B.J. Daniels - When Twilight Comes

Lorenzo didn’t need this.

Valencia had been willing to let him walk away from the business, from the past. But now Lorenzo might be considered a liability, someone who knew too much and couldn’t be trusted, and therefore was expendable. Valencia might feel forced to kill him.

For an instant Lorenzo thought about just taking off, skipping the country tonight, running for his life. He had a passport in a new name and enough money hidden around the country to live on for some time.

He pushed himself off the bed and hurried down the hall to his bedroom. He reached behind the nightstand on his side of the bed, instantly realizing the weapon he kept hidden there was gone.

His gaze fell on his suit jacket. He grabbed it up, knowing before he searched the pockets that the tickets and passports were gone, as well.

He wrung the garment in his hands, wanting desperately to rip it to shreds. But even before he’d found the passports missing, Lorenzo knew he wasn’t leaving the country.

Valencia would hunt him down like a rabid dog. Plus, Lorenzo knew that just the thought of Jenna getting away with not only his daughter, but also all that money, would drive him insane.

He swallowed back the bile that rose in his throat. No, he would have to stall for time until he could get the money back. But he would get it back. The money and his daughter. He could always get new plane tickets, new passports.

But he couldn’t leave without making his ex-wife regret ever being born.

“Hey?” Franco called from downstairs. “Hey! Valencia’s waiting for his money. He’s going to be pissed enough when he sees my face.”

Lorenzo nodded to himself in the empty bedroom. Franco had a good point. Valencia wouldn’t be happy on either count.

As he left the room, Lorenzo stopped at one of the heating grates, pried it open and took out another of the weapons he kept hidden in the house—one that even his dear wife hadn’t known about. He shoved the gun into the small of his back and descended the stairs.

Franco never knew what hit him.

Jenna Dante had been driving for hours through the pouring rain and darkness when she came around a corner in the narrow road.

She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Water. It tumbled down the hillside from a rain-swollen creek, flooding the road ahead. The raging water ran over the highway and on down the mountainside like a river.

She slammed on the brakes, her fingers gripping the wheel. The SUV began to skid on the wet pavement, directly toward the deep water flowing onto the highway.

She wasn’t going to stop in time, and once she hit the moving water…

She cranked the wheel, felt the SUV begin to spin out of control. Lexi! It was her only thought as the car crashed into the side of the mountain. There was a terrible sound of metal ripping, then silence.

For a moment, Jenna couldn’t move. Her gaze shot to the car seat in the back. Lexi was awake and looking at her. “Are you all right?” Jenna cried.

“What happened, Mommy?”

“We just went off the road. It’s all right.” She peeled her fingers from the steering wheel, shaking so hard she had to grip her hands together in her lap. “But we’re fine.” They were fine. Her air bag hadn’t even deployed. But she could hear the water rushing by not feet from them. They wouldn’t be fine for long.

The car engine was still running. She shifted into reverse, praying that the car wasn’t damaged badly, that she could drive out of here.

But the moment she pressed on the gas pedal, she realized they weren’t going anywhere. Not in this car.

She shut off the engine and unhooked her seat belt. The rain seemed to have lessened as she climbed into the back and hurriedly got her daughter out of her car seat. Grabbing her purse, Jenna opened the door and climbed out, reaching back to lift Lexi and her rag doll in her arms.

“Fred!” Lexi cried, and grabbed for the cat.

“I’ll come back for him,” Jenna promised. But Lexi already had a death grip on the animal, so it looked as if they were all going.

Jenna wasn’t even sure where they were. Somewhere in the Cascade Mountains. All she knew was that she hadn’t seen a house or another car for miles.

“Mommy? Clarice is scared,” Lexi whispered, one arm around the rag doll and Fred, the other squeezing tighter around Jenna’s neck.

Jenna tried not to let her own fear immobilize her. The car was wrecked. They were out in the middle of nowhere. And Lorenzo would be coming after them. Could already be after them.

Fred let out a loud meow in her ear, as if agreeing with the rag doll. It was definitely scary.

“Clarice shouldn’t be afraid,” Jenna said. “She has you to make sure nothing happens to her. And you have me.”

Right. She felt her stomach clench with fear at just the thought of how helpless she was against Lorenzo. But she had Lexi. And Lorenzo would take her again over Jenna’s dead body.

She almost laughed at the truth in that. She never wanted to see him again and didn’t think she probably would. He never did any of his own dirty work. Of course, this time he might make an exception. He would want to kill her with his own bare hands.

She shivered at the pleasure he would derive from it.

Jenna walked back up the road, away from the raging creek, trying to decide what to do. She had few options. The road was blocked, might even be washed out by morning.

Not that Jenna was going anywhere in the SUV. From what she could tell, the car was high centered on a rock. Or worse.

The rain had almost stopped. Fog rose from the pavement, and beyond that was nothing but darkness.

She tried her cell phone. No service.

Out here she felt so vulnerable. But they couldn’t have stayed in the car—not with the water so close and possibly still rising.

She half expected to see car lights coming up the road. Half expected Lorenzo to be behind the wheel. Could just imagine the expression on his face. Gotcha!

In the weeks since the divorce, she’d often wondered why he’d let her go so easily. But in her heart she’d always known. He wanted her to think she’d gotten away. Gotten away with her daughter. When in truth, it was just a cat-and-mouse game with Lorenzo. He’d known that he could end it in an instant when he was ready.

Had he taken Lexi knowing Jenna would come after her? Had he just been looking for a reason to come after her and kill her? Not that he needed one.

She shuddered, telling herself that nothing could change the course of events. And if she’d never married him, she wouldn’t have Lexi.

Jenna’s heart broke at the thought that she might not be able to protect Lexi from her father. It had been a last resort, taking her back from Lorenzo the way she had. Now she couldn’t let her daughter down. No matter what she had to do, she thought. Shifting the cat she reached for the gun still in her jacket pocket.

“Lookee!” Lexi angled a tiny finger out into the darkness beside the road.

Jenna had to crane her neck to see where she was pointing. Lights glowed from out of the fog. High up on the side of the mountain she could make out the top spires of a building poking up out of the trees and mist.

And there on the hillside was a sign, barely visible in the gloom. The neon outline of a woman in an old-fashioned bathing suit, in a diving pose. Underneath her, the words Fernhaven Grand Opening. The date on the sign was in three weeks.

There was definitely something up the road—a huge building, the lights glowing faintly through the swirling mist.

“I want to go there!” Lexi cried. “Please, Mommy? Clarice wants to, too. She said she wouldn’t be scared at all if we went there.”