Sacrifice (19 page)

“It’s Freedom Day and we’ve got a drive ahead of us. Let’s go.”

She lowered the blanket and sat up. “You’re serious. You’re going to let me go?”

Alex rolled his eyes. “I made it perfectly clear that I want to be around you as little as possible.” He shrugged. “No offense.”

She climbed out of bed. “None taken.” She grabbed a change of clothes out of her bag and headed for the bathroom. “I need a shower.”

“Make it quick. Turns out we’re pressed for time.”

Pausing in the doorway, she glanced over her shoulder. “We have an appointment?”

“Something like that.” Alex walked into his adjoining room, his words muffled. “Bang on my door when you’re done.”

Freedom was a foreign concept after her week with Raphael. But she and Alex had flown on a private jet into Kansas City, and checked into two adjoining rooms in a hotel downtown. She could have left any time she wanted, which in reality was a lie. Raphael would have found her. But Alex chose to let her make her own decision, no pressure either way, which surprised her. She’d considered him more manipulative.

Showering quickly, she dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, almost regretting her decision to not bring skirts. While cooler in the Midwest heat, they were difficult to run in if necessary. She’d deal with the discomfort.

Alex said it was Freedom Day, but they had to drive somewhere. Where were they going? And would he give her money to live on for the next few weeks? All she had was the little cash she’d stolen from Raphael. She’d never asked for a handout in her entire life, but she didn’t have time to work for minimum wage or wait tables for crappy tips. Besides, these assholes owed her.

After a quick blow dry of her hair, she knocked on Alex’s door.

He opened it and eyed her up and down, his eyebrows raised in appraisal.

For the first time since she’d seen Alex a couple of days ago, she felt intimidated by him. Why was he looking her over like she was about to be put up for auction?

He shook his head and smiled, eerily close to his father’s political mask. “Well, okay. Let’s get going!” He grabbed her bag off the dresser and led her into the hall.

Following behind, she was suddenly unsure she’d made the right decision, but there wasn’t much she could do about it now.

***

James drove to Morgantown, Missouri while Will slumped in the passenger seat, nursing a hangover. He rubbed his temples, shutting his eyes to the blinding sunlight.

“You ready to see your mom?”

Grunting, Will sunk lower into the leather. In the history of asinine questions, this had to top the list, yet Will knew that James grasped for something to ease the tension.

“Well, you better get ready. We’re about five minutes away.”

Will didn’t even answer with a grunt. He wished he hadn’t drowned his sorrows quite so much last night. Instead of facing his mother with a clear head and carefully thought-out questions, a piercing pain stabbed his skull. One thing in his favor was that he didn’t dream of Emma. Maybe she was gone, exorcised from his brain like James wanted. Did Will want that too? He couldn’t deny his life, not to mention his sanity, would be better off. Yet, something inside him still clung to her.

James pulled into a parking garage and found a spot on the second level. “We’re entering through an auxiliary building. That way if the Vinco Potentia is watching, we might be able to elude them.”

Two men sat in a car close to the entrance as Will and James approached. “What do you think?” James asked.

Will rubbed his aching forehead. “Looks suspicious. We need a diversion.”

James pulled Will between two parked cars and squatted. “Yeah, I’m on it.”

A woman pushing a stroller and tugging a school-aged boy approached from behind. James tugged a baseball cap over Will’s head. “Meet you inside, Daddy.”

Will fell into step with the family, grateful that the mom was distracted by the whiny toddler in the stroller. He passed through the doors, touching the boy lightly on the shoulder. The men cast a quick glance in his direction, then looked way.

Hiding around the corner, Will waited for several minutes before James walked in, pushing an elderly gentleman in a wheelchair and wearing a safari hat on his head.

“That was easy,” Will mumbled as he moved down the hall.

“Speak for yourself. I had to break into a car to get this hat, then I had to convince Mr. Turnball I wasn’t going to assault him.”

“Well, we’re in now.” With Will’s every step, a rebellion festered. Once again, he’d let James call the shots. For days he’d followed James like a fucking lost puppy. Yeah, his life was shit. But it had been shit before and he could guarantee it would be shit again. This wasn’t him. Hiding and cowering behind James’s skirts wasn’t Will Davenport. It was time to take charge.

They rode the elevator to the third floor and James followed Will into the hallway.

“Stay in the waiting room, James.”

Wide eyed, James looked around, spotting the nearby waiting area. “Why?”

“I need to do this on my own.

James’s shoulders relaxed. “I know, but after everything you’ve been through, you need me watching your back.”

“No,” Will enunciated slowly, “what I need to do is to go see my mother by myself. When I’m done, I’ll come find you.”

“Will—”

“Why don’t you want me to go on my own?”

James grabbed Will’s elbow and dragged him toward the chairs, away from a nurse passing by who narrowed her eyes at their exchange. “Will, be reasonable. You’re still recovering and we have no idea if this is a trap or not.”

“We both know my mother is lying in a bed down the hall, dying. They may be waiting to ambush us, but I’m doing this on my own.”

“Will.”

“You’ve treated me like a two-year-old since you walked into my cell days ago, and for some bizarre reason, I’ve let you. But it stops now.”

James leaned his forehead closer to Will’s and lowered his voice. “Will, you’ve been through a major trauma that would have flattened most men. You just don’t bounce back from something like that.”

“You treating me like a child is making it worse. Let me work through this my own way. And going to see my mother by myself is the first step.”

James rubbed his chin, looking around at the dilapidated vinyl chairs. “All right. I’ll wait here. But if you’re not back in thirty minutes, I’m coming looking for you.”

“Fair enough.” Will’s arm brushed James’s as he pushed past.

James grabbed his elbow, his gaze locking with Will’s. “Good luck.”

Will nodded and pulled loose. God, that felt good. He even felt like a sliver of himself.

***

The sun had only been up a few hours but a wet fog hung in the air. A fog Jake had created.

Aiden beamed. “Very good, Jacob. How do you feel?”

It was a trick question. Aiden was full of them. “Great,” Jake answered with as much enthusiasm as he could muster.

“This is a very good start. Next you will make clouds.”

Easy for Aiden to say. Jake wanted to tell him to make clouds himself.

“Disobedience will not be tolerated.” Aiden’s anger rolled off of him, washing over Jake in waves.

Catching his breath, Jake struggled against the toxicity that choked him. Once it eased, he shifted his feet apart and closed his eyes.

Fog had been kind of easy. Fog was tiny drops of water that clumped together and hovered over the ground. He had to control the air around it, but the water readily obeyed. Clouds were harder. The water droplets had to cling differently so that they were lighter and fluffier, almost like steam. He centered himself, drawing his power from deep inside, his body almost singing to the molecules in the air, forcing them to push the water.

“Very good.”

Jake peeked through his slitted eyelids. The fog had folded in on itself, becoming thicker and denser, a three-foot fluffy mass that looked like white cotton candy.

“Now you need to make it bigger.”

Jake closed his eyes to hide his tears. He was so tired and doing things like making clouds made him more tired. After Aiden’s nighttime visit to his room, he’d gotten little sleep. Jake was worried about Mommy, worried about Will. The shadows had begun moving the moment Aiden left, creeping across the floor and lapping at Jake’s bed, yet he still preferred them to Aiden.

What would Aiden do to Will now that he knew Will was alive?

“You don’t need to worry about Will.” Aiden’s voice sounded like thick honey, slow and sweet. He used that voice when he meant the opposite of what he was saying.

Jake opened his eyes, pulling his lower lip between his teeth.

Aiden smiled, his eyes glowing. “I’ll take care of everything in due time.”

***

While Will acknowledged James had legitimate concerns about the Vinco Potentia showing up, he was glad he was alone as he walked down the hall. He took a moment to steady his nerves before searching for his mother’s room. He took in the view of the town through a wall of windows he passed, appreciating the fact that his mother had chosen to raise Will and his sister in Morgantown, close to his grandparents. The alternative was to traipse all over the world and be raised as military brats. It had also spared them a lot of years with their controlling father.

Squaring his shoulders, he turned down the hall and found her room number. It was time to get some answers. He pushed through the door, stopping short as it swung closed behind him.

He hadn’t seen his mother in over three years, and at first glance he thought he was in the wrong room. The frail woman lying in the hospital bed looked decades older. Her eyes were closed, but the door hinge squeaked and she turned her head, her mouth dropping in disbelief. “Will?”

“Mom,” Will whispered, his heart sinking as he moved to her side. How did this happen?

Her chin trembled. “You came. You really came.”

Will sat in a chair next to the bed and took her hand. “Yeah, I came.”

They stared at one another for several moments. Will wasn’t sure what his mother saw. Longer hair than his old military cut. A few wrinkles and a harder expression in his eyes.

What he saw stole his breath. His mother, always a small woman, was now tiny and frail. Her arms were like shriveled toothpicks covered in saggy skin. She reached a bony hand to his face. Will was astounded that she looked more like eighty than fifty-five.

“Megan…she said she couldn’t reach you.” She patted his cheek. “After everything… I wasn’t sure you’d come.”

Will swallowed the lump in his throat. “I had to come, Mom. Once I knew you actually wanted me to. I didn’t want to come all this way for you to kick me out.”

She closed her eyes. “Oh, Will…”

He was an ass to bring it up, but the pain of her rejection still stung. More than stung. Ate at his soul. His father’s he could understand, but his mother’s…it had been the final blow, shoving him headfirst into his pit of self-destruction.

“Despite what you think, I never stopped loving you.”

He shook his head, turning to face the wall. “Wow. You had a funny way of showing it. Dad, I understood. But you…”

“I wasn’t strong enough.”

He tried to swallow the burning in his throat, but it hung there, bringing tears to his eyes. That was a lie. She’d been one of the strongest people he knew. Maybe he shouldn’t have come. What did he hope to gain? “Does Megan come to see you a lot?”

“Every day. Sometimes she brings her boys with her. They’re growing like weeds. She’s got a baby girl now too. Just turned a year old.” She dropped her hand to cover Will’s. “Megan misses you.”

He nodded, trying to control his emotions. “I miss her too. But after Dad found out that she helped me with my apartment… It just seemed easier for her to not see me anymore.”

“Your father has quite an influence.”

Will’s brow furrowed. Talk about an understatement.

“How are you doing, Will?”

With tears in his eyes he gave her a cocky smile. “Just great, Mom. I work in a big high-rise and wear a three-piece suit to work.”

She frowned. “Don’t you take that tone with me, William.” Three years ago, she could have pulled off the statement. Three years ago she did. But her voice shook, losing the edge it needed to be a true threat.

“What do you want to hear, Mom? That I’m married with two kids and a dog? Because I’m not. My life is royally screwed up. And you know what? I take full responsibility for my mistakes. But I counted on you, Mom.” His voice broke as he held back tears. “I counted on you to help me put the pieces of my life back together and tell me everything was going to be okay. Instead, you sent me away.”

She released a sob. “I’m so sorry.”

“Why? Why did you turn your back on me?” There it was. The real reason he came. He had to make sense of her betrayal.

Her chin quivered as her grip on his hand tightened. “You will never know how much I regret what I did, Will. But we both know how difficult it is to go against your father’s wishes.”

“After everything he’s done over the years. Missing all those family activities. And the mistresses.”

Her eyes widened.

“Of course I knew about the women. Everyone knew. All those years it was just you and Megan and me while he was on his missions. When he was gone, our lives were good, but when he was home…no one could live up to his expectations. God knows I tried. I tried so hard to be just like him, I no longer knew what part of me was really me and what part was him.”

“Will…”

“No, Mom. Let’s just get it all out there. I was the one there for you, all those years being the man of the house. I would have done anything for you, Mom. I loved you and I was so lucky that your love was enough to make up for that bastard’s expectations.”

“William. Please.” Her voice broke with tears.

What had he expected? But now that he’d started this, he had to see it to the end. “When I needed you the most, you took his side.” Will’s shoulders shook. “How could you take his side, Mom?”

“Because I was scared, Will. I’d just found out I had cancer and I worried that your father would leave me if I stood up for you. I needed someone to take care of me.”