, his lips curling with a self-congratulatory smirk. “You were up to no good when I saw you outside the other night. Pretending to be sick when what you were really doing was running off to meet some guy for a make-out session.”
The pained looks on her parent’s faces were enough to make Jael wish she had the power of invisibility. Instead, she had righteous indignation on her side. Sure she’d snuck out of the house and went to town to flirt with a boy, but she certainly had never had a make-out session. Not that she wouldn’t have minded a little making-out if things had turned out completely different with Lyle, but…
“I can’t believe you would even think that!” she said, crossing her arms and blowing out a little puff of indignation. “I do not make out with anyone, much less with Shad. When have I ever even had the chance? You guys keep me locked up tight like a prime specimen in a laboratory. I can’t even go to after school functions with my friends. Which is where I happened to go Thursday night.” She bit her bottom lip and turned her eyes toward her parents. “I’m sorry I lied, but I wanted to go to a basketball game and hang out with kids my own age for a change. So Bree picked me up and brought me home afterward.”
Her dad didn’t miss the fact that she’d left out the rather large details in between getting picked up and dropped off. He rubbed a hand nervously back and forth along his unshaven jaw making that scritchy sound that was like a warning before a storm. “So where does Shad fit into that time frame? Was he at the game too? How did you know he was a tracker?”
“I didn’t. Not at first. But if it makes you feel any better, he does turn my stomach a bit sour,” she volunteered, hoping that would take the frown off her dad’s face that the mere thought of her making out with a boy had put there. “After the game we hung out a while. He told me about his grandfather and how he didn’t want to work for the vamps. I didn’t really know if I could trust him, but now I believe we can give him the benefit of the doubt. He did save our…take care of our problem last night. So,” she pushed herself up on one elbow, “can we go home? I really hate this bed.”