When Twilight Comes - By B. J. Daniels Page 0,56

was still alive.

Rose looked into Mike’s eyes. She had thought she would do anything to stop Lorenzo Dante. But she was wrong. “I’m not leaving you,” she whispered. “Or Lexi. Come here, sweetheart,” she said to the little girl. Rose might not be able to help Jenna right now, but she could protect her daughter. “Everything is going to be all right.”

Lexi moved into the circle of Rose’s arm as the three huddled in the dim office, the sirens growing louder and louder.

HARRY DREW HER DOWN the hallway. Jenna heard the elevator begin to rise three floors below. She looked up at the dial over the closed doors. Someone was coming up. Lorenzo?

The stairs. Take the stairs!

She looked around for the door to the stairway. Harry grabbed her hand and they ran down the hallway as the elevator dinged behind them. They were still yards away when the elevator opened.

Harry pulled Jenna into one of the rooms that wasn’t quite finished yet.

She tried to hold her breath as she heard the heavy tread of footfalls on the hall carpet. The elevator doors closed. Silence. Then she heard the door to suite 318 bang open. She looked over at Harry. He motioned for her to wait.

She looked into his eyes—bottomless blue eyes. She tried to imagine living in the same time he had, being with him then, and her heart ached. She thought about opening night at Fernhaven, June 12, 1936.

Closing her eyes, she imagined being in the big ballroom with Harry, dancing to the music of the orchestra. She could almost smell all the flowers she’d seen on the tables, their scents mixing with the expensive perfumes the women were wearing.

Jenna would be dressed in a gown the color of Harry’s eyes. He would hold her close and they would sway to the music. She could almost feel his heart beating next to hers to the old-fashioned strains…. Then she heard the sound of breaking glass, and Lorenzo swearing.

LORENZO STARED DOWN at the broken lamp on the floor, then looked around for something else he could destroy. If Jenna was hiding in here, he’d find her.

He still had the gun in his hand, but he wasn’t going to shoot her. He thought he might choke the life out of her so he could watch her die. He wanted to be the last thing she saw when she left this earth.

He couldn’t believe this was where she’d been staying. A suite? The bitch had been staying in this elegant place on his money?

He moved deeper into the suite to check in the closets, under the bed. He’d seen her suitcases by the door. If she’d left, she’d left everything behind. Just taken the money, he thought with fury.

That’s when he heard the creak of door hinges down the hallway, and swung around. The stairs. He could hear her footfalls on the steps.

JENNA RAN DOWN THE STAIRS, practically throwing herself down the stairwell. It was cold and gray in here, and her footfalls echoed loudly.

She couldn’t hear if Lorenzo was behind her, if he was gaining on her. Nor could she hear or see Harry. Was he still with her?

Then she heard the door bang open above her, heard Lorenzo’s lumbering steps, as if he was half falling down the stairs in his rush to catch her.

Breathe.

Her heart thundered in her ears, louder than the horrible sound of Lorenzo gaining on her. And she felt an overwhelming sense of relief that Harry was still with her.

Then, suddenly, there was the exit door. Ground floor.

Take that door.

She shoved it open and stumbled out into the stormy darkness, met by a wave of cold dampness. It took her a moment to realize where she was. The courtyard. The only light was around the fountain. Everywhere else held pockets of shadow and mist.

Run to the path up the mountain.

“Harry?”

Run. You have to trust me.

Trust him? She could hear Lorenzo coming down the stairs.

Wait.

She had reached the edge of the courtyard, where the dense forest began.

Wait for him.

She stopped. “Harry, you’re scaring me.”

I’m going to help you. But you have to trust me. Can you do that, Jenna?

She took a deep breath and let it out.

Mist rose from the hot pools as Jenna waited at the edge of the courtyard for Lorenzo, wondering what she was doing. More to the point, what Harry was planning.

Let him see you, then take the path behind you. Trust me.

She let out a small laugh, half-hysterical, at the sound of