Hunted by Denise Grover Swank

from things you think will hurt me. I’m not a child and we have to make decisions together.”
    “My job is to protect you.”
    “How are you protecting me if you don’t pursue leads because you worry they’ll hurt me? You’re thinking with your heart and not with your head. I need you to think with your head.”
    Will spun away from her, cursing under his breath as he walked to the car. “Let’s go.”
    Emma followed and they sat in the car. He stared out the front window while she tried to sort through her emotions, unsure which one to trust.
    Will jammed the key in the ignition. “Do you think she was lying? Do you think she still has the numbers?”
    “No, I doubt it. She tends to live in the moment, never thinking about the long term. I’m sure she never thought she’d need them again.”
    He started the car. “She was wrong, you know. You’re not like her.”
    She turned to him, caught by surprise. Was she? She’d never been with a man long enough to prove her mother right or wrong. Then again, maybe that fact alone was enough.
    His voice softened. “You’re nothing like her.” He drove back to the hotel in silence.
    Emma wanted to believe him, but her dream played on a looped tape in her head.

 
     
    Chapter Six
     

     
    Emma woke with a nightmare again, but refused to tell Will anything about it. Whatever it was left her shaken and her sullenness hung on into the morning.
    They had returned to the motel and gone to bed, their disagreement unresolved. In the harsh light of day, Will realized she was right. He was trying to protect her at the risk of not doing a thorough job. The acknowledgment stuck in his craw. It was half-assed and he didn’t do half-ass.
    He wanted to ask her about the man who sat at her table, but he worried bringing it up would reinforce her mother’s words. He hated to give them more weight than they already had.
    While they had obtained some information about Emma’s father, Will wished they had more to go on besides the fact that he oozed power and electricity shot through her. They didn’t even know his name. One thing he knew, his suspicions that her father might be the source of Emma’s unique traits were confirmed, but they had no idea who her father was. Or what he was. With all the freaky things going on, Will had to let his mind wander past the normal realm of reality, although he wasn’t sure how long of a leash to let it have.
    Will cast a glance at Emma, who lay on the motel bed watching the television, curled up with her cheek lying on a pillow. Her silence was suffocating. What she didn’t tell him ate at his imagination, especially after she dropped the bombshell about them not working. Was she thinking about leaving him?
    He lay down beside her, pressing his chest to her back, and whispered in her ear, “I’m sorry.”
    She turned her head to look at him, her eyes guarded. “I’m sorry, too. This is all new to me. Obviously I’m not very good at it.”
    He rolled her on her back and threaded his hands through the hair pooled on the pillow. “Neither am I, so we’ll learn together, okay?”
    Indecision clouded her eyes, before a small smile lifted the corner of her lips. “Okay.”
    He wished he could ask her what she was thinking, what made her hesitate, but he knew she’d never answer.
    “I don’t see any point in staying in Joplin. I want to go to Kansas City, but I don’t want to go to my apartment until tonight, which means we have hours to kill.”
    She gave him a wry smile. “You’re an excellent lover, but it won’t take hours.”
    He laughed. “That’s not what I was proposing. I’m open to suggestions, although now that you’ve mentioned it, that sounds like a great idea.” He leaned down to kiss her to prove his point. “I think that should be first on the list. Make-up sex.”
    He expected her to protest. Instead, she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him closer. She clung to him, kissing him with an insistence