Foretell (19 page)

I felt a little better, calmer. I was about to abandon my phone booth, when the door jerked open unexpectedly. My eyes shot up to the figure looming over me.

I wanted to cry of relief when I saw Rex’s beautiful face.

His expression held traces of worry. He clenched his jaw, swallowing back his fear as relief swept over him.

I might have imagined that but I didn’t care.

I threw my arms around his shoulders, hugging him tightly. “Thank you for finding me,” I breathed.

He stood there stiffly for a moment, not knowing how to react. After a moment, his arms encircled me, hugging back. “I thought I’d lost you,” he whispered. “Never do that to me again.”

I shook my head, not ready to let go of him. “I won’t.”

We left the car I’d driven behind, opting for Rex’s newly acquired rental. “This is a
rental
?” I asked in shock, standing in front of a brand new Porsche Cerrera.

“Yes, it’s a rental.”

“But this is a Porsche!”

Dryly, he noted, “Excellent eye you have there for automobile brands, Spence.”

I ignored his biting sarcasm. “Exactly how were you able to rent this car?”

“I have my ways,” he replied evasively.

“Right. Mysterious Rex Constantin. I must’ve forgotten,” I muttered. “You do realize we’re trying to stay inconspicuous, don’t you? Because I doubt this car will support that cause.”

He opened the door, gesturing for me to climb inside. “I wasn’t thinking of that when I chose it.”

“So what were you thinking?”

“I was thinking that something might happen to you, wondering if you’d be kidnapped, or worse, killed, before I got to you. So I rented the fastest vehicle I could find.”

I blinked, dumbstruck by his reply.

Rex tilted his head. “You, Estelle Spencer, at a loss for words?” he asked. “Imagine that.”

I didn’t know what to say. I doubted ‘why, that was awfully nice of you’ could cover it. I simply shrugged, an admittance of my temporary loss of speech.

Rex shook his head, trying to stifle his laughter. “Get in the car, Spence.”

We headed onto the highway, neither of us saying a word for a few moments. I held my
breath,
waiting to see which direction he would go. South meant back to the campground. North meant he would go with me on this crazy journey to find Marcellus. I’d wanted to find him on my own, but now that Rex was here, I doubted he’d let me try.

He veered into the north lane. I let out a huge sigh of relief.

“Yes,” he said, picking up on my relieved expression. “We’re going to Vancouver. You’re obviously determined to do this with or without anyone’s permission. I figure it’s better to go with you than let you make a mess of it on your own.”

I smiled. “Thanks for that.”

“Don’t mention it.”

“What about Lola and Gabe?”

He shrugged. “I’m guessing they’re probably furious right about now.”

“What do you mean?” I asked. “Were they angry when you left?”

“They didn’t notice that you were gone
yet.
. .and I didn’t tell them.”

I waited for him to elaborate. When he didn’t immediately do so, I impatiently ordered, “Explain.”

He sighed,
then
admitted, “I was already suspicious after you lied to me yesterday at the general store.”

“You caught on to that, huh?” I shifted embarrassedly. He’d already mentioned he wasn’t a fan of my lying once. I hated knowing I’d done it to him yet again.

“So what was the real reason you were there?” he asked offhandedly.

“Maps.”

He nodded. “Makes sense now.”

“Why didn’t you call me out on it?”

He shrugged. “I figured you were hiding something. I wanted to discover your secret, but I thought calling you out on it would make you suspicious of me.”

“It probably would’ve,” I agreed wholeheartedly. “But you didn’t catch me.” I couldn’t refrain from keeping the tiny bit of smugness out of my expression.

He rolled his eyes, noticing it. “No, but I didn’t think you would try to leave.”

“So why aren’t Lola and Gabe with you? I find it hard to believe they’d let you come after me on your own.”

“You’d probably be right about that,” he said. “But I didn’t exactly consult them about it. The morning you disappeared, I caught Lina in a lie. Lola asked her where you were, and Lina said you went to take a shower. As soon we were alone, I cornered Lina. She ended up telling me everything. By the way, thanks for designating me dog sitter. I had no idea you had that much faith in my abilities.”

I grinned. “Who’s taking care of Abby then?”

“Lina took over the position.”

“Abby will not be happy about that.”

He agreed, adding, “Especially if Lina tries to feed her something she’s cooked herself. But don’t worry, I showed Lina where the dog food is.”

I chuckled, thinking of Abby’s refusal to eat my breakfast.

Getting back to the original subject, I asked, “So why didn’t you tell Lola and Gabe you were coming after me?”

He paused for a moment, contemplating something. Sighing, he finally admitted, “Lina told me how you didn’t want them involved.”

“And what makes you think I want you to be involved?”

“Because you don’t have a choice.”

“There’s always a choice,” I argued.

“You’re getting what you want, babe,” he argued back. “I’m taking you to find Marcellus.”

“But at a huge risk.”

“This risk is worth it,” he said, very matter-of-factly.

I marveled at him. “Why do you care so much?”

I wanted him to admit he cared. He had to have known I was waiting to hear it, too. But he didn’t take the bait.

“Call me a sucker for danger. It seems I can’t get enough of it these days.”

I frowned.

It was not the answer I hoped for. It seemed he wasn’t giving up his charade, not today anyway.

“Especially around you.” He continued his sardonic dialog, “You’re like a gift of the especially dangerous variety, all wrapped up with a pretty bow. Just being around you satisfies my craving for--”

I turned the knob on the stereo up, drowning Rex’s voice out with whatever heavy metal song was playing. He stopped talking, and focused on driving.

Though I was especially annoyed with him, I was still too grateful he found me to be upset for very long. Plus, his presence next to me in the car was comforting. I hated admitting I needed someone, especially in this case, since that someone was male. But I needed a friend to stand by me when I faced Marcellus. It was beyond me how I’d gotten to this place, but here I was. Needing someone.

Ick.

I had to admit this was the first time I felt at ease all day. I rested my head against the car window tiredly. A few moments later, I was lulled into a peaceful sleep.

It wasn’t long before I woke up again. It was dark outside though. I glanced at the clock on the car stereo. Almost nine.

“You hungry?” Rex asked, seeing I was awake. I sat up in my seat, taking in my surroundings. We pulled up to a McDonald’s drive-through.

“I am a little hungry,” I admitted. “I hope you’re buying.”

Between the two of us, we ordered half the menu.
A fast-food feast in the parking lot.

“Are you getting sleepy?” I asked Rex in between bites. “Because I can drive.”

“I’m fine,” he assured me. “We’ll get a hotel once we’re in Seattle.”

I wasn’t expecting him to say that. “No,” I declared, abruptly refusing. “We can’t stop. We have to keep going.”

“Relax, babe. We can’t knock on the witch’s door at three o’ clock in the morning, can we? Your chances of getting him to remove the curse may be severely lowered if you bother him in the middle of the night.”

I looked at him pointedly, letting him know his badly timed sense of humor wasn’t helping. Not one little bit.

“Everything will be fine,” he sighed. “I promise. Vancouver is only about three to four hours north of Seattle. We’ll leave first thing in the morning.”

I shook my head. We weren’t surrounded by gypsy charms anymore. We were out in the open and any mind reader who was listening in would know where we were headed. “I want to drive straight there,” I said firmly. “I may never get this chance again. I don’t want to risk it.”

He stared at me for a long while, debating. I tilted my head, pleading with him.

“Okay,” he finally relented. “We’ll drive straight there.”

I breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you,” I murmured happily.

“Don’t mention it.”

Rex and I reached the border at one o’clock in the morning, much later than we both expected. I wanted us to take turns at the wheel, but every time I offered to take over, I was met with some surly, chauvinistic response about how he would rather rot in hell than to let a female drive him into another country. “I did okay driving out of California,” I mentioned at one point, noticing the dark circles beneath his eyes.

“Yeah, and you ended up stranded on the side of the road.”

I rolled my eyes, mumbling an annoyed
whatever
and attempted to keep him awake with small talk.

“Am I going to need a passport?” I asked.

“You usually don’t need one to enter Canada, only to get back in to the U.S.”

“Usually?” I asked. “As in there is a chance I may need one?”

He reached across me, opened the glove compartment, and removed a little blue booklet from inside. “Here,” he said, handing it to me. “I swiped it from Lola. Just in case.”

“He comes prepared,” I commented in astonishment. I opened the book to reveal Lola’s picture, pointing to it. “Except for the small fact that I don’t have blue eyes.”

“Relax, babe,” he told me. “You probably won’t have to use it anyway.”

“Probably. Usually. These are not reassuring word choices.”

He shrugged. “It was the best I could do on short notice.”

We entered the country without any issues only a few moments later. Much to my relief, the border patrol only required standard proof of identification. I got by using my driver’s license. Rex gloated over this.

We headed north after leaving the border. Tall trees loomed across mountainous lands that stretched for miles. The air was crisp and unpolluted. There were no houses or buildings for miles, only the beauty of nature. I couldn’t wait to ride back down during daytime hours. The drive looked as if it would be a spectacular one under the light of the sun.

It took another three hours to reach Vancouver. After Rex finished off his third energy drink, I’d been so worried about him falling asleep at the
wheel,
I resorted to telling jokes and singing stupid songs. Amazingly he didn’t grumble over my lack of talent.

After entering the city, Rex pulled into the parking lot of a Sheraton and cut the engine. “Don’t complain,” Rex warned. “I need at least a few hours of sleep. We need to do our research on this guy before confronting him too.”

I nodded in agreement. “That’s fine. I’ll do the research while you sleep.”

“You will not leave the hotel room,” he ordered me. “You’re twice as likely to get caught by a mind reader now that we’re not on the move anymore.”

“Fine,” I grumbled, my voice tinged with resentment. “I’ll just hole myself up in some hotel room while the key to my release from this curse roams about the city freely.”

Rex rubbed his temples. “Please, Spence. Can we not do this right now? I’m too tired and I won’t be able to sleep if I have to worry about you sneaking off.”

I turned to face him, seeing up close how worn out he looked. I immediately felt bad for trying to push him beyond his limits. “I’m sorry,” I sighed. “I’m tired too, and probably cranky because of it. Let’s get some sleep and we’ll find Marcellus in the morning. Deal?”

“Thank God,” he groaned. “That’s the most sensible thing you’ve said all night.”

Rex grabbed our bags, and headed for the front desk to pay. A short while later, we walked inside our cozy hotel room.

The sound of raindrops beating against the building caught my attention. “The storm must’ve followed us here,” I noted.

“That’s actually perfect,” Rex mentioned, seemingly relieved.

Raising a brow, I asked him why the rain was so perfect as he’d dubbed it.

“Mind readers can’t hear your thoughts while it’s raining,” he explained. “Something about the noise drowns everything else out.”

I almost laughed. All that time spent cursing the skies and the rain had actually been a blessing. “In that case, we really can sleep soundly.”

“My thoughts exactly.”

He dropped our bags to the floor, falling onto the nearest bed, asleep almost the moment his head touched the pillow.

Rex looked so peaceful lying there on his stomach. Strands of his dark hair fell across his forehead. The hard lines in his face softened, revealing just how young he was. Sometimes his hardened, jaded demeanor made me forget.