Redemption (17 page)

They stopped for breakfast outside of St. Joseph just after sunrise. Will found a restaurant that advertised free wi-fi so he could check on the latest news about Alex’s whereabouts.

The drive from Utah was grueling, and he was worried about Emma. After she’d told him she was pregnant days ago, they’d rarely acknowledged her condition. The way he’d pushed her to practice her power had to have been hard, but she never complained. They got up in the middle of the night, practiced, then drove hours to a new location, with Emma collapsing in the car and sleeping most of the day. Thankfully, her nausea seemed to have eased. But she hadn’t had a decent night’s sleep in a bed in over a week and now she’d just slept in the car.

They hadn’t discussed their plan since they left Utah, and he knew she wasn’t happy about it. He wished he could ease her into this, but there wasn’t time. Planning Alex’s assassination reminded Will of his tenure in Iraq, and he found it surprisingly easy to slip back into the role. He had to remind himself that they weren’t a Marine unit. Emma had no training for this, and he needed to help her emotionally prepare for this because once they started, there was no room for wavering.

Emma sat across from him, looking out the window.

“Are you okay?”

Irritation flashed in her eyes but just as quickly faded. “Yeah, I’m fine. Sorry I haven’t been very good company. I’m trying to adjust to the idea of—”

“Emma.”

She shook her head. “Will, don’t. I know you’re right. I’m just trying to figure out how to do this and live with myself. But that’s not your problem. It’s mine.”

“Your problems are mine, Emma.” He leaned across the table and covered her hand. “I wish you didn’t have to do this.”

“There’s no reason to rehash my feelings. Now tell me what your plan is.”

He turned the laptop so she could see the screen. “Phillip Warren’s campaign site says Alex gets into St. Louis mid-afternoon and stops by a school. The fundraiser dinner is scheduled for seven at the Crescent Hotel. He’s spending the night in the same hotel, one of the reasons I picked this stop in his campaign. His next overnight stop is on the East Coast. Since it’s too far to drive and neither of us can fly on a commercial plane without getting arrested, that rules that option out. So St. Louis it is.”

“You want me to just pick up a phone and call him?”

“He gave you his number in Tennessee for a reason, Emma. Trust me. He wants you to call him.”

“But he knows we’ve joined. Won’t he suspect something’s up?”

“Tell him we’ve had a fight. Tell him that I want to kill Jake. Tell him whatever it takes to make him believe you want to find a way to break our bond and team up with him.”

She snorted. “You think I’m an actress now.”

He grinned. “You fooled me into thinking you didn’t like me when we first met.”

Shaking her head, she laughed. “Sorry to disappoint there, player. I really didn’t like you.”

“Then pretend I’m that guy. Pretend I really do want to kill Jake. You’ll have to be convincing.”

Fear leached the color from her face. “You have to promise me you won’t kill Jake.”

His heart skipped a bit. “Emma. I would never kill Jake. You know that.”

If possible, she turned even more pale. “You might face a choice, him or me.” She gripped his hand, her nails digging into his skin. “You have to save him. Promise me.”

The pancakes in his stomach revolted against their confined space. She was asking him to kill her. And as much as he wanted to save Jake, he wasn’t sure he could do what she was asking. Was it even possible, considering their bond?

“I know that we’re bound together now and I’m worried what happens to you if I die.” She shifted in her seat and looked away. “The next time Marcus shows up, you need to ask him what would happen. His loyalty is to you, not me. But while I think he does want you to live, if nothing else so he can use you for whatever he has planned, I’m worried he sees you like Aiden sees me. Expendable.”

“I’m not naïve enough to think Marcus is glad to have the son he’s waited millenniums for, Emma. I know he’s using me.”

“But he wants you to live as long as possible. He’ll sacrifice me to save you. We need to be sure that you’ll survive.”

“Emma, stop being so fatalistic.”

“I want Jake to live. Will, you have to promise me.”

“No. I will not promise to kill you. I can’t.” He raised his voice louder than he intended and a man two tables away glanced over with alarm. Will smiled and patted Emma’s hand. “You take those video games way too seriously, sweetheart.”

The man turned his attention back to his omelet.

Emma leaned forward, lowering her voice. “There’s no point in doing any of this if Jake’s going to die. I won’t help you with Alex if you refuse to promise.”

Will turned to the window, taking a breath. He understood her need to protect Jake at all costs, but her ability to dismiss him so easily because he refused to promise stung. “Don’t be stupid, Emma. Let’s say you don’t help me and Alex and Raphael survive. You really think they’re going to go easy on Jake because he’s just a little boy? Hell, Emma. They’re going to specifically target him.”

Her eyes widened. “No.”

“Yes.” He took her icy hand in his. “The look on your face tells me that you know it’s true. It’s all the more reason to eliminate Alex and Raphael first. To make sure Jake survives.”

Her face turned gray and she covered her mouth with her hand. “I have to go to the bathroom.”

She stood, bumping into the table. The silverware rattled and Will grabbed a glass of water before it fell over as she bolted to the restroom.

Her nausea was probably morning sickness, but he groaned when he realized that he’d just told her that two grown men were going to target her son to kill him. What did he expect?

He laid cash on the table, packed up the laptop and headed down the hall. Knocking on the door, he pushed it open a crack.

***

“Emma? Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” Emma retched again, trying not to think of all the germs covering the toilet she was trying desperately not to touch.

“Are you sure?” Will asked.

The nausea still rolled in her stomach and she gulped a deep breath of air.

“Emma?”

She threw up again until she dry-heaved. When she finished, she realized Will had come into the bathroom and was crouched behind her, rubbing her back. “This is the women’s restroom, Will. What are you doing in here?”

“Checking on you.” His hand worked a light circle on her back. “It’s going to be okay.”

He couldn’t assure her of that, but it meant so much to her that he’d do anything to make her feel better. Even go into a women’s restroom. She leaned back into him with a sigh.

He wrapped an arm around her waist. “Do you think you’re okay now?”

Her stomach had seemed to settle. “Yeah, I think so.”

Will helped her up and kissed her forehead. “I’ve got to check out one more thing on the computer before we go.”

“I’m fine. You go do what you need to do and I’ll clean up.”

She watched him walk through the door, then rinsed out her mouth, refusing to look at her reflection in the mirror. She didn’t need the reminder of how terrible she looked. Even though she’d napped in the car, she hadn’t slept well in weeks. The now-constant dark circles under her eyes were hideous, and she sometimes wondered why Will still found her attractive. But she knew that his love for her ran deeper than her looks—it had even from the beginning. She’d thought he loved her because of his mark. Turned out that he loved her in spite of it. There was no doubt his life would have been a hell of a lot easier if he’d never accepted his assignment from the Vinco Potentia. And while she wished the entire nightmare had never happened, she was glad that if she had to live through it all, at least she had him to go through it with her.

Could she do what Will asked her to do? Could she lie to Alex and pretend to want to team up with him while Will snuck in and killed him? Could she watch him die in cold blood? Did she have a choice?

Will was right. Alex and Raphael would target Jake right away in a confrontation of power. And for Jake to make it to the final battle, Alex had to die so Jake could take his place. She couldn’t wait for that to happen. Her job as a mother was to protect her son. At all costs.

Nausea bubbled in her stomach again and she knew it had nothing to do with her pregnancy. The thought of killing someone with premeditation made her physically ill. But she needed to suck it up. It had to be done. Maybe if she remembered the night Alex raped her she could go through with this. She forced herself to remember the cruelty in his eyes. The way he threw her to the ground and used her, leaving her laying there, half-undressed as he walked away. That man was a monster. He was the man she would kill. Her resolve returned until she remembered the Alex by the creek, giving her information about her power that no one else would. Or the man who helped her escape and took her to Will. That Alex seemed completely different.

No, he’s the same man. He’s his father’s son
. Manipulative and calculating. He was used to siding with the winner. Alex saw her as the winning side, even that night at the creek. Maybe especially that night by the creek when he realized how strong she was. He was using her. Just like everyone else in her life.

Everyone except Will.

She’d stayed in the bathroom too long. Sure her guts were under control, she found Will at their table, hunched over the laptop. His drawn mouth was her first clue something was wrong. He glanced up at her and forced a smile, reaching for the computer’s lid to close it.

Reaching for his hand, she stopped him. “What don’t you want me to see?”

“Nothing.”

She slid in next to him on the booth seat, and he moved to make room for her while keeping the screen turned away.

“It’s a wonder you made a career out of playing other people, because you are so fucking obvious right now. If this were a real job, you’d be dead.”

His grip tightened as she tugged on the computer. “Wow. That was harsh.”

“I order you to let me see what you were looking at.”

Will chuckled, but his eyes were serious. “Princess, your ordering powers disappeared when my mark faded.”

“Then respect me enough to stop hiding things from me.”

His hold loosened, but he still held the screen at an angle. “Emma. Trust me. You don’t want to see this.”

Her heart plummeted to the floor. Whatever he was looking at had to do with Jake. She grabbed the laptop, and Will released his hold.

Photos of rubble filled the screen, columns of smoke scattered across the debris. The headline read
Downtown Little Rock Destroyed by Earthquake and Freak Storm
.

Her mouth dropped open as she tried to put the information together. What was the likelihood of an earthquake and a storm at the same time? And, according to the information in the article, the damage had been neatly contained to a four-block area. Earthquakes didn’t behave that way and neither did storms. And they sure as hell didn’t behave that way together.

“What were Raphael and Alex doing together in Little Rock? Was Alex at a campaign stop there? That’s a little risky, isn’t it? Won’t the media put it together?”

“Emma…Alex was in Boston yesterday.”

“Then how did he pull this off? Have they teamed up? Is our trap for Alex going to work now?” Hysteria made her voice an octave higher.

“Emma. You know this wasn’t Alex.”

The muscles in her shoulder blades knotted, shooting spasms down her back. “The earthquake was Raphael. This has his name all over it. The storm must have been a fluke. Or…” She struggled to catch her breath. “He timed it to coincide with a storm. To make it look like Alex was there.”

Will didn’t answer, pity in his eyes.

“No.” She shook her head. “
No
.”

He closed the laptop and stuffed it into the backpack. “Let’s go. You can rest in the car and we need to get moving.”

She stood, trying to pull herself together. “But it’s my turn to drive.”

“It’s okay. Let’s just go.” He took her hand and led her out the doors into the parking lot. Her reactions were a half second off and she stumbled at the curb.

When Jake was born, she’d promised to make his life better then hers. She promised that he’d know love and security. Now he had neither. Her son had destroyed a city. He’d been forced to kill innocent people. She’d failed him over and over again. And she was done.

She jerked out of Will’s grasp. “No. We’re not going to get into the car and pretend like everything is okay.
Everything is not okay
.”

“Emma, don’t.”

“
Don’t
?”

He closed his eyes.

She ignored the exhaustion that covered his face. She didn’t give a fuck how exhausted he was. “What the hell is my son doing with Raphael?”

“I…” His mouth opened then he closed it. “I don’t know.”

She brushed past him. “I’ll drive. I know how to get to Little Rock from here.”

“No, Emma. We’re not going to Little Rock.” His voice was soft but firm.

She spun around to face him. “
Excuse me
? Did you just say
no
? That monster has my son! Jake gets passed from evil being to evil being and what the hell am I doing about it? Nothing. I’m sitting around doing
nothing
!”

Will closed the distance between them. “Emma, I know you want to go to Jake, but think about this for a minute. What if Raphael somehow knows our plans? He obviously wouldn’t want us to create a truce with Alex. Maybe this is his way of keeping us from doing that.”

“Then he got his wish. Let’s go.” She spun to open the car door.

“No.” He pulled her back. “We’re going through with our plan.”

She jerked out of his hold. “Fuck our plan. I’m getting my son. You can do whatever the hell you want.”

His shoulders slumped in frustration. “Emma,
stop
and think this through. What if it’s a trap? What if Raphael is thinking like you and I are? What if he decided to eliminate his threat? He could have staged this to draw us to him.”