Unforgiven (Wanderers #3) (6 page)

“Great, just great – more like Josie sprained my
ankle,” I thought.

“I’ll get you some ice,” Billy said, leaving the
room.

I looked at Dean. “Okay, so what the hell happened
tonight?”

The look on his face told me he was afraid to tell
me. “I think dad knows where we are,” he said, sitting next to me
on the bed.

“Then where is he?” I asked, pissed that he would go
to all that trouble just to catch us.

“I don’t know, but I think this was a warning.”

“A warning for what?”

“That he means business and if we don’t come home
soon this could get ugly.”

“It already got ugly. Seriously, someone could have
got hurt because of those people.”

“Ella, I think you did more damage than they
did.”

I stifled an eye roll. “That was an accident.”

“Accident or not you definitely brought attention to
us.”

“So now what do we do?”

“We lay low for a while.” I opened my mouth to
protest but Dean stopped me. “Ella, dad knows how powerful you are
and once he hears about this incident I’m sure he’ll be on the
first flight out here.”

I got up slowly and hobbled my way over to my bag and
started packing. “What are you doing?” Dean asked.

“We’re getting out of here,” I said.

“And where are we going to go?”

“To another hotel.”

He got up and stopped me. “Ella, that doesn’t matter.
Where ever we go he will find us.”

“You don’t know that for sure and I’m not gonna sit
around and wait to find out. You can stay here if you want but I’m
not going to let him get me.” He sighed and let me go. He knew when
I meant business and there was no use in arguing with me.

“I think I have an idea of where you can go where he
won’t find you,” Josef said, making me forget he was even there.
“You guys can come stay with us,” he suggested.

“Josef, we can’t do that.”

“I insist and so would my grandparents.” I looked at
him doubtful. “Trust me, it’s the safest place you can be right now
and he won’t find you there.”

I thought it over for a moment. He might actually be
right. My dad wouldn’t expect us to know anyone there so he would
think we would be staying at a hotel. “Okay, yes. We’ll come stay
with you, but this is only temporary.”

“Of course,” he said with a slight smile.

I woke up Josie and Cameron and told them to pack
their things. “What’s going on?” Josie asked groggily.

“I’ll explain on the way,” I told her. She didn’t ask
any questions. She just grabbed her things and stuffed them into
her bag. Billy came back with ice. One look at us and he knew
something was up. “Get your things,” was all I said.

Once we were all packed up, we headed down to the
car. Billy gave me a piggyback to help keep pressure off of my
ankle. Then we loaded into the car and set off to Josef’s
house.

Josef told his grandfather that we needed a place to
crash for a while with no further explanation. Caleb didn’t ask any
questions as to why we showed up in the middle of the night.
Instead he helped us get situated and told us we were welcome to
stay as long as we needed. I smiled at him graciously while Billy
and Dean collected our things from the car. Caleb told us we could
sleep in Josef’s room and the boys could sleep on the couches. I
didn’t argue. I was too tired at the moment and my ankle was
killing me.

Josef showed us to his room and handed us some clean
sheets and blankets. Then he returned with an ice pack for my
ankle. “Thank you,” I told him. “For everything.”

“It’s no problem,” he smiled bashfully.

“Okay, well, goodnight then,” I said, closing the
door.

I needed sleep and to get out of this horrible dress.
The moment I unzipped it I could finely breathe. I slipped into
some pajamas and then crawled into the tiny bed with Josie and
Cameron who were already asleep. The second I closed my eyes there
was a knock on the door. “Ella?” Billy whispered.

“Come in,” I called.

He let himself in and right away handed me a bottle.
“This will help your ankle.” I mumbled thanks and said
goodnight.

I lasted only hour. I couldn’t take all of Josie’s
hitting and kicking. Normally she wasn’t this bad, but I guess
being in a strange place made her restless. I sat up and looked
around the room. There was a small bench seat slash sofa over by
the window. I grabbed a pillow, a blanket, and made myself
comfortable.

The sun was gleaming brightly through the shades very
early in the morning. Way too early for me, so I pulled the covers
up over my head to block out the light. I felt someone kick the
sofa. I grumbled to myself and they kicked it again. “What?” I said
annoyed. No one answered. Instead they just kicked the bench so
hard I fell off and got tangled up in the blanket.

I pulled the blanket off and looked up at the
culprit. It was Deirdre. She was standing above me with her arms
crossed. “You come with me,” she said.

“Where are we going?” I asked, trying to keep my
anger in check.

“Since you admire my garden so much I thought you
should know what it’s like to keep up with it.”

“I don’t really like it that much,” I mumbled.

She just smiled at me wickedly. “Hurry up, it’s
late,” she said, walking out. I looked over at the clock. It was
six a.m. – seriously, this woman was working on my last nerve. If
they weren’t so gracious to have let five complete strangers stay
at their house no questions asked, I would have laughed in her face
and went back to sleep, but she was Tristan’s grandmother.

I reluctantly got up and went outside. There were
about ten twenty pound bags of soil sitting by the back porch.
Along with shovels, gardening tools, and what not.

She pointed to the bags and told me to carry them
down to the end of the garden lining them up along the way. I
hadn’t realized how large the garden was at first. From where I was
standing it looked like a half a mile long. I stood there not sure
until Deirdre started nudging me in the direction of the soil.
“Okay, okay,” I said.

I spent the next hour trudging bags of soil up and
down the garden. Then she handed me some tools and told me to start
digging. I took off the first layer of my shirt leaving me in my
tank top. It was hot and I was sweating like a pig. I pulled my
hair back and wiped the sweat from my brow. Half way through
digging and pulling weeds, Deirdre got up and headed back inside.
“Are we done?” I asked. She ignored me and kept walking.

Ten minutes later she came back out with a fresh
glass of lemonade. I was about to thank her until she threw a
bottle of water at me and told me to keep working. Then she
lectured me on the horrible job I was doing and told me I was
slacking. Then proceeded to go sit down in the shade and sip her
lemonade. It took everything I had not to throw something at her. I
kept reminding myself that she was an elderly woman and it wouldn’t
be a fair fight. I just glared at her from over my shoulder and she
just sat there smiling.

I never thought I would get finished. Thankfully
Josef came out and offered to help me. We spent the next two hours
working in the garden while Deirdre watched. Turns out, Josef is
quite the talker. He had a lot of similarities to Tristan. Same
dark hair, same physique, the only difference in their appearance
was that Josef’s eyes were light blue unlike Tristan’s which were
dark blue, and two totally different personalities. Josef was very
sweet and very mature for his age and you could tell he was brought
up right and knew how to respect others as oppose to Tristan’s
spoiled and carefree nature.

“Breakfast is done!” Josie called.

“Oh thank god. I’m starving,” I complained.

“Well come on then,” Josef said, offering me a hand.
I wiped all the dirt off on my jeans and headed into the kitchen. I
took a seat at the table where the girls had made a wonderful
breakfast.

“You, up,” Deirdre pointed at me. “You will not sit
at my table covered in dirt. You clean up before you eat.” She
pulled my chair from the table with me still in it and waited until
I got up. I stared at her and she stood there with her arms
crossed. I sighed and got up to go clean up, but not before
stealing some bacon off the table when she wasn’t looking.

I did feel better after I showered. It was good to
get all that dirt and sweat off. By the time I was done, everyone
had finished eating and was already cleaning up. “Don’t worry I
saved you a plate,” Josef said.

Just as I sat down to eat Deirdre turned to look at
me. “What? I showered?”

“You took too long breakfast is over,” she said,
taking my plate. I was able to shovel some eggs in my mouth and
swipe a piece of toast before she took it. “Now you clean.”

“I didn’t even get to eat?”

“Not my fault you dilly dawdled.”

“Thank you Deirdre. That was a wonderful breakfast,”
Dean said, rubbing his stomach, indicating he was full.

“You’re welcome Dean. You go on into the living room.
Ella has a lot of cleaning up to do.”

I scowled at both of them. Why was she being so sweet
to Dean and treating me like her maid?
“What can I say? It must
be my charming personality,”
Dean said in my head. I looked at
him surprised.
“Ella, you’re my sister, I know you. I don’t have
to read your mind to know what you’re thinking.”

I wished sometimes he could read my mind so he’d know
how much of an ass he could be and how I wanted to punch him in the
face. He just smiled as if he knew and walked away.

Josef was nice enough to help me with the dishes. If
it wasn’t for him I probably would have knocked his grandmother out
by now.
I know, why put up with it?
Because this was
Tristan’s grandmother and he cared for her deeply and they were
nice enough to let us stay the night. “So, how long do plan on
staying here?” Josef asked.

“In Ireland?”

“Ireland, the house,” he threw in casually.

“I don’t think my body could take another day like
this,” I joked. “I think once we know my father is off our trail
we’ll head back to a hotel.” There was a slight disappointed look
on his face. “As far as how long I’ll be in Ireland? I’m not sure,
a week, two, who knows?” He perked up knowing I’d be around for a
little while at least.

When we finished the dishes we headed into the living
room to relax. I heard a familiar voice and I froze. I was half
tempted to run, but I knew I’d have to face him sooner or later.
“What are you doing here?” I asked stunned.

“I should ask you the same thing,” my father said,
scrutinizing me with his eyes.

“How did you even find me?” I narrowed my eyes at
Dean thinking he wasn’t on my side after all.

“
I had nothing to do with this,”
Dean
projected in my head.

“You think you can go anywhere and I not find out?”
my dad laughed. “The question isn’t how I found you. It’s why I had
to come here in the first place. You have any idea what you have
done?”

I was about to plead my case when my dad’s eyes went
wide and his skin turned paler than normal. “Hey Ella have you seen
–” Josie began when she came out of the bedroom. She paused when
she saw my father. “Um…hi Mr. McCallister,” Josie said sweetly.

“How, how is this possible? How…I was there…I…” I
never saw my dad stumble over his words so badly.

I knew Josie loved the surprised reactions on
people’s faces when they saw her for the first time. She smiled and
said, “Long story short, I’m an angel.”

“Fallen?” my dad asked confused.

“Gee whiz, why does everyone say that? I didn’t think
I was that bad when I –”

“Josie, technically you are…what did you
say…grounded?”

“That’s beside the point and if I remember correctly
it was to save your butt.”

“Enough,” my dad interrupted. “Do your parents
know?”

“No and I’d like to keep it that way. At least until
I know for sure what is going to happen to me?”

“Understood,” he nodded respectfully at Josie. “Now
if you’ll excuse me I would like to talk to my son and
daughter…alone.”

“Yes sire,” Caleb said, giving my dad a slight bow. I
looked him thinking why in the hell is bowing and why did he call
him sire? “Are you sure there’s nothing I can get you?”

“No, thank you. Just a few moments alone with my son
and daughter, if you don’t mind?”

“Of course,” Caleb said, bowing again, and walking
backwards out of the room. I looked at Josef and he just shrugged
his shoulders following him out of the room.

Deirdre gave me a smartass look as if my displeasure
pleased her. I glared at her as she walked out of the room followed
by Cameron and Billy. I whispered to Josie on the way out. “If you
don’t hear from me in twenty minutes call the cops.”

“Ella, he’s not that bad,” she said, looking over her
shoulder, and then turned quickly back to me. “On second thought,
it was nice knowing ya.” I glared as she joined everyone else on
the back deck to give us privacy.

My dad didn’t hesitate to start screaming at me.
“What the hell would possess you to drop out of school and fly to
Ireland? We had a deal Ella and now you have broken that deal.”

“No, I haven’t,” I said calmly. “I did not drop out.
I just…took a mini vacation if that’s what you want to call
it.”

“I’m not in the mood for your smartass comments,” he
warned.

“Look dad,” I began, taking a breath so I wouldn’t
let my anger get the best of me. “I’m an adult now. You can’t
control me anymore.”

“Then start acting like one!” he yelled, making me
flinch. That vein in his neck started to bulge like it normally
does. “You have any idea what you have done? The reason I had to
come out here in the first place?”

“What are you talking about?” I scowled.

“Your actions have consequences Ella. That little
stunt you pulled at the club has caused a lot of problems.”