Hunted (7 page)

Emma woke with a nightmare again, but refused to tell Will anything about it. Whatever it was left her shaken and her sullenness hung on into the morning.

They had returned to the motel and gone to bed, their disagreement unresolved. In the harsh light of day, Will realized she was right. He was trying to protect her at the risk of not doing a thorough job. The acknowledgment stuck in his craw. It was half-assed and he didn’t do half-ass.

He wanted to ask her about the man who sat at her table, but he worried bringing it up would reinforce her mother’s words. He hated to give them more weight than they already had.

While they had obtained some information about Emma’s father, Will wished they had more to go on besides the fact that he oozed power and electricity shot through her. They didn’t even know his name. One thing he knew, his suspicions that her father might be the source of Emma’s unique traits were confirmed, but they had no idea who her father was. Or what he was. With all the freaky things going on, Will had to let his mind wander past the normal realm of reality, although he wasn’t sure how long of a leash to let it have.

Will cast a glance at Emma, who lay on the motel bed watching the television, curled up with her cheek lying on a pillow. Her silence was suffocating. What she didn’t tell him ate at his imagination, especially after she dropped the bombshell about them not working. Was she thinking about leaving him?

He lay down beside her, pressing his chest to her back, and whispered in her ear, “I’m sorry.”

She turned her head to look at him, her eyes guarded. “I’m sorry, too. This is all new to me. Obviously I’m not very good at it.”

He rolled her on her back and threaded his hands through the hair pooled on the pillow. “Neither am I, so we’ll learn together, okay?”

Indecision clouded her eyes, before a small smile lifted the corner of her lips. “Okay.”

He wished he could ask her what she was thinking, what made her hesitate, but he knew she’d never answer.

“I don’t see any point in staying in Joplin. I want to go to Kansas City, but I don’t want to go to my apartment until tonight, which means we have hours to kill.”

She gave him a wry smile. “You’re an excellent lover, but it won’t take hours.”

He laughed. “That’s not what I was proposing. I’m open to suggestions, although now that you’ve mentioned it, that sounds like a great idea.” He leaned down to kiss her to prove his point. “I think that should be first on the list. Make-up sex.”

He expected her to protest. Instead, she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him closer. She clung to him, kissing him with an insistence and desperation that bothered him. But now that they had started, he was hungry for her.

He pulled back and caressed her cheek. “We don’t have to do this.”

Indecision flickered again before she said, “Shut up and kiss me, Will.”

He obeyed, although his obedience had little to do with his bind to obey her commands. They made love in a frenzy of passion and desolation. Afterward, they lay sweaty and entwined. Emma stared at the ceiling as Will watched her face, trying to figure out how to give her what she needed.

Jake
.

Jake was what she needed and he was doing everything he could to find him. Only it didn’t seem like enough.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked, still studying the ceiling overhead.

“Because I can’t get enough of you.”

She laughed. “You already have me, player. You don’t have to throw me any lines.”

In a quick jerk, he rolled on top of her, playfully pinning her arms over her head. “Do you want me to prove it to you?”

Her eyes widened in surprise. “Prove what?”

“How much I love you.”

Her eyes sank closed with a soft shake of her head. “Will…”

“You can deny it all you want, but I love you anyway.” He kissed her as his hand slid slowly down her arm until it found her breast. She inhaled at the contact.

“Please don’t insult my attraction to you,” he murmured against her lips.

He lifted his head and her eyelashes fluttered open. He studied her brown eyes, hoping they would give him insight to her thoughts. Instead, she grinned. “If I say I’m sorry does that mean we’re going to have make-up sex again?”

“No, and although I’m tempted, I’m not your sex toy.” He rolled to his side and pulled her into an embrace. “Let’s get lunch, then do something before we go to my apartment. Got any ideas?”

She was silent for a moment then said, “We can stop and see my grandmother. She lives in Lamar. It’ll be on the way.”

“You have a grandmother?”

She snorted. “Of course, I have a grandmother. Contrary to the evidence in the bar last night, my mother isn’t a fungus spore that spontaneously spawned.”

“Why didn’t you mention it before?”

“Because I rarely saw my grandmother growing up. She and my mother didn’t get along and I suspect it might have had something to do with me or my father. Even though Mom moved to Joplin right after I was born, Grandma might have something to help us. At any rate, we should get a better reception from her.”

“Then let’s get lunch and go see her.”

Emma looked at the clock. “It’s almost eleven o’clock and it’ll take less than an hour to get there. Grandma always loved to cook. I bet she’ll want to fix us lunch.”

Will’s stomach growled at the thought of home-cooked food. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d had a meal that didn’t come from a restaurant kitchen.

***

They arrived in Lamar less than an hour later. Will drove through an older neighborhood. The canopies of massive trees loomed overhead as Emma studied the houses, trying to remember which one was her grandmother’s. “I haven’t visited her since I left for college and rarely before that,” she apologized.

She was about to give up when she saw the small white house with the pink metal awning covering the porch. “There!” The house was smaller than she remembered, which threw her off, but she recognized the faded white-painted wishing well she’d thrown pennies in as a little girl. The giant snowball bush was still at the corner of the house, only now it was more overgrown and out of control.

Will parked the car at the curb. “Do you think she’s home?”

Emma watched for a moment, looking for movement behind the frilly white curtains. “Probably. She retired my sophomore year of college and I remember she was always a homebody.” Emma reached for the door handle when Will grabbed her arm. She turned back to face him.

He gave her a reassuring smile. “Anytime you want to leave, just say the word.”

“Don’t worry. Grandma is the complete opposite of my mother. You’ll like her.” She got out of the car and watched the house as she waited for Will.

They walked to the front door together, standing side by side on the porch as Emma rang the doorbell. A gray head peered around the curtains in the side window and Emma smiled. The door flew open and a small elderly woman clutched her chest, her eyebrows raised in shock.

“Emma?”

“Grandma!” she choked out as the woman threw her arms around her. To Emma’s horror, her grandmother was crying. “Grandma? Are you okay?”

Her grandmother pulled back and dabbed her tears with a tissue she pulled from the pocket of her housedress. “These are tears of happiness! Come inside.” She stopped and finally seemed to notice Will. “And who’s this young man you’ve brought with you?”

“Grandma, this is—”

Will reached his hand toward her. “Will Davenport, ma’am. I apologize for our intrusion.”

The respect he showed her grandmother caught Emma by surprise, but then again, Will was the master of charm. Except he seemed genuine, and she was suddenly proud that she could present this man to her grandma.

The older woman eyed him carefully as she took his hand, then pulled it free and patted his arm. “This is no intrusion! It’s a cause for celebration!” She turned to Emma and took her hand, pulling her through the door. “Oh, how I’ve missed you, Emmanuella.”

For some reason, her grandmother was the only person Emma felt comfortable using her given name. A wave of guilt surged through her. Emma’s mother and grandmother might not get along, but that wasn’t a reason to not visit. Then again, the last three years of her life had been on the run. Not exactly the right time to drop in on your grandmother for cookies and tea.

The house was exactly how she remembered it. Lace doilies covered the worn armrests of the 1960s sofa and armchair. Faded prints papered the walls. Threadbare lace curtains covered the windows. The ranch house was small, a typical midcentury tract house, but Emma always remembered it neat and clean. And more importantly, inviting. Coming to her grandmother’s was like coming home.

“Have you kids had lunch?” her grandma asked.

“No.”

She clasped her hands together, a broad smile filling her face. “Well then, let me fix you something.”

Emma looked over her shoulder at Will and lifted an eyebrow in an I-told-you-so look.

Will grinned. “We don’t want to put you to too much trouble, Mrs. Thompson.”

She waved her hand with a
pft
. “It’s no trouble at all. I rarely get to cook for anyone other than myself.”

Emma sat in a vinyl upholstered chair at the Formica-topped kitchen table. Nothing had changed since she was a small child. Will sat beside her, a smile on his face. She knew he’d like her. She shouldn’t care whether he liked her or not, yet she found herself surprised that she did.

Her grandmother opened the refrigerator and began pulling out ingredients. “I hope you like fried chicken, Will. It used to be one of Emma’s favorites when she was a little girl.” She winked at Emma before she turned back to the counter. “I was going to make it for the church picnic tomorrow, but this seems like a better occasion.”

Sitting at her grandmother’s table brought a rush of familiarity and home. How had she forgotten this feeling?

“Emma, where’s your boy? Your momma said you had a little boy a few years back.”

To her dismay, her eyes filled with tears and before she could stop herself, sobs broke loose.

Her grandmother turned in surprise and pulled Emma’s head against her stomach, patting her shoulder. “There, there, child,” she soothed. “There, there.”

***

Emma must have cried a good five minutes. Will watched in helplessness, a feeling that made him uncomfortable. If there was a problem, he acted. But in this case, he suspected Emma needed the older woman more than anything he could offer so he sat and waited.

When Emma settled down, her grandmother pulled a chair in front of Emma and took her hands into her own.

“What’s his name?”

“Ja-ake,” Emma hiccupped.

“Where is he?”

“They to-ok him.”

“Who took him?” Her grandmother looked at Will.

When Emma had begun crying, he knew her grandmother would want answers and he wrestled with what to tell her. But she obviously loved Emma and they needed an ally. They might get more answers from her if she knew what they were up against.

Will looked her square in the eyes. “A group called the Cavallo. They’ve been after Emma and Jake for three years.”

She clutched her hand to her chest in horror. “Why on
earth
would people be after them?”

“Because Jake has something they wanted.”

“What could a small child possibly have that they would want?”

Will paused, still unsure if he should continue, but Emma needed her grandmother and he suspected her grandmother needed her too. “Power.”

She turned to Emma. “What’s he talking about, Emmanuella?”

“Jake can see the future. And now he can do even more since Will found us.”

Her grandmother shook her head in confusion. “Maybe you should start at the beginning.”

Between the two of them, they told her everything. They started with when Jake first saw things when he was two and when the Bad Men, as Jake called them, showed up to take him.

Will watched in amazement as Emma told her grandmother things she’d never told him. Such as when the Cavallo had first shown up at her door one night, asking to see Jake. She had called the police, who refused to take the threat seriously. And how they narrowly escaped that first time, and how, after that, she listened whenever Jake told her the Bad Men were coming.

She told her grandmother how they progressed farther and farther down the socioeconomic ladder as Emma resorted to low-end jobs that paid little, didn’t ask for references and let her bring Jake to work. How their possessions dwindled from a house full of furniture, a minivan and a salaried job as an accountant to living in a pay-by-the-week motel, a suitcase and a beat-up Honda.

And as he listened, his need to take care of her grew until it became a mass of conviction burning in his chest. She’d gone through far more than anyone deserved and she’d done it alone. He’d be damned if she faced this alone again.

Emma explained how Will showed up a few weeks earlier when the Bad Men found them in Texas, and when Will offered to help Jake insisted she needed to trust him. She told her how Will protected them from the gunmen in a rest stop in Kansas, but that they’d taken Jake and made his truck explode in Colorado.

“How is it you happened to have a truck full of weapons, young man?” her grandmother asked in a stern voice.

Emma locked eyes with Will. He nodded, giving her permission to tell her everything, but her answer surprised him. “He was in the Marines.”

Her grandmother looked confused. “But that doesn’t—”

Emma paused and grabbed her hands, staring intently into her eyes. “Grandma, we can trust him. He’s protected me and helped me escape from the other group—”

“
Escape?
What other group?”

“…and nursed me back to health after I was shot in the leg.”

“
You were shot?
”

“Yes, and I almost died. But Will took care of me and protected me from both groups while I recovered.”

“The other group is still after you even though they have Jake?”

Emma hesitated. “Yes, they’re trying to kill me.”