Hunted (22 page)

His face hardened.

She lightly cupped his face. “Will,” she searched his eyes. “I’d rather face fifty men with you than one with James. I’m safer with
you
.”

When he closed his eyes and groaned, she knew she’d convinced him. If all else failed, she’d order him to take her but only as a last resort. She saw how hard it was earlier for him to accept her ability to do so. She needed to remember to be careful with her wording.

He pulled her into his arms and growled in her ear. “You fight dirty. This will cost you.”

“What did you have in mind?” She kissed his neck, finding his pulse point.

“I think you figured it out.”

She pushed him back on the bed and straddled his waist.

With a grin, he pulled her down. “I think maybe I did.”

Later they lay in bed, Will’s arm wrapped around her waist. “Emma?” he murmured, tightening his grip.

“Hmm?”

“I need to know.”

She knew what he wanted, she just wasn’t sure how much to tell him. She hated telling him about Raphael. She was tired of hurting him. He deserved so much better. It was bad enough he continued telling her
I love you
without her reciprocating. She decided to tell him as little as possible without lying. Rolling over, she looked up into his worried eyes.

“All right. What do you want to know?”

“Did you sleep with him?”

“Of course not. How could you ask me that, Will?” she asked softly, but without recrimination.

“You said he woke you. You were at a motel.”

She caressed his face with her fingertips and kissed him with tenderness. “He didn’t sleep in my room. I had my own room. I just woke up and he was there standing over my bed.”

“God, Emma, he could have hurt you while you slept. How did he get in?”

“I swear, I have no idea. I even had the chain latched, but the door wasn’t busted open. Besides, it all happened so fast. He woke me up and told me I had to hurry. I got dressed and he took me to his Lexus and told me to leave Minnesota. They showed up as I got in the car.”

“Why didn’t you tell me after you saw him in Kansas City? Isn’t that odd, seeing him again? Quite a coincidence,” he said bitterly.

“I’m sorry. I was more worried about you dying in the car.”

“What did he say?”

“I already told you, Will.”

His eyes narrowed. “But not everything. I can see that. What did he say?”

She wanted to cry. How could she tell him? She steeled herself. “He said he would come for me.”

His jaw clenched. “Over my dead body.”

She believed he meant it. “I doubt there’s anything to worry about. He sent me away.”

“He said you weren’t ready yet. That’s why he sent you away, Emma.” He sat up, pushing up his knees and resting his elbows on his thighs. He sat for several long seconds. “Do you want him to come for you?”

The memory of her body’s reaction to Raphael made her feel like a traitor, but she wrapped her hand around his arm. “Will, I’m with you right now, aren’t I?”

“That didn’t really answer the question, now did it, Emma?”

She bit her lip. “No. I don’t want him to come.”

He turned to look at her. “Why won’t you tell me you love me?”

Tears burned her eyes and shook her head. “Will, I wish to God I could, but I can’t. Not yet. I want to, please believe me when I say I want to, but I refuse to lie to you. You deserve better than that. Just give me some time, okay? We’ve only been together about three weeks and it’s all happening so fast.”

He looked away and nodded.

She kissed his shoulder. “No man has ever made me feel more safe or loved.”

“But it’s not enough.”

“Will, you of all people know my history. Just give me time.”

You can free him
Raphael had said. Was she selfish to keep him with her? Should she consider it? But she couldn’t. Selfish or not, she needed him and not just to protect her.

He pulled her down and she laid her head on his chest, the beat of his heart reassuring her that he was there. He smoothed the hair off her face. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t pressure you.”

“I want to, Will. Really I do.”

“I know.” He kissed her head. “It’s okay.”

She fell asleep in his arms, praying that Raphael would stay out of her dreams.

And knowing that everything was far from okay.

Chapter Seventeen

Will watched the compound for three days while Emma grew impatient. He did his best to convince her that it was rash to rush in. He needed to figure out the routine of the compound and find their weaknesses, yet there was no denying it—not much was going on.

“This is stupid.” She sat on the ground in the shade of the car, leaning against the door. The stifling August heat, coupled with a non-existent breeze, made her cranky. The fact that Jake refused to acknowledge her presence since the day he traced the heart in her hand didn’t help. “Nothing is happening down there, Will.”

“This is the way it works, Princess. It’s the dirty little secret of surveillance. Ninety-nine percent of the time it’s boring.”

She swatted at fly that buzzed around her head. “What has James been doing for three days? We leave him back there to work and he’s got nothing to show for it. I suspect he’s renting pay-per-view movies and jacking off.”

Will laughed. “I wouldn’t put it past him, but we both know that wouldn’t take all day. Besides, he is making progress. It’s just slow. The Vinco Potentia isn’t a secret group for nothing. But the contact list is helping and he’s slowly building a dossier.”

“What about the Cavallo? I’m more interested in them.”

“They’re even more difficult. At least he has a contact list for Warren’s group. He’s got nothing besides Alex and we don’t even know if he’s really one of them.”

She released an exasperated breath and blew a strand of hair out of her face. “This is pointless. I could at least be practicing with my power.” She’d had three long, boring days to consider it. While she didn’t want to use her power to blast a forest, there was no denying it had saved her life. And if she learned to control it, perhaps she could use it without hurting people.

“No.”

“Will!”

“It’s too dangerous.”

“But Raphael said—”

“Fuck Raphael,” he growled.

She got up and stood next to the tree he was perched in. “Will, I have power and I need to learn how to use it.”

He looked down at her, his mouth pinched in anger. “No, you’re going to kill yourself. You need to get that goddamned thing off your neck.”

She grabbed the pendant, warming her fingertips. “Take it off? It’s what saved me before. Will, you’re obviously not thinking straight. Look what I did in the woods.”

“Exactly, look what happened in the woods, Emma. You caused a raging inferno and nearly died. Do we really want that to happen again?”

She grabbed his arm and leaned into his face. “If I am in that situation again, I will do it again.” As difficult as it was to live with, she’d do it again if it meant keeping her alive to find Jake. “Do we want me knowing how to handle it or just throwing it out there?”

He groaned, rubbing his hands over his eyes. “How many marshmallows should I get for you to roast?” he said as he hopped off the branch.

She threw her arm around his neck and kissed him. “A couple of bags. Maybe some hot dogs, too.”

“The first time I think you’re in danger, you have to stop.”

She twisted her mouth into a smile. “We’ll start off small and work our way up.”

“We’ll have to go somewhere more inconspicuous. My work’s done here anyway. I think I’ve figured out our way into the compound, but we won’t be able to use it for a day or two. That’ll give you time to practice.”

“So what’s your plan to get inside?”

“I’m still working on it. I’ll let you know when I work out the details.”

She raised an eyebrow as she frowned. “That’s a bullshit answer.”

“For once, just trust me.” He gave her a quick kiss. “You’ll be the first to know, now let’s go.”

It was so little to ask.
Just trust me
. Part of her protested with a vengeance. He shouldn’t keep secrets, but who was she to point fingers, with secrets of her own? She forced herself to concede. She gave him so little. She could give him this. “Okay. I trust you.”

His eyebrows lifted in surprise and his face lit up with happiness, making Emma feel guilty that she didn’t give him what he asked more often.

They stopped at a Wal-Mart and bought a couple of fire extinguishers, some fruit, and a six-pack of beer.

“Got a craving for watermelon?” she asked.

“You gotta have some kind of targets. Tin cans don’t seem appropriate in this instance.”

She could see the logic in his answer. Exploding cans could get dangerous. “What about the beer then?”

“It’s hot out there and I might need it to deal with what you’re about to do.”

Will drove into the middle of a recently cut, deserted field. “I’d prefer to take you to the desert,” he said as they got out. “I’m worried you’re going to set the southwest corner of South Dakota on fire.”

Emma scowled. “Very funny.”

“Who said I was joking?”

They leaned against the trunk of the car while Will popped open a beer and handed Emma a bottle of water.

“So tell me how this works,” he said. “How did you do it before?”

“I’m not really sure. When I healed you I thought about healing you. But in the woods, I just thought about how I wasn’t going to let them take me.”

“Okay.” He got out a watermelon and set it on the ground twenty feet in front of them. “Can you do something to it?”

“‘Do something?’ You mean, like make a watermelon slushy? We should have stopped at Sonic for that.”

“Ha. Ha. Very funny. What do you think you can do to it? Blow it up?”

“I haven’t got a fucking clue, Will. That’s why we’re here, right?”

He raised his hands in surrender. “Okay, do your thing, Princess.”

She stared at the melon on the ground. What
was
she going to do to it? Set it on fire? Was that possible? Blow it up? That seemed like a good start.

She focused, narrowing her vision, imaging the watermelon exploding. After a half minute, Will swallowed a gulp of beer. “You going to start anytime soon?”

“Shut up, Will.”

“Oh, I guess you’ve started. It’s not working?” he stood up. “So that’s it then, we’ll call it a day. That didn’t take long.”

“Sit your ass back down. I’m not done yet.”

He leaned against the trunk and picked up the fire extinguisher that lay at his feet. “I’m ready.”

“Shut up.”

He chuckled as she grabbed the pendant in her fingers. It must have something to do with the pendant. Holding the warm stone in her fingertips, she focused on the fruit. After several minutes, she stamped her foot and spun around in frustration.

“Damn it!”

Will grabbed her arms and pulled her to him. She tried to tear herself away. She wasn’t in the mood to hear him gloat.

But he tilted up her chin and stared into her face with patient eyes. “It’s okay. You can do this.”

“Obviously, I can’t.”

“You just started. Give it a chance.”

She nodded. He was right and, surprisingly, encouraging, but it frustrated her. Before she hadn’t even tried to do anything and it worked. It just happened in both instances.

Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath and cleared her mind. She thought about the watermelon and making it blow into thousands of pieces.

Nothing.

Her anger began to rise.
What the hell? Why I can’t do this?

The pendant on her chest grew warmer.

Just like when she healed Will.

Just like in the forest.

She focused on the heat and it began to cool. Okay, so that wasn’t it. What had caused it to heat up?

Her anger.

She thought about how pissed she was that the stupid melon hadn’t blown to smithereens yet. She thought about Jake and Alex and whoever else kept her and Jake apart. The pendant on her chest grew warmer and warmer.

“Emma…”

She ignored him, focusing on the watermelon and imaging that it somehow had wronged her. It had to be disposed of.

“
Emma
…”

She narrowed her eyes at the green oval on the ground and suddenly fragments of pulp and rind flew in all directions.

She smiled to herself, giddy with excitement.

“Oh, fuck. You did it.” Will tipped the can up and drained it. Then he turned to her, a worried expression on his face. “Are you okay? Are you tired?”

She shrugged. “Maybe a little, but not too much. Did you see that?”

Will brushed a piece of rind off his arm. “Uh, yeah. Hard to miss when it’s raining melons. How did you do it?”

“I got angry.”

“What? You were pissed at the watermelon?”

“Yes. No. I was mad because it seemed so simple compared to healing you and the forest fire. But more angry about Jake and the pendant got hot.”

“That’s what I was trying to tell you. It was glowing.”

“When I healed you, it glowed in my hand.”