Free Turn to Darkness (Offspring 5.6) by Jaime Rush Page B

her.”
    As deadpan as Darius was when it came to expressing any kind of emotion, the heated way those words came out bothered Greer.
    “That sounds more like obsession.”
    Shea returned to the front of the house, her smiling clients in tow.
    “Shea, we’d better get going,” Greer called out.
    She nodded, shook their hands, and headed over. “I know. I get caught up in the whole thing.” She rolled her eyes, then jammed her cap back on. “But if Frost hasn’t found us yet, he probably didn’t know where Ted had gone. Which corroborates what he told me.”
    “Still, I think we should go.”
    “Go where?” Darius asked.
    “Not back to the house,” Shea said. “They know where that is.”
    Greer nodded to the sky, splashed with red. “It’s almost dark now. A motel will be anonymous, a safe place to rest and figure out what we’re going to do.”
    “I’m not sharing a room with you,” Darius said to him.
    “We’ll each get our own rooms.” Greer could already see Shea’s panicked expression over the scenario of everyone in one space. That could be even more volatile now that Darius was intent on winning Shea’s affections. Jealousy prickled over his skin at the thought of it, anger rippling beneath the surface. But he knew Darius didn’t stand a chance with Shea. He just hoped the bonehead didn’t do something to upset her.
    F ROST FOUND G RAVES’S car, but the doors were locked. Peering inside, he gleaned nothing because of the dark tint. The man himself was nowhere to be found. He’d obviously come here to find and probably warn Cheyenne. What sweet irony that Graves had also broken the rules. It was only fair that he pay the price the other three had.
    He spotted the same truck he’d seen outside of Cheyenne’s house parked at a home down the road. Ah hah, just as he suspected. As he approached, he heard a car engine start. Then another, and finally a third. A Jeep pulled out of the driveway, then the white truck, and finally a third vehicle, the black coupe that was at the house this morning.
    He’d hit the mother lode. All three of them, together. Though what he needed was to attack each one alone. First the guys. Then the girl would be easy.
    He jumped into his vehicle and followed. They traveled through town, stopping at a Wal-Mart for several minutes. Not a good place to try to take them out. He had to play it cool, be patient. After another twenty minutes of driving, they all pulled into the parking lot of a small motel. He passed it by in case they had noticed him.
    His progeny watched the vehicle go past. It figured, the kid got his smarts. He took after his mother in looks but inherited his own stature. Graves had obviously suffered a weakness about eliminating his offspring. Frost had no such doubts.
    They checked in, carrying their bags of recent purchases, and went to their respective rooms. So they weren’t going back to the house.
    Frost sat in his car in a parking lot adjacent to the motel. He knew he could not screw this up now that he was on the cusp of being Torus’s hero. A short time later they each emerged and went together to a barbecue restaurant down the road. He went in, too, sitting at the bar and keeping an eye on them.
    They looked tense, his offspring sitting on the same side of the table as the girl, the scowling one in the wheelchair across from her. Frost ate a burger and had a beer, wishing he could get closer so he could hear them. He’d have to be sitting at their table to hear their conversation, since they leaned close and talked in low tones. Couldn’t discuss how to get rid of the big bad guy from the other dimension where others could hear, after all.
    He followed them back to the motel a couple of hours later, where they bid each other good-night. Patience was paying off. He would wait until they had time to go to sleep. Then, like smoke, he would drift in . . .
    S HEA TOSSED AND turned on the hard bed for some time after turning off the