02 Hunted - The Chosen

by Denise Grover Swank

  Will tightened his grip around her waist and kissed the top of her head. “It’s okay. You’re safe.”

  For now was unspoken, yet understood. The movement of the car was already lulling Emma to sleep when Will whispered in her ear. “We have a few things to talk about. First is how you made that explosion.”

  She nodded against his chest, not surprised. Unfortunately, Raphael would be part of the discussion.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Will dozed off for a few hours and woke with Emma’s head against his side, her hair plastered to her forehead. He shifted slightly and glanced out the window, a North Dakota road sign catching his eye. Now they just had to get to the other side of the state, then down to South Dakota.

  James looked over his shoulder. “You should sleep more. You didn’t sleep at all last night and let’s not forget the minor fact you had busted ribs and a collapsed lung less than forty-eight hours ago.”

  “I’m healed from the injuries and you and I both know I used to get a lot less sleep on a regular basis. You were there.”

  “Well, we’re not getting any younger, buddy.”

  “Yeah…” Will shifted his leg at the thought, careful not to disturb Emma.

  James cleared his throat. “Will, how long have we been friends now? Twenty-five years? Remember when Johnny Morehead stole your lunch money in the second grade and I came to your rescue?”

  Will grinned. “I seem to remember it the other way around.”

  “What does it matter who defended whom? The point is we’ve had each other’s backs since we were kids. Hell, your dad even pulled strings to get us in the same unit in Iraq.”

  Will shifted his weight again. He could already see he wouldn’t like where this conversation was headed. “Your point?”

  “My point is, I’ve always stood by you. I’ve had your back even after that fucking mess with the Iraqi school and your court-martial. I backed you up, dude. All the way. But I don’t know about this one.”

  Will’s chest burned. “What are you saying, Buckner? You want out? Just say the word and all we have to do is drop you off at the nearest town. You can run back to your hideaway, because we both know what that little fishing spot really is. Your attempt to hide from the world.”

  “Will…” James tone softened. “It’s not a matter of me being in or out. I’m saying, how long have you known this woman? What do you really know about her? If someone like Senator Warren wants her, maybe you should think about turning her over.”

  Will saw black spots. “Stop the car.”

  “Will….”

  “Stop the fucking car,” he growled.

  “No. I’m not stopping the car. We’re having this discussion whether you like it or not. In fact, unless you want your girlfriend to be part of it, I suggest you calm down or you’re going to wake her up. Now answer the question. How well do you really know her?”

  “I know her well enough to know I love her.”

  “That’s not an answer.”

  “What the fuck do you want me to say?”

  “What’s her favorite color? What’s her favorite movie? What kind of books does she read? Does she like anchovies on her pizza?”

  Will inhaled, trying to gain control of his temper. He didn’t know the answer to any of those and he knew what James’ reaction would be.

  “See?” James said. “You’re throwing your life away for a woman you know nothing about. What about our plan, Will?”

  Will shook his head in frustration. “It was your plan, James, never mine, so let’s not kid each other, okay? Maybe I don’t consider it throwing my life away.”

  “What do you know about her?”

  “I know she grew up in Joplin, with a drunk, no-good mother who blamed all her problems on Emma. Her father disappeared while her mother was pregnant and Emma didn’t even know his name until a couple of days ago. I know her grandmother is awesome and seeing her gave me a little bit of insight to who Emma will be in fifty years.”

  His voice softened. “I know she’s a loving mother who got pregnant after she was raped then threw her life and her dreams away to keep him safe when he was two and people started chasing her. I know she’s strong and resilient and she doesn’t trust easily. Hell, who could blame her? Everyone’s always treated her like shit. But when she does trust, she’ll be loyal to the end.”

  James cleared his throat. “She has a kid?”

  Will ground his teeth. “You heard that entire list and that’s what you latch onto?”

  “You want to be saddled with a kid? Seriously? Where is he now?”

  “He was kidnapped. By the men who were after Emma last night, at least I’m guessing it’s them. They seemed to be able to find her anywhere, even in a deserted cabin in the Colorado mountains. Or it could have been Warren’s men who spurred the car chase. At least they want her alive. When she wakes up I’ll ask her if they seemed intent on capturing or killing her.”

  “Kidnapped? You believe that?”

  “Damn it, James. I saw it happen. I was there.”

  “Let me guess, she’s convinced you to help her find her kid.”

  “She didn’t have to convince me of anything. I volunteered.”

  James burst out laughing. Emma stirred, but her breath remained slow and steady. Will placed a hand on her leg.

  “That’s rich, Will. Rich. Although I’m not surprised. You always had a thing for underdogs.”

  “What the fuck are you saying?”

  “I’m saying you find this woman whose son has been kidnapped. She’s got two groups of men after her and she needs help. You can’t resist. Your hero complex makes you want to save the innocent and downtrodden. Of course, you want to help her.”

  Will released a derisive laugh. “You sure as hell haven’t known me the last three years. That’s not me at all. Not anymore.”

  “Maybe I would if you’d come around. Or let me come see you. You shut everyone and everything out since your court-martial. Yeah, forty kids died in the fire and you were held responsible, but you caught a high-level terrorist. Doesn’t that count for something? Haven’t you beaten yourself up enough?”

  No amount of atoning would make up for the deaths of those children. It pissed him off to think about it. He’d thought about it more the last few weeks than he had in the three years since the trial. “Again, what’s your point?”

  “So you’ve been an ass for the last three years, you’re entitled, but don’t pick this woman to suddenly turn your life around. She’s trouble, Will. I’m telling you. I feel it in my gut.”

  Will turned and looked out the window. He couldn’t tell James about the mark on his arm or the fact the mark made it impossible for him to not do what she asked. And there was no way he could tell him about the baby. He’d just try to convince Will that it was a scheme to trap him.

  Will had known she was trouble from the moment he climbed in her car. It wasn’t hard to figure out when she drove like a crazed woman in her beat-up Honda, outmaneuvering the SUV chasing her. But when she told him she learned to drive on a racetrack then smiled, he fell. He could admit it now, even if he couldn’t before. The truth was he was attracted to her before Jake burned the mark on his arm. He admired her devotion to her son before the first time he felt the nearly irrational urge to protect her. James could mock him all he wanted, but he knew where his destiny lay—it was here sleeping next to him.

  ***

  Emma forced her breathing to remain steady. She didn’t want Will to know she was eavesdropping after she woke up and heard them talking about Jake. She felt vile deceiving him, but she needed to know how James really felt.

  How Will really felt.

  Will has a thing for underdogs. She supposed that was her, an underdog. You couldn’t get much more underdog than her situation. Even she couldn’t see a way out, yet Will remained obstinate.

  The mark. Sometimes she cursed Jake for branding that mark on Will’s arm. It bound him to her; he had no choice but t
o protect her. Was that the source for his love for her? Was nothing in her life real?

  She sat up with a jerk, the car too confined, her life too confined. Her chest tightened and she found it difficult to breathe.

  “Emma?” Will asked, startled.

  “I need to get out.”

  “What?”

  “I need to get out of the car! James! Stop! Pull over!”

  Will’s eyes widened in alarm. “Are you sick? Are they coming?”

  “Are they coming?” James yelled over his shoulder as he hit the brakes. “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “No.” Her breath came in short bursts as she struggled to gain control. “I just have to get out.”

  The car stopped on the shoulder. She jumped out the door and stood next to the grass, gulping deep breaths of air. Her eyes stung with tears. She was done with crying, yet her eyes protested otherwise. The pendant on her neck grew warmer.

  “Emma, what happened? What’s going on?” Will had gotten out of the car and stood beside her. He tried to grab her arm, but she jerked away. His eyes widened in surprise.

  “I heard you!”

  His face paled. “Heard what?”

  “I heard you and James. Talking about me. Is that what I am to you, Will? A way to ease your conscience? A way to appease your need to help the underdog?”

  Will grabbed his head and looked up into the nearly cloudless sky. “Son of a fucking bitch!” He lowered his face, which now seethed with rage. “I’m going to beat the shit out of James. NO! That is not why! What did you hear?”

  “What happened with a school and forty kids?”

  His face lost all expression. “It happened years ago. It’s not important.”

  “It’s obviously important if you still feel like you have to make up for it.”

  “James doesn’t’ know what the fuck he’s talking about! Goddamn it!”

  She pointed to his arm. “It’s that mark! It’s the mark on your arm!” She shook her head, sobbing in anguish. “I thought you really loved me, but it’s the mark.”

  “No, Emma.” He took her in his arms. “My love for you isn’t from the mark.”

  She tried to shrug him off, but he held her tight in his arms. “I thought you loved me. I believed you.”

  “Oh God, Emma. I do. I swear to God I do. The mark makes me want to protect you, not make me love you.”

  “How do you know? How can I believe you?” she shouted.

  He lifted her chin to look up at him. “Because I started falling in love with you before Jake ever burned me and said I was the Chosen One. Remember the night in the cornfield?”

  She nodded, watching his face through blurry eyes.

  He cupped her cheek. “God, you were so beautiful in the moonlight with your hair hanging down. You always had it pulled back, but that night it was down, blowing in the breeze. You’d just driven like a stunt car driver getting us off that highway and crashing the SUV. But when you cleaned my forehead, the way you looked at me. You were so open, so unguarded. It made me want you. It was more than lust. I knew it and it scared the shit out of me. I had to sit on my hands to keep from touching you.”

  She bit her lip. Was he lying?

  “Remember the next morning when you were crying? I almost kissed you.”

  “You laughed at me and called me predictable.”

  “I knew if I kissed you I’d be lost forever. I was scared and stupid. Emma, I’m trying to prove that I love you in spite of the mark.”

  James leaned his head out the passenger window. “This is touching and all, but can we get out of here already?”

  Dropping his arm from Emma’s waist, Will lunged for the door handle.

  “Will, no!” Emma shouted.

  He grabbed James’ shirt and jerked him out of the car, onto the shoulder. James landed on his ass, his eyes wide in shock.

  “Will!” Emma lunged for him.

  He pulled James up, reaching back his fist.

  Emma grabbed his arm with both hands. “Will, I order you to stop.”

  His arm froze, then he lowered it and shoved James against the car.

  James stumbled. “What the fuck are you doing, Will?”

  “I was planning to beat the shit out of you.” Will spit through gritted teeth.

  Emma forced her body between them. “Stop! Both of you stop! If you get into a fistfight on the side of the highway, you’re both going to get arrested. Then what’s going to happen? Let’s just get back in the car and figure this out.”

  The men glared at each other and remained where they stood.

  “He’s not going with us,” Will grunted.

  “Do you need him?”

  He turned away from James and walked toward the front of the car.

  “Do you need him? You said you needed him. Tell me the truth.”

  “Yes,” he snarled.

  “James, get your ass in the car.”

  James mouth dropped open and he turned to her in disbelief. “What?”

  “I said get your ass in the car. Will, you too. Let’s go. I’m driving.”

  Unbelievably, they both got in—Will in the front seat and James in the back.

  She slid in the driver’s seat and took a deep breath. This was going to be a long drive.

  It was her fault. The entire situation was her fault. She should have kept a check on her emotions, but after the car chase, and the gunmen and the fire… then in the shower with Will. For the first time she had believed there could really be a them, believed his feelings for her were real. She felt them when they were connected in the woods. But the conversation she overheard suggested otherwise and she’d lost control.

  Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

  There was no love lost with James, but he’d been Will’s friend for years. She couldn’t get in the way of their friendship. She’d tolerate him even if it killed her.

  Without warning, longing for Jake washed through her, taking her breath with it. Will’s speech dredged up her last memories of him and she tried to remember the smell of Jake’s head the morning after Will almost kissed her. Baby shampoo and sweat. But it was fading into the fuzzy corners of her memories. She’d already lost him. She couldn’t lose those, too.

  She called out to him, reaching out in her despair. She felt him, as always, could sense his presence. She briefly wondered if it was like that for Will when he reached out to her.

  It was enough to feel him and know he was there, even if he didn’t talk to her. She basked in his essence, imagining that she held him in her lap, stroking his hair. Two nights ago, she had dreamed he slept with her, cradling her from behind. Now, she could almost feel him taking hold of her hand.

  She forced herself to concentrate on the road, still maintaining the hold on Jake’s hand. She cast a quick glance to Will, who glared out the side window, still too angry to talk to her or James.

  ***

  Jake stood in the backyard next to a playground. Mountains grew out of the ground in the distance like giants. Sometime he imagined them ripping themselves from the ground and coming to save him. But they never did. They only stood like stiff old men.

  Alex had told the men that Jake was a little boy and needed to play outside, but Jake wasn’t interested in playing on the jungle gym right now.

  His mommy was there.

  Jake climbed to the top of the slide, and sat in the shade at the top, his back against the warm plastic. He liked to play in here, so the men watching wouldn’t think anything of him sitting up here awhile.

  The men were still scared of him.

  The truth was he could kill them all in seconds. He knew this from Hernandez, but he insisted Jake stay. So he did. But he was tired of waiting. Tired of following the rules. He’d followed the rules for days and days and days and where had it got him?

  He wanted his mother.

  Now she reached out to him, more insistent this time. Touching him. He sat in the shade, feeling her body next to his, sitting on her
lap, feeling her hand on his head as her fingers brushed his curls. He closed his eyes, the tears flowing down his cheeks. He missed her so much.

  He worried she would forget him, love the baby more. But she was here now. Holding his hand. He laced his fingers in hers and squeezed. She squeezed him back.

  She had given up talking to him long ago, but now she spoke, her words a whisper in his ear, his hair tickling his neck from her breath.

  I love you, Jake. I love you so much. I’m coming for you. Will is coming for you. Don’t give up on me. Please. But I need to know that you hear me. That you still love me.

  He had said Jake couldn’t talk to her, couldn’t communicate in any way. If he knew Jake held her hand right now, he would be angry. But he wouldn’t know. Jake wouldn’t tell him.

  In an act of defiance and love, Jake picked up his mother’s hand in his mind and with his real finger, he traced the sign they used to use when he was little. He traced a heart in the palm of her hand. He kissed it, then broke contact before he burst into tears.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Will fumed in the seat next to Emma. He’d suspected he had to take her orders—the prophecy told him so—but on the side of the highway he knew it with all certainty. When she ordered him to stop, his body followed her will, not his own.

  And if that didn’t chap his ass, he didn’t know what did.

  If anything, it amazed him that James followed her orders to get in the car. If he hadn’t been so pissed, the look on James’ face would have been hilarious.

  Emma drove in silence, wiping tears off her cheeks with the back of her hand. Who could blame her for crying? She’d been through hell in the last twenty-four hours. He needed to know what that hell was.

  He reached over and picked up her hand resting on the console between them, encouraged when she let him lace her fingers through his.

  “Emma, I’m sorry.” He murmured quietly.

  She kept her eyes on the road. Pressing her lips together, she gave him a small nod.

  So far, so good. “We need to talk about what happened last night and this morning. Why you left James.”