Page 43 of Oakheart

Then, we crossed into California.

I’d noticed for the last hour that the gas gauge had been teetering toward the red line, closer and closer, but Pa hadn’t had that much money to give us—almost nothing, really. It amounted to a little less than a hundred and fifty dollars, and while I knew I’d have to reach out to Jax when we got to San Francisco, I didn’t know where he lived. Didn’t know a damn thing about the city at all.

It probably would’ve been smart of me to go ahead and call him, but I still needed to get my old phone working or find a new one, and I figured the cheapest place to do that would be one of those big supercenters humans crawled around in.

I’d take care of it when I could, but my priority was putting some distance between us and the pack. If they moved fast, they might be able to catch our scents, and we needed as much of a headstart as I could give us.

When the gas tank finally gave out, I pulled off on the side of the road. We’d made it to California, at least.

We’d eaten all our snacks and stopped for burgers on the road.

From this point on, we’d need to go on foot. I wasn’t willing to spend our last cash on gas and a phone when I didn’t know if it’d get us where we needed to go. We had to get a room for the night.

“One more push and we’ll make it,” I said to Evie.

Her lips went thin and chagrinned. “We’ll be faster on four legs.”

I sighed. She was right.

“You want to try and consolidate bags? I can carry essentials.”

It was never a good time, running on four legs with something heavy in your mouth, but Evie shook her head.

“You think I’m cutting back from the few things I own to, what? The clean undies? No thanks. I’ve got mine.”

I rolled my eyes but couldn’t help smiling. “Okay, stubborn girl. But you change your mind, and we’ll adjust?”

She scowled at me. “I can handle it.”

I held my hands up. “Oh, I know. But it doesn’t mean you’ve gotta. Now”—I turned off the ignition but left the keys in the car—“we move fast, but not straight. We don’t want to leave an easy trail. Head for the coast. You got a good sense of the way?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay, then I’ll follow you. When we get to the city, we’ll find somewhere safe to shift back, swing by the store for supplies, and get a room for the night. Somewhere cheap. From there, I’ll reach out to Jax.”

“And he’ll help us?” Evie still seemed skeptical, and it broke my heart.

But I understood why. It was fucking hard to trust people you didn’t know when the ones you did had hurt you.

“Yeah. They’re like... they’re like family too, you just don’t know them yet.”

She raised a brow. “But like your dad, right? Not mine.”

I let out a little huff that was almost a laugh. “If Jax and Jill are anything like the people I knew when they left, yeah. A lot more like Pa than Uncle Tommy. You weren’t around for it, but Jax beat the tar out of Grant’s big brother. It was a hell of a fight. Once we get to them, we’ll be safe.”

Evie sucked in a deep breath, and I thought she wanted to ask about everyone else we’d left back home, but I didn’t have any more answers than she did. All I could do was look at the path ahead of us and hope that we got to the end of it.

“All right.” She stuffed the atlas in the side of her backpack. “You change on that side of the truck, I’ll shift over here, and then you’re gonna eat my dust, old man.”

I snorted. “You wish, kid.”

But I just might, and it’d be worth it to get her safe.

CHAPTER 22

Aleks

Giventhe rush to get things together and get moving, it wasn’t hard for me to make sure we were all with the party that headed out for San Francisco.