This time he helped her pull it straight back into second gear, and then, with more encouragement, she went faster and shifted into third. Wind was lifting her hair, and her heart was flying.
They came to the end of the parking lot, so she hit the brakes.
The car stalled again.
She swore again.
Hunter was laughing. “It takes practice.”
Kate looked at him. “Who taught you? Your dad?”
That killed his smile. “No, actually. My uncle. The jeep used to be his. He said if I learned on a stick shift, I’d be able to drive anything.”
She was quiet for a while. “Did he and your dad really die in a rock slide?”
“Yeah.” He paused. “About three miles north of here. Dad had military clearance, so they kept it out of the papers. Even the funeral was pretty private.”
She wondered if he’d pulled off for the driving lesson just so he wouldn’t have to drive through there again. “And you still don’t think the Merricks had anything to do with it?”
He looked at her. “I know they didn’t. Calla all but admitted to being behind it.”
Kate pulled the emergency brake and shifted on the seat to look at him. “She did? And you didn’t—”
He avoided her eyes and looked back at the dashboard again. “I should have.”
Her heart was thundering in her chest now. “Why didn’t you?”
“I couldn’t.”
“Couldn’t?”
“I had an opportunity—and I couldn’t pull the trigger.”
Kate swallowed.
Hunter looked at her. That streak of white hair fell across his eyes, catching the sunlight. “So I guess you’ve got one on me,” he said. “How did you do it?”
She blinked.
“Your mom,” he said. “When you went after the Water Elemental.”
Oh. Right.
She’d given this speech before, when she’d been questioned.
She’d spent an hour memorizing exactly how to answer.
“Two bullets,” she said. “He’d run to the end of a pier—going for the water, I’m sure. I got him first. A shot to the hip brought him down. One to the head took him out.”
Hunter didn’t say anything, and her words hung in the air, sharp and dark and painful.
Then he finally exhaled, and she realized she’d been holding her breath, too.
“What did you do with the body?” he asked.
“Pushed it into the water.”
“Callous.”
Like before, she didn’t know if that was an insult or a compliment. “It was almost morning. I needed to do something quickly.”
“And how did you feel?”
She jerked her head around. “What?”
“How. Did. You. Feel?” His voice was quiet, yet deliberate.
She bit the inside of her cheek. “I don’t really want to talk about this.”
Hunter reached out and pushed a piece of hair back from her face, his fingers gentle against her skin as he tucked it behind her ear. “Last night I was wondering what it would be like to trust you.”
Her eyes flicked up and caught his. “I’ve wondered the same thing.” She had to take a breath. “About you.”
His expression was tight, as if he were thinking, or deliberating.
Finally, he said, “I don’t want any harm to come to the Merricks.”
“I know,” she whispered.
“I know Silver won’t fix the mess with Calla and the middle schoolers and just leave town.”
He was right. She couldn’t even deny it.
She wet her lips. “Then why are you helping us?”
“Because I feel like I have to.” He met her eyes. “You know.”
He was talking about his dad. Her mom.
Yeah, she knew.
He took a deep breath and ran a hand through his hair. “They’re leaving in a week. They don’t know I know.”
She sat up straight. “They’re leaving?” She wondered if Silver had any idea. He couldn’t possibly. He’d be bombing their house right now.
“I don’t know where they’re going,” Hunter added.
“Lucky for them.” This was—this was—she wasn’t sure what. Good? Bad? She couldn’t even nail down her emotions. Hell, she could barely catch her breath.
“I’m trusting you with this,” said Hunter. A note of desperation had crept into his voice.
Like maybe he’d be on the phone to Michael Merrick in two seconds if she gave any indication of passing this information along.
Silver would kill her if he found out she knew.
But she’d seen Gabriel step into the line of fire to pull Hunter to safety. She’d seen Nick’s kindness firsthand. She’d been with Silver when they watched Michael drag Hunter out of a mood and take him on a job. She’d seen them operate as a family, both with their Elemental abilities and without.
What had Silver ever offered? What had her mother?
She felt like she was running a race, right here in the driver’s seat of his jeep.
“If you tell Silver,” said Hunter, “it’s really no different from you pulling the trigger yourself.”
“No kidding,” she snapped. God, she couldn’t think.
“I don’t think you want to harm them, either.”
“Yeah? How do you know that?”
He looked at her, hard. “Because I don’t think you really killed that guy on the end of some pier.”
She threw her hands up. “Where do you think I did it, then?” she cried, incredulous.
“I don’t think you did it at all!”
He might as well have shoved her out of the car and slammed her head against the pavement. She was sitting in an open top jeep and she couldn’t breathe.
Kate flung the door open and swung her legs out. She had to walk.
She should be texting Silver about the Merricks right now. Right now. This was the kind of thing that would get her back on his good side.
Hunter caught her arm and swung her around.
Kate stared up at him. She should disable him somehow, steal his jeep and his phone and take off down the highway—
Then again, she’d probably only make it about half a mile.
Whatever, she’d have no trouble flagging down a ride. She’d be back in Annapolis, Hunter would be stranded here, and the Merricks wouldn’t be much more than a memory and a closed file.
Hunter caught her other arm, and his hands were gentle. She almost wished she’d given him back the pullover so she could feel his palms against bare skin.
Then he didn’t say anything.
She had a thousand insults to fling at him, words to deflect his attention.
Instead, she said, “How? How did you know?”
“Because you’re not callous,” he said carefully.
“You’re wrong. I am.”
“No. You’re not.” He paused. “You called my name, the night Silver shot me.”
She looked away.
“You did,” said Hunter. “I know you did.”
“He misunderstood what you were doing with Calla.”
Hunter brushed it off with a wave of his hand. “You were upset when you thought I broke Noah Dean’s arm.”
“Because I thought it was a stupid move on school property.”
Hunter smiled. “You didn’t kill me the morning after the carnival.”
“I was busy. Figured I had time.”
Now he laughed, but he quickly sobered. His hands found her cheeks, blocking the wind, his palms warm against her face. He leaned down until his forehead was touching hers and they breathed the same air.
It felt so good to be held this way, just the two of them in a deserted parking lot on the side of a mountain, nothing around but earth and sky.
Far, far away from Elementals and death and danger and betrayal.
“I’d like to kiss you,” said Hunter softly. “But I’d really like to try it without any lies between us.”
/> For some reason, that made her eyes burn, and she worried that tears had found their way to her eyes.
His thumb stroked along her cheek, terrible confirmation.
“I don’t remember how to do that,” she whispered.
A smile found his lips. “How to kiss?”
She squished her eyes shut and shook her head quickly. “How to be true.”
He kissed her eyelids, first the left, then the right. “Yes you do, Kate.”
She let a breath ease out and was surprised to find that it shook. She’d never spoken these words to anyone, and saying them now almost burned because the weight of her failure was behind them. “I didn’t kill the man who killed my mother.”
She was ready for him to dig, to ask why, to turn this into an interrogation. But he hesitated, his breath warm on her temple. “Do you want to talk about it?”
“No. God, no.”
Then the cord of tension snapped, and his mouth found hers.
Hunter was fierce and gentle, but there was nothing aggressive about this kiss, nothing angry. This felt like a first kiss—not just with him, but . . . but ever. No pretense, no games, just a boy kissing a girl because of wildfire attraction.
And here, in the middle of nowhere, there was no need to shield their abilities. His power surged and whispered against her skin. The air chilled and warmed her simultaneously, but she felt heat in his touch. The earth rejoiced that they were here, full of energy and talent and letting it ride out in streamers.
His tongue brushed her lips, teasing. Her lips parted, allowing him in, drawing at his mouth until she pulled a gasp from his throat and his hands snaked under the sweatshirt.
They’d done this before, but now was different. Somehow new and familiar at the same time. Her insides were melting away, and it was a good thing his hands were there to hold her up because she was falling against him. A hand cupped her breast, and she moaned into his mouth, arching her back when his thumb found the most sensitive bits.
Suddenly she wasn’t chilly at all.
In fact, she could do with a lot less clothing.
Her hands explored under the hem of his T-shirt, stroking along the planes of his stomach, tracing the muscles of his chest. One of his hands stroked down her back and found its way beneath the waistband of her jeans, just an inch, maybe two, but just feeling his fingers on more sensitive skin had her panting into his mouth.
He dragged the sweatshirt over her head before she even knew what he was doing. Then his mouth was on her neck, his hands grabbing her thighs and lifting her, carrying her back to the car in such a way that she wanted him to quit with the gentle stuff and push her up against the side of the car, just to feel the sheer power of it.
He did exactly that. It felt even better than she expected. The radio was still on, some announcer’s voice filling the afternoon air with football scores or weather reports or even the price of tea in China.
She so didn’t care, because Hunter’s shirt was gone and he was kissing inside the neckline of her top. He was pressed so tightly against her that she could feel everything, and it was amazing and terrifying and sensual and breathless and she couldn’t think.
Her hands groped for the button to his jeans. Hunter made a low sound, an encouraging sound.
But then he broke the kiss and caught her wrist. “Wait,” he said, his voice rough.
And worried. He reached past her and turned up the radio. “What did he just say?”
Kate could barely comprehend English, and she struggled to wrap her brain around this sudden shift. “What is it? What—”
“Shh.” He put a finger over her lips, his attention on the radio.
Then she picked up what the announcer was saying.
“. . . Mrs. Dean recently lost her niece Calla Dean in a school carnival fire a few days ago. She states that prior to his disappearance, Noah was a good student who had never given any indication of running away. He’d indicated problems with a student at the high school, and we’ll update this story as further information is available. For now, local police are treating the area as a crime scene. Anyone with information should call . . .”
Disappearance.
Noah Dean was missing.
CHAPTER 26
Hunter headed back toward Annapolis, sticking to the speed limit.
He couldn’t afford attention.
A big part of his brain was crying for him to make a run for it. It wasn’t like he’d gone after Noah Dean in secret. Vickers knew. Other students knew. What had that news report said? A crime scene? The cops could be looking for him.
And really, he shouldn’t give a crap about one kid who’d caused more than his share of misery.
Hunter just couldn’t shake the feeling he was somehow responsible .
He’d tried to find another report, but now the DJ didn’t want to do much more than churn out the same crap pop songs he played every hour.
Kate was searching on her phone.
Or she was trying to.
“We’re going to have to wait until we get out of the mountains,” she said. “The Internet is taking forever to load.”
“Should you text Silver?”
She didn’t say anything, and Hunter glanced over to see her studying the face of her phone, her mouth squinched up like she was deep in thought.
“Hey,” he said. “Can you text Silver and ask him what to do?”
“No.”
“No?”
She looked over at him. “Have you considered that Silver might be the reason Noah is missing?”
Those coils of tension wound their way around Hunter’s chest again. He felt like such an idiot—hadn’t he agreed to help them yesterday? And now one kid was missing, and he felt ready to go to pieces.
Just like always, he didn’t know who he was supposed to rescue and who he was supposed to destroy.
Your talents don’t make you better than the other Elementals. They make you worse. Just look what you’re doing right now.
He bit the inside of his lip until he tasted blood.
Then he fished his phone out of his pocket and tossed it to Kate. “Text Michael Merrick and ask if he’s heard about Noah Dean.”
“You want me to text Michael Merrick and ask for help?” Her voice was slightly incredulous.
“Not ask for—look, Kate, just do it, okay?” He ran a hand through his hair and wondered if it would be easier to drive his car straight off a cliff.
She slid her fingers across the face of the phone. “Okay. I asked if he’s heard the news.”
“Let’s wait and see what he says.”
They waited.
Ten minutes.
Fifteen.
“Text Gabriel,” said Hunter.
She did.
Hunter only waited seven minutes this time.
“Try Becca.”
Nothing.
Nothing.
What did that mean? Had something happened? Were they missing, too?
Or were they just partying on the back deck and no one was looking at their phone?
Either was possible. “Find Bill Chandler’s name. Ask him if he’s talked to Becca.”
She scrolled. Texted.
“Are you sure this is the right number?” she asked after a moment.
“Yeah, I just talked to him last week.”
“The text bounced back and said that line belonged to an account that has not yet been activated.”
“What?”
“Here, I’ll text Silver and ask what his status is.” She paused, typing. The response must have come back immediately, because he saw her scowl out of the corner of his eye.
“What?” he said.
“I said, ‘Checking in. What’s your status?’ He said, ‘Interesting question, Kathryn. What’s your status?’ ”
Now Hunter understood the scowl. “He’s kind of a dick.”
“Tell me about it.” She was typing furiously at her phone. The wind was making a mess of her hair. She looked
incredible.
Then she said. “I’m telling him I’m with you.”
“Is that a good idea?”
“Honestly, I’m out of ideas. I don’t know what this means, and we’re in the middle of nowhere.”
He didn’t have anything to say to that. He’d driven her out here, and now something was happening and they were too far away to do anything about it.
He kept hearing Michael’s lecture from last night, about running from confrontation.
Now it was biting him in the ass.
“Huh,” said Kate.
She was killing him. “What?” said Hunter.
“Silver says, ‘My question was rhetorical.’ ”
“So he knew you were with me.” This wasn’t getting them anywhere.
He drove, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel, thinking. He didn’t have enough information. Could Noah have run away? What was the crime scene?
Did Silver have something to do with the boy’s disappearance?
Then Hunter had a startling thought. Did the Merricks? Hunter’s files were at the house. They could have gone after Noah Dean themselves.
Without telling Hunter?
Gabriel had kicked Hunter in the stomach last night, had laid into him with true fury.
No. They wouldn’t have told him.
“Finally got Internet,” said Kate. “Local news says the mom went to the grocery store, leaving Noah at home.” She whistled low, through her teeth. “When she got back, he was gone and there was a pentagram on the door.”
“Silver?” said Hunter, his voice grim.
“Maybe,” said Kate. “He’s not responding to my texts now.”
Hunter froze. “Did you tell him about what happened yesterday?”
“Yes.”
“So he knows Calla is still alive?”
“He said he’s had no indication that her death was not final, and the word of one child is not enough to distract him from his mission.”
Hunter tried to remember that moment during the carnival. He’d seen Calla fall, had seen the blood pour from her shoulder. Fire had caught at her clothes.
And then he’d run.
Focus. Keep thinking.
There hadn’t been any more fires. But Noah had been so assured that Calla was still alive—but his mom, Calla’s aunt, had seemed stressed when Hunter saw her. Even the news report talked about Calla’s death in the carnival fire. If Calla was alive, she was hiding, or she was gone.