Emily and the Stranger (17 page)

"I have a feeling you're going to give it to me whether I want it or not."

"If Emily means as much to you as you say she does, then don't let her cut you out of her life. Make her understand what happened five years ago. Tell her what kind of hell you've put yourself through out of guilt. Give her the chance to understand that you're innocent of every crime except poor judgment."

"Emily is a very loving person. I was counting on her understanding. I had hoped she'd find it in her heart to forgive me," Mitch said. "I think maybe if I'd been able to tell her the truth myself, she wouldn't have taken it so hard."

"While Fowler Jordan was ranting and raving during our telephone conversation this morning, he inadvertently told me something I think you should know."

"What did he say?"

"While he was damning me for putting the man who had killed Emily's husband in such proximity to her, he blabbed on and on about Emily's pain, her numerous surgeries, her pitifully scarred back."

"Her scarred back?" Mitch felt as if he'd been poleaxed in his stomach. "I thought the surgeries had removed the scars from her back."

"Sit down."

Mitch sat, staring intently at Zed, waiting to hear something his gut instincts told him he didn't want to know. "I knew that Emily was injured in the building collapse. She was the woman … the dark-haired woman the fireman saved." Mitch ripped his wallet from his back pocket, flipped it open and jerked out the frayed piece of pink satin. "I just didn't know how badly burned she was."

"Her uncle said she was scarred for life." Zed glanced down at the scrap of pink Mitch held between his thumb and forefinger, took a deep breath and looked directly into Mitch's bleary eyes.

Hot, salty bile rose in Mitch's throat. Emily had been injured, trapped and in pain. He never had been able to erase the image from his mind of her still body draped over the fireman's shoulder.

Mitch Hayden hadn't cried since he was a little boy. Men didn't cry. Certainly not tough guys like him. No matter how deeply hurt he was, he didn't cry.

Zed Banning looked away, as if he couldn't bear to see Mitch's face.

Agony consumed Mitch when he suddenly realized why Emily seemed to have reservations about a sexual relationship. The scars on her back! Dear God, she didn't want any man to see her scars.

Clutching the scrap of Emily's pink nightgown in his hand, Mitch stood up and walked toward the front door. Zed didn't follow him. Mitch closed the door softly behind him.

Outside, the sky was clear, the air crisp, the sun bright. After slipping the scrap of pink cloth back into his wallet, Mitch put on his helmet, swung his leg over his Harley and rode off down the road.

Tears blurred his vision. He opened his mouth on a silent scream and tasted his own tears as they streamed down his cheeks, down his nose and into his mouth. After running away from what had happened five years ago, he'd thought nothing could ever hurt him again, that he had sunk as low as a man could sink and still be alive. He'd been wrong. Nothing could have prepared him for the agony he felt now, as he realized that once again, he was responsible for Emily's suffering. His greed and stupidity had not only cost Emily her husband and unborn child, but had put her through ungodly physical and mental suffering. He had taken Emily's life away from her.

And he had been so damn sure he could find a way to redeem himself in her eyes, that he could make her understand that he, too, had been one of Randy Styles's victims.

But now he knew that there was no way she'd ever be able to forgive him, just as there was no way he'd ever be able to forgive himself.

* * *

Emily stood in the doorway of her bedroom, staring at the damask chaise longue where she had spent the night in Mitch's arms. No, not Mitch. M. R. Hayden. Mitchell Ray Hayden, the co-owner of Styles and Hayden Construction Company.

"Em?" Nikki walked up behind her and placed her hand on Emily's back. "What are you doing?"

"I lay there in his arms all night long, pouring out my heartfelt hopes and dreams. I told him all about my Hannah books, about my relationship with Grammy, about how I'd always longed to have a child." Emily choked on the tears lodged in her throat.

"Come on in the kitchen and let me make us something to eat. It's way past lunchtime."

"I'm not hungry." Emily stepped over the threshold into her bedroom. "When Uncle Fowler told you who he was last night, why didn't you call me?"

Nikki waited in the hallway. "I didn't know what to do. You were already falling in love with him. I hadn't seen you so happy since… Before Mitch called this morning and told me about the break-in, I'd decided to keep my mouth shut and let Fowler be the bearer of bad tidings. Please, Em, I'm sorry I didn't come over here and tell you last night. If I'd known what had happened and that Mitch would stay the night—"

"It's all right. It was my fault, not yours."

"No, it wasn't your fault. And it wasn't even Mitch Hayden's fault. If I blame anyone, I blame that awful Zed Banning. He's the one who brought Mitch back to the Gulf."

"Zed Banning had no way of controlling Mitch's actions. Mitch is the one who sought me out, rented a cottage next to mine and deliberately set out to gain my friendship."

Emily reached out, her hand hovering over the back of the chaise. Leaning down, she breathed in the smell of Mitch Hayden. A hard knot of pain formed in the pit of her stomach. She had never felt as safe and secure and cherished as she had last night.

She ran her hand over the raised surface of the material covering the chaise. Would she ever be able to forget the feel of Mitch's arms around her, of his lips against her neck, on her ear, in her hair? How long would she relive the pleasure and the pain of having fallen in love with the man whose construction firm was responsible for her husband's and child's deaths, and responsible for the scars that disfigured her back?

"Don't do this to yourself," Nikki said.

Emily sat down on the chaise. "I didn't think anything could ever hurt me so much again. Not after losing Stuart and our child. But this… Oh, God, Nikki, I'm in love with Mitchell Hayden." Covering her face with her hands, Emily sobbed quietly, her shoulders trembling.

Nikki ran across the room, dropped to her knees beside the chaise and took Emily's hands into her own. "I think he loves you, too, you know."

Swallowing her tears, Emily wiped her face with her fingers and looked at Nikki. "He knew who I was. He did this to me intentionally."

"Oh, Em, I don't think Mitch is a terrible man. Not really. I have a feeling that he's paid dearly for his part in the collapse of the Ocean Breeze Apartments."

"No matter how much he's suffered, he can't change the past and neither can I. He can't bring Stuart back. Or the baby. And he can't erase the scars from my body."

"If he'd told you who he was that first day you met, what would you have done?" Nikki asked.

"I don't know. I suppose I would have talked to him, listened to what he had to say. But I never would have dated him. I never would have…"

"But you were attracted to him." Nikki squeezed Emily's hands. "You aren't a bitter person filled with hatred. You're too kind and forgiving. If Mitch Hayden had come to you and asked for your forgiveness and understanding, what would you have done?"

"I don't know! I told you, didn't I, that I read and reread the transcripts from the trial? I realize that M. R. Hayden wasn't directly involved in any of his partner's illegal dealings. I still hate Randall Styles. And sometimes I even hate M. R. Hayden, for not realizing sooner what his partner was doing. Soon enough to have saved Stuart and…"

"You don't hate Mitch," Nikki said. "If you hated him, you wouldn't be hurting this way."

"Maybe I don't really hate M. R. Hayden. Not anymore. But at this precise moment, I do hate Mitch as much as I love him. I hate him for destroying my hopes of knowing love again, of trusting a man enough to consider allowing him to see my scarred body."

"Oh, Em."

Nikki and Emily both jumped when they heard the loud knocking at the front door. Nikki bolted straight up. Emily sat erect on the chaise.

"What if it's Mitch?"

Nikki looked at Emily, questioning her.

"I can't see him. Not now."

"I'll find out who it is, and if it's Mitch, I'll tell him you're not ready to see him."

Emily bit down on her bottom lip. "And if Uncle Fowler has come back, let him in. Maybe I can make him understand why I don't want to move back to
Mobile
with him."

"He was terribly upset that you plan to stay on here at the cottage," Nikki said. "But when I told him I'd stay with you, he seemed to calm down a little."

Emily followed Nikki up the hallway, but stopped in the archway between the dining room and the living room. She watched while Nikki made her way through the rubble in the living-room floor and opened the front door.

"Who are you?" Nikki demanded.

"Zed Banning. Who are you?"

"I can't believe you've got the nerve to show your face around here, Zed Banning!"

"Now, just calm down, little she-cat," Zed said. "Retract your claws or I'll cut them off."

"You arrogant bastard! How dare you play God with Emily's and Mitch's lives. Do you have any idea how much harm you've done?"

Zed took a step inside, but found himself blocked by Nikki's petite body. "Who the hell are you, lady?"

"I'm Nikki Griffin. Emily Jordan's friend."

"Well, Nikki Griffin, move out of the way or I'll pick you up and put you on my hip."

"You and what army?" Pointing her finger in Zed's face, Nikki glared at him. "Emily's been through enough today without having to listen to your weak excuses about why you sent Mitch Hayden into her life."

"This isn't between you and me, Nikki Griffin. I want to speak with Ms.
Jordan
."

"Well, she doesn't want to speak to you."

"Is that right, Ms. Jordan? Don't you want to know why I brought Mitch back to the Gulf? Why I gave him a job when no one else would? Why he rented a cottage next door to you?"

Emily stepped out from the shadows behind the archway. "Let him in, Nikki."

"Em, don't you listen to a word this—"

"Someone needs to muzzle you," Zed told Nikki.

"Come on back to the kitchen," Emily said. "My living room isn't fit for company."

Stepping around the debris on the floor, Zed followed Nikki through the living room, stopping to stare at the printed message on the mirror.
Don't ever see him again. He's the wrong man for you.

"Someone got destructive," Zed said.

"Yes, they did." Nikki glared at him. "But Emily isn't going to be alone here anymore. I'm moving in with her for a while, until the police find out who did this."

"The only way you could protect her is if you carried a gun as big as you are." Zed made his way through the dining room, smiling at Nikki when she frowned at him.

Emily and Zed sat down at the kitchen table. Nikki hovered behind Emily.

"Sit down, she-cat, you don't have to protect Emily from me. I'm here as a friend, not an enemy."

Emily nodded agreement. "Yes, please sit down, Nikki, and quit giving Mr. Banning the evil eye." When Nikki sat down, Emily turned to Zed. "I'm ready to listen."

Zed laid his big hands on the table, rubbing the wooden surface with his fingertips. "For the past five years, Mitch has been in as much pain as you must have been. Maybe more."

"I find that hard to believe," Nikki said.

"Will you stay out of this!" Zed slammed his fist down on the table. "You aren't helping the situation."

"You don't scare me with your macho huffing and puffing!" Nikki defiantly tilted her chin upward.

"Stop it. Both of you," Emily said. "Nikki be quiet. Go on, Mr. Banning."

"Mitch isn't a bad man. He's a good man who used bad judgment. He trusted the wrong man and he fell in love with the wrong woman."

A stinging pang of jealousy hit Emily. Unexpected. Unwanted. Why did she care that Mitch had been in love with another woman?

"He was young and ambitious," Zed said. "Mitch had been dirt poor, and more than anything else, he wanted to make something of himself. He worked for me for several years after he got out of the marines. He was bright and hardworking. He'd probably be my partner by now if he hadn't met Loni Prentice and Randy Styles."

"He became Randy Styles's partner instead of yours," Nikki said.

"That's right." Zed nodded agreement. "Loni persuaded Mitch to borrow as much money as he could, then add that to his life's savings and invest everything in a partnership with Randy Styles. Styles promised Mitch quick success and big money,"
Zed explained. "Styles came through with his promises. He just didn't bother telling Mitch that he was taking some shortcuts, using substandard supplies, buying off building inspectors and bedding Loni on the side."

Zed leaned back in the kitchen chair, shoving it away from the table. "The buildings Mitch constructed were top-notch, but by the time he found out what Styles was doing, it was too late. Ocean Breeze collapsed, and it was all over."