Hunted (11 page)

“I just do.”

They reached the end of the block and peered around the corner. Emma’s car was close to the corner of the building. Will was a row over, his face covered in blood. He stood hunched over in front of the leader. Shadows edged the perimeter.

Emma gasped. “Will.”

“Do you have a plan?” Raphael asked, standing out in the open.

“No.”

He found a three-foot length of wood against the building. “You go get your car. I’ll take care of the guy attacking your boyfriend. When it’s safe, we’ll load him into the front seat.”

“What about you?”

“Don’t worry. I can take care of myself. Stay behind me and wait for my signal.”

Emma was thankful she still held the keys in her hand, opening her fist to reveal gashes where she’d gripped them so tightly. She followed Raphael as he walked into the parking lot. He sauntered toward the men, carrying the board, arrogance in his stride.

Emma stopped at the car and watched, terrified. Will took jagged breaths and struggled to stand upright.

“Can I join in?” Raphael asked.

The leader was now weaponless. He was battered and bloody but in better shape than Will. The other man lay motionless on the ground.

Will saw Raphael approach and tried to straighten.

Raphael held up a flattened palm toward Will. “I am here to help you.”

Will fell back to his knees.

The attacker turned to Raphael and smiled as he moved to pick up his pipe off the ground. Raphael circled, holding his board out at his side. The other man lunged, raising the pipe and swinging down toward Raphael’s head. He raised the board and blocked the blow. The crack of splintering wood filled the air. Raphael reached up with his other hand and grabbed the pipe then twisted his body around, bringing the weapon with him.

The leader hesitated for a half second, long enough for Raphael to kick him in the chest. He fell back, landing on the hood of a car. Raphael twirled the pipe expertly in his hand slamming it down on the hood inches from the man’s head. He tried to get up, but Raphael kicked him again, knocking him back into the hood. Raphael brought the pipe down on the hood on the other side. His eyes looked murderous.

“Emma, bring the car now,” Raphael said, his gaze never leaving the man.

Will grabbed his side and tried to stand, spitting blood onto the ground.

Emma inserted the keys into the ignition, her hands shaking so badly it took several attempts. She pulled forward through a gap between two cars in the row ahead. Raphael continued striking the hood, keeping the leader contained. She got out and started toward Will.

“Emma, stay where you are.” Raphael said, still facing the man.

Will staggered and fell to his knees.

Emma knew that Will, even as injured as he was, worried more about her than himself.

“Did you plan to hurt the lady?” Raphael asked with a growl.

The man on the hood looked up, his eyes wild. “No, man, we were just supposed to scare her.”

Raphael swung the pipe into the man’s legs. “Wrong answer.”

The leader screamed in pain, his legs buckling. “Dude, I swear!”

Raphael paused and studied him before he hissed. “
Transi per umbras
.” He swung the pipe like a baseball bat against the man’s head. Emma twisted her face away as the sound of a splitting melon filled the air. She gagged, almost vomiting.

“Emma, you may get your boyfriend now.”

Emma sucked in a breath through her mouth as she ran to Will, holding back her sobs and her fear. Neither would help right now. He looked up at her, blinking the blood out of his eyes. One eye was already swelling shut. His lip was split. He had a gash on his forehead.

“Will.” She reached for his arm and tried to lift him off his knees.

He moaned with the movement. Raphael reached down and slung Will’s arm over his shoulder. “Emma, open the car door and I’ll help you get him into the car.”

Will glared at Raphael. “Who the fuck are you?”

“Will, he’s a friend. He helped me hide. We can trust him.”
It’s me you can’t trust
.

Raphael lifted Will’s body as Will cried out with the movement.

“I’m sorry, my friend,” Raphael said as he lowered Will onto the seat and closed the door. Raphael picked up Will’s bag out of the street and carried it to the car.

Emma opened the trunk and Raphael tossed it in. As he slammed the lid shut, she turned to get in the car.

“Emma, wait.” Raphael touched her shoulder. She spun to face him.

“Emma, when you leave here, drive and don’t stop.” His voice was low and insistent. “I know you want to get help for your boyfriend, but there are men searching for you. You must get far away from here.”

Her eyes widened in alarm. “How do you know?”

“Trust me, I know.” He lowered his voice. “You need to know that your boyfriend has significant injuries.”

Her tears fell and Raphael wiped one off her cheek. “Don’t worry, he’ll recover. But listen to me.” His eyes pierced hers and she felt herself becoming lost, forgetting all sense of where she was. “Emma, you can help him. You have power that you don’t even realize. Find your power and you can heal him. Use the pendant. Now go.” He led her to the driver’s door. His eyes held hers, dark and captivating. To her dismay, the familiar heat spread throughout her body. Raphael leaned into her ear, brushing her cheek against his lips. “Not yet, my love. But, soon. Soon I will come for you.”

He turned and walked down the street, into the darkness.

Chapter Nine

Emma’s hands trembled as she pulled out of the parking lot, her thoughts spinning in a vortex as she tried to figure out what just happened with Raphael. How could she react to him that way?

“Who the hell was that?” Will slurred, his head slumped toward her.

Her face burned with shame, making her grateful for the darkness. “He was someone who helped me. Helped
us
.” She turned down the street and she tried to remember where the highway was.

“What did he say to you just now?” His words rushed out in a gasp of pain.

“Will, you shouldn’t talk. You’re hurt.”

“Emma,
what did he say?
” He coughed from the exertion, then tensed with a moan.

“Will,
please
. He didn’t say anything. He told me to take you far from here. He said he thought you were really hurt.”
Where was the highway?
She parked at a stop sign, her fingers numb from gripping the steering wheel so tight.

“
Did he touch you?
” He coughed again, then doubled over in pain.

“Will,
stop!
” She turned to look at him, fear constricting her chest as she watched him spit blood onto his lap. “I need to take you to a hospital.” Her voice shook.

“No. He was right,” he said in a defeated tone. “You have to get far away from here.” His body sagged in the seat.

Emma held back her sobs, tears streaming down her face.
Where was the highway?

“I saw him get too close to you.”

“Will, stop. Just stop. Nothing happened.” So, she now was a slut
and
a liar. She not only made out with Raphael while Will got the shit beaten out of him, she also would have done it with Will watching in the car.
What the hell is wrong with me?
Hysteria bubbled below the surface.

She drove several blocks, lost. “
Where is the fucking highway?
” She had to get Will out of here before they got caught. Sobs erupted, despite her intentions to hold them in.

“Emma.”

She braked at another stop sign, searching for any signs for the interstate.

“
Emma
.”

She turned to look at him, gasping at the sight of his battered body. She did that to him. She didn’t beat him up herself, but she might as well have. He had the shit beat out of him because people wanted her. And she repaid him by jumping the first guy that came along. Her sobs intensified.

“Emma. It’s okay. I’m okay. Shh... stop crying.”

***

Will lay in the seat, pain deluging his body with every movement. He was sure he had broken ribs from that goddamned metal pipe. He was lucky that was all that was broken, other than his ego.

He’d seen the way that man had talked to Emma. The way he said her name with such familiarity. The way he leaned close to her before she got into the car.

The way Emma didn’t push him away.

The fact that if Will had tried to get that close to her when they first met she would have slapped him wasn’t lost on him.

Emma was beside herself with agony, sobbing so uncontrollably that Will worried she would have an accident. He knew she was upset over him, but he suspected there was more, something else she wasn’t telling him. He groaned in frustration and a sharp pain shot through his chest.

When Emma heard his gasp, she cried harder.

Maybe he was reading too much into it. “Emma, it’s okay. Turn left up here.” The entrance ramp to the highway came into view.

“Which… way?” She fought for breath through her hiccups.

Which way? He couldn’t protect her in this condition. He didn’t even protect her just now, some other guy did. His gut burned in fury. He was lucky she wasn’t hurt or dead. He still had to find Jake and get answers about what all this fucking shit meant. He couldn’t do that while worrying about her. She needed protection. He couldn’t get the answers and protect her at the same time. He needed help.

“Go north.”

Her mouth dropped open in surprise. “North? But Jake was in Arizona and the Vinco Potentia is north.”

“My friend James lives in Minnesota,” he gasped for breath as pain stabbed his side. “He’ll help us.”

Her eyes widened. “Can we trust him?”

“He’s been my best friend since second grade.” He hung his head, holding his breath. “If I can’t trust James, I don’t know who I can trust.” He realized too late bitterness had slipped into his words. Emma shot him a look of shock, mixed with fear.
What the fuck had happened?

“Will, I have to take you to a hospital.” She swiped the back of her hand across her cheeks, a look of determination in her face.

“No.” He laid his head back, wishing he had some type of narcotics. But he wouldn’t have taken them anyway. He needed to be alert in case they were attacked again.

“But Will…”

“No. You know we can’t. They’ll find us.”

She sucked in her breath, her eyes welling with tears again. Will felt pain in his arm, where his mark was.

Fear seized his chest. “Emma, are you hurt?”

“No, don’t talk, Will. Just rest and tell me what to do.” Her sobs became uncontrollable again. “Tell me…what to...do.”

His mark burned, the pain worse than his side.

***

Emma drove through the night. Will wanted her to stop, worried that she would get tired since she was always tired these days, but her guilt kept her awake. Every so often she noticed Will rub the mark on his arm.

He dozed off and on. The pain in his side bothered him more than he admitted. She could feel it inside her own body when it got intense. She offered to stop and buy him alcohol to help ease his discomfort, like he had when she was shot, but he refused. Raphael told her she could use the pendant to heal Will, but she didn’t trust him. Raphael addled her brain and made her lose sense of everything. She’d be better off ignoring anything he told her.

Images of Raphael invaded her thoughts. She couldn’t figure out what had happened. She had never reacted to a man the way she did with him. Not even Will. She was confused, embarrassed, and horrified. And scared.

Raphael told her he would come for her.

Not if she had anything to do about it.

The sun rose as she continued north, exhaustion overtaking her after she drove around the edge of Minneapolis. Will suggested that she stop, but the early morning light made his injuries more evident and she was even more anxious to get him help.

“Will, you’re really hurt. I need to take you to a doctor. It might be safe here. They have no idea we came to Minnesota.”

“No,” he moaned, his breath raspy. “James will be able to help. Just get to James.”

So she ignored Will’s insistence that she stop to rest and prayed that James really could help.

She turned onto a two-lane highway. They were out in the middle of nowhere. Raphael would never find her here. She realized how ridiculous it was to be more afraid of a single man than two groups of powerful gunmen. But she had the feeling he was more dangerous than all of them put together.

“How close are we?” she asked. They’d been on the unpopulated road for a half an hour.

“Close,” he croaked. His face was pale and sweat beaded his forehead.

The street grew blurry through her tears.

Will told her to turn down a single lane dirt road. She drove for a quarter of a mile until a cabin came into view nestled in the trees, about a hundred feet from a lakeshore.

“What if he’s not home?”

“We can go in.” He paused to catch his breath. “James won’t care.”