When Twilight Comes - By B. J. Daniels Page 0,42

got away from this hotel she would forget the man from the old photograph. Forget Harry Ballantine. He didn’t exist except in her mind. In her dreams. She conjured him up in her need to be loved. And yet no man had ever felt so real.

Disoriented, she stood for a moment, just letting her heart rate come back down. What scared her was what the dream had left her with. It hadn’t just been sex. Someone had made love to her.

And the dream had left her feeling safe…a dangerous thought. But nothing like the ones that came after it. The dream had left her feeling…loved. Cherished. Protected. Alive. Whole. Blessed.

She laughed at her own foolishness. What she was was crazy. Lorenzo had tried to push her over the edge, to drive her nuts, and now he’d succeeded.

She shook her head, clearing away those thoughts.

Charlene would be here soon.

Jenna had to get the money ready.

Then she would wake Lexi and they would leave with Charlene.

For now, Jenna closed the door to her daughter’s room and padded barefoot to the living room. She picked up the phone and dialed the front desk.

“Elmer, I need a box and some tape for a package,” she said.

“What size? I can scare up one and bring it to you,” he said cheerfully.

She gave him the dimensions.

“I saw one in the kitchen that should work. By the way, the highway patrol called. Good news—they think they will have the road open soon.”

“That is good news.” Jenna hung up, telling herself that Lorenzo would be so happy to have his money back that he would leave her alone.

That once she and Lexi left here, they could put all this behind them.

She hurried into her bedroom to pack, but was drawn to the bathroom. The mirror had cleared, but the words were still there.

HARRY

BALLANTINE

She closed her eyes, willing away not only the letters, but the way he’d made her feel. Her body still tingled from his touch. She thought she could smell him in the small room, almost feel his breath on her neck.

Her eyes shot open. The scream caught in her throat.

Chapter Eleven

“Where are you?” Raymond Valencia demanded when Rico finally called in. “Do you still have Charlene Palmer in sight?”

“Stuck in traffic. And yeah, she’s just a couple of cars ahead of me, stuck in the same roadblock. But the road is supposed to open soon. There’s, like, a jungle on both sides of the road. Creepy, if you ask me.”

“Where are you on the map?” Raymond snapped impatiently. He could hear Rico rustling the paper as he tried to get the map open.

Raymond tried to control his impatience. He feared he’d sent Rico on a wild-goose chase. And after hearing about the police taking Lorenzo down to the station, he feared Jenna might already be dead. Franco, too.

Rico finally gave him the road number and the last town he’d been through. “I’m headed east, but according to the map there isn’t anything up here but some place called—” more map rustling “—Fernhaven.”

Fernhaven? It took Raymond a moment to remember where he’d heard that name before. A few months ago he’d received an invitation to the grand opening of the Fernhaven Hotel. It was a recently rebuilt hotel in the middle of nowhere, with some tragic history that dated back to the 1930s.

Could that be where Charlene Palmer was headed?

“No towns close?” he asked Rico.

“Nope.”

First Charlene got a car she couldn’t afford and now not only was she headed for a hotel she couldn’t afford, but the place wasn’t even open for business yet. Or was it? He felt better about sending Rico after her. Raymond would soon be finding out what Charlene was up to. Obviously she was doing something for Lorenzo. Maybe the car, the hotel, were her payoff, along with the apartment rent. Raymond could well imagine what her duties might have been, given that Jenna lived in the same apartment house.

He would take the chance that Charlene knew where Jenna was. Or at least what had happened to her.

Either way, Charlene Palmer wouldn’t be returning to Seattle.

“You’re sure of your location?”

Rico made a disgruntled sound, accompanied by what seemed to be an attempt to refold the map. “It looks like we’re finally going to get under way. They’re removing the barricades.”

“Listen to me. I think I know where Charlene’s headed. When you get to where she’s going, park somewhere so you won’t be noticed and call for me. I’ll take the chopper. I