Centaur Rivalry (Touched Series Book 3) (14 page)

(Camille, Katherine Newton’s Home in South Dakota)

I awoke to Bianca standing beside the air mattress.  “Hey, you two, everyone else is up.  If you want to catch a shower, the hot water’s almost gone.”

Had it all been a dream?  Drake’s eyes
peered down into mine.  Under the floral blanket that covered us, my toes slid in his direction.  I let them slide down his leg to his feet and under his toes.  I reached over and flung the comforter off of us – it hadn’t been a dream.

Drake looked amazing, better than I’d remembered.  I didn’t want a shower, or a
day long car ride, or to see any of our friends.  He brought his forehead to mine, “Ready to start the rest of our life, Love?”

His words elicited the tingles again from last night.  I looked at the arch
that separated the dining room from the living room; no doors had miraculously appeared for privacy.  My hand found his shoulder and began sliding down his arm; as my fingers tried to explore further than his waist, Drake’s fingers caught mine in his.  “Soon.”

Not soon enough.  Maybe the garage was still empty – anywhere where I could be alone with Drake for ten minutes would be good.  He chuckled at me after seeing my thoughts, “I thought you said you didn’t care if I stayed a Centaur forever
– seems you’ve changed your mind.”

“I knew it was only temporary.  You were the one who didn’t believe me.”

Drake gathered me in his arms.  “I’ll never doubt you again.  You ready to get out of here and get to Cancun?”

“
Yesssss.”

“
Gage and Bianca got married there.  They thought we’d enjoy it.”

“They’re going with us
, right?”

“Yes.  We’ll be there by to
morrow morning.”

Drake let loose of me and stood up.  He held out his hand to help me up off the floor.  I could hear Daniel’s voice through the open archway.  “Vegas?  Do you have a death wish?  Lying low with three million people is about as smart as wearing your underwear over your
skinny jeans.”

“Watch your mouth
, half-breed.”  The words didn’t surprise me.  I was used to everyone calling Daniel that by now.  The surprise came from the voice who spoke the words – it was a female.  Not Bianca.  I listened harder to hear if it had been Katherine or Jessica.

“Sticks and stones.
  Name calling doesn’t make your plan any less stupid.  If you don’t want your brother to find you, you may want to try somewhere a little more remote.  How about Cabo?”  Daniel was arguing with Jessica.

“
Katherine will be there and I’ll be fine.”

“
I hate to break it to you, but beauty and stubbornness don’t make a good combination.”

“Neither do conceit and arrogance.”

“Actually, conceit and arrogance have served me well for twenty-three years.  So have
sexy
and
charming
.  Let me know which attribute revs your engine.”

I shook my head, not believing my ears, “C’mon.  We’d better get out there before Prince Charming
gets a swift kick to the groin.”

Drake tugged my hand back while I was in mid-stride.  I turned to look at him
, and he was all smiles, “Give her thirty more seconds – I’d hate for her to miss a golden opportunity on account of us.”

I shook my head
and pulled Drake’s hand.  He followed, still smiling.  Brent was dressed and on the couch, sitting off in the corner of the dark room.  All the activity was coming from the kitchen, and he didn’t seem to be paying any attention to it.  His eyes were focused on the other side of the room as if something were bothering him.  I motioned for Drake to join everyone else in the kitchen while I took a seat next to Brent in the living room.

He looked at me as I
sat next to him.  Brent seemed so distant, as if he were worlds away.  “Everything okay?”

He plastered a smile on his face.  “
Katherine let me use her phone.  I got a hold of Cassie – my betrothed.”

Judging from his far off gaze,
I was sure of her answer, “She changed her mind?”

Brent shook his head.  “No.  She said she’d wait as long as it took.”

“That’s great!  Brent, you’ve been chosen.  She doesn’t care about the Lost Herd.  That’s fantastic.”

“Yeah.”  Brent’s reaction didn’t make any sense to me.  He should have been over-the-moon excited.  Why was he staring at the wood paneling on the other wall
?  Had she said something else?  Did she give him news of our family?  I tried to probe his thoughts, but all of them were locked up tight, hidden safely away.

“There’s something you’re not telling me.”

Brent shook his head that there wasn’t.  “No, just need to decide where to go from here.  I can’t go back to South Carolina until after the Centaur Council convenes.  Going back now would be suicide and would put Cassie in danger.”

“You could go to Cancun with Bianca, Gage, Drake and me
,” I offered.

Brent shook his head.  He reached over and took my hand, “No. 
You two deserve some time alone – just make it official first.”

M
y cheeks blushed.  My favorite cop from the morality police was back on the beat.  “We will.”

“What’s wrong, Brent?  I can’t help if I don’t know what’s bothering you.”

Brent put his arm behind my shoulder, “So much has happened.  I was sure Cassie would have changed her mind.  She had every right to, you know.  I wouldn’t have blamed her if she had.”

I nodded.  In fact, I
, too, expected that was the news he had been trying to recover from.  I’d never met his betrothed, but I decided I already liked her.  It was a brave Centauride who would risk a death sentence of her own by keeping her betrothal to Brent intact.  I wanted to ask him more about her, but whatever was bothering him – now wasn’t the time.

Right on schedule, we were showered, dressed, fed and piling into
Katherine’s truck and Gage’s rental truck at eleven o’clock on the dot.  The dog that had so rudely interrupted Drake and me last night belonged to one of Katherine’s neighbors.  She’d come by to collect the dog this morning before we woke up.  Bianca told me Katherine wouldn’t accept her neighbor’s money for taking care of the dog, but she had asked the neighbor to return Brent’s rental car.

Gage, Bianca, Jessica and Daniel rode in
Gage’s truck.  Katherine, Brent, Drake and I climbed into Katherine’s truck.  Everyone thought this was safest because if the vehicles became separated, Drake, Brent and I were the ones who needed Katherine to “cloak” us.  No one would be looking for the other four yet.

I didn’t ask Daniel where he’d been staying, but he didn’t seem to mind that we weren’t going to stop to pick up any of his things, either. 
Gage had given Drake clothes to wear, but his feet were too large for Gage or Brent to offer him a pair of shoes.  Drake wore flops in the snow with his bright red toes looking nearly frozen.  When we settled into the back seat of Katherine’s truck, he told me, “Don’t worry.  There’s bound to be a shoe store near the airport.”

The first couple hours of the drive were quiet.  I dozed off and on, each time waking up and looking at Drake’s feet.  I reminded myself that everything that had happened the last few weeks happened for a reason.  Things were going to be okay
– better than okay.

Brent
sat in the front seat of the truck, remaining silent, his eyes fixed on the passenger side window.  Drake and I spoke, but not out loud so the other two could hear us.  We each pushed images to one another in anticipation of our impending alone time.  Drake pulled me into his shoulder, and I loved the way we fit together.

Finally, it was
Katherine’s voice that broke the quiet while she searched for a new radio station.  “So, tell me about her.”

Brent peeled his eyes off of the window.  “Who?”

“Yer betrothed.  You called her this morning.  What’s she like?”

Brent’s smile was warm.  “She’s great.  Her family doesn’t come from one of the affluent herds, so she works.  She’s a nurse.”

“Nice.  What kind?”

“
In a doctor’s office.  The doctor is a Centaur, so I’d been to the office a couple times as a kid.”

She gave up trying to tune in a radio station and shut
off the radio in frustration.  Katherine prodded gently.  “Did ya meet her there?”

Brent looked over his shoulder at Drake and
me as we pretended not to listen.  Brent shrugged his shoulders and matter-of-factly answered, “I had an appointment with the dentist.  The office where she works is in the same medical complex.  As I left my dentist’s office, it was late in the day, and she was changing her tire in the parking lot.  She’d caught a nail on the way to work and hadn’t noticed.  I offered to help.”

“Nice.  Did that co
unt as the Third Tenant?”

Brent chuckled,
“Saving her life?  Hardly.  I didn’t realize she was a Centauride until after I was tightening the lug nuts on her spare tire.”

Katherine
beamed, “If you think that doesn’t count as saving her life, you’ve never been stranded with a flat tire before.”

“Okay, if it had been up in this part of the country – maybe.  Freezing to death is a real possibility.  But, no, she just needed a hand
, and I happened to be there.”

“
She chose ya because you helped her change a tire?  You must have made a real impression on ‘er.”

Brent turned back toward the
passenger side window, looking out over the snow-covered Badlands.  “Yeah.  I guess I did.”

It got quiet again.  The only sound was the rhythm of the road under the truck’s wheels.  A few minutes passed
before Katherine asked, “So, did ya decide where yer going?”

Brent didn’t turn away from the window.  “Not yet.”

“Vegas was my idea, but Daniel didn’t think that was such a great plan.”

Brent’s eyes still remain
ed locked on the window, but he answered, “Jessica will be safe as long as she’s with you.  You two should go somewhere fun.  Vegas is as good a place as anywhere.”

Katherine
bit her lip as if she were arguing with herself, took a deep breath and offered, “If ya came with us, you could stay safe, too.”

Brent
finally turned his attention away from the window but said nothing.  He was watching Katherine.  I tried not to stare, but the energy between them was impossible to ignore.  Was this why Brent looked so sullen earlier?  Did he have feelings for Katherine that he needed to lock away because he had a Centauride waiting for him?  His actions were starting to make sense to me.  Drake nodded as if confirming my conclusion.

Katherine
stammered, “I mean. . . if yer just waiting to go back ta yer life until after the Centaur Council meets, you could lie low with Jessica and me, if ya wanna.”

Brent looked over his shoulder to see if Drake and I were listening.  We were, but in that fraction of a second before he turned around
, we both averted our eyes – pretending to be lost in each other.  It wasn’t much of a stretch.

Brent faced forward
, looking out the front windshield, but didn’t answer Katherine’s offer.  Katherine started fiddling with the radio again.  Any station she had tuned in only stayed clear for about three songs, and now she didn’t seem able to find even one.  As she kept fiddling with the tuner, Brent’s hand reached for hers.  She looked at him as his hand coupled hers over the radio’s dial.  “I can’t, Katherine.”

Katherine
sounded hurt, “Whatever.  I just thought you were worried about being hunted.”

“I am.”

“Then why go off by yerself?  I can protect ya.  I can get ya home to yer Centauride.”

Brent’s reply was strained,
“I’ll be okay.”

“Is it me?  Y
a don’t want protection from a Lapith, is that it?”

Brent’s voice was soft, almost vulnerable when he confessed,
“It is you, and it has nothing to do with you being a Lapith.”

The tension between them was
thick enough to cut.  Katherine drove for another thirty minutes then eased off the highway to a gas station.  I looked behind us and saw Gage put on his turn signal as well.  We pulled up to the front pump, and Brent got out to fill the tank.  I zipped up my jacket to run inside to use the facilities.  The four doors popped open behind us, and Daniel’s voice, as always, was what I heard.  “Hey, Brent, Jessica’s made me a believer.  We’re going to Vegas, baby!”

Brent’s eyebrows furrowed in response
, but he said nothing, turning his attention back to the gas pump.

Everyone shushed
Daniel, and he answered the glares with his typical smile.  “Oh, right.  The trees have ears.”

Within ten minutes everyone’s
bladders were drained, the fuel tanks were full, and we had munchies for the road.  Jessica stood with her back against their truck applying Chap Stick while Gage and Bianca made their way out of the gas station.  Daniel walked up to Jessica, puckering his lips, “My lips are dry.  Can I use that?”