Rescued by Emery, page 8
part #2 of Deep River Shifters Series
A hand reached out and pulled her away from where she was standing. Emery’s voice was in her ear. “What are you doing?”
“My phone was buzzing. I didn’t want anyone to hear it.”
“You need to learn to do that from the shadows. Standing right at the entrance while they are moving around like an agitated hive is only going to cause problems.”
“Yeah, sorry, I wasn’t thinking.”
“It’s alright. There’s a vehicle over here that we can take.”
“What happened to the guard?”
“Knocked out over there.”
“Why are they running around?”
“I’ll tell you in a bit. Right now I want to get you out of here while they are distracted. The sound of a vehicle starting up is going to get attention, so let’s do it while the fewest number of people are watching.”
Emery grabbed her hand as he looked around before running out into the open. He pulled open the door of a large truck, boosted Cora up into it, and quickly hopped up after her. She sat down and looked at him. “How are we going to get out of here?”
He gave her a grin as his hand held up a set of keys. “Courtesy of the guard.”
“How did you know which was his? That doesn’t have one of those locks.”
“From the smell.”
“Oh. Of course.” At a bit of a loss, she decided not to question him further.
As soon as he turned the key in the ignition the truck roared into life, and immediately they knew that people had heard. Emery reached out a hand and pushed Cora’s head down. “Stay down in case we encounter anyone on the road.”
“What about you?”
“I have to be able to see where we are going. Slamming into a tree now would not help us at all.”
Unable to drive fast through the wooded area, Cora let Emery focus on the road for a bit. At one point she thought she heard sirens, but that wouldn’t make any sense where they were. Still, it bothered her.
“How can there be cops out here?”
“Because I called them.”
“What? When?”
“Using Conner’s phone. Sent a message to them, then made sure that his phone called the others. That got them moving, giving us a chance to slip out.”
“You couldn’t have told me about that earlier?”
“Well, it wasn’t like we had a lot of time. We had to get a move on so that we were away by the time the cops got there.”
“Are they going to be alright?”
It was Emery’s turn to be confused. “Are you worried about the idiots making drugs?”
“No,” she looked over at him like he was being intentionally daft. “The police.” When Emery didn’t seem to understand what she meant, Cora pointed out, “They had guns. I doubt they will hesitate to use them.”
“Oh, I hadn’t thought about that.” Emery looked over at her. “But I did say they would need a large force to take down a drug ring of about 20 people. Overestimated so they would send more people.”
Cora pushed her hands into her lap. “I hope they will be alright.”
“Are you really that worried?”
“Of course. You hear about that stuff all the time. And while I know that TV makes these things out to be far worse than they actually are, I would hate to think that anyone got killed tonight. I mean, if I hadn’t run away, everyone would have been safe.”
“Not the people buying the meth.”
“You know what I mean,” she gave him a wry look. “If anyone dies, then it’s my fault.”
“Are you serious?” Emery looked over at her. “You can’t possibly believe that.”
“If we hadn’t been there tonight, the cops wouldn’t have been called, and there would be no risk to anyone of death.”
“I think you have an overdeveloped sense of yourself.”
“And you are still an ass.”
Emery sighed, “I am not trying to insult you, but you keep blaming yourself for things that you clearly couldn’t have caused.”
“It’s the Butterfly Effect.”
“By that logic, if your brother had gone up instead of me, then you wouldn’t have been there. So that makes it his fault if someone dies?”
“No.”
“I am the one who called the police, so it’s my fault if someone dies?”
“No, you were trying to do the right thing, so it isn’t your fault.”
“Then how is it your fault when you literally didn’t have anything to do with the call or the actions of the people in the drug ring?”
“It was my fault we were down there.”
Emery shook his head, “You didn’t choose our route out of there. You didn’t make the plan. I think you really need to stop making everything your fault. That is giving yourself far too much credit for what other people are doing.”
“Are you trying to say that I am being self-centered?”
Emery paused, then looked over at her. “There is a road up ahead. I think we should head that way now. At this point, there is very little chance that we are going to run into the drug ring.”
“Are you avoiding the question?”
“I just don’t think that right now is the best time to discuss your self-serving view of the world. You have a bad habit of rash decisions and I don’t want you to jump out of the truck.”
“Do you think you can accuse me of something like that and…” Cora suddenly lost all interest in arguing with him. “You know, think whatever you like. I don’t care.” She pulled out her phone and turned it on. There were a lot of missed texts and calls, each progressively more alarmed. “It looks like they are alright and worried about us.”
“I doubt they are worried about me.”
Cora ignored him. She had mostly been saying her thoughts aloud, not for his benefit. Tapping on the phone icon, she was about to call her brother. Then the phone was yanked out of her hand.
“I want to talk to you first. Please just text him for now, let him know you are fine.”
“I don’t want to spend any more time with you.”
“Because you don’t want – No, I am not trying to pick a fight with you. I am trying to help you.”
“By making me feel worse? Stick with the things you do well.”
A strange smile spread across his lips and he turned to look at her for a second. “This is what I do well. Like you are avoiding going into the medical field because you don’t want to be responsible for others, I refuse to go into mental health because I can’t deal with failing to save people. Originally, I agreed to this trip because of Ryland.”
Cora slumped down in her seat. “Oh good, someone else who is only in my life because of the concern of others. Goodie.”
“It’s not like I knew anything about you, beyond the extensive information I learned from Silas every time I saw him. When Ryland started talking about you, I admit that I became curious, and that played a large role in my deciding to come. To be honest, there was more reason to turn down Ryland’s request than to go along with it.”
“Why is that? You prefer to be contradictory?”
“No, I don’t like working with people I don’t know well. It was only because I have been hearing about you for the better part of two decades that I decided to do it. And I'm very glad that I did.”
Cora turned her head and looked out of the window. “You should be angry. You got seriously injured because of me. You could have died.”
“And you should be mad at me because I pushed you too far, forcing your instinct of fight or flight to kick in. Your being endangered was because of me.”
Cora found she couldn’t argue with that. Taking a deep breath, she began typing out a message to Silas. “I’m texting Silas.”
“Not your brother?”
“Silas will let him know. Since Jason seems to listen to Silas more than me, he can get his news that way.”
“That’s a little petty, don’t you think?”
“Maybe, but it makes me feel better.”
Emery shook his head but didn’t say anything else. Once she hit send, they drove for a while in silence.
Finally, Emery asked, “They don’t have anything to say to your message?”
“No.”
“That’s surprising.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
Deciding not to push for an answer, he changed the subject. “Hungry?”
Her stomach growled in response.
“Alright, there is a nice little place nearby that is still open.” They didn’t speak again until they got to the restaurant.
Chapter 9
The Analysis
The pair sat down at the booth. Cora opened the menu and began to look over it as Emery headed to the bathroom. When he returned, she told him what she wanted to eat, then headed to the bathroom, too.
When she slid into her seat a few minutes later, Emery spoke to her, “Placed your order. It should only take about 15 minutes.”
“Alright,” she muttered to her hands.
“So shall we talk now, or do you want to eat first?”
“I would rather not talk.”
“Okay, then you can sit there and listen. I told you that you remind me of my brother. How he and one of my sisters were close growing up. He was a bit like you, although not as much as I had originally thought. Eventually, my sister got herself in so much trouble that some guys came to make her pay for her mistakes.”
“You mean like police?”
“No. She played a couple of local gang leaders, and one of them was smart enough to figure it out. My brother got caught up in it and ended up getting shot. Even if he had been a shifter, the wound was too severe, and he died the next day.”
“I'm sorry,” Cora continued to look at her hands.
“I was the only one there when he passed, and he begged me to look after our sister. She was the reason he was killed, and yet he still only thought of her. I tried to do what I promised, to help her get better, but I failed. She ended up in prison, and I haven’t heard anything from her since then. No one in my family has. She blames herself for his death, and doesn’t want anything to do with the family. Even though I’m the only one who knows what happened, so she wouldn’t have to worry about anyone making her feel guilty. I failed her, but worse, I failed my brother. If I could have just understood him better, have seen that he wasn’t alright, that he was hiding the fact that she was being hunted. I failed him, and he died.”
“I can understand the impulse, but I don’t think that you can blame yourself for not being able to stop your brother. He chose to help your sister.”
Emery shook his head, his eyes on the table. He rose them slowly and looked Cora in the face. “I knew enough that I should have said something to my parents. I should have done something, but I didn’t. I failed to act.”
“I don’t know what to tell you. If you feel guilty about it, there must be a reason.”
“Do you really think so?”
Cora looked him in the eye, knowing full well what he was trying to say. Without hesitation, she nodded at him, her gesture meant to let Emery know that he was to blame. He was clearly trying to draw an analogy to her constant blaming herself. In this case, she was prone to agree with him – he was at fault.
A vague smile crossed his lips. “Do you know how old I was?”
Cora shook her head, “How could I know that?”
“I was seven when he died.”
“What?” She frowned and looked at him. “That’s a bit young.”
The waitress arrived and started to put the food down. The pair waited until she left to continue talking.
Cora leaned forward, her hair dangling over her food. “I know what you are trying to do. You are trying to prove that if you weren’t at fault, I’m not at fault. But there is a huge difference between what happened with a 7-year-old and what I have been through.”
“You mean there is a huge difference between a 7-year-old and a 12-year-old? Because I don’t think so.”
Cora opened her mouth to object, then closed it. “How did you know how old I was the first time?”
“All of the clues were there. I just found them and put them together.” He leaned forward and pulled her hair back. “Please go ahead and eat. I’m not trying to starve you.”
Cora swallowed, then looked down at the food. Suddenly she felt the full effect of having eaten very little all day. She began to eat as Emery continued, his fork hovering over the food. “You started feeling guilty about not saving people ever since you were 12. It’s become so ingrained that you can no longer see anyone else as responsible for things that go wrong. You blame yourself for the incident a few months ago.” Cora looked up and glared, but she did not object because her mouth was full of food. “You need to let that go. It really isn’t your fault. Yes, you could have refused to let her go or insisted that the plans be changed, but how would that have made Serenity feel? She also could have listened when you told her that you didn’t think it was a good idea. You were the first to voice concern over a novice going, and only Ryland continued to doubt that she should be there. He could have insisted she not go, but he didn’t. Instead he thought he could protect her. Both of them are far more to blame for what happened. Honestly, I don’t think anyone believes that you fell out of the raft on purpose. Certainly, not at that point in the rapids. You grew accustomed to blaming yourself, and now you can’t allow anyone else to take the blame.”
Cora swallowed, then looked up at him, her head tilted to the side. “You being injured is my fault. You going to deny that?”
“God, no! That one is all on you. Mostly on you. Okay, half on you. I can’t say that I blame you for running off. It was certainly better than you pushing me over the edge.”
Cora was caught off guard and spit out some of her food as she tried not to laugh at the other reaction she could have had. “I’m so sorry!” She started to clean up the mess she had just made.
Emery smiled at her, “I’m sorry if I was too harsh. I went based on the information Ryland and Silas had given me. Should have known better. People always have a bit hidden away. And the people who appear to be happy are almost always hiding the most.”
Cora shrugged, “There’s no reason to let people know about my darker side. Look at my brother and how overprotective he is of me because of it.”
A hand slid over hers. Cora looked up into Emery’s dark eyes. “There is a reason to share your darker side. It is destroying you.”
“I guess it’s a good thing that a couple of people are so willing to drag other people in to make me face it.”
“You say that sarcastically, but it is a good thing. But I don’t think that is what bothers you. What is eating you is that they are asking others to take care of you instead of talking to you directly. Almost like they think you are a doll and they are afraid of breaking you.”
Cora stared at him for what felt like forever. Here was a man whom she had not known 24 hours ago putting his finger on exactly what bothered her the most, and wording it in a way that helped her see exactly what the problem was.
“I think… I think you are right. It does bother me that they don’t really try to talk to me. And neither does Jason. It’s why I was able to get them to leave me alone so easily. I know that it doesn’t mean they are indifferent, that they are just uncertain how to talk to me. But that hurts. Am I really so difficult?”
The concerned look slid off of Emery’s face. “No. It is just very difficult to know what you are thinking, and they are all worried that they will say or do the wrong thing.”
“Kind of like you did?”
Emery let go of her hand and laughed. “Yeah. Fortunately, I am accustomed to being brought in to make people face the things that they don’t want to face.”
“Why?” Cora began eating again.
“Because I am the most perceptive of emotions and environment. I can usually figure people out in a matter of minutes. You took a good bit longer. Probably because you are quite good at hiding the real problem since you refuse to talk about it. Or because you didn’t even realize exactly what it was. ”
“So why are you bothering with me like this?”
Emery looked up from his food, which he still hadn’t eaten. “I could lie and say it was all because of your friends.”
Cora stared at him, waiting for him to say more. When he finally took a mouthful of food, she realized he didn’t want to say what had caused him to talk to her. Deciding to drop it, she finished up everything on her plate.
Emery ate less than half of his food and asked for a box when the waitress brought the check.
“I can’t let you pay for me,” Cora said as he picked up the check.
“You don’t have a say.” He put a bill on the table and slid it under the napkin holder. From where she was sitting, Cora could see that he had put more than double their meal on the table. Shaking her head, she sat back and waited for him to finish boxing up his food.
“Ready?” He smiled at her when they finished.
She nodded. Together they got up and headed for the door.
Chapter 10
The Confession
When they got outside, the truck they had been in was gone and a nice-looking car was in the parking space.
Cora looked around. “How are we supposed to get home?”
Emery walked toward the car. “I’ll drive you back.”
“You can’t go around stealing vehicles.”
He laughed, “Don’t worry, this one is mine.”
“You have a Tesla?”
“They are better for the environment.”
“How did it get here?”
“I asked for it to be delivered.”
Cora crossed her arms over her chest. “How did you do that?”
Emery opened the passenger side door, then looked at her. “I used my phone. Called someone to help me while you were in the bathroom. You didn’t notice when the truck was towed?”
