Nowhere But Here (Thunder Road #1)(33)
Author: Katie McGarry

Mirroring Emily earlier, Meg grips her elbows. “It’s better this way. Better for us to have distance… I should have never brought Emily here—”

“I’m glad you brought Emily,” Eli cuts her off. “I’m glad you came. But this should have been done differently. To show up unannounced—”

“I know,” Meg says harshly. “It’s just that when I thought Olivia was dead…it brought everything back and I reacted without thinking and… Is Emily in danger?”

“Yes,” Eli answers. “She is and I’m going to need time to fix it. You woke a sleeping giant and something that large takes time to put back to sleep.”

Emily’s hand goes limp and cold and I slip my fingers through hers. She studies me as she accepts the comfort I’m offering. Moisture lines the bottom of her eyes. The Riot. The Riot is after Emily and I don’t understand why.

She’s in danger and until now I honestly thought this was some stupid misunderstanding. The image of my father bleeding from his head enters my mind. That could be Emily.

The back door opens and my hand automatically shoots to my hip and my fingers clutch the air where my knife should be. Emily’s father strolls in and his eyes land on the two of us.

Emily shakes her head and raises a finger to her lips. His eyes flicker between me and Emily and then settle on the reflection of Eli and Meg that Emily eventually points at.

I hold my breath. Waiting for him to blow our cover, waiting for him to nail me to the wall for holding his daughter’s hand while sitting so close. Instead, he motions for us to go out in the hallway.

Quietly, we do, and once there he leans down and whispers to Emily, “I’ll find you soon.”

Emily

HOLDING MY HAND, my father guides me into the hot June sun and away from the men in black leather vests to a bench swing that hangs under a shade tree on the other side of the parking lot. Twenty minutes after Oz and I returned to the office and waited in silence, my parents walked in with Eli.

I hugged Dad and then Mom, but I have to admit to being numb. Eli told me this morning that I wasn’t in danger and he told my mother I was. What does it mean? What does any of this mean? They hugged. Mom and Eli hugged like they meant it.

“Why don’t you sit down, Em?” Dad says.

Parroting a puppet on a string, I do, and Dad claims the spot beside me. Mom exits the warehouse with Eli behind her. She veers right and observes me and Dad from an empty picnic table. Eli heads left toward a group of men, but I don’t miss how his gaze roams to us. Oz also watches us as he talks to a guy about our age, except this guy has a vest on.

Dad takes a deep breath and I steel myself for his rip-the-Band-Aid-off method. “Eli wants you to stay in Snowflake for a while—for the summer, even.”

“Oh, hell no.” I go to jump up, but Dad places a hand on my knee.

“Will you agree to just hear me out?”

I want to scream “no,” but the silent plea in Dad’s eyes causes me to settle back on the swing. “Fine.”

“Thank you.”

He’s totally not welcome.

“Eli feels that the Riot, the motorcycle club that they’re rivals with, is a threat to you because of his current business issues, and that you’ll be safer under his protection than you would be returning home. Eli believes that if the Riot thinks you’re unprotected, they’ll use you against him. Your mom agrees with him. No one has made this decision lightly. Not Eli. Not your mom. I want to know your thoughts.”

Knots harden in my stomach as I lace and unlace my fingers several times. “You said they want me to stay. What do you want?”

Dad lays his hand over my fidgeting fingers. “The same thing.”

My head falls back and I fight the way my lower lip trembles. “So I’m in danger?”

“No,” Dad says with force. “You’re not in danger.”

“But I overheard Eli say—”

“You overheard what Eli believes. If you want my opinion, this is a game.”

His leg moves, causing us to slowly swing, and I contemplate his words. “What do you mean?”

“Do you remember my cousin Josh?”

I can’t help the lift of my mouth. Josh. He owns his own company, but odds are Dad’s referring to the conventions he attends where he dresses up as his favorite characters. It’s different from my world, but he’s a huge teddy bear and I adore him. “Yeah.”

“Sometimes people create a world that gives them power. Sometimes people create a world to find friends with similar interests. To me, motorcycle clubs are a rougher man’s sci-fi convention.”

A chill runs through me when I remember the men last night at the motel. “Are you saying that whatever is going on between the Reign of Terror and this Riot club isn’t real?”

Dad merely inclines his head in answer.

An unsettling jolt of nerves compels me to glance around to confirm no one’s overheard. A few hours with these people and even I’m aware that those are fighting words with men who are heavily armed. “I don’t know. They seem serious to me.”

“What danger have you truly met? You saw men in a parking lot in the middle of the night. If people from Eli’s club weren’t there, you would have bought your water and returned to the room. Eli’s convinced himself this is a big deal. It’s amazing what people can make themselves believe.”

I tap my tongue to the roof of my mouth. “If that’s the case, why have I been living in the seventh circle of hell for the past few hours?”

Dad chuckles. “I like that you chose violence.”

Dante’s Inferno and his nine levels of hell. It’s one of Dad’s favorite books. “It was a lucky guess.”

“To answer your question, I thought you should come back to the motel immediately, but your mother felt differently.”

My eyebrows rise past my bangs. “My mother? Mrs. Snowflake-is-the-devil’s-playground is the cheerleader on this?”

“She hates you being here, but she went into hysterics when Eli showed at the motel. Crying and screaming like I’ve never seen. Your mother has secrets, Emily. Those demons we talked about, and they have a strong hold when they pop up. They don’t terrorize her often, but when they do, she’s unreasonable.”

“What happened to Mom?” I ask. “And why is she scared of Snowflake—and Eli?”

He sighs. “I love your mom. I’ve belonged to her since she walked into that free clinic with you on her hip and told me I didn’t know jack when I informed her that you had a cold.”