Mercy for the Fallen (16 page)

Parker drew me aside, his hands rubbing down the sides of his face, as if he didn’t trust that he was really awake.  “Tell me all about what happened.  Tell me how she’s so much older.”

“I told you, time moves faster there,” Adam smirked, leaning against the handrail at the bottom of the stairs.  “Which part didn’t you understand?”

“I didn’t ask you,” Parker snapped with barely controlled hostility, and Eve and Nelo looked up from their conversation.  “I’m sorry.”  He made the effort to control his tone.  “It’s been a crazy night, and I’d like some answers.”

“
You
think it’s been crazy,” I snorted, but I could understand his point of view.  “Come upstairs, let me get some dry clothes and I’ll fill you in on everything.  Adam, could you…?”

“I won’t let her out of my sight,” he promised. 

“Thanks.  See if you can find something that might fit her.  Otherwise, we’ll have to stick her in a t-shirt of mine until we can run a load of laundry or wait for the stores to open.”  We’d need all new clothes for her, a new car seat, a whole new birth certificate that matched her apparent age – the mundane details seemed more daunting than storming the keep at Githa. 

Parker wasn’t too happy about my asking Adam to stick around, but I wasn’t about to let Eve out of my sight until we had a game plan.  He trailed along behind me as I peeled off my damp clothes and changed into warm, dry ones.  A hot shower would’ve been even better, but I couldn’t spare the time for it yet. 

As I filled Parker in on the details of Eve’s escape, I found myself pausing every now and then, listening for the sound of her voice.  I heard the topic of waffles come up again, and glanced down the hall in time to see Adam carrying her down the stairs on his shoulders.  She wore a pajama nightgown that used to go down to her ankles, stretchy enough to cover her for the most part.

“Thank God you’re home safe now.”  Parker wrapped his arms around me, laying a kiss to my temple as I drank in the comfort of his solid embrace. 

“Not for long,” I murmured, knowing we had to broach the next subject at hand before we got too comfortable. 

“What was that?”

I didn’t want to talk about it without Adam there to help plan, no matter how much that was likely to bug Parker.  “Let’s go down and get something to eat while we talk it over.  I could eat my weight in nachos right now.”

“Hmm, I’m not sure we have the makings of nachos, but I could probably do burritos if you want to wait for me to cook.”

In the end, I decided not to wait for anything too involved, going with a frozen burrito and strawberry Pop-Tarts.   Hey, don’t judge.  I’ve had weirder things to eat at that time of night.  Eve’s appetite had improved greatly, and she polished off an entire plate of waffles with a side of pizza rolls without sneaking Nelo a single one.  With her belly full, her head started to wobble again, and I tucked her onto the couch with Nelo to watch
Finding Nemo
.  Suitable, I thought, given our recent adventure. 

The adults convened in the dining room, where we could keep an eye on her, but still talk in relative privacy. 

“Did you tell him?” Adam asked.  He hadn’t touched a bite of food, but I noticed he had no trouble finding where we kept the scotch in the cabinet above the fridge. 

“Not yet.  I thought we should all discuss it together.”

“Tell me what?” Parker’s eyes narrowed, looking back and forth between us.  “Did something happen while you two were gone?”

Was he asking what I thought he was asking?  “Yes, Parker.  Something did happen.  We had to travel to Hell to get our daughter back,” I said dryly. 

“That’s not what I…”

“I know what you meant,” I interrupted him, trying to let go of the flash of anger.  I was tired, my stress levels were through the roof, and I was pretty sure my hair smelled like pond scum.  It took me a few seconds to pull myself together. 

“We can’t stay here, Parker,” I said finally.  

“What do you mean?  Why not?”

“Because Luce could take her again at any time,” I explained, hoping he caught on to the nickname.  “We can’t spend the rest of our lives keeping one eye out for him.  I might need a lot less sleep, but I don’t think I could go without it ever again.”  And I wasn’t sure I wanted to live my life that way, watching over Evie like a hawk. 

“We could take turns,” Adam suggested.  “I don’t mind taking the night shift since Parker can’t be trusted.”

Parker immediately bristled, his shoulders bunching tightly.  “Are you
trying
to make me hit you?”

Adam’s hands came up, but he didn’t back down.  “Don’t take it personally, but any one of us could freeze you in place without batting an eye.  He could sweep in and take her as if you weren’t even here.”

“I thought you were going to leave,” I reminded him.

“That was before Luce took up abduction as a hobby.  Next time we might not be so lucky.”

“You call it lucky that our daughter was kidnapped and taken to Hell?” 

“I call it lucky that Michael happened to be playing Guardian Angel.  If you’d slept in until morning, we would’ve had an adult on our hands.  With years of opportunity for my brother to brainwash her to his cause.”

I hadn’t thought any of this through as deeply as he had, apparently.  “That takes us back to the fact that we can’t stay here.  We make too easy of a target.”

Parker rolled with it pretty easily, all things considered.  “Okay… let’s think about this then.  We can’t stay at the club, obviously.  What about someplace fairly visible, like a hotel?”

“No, that’s no good,” Adam shook his head.  “It can’t be where any one might spot us and a hotel is too public to defend.  I know a place.”

“Where?” Parker asked, and Adam gave him a condescending smile.

“It’s better if you don’t know.”

“Hey, butt out, will you?” Parker turned on him, his temper flaring again.  “If anything, this concerns me more than it concerns you.”

I laid a hand on Parker’s arm, doing my best to calm him down and considered doing the same for Adam when I saw his jaw tighten.   But Adam backed off, picking up the bottle of scotch where he’d left it behind. 

“I’ll go keep an eye on the kid,” he said with a tight smile, but not before shooting me a look as he slid into the living room to watch cartoon fish.  I knew what that look meant.  It meant Parker was about to get a whole lot madder. 

Chapter Sixteen

I chickened out. 

Instead of saying what needed to be said, I dropped the ball completely, diverting upstairs to pack a few things together.  There weren’t all that many things to take for Eve, she didn’t fit into much.  But I grabbed the stuffed penguin she’d been sleeping with since she was born, hoping to help her remember her old life all that much better.  That and a few cherished books I didn’t think she was too old for made a small dent in the backpack I dug out of the back of the closet. 

Parker showed up as I was frantically searching for a change of sturdy clothes for myself that would roll up into the smallest space.  A few simple toiletries made the cut, as well as the fat roll of cash in my sock drawer that I’d been hoarding for such an emergency.  The sense of urgency grew stronger with every minute we lingered there.  

“My bag’s already packed and in the hallway,” he said, sitting down on the end of the bed. 

“You’re not coming with us.”  I didn’t look at him, instead searching for a pair of thick, wool socks to slip over Eve’s feet while we traveled.  She might say the cold didn’t bother her, but the mother in me wouldn’t let her make that call. 

“What do you mean I’m not coming with you?”  His eyes narrowed.  “Of course I am.”

“We don’t have time to make all the arrangements it would take for you to come with us.”  I zipped up the main pouch, looking around the room for anything I might be missing that we couldn’t pick up along the way. 

“I told you my bag is packed and ready to go.”

“Parker, you have the club.  You can’t take off in the middle of the night, people are depending on you.  Plus, after we get to where we’re going, I can’t let you call back here to manage it.  Any contact with people here could lead him right to us.” 

He caught hold of my hand, eyes hardening in anger.  “Fuck the club, you’re my family.  I’m not letting you go out there alone.”

We wouldn’t be alone, but it seemed like a bad time to bring that up.  “It won’t be for long.  Take the time you need to hire a manager or whatever and I’ll contact you when I can.”

“Mercy, you’re not listening to me.  I don’t care about the club, I’m coming with you.”

I gave his hand a squeeze, torn between love and duty.  “I
can’t
take you with me.  We’re not getting in the car and driving to Mexico like fugitives.  We’re not taking a plane, or a train.  The only way to do this is to leave absolutely no trail behind and I have to make Evie my top priority right now.  I’ll come back for you, I promise.”

“Fine, then at least tell me where you’re going.”

I shook my head, it was a bad idea on many levels.  “I don’t know what Adam has in mind.”

“Why does he get to go?”  A petulant note crept into his voice and my anger returned sharpened for battle. 

“You know exactly why.  And if you make another crack like you did downstairs, I swear to God, I’ll…”

“I’m sorry,” he interrupted, letting go of me to sink back onto the bed.  “I didn’t mean to be a dick.  It’s not easy for me to watch the two of you fly off together, you know.”

“Do you think it’s easy for him to see us so happy together all the time?”

“Is that what we are?”

“We’re going to be, I promise.”  I wedged myself between his legs to take hold of his face.  “Look, until we find a way to fix this, it’s like Adam said.  It’s better if you don’t know much about where we’re headed.  I don’t want to give Luce any more incentive to strike out at you.” 

“So I’m supposed to just wait here, knowing anything could be happening to you out there.” 

“Please don’t make this harder than it has to be.”

“That’s all on you.  I’m the one trying to simple it up.”  Parker pushed his way past me, a deep furrow setting in between his brows by the time he got to the door.  “I’ll be downstairs saying hi and goodbye to my daughter.”

Part of me wanted to chase after him and bring him back.  With some Grace and a few kisses, I might even smooth things over enough to make the goodbye seem less final.  But the sense of urgency returned with a vengeance the higher the sun climbed in the sky.  How long would it be before Lucifer checked on his prize in Githa?  How long did we have before he popped in for round two? 

My pack was ready to go and I slipped it onto my shoulders, tightening the straps.  A sparkle caught my eye from my heart shaped ring, and it set me to thinking.  I still had Adam’s ring in the back of my jewelry box.  Maybe Parker needed to see me give it back to Adam to understand I was just as committed to him as always, even in the face of our departure.  I picked up the tiny box, giving in to the urge to take a quick peek to make sure it was still there. 

The perfect princess cut diamond winked back at me, flanked by two smaller sapphires, the exact color of Adam’s eyes.  I hadn’t looked at it in years, but now it filled me with unbearable sadness to think about giving it back to him after so long.  Deciding not to make an issue of it, I tucked it into one of the zippered pockets in the pack.  Maybe I’d give it back to him and maybe I wouldn’t.   All I knew was, I couldn’t bear to think of leaving it behind and I knew Parker wouldn’t pack it as an essential when he came to join us. 

The tension was thick as I came down the stairs.  Both Nelo and Eve were asleep, their heads together on the sofa, the cartoon blaring in the background, unseen.  Parker glared at Adam, who pretended not to notice, swirling the dregs of his drink around in the bottom of his glass.  I avoided both sets of eyes as I entered the room, kneeling before Eve to slip the socks over her bare feet.  Her stolen coat was still somewhat damp, but it would have to do.  I did add a fuzzy knit cap I found in the top of the closet to keep her head warm. 

Parker tried one last time to change my mind.  “Take me with you, Mercy.  This is crazy.”

“It’s not crazy.  It’s the way it has to be.  I’m doing the best I can with a crappy situation.”  I didn’t know what else to say about the matter, but I did think of something else to keep him safe.  “Listen, it’s probably better if you make yourself scarce for a few days too.  Can you stay at the club for a while?”

“I’ll figure something out,” he sighed, giving up. 

“I’ll be in touch soon.  Then you can make your arrangements to leave, and we can meet up somewhere once I figure out a game plan.”

“Whatever.”

I touched my lips to his, hating the way they felt cold and unresponsive.  “Hey, I love you.”

“I love you too, Mercy.  I always have.”  He kissed me then, full of longing and passion.  I forgot everything when he kissed me like that, and it was a while before he pulled back.  “Try not to forget it, wherever you go.”