Page 26 of Mending Fate

Bastard.

“As long as it’s to get his ass out of here,” Lumen said, jerking her thumb at me.

Eoin and Brody stepped past Lumen without a response to her statement, and I moved over to where my shoes sat a few feet away from the door. She could throw away my shirt, but I wanted my shoes.

“I found someone who was willing to do me a favor,” Eoin said. “He pulled some strings and got information from the rental place.”

Everything else became unimportant as I focused on what my brother was saying. “You found them?”

“I think so,” he said. “The car hasn’t been returned yet, and GPS shows it in Portland, Oregon.”

Portland.

“Evanne’s in Portland?” Lumen asked.

The expression on her face struck me. No matter that I’d just accused her of not caring about Evanne, I’d known in my gut that wasn’t the truth. She might’ve placed another person’s well-being ahead of my daughter’s, but that didn’t mean Lumen didn’t care about Evanne at all.

“The car is still registered to Keli, and her card is the one on file to charge, so unless the rental place failed to check the car in, settle Keli’s bill, and then check the car out again, then she’s still the one using it.” Eoin answered Lumen’s question, but he spoke to me while he did it.

“Do you have an address?” I asked, not wanting to get my hopes up too high. Narrowing it down to Portland was great, but it still didn’t mean we could show up right where Keli was. I had no idea how accurate a rental car’s GPS could be.

“We do,” he said. “The tracking system is accurate within a few feet, and it looks like the car’s been parked at a hotel for the past few hours.”

That made sense. Keli wasn’t the sort of woman who would have slept in her car to avoid detection. She’d want access to a bed and a shower. And that wasn’t even taking Evanne into consideration. While my daughter occasionally enjoyed playing at camping or skipping a bath every so often, I doubted she would take being confined to a car without the comforts of home very well.

“What’s our next step?” I asked.

“Knowing where they are won’t change what the police are able to do,” Brody said.

Eoin shoved his hands in his pockets. “Even if we asked the cops here if they would be willing to go with us or reach out to Portland PD, Keli could turn the tables on you, make it seem like you’ve been stalking her. With people around to play to, she could act as if she’s scared of you, and the police might believe her.”

I didn’t need more frustration. I needed answers. “What do we do then?”

“Eoin thinks we should go to the hotel, the three of us, and once Evanne sees you, she’ll come to you. With the two of us there, Keli shouldn’t do anything stupid. Once you have Evanne, it’s just a matter of taking her to the car and bringing her home.”

Brody made it sound so easy.

“We don’t know how long they’ll be there,” Eoin said. “We need to get on the road.”

It wasn’t until Lumen cleared her throat behind me that I remembered where we were and who was with us.

And the argument we’d been having only a few minutes ago.

Shite.

I didn’t want to leave things like this between us. Her last words about how she’d thought I was different, but now that she knew better, they stung. More than stung, if I was being honest with myself. I didn’t like that she thought those things of me. I needed her to see how wrong she was about me, about this situation.

“Come with us.”

Her eyebrows shot up. “What?”

“What are you doing?” Eoin looked at me like I was crazy. “This isn’t a road trip.”

I ignored him. “Come with me to get Evanne. I know she’ll be glad to see you. And we can…talk.”

Her gaze moved from one brother to the other before coming back to me. She crossed her arms. “I don’t think we need an audience, and I don’t have anything else to say.”

I didn’t believe that, but saying so would only put her even more on the defensive. “I have a few things to add.”