Shadows and Light: The Complete Series, page 51
“Adam.” Calista shook him hard. “Anna. Where’s Anna?”
The desperation in her voice knocked him out of the trance. He stood abruptly and stepped back from Rina’s body. Closing his eyes for only a moment, he focused on two unbeatable forces from within: the soldier and the father. When he opened his eyes, he knew what he had to do. He yanked out the tail of his shirt and wiped his hands. “In the panic room upstairs. Follow me, but don’t touch anything. Understand?”
“Yes.” She shot him a glare, then her eyes softened. “I understand.”
At the staircase threshold, he stopped again. “I mean it, Calista. I don’t want anyone to know you were here. Your name can’t be linked with mine on a damn police report.”
“But how …”
“I can’t explain.” He swallowed hard. “But I will when you and Anna are safe.”
The upstairs hallway had four doors. He opened the third door down and entered a child’s room, glancing to Calista. “Remember, don’t touch anything.”
Moving over to the closet, he pushed the clothes away. On the shelf behind the books, he found the hidden metal panel that matched the bookshelves perfectly. He tapped the right corner and a small door popped open, revealing a touch pad. He punched in an eight-digit code and stepped back. The wall slipped away. A steel door stood in front of him with another keypad. This time, he punched in a code and an iris scanner popped out. Adam placed his eye in the circular disk. It took seconds for a thin light to swipe his eye before the door whooshed open.
He nearly stumbled in his haste to get into the spacious playroom. “Anna?”
His voice cracked. She wasn’t there. Air left his lungs and his heart dropped to the pit of his stomach.
“Anna, baby girl, where are you?” He searched the hiding places behind the sofa and furnishings. He stopped in the middle of the room and listened. Calista stood silently in the doorway.
After a couple of seconds, a faint whimper came from the wardrobe against the back wall. Adam swung open the door and lifted the young girl curled into the fetal position into his arms. He dropped to the floor and rocked her back and forth. “Anna, talk to me. Are you hurt?”
Burning fear sliced through every nerve as his hand roamed over Anna’s shoulder, arm, and leg searching for injuries. The hint of berries and vanilla from her shampoo mixed with the coppery stench of Rina’s death. The two scents didn’t belong in the same universe.
Anna had captured his cold heart seconds after she was born. It was his job to protect her. He wrapped Anna’s trembling body tighter against his. How much did she see? Did anyone see her? The thought of Ludis’s hands on Anna made Adam want to rip the man’s liver out and make him eat it.
How in the hell was he going to tell this precious little girl about her mother?
He brushed her hair out of her face. “Anna. Look at me, baby.”
Her arms circled his neck, clinging to him as if her life depended on it. Not a sound came from her lips, but she clung to him with such trust, as if he would fix everything, make her world normal again.
“I got you, Anna. Are you hurt?”
“No, but Mommy …”
The words screamed inside his head. “I know, sweetheart.” Her body shook as gut-wrenching sobs took control.
Adam could feel Calista behind him. Why the hell didn’t she drive away like she promised? She was supposed to bring normal to his life, but instead, the horrors of his life were spread out on the living room floor, branding the scene in her mind forever.
A hand touched his shoulder. “Adam. We have to get her out of here.”
Once again, his mind churned to order. He stood, wrapped Anna tightly against him, and turned to Calista. “I’m going to need your help.”
“Just tell me what to do.”
He wrapped his free hand around her neck and drew her close to him. Her body heat, her unexpected steadiness settled him as he impulsively pressed his lips to Calista’s forehead, then released her.
He grabbed the red backpack out of a compartment above the door of the wardrobe and handed it to her. He then reached into the wardrobe for a worn stuffed elephant. “There’s a quilt in the trunk,” he said, pointing to the piece of furniture in front of the sofa.
When Calista reached for the lid, he caught her hand.
“Sorry. Touch nothing. Got it.” She shrugged the pack over her shoulder and used her foot to open the lid. She pulled out the quilt. “What else does she need?”
He scanned the room. “The photo—next to the sofa.”
The framed picture was of Anna with her arms wrapped around her mother’s neck, both with huge smiles on their faces. The backdrop—the large ape house at the National Zoo. Adam couldn’t be seen with them, but he watched them, took photos. The memory of that day sliced another deep hole into his heart as he tore open the back of the frame and removed the photo.
Calista picked up a Harry Potter book on the end table and slipped it inside her purse. “Now what?”
“Hand me the quilt.”
He unfolded the blanket and covered his daughter’s head. “We need to get the hell out of here. Fast.”
“You lead, I’ll follow.”
He relocked the safe room and sprinted down the stairs, taking them two at a time. Anna held his neck so tightly, it made it hard to breathe. At the bottom step, he paused at the sight of his best friend’s dead eyes. Rina had been part of his life for ten years. No one knew him like she did.
When he stepped out of her life so she could have the type of relationship he couldn’t give her, they found a new depth to their friendship. In a split second, it was all gone. Raw, murderous fury filled him with dark thoughts of revenge intermingled with sorrow and regret.
“Adam?”
There wasn’t time for hatred or mourning. He headed down the hallway through the kitchen. The door to the basement stood slightly open.
Raw panic hit his stomach. He twisted and glared around the room. When Calista began to speak, he held up his hand, and shook his head.
The scene in front of him wasn’t Ludis’s style. He never left anything for chance. But this time, he was all over Rina’s home. How would Ludis make sure there was nothing to find?
Then it hit him. The answer was so clear. “Son of a bitch.”
He grabbed hold of Calista’s forearm, rushed into the kitchen, and stopped near the back door. He then peeled Anna’s arms from around his neck and leaned close to Calista’s ear. “I need to check something. Take Anna, but don’t let her remove the quilt.”
He eased the basement door open and raced down the stairs. It took only a moment to find Ludis’s little package. Enough C-4 to blow the house to hell and back. How long before Ludis set off the C-4 was anyone’s guess.
It took him less than five seconds to get back to Calista.
“Adam, what’s wrong? Tell me.”
They were on borrowed time. “I need you to take her to the car. Backtrack through the neighbor’s yard. Stay in the shadows.”
Calista’s eyes widened. “She doesn’t know me.”
It took everything in him to keep from shoving her out the door. Adam didn’t have time to be nice. He had one job, protect Anna and Calista. He removed a corner of the blanket from Anna’s face. “Sweetie, this is Calista. She’ll take care of you.” He leaned down and kissed her cheek.
“Don’t leave me.”
Adam rubbed his temple when a sharp pain pierced through the back of his head and he met the wide, frightened eyes of his little girl. “I need to take care of your mommy and the house.” With a nod to Calista, he recovered Anna with the blanket, and opened the back door.
He took a moment to watch Calista until she was out of sight before he entered the living room and knelt next to Rina. A raw, piercing grief cut deep into his heart.
“We … You were safe here.” His voice broke. He swallowed before removing the small pearl ring on her left finger and the medallion from around her neck. He shoved them in his coat pocket. With one last caress against her cheek, he rose and wiped down the surfaces he touched. Less than a minute later, he opened the fuse box panel door in the kitchen, flipped the switch he had added months before, and shut the door. If Ludis blew the house, the safe room would go up with it. By the time forensic identified all the human remains and discovered Anna wasn’t among the dead, Ludis and Emil Vasnev would no longer be a threat to anyone.
Calista had just closed the passenger door with Anna in her lap when he joined them. He soundlessly opened the back door of the sedan.
“Calista, please get in the back.” He lifted Anna out of her arms. When she was settled, he set Anna back on her lap, buckling them both in the same safety belt. “Keep your heads below the window.”
He shut the door and ran around the back of the sedan to the driver’s door. He got in, started the car, and pulled away from the curb without headlights. After coming to a silent stop at the end of the block, his eyes met Calista’s. “I’ll explain everything. I promise I’ll explain.”
Just as he turned the corner, a blast ricocheted throughout the quiet neighborhood, shaking the ground. The small home erupted into flames and lit up the night sky in an orange glow. Debris scattered into the street as windows rattled and cracked, setting off several home security alarms throughout the block.
A heart-wrenching moan escaped Anna’s lips. Calista raised her head and peered out the back window. “Good God, Adam. What the hell just happened?”
“Head down, Calista.” He winced at the harshness in his tone, but he didn’t bother to retract it. Their gazes met in the rearview mirror. Not even the fear in her eyes could convince him to put their lives in any more danger when every second counted. How did it get so fucked up?
He turned another corner and wound his way out of the neighborhood. When several police cruisers barreled toward him, he eased over to the side of the road. Once the emergency vehicles passed, he switched on his headlights, pulled out onto Connecticut Avenue, and took the exit onto the Beltway.
“Adam?” Her voice was breathless. “Did you …”
“No. Ludis.”
Color drained from her face as she held Anna close to her. “He blew up the house knowing …?”
“He wants us both gone.”
“Why?”
“We’re in the way of what he considers his.”
“But she’s just a little girl.”
“And my daughter. Anna is my daughter.”
Chapter Three
Anna is my daughter.
Those three words roiled inside Calista’s head. Crouched down in the backseat of Adam’s sedan, she could only see the interstate lights zoom past the rear window. She had no idea why she had to hide. If the man who ran from the house doubled back, he would have seen her and Anna get into the vehicle.
In the last thirty minutes, one solid fact hit her square in the face. She had no idea who Adam Blake was―except that he loved his little girl and he could kill a man with his bare hands.
The images of blood and death would be with her for a long time. But it didn’t matter that her heart beat like a native drum against the wall of her chest. She had to stay calm. The young girl in her arms needed her.
Anna lay across her chest, motionless except for the involuntary quivering. The back of her little head dampened Calista’s thin T-shirt. Shifting her numb left arm, she repositioned Anna into a more comfortable position and draped the lightweight quilt around her shoulders. She couldn’t help running her hand over the child’s hair, giving her comfort―though nothing she did would ever replace what Anna just lost.
“Calista.”
Adam’s voice was rough without any sign of humor. She met his gaze in the rearview mirror.
“Still think of me as Batman?”
She stared back at him. He was waiting for a response, but she didn’t have one to give. So much had changed since she teased him about having a bat cave. But had anything about the man really changed?
Like her grandfather, Adam moved like a well-trained soldier. He fought like a warrior, killed like a warrior. But the man she stared at in the mirror was no killer. He possessed too great a love for this child.
“Don’t do that, Adam. Don’t try to make me fear you.”
He wanted her to walk away. Well, that wasn’t happening. Her instincts never failed her. Adam Blake was one of the good guys regardless of what took place in that home. He would no doubt need a witness on his side of the courtroom if it came to that. Or even just a sympathetic shoulder when he was ready to pick up the pieces. She knew all about that.
She broke eye contact and glanced at the child in her arms. “My life is an open book. You knew who I was the minute we met. In the last half hour, I met another side of Adam Blake and maybe that evens the tables a little.” Their gazes reconnected. “But if you don’t want me with you and Anna, take me back to the diner. Pete should still be there.”
Her words sounded bold, even daring. If he did what she suggested, it would be the last time she ever saw him. A growing ache of loneliness settled in the pit of her stomach.
Adam slowed the speed of the car and exited off the Beltway onto US 1 about five blocks from the diner. Calista’s heart skipped a beat. She’d played her only card, a miserable bluff, and it was about to kick her right in the ass.
He drove about a block and pulled into the parking lot of a large chain hotel. He backed into a parking spot at the back of the lot. Calista stared at the dense trees outside the rear window and raised her head to get a better look.
“Why are we stopping here?” Her voice cracked. She cleared her throat as she sat up straighter.
His glare bore into her with such intensity that she almost looked away. Anna seemed to tremble a little harder in her arms. Calista tucked the quilt around her and drew her close to her chest. When he finally spoke, the roughness in his voice made her shiver.
“I’m dropping you off. You can’t go home just yet. You’ll stay here until I’m sure you’re safe.”
“No. I’m not staying here.”
Adam raised his hand, rotating it so she saw all sides. The blood had dried in an abstract pattern that shifted as his hand twisted.
“My life. Open your eyes, Calista. Nothing about me is safe. It hasn’t been for a long time. I couldn’t even see my daughter like a normal dad but had to sneak visits behind walls of steel. I was trying to fix that, but after tonight … ”
“Adam.” Calista placed her hand on his shoulder. She didn’t know what to do, what to say. He was clenching his jaw so hard, a small pulse appeared above his jawbone. She removed her hand and cradled his daughter.
He had returned to his death grip on the steering wheel and peered out into the night. “I should have never allowed it to get this complicated.” He raised his bloodied arm. “This isn’t your life, Calista. You can leave. So far, no one knows anything about you. If you stay … ” His voice broke.
Calista could hear Adam rub his palm back and forth over his pant leg. It was as if he were trying to wipe away the bloodstain.
A long, low sigh escaped his lips as he rubbed his hand across his forehead. “I won’t ask you to leave, but make damn sure you don’t have any illusions about me. If you come with us, understand what you’re walking into.”
The words hide and run pounded in her head. If she turned her back on Adam and the violence in his world, in a year’s time, tonight would play back as a bad dream, a figment of her imagination. Calista glanced down at Anna and her heart warmed.
Her gaze caught the slight glimmer of her wrist bracelet. Hanna use to wear one very similar. Just eyeing the bracelet brought her friend closer. Hanna would never walk away from a child in need. Calista had no idea where the fierce resolve came from, but there was no way she could leave either Anna or Adam until she knew they both were safe.
“I’m with you.”
He said nothing for a long time. Anna twisted in her lap and stared at the back of her dad’s head.
“No, Anna. I won’t stop. She needs to be scared.”
Was Adam going into shock or were his senses shutting down? Anna hadn’t spoken a word.
“Who needs to be scared?” Calista whispered.
“You do, Calista.. You could have been killed. I told you to drive away.”
A moment went by in silence. Then Adam rolled his eyes and a frustrating groan escaped from the back of his throat. He twisted in his seat and addressed his daughter. “Animals get mad, sweetheart. People get angry, pissed. And for the record, I don’t care if she’s pissed.”
The pulse at Calista’s neck began to drum. She just shifted a giant step beyond concerned.
“Adam, what’s going on?”
“Anna just asked me not to piss you off.” His head tilted and his eyes narrowed. “Is there something wrong, Calista?”
“Uh … yeah … maybe. Anna hasn’t spoken a word since I met her.”
“Yes she has. She doesn’t want you to leave. She likes you.”
Calista hugged Anna closely. “I like her too, but she hasn’t uttered a sound since we met.”
“That’s impossible.” Adam opened the door, got out, and yanked opened the passenger door. He knelt down so he was eye to eye with his daughter. “Anna, say something. Talk to me.”
Anna stiffened in Calista’s arms but didn’t make a sound. Adam raked his hands through his hair and continued to stare at his daughter.
For the next couple of minutes, two identical pair of eyes―father and daughter―glared at each other, but neither spoke. Calista recognized the signs that Adam’s headache was back. A strange thought popped into her head.
“Is your head throbbing again?”
“Yes.” He rubbed his temples. His gaze never left his daughter’s. “How are you doing this, sweetie?”
Anna shrugged and her eyes grew wide.
“Why won’t you speak to me like you always do?”
Anna’s body tensed and she began to tremble as she shook her head back and forth. She opened her mouth, but not a sound came out. The more agitated she became, the more color seemed to drain from Adam’s cheeks until his complexion was almost waxy. He closed his eyes, held his head in his hands, and sucked in a breath.
