Sacrifice (31 page)

Yet she couldn’t deny the possibility.

She peered outside again, looking for any signs of trouble, finding none. The car was parked a good twenty feet away, out of the glare of a streetlight. But once her eyes adjusted, enough light illuminated the driver’s side of the car to reveal someone sitting inside. The head slumped forward at an awkward angle.

Will.

Heart racing, she forced herself to count to ten before she did anything, only making it to three before she flung the door open and darted behind the front end of a nearby car.

She paused long enough to confirm that no one was shooting at her before she ran to another car closer to the sedan. When she made it without drawing gunfire, she ran across the parking lot, ignoring the rough asphalt on her bare feet. She made it to the car, heart lodged in her throat, then jerked on the door handle. The door refused to budge. Locked.

She bent down to look inside, gasping in horror. His head bent forward at an uncomfortable-looking angle so that she couldn’t see his face, but a large red stain saturated the front of Will’s T-shirt, the gray one with the rip in the hem.

The one he was wearing when he left.

Not again. Please, God. Not again
.

Emma beat on the window with the palm of her hand, hysterical. “Will! Open the door! WILL!”

Her shrieks filled the parking lot, and motel unit doors flung open to investigate, not that she cared. Half of her soul sat bloodied in this car.

“Will!” she sobbed, pounding on the window.

Something deep inside niggled for attention. Use your power to open the door. Her anger had dissipated, leaving only fear and grief. Not enough to even create an ember of power in her chest. Instinctively, she reached out to the streetlight overhead, pulling the energy into herself. “Open!” she cried, pointing to the door. It flung into her hand and she dropped to her knees, in her heart knowing what she would find, but hoping that somehow she was wrong.

“Will!”

She reached for his arm, recoiling when her hand came into contact with unnaturally cold flesh. Sobs erupted as she noticed a note pinned to his shirt. With shaking hands, she pulled it free, her vision too blurry with tears to read the words. A man approached her from the side and she raised her shotgun, trying to steady her shaking hands. “Back the fuck off.”

He was an older man, wearing only boxers and a tank T-shirt, and had obviously rushed out without thinking when he’d heard her cries.

She instantly realized he was no threat.

His eyes widened in surprise as he raised his hands in surrender, backing up. “It’s okay. I only want to help.”

She lowered the gun, sobbing anew, and sucked deep breaths in an attempt to settle down. She had to get out of here before the police arrived.

But she couldn’t leave Will.

He’s already gone echoed through the dark recesses in her head, but as long as his body was here, he was still here too. “Will,” she moaned as she placed her hands on his cheeks and lifted his head.

She gasped, staring into the face of a stranger.

It wasn’t Will.

She dropped his head in shock, the man’s chin bouncing off his chest, wondering how a man with Will’s shirt, build, and hair color came to be sitting in their car. She realized she’d dropped the note in her grief and crawled on hands and knees as a crowd formed around the car. The slip of paper had wedged between the asphalt and the tire of the car next to her.

She held it up into the rays from the streetlight, drawing a shaky breath.

Be at the Santa Maria Hotel in Albuquerque by noon. Go to the front desk and ask for Pedro.

That goddamned fucking Raphael. If she didn’t have an incentive to kill him before, she had one now. He’d said he’d hurt Will to get back at her, and this had his name written all over it.

The police would show up any minute, but she couldn’t leave their belongings in the motel room. She pushed past the bewildered bystanders, whose numbers had doubled, and went to the room. Closing the door behind her, she jammed belongings into the duffel bag. There wasn’t much. She and Will were always prepared for a quick escape, but by the time she was ready to exit the room, the parking lot was lit up with flashing red lights.

The police had arrived.

Taking the car was hopeless. It was parked in the back of the lot, surrounded by at least thirty gawkers from her glimpse out the window. Several people had gathered around the open door, some checking out the body in the front seat. Emma couldn’t stop to think about the unfortunate man who shared the same body type and hair color with Will. She couldn’t let herself take the blame, either.

Yet.

Instead, she needed to focus on getting away without being noticed by the police. An impossible task, since the front was the only way out.

Emma slung the duffel bag over her shoulder, her knees bending with the weight. Taking a slow, deep breath, she pulled energy from the lights in the room.

Grasping the doorknob with a shaky hand, she opened the door a crack. A bystander by the car was pointing to her door while talking to a police officer.

She threw the door open and lifted her hand, releasing her energy toward a car across the lot, directly in front of her door.

The explosion shook the building. In her nervousness she’d made it bigger than she intended, but it had the desired effect. The crowd scattered, their screams filling the night. She slipped out the door into the chaos of the frantic crowd, refusing to consider that she’d likely killed people in the process, and made her way to the street.

Now she needed to find a car and make it to Albuquerque.

Emma pulled into a public parking lot three blocks from the Santa Maria hotel. No need announcing her arrival any more than necessary. Not that they knew what car she was driving now. She’d gone to a used car lot and stolen one using her power.

Just one more sin to add to the ever-growing list.

Over the past four hours, she’d forced any thoughts of Will to the side, refusing to acknowledge the possibility of what she might find. Instead she sorted through the list of suspects. It seemed too coincidental that whoever took Will knew she was coming to Albuquerque to meet Alex.

The truth was, if the Vinco Potentia had Will, they already knew he was powerless. If it was the Cavallo, she had no idea what to expect. Raphael had the biggest motive, since he blamed Will for keeping Emma from him. But she couldn’t dismiss dear old Dad. Aiden. She almost hoped it was Aiden, even if her power wasn’t enough to fight him. At least she might get a chance to see Jake. And maybe she could get more answers.

She was early, but only by an hour. She hated to think what would have happened if she’d been detained by the police, or had trouble getting a car. All the more reason to suspect a supernatural being was behind all of this. Humans might consider those things. Supernatural creatures would assume she’d use her power to get out of it.

She planned to use the hour to her advantage.

A coffee shop occupied the corner of the building across the street. Emma ducked inside and ordered a coffee before she sat at the counter looking out onto the street. Pulling the laptop out of a backpack Will had picked up the previous week, she set it on the counter and performed a search for Phillip Warren. The news media reported him being on the East Coast today. But Alex was still scheduled to speak at the luncheon at noon in the Fairmont, three blocks from the Santa Maria. The fact that she was expected to meet Will’s kidnapper at the other hotel at the same time Alex was supposed to speak didn’t necessarily rule him out, especially since he knew that his lackeys couldn’t contain her. Maybe it was a test since she was supposed to meet Alex at the same time. Was he testing her to see which she would choose?

If it was Aiden, she’d never be ready. No matter how she tried to prepare herself for an encounter with him.

She’d spent twenty minutes on the computer. Another forty minutes until noon. What would Will do? Swallowing the rising terror that accompanied thoughts of him, she forced herself to think rationally. Will would probably scope out the exterior of the building. Look for escape routes. That sounded like as good an idea as any.

Walking around the city block, she noted the location of the public and emergency exits, taking note of the restaurant on the northern end. The car was parked in a lot three blocks to the south. If Will was hurt, that might be too far away. She closed her eyes and focused on what needed to be done.

She was ten minutes early, but why not take the offensive and march in like she owned the place? With any luck at all, when she was done, she would.

Entering through the revolving glass door, the conditioned air caught her breath as it cooled the sweat on her skin after walking around in the New Mexico heat. The lobby was decorated like a five-star hotel, with marble floors and columns, and a central atrium that rose through the center of the building.

Emma lifted her chin and strode to the front desk as she hitched the backpack strap higher on her shoulder, leaving her sunglasses perched on her nose. She placed a hand on the counter, fully aware that she looked out of place in her rumpled, slept-in skirt and T-shirt, and her hair pulled back in a ponytail. “I need to speak to Pedro.”

If the man behind the counter was surprised by her request, he hid it well. He took a plastic room key out of a drawer, slid it into an envelope, and handed it to her. He stared at her with a vacant expression. “Room 2123.”

She paused, trying to determine if he was naturally undemonstrative or if he was under someone’s control. She suspected the former.

The elevator was empty and it climbed to the twenty-first floor without stopping. The doors slid open to a hushed hallway with no one in sight. She pulled the handgun out of the front pocket of her backpack and slid back the rack. Her power might be stronger but was still an unknown variable. As she found with Raphael, if she was too scared it might not work. But bullets knew no fear.

Gun raised, she stepped out of the elevator, edging her way down the hall and stopping at the side of 2123, the last door on the right. Taking a deep breath, she ordered her racing heart to slow down. She needed to be calm and in control. Hyperventilating wouldn’t help.

After another lungful of air, she hid the gun behind her back, knocked on the door, and waited.

When the door swung open, she wasn’t prepared for the face that greeted her.

“Mommy.”

Chapter Twenty-Five

Emma fell to her knees, sure she’d lost all touch with reality. “Jake?”

He threw his arms around her neck and buried his face in her hair.

How could he be here? The realization that he couldn’t be in a luxury hotel in Albuquerque, New Mexico on his own sunk in. Especially when the last time she’d seen him was two weeks ago in Montana.

She stood and grabbed his hand in hers as she swiveled her head, looking for his captors. “Jake, we have to go.”

He locked his knees, remaining in place. “No, Mommy. I can’t leave and we don’t have much time.” He tugged her hand, pulling her inside the room and shutting the door.

They entered the living room of a suite and Jake pulled her to two chairs by the windows overlooking the city. He pushed her down gently and stood in front of her, pressing her cheeks between his palms. The corners of his mouth turned up into a sad smile. “It’s you.”

“I can’t believe you’re here.” She pulled him tight against her body, hoping to soak in his presence. “I’ve missed you so much.”

“You didn’t talk to me,” he murmured into her hair.

Squeezing him tight, she choked on the lump in her throat. “I tried, baby. I tried to talk to you. You couldn’t hear me, but I was there, dying inside because I couldn’t help you.”

He buried his face deeper into her shoulder.

If Jake was here, there was only one way for him to be in a hotel in Albuquerque. “Where’s Aiden?” she finally squeezed out once her breath recovered. Aiden had to be lurking somewhere and she had to get Jake out before he showed up.

Terror filled his eyes before he masked it. “He has business he has to do.”

“Does he know I’m here?”

“Yes. He sent for you.”

“Do you know where Will is?”

His eyes widened and he shook his head. “No.”

Her heart leapt into her throat. “Do you know where Will is?”

Confusion crossed over his eyes. “No.”

“Jake. Someone took Will. Are you sure you don’t know where he is? You haven’t seen a vision?”

Tears filled his eyes. “No.”

She swallowed her rising panic. Maybe Jake didn’t know, but Aiden did. “Someone took him.” She grabbed his shoulders. “You have to help me, Jake. I have to find him.”

He shook his head and looked away. “You don’t need him anymore.”

“Jake, this is Will we’re talking about. Not some random stranger.” She let go of him. “Do you know anything about where he is?”

His chin trembled. “I don’t know.”

Her head dropped, tears burning her eyes. “I have to find him. I have to save him.”