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.”
“Oh my stars.” Her grandmother leaned back in her seat, both hands clutched at her chest.
“Has anyone been here asking for her?” Will asked. “Her mother said men had been there, telling her Emma was in trouble and needed their help.”
She shook her head. “No, no one.” Her thumb rubbed the tissue in her hand while she stared at the kitchen window. She turned back to Emma. “So why are you here now? You haven’t been here since you were in high school? What do you need from me? Money?”
Emma hesitated and Will recognized her look of indecision.
“Not money,” he said. “But we do need your help. We’re hoping you might have information about Emma’s father.”
“Her father?”
“Yes, she knows nothing about him and we’re hoping that what we find out will help enlighten us about her special abilities.”
“Emma has special abilities?”
“Yes, and since Jake does too we wonder if they got them from her father.”
The woman stood up. “I don’t remember much about him and I’ll be happy to tell you all I know, but first, I need to fix some fried chicken and mashed potatoes and gravy. Nothing like comfort food when you’re in need of some comforting.” She patted Emma’s shoulder, then turned to the sink. “Emma, there’s wash rags and towels in the bathroom if you want to wash your face.”
Emma stood and hesitated, looking at Will. Her eyes were questioning. He could tell she wondered if they did the right thing, telling her grandmother as much as they had. He gave her a reassuring smile before she disappeared down the hall. After he heard the bathroom door click shut, her grandmother looked over her shoulder. “Thank you for bringing her to see me.”
“It wasn’t my idea, ma’am, it was all hers. In fact, after our encounter with her mother last night, I wasn’t so sure it was a good idea. But she insisted you were different and I’m glad she was right.”
“I wish she’d come to me when this all started, I would’ve helped her.”
“Honestly, I’m not sure you could have. You would have only put yourself in danger, too.”
“But she went through that all alone.”
“She’s not alone now. I’m with her.”
She turned, a potato in one hand and peeler in the other and narrowed her eyes. “But for how long? She’s had a hard life, Mr. Davenport. If you’re gonna cut and run, do it now and save her the heartache later.”
Will understood her concern. She didn’t know anything about him and he’d only known Emma a few short weeks. “I can assure you, Mrs. Thompson, I’m not going anywhere. I love your granddaughter and I’ll die before I let anything happen to her.”
She studied him for several long painful moments before she nodded and turned back to the sink. “I believe you will.”
They ate lunch in amicable silence, although Emma toyed with the food on her plate. Her grandmother admonished her to eat.
“I know you’re missing your boy, but you won’t do him any good wasting away.”
Emma listened, to Will’s relief. She’d lost weight since he met her and she didn’t have a lot to spare to begin with.
Will was impatient to get information, but Emma’s grandmother made it very clear she wouldn’t discuss it until after lunch. And since her grandmother held all the cards at the moment, he didn’t have a choice in the matter. He got a home-cooked meal and they weren’t in a hurry. He saw no reason to complain.
Emma insisted on washing the dishes and Will helped while her grandmother sat on the ancient sofa and watched television.
“How is it you didn’t spend much time with your grandmother? She’s amazing.”
Emma looked over her shoulder at the now-dozing woman. “I know. My mother didn’t let me see her much when I was younger and then when I got old enough to see her on my own, it never occurred to me to do so.”
“She really loves you.”
“Yeah, I know.” she smiled, a genuine smile that lit up her face. “It’s so nice to do something so normal like washing dishes.”
“Yeah, I could get used to normal.”
She looked up at him with a grin. “I have a hard time picturing you with a house and a white picket fence.”
He shrugged. “Maybe I like picket fences.”
“I don’t know, maybe it’s the way I met you but assault rifles and pic
ket fences seem juxtapositioned.”
He stopped drying the dish in his hand and faced her. “Maybe I want more than assault rifles and car chases.”
Her smile faded and her voice grew quiet. “I think assault rifles and car chases are a part of my life for some time to come.”
“Not if I can help it. My goal is to not only get Jake but figure out a way to extract all three of us from this godforsaken mess.”
She sighed. “I’m not sure how realistic that is.”
“Hey, I’ve been in impossible situations before and gotten out, so I plan on accomplishing my goal. First, we need to get your grandmother to tell us everything she knows about your father.”
When they finished in the kitchen, they moved into the living room and her grandmother roused.
Emma sat next to her grandmother on the sofa and Will in the chair, the springs sagging under his weight. He felt oversized and out of place in this room full of doilies and lace curtains.
Her grandmother folded her hands in her lap. “Now, what do you want to know?”
“Did you ever meet my father?”
“Once. Your mother was young when she met him, eighteen and just graduated from high school. She thought she had the world by the tail, that girl. She used to be pretty and popular, bet you find that hard to believe looking at her now, but she was. She met him over the summer and she fell fast and hard. He was older, but I didn’t find that part out until later. I never got a straight answer as to where she met him, but she said he knew her, knew who she was without her even telling him. That it was destiny.”
Will glanced over at Emma, her eyes widened in momentary fear before they deadened. But her hands fisted so tightly her knuckles turned white. He resisted the urge to take her hand in his and give her comfort. Her reaction wasn’t a surprise. The same thing had happened to her when she met Alex, Jake’s father.
“She was taken with his looks and his money. She was already planning her life with him, though to the best of my knowledge he never hinted at a future together. He came to the house once. He was tall and dark-haired, a fine looking man, probably the most handsome man I’ve ever seen. He was very polite but didn’t speak much, yet he had this charisma. I could instantly see why Brandy liked him. She was the prettiest girl in town and she had big ambitions. But I could see he was older and I thought maybe part of the reason Brandy liked him so much was because her daddy died when she was little.” She nodded her head to Will. “I never remarried after my dear Harold passed on.
“In any case, she decided not to go to college, to stick around for him.”
“What was his name, Grandma?”
“Aiden, but I don’t remember a last name. Just Aiden.”
Will watched Emma inhale and hold her breath. He couldn’t imagine learning his father’s name after twenty-seven years.
“Do you have any pictures of him?” Will asked.
“Heavens, no. Emma’s momma didn’t either. He told her he was camera-shy.”
“Was he from around here?”
“I don’t think so, never heard of him or his family. When he broke things off with your momma, he left town. Never seen nor heard from him again.”
“Mom said he gave her money every month for me.”
“Did he? Huh.” She pinched her lips together, deep in thought. “She never mentioned it, but by then we weren’t speaking much.”
“Why not? What happened?”
“I warned your momma her relationship with Aiden wouldn’t last, that it was obvious he wouldn’t stick around here long. You could tell by looking at him that he was from money and power. But your momma thought he’d take her with him. So when she turned up pregnant, she was sure she’d just bought her ticket outta here, but he took off days later, not a word where he was going. She turned bitter after that, blamed everyone and everything for what happened. Blamed me because I warned her it would happen. Blamed you,” she nodded at Emma. “because if she hadn’t gotten pregnant she thought he woulda stuck around. Finally, she got angry with him and the anger turned to bitterness until she wouldn’t listen to reason at all. After you were born, she got a job in Joplin and took you with her. I didn’t see either of you much after that.”
“Do you have any idea where he might be now? Like I said earlier, we think he might be the key to Jake’s powers.” Will said.
Her grandmother looked at Will with a furrowed brow, then back to Emma. “You said he could see the future. What else can he do?”
“After Will showed up, he could communicate with us telepathically. He also branded Will with the mark on his arm and Will saw him control fire.”
“And why do you think this might have something to do with your father?”
“Because Emma has started exhibiting abilities as well. She and I could communicate with our minds. And she sensed when the Cavallo was nearby. Then there’s her leg. She got shot in the leg and healed in remarkable time. No one normal would have healed that quickly. Has Brandy or anyone else in your family showed any signs of these abilities?”
“No.”
Will leaned forward. “There’s a mystery surrounding her father— who was he? Where is he? It’s a lead we’re following. Frankly at this point, I’d follow a hand-drawn treasure map if I thought it might give me any clues to where Jake is.”
“Did Mom have anything of his, anything at all?”
Her grandmother nodded. “As a matter of fact, she did. I didn’t even think about it until you asked. He gave it to her while they were dating. She used to wear it around her neck until after she had you and realized he wasn’t coming back.” She got up and disappeared into a back bedroom for a minute then came back and placed a necklace with a pendant in Emma’s hand.
Emma paled, her eyes wide.
Will tensed. “Emma?”
She looked up, her face taut as she passed the necklace to Will. He held it in his palm, examining the oval pendant made of an iridescent black stone. In its center were swirls of orange and red in the unmistakable pattern of fire. In the shape of the mark on her back.
Chapter Seven
After Emma passed the necklace to Will, the expression on his face confirmed he saw the resemblance as well. She stuffed her trembling hands under her legs. She didn’t want to upset her grandmother and if Will saw, he’d baby her to death.
But the walls closed in and the air grew thick and stale. She resisted the urge to suck in a deep breath. So her father gave her mother a pendant of fire. That matched a mark that appeared on her back when she conceived her son. It didn’t mean anything. Yet it meant everything. What if her father really did have special powers? What if he passed them on to her and Jake? What if there was more to her than she ever considered?
Emma bolted off the sofa, startling both Will and the older woman. “I forgot something in the car. I’ll be right back.” She stopped herself from sprinting the few steps to the door then walked to the side of the house, out of the front window’s view. Hidden by the snowball bush, she braced her hands on the side of the house and she leaned over, sucking in deep breaths as she tried to curb her rising panic.
Why did she feel this way? This was what she and Will wanted. Answers. This is what she’d begged her mother for her entire life. So why was she so upset?
“If you want something out of the car, you’re going to need the keys.”
She turned to see Will next to the overgrown bush, dangling the car keys from his fingers. Dropping her head between her arms, she willed the burning in her eyes to go away.
“Are you okay?” Will asked.
“Do I look okay?” She regretted snapping the moment the words left her mouth. “I’m sorry. That necklace freaked me out.”
Will moved closer. “Yeah, it freaked me out too. But it’s good. We have a connection to your father now. We don’t know what it means, but I think it confirms your father has something to do with who you and Jake are. Especially since he looked for you when he knew you were pregnant with Jake.”
She turned around and leaned her back against the wall. “But how did he know? I hadn’t told anyone. I was too embarrassed and ashamed.”
“I don’t know, maybe Alex?”
She shuddered. “What kind of sick twisted man would condone a man raping his daughter?”
“I’m not saying he did and even if he did know, you don’t know that he condoned it. For all he knew, it was consensual.”
“Still…”
“Emma, I’m not making excuses for the sperm donor who fathered you twenty-seven years ago. He left you with that bitch of a mother and never showed his face. I think the man’s a piece of shit. I’m just saying you don’t know what his motivation was.”
She sighed, suddenly weary. “Finding out about my father was supposed to make me happy. I’ve wondered about him my whole life. Why am I so upset?”
Will slid next her, his back against the wall. “It’s a lot to take in. That night in the cornfield you told me you’d always wished for a father when you were a little girl. I suspect you created a fantasy about who he was and why he couldn’t be with you.”
Her throat burned. How did he know her so well? She’d daydreamed that her mother stole her from him and he searched the earth looking for her. But her father never came. It was a stupid childhood dream.
Will laced his hand through hers. “Bottom line is he didn’t live up to the fantasy. Of course you’re torn finding out about him.”
She closed her eyes and a tear fell down her cheek.
“But there’s one positive thing.”
Emma lifted her chin. “What?”
“Jake got his affinity for fire from you, not Alex.”
She hadn’t considered that aspect. He was right and it gave her comfort. She squeezed his hand and leaned her head into his arm. “We should probably go back inside. Grandma’s going to wonder where we are.”
“Oh, I suspect she knows, but you’re right. Besides, we should probably leave for Kansas City soon. I’m concerned the Cavallo and Warren’s men are close, watching for us. The sooner we get out of Missouri the better.”
02 Hunted - The Chosen Page 6
