Sacrifice (18 page)

“What?” Will hadn’t found anything about the rules. Unless it was in the section written in another language.

“The rules appear in the book, mystically. The book has changed over the years. In the beginning, it was just papyrus paper, but over time, it evolved into a bound journal. But in addition to the physical properties of the book, every time there was a tweak to the rules, they changed inside the book. I was hoping to find the book and read the official rules. I don’t trust Aiden to give us all the information, and apparently neither does Raphael.”

“So where is the book now?”

“I have no idea.”

Emma guessed that the book was with James, and if it contained half of what Alex said, she needed to get her hands on it. Alex may have helped her escape Raphael, but that hadn’t bought her trust. “Can you find it?”

He shrugged with a heavy sigh. “I’m not sure where to look. I’ll have to backtrack and see who saw it last, which is going to be hard to do since Scott Kramer is dead.”

Her eyes flew open in surprise. “What? How?”

Alex swallowed and gave her a crooked smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “Why, Emma, I didn’t know you cared about Kramer. Especially since he was the one who hired Will Davenport to bring you to them.”

When he put it that way, she wondered if she should thank him after all. But the mention of Will sobered her, dropping a heavy veil of grief around her heart. Kramer’s death was a very odd coincidence considering the current events. “Yeah, Kramer and I were buddies. How did he die?”

“Let’s just say Kramer had a little industrial accident.”

Resisting the urge to press for more, she made herself accept that he wasn’t going to share what he knew. In the grand scheme of things, what did she care how one of a shitload of assholes died?

“So what’s our plan?”

His eyebrows rose with a sarcastic smirk. “
Our
plan?”

“Fine, your plan.”

“You’re awfully self-assured for someone being held prisoner.”

She laughed. “Prisoner? Really? I realize that you’re the one in control right now, but we both know how quickly that can turn on you.”

A scowl furrowed his brow and she almost felt like an ass. She was no better than Raphael. But she needed to remember that Alex would sell his grandmother to the devil himself if he would aid him in any way. She should have no guilt in getting what she needed from him.

“Where are we going?”

“First the airport. Then a private plane to Missouri.”

Her heart flip-flopped. Her mother was in Missouri, but so was Will’s apartment. Why would Alex want to go to Missouri? Maybe he knew Will had taken the book after all, and this was some big con job on his part to use her to get it.

Anticipating her question, he grinned. “Nope, it’s a surprise. But I will tell you that you and I will part ways tomorrow.”

Her mouth dropped in surprise. “But…”

“I’m not going to tell you, so you might as well save your breath.”

She had a million questions, but they would all have to wait. She was safe from Raphael, at least for a little while.

***

The drive to Kansas City was unsettling, the gray overcast sky matching Will’s mood. He found it difficult pretending he didn’t know about James’s duplicity. He continued to remind himself that he needed James. But he couldn’t get past the question that drove him closer to the edge of insanity.

Why
?

Why would James toss away over twenty years of friendship to betray him? And if he didn’t betray him, why would he lie? Had Will done something to lose James’s trust? Was it that James hated Emma so much? Would he really risk their friendship?

James knew Will wasn’t himself, but Will excused it as still recovering from his incarceration, which wasn’t a lie. Between his dreams, the torture, and the question of James’s loyalty, Will’s mind wandered and struggled to focus. He needed a plan to find out what James knew and wasn’t telling him, then where to go and what to do from there. James was right. They needed to extricate themselves from the Vinco Potentia, but he didn’t agree that turning Jake over to Alex was the solution—if nothing else because it would hurt Emma even more. If they had spent a month trying to recapture Jake from Alex, then it seemed crazy to give him back. They didn’t even know if Alex wanted Jake back.

If Jake was still alive.

His stomach churned at the thought, but he reminded himself that Jake had visited him in a dream last night.
Listen to yourself. You’re turning dreams into facts
. But the dream felt so real, and there was no denying the tiny half-moon nail cuts on his palm, cuts that were far too small to have come from his own nails.

They arrived in Kansas City after dark and James parked several blocks away from Will’s apartment, in case the building was under surveillance. Another wave of déjà vu swept through Will as they walked down a dark street and passed a parking lot, but he shook it off. Even if it was a buried memory of his time with Emma, he doubted it would surface.

Instead, he focused on getting into his apartment, The goal was Will’s sole purpose for existence at that moment. He convinced himself that if he could just get inside and surround himself with something familiar, he would become himself again—confident and decisive. He wasn’t sure how much longer he could continue living in this haze.

He entered the building without incident, his anticipation growing with every step. When they exited the stairwell onto his floor, he stopped halfway down the hall and lifted the edge of the carpet to retrieve his emergency apartment key. “It’s gone.”

James’s hand moved to his gun, hidden under his shirt. “Do you remember taking it out?”

Still squatting, Will ran both hands through his hair. “No, but I probably took it out when I was here with Emma. If my truck blew up, my keys probably blew up with it. The question is, why didn’t I replace it?”

“Maybe you thought you wouldn’t be back.”

Will rose slowly, letting the finality of James’s statement soak in. The idea made sense.

“You haven’t been here for a month,” James said, glancing up and down the hall. “Which means you haven’t been around to pay your bills for over a month. Is the apartment still yours?”

Will forced himself to concentrate when his touchstone to reality was less than twenty feet away yet agonizingly out of reach. “Um, yeah. I never knew when I’d be here or on a job, so all of my bills were set up on automatic electronic payments.”

“Until the Vinco Potentia seized your bank account a month ago.” James rubbed his chin. “But they give you a grace period, so you’re probably okay. Now we just need to get in.”

Will hadn’t come this close just to be thwarted. He pulled out his lock-picking kit and set to work unlocking his deadbolt.

A minute later, James scowled, leaning over Will’s shoulder. “What the hell is taking you so long?”

Will grunted in frustration.“I put these locks in to keep unwanted visitors out.”

“Oh, the irony,” James laughed, slapping Will’s back. “And here you’re supposed to be the master at this.”

“Shut the fuck up.”

James pulled out his gun. “Here’s another way to do it.”

“You can’t shoot my door, you asshole. Have you lost your mind?”

“Well, your way’s obviously not working.”

Will stuck a pick between his teeth and mumbled, “Just give me a minute.”

“I’ve given you two.”

The lock clicked and the door sprang free.

His stomach twisting, Will walked over the threshold. The apartment looked the same as always. Neat and clean. And impersonal. In his desperate search for normalcy, he’d ignored the fact that his apartment had never felt like home. His sister had decorated it for him, but he rarely spent time there. Home had always been his mom’s. Not that his mother’s house was an option.

“There’s an empty ice cream container in the sink,” James said, looking over the counter into the kitchen.

“My emergency cash stash was hidden in there. We had probably run out of money. My guess is that all my weapons are gone too.” He knew some were in his duffle bag.

“You showed up at my place with a small arsenal.”

“It wouldn’t hurt to check it out.” Will moved into the single bedroom. A thick layer of dust covered the furniture and the closet door stood open. A quick glance in the back confirmed he’d taken all of his guns and ammunition as well as all of his fake IDs. James was probably right. He hadn’t planned on coming back.

“You have three messages on your answering machine.”

“Megan.” Only two people had his land-line number. James and his sister. He went through so many cell phones that the land-line was the only certain way to contact him other than e-mail. But Megan rarely called and she wouldn’t have left that many messages unless something was wrong.

Will walked to the kitchen and pressed the play button.

“Will.” Megan’s voice spoke through the scratched answering machine tone. “I need you to call me back as soon as you get this message.” The machine time-stamped the message as having been a week ago.

James caught Will’s eye. “I wonder if the Vinco Potentia paid a visit to your sister. That was right before they captured you.”

Will’s breath caught. He had so little contact with his family that he’d given it little thought.

The next message played, his sister again. “Will, I’ve sent you an e-mail and I still haven’t heard from you. I need you to call me. It’s important.”

If Kramer had messed with his sister or her family…

The next message started. “Will, now I’m really worried about you. Listen, I didn’t want to leave this in a message but I have to tell you. Um…” She paused. “Mom’s in the hospital. She’s got advanced breast cancer and she’s dying.” Her voice broke and Will heard her take a breath to compose herself. “She’s asking for you, Will. She wants to see you before she dies, but she’s failing fast and I’m not sure how much longer she’s going to last. Please, Will. I need you to come home.”

The machine beeped and said the call had been made that afternoon.

His mother was dying
.

Will sat down on the sofa, looking up at James with wide eyes. How much more could he take?

James’s face paled. “Do you think this is a set-up?”

Will shook his head. “What? No. I don’t think so.”

His mother was dying and she wanted to see him. The real question was, did he want to see her?

James pulled his laptop out of his bag. “I’ll do some digging and see if it’s true.”

Lowering his face into his hands, Will growled, “If the Vinco Potentia set it up, they’d have to use my sister and I don’t even want to go there. But if they are responsible, they’ll be thorough enough to plant fake medical records and show her as a patient at the hospital. You’re wasting your time.”

“So what are you saying? That you don’t want to see your mother? What if she’s really dying?”

“So I’m supposed to give a fuck about her now because she decides it’s convenient for her to see me? What about the last three years?”

James groaned and set down his computer before going into the kitchen. He returned with a bottle of whiskey and two glasses, which he set on the coffee table with a clunk. “If anyone ever needed a drink, you do, my friend.” He unscrewed the cap and poured two generous glasses.

“I don’t drink. Not anymore.”

“Yeah, I can see that. The bottle I gave you two years ago was still unopened.” James picked up the glass and set it in Will’s hand. “But tonight you do. I know you swore off anything stronger than beer after your weeks-long drunken spree when you came home after your discharge, but tonight you need to make an exception. Consider this medicinal.”

Will held the glass in his hand, swirling the amber liquid. “And what really drove me to my weeks-long drunken spree, James? It sure as fuck wasn’t my court-martial.”

James pushed the glass up. “Stop thinking and just drink.”

Will brought the glass to his lips and swallowed a generous gulp, the whiskey burning as it went down.

“Lucky for you, getting the alcohol in your system is more important than savoring a sixty-dollar bottle of eighteen-year-old Jameson, or I’d wring your neck for that.”

“I’ll tell you what drove me to my drunkfest. My mother.”

James sighed and rested his hand on Will’s knee. “I know.”

Will leaned back into the sofa and put his feet on the coffee table. “She deserted me when I needed her the most. For him. She didn’t even love him. Why?” He gulped another mouthful, suddenly eager to deaden his pain. It bombarded him from too many directions.

“All the more reason to see her. Ask her that very question. She owes you.”

“Yeah.” He sucked the last of the whiskey from his glass. “She owes me.”

James poured more into Will’s glass. “I’ll do some digging and if it all checks out, we’ll go see her tomorrow.”

He was going to see his mother.

Chapter Fifteen

“Rise and shine, sleepyhead!” Alex called out in a cheerful voice.

Emma pulled the covers over her head. She’d had the best sleep she’d had in weeks. It was amazing how easy it was to rest when you weren’t terrified for your life.