by B. J Daniels
You’re going to die. The thought seemed to come from outside Raymond as the chopper suddenly began to buck. Then the engine died and the craft rolled to the side, dropping toward the dense green forest below.
The trees came up fast through the rain and fog.
Raymond could hear the pilot on the radio. “Mayday, Mayday.”
Raymond thought his life might pass before him. Instead his last thought before the chopper crashed was of his mother. At least she would mourn his death.
DARK CLOUDS HUNG OVER the hotel by the time Jenna saw a red car come up the mountainside and park at the back of the lot. It was raining so hard it was difficult to tell if it was Charlene. No one got out of the car.
Jenna waited, afraid. The wind groaned and raindrops ricocheted against the glass, obscuring her view.
What if it was Lorenzo?
Jenna held her breath as she stared down at the car, waiting to see who got out. Part of her was screaming, “Run! You can’t trust anyone.” Especially Harry Ballantine.
You can’t trust anyone.
Especially your own instincts.
Or even your own eyes.
It was Harry’s voice again in her head. She shivered, convinced she was losing her mind.
Even when she saw the figure finally emerge from the red car, for a split second her brain saw Lorenzo. She recoiled, then blinked. It was only Charlene. No one else got out.
Weak with relief, Jenna clutched the window frame and finally allowed herself to breathe. No one else was in sight as Charlene started through the rain toward the hotel entrance.
AS A BOLT OF LIGHTNING split the dark sky, Charlene looked up at the hotel and almost died.
She barely heard the boom of thunder, followed in a heartbeat by an explosion that lit the sky.
While Charlene had always been a little bit psychic, it wasn’t like being a little bit pregnant. You had to work at the craft, hone your skills. Charlene had never liked work.
At an early age she’d accepted her so-called “gift,” but also knew she didn’t want to foresee her future.
“I don’t have to be psychic to know it’s going to be bad,” she’d often said. “I’d rather be surprised than to see how bad it’s going to be before I get there.” So she’d pretty much learned to block it out.
That is, until the moment she looked up at Fernhaven, saw all the faces in the windows and knew that only one of the those looking down at her wasn’t dead yet.
Her blood turned to slush. She no longer felt the rain pelting her. All she felt was fear gripping her by her throat.
Being a little clairvoyant, she should have known that a tragedy such as the one that had struck the original Fernhaven did more than scar the land. The horror stayed, trapped there often for eternity. Or until something or someone released the poor souls. But she now felt that truth to her very bones.
This place was haunted with the fifty-seven dead. Not only could she see and feel them, she knew enough to fear them. Fernhaven was a graveyard of lost souls and, she realized with a shudder, they’d been expecting her.
Chapter Fourteen
Harry sent a warning to Jenna, but knew he had to stop Charlene. She couldn’t be trusted. He sensed it on some level he couldn’t explain.
As Charlene started toward the steps of Fernhaven, he moved in front of her.
To his astonishment and regret, she walked right through him. He saw her shudder as if she felt something, but clearly she couldn’t see him. Or feel him. Only Jenna and her daughter were aware of him.
Which meant he had no way to stop what was going to happen.
Then, to his surprise, Charlene turned and looked back. Not at him, but at the headlights coming up the road. She quickly stepped into the shadows and waited.
The car stopped at the edge of the trees. The lights went out, the engine suddenly silent.
Charlene moved through the cover of darkness toward the car.
Something shone for a moment in her hand as she neared the vehicle and the man sitting in it, trying to get his cell phone to work.
“Mr. Dante, if you get this message, it’s Alfredo. I’m at that place, Fernhaven, waiting like you told me to.” He snapped off the phone, grumbling under his breath.
The man didn’t see Charlene coming, didn’t hear her steal alongside the car. Not until it was too late.
AFTER JENNA SAW CHARLENE disappear from view, she hurriedly packed up and put her suitcase by the front door.
She checked on Lexi, only to find her glued to the television. Jenna didn’t allow her daughter to watch much TV, so this was a treat for her. She felt she had failed Lexi in so many ways.
A mother protected her child. Even against the child’s father. Jenna hadn’t done that. Worse, she wasn’t sure she could in the future.
She closed the door to the sound of Lexi’s childish laughter and Fred’s irritated meow. Lexi hadn’t said any more about her father. Only that she wanted a “new” daddy, a nice daddy.
Hurry, Charlene, hurry.
When Jenna heard a soft knock, she ran to the door of the suite and threw it open, belatedly realizing she should have asked who it was first.
Charlene stood in the doorway, soaking wet and looking as if she’d aged. She was panting, her face ashen, as she burst into the room, motioning wildly for Jenna to close the door.
“Did someone follow you?” Jenna asked as she quickly closed and locked the door. “Lorenzo? Is he after you?”
Charlene seemed surprised by the question. She shook her head and, putting a hand to her breast, said between breaths, “It’s not Lorenzo.” She glanced around the suite, eyes widening.
“Are you all right?” Jenna had to ask. Her neighbor didn’t look all right. For a moment Jenna wondered if Charlene was having a heart attack.
“I’m fine. Just…winded. Where’s Lexi?”
“In the other room watching cartoons,” Jenna said. “Thank you so much for driving up here. I really appreciate it.”
Charlene nodded, her gaze going to the taped-up box sitting on the table. “That it?”
“Yes. I just need you to leave it in my apartment. I’ll call Lorenzo and tell him where to pick it up once I know you made it home safely.”
“Yeah. This place…” She waved a hand through the air and met Jenna’s gaze. “It doesn’t bother you?”
Bother her? Jenna wanted to laugh. This place made her crazy. “I’m anxious to leave, if that’s what you mean. I’m all packed. I was hoping you could give me a ride to the nearest town.”
Charlene was starting to breathe a little freer and didn’t look quite so pale. She dragged a sleeve over her face and Jenna saw her shiver.
“I’m already packed,” she repeated, motioning to her suitcase by the door. “I just need to get Lexi.”
Charlene nodded.
“Are you sure you’re all right?” Jenna asked her. “Would you like a glass of water?”
“No,” she answered. “I’m fine. It’s just the altitude up here. I’m not used to it.”
Jenna smiled at her. “Thank you again for doing this. I owe you.” She stepped to her daughter’s door and opened it. “Time to go, baby.”
“Go?” Lexi said from the bed. “No, Mommy.”
Jenna turned off the TV. Lexi protested, burrowing down under the covers. Jenna picked up Fred. He began to protest, too.
She carried the cat and Lexi’s suitcase into the living room and put the suitcase by the door next to her own. Charlene was standing at the window, looking out through the rain-streaked glass.
Jenna went back into the bedroom. “Lexi, please don’t fight me. Not now. Baby, we have to leave. Don’t you want to go on a big plane?”
Lexi peeked out from under the covers. She’d been crying, her face tearstained. It broke Jenna’s heart. The child had been uprooted so much, and now Jenna was taking her away from the one place Lexi truly seemed happy.
“A really big plane,” Jenna said, hearing the pain in her voi
ce. She smiled, hoping to hide it from her daughter.
“Is Daddy going with us on the big plane?” Lexi asked.
Jenna could hear the fear in her daughter’s voice. “No. He’s not going with us.”
Lexi pushed back the covers, scooped up Clarice and reached out to her mother. Jenna grasped her in her arms and headed for the living room. Reaching the bedroom doorway, she halted.
Charlene was standing near the front door. She had the box of Lorenzo’s money under one arm. She held a gun in her free hand. The barrel was pointed at Jenna, and it had a silencer on the end.
“Give me Lexi,” Charlene said in a voice Jenna scarcely recognized. “Give me the child. Don’t make me force you.”
“Charlene—”
“Now!” the woman snapped.
Lexi started crying. Jenna stepped back, thinking that if she could get into the bedroom and close and lock the door…
Charlene dropped the box and grabbed Lexi’s arm before Jenna could carry out her plan. Struggling to hang on to her child, Jenna didn’t see Charlene swing the gun in a deadly arc.
She felt the stunning blow, though, felt Charlene pry Lexi from her arms. And then Jenna was falling, screaming out her daughter’s name as she pitched toward the darkness.
LORENZO COULDN’T BELIEVE it. A hotel at the end of the road?
He stopped, furious at Jenna for bringing him to this backwoodsy place. He liked cities. Dark woods made him uncomfortable. Add one hell of a rainstorm and he wanted to ring her neck. And Charlene’s, and even Alfredo’s…
He took out his cell phone and called Alfredo. No service. Lorenzo had told the man to stay put, but as he drove by Alfredo’s car, even in the dark he could see that Alfredo wasn’t sitting inside, waiting. What was wrong with him?
A chill crept along the back of Lorenzo’s neck. He rubbed at it with his hand as he realized Alfredo always did what he was told. He was too dumb to do anything else.
Something had happened.
Lorenzo looked out through the driving rain, considering what might be waiting for him at the hotel. Alfredo had killed Rico at the roadblock. Lorenzo had seen Rico’s car pushed off to the side of the accident site.
And with Jolly out of the picture, who did that leave?
Jenna? Lorenzo scoffed at the idea. Sure, she’d taken the gun he had hidden in the bedroom, but did she even know how to use it? Unless she’d learned since divorcing him.
He ground his teeth at the thought of what his dear ex-wife had been up to since the divorce. But one thing he knew for certain: Jenna didn’t have what it took to pull a trigger. Not to mention he was the father of her only child. No matter how she felt about him, Jenna couldn’t kill him.
So that only left…Charlene. Lorenzo groaned as he shifted the car into Drive and parked at the edge of the lot—where, through the pouring rain, he could see the vehicle he’d bought Charlene. She would have his money by now. She would think she was going to live to spend it. Charlene didn’t scare him. He’d kill her before she had a chance to do to him what she must have done to poor dumb Alfredo.
THUNDER CRACKED OVERHEAD, a boom that shook the Jeep.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” Mike said, and pointed through the rain.
Rose saw the lights, dim in the pouring rain. “That’s got to be it.” Fernhaven. She felt herself tense, afraid what they would find once they reached the hotel.
Maybe they should have waited for the road to open. It might have been faster. For all she knew Lorenzo could already be down there.
She checked her weapon in the shoulder holster beneath her jacket. Fully loaded. She had an extra clip in her pocket and a knife in her boot, a little trick she’d learned from Luke.
Glancing over, she saw the truth in Mike’s gaze. He knew she hadn’t come all this way just to warn Jenna. Ever since Jenna had confided in her about the horrible things Lorenzo had done, Rose had been determined to take the man down. She’d hoped that she could do it legally—by getting Jenna to turn state’s evidence against Lorenzo.
That had failed. Then Rose had been injured on another case.
Now she had a chance to make sure that Lorenzo Dante never hurt another person.
Mike reached over and squeezed her knee. Their eyes met in silent understanding. He understood her need to right wrongs—even if he didn’t agree with it. But they both knew that things could go very wrong once they reached the hotel. “Be careful,” he said.
She nodded. “You, too.”
He smiled and shifted the Jeep as they dropped off the mountain, down what had once been a logging road but was now little more than a trail. With luck it would come out fairly close to the hotel.
Rose could see the lavish building through the rain and fog. She felt a chill, remembering the ad she’d seen announcing the opening of Fernhaven. The owners had touted the hotel’s former elegance, its hot pools, its ornate, detailed decor and the big draw: its ghosts.
“MOMMY! I WANT MY MOMMY,” Lexi cried as Charlene half carried, half dragged her down the hallway toward the elevators.
“Shut up!” Charlene snapped, stopping to shake the little girl. “Listen to me. You ever want to see your mommy again, you have to shut up. You understand?”
“I don’t like you,” Lexi said, choking on her sobs.
“Well, I’m wild about you, kid,” Charlene said sarcastically. “I’ll tell you what. If you quit crying and come with me without any more trouble, I’ll give you some candy. Chocolate. You like chocolate, don’t you?”
Lexi turned to look back down the hall. “You hurt my mommy.”
“No, she just fell down. She’ll be fine once she rests a little. We’ll get some chocolate out of my car and then we’ll see if she’s ready to go with us, how would that be?”
The kid was giving her a suspicious look. Lexi had always been too bright for her own good.
Lexi had to run to keep up as Charlene half dragged her down the hall. The box under her arm was a lot heavier than it looked. Papers, my behind. There was something good in this box, something Lorenzo Dante would pay anything for. Charlene would bet on that.
But just to even the odds, there was always dear little Alexandria as a bargaining chip if Lorenzo tried to cheat Charlene out of what she had coming. She was no fool. She liked having all the odds on her side.
They reached the elevator and she pushed the button. She could feel the spirits. She jabbed at the elevator button. Come on.
Lexi was waving at someone down the opposite hall from where they’d just come—an odd bat in a purple hat with feathers. No one better try to help Lexi or stop Charlene.
The elevator doors opened and Charlene lurched in, jerking Lexi after her. She punched the close button three times before the doors shut. Then she leaned against the wall, breathing hard. Nervous sweat poured into her eyes. She wiped it with her sleeve.
Just a few more minutes and she would be out of this place. She looked across the elevator. She couldn’t see them now, but she knew they were there watching her. The arm holding the heavy box began to tremble. She wanted to put it down but she couldn’t. She leaned against the elevator wall, chilled and sweating, fighting for her next breath.
The elevator stopped. The doors opened. Charlene practically dived out, dragging Lexi with her.
The lobby was just yards away. She could see the door that opened onto the wide porch. Once she was through it…
LORENZO LOOKED AROUND, surprised to realize the hotel didn’t even look open for business. There was only one old pickup parked across the lot, other than Charlene’s red car and Alfredo’s vehicle back in the trees.
Odd. Was it possible Jenna wasn’t even here?
No. Charlene had gotten a call from her. Charlene wouldn’t try to double-cross him until she got her twenty grand. The woman was a lot of things, but she wasn’t that stupid.
But what could Jenna be doing here?
He knew the smartest thing would be to wait in his car for Charlene. She’d ev
entually come back out with the money, and when she did, he’d be waiting.
But not only did he hate waiting, he couldn’t stand the thought that Jenna had to be close by. What if she somehow got away?
During the whole trip up here he’d been imagining the look on her face when she saw him. He smiled to himself, enjoying the terror he would see there. Killing her was going to make all this worthwhile.
Then he would take Alexandria. The thought didn’t please him as much as he’d imagined it would. Before, he’d known that Jenna would suffer, knowing he had their daughter. But if she was dead…
He realized he was having second thoughts about taking Alexandria with him when he left the country. If she’d been a boy, a male heir, it would be different. But he had a feeling she would be more trouble than she was worth.
And she was a strange child. He’d seen her studying him sometimes, and there were moments when he thought she could see beyond his veneer, see things he didn’t want anyone seeing.
Yes, the more he thought about it, the more he didn’t think he would take her. After all, she’d probably grow up to give him as much grief as her mother had. Maybe he’d just leave her here. She was cute enough that someone might want her.
He glanced toward the hotel.
Where the hell was Charlene?
He couldn’t wait any longer. He’d just started to open his door when a Jeep came roaring up to the front door.
Lorenzo couldn’t believe his eyes as Rose Garcia jumped out and ran toward the lobby of the hotel, followed by the man who’d been driving.
What the hell was she doing here? And who was the guy? Hell, they both looked like cops, now that he thought about it.
He quietly closed his car door and slid down in the seat. This wasn’t going anything like he’d planned, and it was starting to make him very angry.
“LEXI?”
The child jerked free as a woman Charlene had never seen came running in the front door.
Charlene tried to grab the little brat, but realized it was futile. Lexi ran to the woman, crying again, saying, “She hurt my mommy.”