When Twilight Comes - By B. J. Daniels Page 0,54

to look at the box on the pavement, but he jerked her head up so she had to gaze at him.

He raised the knife blade so she could see it.

As he held her down, he reached over and drew the box to him. Carefully he slipped the blade beneath the tape and sliced. The top flapped open and he reached inside.

“What the hell?” He waved something in front of her face. “What is this?”

She could only stare as he dumped the contents of the box on her chest—brochures advertising the new Fernhaven Hotel. These were the papers that were so important to Lorenzo that Jenna had gotten Charlene to come all the way up here?

“Where is my money?” Lorenzo demanded from between clenched teeth. “Where?” He slapped the brochures away in a wild gesture, then put the knife to her throat.

“I don’t know. I swear. She told me there were important papers in the box.”

Lorenzo’s gaze seemed to harden to stone. “The two of you were in on this, weren’t you? You are going to regret it till your last breath.”

An odd icy calm washed over Charlene. She looked at Lorenzo, seeing all the men who had used and abused her, men she’d allowed to hurt her in ways she couldn’t bear to remember. Or forget.

And now another man wanted to take pleasure in her pain.

“You’re too late,” she said, and smiled up at him. “Jenna’s gone, and so is your kid and your money.”

Lorenzo reacted to her words just as she knew he would, and for the first time in her rotten existence Charlene Palmer really was free.

Chapter Fifteen

Jenna. Jenna. He’s coming!

She stirred, head aching. “Harry?”

Thank God you’re okay.

She blinked and looked around the room, her blood running cold. “Lexi! Where’s Lexi?”

She’s all right. She’s with a cop and a private investigator downstairs. She’s safe.

Jenna slumped against the wall in relief. “The police are here?”

Who is Lorenzo Dante?

“My ex-husband,” she said, fear turning her stomach.

He’s here. Get the gun I put on top of the TV cabinet.

“Where are you?” she asked, looking around the room. “I want to see you.”

“I’m here.”

She watched him materialize just a few feet away from her, and felt such a surge of emotion to see him again.

“I’m powerless against him, Jenna. You’re the only one who can see me. Feel me.”

She nodded, feeling just as powerless against Lorenzo.

“There is something else I need to tell you.”

She pushed herself to her feet and had to stop for a moment as her vision dimmed and her head swam.

“It’s about the money that was in the duffel bag.”

“Charlene took it,” she said, and couldn’t believe that she’d trusted that woman. It just showed how bad her instincts were. Like now. She looked at Harry. She saw the expression on his face. “No.”

“I switched the boxes.”

She let out a laugh and shook her head in astonishment. What part of “he’s a thief” didn’t she get?

“You have to understand. I thought I would spend the rest of eternity here, feeling nothing, being nothing. But then you came and changed everything. I want to be with you, Jenna. I can’t stand the thought that when you leave here, I will go back to being nothing again.”

“What did you think you were going to do with the money?” Out of the corner of her eye she saw that the suite door stood open. she took a couple of steps toward it.

He grabbed her arm. “It was just an old reflex and this crazy hope that I could buy my way out of here. That I could be with you. I thought with something this strong between us, maybe…”

She looked into his eyes again and realized what he was saying. She felt tears fill her own eyes as he pulled her to him. In his arms, she had believed anything was possible, but now she realized only one of them would be able to leave here. No amount of money could buy Harry Ballantine’s way out of Fernhaven.

“He’s just outside, Jenna.” Harry released her and went to the TV cabinet. He picked up her gun and handed it to her.

She took it, her fingers trembling. She still felt light-headed, and her heart was so filled with regret that the gun felt extra heavy in her hands.

Can you kill him? He’d asked the words in her head.

She met Harry’s gaze. He must have seen that instant of hesitation. She heard him groan.

“We’re going to need another plan. Quick, come with me.”

FOG DRIFTED PAST