She had to find a way to stop him.
"But why?" she whispered. "She belongs to Kate now. She's not a part of our lives. She-"
He placed a hand over her mouth, hushing her. "Loose ends," he said. "They can come back to haunt you, they must be tied up."
He dropped his hand, swung his legs over the side of the bed and sat up. He reached for his gun, checked the clip, then lay it on the bed beside him. "I'd like to spare Kate, but that might not be possible. It probably won't be."
Julianna stared at his back, sickened. He spoke of killing Kate and Emma with no more emotion than he would talking about lunch. Or the weather. How had she not seen him for the monster he was? How could she have believed herself in love with him?
She wouldn't let him kill Emma. She couldn't.
She darted her gaze over the room, considering her options, scrambling for a way out of this, for a way to stop him. For something she could use to stop him. She needed to get his gun. But how? He never let it out of his reach. Her gaze landed on the hideously ugly ceramic lamp on the bedside table. It would have to do.
Julianna crawled out of bed, snatched up a T-shirt and pair of shorts from the floor beside the bed and pulled them on. "You're right, of course. But I…I should help."
He stood and looked over his shoulder at her in question. "It's my mess," she said. "I should help…clean it up."
He thought about it a moment, then inclined his head. "What do you propose?"
He bent to retrieve his pants from the floor, stepped into them, then reached for his gun.
Julianna saw her opportunity. Her last opportunity. She grabbed the lamp and swung. It connected with the back of his head with a sickening thud. The gun slipped from his fingers.
He straightened and looked at her, his expression registering surprise, then understanding. She swung again, as hard as she could, grunting with the effort. The lamp base exploded against his head. Pottery shards and blood flew in every direction.
As if in slow motion, John fell to his knees, then toppled face first to the floor, square on top of the gun.
Julianna stood above him, shaking, what was left of the lamp dangling from her hand. She couldn't tell if he was breathing; no way was she going any closer.
She let the lamp slip from her fingers. "That's what I propose, you sick bastard."
60
Kate awakened with a start. She sat up and looked around her, disoriented. She'd come home from the funeral and after getting Emma down for the night, had poured herself a big glass of wine and sat on the couch. She must have fallen asleep.
She glanced at the baby monitor to make sure it was on. The power indicator light glowed; a comforting, red beacon in the otherwise dark room.
Kate stared at it a moment, listening. No sound came from her daughter's bedroom. Reassured, she sank back against the cushions. She brought her hands to her face, acknowledging fatigue. Despair.
It was over. The funeral had marked the end. Not only to Richard's life, but to her own as well. The one she had known for more than ten years, the one with Richard, the one in which she had been a happily married woman. Content. And confident. Of her place in the world. That she was loved.
Suddenly, Emma whimpered, then cried out, the sound sharp and frightened.
The monitor crackled, then went dead.
Kate froze momentarily, then alarm exploded inside her. She scrambled from the couch. Her foot knocked into the glass of wine, toppling it, sending red liquid spilling across the white rug. She ran for the nursery.
She reached it in moments. A cry ripped from her lips. A figure stood beside her daughter's crib, bent over it. At her feet sat the diaper bag, stuffed to overflowing.
"Get away from my baby!"
The woman spun around. She had Emma in her arms, a hand pressed over her mouth to quiet her.
Even in the minimal illumination cast by the sole night-light, Kate recognized the woman. "Julianna? What do you think you're doing?"
The woman removed her hand, and Emma's cries shattered the quiet. "This isn't what it looks like, Kate."
Kate inched carefully toward the younger woman, uncertain what she would do, afraid for Emma's safety. "Give me my baby."
The infant heard her mother's voice and turned toward her, her cries becoming frenetic howls.
Julianna took a step backward. She shook her head. "You don't understand. He's coming! He means to-"
"Give her to me!" Kate stopped before her and held out her arms. "You're scaring her."
Julianna hesitated. In that moment, Kate saw her grip slacken and she snatched the infant from the other woman's arms and spun away from her. She held Emma to her chest, rocking and cooing. The infant quieted, her cries becoming distraught, hiccoughing whimpers.
"Haven't you done enough?" Kate asked, her voice low, vibrating with emotion. "You stole my husband and now you want my child, too?"
"You don't understand," she said again, wringing her hands, glancing nervously at the Pooh Bear wall clock.
"John's coming. He-"
"I don't know any John. How did you get in here?"
"The key in the false rock. Beside the side door."
Dear God, that's how she had gotten in before. "I'm calling the police."
Julianna grabbed her arm, stopping her. "Don't do that! You can't. You have to-"
"My husband is dead. He wouldn't be, if he'd been home." Kate shook off her hand. "Get out of my house. I want you away from me and away from my child."
Kate left the nursery, hurrying toward the living room. When she reached it, she flipped on the overhead light. The phone lay on the floor beside the toppled wineglass and ugly red stain.
"Emma's life is in danger."
Kate stopped dead. She looked back at Julianna, taking in her tear-streaked face and stained, rumpled clothing. Kate focused on the stains, suddenly realizing what they were. Blood.
Kate widened her eyes, suddenly truly afraid. For her daughter's safety, for her own. "Oh, my God."
"John's coming. He means to kill Emma."
Tightening her grip on her daughter, Kate took a step backward. "Get away from us."
Julianna held a hand out. It, too, was splattered with blood. "I have to protect her."
Kate shook her head, heart thundering, mouth dry. "You're crazy. Unbalanced. You're-"
"I'm Emma's birth mother."
Julianna's words hit Kate squarely in the gut. She stared at the other woman, stunned, numb, her world rocking.
"What…did you-"
"I'm Emma's-"
"Shut up!" Kate shouted. "You're lying. You have to be!"
"I wanted to have an abortion," Julianna began, voice shaking. "But I waited…too long. One week and three days too long.
"The doctor," she continued, "he showed me pictures of babies at my stage of development. They were… they-" She looked at Kate, eyes pleading for understanding. "I didn't know. I promise I didn't."
Julianna drew in a shuddering breath and dragged her gaze away from Kate's. She crossed to the couch and sank heavily onto it. "The doctor asked me to consider adoption. He told me about Citywide. It seemed a perfect solution. My only way out."
Kate lowered her gaze to her daughter, tears flooding her eyes. Richard had been sleeping with Emma's biological mother. The thought made her sick.
"Did he…know?" she asked, tears choking her. "Did Richard know you were-"
"No. I didn't tell him." She looked at her hands, then back up at Kate. "At first I thought I'd surrender Emma and disappear. But then I…I read your profiles. Richard's…profile. I fell in love with him."
Kate stared at the other woman, not believing what she was hearing. "You fell in love with my husband from his…because of what he had written?"
"Yes." Julianna hugged herself. "He was everything…everything I'd always dreamed of. But I didn't just fall in love with him." She lifted watery eyes to Kate. "I fell in love with you, too. With your marriage, your lives."
; "So…you decided to steal them? Instead of making your own life, you decided to steal ours?"
For a moment, Julianna hung her head. Then she lifted it and squared her shoulders. "I gave you Emma. You wanted to be a mother more than anything. You said so in your profile. In return for Richard, I gave you Emma."
What could she say to this young woman? Thank you? She looked at her as if Kate should not only understand, but that she should even approve. "How did you find us?" she asked. "Ellen assured us that no identifying information would be exchanged without our consent."
"I stole it. From a file on her desk. She doesn't know."
Dear God, Kate realized, she had been right. About the break in, the missing photograph, the girl on the swing. All along, it had been Emma's birth mother.
"So you followed us," she murmured. "Found a way into our lives, Richard's life. And you seduced him."
The younger woman leaned forward, her expression earnest. "He didn't want to be unfaithful to you, Kate. He wasn't that kind of man. But we were meant to be together. We were each other's destiny. Each other's soul mate."
Kate looked at her daughter, quiet now and gazing up at her with unblinking blue eyes. Eyes only for her. Her mother. Kate's heart swelled, love momentarily chasing away the anger and betrayal she felt, chasing away the ugliness of the past days.
"Leave now." She returned her gaze to Julianna. "If you do, because of Emma, I won't call the police."
"I can't do that. I…there's more, Kate. Something I…have to tell you."
Kate stilled, something in the other woman's tone scaring her more than anything she had said so far.
"There's a man. He killed Richard and he…he means to kill Emma."
"Why are you saying this?" she cried, beginning to tremble. "Why can't you just leave us alone? Haven't you hurt me enough? Haven't you hurt my family enough?"
"He's Emma's father."
Kate gazed at the other woman in horror. The nightmare that had become her life had just taken another bizarre turn for the worse. She went to a chair and sat on its edge. Julianna was a deeply disturbed young woman; this story so far-fetched as to be ludicrous. And yet…something about it rang true. And if it were, Emma's life was in danger.
Kate looked up. "But why? I don't understand."
"Because of me. Because he's crazy. Obsessed."
"I'm calling the police," Kate said, standing.
"No!" Julianna cried, jumping to her feet. "They can't protect you from him! He's a professional. An assassin, trained to do wet work for the government. Killing means nothing to him. It's a job, a way of life."
"This is ludicrous!"
"You have to listen! The police can't help. John will wait them out. Or slip in and out without them being any the wiser. And he won't give up. Emma's a loose end. He told me so."
Kate strode past her and snatched up the phone from the floor. Julianna grabbed her arm. "I saw pictures. Of people with their throats slit. My mother-" her voice cracked "-she knew about him. I wouldn't believe her, so she had a friend of hers from the CIA tell me everything. He's the one who…who showed me the pictures."
Tears welled in Julianna's eyes. "That man, from the CIA, he's dead now. So's my mother. It's all my fault. Don't you see…he'll kill Emma."
Kate sank onto the chair, the cordless phone slipping from her fingers. She brought a hand to her mouth. "Oh, my God. If what you're telling me is…if it's true, what am I going to do?"
Julianna squatted down in front of Kate. "We have to run. Now. I hit him over the head with a lamp, but I don't know if I…if I killed him. I'm afraid I didn't."
"We have to run?" Kate made a sound of disbelief. "I'd sooner accompany a viper into a snake pit than go anywhere with you. I'll take my chances on my own."
"But I know him, how he works, what he looks like." She caught her hands. "You need me. Without me, you'll be sitting ducks."
"I don't need you. I-"
The phone rang. They both turned toward the unit, though neither made a move to pick it up. It rang again. Then again.
The machine answered. Kate's cheery message floated through the silent house, followed by a man's voice, deep and silky smooth.
"Hello, Kate. Pass this message along to Julianna, please. I have your answer now. You've betrayed me for the last time." He sighed heavily. "You and Emma are dead."
61
The highway stretched endlessly before Kate, the blackness of the night broken only by the illumination of her headlights and those of the other motorists, and even they had become few and far between.
She had been driving for hours, without a destination in mind, simply attempting to put as many miles between them and John Powers as possible. Kate clung tightly to the steering wheel, holding on to it like a lifeline, certain that if she eased her grip on the wheel, the grip she had on her emotions would slacken as well.
To protect Emma she had to stay alert. Calm and focused. If she fell apart… Kate refused to let her mind wander to the what ifs. This man, this monster, wouldn't win. He wouldn't have Emma. She wouldn't let him have her.
Kate glanced over her shoulder, at the back seat. Emma was asleep in her carrier; she had been for the past couple of hours, lulled to sleep by the motion of the car. Julianna slept in the seat beside Kate.
The silence was both a blessing and a curse. Blessing because she had neither the energy nor emotional reserve to deal with either female; a curse because it allowed her time alone with her thoughts, with the disembodied voice from the message machine, his words, his threat-You and Emma are dead.
Kate drew in a deep breath, keeping hysteria at bay through sheer force of will. After the message machine had clicked off, she and Julianna hadn't spoken. Kate had taken a minute to throw together a bag for Emma, taking only the essentials-diapers, formula and bottles, a change of clothes-most of which had already been in the diaper bag.
She frowned, trying to remember if she had even locked the front door as they left. Try as she might, she couldn't. She recalled the breathlessness of fear, recalled running from the house to the car, climbing into it and backing out of the driveway, nearly running down poor Old Joe and Beauregard. Luckily, she had thought to grab her purse. In it were her credit cards, checks and one hundred dollars cash.
Her eyelids fluttered down, and she forced them up again. She couldn't go on much longer without rest. And food. In back, Emma stirred, and Kate caught her bottom lip between her teeth. Emma would be waking soon. She would need to be fed and changed. Eventually, she would need time out of her car seat, time to play.
She would have to start looking for a place to stop for the night.
A motel, she thought. Fine for tonight, but what about tomorrow? And the day after that? Would her and Emma's life become a string of days on the road and nights sleeping in cookie-cutter rooms? That was no life for a child.
Tears burned her eyes. Tears for Emma. For herself. Her beautiful home, The Uncommon Bean, Mandeville- would she ever see them again?
She fought back the tears, gripping the wheel tighter. Until now, her only thought had been to put as many miles between Emma and John Powers as she could, as fast as she could. But now, she had to decide where they were going. Driving aimlessly would be counterproductive and depressing; a destination would give her something to focus on. Something to achieve. But where should they run? And to whom?
Running to family had been out of the question, though the thought of loving arms had been tempting. It had seemed to her that family-then local friends-would be the first places John Powers would look for her.
A semi roared past, so close her Jeep rocked. As the truck cleared her, he cut back into her lane, then exited. She looked at the sign, realizing with a sense of shock where she was.
Houston.
Luke. Of course.
Luke had not been a part of her life for so long, John Powers couldn't know that they were friends. They would be safe with him. A whimper of relief rose to her lips. Luke would ta
ke them in, at least for the night. Surely, he didn't hate her so much he would turn her away, not now?
She steered onto the next exit, pulling into the first gas station she came upon. She stopped the car beside a pump and unlocked her door.
At the sound, Julianna stirred, then opened her eyes. She looked at Kate, still half asleep. "Where are we?"
"Houston." Kate opened the car door. "Is there anything you want from inside? I'm going in to make a call."
62
Luke sat on his front steps, waiting for Kate. He hadn't turned on his porch light; the sounds of the night surrounded him. The buzz and hum of insects, the lonely howl of a dog left chained outside, the distant roar of traffic from a city too big to ever really sleep.
He leaned back, resting against his elbows. He had been working feverishly when Kate called, on a creative streak that had lasted several hours. Totally immersed in his characters' world, he'd had to ask who was calling three times before her answer had penetrated.
Kate. His beautiful Kate.
Luke frowned and tipped his face up to the starless sky, bombarded with second thoughts. He had heard the fatigue in her voice, the desperation. She had said only that she was in trouble, that she, the baby and a friend needed a place to stay, even if only for the night. It was an emergency, she had said.
A matter of life and death.
No had been on the tip of his tongue along with a dozen questions. Ones like "What kind of trouble?" and "Where's Richard?" Instead, he had given her directions to his house.
Luke passed a hand across his face, rough with his morning beard. Kate had never been given to exaggeration or melodrama. If she said something was so, it was. So what could be so urgent it was a matter of life and death?
Luke stood as a vehicle turned onto his street and proceeded slowly down, as if checking the house numbers. He cracked open his front door, reached inside and flipped on the porch light, then closed the door and stepped fully into the circle of light.
Cause for Alarm Page 28