Shadows and Light: The Complete Series, page 66
He stood and took a step toward Calista.
She brought her hands up as if to ward off a blow.
“Stop. Don’t touch me. You lost that right with death wish number two.” She moved out of reach until her back was against the door.
Adam reached for her and pulled her against him. He held her close until she stopped struggling. “You think this is what I want, Calista? Do you for a second think I don’t want to be there beside you, in your arms, in your bed, buried so deep inside you we are one?” He wanted to shake her but instead moved his hands up and laced his fingers around the back of her neck.
“If you were in my shoes, what would you do? We are talking about your life. They will kill you and Anna. I have to stop that from happening.”
Calista leaned her head against his chest and whispered, “If you don’t come back, I’ll know … you sacrificed yourself for me. How in the hell am I’m supposed to get over that, Adam?”
The dam broke and Calista sobbed into his shirt. Seeing the cuts and bruises on her skin was horrible, but nothing in his life had prepared him for what her heartbreaking tears did to him. “Calista, please don’t.”
“There has to be another way.” She grabbed his collar and yanked hard. Taking control, Calista lifted her head. “Annija went to great extremes to keep you safe from her brother. Whether you believe it or not, Anna knows her. Maybe she knew this day would come and planned for it by―”
“Son-of-a-bitch!”
Adam slammed the palm of his hand into the door so hard that it made Calista jump. “What the hell, Adam?”
He then scrubbed his hands over his face. “Say that again.”
“What?”
“The part about extremes.”
He snatched the car keys off the dresser, lifted Calista away from the door, and opened it. Calista began to follow him, but he yelled out, “Stay inside. I’ll be right back.”
He charged toward his car and unlocked the passenger side front door. He reached over the front seat for the smaller album. Back inside the room, he drew out his pocket knife and dropped onto the foot of the bed. After flipping through the pages one more time, he drew the blade out of the knife and began scraping back the white cardstock in the front cover until the edges of the glued leather covering were exposed.
“Adam, what are you doing?”
“Finding another way out of this mess.” He drew Calista down next to him and kissed her hard on the mouth.
Calista’s hand covered his. “We both have been through the album.” She ran her hand over the cover. “If there was something hidden behind the cover, you could feel it. There isn’t anything there.”
“The last time I saw this album it was on the dining room table. My mom used that as her craft center. Ludis would have given the clutter craft table only a momentary glance. But Annija …”
“Annija what?”
“She would have noticed what my mother was working on.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Annija would have noticed the album and understood its importance to me.” A smile spread across his face. “Hiding something in plain sight is the oldest trick in the book.”
The leather cover came away easily. Under the cover was a quarter inch piece of cardboard glued to a thicker square. Adam held his hand steady as he ran his knife along the edge. He lifted the sheet and his heart dropped to his stomach. Using the tip of the knife, he raised the cover off a meticulously carved rectangle approximately three inches by five inches in diameter embedded into the cardboard. A thin, white plastic disk sat in the center.
Adam lifted it out and tossed it in the air. Placing an arm around Calista, he brought his lips down on hers. Before his brain became fried by the amazing woman in his arms, he broke the kiss and said, “How about we see what is so damn important on this tape that would drive a man to murder?”
Chapter Twenty-One
The sun dipped beneath the horizon, leaving behind black streaks across the starless sky. Taking in a deep breath of salty sea air, Calista fortified herself with an inter strength she never tapped into before and strolled to the wall of the patio that overlooked the ocean. She peered out at the dark water. Grayish thick storm clouds spread across the moon as the white-capped waves pounded the shore. A storm was rolling in, making the air sticky which only added to the overwhelming gloom that settled deep into every crevasse of Calista’s heart.
With the disk in hand, shouldn’t she feel elated? Adam had what he needed to keep his family safe. The nightmare should be over.
Except for the sporadic concern for her welfare, any tenderness in him dissolved away the moment he discovered the disk in the album cover. He raised another thick wall around himself, growing very quiet during the drive back to his home outside of Los Angeles. Calista didn’t even try to breach it. Not that Adam gave her much of a chance.
Turning toward the house, Calista watched Adam as he paced across the living room floor, talking to one of his brothers. Jared, Noah, she couldn’t tell them apart. They were in the air within minutes of Adam’s call and arrived about a half hour ago. All three men were in there planning her life, trying to find a place she would be safe while they met with Ludis.
Even with a storm on its way, the air on the patio was much easier to breathe than the air inside. Calista took in another breath and tried to calm down.
Why did they return to the beach house? It was as if Adam was double-dog daring Ludis to come get him. If he was setting a trap, where was his police backup? His brothers were cops. Why not call in LAPD, FBI, swat team … hell, everyone? How were three brothers going to survive against Ludis and his army of goons on steroids?
Calista let out a sign and offered up a prayer for Rina. It was so easy to fall into her footsteps. Annija was with Anna. Adam said no one knew him like the mother of his child. Could Calista use a few of Rina’s words of wisdom right about now.
She loved Adam, the whole man, not just a few select parts of him. He didn’t see it in himself, but he was a good man who deserved the best in life. If she had to, she would fight for them. It was put up or shut up time.
Arms circled her waist and she was drawn back against Adam’s hard chest.
“It’s going to be okay, Calista. Just have a little faith. It will all work out.”
Calista swallowed a lump in her throat. “What do you need me to do? How can I help?”
“This isn’t your battle.” He gently turned her so they were face to face. “I don’t want you anywhere near Ludis.”
“Adam, I want to … ”
“No, not this time, Calista.” He drew her close to him and cupped his hands behind her neck. His eyes glistened as he tried to smile. He brought his lips down on her forehead. “Last night, you promised you would go wherever I asked. Remember?”
She shoved down a sob and nodded.
His arms dropped, circling her waist. He cradled her against him as his fingers played with the curls at her shoulders. With his lips close to her ear, he whispered, “Don’t fight me this time. I can’t be the man you know right now. I have to focus on ending this nightmare and that requires me to be someone I don’t want you to ever meet.”
Calista raised her head and didn’t hide any of the emotions churning through her. Stroking his cheek, she said, “I already know that man, Adam. He’s the same man I met in the diner months ago.” She wrapped both arms around his neck, linking her fingers together. “I’ll leave, but not because I can’t stomach seeing a different side of you. I don’t want you to worry about me. It will distract you.” She tugged him tight to her chest. “But understand one thing, Adam Blake, if you so much as get an itsy bitsy scratch, I’m going to be royally pissed. You got that?”
Adam’s gaze grew intense, his irises turning a deeper shade of blue. His body shook as he lifted her up so they were eye to eye. He brought his lips down inches from hers for an instant then took control completely. The kiss was hard, demanding, but held such promise.
He broke away from her. “Same goes for you, sweetheart.” He lightly brushed the gauze wrapped around her arm. “Not one scratch. You keep yourself safe. We have things that need to be said to each other. I heard every word, felt them in my soul. I just couldn’t …”
Calista placed two fingers over his mouth. “I should have never thrown that at you while I was upset―hurt.” She let out a heavy breath as she allowed herself to be drawn into the intensity of his gaze. “I meant every word. Next time I’ll do a better job at expressing myself.” Moisture formed at the corner of her eyes and her throat burned. “How in the hell am I supposed to walk away from you when all I want to do is shield you from this damn nightmare?”
“I’m the one that’s supposed to fight the monsters back.”
“Well, Adam Blake, when one of those monsters threatens the man I love, the fists come out. That’s how Pete raised me. You are just going to have to get used to the idea.”
Adam let out a deep chuckle and kissed her forehead. “I think I’m going to need a list. Dumbshit, fist-waving she-wolf. Anything else?”
Calista threw her arms around him and hugged him tightly. Her body screamed out to sob like a newborn baby, but she wouldn’t do that to Adam. Drawing in his clean, spicy scent, she slid down his chest until her feet settled on the patio tile and took a step away. “No, I think that’s it for now.”
His brother cleared his throat in the doorway. “We got something,” he said with a cell phone to his ear. “Ludis Vasnev just took a room at the Ritz.”
“Cocky bastard. Do you have someone on him?”
“My tech guy has logged into the hotel cameras and the traffic cameras around the block. If he leaves, we’ll know.” He looked pass Adam and met Calista’s gaze. “We need to get you out of here. Will you be ready in about five minutes?”
“Yes.”
“Jared is going to stay with me,” Adam said, nodding toward the brother in the doorway. “Noah is going to stick to you like glue.”
“But with Noah with me, that will only leave you and Jared against Ludis. That’s crazy.”
“This is what I do, Calista, and I’m damn good at it. In this situation, less is more. Trust me.”
She could only nod. There were no words in her vocabulary to express what was going through her at that moment. With every bit of strength she could find, she choked down her fear, and took a step out of Adam’s arms.
“Then go do what you do best. I’ll be ready whenever Noah wants to leave.” Wrapping her arms around her middle, she turned back toward the ocean.
He lifted the hair back from her neck, planting a soft kiss right below her right ear. Calista waited to hear him with his brothers before she allowed the tears to fall. She didn’t know how long she stood there, but her mind drifted to the moments hours earlier when she woke in Adam’s arms.
She felt someone standing off to her side before the sound of his shoes on the gravel hit her ears. She turned expecting to see Noah. Her throat closed up just as she opened her mouth to scream. Ludis Vasnev stood inches from her.
Forcing her feet to move, she bumped into the corner of the patio wall. She grabbed hold of the brick base for balance. “The place is surrounded.”
“Liar, liar, pants on fire.” He clamped hold of Calista’s forearm, and pulled her over the wall as he held a wet, sweet-smelling cloth at her mouth and nose. He swung her like she weighed nothing over his shoulder and ran full out into the trees. She tried to yank out of his hold, but her arms and legs wouldn’t move. Just as he disappeared into the trees, nausea roiled in her stomach and then everything went black.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Standing in the doorway of the study, Adam stared at Calista’s back. He didn’t have to see her tears for them to rip a new hole in his heart. He wasn’t that man who rinsed and repeated the same damn mistakes over and over again. Calista worked her way under his skin like no other woman, even Rina.
Squaring his shoulders, he joined his brothers at the kitchen bar. He lifted the Ikegami digital recorder out of the box that Jared had retrieved from Adam’s storage unit in Maryland. Setting the recorder on the counter, he pressed the reject button and set the disk in the chamber.
“How long have you been hanging onto the recorder?” Noah asked.
“Twelve years. Actually found it at an estate sale. The camera from Annija’s car was too damaged in the wreck to be repaired.”
“If you knew nothing about your mother’s life or what led her to you the day she died, how did you know you would need the camera?”
Adam drew his attention away from Noah, his gaze zeroing in on a speck on the carpet. “There was nothing in the car, no purse, no luggage … nothing except the recorder,” he said in a hoarse whisper. “It was important to my mother. I didn’t understand at the time just how important. Ikegami only made fifty of these. Today, it would be almost impossible to find one. It’s a technical nightmare to play the tape without it. After we see what is on this sucker, I’m turning it over to the FBI.” He faced his brothers. “Do you have a problem with that?”
The twins shared a look. Jared broke the silence that settled over the room. “We can deal with Ludis on your terms. That isn’t necessary. You know that, right?”
Adam shifted his feet and planted his fist in his pockets. “I’m tired of being someone else. Who I became … what I had to do to protect Anna I will never apologize for, but that chapter is over. I’ll deal with the fallout of faking my own death. I need to be me again.”
“Does Calista know?”
“No. I guess I was hoping for some kind of miracle, but I think I have been given my share of those. I have to face what’s coming and so will Calista … and Anna.”
Noah rested his hand on Adam’s shoulder. “She’s in love with you and this will hurt her.”
Hearing the words spoken out loud sent an ache into the pit of his stomach. The last thing he wanted to do was add more heartache to Calista, but Adam had little control over his future.
His eyes searched out the patio door. The area near the wall was empty. He moved toward the door and scanned the yard. “Shit! Calista, where in hell are you?”
He stepped out onto the patio. It was empty. He charged to the wall and glanced down the hill to the beach. It was clear as well.
“Son of a bitch.” Adam spun around. “Noah, check the upstairs. Calista isn’t out here.”
Noah took the steps two at a time. The minute he searched the upstairs was hell on earth. Adam met him at the bottom step. “Well?”
“She’s not up here.”
“What the fuck.” Adam turned and ran out into the yard at the same time as a now familiar piercing pain shot across his forehead. Anna’s panicked voice vibrated between his ears.
“Daddy, hurry, the white-haired man is hurting Calista!”
Adam bent low, trying to catch his breath while both hands pressed his temples. Finding his balance, he rushed past Jared. He shoved his Glock into his shoulder harness as he pushed down the fear pulsing through his veins.
“Adam?” Jared placed a hand on his elbow.
“Ludis has Calista.”
“How … ”
“Anna just told me.” Adam couldn’t catch his breath as Rina’s lifeless body spread through his mind.
“How in the hell … ”
“I don’t know.” He headed for the patio. “I’m going after him. There is no sign of anyone on the beach so he had to grab her off the patio and head into the woods.”
Jared yanked out his phone. “I’ll call for backup. ”
“I’m not waiting. Tell them whatever you have to get them here,” Adam said, grabbing the collar of his brother’s shirt. “And I mean everything, Jared. Got it. Calista’s safety is the priority.”
“I understand, Adam.”
Racing out the patio doors, he leaped over the retaining wall. Once his feet hit the gravel, he ran full out down the hill until he came to the path leading into the woods. He took a moment to scan the area. Rage rippled through him. Closing his eyes, he did something he never had bothered doing before. “What way, Anna? Tell me what way to go.”
A calmer, melodic voice answered. “He’s running up, Daddy.”
As soon as the pain from Anna’s words eased, he charged across the path for about a mile that ran parallel to the shore until it dead-ended at a small cliff where it split. One path led down to the beach while the other narrower path climbed into the dense forest. Adam didn’t waste an instant checking the beach but took his daughter’s words to heart and began to climb.
After another couple miles into the dense woods, he stopped, grew very still, and listened to the sounds of the night; the wind shifting through the new leaves, the chirps and movements of the insects rustling in the undergrowth. He calmed his breathing so he could focus on which noises didn’t belong.
It didn’t take long to extract the mumbled voices due north of him. Adam sprinted down the trail, jumping over decaying logs in his path while trying to duck under low hanging branches. Missing several in the darkness, they slapped against his forehead, cheeks, and forearm.
As the path climbed higher into the woodlands, Adam tried to slam down the panic building in his gut. The only clear thought that kept him from going over the edge was that Ludis took Calista because she was the perfect shield.
A high pitch scream of pain pierced the night. Calista! What was that bastard doing to her?
Before Adam could react, the blast of gunfire echoed off the dense forest wall. Terror sliced across his heart, almost erasing years of combat training. Shoving the emotion deep, he concentrated on allowing the adrenaline pumping through his veins to take over.
Leaping over the shorter bushes that outlined a small grassy area, he came to a dead stop. Steadying his stance, he took aim at Ludis, whose back was facing away from him.
