When Twilight Comes - By B. J. Daniels Page 0,59

it!

Then she felt his fingers clutch the back of her jacket and find purchase. She was jerked backward. She grabbed at the ground, but the weight of his body pulled her over the edge of the cliff.

She turned in the air, throwing herself into the movement, breaking Lorenzo’s hold on her as she shoved him away, propelling him outward and her toward the cliff.

But now she was falling, and below there was nothing but fog and the sound of Lorenzo’s screams.

Jenna saw the ledge coming up at the very last moment. She closed her eyes, bracing herself for the inevitable. She hit, but something—someone—broke her fall.

She lay stone still for a moment, trying to catch her breath. Below her, Lorenzo’s screams stopped with a sickening thud.

She closed her eyes and told herself it was over. She was alive. Lexi was safe. They would never have to fear Lorenzo again. “Harry?”

No answer.

Tears welled behind her closed lids. A sob escaped her lips and she choked on her tears. She had won. But her loss was overwhelming.

“Will I ever see you again?” she asked in a whisper.

She tried to feel his presence, but could sense him slipping away. She choked back more tears. “Do you have to stay here?”

Still no answer.

In the distance she could hear sirens and voices calling out for her.

But inside her head there was nothing but silence.

Chapter Sixteen

Jenna remembered little of the rest of that afternoon and night. Fernhaven had been crawling with police. There were dozens of questions, statements to be made, bodies to identify.

Only one memory would remain from the moment Jenna was lifted off the rock ledge and taken back to the hotel.

That image was the sight of her daughter running out of the back of the hotel and across the courtyard to meet her.

Jenna had fallen to her knees, throwing open her arms as Lexi ran into them. She’d crushed her daughter to her breast, crying tears of joy. They were alive. They had survived.

Lorenzo Dante was dead, his body broken at the bottom of the cliff. Raymond Valencia’s body had been found along with the ruins of his helicopter, which had gone down in the storm not a half mile from Fernhaven.

Detective Rose Garcia had ridden down the mountain in the ambulance with P.I. Mike Flannigan. He was listed in stable condition. Word was he would recover. Security guard Elmer Thompson had suffered a slight concussion, but would recuperate.

Four other bodies had been found. Rico Santos was discovered dead in his car back down the highway. Rico, a known criminal, had been murdered in what looked like a professional hit.

Farther down the road, Gene “Jolly” Barker was also found murdered in his car. Same MO.

Charlene Palmer, wife of criminal Stan Palmer, had been stabbed to death in the hotel parking lot.

Alfredo Jones was also found dead in his car—shot at close range.

If she could have, Jenna would have left as soon as the police were through questioning her. But she had to wait until a rental car arrived from the nearest town.

The hotel provided everyone with rooms. Jenna asked for one on ground level. She couldn’t bear to stay in room 318, knowing that was where Harry Ballantine, aka Bobby John Chamberlain, had died.

She put an exhausted Lexi down to sleep. “Can we go to the ocean now?” Lexi asked before she drifted off.

“Yes.”

“Is Daddy gone?” Lexi asked quietly.

Jenna had told her that Lorenzo had an accident and was killed. “Yes, honey, he’s gone.”

Lexi looked sad. “Is he gone because I wanted a new daddy?”

Jenna hugged her daughter to her. “No, baby. He’s gone because he couldn’t love us enough. You and me, we deserve someone who loves us…bigger than the sky.”

Lexi laughed and looked up into her mother’s face. “Bigger than the sky?”

Jenna nodded, fighting tears.

The events of the past few days didn’t seem to have scarred her daughter in the least. But Lexi had youth on her side, and what to her was a happy ending. All the bad guys were dead or in jail. Jenna and Lexi were both safe.

Jenna was just glad her daughter realized they had to leave.

As Jenna curled up on the bed, she prayed Harry would come to her in her sleep.

He didn’t.

THE NEXT MORNING the hotel was still buzzing with police and crime-scene investigators.

Jenna loaded the suitcases into the rental SUV, checked to make sure Lexi had buckled herself in to the car seat, and put Fred next to her.

Then she slid behind the wheel.