After Flux (The Flux Series Book 2)

by Marissa Farrar

  They glanced over at me as I approached.

  “Hey.”

  I stopped beside Hunter, and he casually looped his arm around my waist and kissed me on the mouth. I tried not to feel conscious of the other guys watching.

  “Ready to go?”

  “Yeah. I just had to let my dad know where we were going.”

  Hunter frowned. “What did he have to say about it?”

  I shrugged. “He was less concerned about me going to LA than he was about missing out on nights out with his buddies.”

  Hunter gave a half smile. “I’m sure that’s not true.”

  I gave a sigh. “Maybe not, but I feel bad about making him stay, especially when I’m not going to be here.”

  “It’s safer for him. You know that.”

  “Yeah, well, he’s fine for the moment, so we just need to focus on what’s ahead.”

  “Sure.”

  “Everyone ready?” I asked Kit.

  I looked to Zane, who’d been quiet so far, and he just gave a slight nod.

  Sledge had come to see Dixie off, and pulled her into a massive hug before kissing her and letting her go. I wondered how he felt about Zane being asked to come along instead of him. He was a pretty laid-back guy, but it was never much fun to be left out of things.

  “I’ll see you tomorrow,” she said, her hand against his cheek. “But make sure you call me, and send me about twenty texts to tell me how much you’re pining for me.”

  He laughed, deep and rumbling, “Only if you promise you’ll be pining for me. And no talking to strange boys, okay?”

  She gestured to Kit and Hunter. “I’m gonna be riding in the car with these two. I think talking to strange boys is kind of inevitable.”

  He chuckled again. “Okay, no other strange boys.”

  I gave sidelong glance to Zane, who was ignoring the conversation. Did he think they were talking about him?

  Dixie stood on tiptoes and kissed Sledge again, and then we left. She glanced over her shoulder and gave him a final wave. I felt bad he wasn’t coming along, but we needed someone we trusted to stay behind to keep an eye on things. That was partly my fault for agreeing to Zane coming, even though it had been Kit’s idea. I hoped we were doing the right thing.

  We made our way through the tunnel and out onto the bay. Thick fog had closed in around the bridge, so I could barely see the struts rising out of the choppy ocean water. The white cloud swallowed everything above that. The city across the bay was completely invisible, and I couldn’t even see more than a few feet out to sea.

  “Wow, it’s thick today,” said Dixie, saying what everyone else was thinking.

  “You have anything to do with it this time?” I asked Hunter, only partly teasing him.

  “Nope, not me. I can clear it a little if we need, though,” he said.

  I glanced up at the cliff face we had to climb. Again, I could only see a matter of feet. Whoever went first would be swallowed by the fog pretty quickly. I shivered. The fog was cool and wet, but that wasn’t what caused the shudder. It was more the idea of climbing when we weren’t able to see what we were climbing into.

  “Yeah, that might be a good idea,” I told him.

  Hunter nodded then lifted a hand toward the cliff face. His face took on a mask of concentration, and I caught Zane watching with curiosity. Nearby, the fog began to move, as though Hunter had blown a clear path through it. More of the craggy stone and the carved footholds we used as steps were revealed in the gap. There was still fog all around us, and we still weren’t able to see if anything, or anyone, was waiting for us at the top, but at least we could see where we needed to put our feet.

  Kit went first, followed by Dixie. Hunter waited at the bottom, keeping the route clear for us.

  I nodded encouragingly to Zane to follow up next, leaving Hunter and me alone on the small cove.

  “Are you going to be all right down here on your own?” I asked Hunter.

  “Yeah, I’ll be fine. I’m right behind you.”

  I started the ascent. I could just make out the shape of Zane up ahead of me. Within a few minutes, I heard the crunch of Hunter’s footfalls as he started after me. I constantly felt poised for something bad to happen, but we all reached the top in one piece.

  We reached the car, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

  Kit drove, Zane in the passenger seat. I sat in the middle in the back, with Hunter on one side of me and Dixie on the other.

  “My dad is supposed to be collecting his award at eight tonight,” Kit said as he drove, heading northwest on the US-101.

  I leaned forward slightly, between the gap of the passenger and driver’s seats. “Are we going to try to approach him before or after?”

  “I think things are going to be more relaxed afterward,” he said. “Knowing my dad, he’s going to be uptight before. He’ll have everything scheduled, from what time he takes a shower, to what time he leaves to go to the venue. Afterward, he’d have chilled out, maybe even had a couple of drinks.”

  “I don’t know,” said Hunter. “Don’t you think it’ll be easier beforehand, then? We could find out where his car is going to be and make sure one of us is there instead.”

  I glanced over at Hunter. “That’s not a bad idea, but there’s one problem.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Philip Middleton is going to recognize you and me, and he’s definitely going to recognize Kit. I reckon he’ll think it strange if a woman shows up as his driver—though it shouldn’t matter in this day and age—so that rules out Dixie. We don’t want to give him anything to get suspicious about.”

  “I’ll do it.”

  My head turned at Zane’s voice.

  “What?”

  “I said, I’ll do it. Kit’s father won’t recognize me, will he?”

  Silence fell over the car.

  Well, this was awkward.

  Zane sat back in his seat. “It’s okay, I get it. You don’t trust me enough yet to let me do something like that. It’s fine. I was only offering.”

  “It’s a good offer, thanks, Zane,” I said. “It’s definitely something to think about. We’re in the early planning stages yet.”

  Zane shrugged and looked out the window. “Only trying to help.”

  I exchanged a glance with Dixie, and she pulled a face. Yep, awkward.

  Kit stepped in. “There’s a good chance my father won’t even order a car, and he’ll drive himself there. He’s never had an employed driver, that I know of, even though he could easily have afforded one.”

  “If we don’t approach him before the ceremony, how are we going to get to him afterward?” asked Hunter.

  Kit shook his head as he drove, his lips twisting. “I haven’t quite figured it out yet, but he’d have to leave at some point.”

  “Is he likely to leave alone?” I asked. “Would he have someone with him? Do you think he’ll take his security guys along with him, or even a date?”

  “I haven’t known my father to date. I’m not sure he has it in him to feel something for another person unless they can make him money or give him power of some kind.”

  “He must have felt something for your mother,” I suggested tentatively, feeling bad for Kit having to think of his father as some cold, merciless being.

  “Yeah, and look what he did to her. He used her, and me, as a science experiment, and it killed her.”

  I reached out, across the back of his seat to squeeze his shoulder. “I’m sorry, Kit.”

  “Don’t be. I’m the one who should be sorry. He’s my father, and if it wasn’t for him, none of you would be here now.”

  “It’s not your fault who your father is either, Kit,” said Hunter. “God knows, my father was an ass, too.”

  Unexpectedly, Zane spoke. “And I didn’t even know mine. At least yours stuck around.”

  Kit snorted. “Yeah, like that was a good thing.”

  We all fell silent. I realized Dixie hadn’t said anything about her
father, or her family at all, for that matter. Why hadn’t she ever really spoken about them? I wasn’t going to bring it up in front of everyone, but I made a mental note to chat to her about it when we were alone.

  We drove around the outskirts of the city, and across the Oakland Bay Bridge. The fog had thinned here, and I was able to make out the choppy gray water below. Once across the bay, we passed through Oakland and into the Castro Valley. I was pleased to leave the city behind, at least for a moment. Ever since the first bombing, I’d never truly been able to relax there. Every place I went, I was tense and on alert for the slightest suspicious thing. I knew it was normal after everything, especially since there had been a second attack, but as the buildings were replaced by trees and lakes, I found myself able to breathe again, as though an iron band around my chest had finally opened.

  We traveled relaxed and happy, the radio on, us talking over it. Even Zane started to open up, cracking the occasional smile, glancing back at Dixie and me in the back. Hunter was directly behind him, so wasn’t on the receiving end of the newfound friendliness.

  After a while, I noticed Kit had grown quiet. He stopped joining in the conversation, and every now and then his eyes crept to the rear-view mirror. Was he worried about facing his father again? I didn’t blame him if he was. How long had it been since they’d last seen each other? Since the death of his brother in the car accident, the one both Kit and his father had blamed Kit for? This would be a confrontation even if they didn’t have the whole bombings and the creation of what we were added into it.

  I leaned forward and gently touched Kit on the shoulder. “You doing okay? Do you want one of us to take over driving?”

  He shook his head. “No, I’m fine. It’s not that.” His gaze flicked to the mirror again. “There’s been a black SUV behind us for a while now. It’s making me uneasy.”

  “You think we’re being followed?”

  The moment the words left my lips, all of us, except Kit, twisted in our seats to look behind. Sure enough, there was the vehicle Kit had mentioned.

  “Turn back around,” Kit said, his voice steady and commanding. “We don’t want the driver to realize he’s been spotted.”

  Like one, we all turned back around to face the front.

  “Do you think they’re actually following us?” said Hunter. “This is the freeway. Plenty of people are on it, all heading the same way.”

  “Maybe not.” Kit kept his eyes on the road. “But if I speed up, so does the car, and if I slow down, the car drops back a bit, too. It could just be coincidence, but considering everything else, I’m thinking it probably isn’t.”

  Dixie leaned forward. “Should we pull in somewhere? If the car pulls in as well, I think we can probably say Kit’s instincts were right.”

  “Yeah, good plan. Though I think we’re a good few miles from any kind of rest stop yet.”

  “I don’t think that’s going to be a problem,” said Hunter. “How long have you been noticing the vehicle?”

  Kit shrugged. “Probably the last twenty minutes.”

  “If they haven’t done something already, they’re probably biding their time. I reckon we’ll be fine to keep going until we see somewhere and pull in. We’ll keep an eye on them in the meantime.” He leaned forward. “Zane, can you see them in the side mirror?”

  Zane leaned to the side slightly to get a better view. “Yeah, I can see them.”

  “Good. You’ll be less obvious than Kit constantly checking them in the rear-view.” “Maybe we have a tracker on the car somewhere?”

  “If we did, they wouldn’t need to follow us so closely. They’d know where we were without needing to keep us in their visual, which is what it looked like they were doing.”

  We fell silent as we continued, the relaxed atmosphere now tense.

  “Who do you think it could be?” I asked, not liking the silence.

  “I’m going to take a guess at someone connected with my father,” Kit replied.

  “You think someone’s been watching out for us? Maybe for the car?”

  He nodded. “Yeah, most likely. It was stupid not to change it. Of course someone would be keeping an eye out for it.”

  I was getting anxious again, chewing my lower lip, my hands twisting in my lap. Every muscle in my body was rigid, and the band around my chest that had only recently loosened tightened again. Hunter spotted my reaction, and reached out and took my hand. “You okay?”

  “Yeah. I’d somehow kidded myself we were on some kind of vacation for a moment there. I’d forgotten the real reason we’re doing this.”

  “It’ll be okay. We took down a couple of choppers, we can deal with a couple of assholes in a car.”

  “Let’s hope that’s all they are.”

  “Hey, look.” Zane pointed ahead where there was a sign for a rest stop. “We can stop there.”

  “Yes, pull over,” said Hunter.

  Kit put the blinker on and took the exit, and we all did our best not to look back to see if the black SUV followed.

  Chapter Fourteen

  We held our collective breath, waiting to see what the other vehicle would do. Trying not to appear obvious, we all watched as the car slid past and continued along the freeway.

  I exhaled a huff of air. “Thank God.”

  “Yeah,” said Dixie. “I wasn’t quite ready for a fight.”

  “Who would the fight have been with, though?” I said. “Myriad Group people, or do you think someone else? The people responsible for the attacks?”

  She frowned. “It could have been anyone. We don’t even know they were following us for sure. They might have been perfectly innocent.”

  I glanced in the direction the SUV had traveled. “They’re gone now, though. Perhaps it was just a coincidence.”

  She nodded in agreement. “Yeah, maybe. It’s normal for us to be paranoid, considering the situation.”

  Kit threw open the car door and climbed out. “We might as well stop and grab a quick coffee while we’re here.”

  “We’ve only been on the road a little over an hour,” Dixie pointed out.

  “Ten minutes isn’t going to make any difference,” he said, “and I don’t know about you, but I could sure use the caffeine.”

  Hunter pushed open the back door on his side. “Yeah, I’m hungry, too.”

  “Didn’t you eat just before we left?” I teased him.

  “Takes a lot of pastries to maintain this body,” he said, grinning and patting his rock-hard stomach.

  I laughed and felt myself loosen up. It was good to see the more relaxed side of Hunter. He must feel the pressure of the Cavern, and everything else happening around us, as much as I did. Just ’cause he acted like a tough guy most of the time didn’t mean he was immune to it all.

  We must have looked like a group of college kids as we went inside and ordered ourselves various coffees—lattes for Dixie and me, flat-whites for Hunter and Zane, and black for Kit—and bags of chips and other snacks. Aware of the time passing by, we all climbed back in the car, and Kit pulled back onto the freeway.

  Back on the road, the time passed comfortably. We drank our beverages, ate snacks, chatted, and watched the countryside go by. Even Zane started to relax. I tried not to think about what we would need to do when we hit Los Angeles.

  “Guys,” Kit said suddenly. “I might be imagining things, but I think we’ve got another one.”

  Hunter sat forward. “Another what?”

  “Another car trailing us.”

  “Seriously?”

  We all twisted back again. Another black SUV, almost identical to the first one, was not far behind.

  “Is it the same one?” I asked. “It looks the same.”

  Kit squinted in the rear-view mirror. “I’m not sure.”

  “They could have pulled in somewhere further ahead of the rest stop and waited for us to pass by.”

  “Yeah, maybe, but I think it might be a different vehicle. I’m sure the license plate n
umber isn’t the same.”

  Alarm raced through me. “There might be more than one of them?”

  Hunter lifted both hands to silence us all. “Take a breath, guys. Let’s be rational about this. We don’t know for sure the first car was following us, and we can’t be sure this one is either. I mean, we’re on the freeway. Everyone is heading the same way. Maybe we’re just being paranoid.”

  I glanced to him. “But what if we’re not?”

  He wrinkled his nose and shrugged. That wasn’t going to be good enough in my eyes.

  “How long have we got left before we reach Los Angeles?” I asked Kit.

  “Still another three hours, easily,” he said, twisting his head to talk to us, without taking his eyes off the road.

  “And what’s likely to happen? They run us off the road, or they start shooting at us? Or is another helicopter going to show up?”

  “Umm, I hate to be the clueless one in all of this,” said Zane, twisting around in the passenger seat to talk to us. “But what do we do if those things start happening?”

  “By ‘happening,’ do you mean if people start shooting at us?” I said.

  “Or trying to run us off the road?” added Dixie.

  He paled under his flop of blond hair. “Err, yeah, both of those things.”

  “We have ways to deal with an attack,” said Kit.

  “You mean with the ‘being able to move things with your mind’ stuff?”

  “Yeah, exactly.”

  I turned back in my seat to see the vehicle still trailing us. “What happens if you speed up?” I asked Kit.

  “I’ve tried that. They stick right with us.”

  “Are we going to need to pull off again?” said Dixie.

  “Yeah, we might have to.”

  “How are we doing for time?”

  “We still have plenty of time to make it before the award ceremony.”

  “Okay, let’s come off the freeway. We can take some of the smaller roads for a couple of miles and hopefully lose whoever we’ve got following us, if that’s what they’re doing. Then we can get back on the main road. We need to decide what we’re going to do when we get to LA, anyway.”