“There’s no way in hell you’re going to come on this call with us,” Carlisle replies, almost laughing, though there’s little amusement in his words. He grabs his phone and pulls up anumber, lifting it to his ear and not breaking eye contact with me for a second.
“Hi, Johnathan,” he greets whoever’s on the other end of the line. “I need you to check something for me. Do you have the Brown family with you? Settled in a room at the motel, maybe? Okay, thanks, yeah, if you could check…” He drums his finger on the table before him, shooting me a look that’s clearly intended to remind me that he’s doing me a favor.
My heart is thudding in my chest as I wait for an answer. As much as I’d like to believe that my parents wouldn’t be foolish enough to try and make a break for it back to their home after they’d been evacuated from town, I know how much my mom loves that place, all the history that’s attached to it. If she thought for a second that any of that was under threat, she would be the first person there to try and rescue as much as she could. My father, as solid of a man as he is, has never been good at standing up to her when there’s something she sets her mind on, and I doubt that he would be able to dig his heels in enough to keep her where she needs to be.
Finally, Carlisle mutters his thanks to the man, and hangs up the phone. The grim expression on his face tells me everything I need to know.
“They’re gone,” he replies bluntly. “Said they had relatives nearby they could stay with?—”
“The only family close to them are me and the quads,” I reply, jerking my head upstairs. “They’re going back to the house, I’m sure of it.”
“Those damn?—”
“So what I’m hearing is that there will be people we’ll need to get out of there too?” Joe demands, focusing on the practicality of the matter at hand.
I nod. “I know that’s where they’ll be,” I reply. “They live in a little gated community, used to be farmland before they let the forest come through. I can show you where it is. The signs got pulled down in a storm last winter, so you might not be able to find it unless I’m there.”
Joe and Carlisle exchange a look, neither of them saying a word. I can tell they want nothing more than to tell me that I’m crazy, that I would be better off staying here with the quads, but if they think I’m going to sit around and do nothing when my parents might be in danger, they’ve got another thing coming.
The silence is punctuated by the sound of the door opening, and Dylan strides inside, dusting off his hands, his brow sheened with sweat. I can’t help but notice the way his arms bulge against the confines of his tee, the muscles defined and glistening beneath the light.
“We’ve got the tanks filled and loaded,” he announces. “Ready whenever?—”
He realizes I’m standing there, Callum stepping in behind him. For a moment, he just stares at me, clearly trying to make sense of what I’m doing here.
“I’m coming with you,” I announce. Better that they hear it from me as a certainty instead of letting the guys get ahead of me and convince them that it’s a crazy idea.
“What the fuck?” Callum growls. “No, you’re not. Jesus, Carlisle, Joe, what did you tell her?”
“The fire’s close to my parents’ place,” I explain. “I know that area better than any of you, in case you forgot. And?—”
“And her parents left the evacuation point to go back to their home,” Joe fills in for him.
Dylan groans, rubbing a hand over his face.
“She’s staying here,” Callum shoots back. “We can’t have anyone else with us. It’s tight enough as it is in there without?—”
“Someone has to stay behind to look after the quads, anyway,” I reply, cutting him off before he can go any further.
All of them tense. I can feel it in the air—none of them want to be the one to turn me down. Now that the truth is out, the least I can do is use it to my advantage, see if I can convince them to protect the children they have only just discovered are theirs.
Joe steps forward, moving to my side. “She’s got a point,” he remarks. “She’s been here more recently than us, and some of the signage was torn down. If we miss a turn, it could cost us valuable time.”
“What, you mean like the time we’re wasting now even discussing this?” Dylan snaps back. “No. No fucking way. She stays here, where she’s safe.”
The protectiveness in his tone would be enough to make my heart flutter, if I wasn’t so damn pissed at being brushed off like this.
Carlisle has hardly said anything, but he doesn’t need to; his thoughts are written all over his face. He agrees with Dylan, wants me locked away here, even if he can’t justify it as anything more than a gut reaction.
Callum speaks up again, his face set with grim acceptance. “Angelie’s right,” he agrees. “The more information we have, the better our chances of getting this under control. Especially if there are people involved. Going to be easier to convince them to leave the house too, if we have her with us.”
Carlisle’s lip curls in disagreement. “We’ll find our way around fine,” he replies. “We lived here for years?—”
“Yeah, but I bet you hardly spent any time on the north side of town,” I remind him. “Not exactly your neighborhood, right, Carlisle?”
His jaw clenches, and I wonder if I’ve somehow landed on a sore spot without realizing it. Whatever it is, it seems to be enough to get him to drop this sureness that they don’t need me, and he jerks his head toward the door. “Then let’s go.”
“Oh, no, you don’t,” Dylan replies, stepping out before him. “She needs to stay here. With the kids. We just got her out, we don’t need to dump her right back into the middle of?—”
