Hunted (26 page)

“What the hell happened in the woods?”

“That wasn’t us. It had to be the Cavallo. But my source said she had some kind of power.”

“Is it true?”

Kramer paused. “We can’t be certain since none of the men in the forest survived, but the last report we had was that she had a gun, nothing else. Besides, it would have taken powerful explosives to cause the damage they found out there. Davenport could have set it up but our source says he was out of the area.” He paused again and lowered his voice. “It killed fifteen men, Phillip, and they weren’t all packed together. They were spread out over fifty feet.”

Emma struggled to catch her breath. She’d killed fifteen men.

“But how could she do it? She’s only supposed to carry the child. She wasn’t supposed to have any power.”

“Obviously, we underestimated her.”

She heard Warren’s dry laugh. “Obviously, we underestimated many things.”

“Phillip, you couldn’t have known about Alex.”

“Couldn’t I? He’s my son. How could I not realize he was working both sides?”

“He fooled us all. I knew he wasn’t happy with our philosophy, but I never considered that he was feeding them information about us. They almost killed Emmanuella.”

“It’s not like she’s a lot of good to us at this point, and now Alex is obsessed with her.”

“She’s still of great use to us. She still carries the child, even if the Chosen One isn’t one of our group. That’s a bitter disappointment, but the child has always been our main objective. We’ll just wait for our source to inform us of her whereabouts again. We
will
capture her.”

“And what about Davenport?”

“He’s an issue. I would love nothing more than to kill him. He’s a huge pain in the ass. Nevertheless, I think we should capture him as well. If she has powers we didn’t suspect, he might have some himself.”

“Do we know where they are now?”

Emma held her breath even though Kramer appeared clueless that she was less than twenty feet away. She fingered the trigger on her gun. Could she really shoot Kramer if he found her?

“No.”

“You said Davenport wasn’t with her when she caused the explosion. We need to find out if they’re together now. If he has powers, they might be more powerful together. We should try to capture them separately. See if the contact can arrange that.”

“Agreed.”

“How do we know we can trust your source?”

“Because he’s the only one providing us any information at this point.”

A door creaked. “Mr. Kramer,” a male voice interrupted.

“What is it?” Kramer replied, annoyed. “I told you I wasn’t to be disturbed.”

“Mr. Kramer, there’s been an irregularity with the security cameras.”

“And?”

“We lost reception to two security cameras at the back of this building for eighteen seconds. It could be a simple electronic glitch, but you said you wanted to be notified of anything unusual.”

“Thank you. Send a security team to investigate.”

"Already done."

Emma heard footsteps leave the room and a door close before the men resumed talking.

“What do you make of this, Scott?” Warren asked.

“It’s probably nothing, but it’s wise to treat it seriously.”

“Have we gotten any information about Alex’s whereabouts?”

“We suspect Montana.”

“
Montana?
”

“We think he has the boy there.”

Emma sucked in her breath. They had information about Jake.

“Send some men after him, and the boy too. Maybe we should just capture them all and bring them here to sort this out.”

“On it.”

Emma heard a blip as they disconnected. Kramer walked to the windows overlooking the compound and pulled his cell phone out of his pocket.

“Kramer, here. Send a team of men after Alex Warren. We want him alive and unharmed, and the boy too. Report back to me when they’ve been located and before you move in.”

She needed to find out where Jake was. She knew what Will would say—let James take care of it—but she had doubts the son of a bitch would help her. Maybe it was time to take matters into her own hands.

Kramer moved toward the bar when a knock on the door interrupted him.

“Mr. Kramer?”

“What did you find?”

“The fence at the rear of the compound has been cut but no sign of intruders.”

“Lock down the compound. No one gets in or out without my knowledge.”

“Yes, sir.”

Shit
. So much for a clean getaway.

A shadow fell over her and Emma stared up into the surprised face of Scott Kramer. She bolted to her feet, pointing her gun at him, her heart hammering in her ears

“Emmanuella, I’d say what a surprise, but that would be an understatement. You’re the last person I expected to find hiding behind my bar.”

“Why don’t we have a little chat.” She waved the gun toward Kramer.

He grabbed a decanter off the counter and poured the liquid into a glass. “I’d offer you a drink, but in light of your condition…”

“Let’s cut the small talk. Get your ass in a chair before I blow it off.”

He sat down, an amused expression on his face. “Here we’ve been searching everywhere for you and you found us instead. To what do I owe your visit?”

“I want my son.”

He twisted his lips and shrugged. “Sorry, we don’t have him, but then you know that already.”

She slid back the chamber on the gun and pointed it at his chest. “Don’t play games with me. I know Alex has him and you know where Alex is.”

“That’s not entirely true. We last spotted Alex in northwest Montana, but we aren’t sure exactly where he is. I know you were eavesdropping so surely you heard me tell them to contact me when Alex was located.”

She had, to her disappointment.

“Is that the real reason you’re here?” Kramer asked, shifting his eyes. “Where’s your babysitter?”

“Babysitter?” She raised her eyebrows.

“I’m surprised Davenport let you out of his sight, although we knew he wasn’t with you in Minnesota.”

Her anger rose while the pendant on her neck grew warmer.

“You knew we didn’t have your son. Why are you really here?”

“I want answers.”

Kramer laughed. “You didn’t have to break in to ask them. You could have simply shown up at the front gate.”

“The difference is I plan to
leave
when I’m done.”

“Well, therein lies the problem. You know I can’t let you leave, Emmanuella. But for the time being, let’s pretend you can. I’m curious what you wanted to know badly enough to come back here.”

She couldn’t tell him they were there for the book. “Why did Alex find me six years ago? What was he looking for? I’d never seen him before in my life.”

He sighed. “Alex wished to take matters into his own hands. None of us were aware of what he did until we found out from you. We would never have condoned it.”

“So you condone kidnapping but not rape.”

“Kidnapping is such an ugly word. I prefer detained.”

“Why me?”

“We’ve suspected for years you were the woman of the prophecy. We’ve simply watched you since we saw no reason to make contact yet. Then the other group began trying to kidnap your son, and we lost you both. We found you just in time to bring you here for the deadline in the prophesy. Of course, that didn’t go as planned. Davenport was supposed to bring you here and we would have explained the situation to you, hoping for your cooperation. We never expected to have so many
issues
.”

“And if I didn’t cooperate?”

Kramer shrugged. “We hoped for the best. We can be very persuasive.”

“For the sake of argument, let’s say I’m really stuck here. What are your plans for me?”

“Until we learned of your special talents, we simply planned to offer shelter and aid.”

Emma rolled her eyes. “How generous of you.”

“There’s no denying that men wish to harm you. We offer you protection.”

“And after the baby is born?”

“After learning of your special talents, you’re even more valuable to us now.” He leaned his arm on the back of his chair in a casual stance. “Tell me, Emma, what
are
you capable of?”

The situation was so crazy she wanted to laugh, but his nonchalance grated on her nerves. “I could fry you where you sit. Are you afraid?”

“No. Intrigued. Fascinated.” The way his eyes lit up told her it was true, to her aggravation.

“You caused an explosion in the woods. How did you do that?”

“You and Warren said Alex was obsessed with me now. Why?”

Kramer laughed. “Don’t wish to share your secrets? Fine. For now. Besides, I’m interested in your thoughts on this. After you escaped, Alex had some type of breakdown. He seemed determined to not only find you but
claim you
.”

“What the fuck does that mean?”

“Like I said, he had some sort of mental breakdown. He mumbled on and on that he realized who he really was and some nonsense about his destiny. Phillip tried to reason with him and tell him that Davenport had the mark, that it was too late, but he insisted it wasn’t. He said something about not being bound to destiny.”

Raphael’s words echoed in her head.

“Alex said we were thinking too small, too immediate, that this didn’t concern us at all. He said this was a game that had been played for centuries, always ending before a winner was declared, only to be rebooted decades later. But this time was different.” Kramer sipped his drink, then narrowed his eyes. “He said this time
you
were different.”

Her heart raced. “What does
that
mean?”

“We don’t know. I had hoped you could tell me.”

“I have no idea. I didn’t know about any of this until you dragged me into it.”

“That’s not true. Your son has a gift. Surely you were aware of your specialness.”

“I only have a son because of Alex. And I assure you, there’s nothing special about me.”

“Oh, you are so wrong. Even we were unaware how special you are.”

“Great, I’m special, but I am not your property. I just want my son and to be left alone.”

“I know how you can get your son back.”

“How?” Why would he tell her? Then she remembered they wanted Jake now. He hoped to use her.

“There’s no denying Alex’s obsession with you. If you really want to find your son, I know how to do it.” He paused. “
You
could lure Alex out. You find Alex, then you find Jake.”

“Why would I do that?”

“For your son, of course.”

“Do you think I’m stupid enough to trust you?”

“Of course not. I’m just pointing out your options. We could help you.”

“No, thanks.” She shook her head. “I still don’t know why you’re telling me this. What’s in it for you?”

“Alex. He’s a loose cannon with Phillip’s presidential campaign. He’s unstable and needs to be neutralized.”

“
You would kill Warren’s son?
”

“No, of course not,” he scoffed. “Merely contain him.”

“Like you contained me.”

He shrugged. “You wouldn’t need to be contained if you would only cooperate.”

“Okay, I’ve heard enough. I’m out of here.”

“I’m afraid I can’t allow that.”

“In case you haven’t figured this out, I have a gun.” She waved the weapon to emphasis her point.

“Emma, be reasonable. I have armed men outside my door. How will you get past them?”

Will stepped out from behind the bedroom door. “She won’t be doing it alone.”

Chapter Twenty

Kramer laughed and folded his hands under his chin. “I wondered when you’d show up. If she’s here, I knew you couldn’t be far away. This just keeps getting better and better. Phillip thought you would come back, but I didn’t peg you for being that stupid.”

Will winked and flashed his grin, pointing his gun toward Kramer. “Just goes to show that sometimes you never really know a person.”

“This isn’t like last time, Will. You just can’t waltz out of here with a hostage. They’ll be prepared for that. I have armed men all over the compound. You’ll never get away.”

Kramer sat in his chair so smug and sure of himself that anger overrode Emma’s fear. What gave him the right to order her around? Destroy her life? He smiled at her as he reached toward his pocket.

Will raised his gun. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

“Now, Will. Are you going to shoot me and have all those men out in the hall rush in here and possibly kill Emma? I’ve given them orders to shoot to kill when they see her.”

“I don’t believe you. She’s too valuable.”

“Are you really willing to bet her life on that?” Kramer asked. “Our men shot at her in Minnesota.”

Emma reluctantly nodded. “It’s true. They did.”

“So why didn’t you send men with guns in Kansas City?” Will asked. “Why just some thugs with a pipe?”

Kramer shook his head with a frown. “That wasn’t us.” He tilted his head to Emma. “See? I told you we are more than eager to help protect you.”

“While you threaten to kill me? Yeah, that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.” The pendant on her neck lay under her shirt, warming against her chest.