Holland glared at the guard, who hit the floor hard, Addison collapsing on top of him.
She sat up and gave Holland what she hoped was a look of death. “I thought your powers weren’t working.”
“I said I couldn’t control them. This man could be out for hours and hours, or just seconds. I have no idea.” He gave her his hand, and she stood up. “Tara should be in one of these rooms.”
Holland bent and removed a key chain from the belt of the guard she’d attempted to beat down. He handed the keys to her, and at her questioning look he said, “My hands are shaking. I’m not sure I can hold the keys.”
She touched his arm. “What’s wrong?”
“I guess I’m more worked up than I realized.”
Nodding, she said nothing in reply to his confession. She might not know everything there was to know about men, but she knew enough to know that when a six-foot-five, two-hundred-and-fifty-pound man confessed to being overwhelmed, you didn’t make too big a deal out of it; you just did what he asked you to do.
There wasn’t going to be any way to find Tara than to simply try all the doors until she found her. Fiddling with the keys, she tried them on one door lock until it opened. Turning the key, she pushed open the door and gasped.
Spencer. She hadn’t been prepared to see him yet; she’d been so focused on Tara. The room was lit, but dimly, and he slept on his side, facing the wall. His head rested on top of one of his arms, his breathing was deep and even. For a man who was about to be executed, he seemed remarkably undisturbed.
Walking to his bed, she sat on the edge of it and ran her hands over his face, feeling the two days’ worth of stubble. The rough texture on her fingertips sent a thrill into her core. Maybe he should leave it like that. Scruffy worked really well on him. Her pulse picked up. In her heart of hearts, she had been terrified she wouldn’t see him again, and just to have this moment was a gift she couldn’t waste.
His eyes opened, and after a moment of recognition, he grabbed her arm. Whispering, he still managed to sound like he was shouting. “Addison, what the hell are you doing here?”
Joy pulsed through her veins. “Rescuing you.”
Holland poked his head through the door. “Glad you found him. Judging from the screaming and cursing, I think Tara is two doors down and Jack is somewhere in here too. No time for cute reunions if we’re going to get to Jeremy before we get caught.”
Spencer acted like he hadn’t heard Holland. “You’re serious. Are you out of your frickin’ mind?”
“Come on.” She stood. “No time to waste.”
Without turning around, she heard Spencer get up from the bed and follow her. Holland was standing in the hall outside a door. Tara was screaming and yelling inside. Unlike Spencer, Tara wasn’t going to spend her last hours on Earth sleeping peacefully. Using the same key that had opened Spencer’s door—what she now thought of as the master key—Addison opened the door.
Spencer grabbed her arm again. “This is insane. There’s no way it’s going to work.”
“You don’t even know the plan, so stop with the negative energy.” She turned the doorknob, and it opened.
Emotions traveled over Tara’s face. First shock, then pure relief, followed by anger. She pointed at Addison. “I did not tell those lies to the Fury so you could risk your goddamn life. Everyone here needs you to inherit your grandfather’s committee seat.”
“Your life is worth more to me, Tara, than the committee seat.”
She waited for the snappy response or the negative comment. When none came, she decided she’d gotten her point across. Tara’s face went blank. Addison wasn’t going to push her for a response.
“Come on. We still have Jack and Gina to find, and we need to set something on fire so we can get Jeremy out.”
Tara rushed forward. “You’re serious? You’re breaking us all out of here?”
“Didn’t I say I was?”
Spencer sighed. “I think it’s crazy, too. That’s why I love her.”
Addison turned around to smile. “You’re adorable, and when we get out of here, I’m going to kiss you. Until then, we need to hurry.”
“This way.” Holland ran down the hall, and she followed. They opened several more rooms before finding them. Jack raised an eyebrow at their entrance but didn’t say another word. Gina was quite vocal, cursing and yelling, but happy to have been released from her static-filled prison.
“Time to go.” Addison smiled and sprinted down the hall. This would either work or it wouldn’t.
Spencer ran next to her, grabbing her arm, pulling her out of the way so she didn’t trip over one of the guards who lay unconscious on the floor.
“Addison, if we don’t get through this,” he called to her, “I want you to know how much it means to me that you tried…”
She stopped running and looked at him. “There’s no ‘if’ about this. I cannot live out there without you and Jeremy, so either we make this work or it ends tonight.”
Spencer opened his mouth to speak, and she placed her hand over his lips to stop him. “There’s nothing else to say on the subject.”
“This is it,” Holland called. “This is juvenile hall.”
“Okay.” Addison chewed on her lower lip. “Take Jack and Tara and go wait with the others by the gate. If we don’t make it out of here, get out that back door. There’s a van waiting. Jack told me in the warehouse that he wasn’t institutionalized until he was seventeen. I bet he can drive, or you guys can figure it out. You’re smart.” She would have suggested that Spencer go with them, but she knew what she would have said if he’d told her to go without him.
Spotting Russell, she smiled. He hadn’t let them down.
“Hey, everyone.” He nodded at them. “The alert just went out on the radio that you all broke out. They don’t know about Addison yet. So since they just think it’s Spencer leading the whole thing, the guards have gone on alert looking for you in all your regular haunts. Rhodes is getting ready to make an announcement.”
Spencer ran a hand through his hair. Addison could see the worry lines starting to form around his eyes. She’d woken him, and she suddenly wondered when he’d last slept.
“How do you know this, Russell?”
Russell pulled a radio out of his coat pocket. “I stole it months ago. Just had a feeling maybe I might need it.”
“Can you get us inside?”
Russell shook his head. “No. All the buildings are locked up now.”
“I can get the locks undone.”
Spencer started to object. “Addison…”
“I practiced all over my apartment. I’m good at it now. It won’t leave me exhausted, and even if it does, you can go in and get Jeremy.”
She moved to the lock. Compared to the safe in her apartment, this one was child’s play. Closing her eyes, she sent her energy into the lock and smiled when it released. “Let’s go.”
Spencer put his hand on Russell’s arm. “Go with the others.”
“I can help.”
“I know you can. Get the others out. Do this for me. I need to know they’re okay.”
Understanding lit Russel’s eyes. Probably none of them knew the aching guilt she was sure filled Spencer’s soul over the deaths he’d nearly caused. Russell turned on his heel and headed toward the exit.
Watching him leave, Addison sighed. “You know, I thought he could get us in and out by making the guards think they wanted to let us through.”
“I guess we’ll just have to be more creative than that.”
“When Tara lights the flames, we’ll need to escape in the chaos.” She took a deep breath and let it out. “I assume you know where Jeremy is.”
“I do. I visited with him yesterday.”
“You did? Why did you do that?”
“I thought I was going to die, and I wanted to make sure he was okay and give him some advice on how to live here.”
Tears filled Addison’s eyes. “Were you born thi
s way, or did you just learn how to think about everyone but yourself as time went along?”
Spencer took her arm and hustled her through the door. “What are you talking about? It was incredibly selfish. I just had to see a part of you again.”
“Liar.”
A siren sounded in the hall, loud and distracting. She wanted to cover her ears. Instead, she took his hand and let him lead her down long hallways. Jeremy had always hated the fire alarm in their apartment, so the noise must have been making him crazy.
He opened a door, and they walked in together. “In here.”
They stopped short, Spencer sticking his body in front of hers.
“Move, Spencer, or I’ll put a bullet in his head. Right now, the boy’s unconscious. I could also wake him up.”
Addison sucked in her breath as she heard Rhodes’ voice.
“I knew you’d come here.”
“You were right, Will. Listen, no one has to get hurt. I’ll go back to my cell, and Addison will leave. It will be that simple.”
Spencer forced her more tightly behind him, placing himself between her and the doorway.
She couldn’t see Rhodes’ face, but she could hear the disdain in his voice. “That simple, Spencer? Do you think I’m going to let you make a fool of me? It might be too late for me to keep Jack and Tara from leaving, but I’ll be damned if you and Ms. Wade, who has caused me endless amounts of trouble, are going to leave here. Now move before I put a bullet in his brain.”
Not letting Spencer say anything else, she pushed around him to see the scene, her heart pounding harder than it ever had before. Rhodes stood over Jeremy, gun in his hand, his eyes bloodshot. When she’d first met him, he’d been so cool and collected. Addison had spent enough time with disgruntled employees to know that in front of her was a man who had come unglued.
“I’m going to put an end to this, Ms. Wade… or maybe I should call you Addison; everyone else seems to. Enough is enough.”
She’d always heard that time slowed down in serious situations, but not for her. Rhodes raised his gun and fired it. Everything seemed to speed up. The moments between the bullet exiting the gun, the deafening sound of the shot, Spencer’s scream, and the realization that she’d been shot were the fastest of her life.
Her hands instinctively covered the blood-soaked hole in her abdomen, and long before she felt the pain that would bring the darkness, which would end her life, she saw the truth that she’d grasped echoed in Spencer’s blue eyes.
She was going to die. No last words, she sank to her knees, and only Spencer’s roar of agony as he grasped her arms carried her into nothingness.
Twenty-Five
Spencer’s ears rang. No! His internal voice screamed out a protest. He would not allow this to happen. It couldn’t be allowed to happen. Laying Addison down on the floor, he pressed his hand against her abdomen. Her blood, bright red and sticky, flowed out around him.
“No!” he screamed, but didn’t recognize the sound of his own voice. “No, baby, hold on, you can’t die, you’re not allowed.” He looked at her beautiful face. Her eyes closed. He could still see the pain etched around her features. Fury made him fast. Jumping from the ground, he leaped on top of Rhodes. He ripped the gun from his hand and pointed it at the old man’s head.
“Why?” He couldn’t form more than one word.
“None of this happened until she came.” Rhodes’ eyes were bulging out of his head. Spencer had always heard rumors that the man could be like this. They said Rhodes was capable of killing anyone who got in his way, which was why the committee liked him, but up until that instant, Spencer had never seen it.
“God, I loved you like the father I never knew.”
He hadn’t let himself make plans with Addison, imagine a future they could have together, and he had no idea whether she’d thought of him or not. But there were things they could have done together if they could have escaped, places they could have visited, babies they could have made, ones with her shade of blue eyes and his ability to tease her. She’d actually made him believe it might all have been possible, and she lay dying on the floor.
There was nothing in the world he wanted more than to have taken that bullet for her. He couldn’t do that, and he wanted to wail that fate was unkind, except he already knew that. He’d known it since he was four years old. Rhodes had always made it bearable.
His face was wet. Maybe he was crying; he had no idea.
Addison was gone and nothing could undo it. All that was left of her was one small, innocent boy.
Rhodes stared at him, his red-glazed eyes intense and determined. “Spencer, the Wades are evil. They should all be put down. Let me up so I can finish off the boy.”
Spencer placed the gun to Rhodes’ temple and fired.
God, he could hardly breathe. Leaping off the body whose life he’d just ended, the body that had once contained the essence and life of a man he’d loved since he was a child, he rushed back to his beloved.
Addison looked paler than she had moments earlier. The blood continued to seep out of her. He wasn’t a doctor, but he knew he was losing her and he had no time to waste. He picked her up in his arms just as Jeremy made a groaning noise. God, he couldn’t get them both out. Hell, who was he kidding? He couldn’t get any of them out of there. He wouldn’t make it two feet out of this building carrying Addison before they caught him.
Jeremy’s eyes fluttered open. He looked around, confusion falling onto his features. “Spencer?”
“Hey, buddy, listen, your auntie is sick. We need to get her some help.” Laurel could help her if only he could get to the woman in time. She’d be waiting by the gate with the others.
“You’ll save her, Uncle Spencer. You know what to do.”
He’d never told the child to call him that, and what’s more, where on Earth would he have gotten the notion that he could save her?
“Don’t you remember what the lady told Auntie in dark space? There’s so much more that you can do.”
He did remember that conversation. Priscilla had been begging for her life, telling Addison she could teach her things about her power she didn’t yet know. Addison had boxed her anyway. But he and Addison had different abilities… not to mention, how the hell did the kid know what they had said in dark space?
“Jeremy. How do you know this?”
The boy blinked twice, his eyes innocent and confused. “How do I know what, Uncle Spencer?”
Addison was dying in his arms, yet somehow, he had to find patience for this little person who couldn’t possibly begin to understand what was happening around him. “How do you know what the lady told Auntie in dark space?”
“What do you mean? The voices told it to me, like they always do.”
Crap. There was so much more to Jeremy that they didn’t yet understand, and he had no time to work it out now. “Okay, kiddo, what am I supposed to do? Can you ask the voices?” He needed to count to ten to keep from screaming.
“What you’ve always known you could do.”
What did that even mean? What he’d always known he could do…
He could move through dark space, so much faster there than he could in reality. He could move at the speed of light, so fast others got dizzy. There was no way that could help him. His body stayed put where he left it. Addison would still be there, and even though he could momentarily look at the new location, he couldn’t communicate in it and was immediately thrown back into his body.
Without Rhodes alive to dampen his power, he could feel it surging inside him. It was different, stronger and more efficient.
Jeremy stood and grasped his leg, holding on to him. “Do it, Uncle Spencer. Move us through dark space.”
He’d always felt that with just a little more power he could move, physically move himself and others through the shadows to where they needed to go. Yes, he could, or he’d die trying.
“Okay, Jeremy, hold on to me. It’s going to be very dark and scary, but as long
as you hold on to me, we’ll get where we need to go.”
“I won’t let go.”
He closed his eyes, and when he opened them, the landscape of dark space was laid out before him. It had to be different this time. The shadows couldn’t be allowed to consume him. Even in the shadow space, he had to keep things solid. He had to maneuver his whole body in the space. Actually, not just his body—he needed to move Addison and Jeremy as well. There was nothing like jumping off the deep end without learning how to swim.
Looking down at Addison’s nearly lifeless form in his arms gave him strength.
“I’m going to do this for us, baby. I’m going to get us to Laurel.”
It felt different, harder, but he was still able to move, and that was key. If he could get where he needed to go in the darkness, then no one in the “real” world would know what was going on. He could take Addison to where she needed to be, unhindered by the guards and anyone else who felt like getting in his way.
“Faster, Uncle Spencer—you can go faster.”
Jeremy had been right so far. Thank goodness for his “voices.” Clearly there was more to Jeremy’s powers than the ability to take away the powers of everyone else, if he could do that at all. Who was to say that Grace Ann knew what the hell she was talking about?
He moved faster, his muscles adapting to the new environment. If anything, he felt lighter, as if gravity moved differently inside dark space. Laurel—he needed to move to Laurel. He knew her essence; he’d seen it many times.
Following it now proved to be no problem.
Within moments, he saw it glowing, pulsing a bright yellow-and-purple light that told him he had reached her. This would be tricky. He had to move them all back into the light. Looking down at Addison, he almost stopped breathing. Her yellow, sunlight essence was almost gone. Only a sliver of her intensity was left.
The thought alone pushed him out of the darkness.
Blinding light filled his eyes and he nearly dropped Addison, tripping over Jeremy, who was still hanging on to his leg.
“Spencer? Holy shit, what’s going on?” Tara’s unique phraseology filled the air.
Illicit Senses (Illicit Minds Book 1) Page 26