Redemption (43 page)

Jake looked back at Will, his face splotchy and wet with tears. “She won’t get up! Why won’t she get up?”

She looked peaceful, lying on her back with her eyes closed.
Please God. Please. I’m begging you
. Daring to hope, Will pressed his fingertips against her neck, finding no pulse.

His rage exploded. “No, goddamm it. You do
not
get to die on me!” He pushed Jake away from her, gathered her up in his arms and carried her to the grass. Tilting her head back, he opened her airway and blew, then started chest compressions.

Jake sobbed behind him. “Mommy!”

“One, two, three, four, five.” Will pressed then blew into her mouth again, beginning the next round.

Most of the people caught in the dome had fled screaming once it disappeared, but a few remained and formed a small circle around them. Sirens grew closer and flashing lights approached. A searing pain filled Will’s chest, and he gasped in surprise and panic. His bond to Emma had changed. What did that mean?

A hand touched Will’s shoulder and he jerked.

“Will, you have to get out of here.” James knelt behind him, his voice heavy with emotion.

“Where the fuck have you been?” Will choked out, trying to hold back his tears as he continued administering chest compressions. He couldn’t afford to fall apart.

“I got here just as that giant dome closed in around you.” James stood and pulled on Will’s arm. “Will, you can’t stay here. The place is going to be swarming with cops.”

Will shook his head. “I’m not leaving her.”

“I’m not asking you to. Bring her with you. But you have to get Jake out of here. When the police figure out that his mom is dead, they’re gonna put him in foster care. Are you really going to do that to him after all of this?”

“She’s not dead!”

Jake frantically tugged on Emma’s arm. “Mommy! Get up! Mommy,
please
!”

Will struggled to think, his thoughts drowning in anguish.
Emma!
he screamed into her head.

“Will! Now!” James’s voice rose with urgency.

Will paused his resuscitation and stared down at her, startled by the paleness of her face. CPR wasn’t working. What was he going to do?

James’s voice softened. “Will, I’m not asking you to leave her. I’m asking you to bring her with us so we can all get out of here. But we have to go
now
.”

Will nodded. That seemed to make sense. “Yeah. Okay.” He scooped Emma into his arms and got to his feet while James picked up a sobbing Jake.

Several police cars pulled up to the curb a hundred feet way, the officers getting out of their cruisers. James glanced around and pushed through the crowd. “This way.”

James sprinted down the path, Will on his heels as he held Emma close to his chest. Stopping at a van parked on the street, James opened the back doors, still holding Jake. “It’s the airport cargo van, so you can lay her down in the back.”

Will climbed in and gently settled Emma onto the floor of the van, worried that her body felt so cool. James shut the door and put Jake in the front seat. Jake leaned over the back, his body shaking with his cries as he watched Will resume CPR. James drove in silence, while Will concentrated on Emma’s lifeless body.

He was vaguely aware that the van had stopped and the back doors had opened. James put a hand on Will’s arm. “Will, she’s gone.”

“No.” Will shook his head. His tears blurred Emma’s face, and his arms ached, but he couldn’t stop. He couldn’t accept what it meant.

“Will. You’ve been doing this for twenty minutes. She’s gone.”

“
No.”

“Mommy.” Jake crawled between the seats and kneeled next to her, pulling her hand to his chest. “Mommy. Please.”

Will sat back on his heels, tilting his head as he released a cry of anguish. “No!” He hadn’t tried hard enough. He leaned forward to resume again, but James yanked him out of the van.

“Will, I’m sorry.”

Pain exploded everywhere. No. He couldn’t lose her, not after everything they had gone through. Didn’t she know he couldn’t live without her? He tried to tear himself away from James, but James’s fingers dug into Will’s arms.

“No, Will. She’s gone.”

Collapsing against the van, Will sobbed. “I failed her.”

“No. You got Jake. You saved him. That’s all she ever wanted. That’s all she ever asked for. You didn’t fail her.”

“But I lost her.” Will’s knees buckled as he sobbed and James held him up.

“I know. I’m sorry.”

Inside the van, Jake lay over Emma’s chest. Gut-wrenching cries shook his small body.

Will sucked in a deep breath. He had to get himself together for Jake. Will had just lost his soul mate, but Jake lost his mother, the center of his universe. “Jake. Come here.” Will grabbed Jake’s shoulders, pulling him away from Emma’s body and out of the van. He sat on the asphalt with Jake on his lap.

“She left me. She promised she’d never leave me.” Jake lay limp against Will’s chest, hyperventilating from his sobs.

Fresh grief stabbed Will’s heart. She’d left him too. “She didn’t want to. She loved you more than anything.” Will clung to the assurance that she’d loved them both.

“I want my mommy,” Jake’s hoarse voice wailed.

Will released a fresh sob. He wanted her too, and he considered trying to join her, but he’d made a promise to Emma, a promise he intended to keep. God help the person who tried to hurt this child again. He cradled Jake’s head to his chest. “I’m here, Jake. I’ll take care of you.”

Will took in their surroundings, realizing they were on an airport tarmac.

James looked down into his questioning eyes. “I wasn’t going to make it in time driving, so I rented a plane. It’s waiting to take off whenever you’re ready. Where do you want to go?”

Will’s heart splintered, and he struggled to keep himself together for Jake. He needed a plan—but where the hell did he go from here? The only person he’d ever truly loved was laying in the van behind him. “I don’t know.”

James knelt beside him. “Is there anyone still after you?”

His jaw trembled as he tried to catch his breath. “I don’t know… maybe Warren. We killed Alex, but no one knows for sure it was us.”

“What about Aiden or Raphael?”

“They’re dead. So is Marcus.”

“Who’s Marcus?”

“Water. My biological father.” It all seemed so fucking ridiculous now.

James paused a moment, then stood. “My friend has a lake cabin in Missouri we can use. I say we lay low there for a few days and wait for any fallout.”

Glancing down at Jake, Will let James’s words sink into his addled brain. Hiding seemed like a good idea. They needed to figure out if anyone was still after Jake. “Yeah. Okay.”

“What do you want to do with…” James swung his gaze toward the van.

A fierce protectiveness flooded Will’s senses, agony following in its wake. The thought of leaving her lifeless body for anyone to find lacerated his soul. Who would find her here? What would they do with her? Maybe it was their bond or maybe his love for her, but he couldn’t walk away. He’d protected her in life. He’d protect her in death too. “I can’t leave her here.”

James didn’t seem surprised. “Okay, we’ll take her with us.”

Will nodded, a lump burning his throat.

“We need to get going in case anyone followed us here.” Bending down, James gently lifted Jake from Will’s lap. “Come here, buddy. We’re going to go on a plane ride.”

Jake tensed then kicked as he reached over James’s shoulder. “No! Will!”

“He’s coming with us. He’s getting your mommy.”

James carried Jake to the plane while Will lifted Emma into his arms, the coldness of her body cementing what he already knew but still couldn’t accept. She was really dead.

Where the hell did he go from here?

Chapter Thirty-One

Emma sat in a short, dark tunnel, disoriented and propped against a stone wall. Where was she? She knew she should be afraid, but instead she was suffused with an overwhelming sadness. Why?

Memories flooded her head. She was dead.

Echoes of sobs reverberated through the space, and she swore she heard someone call out her name. Cocking her head, she closed her eyes to concentrate on the sound. After several seconds, she gave up, disappointed. She was imagining things.

Unsure what to do, she turned a corner and found a gate blocking her path. A padlock bolted it shut on the other side. When she shook the gate, the metal groaned in protest, but the lock held tight.

Where the hell was she?

Emma spun in a circle, realizing she was trapped. The only place she could go was back into the short tunnel behind her. So this was it? This was her eternity? She slumped to the ground too heartbroken to care. The damp sank into her body, chilling her bones.

“I didn’t think you’d give up so easily.”

Emma’s head jerked up and she noticed that beyond the gate was a circular, stone room. More gated openings lined the walls, all empty except for one. A hooded figure stood in the gate directly opposite Emma’s.

“Who are you?”

The figure laughed. “The question is, who are
you
?”

Shaking her head, Emma leaned her forehead against the bars. “I’m not doing this. I’ve played enough games to last a fucking lifetime.” The irony of her words hit her and she snorted.

“Who are you, Emma Thompson?” a woman’s voice asked.

Grabbing the metal bars, Emma pulled herself up, irritation burning her chest. “If you know my name, then why the hell are you asking me who I am?”

“Emmanuella Thompson is your name, but you’ve fought that name your entire life. Who
are
you? Without the name?”

Who was she? The last six years had redefined her. “A mother.”

“Yes, what else?”

If Jake defined her, so did Will. How could she describe what she was to him—and he was to her? Her other half. “A soul mate.”

“And what is the commonality in those two roles?”

Emma shook her head. She’d learned this too late. What good did it do her now? “Love. Undying love.”

“Do you want to stay here, Emma Thompson, mother and soul mate? Possessor of undying love?”

“Do I really have a choice?”

“Yes.”

The word echoed and bounced off the stone walls before settling on Emma’s ears. She shook the bars. “Then I want to leave! I want to go back.” She stopped. The figure had asked if she wanted to stay
here
. She’d been through enough of Aiden’s mind games to realize that somewhere
not here
could be much, much worse. “Where can I go?”

“Back to Will and Jake.”

Emma’s breath caught in her throat and she eased it out carefully. “What’s the catch?”

A chuckle floated across the space. “You’ve learned your lessons well.”

“I’ve learned that everything has a price. What’s this one?”

“You have to help me.”

Emma studied the figure, trying not to get her hopes up. “How do I do that?”

“You have to let me free.”

With a derisive laugh, Emma glanced around at her cell. “How am I going to do that when I can’t even get out myself?”

“But you can. You have the power.”

It had to be a trick. “So I get out, and then I let you out and I go back to Jake and Will. Will I still be dead? Will I just be a ghost?”

“No, you’ll be very much alive. You and the baby.”

Emma instinctively reached for her stomach. “You’re going to tell me how to go back?”

“Yes.”

Emma remained wary. She’d learned that you didn’t strike a deal with these creatures and then go about your merry way. There was always a catch.

But what if she could go back to Jake and Will? And save the baby? How could she refuse? She cast a glance at the figure. Who hid under the cloak? Emma couldn’t decide until she knew. “Who are you? Do I know you?”

“You know me better than you think. I’m the one person who has an inkling of what you’ve been through.”

Emma’s voice escaped in whisper. “Who are you?”

But she knew, even as a slender hand reached up from the robes and lowered the hood. She knew before the woman’s chin lifted so Emma could look into her own face—a younger, softer version.

“Emmanuella.”

A gentle smile lifted the corners of her mouth, but sadness haunted her eyes. “Will you let me help you?”

“If I agree to help you?”

“We’re not so different, you and I. We want to be with the ones we love.”

Emma sucked in her breath. “Raphael.”

Emmanuella’s eyes glistened with unshed tears. “Yes.”

Raphael didn’t seem worthy of anyone’s love, but who was she to judge? James didn’t think she was worthy of Will’s. “Okay, I agree. What happens now?”

“It depends.”

“On what?”

“Will and Jake.”

“What about Will and Jake?” Had she failed them after all? Did she have to wait for them to join her, and then they could all share the same cell? No, Emmanuella had told her she could return to them.

“They have the power to help bring you back, but only during a short window of time. You’ve spent too much time here already.”