The Portal ~ Large Print (10 page)

V
ivian ducked behind
the hedges that bordered the estate’s kitchen. At ground level, she found the basement window that she’d escaped from before. Grabbing onto a water faucet for support, she kicked the window twice and shattered it. The remaining glass shards broke off as she squeezed through feet first and dropped into the dank cellar. No alarm sounded. In fact, there was no movement anywhere.

This was all wrong. When they’d escaped before, the security staff had nearly seen them several times. And Jarod had been caught off guard that night. This had to be a trap, but it didn’t matter. It only meant that she needed to be smart. Jarod had always underestimated her. Hopefully he’d do the same tonight.

A sliver of moonlight shined on the rows of temperature-controlled wine racks. Navigating the dark maze by touch, she reached the staircase that led to the kitchen above. Something crunched behind her. She spun around but could barely see. There it was again, louder now. Back where she’d entered.

“Mommy.” A whisper echoed through the dark cellar.

She almost ran back but stopped. The voice had been so quiet that it could have been anyone. Or anything. But what if it was Cody? Jarod’s security guards wouldn’t lurk.

“Where are you, baby?” she called out softly and took a step to the side. If it wasn’t him, she didn’t want them to know her position.

“In the dark.” The hushed voice sounded more like Cody this time.

Please let it be him
. If it was, they were less than five minutes from safety. From here, they could even make it to the Mexican border before sunrise. She almost ran forward but caught herself. Hope was a dangerous emotion. In the past, it had led her to take risks. It had led her into Jarod’s arms. Never again. Tonight, she couldn’t slip up.

“Step into the light so I can find you.” She moved back to the edge of the aisle, but she didn’t dare aim her gun.

Peeking around the corner, she gasped. Cody stood in a spattering of broken glass and soil. He wore a footed pajama suit that she’d never seen before.

“Oh baby.” She raced over to him and dropped to her knees.

“Don’t leave me here,” he said with his arms crossed over his chest.

“Never ever.” She tucked the gun into her jeans and moved him from the broken glass. “Are you hurt?”

“I bumped my head.” Dried tears streaked his dirty face. How long had he been in the basement? That fucker. If she ever got Jarod alone, he wouldn’t walk away this time.

Carefully, she moved a ringlet of hair away from the cut on the side of Cody’s forehead. In the phosphorescent moonlight, the wound appeared dark purple. Was it infected? She couldn’t tell. What if he had a concussion? They needed to get to a doctor.

“Are you alone?” She tried to sound calm, but her voice shook with rage. “Did your father lock you down here?”

“He doesn’t know.” He put his hands on her cheeks. “I don’t want you to die.”

“I’m here now, baby. I swear no one will
ever
take you away from me again.” She squeezed him close and wished for more time. Just a few seconds to hold him, but they had to get to safety. “Everything’s going to be okay. We’re just going to crawl outside.”

“No.” He stared up at the window. Had he heard something? She listened, but only wind howled through the broken pane.

“It’s okay. We’ve done this before.” She tried to pick him up, but he jumped back.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“Not that way.” He shook his head. “Not that way.”

Did he remember the first time they ran? For several seconds, she’d put him above by himself. Though it had been a warm night, she’d thought that he’d never stop shivering.

“You have to calm down,” she said.

“We need Daddy.”

“What?” she asked. He looked at the ground. There wasn’t time for his confusion. She picked him up. “We’ve got to go.”

“Not without Daddy.” He pushed away from her chest.

“Baby, please. You have to be quiet.”

“He’s out there.”

She ducked into a shadowy walkway. Wine racks raised to the ceiling on both sides of them. They were concealed in darkness, but the window was still in view.

“Who’s waiting?” she whispered. “Is your father outside?”

“Not that way.” He clamped his arms around her neck.

What were they going to do? Any other exit from the house would sound the alarm. But had Cody really seen someone? He’d been hiding down here. Probably all night. She needed to find out if he actually knew something.

“Baby,” she said. “Tell me who’s outside.”

“The bad man.”

“Did you see him?” she whispered. “What does he look like?” In the darkness, she couldn’t tell if he understood the question, but he didn’t answer her. “What color is his hair?”

“White,” he whispered.

Oh God. Stromsky was waiting outside for them. But why? The basement seemed to grow colder as she realized the truth. The Carmichaels had never planned to let her raise Cody. They wanted her dead. Or to set her up. Well, whatever twisted plans they had for her, it wasn’t going to work.

A flashlight shined through the window. The beam shimmied closer. She heard voices over the wind.

“We have a break-in,” a man’s voice said.

“Call it in,” somebody else answered. “She’s inside the house.”

They were trapped. In seconds, the entire estate would be swarming with security. No matter what, they couldn’t stay here. She picked up Cody and pressed his head against her shoulder. There was only one option. The mansion was huge, with hundreds of hiding places. Hopefully, Jarod would think she’d already escaped. Somehow, she’d have to get word to Erika. One problem at a time.

Something slammed against the wall outside. The guard must have dropped flat on his stomach, because his face filled the tiny window. Did he notice them? At least he didn’t shine the light in her direction. Then she saw the bullet hole in his forehead. She clamped her hand over her mouth. Slowly, his face was dragged from view.

“If we don’t find Daddy,” Cody said. “Mister Vincent said you’ll die.”

Stromsky really had been right outside the entire time. Waiting, just as Cody had said. She couldn’t hide from the truth anymore. Cody had warned her because he knew what would happen if they’d climbed through that window. The same way that he’d known to wait for her in the basement. The same way he’d known Jay-Jay’s name last night.

All day, she’d silenced the voice in her head that told her Cody was somehow connected to everything. The storm in the warehouse. Maybe even Jarod’s transformation. Did that mean…No. Never. Genetics or not, they weren’t the same person. Her baby was not destined to become that monster. As Vivian reached the staircase, she was certain they’d be dead if she hadn’t listened to him.

‘
If we don’t find Daddy, Mister Vincent said you’ll die.
’

“I’m so sorry I didn’t believe you,” she whispered, and then started up the steps. “Now let’s go get your father.”

She prayed that Jarod was in human form.

V
ivian stood in
complete darkness on the last step of the basement’s staircase. Through the walls, a churning dishwasher masked all other sounds. She cracked open the door. Light from the estate’s central courtyard striped the deserted kitchen. She moved to the counter and set Cody down.

Where could she hide him when dealing with Jarod? Obviously not in the basement. Or under the kitchen sink with the chemicals. Every closet seemed inadequate.

“You have to be fucking kidding me.” Jarod walked into the connected hallway. She grabbed Cody, ducked, and held her finger over her lips to tell him to be quiet.

“The police picked her up with almost fifty thousand in cash,” someone else answered. She peeked around the countertop. David Rankin stood in the doorway. If he’d already escaped the interrogation room and made it here, the police wouldn’t be far behind. “She was busted trying to buy guns from an undercover.”

“If you were doing your job, none of this would be happening,” Jarod said. Though he was out of view, his voice sounded human. “You should’ve found her last year. Now she magically escapes from a goddamn police precinct.”

“It was beyond my control. I had the police chief send most of his staff home. How could I know that she’d steal some idiot local’s gun and escape?”

“Please give me one more excuse. It’ll be your last.”

“Sir,” a third voice echoed down from what sounded like the upstairs balcony. “Your son isn’t in his room.”

Where could they hide? The estate would be crawling with security soon. Jarod grabbed Rankin and slammed him against the front door. As they argued, Vivian carried Cody down the hallway.

They’d already searched his room. It might buy some time to go there. She ran to the rear of the house, up the back staircase, and into the third door on the left. Leaving the lights off, she tiptoed through a mess of toys.

“I want you hide under here.” She set him down next to his bed. He crawled backwards until only his head poked out. “No matter what happens, stay hidden until I come back.”

As she kissed his forehead, she expected him to resist, but he slinked underneath. Did that mean she was making the correct choice? How much did he actually know with his sixth sense? Not enough, probably, or he would’ve warned her that Jarod was going to show up at the cabin last night. Wouldn’t he have?

The hardwood floor squeaked behind her. Was somebody there? She didn’t dare look. The bedroom light clicked on. Giant stuffed animals and plastic robots overpopulated the bright yellow room.

“I told you what would happen if you ever left me,” Jarod said. His footsteps moved closer.

“We need to talk.” With the gun tucked into the front of her jeans, she couldn’t turn around or he’d see it.

“Didn’t I warn you?”

“There are bigger problems than us here,” she said.

“And like the whore that you are, you just had to test me.”

“Don’t you dare.” In all of her life, she’d never felt so low. With her baby hiding underneath his bed, witnessing her worst mistake. His own father. “Stromsky is outside.”

“I know.” He pulled her hair away from her ear, and her skin crawled.

“He’s already killed two of your guards.”

“That’s why I’m going to ask you only once.” He smelled rancid, as if he hadn’t bothered to shower off the blood of his victims. “Where’s my son, Vivian?”

He hadn’t been watching long enough to know that Cody was under the bed.

“You stole him from me.” She tried to sound desperate. “What have you done with my baby?”

“I stole him from
you
?” His words were quiet. “My own son.”

“I’m his mother. He needs to be with me—”

He yanked her hair and flung her. Sharp pain punched her thigh as she crashed over the dresser. She dropped to her hands, trying to conceal the gun as she pulled it from her waistband.

“You were nothing before me,” he shouted. “I made you. And you run off with my son in the middle of the night without even leaving a fucking note.”

“Listen to me.” She coughed. Pain stabbed the left side of her chest. “Please, you have to listen. Stromsky came to see me in the hospital today. He wants you dead.”

“For the first week, I thought my wife and son had been kidnapped. Do you have any fucking clue of what that feels like?”

“I’m sorry.” For that, she truly meant it. Nobody should have to endure what she’d felt with Cody gone.

“Was he worth it?”

“What are you talking about?” she asked.

“The bastard you left me for. The one you’ve been fucking all this time.”

“There was no one.” She finally looked up into his psychotic eyes.

What was she thinking? It was crazy to think that she could reason with this lunatic. And that arm. He’d lost it because of her. In her rush to get Cody, she hadn’t even considered it. Even in human form, Jarod would never rest until she was dead now.

“I know you’re not smart enough to hide from me all this time without help,” he said. “So who is he?”

“Go to hell.”

In a blur, he raced at her. She grabbed a fire truck from the ground and threw it at his face. As he blocked it, she jumped up and smashed the gun into his nose. He recoiled. A stream of blood poured down his face. She pressed the barrel against his forehead.

“You sick…” She stopped herself. Cody had warned her that they needed him. No, he had to be mistaken. Trying to reason with Jarod had nearly cost her life right now. If she didn’t handle him now, she wouldn’t get another chance. “You’re never going to hurt us again.”

“Mommy,” Cody cried.

“Stay there.” She glanced to make sure that he was still under the bed. He was. She looked back just as Jarod pulled his own gun. He pointed it at her chest. They stood arm to arm.

“Looks like we’re going to die together,” he said.

The bedroom door swung open. Just over Jarod’s shoulder, Rankin aimed at her, too. Could this get any worse? She couldn’t possibly shoot them both.

“Please,” she said. What could she do? It was over. No, her only chance was to play on Jarod’s jealousy. “I don’t want to do this anymore. I’ve already lost everything.”

“You should have thought of that before you ran out on me,” Jarod said.

“You wanted to know who I was with all this time. It was David Rankin.”

“What?” Rankin said from behind.

“I should have never run,” she said quietly. If this was going to work, Jarod had to believe the lie. She lowered her gun and set it on the bed. “He convinced me to leave you. I wish I never would have. I know it’s probably too late, but I just want to come back to you.”

“She’s lying,” Rankin said.

“I couldn’t have hidden from you all this time without his help. A few times, I tried to leave, but he said that you’d never take me back.”

“That’s crazy,” Rankin shouted. “She’s yours. I wouldn’t touch her.”

“You think I haven’t seen the way you two used to look at each other.” Jarod spun around and fired. Two neat holes punched in Rankin’s throat. The momentum of the bullets carried him over the balcony’s railing.

Vivian snatched the gun from the bed and fired. Cody screamed something, but gunfire drowned him out as she fired again. Blood sprayed over a mural of Big Bird’s face. Slamming into the wall, Jarod stained a crimson trail down the paint. He slumped to the ground. She ran over to him and grabbed his gun.

“You’d better kill me.” He clutched his hand over the bloody hole in his chest.

“No.” Cody raced over and held her leg.

She kept her gun pointed as she knelt. “Go back underneath the bed.”

“No,” he cried.

“Now.”

“Mister Vincent said stop,” Cody shouted.

Jarod began laughing. Then harder as everything went dark. Stromsky must’ve cut the power. After a second, her eyes adjusted to the moonlight through the window.

“You’d better listen to the boy,” Jarod said. “You don’t want to make old Vincent mad at you.”

Security would be here any second. The police, too. And Stromsky was outside waiting. She had to kill Jarod before it was too late. This might be her only chance. She pushed Cody back and raised the gun.

“No. We need Daddy.” Cody’s voice trembled. He began crying. Tears filled her eyes too as she held him back. “Don’t hurt Daddy. Don’t hurt Daddy.”

“Stay back.” She had to take control of the situation.

He pulled at her jeans in a violent tantrum.

“Mister Vincent said don’t hurt Daddy,” Cody screamed. “Or you’ll die like the others.”