Authors: Barbara Freethy
"I can't."
She saw purpose and determination in his eyes. "He deserves to die," she said. "But we can't let him. Go, but be careful. I don't want to lose you, Max."
"You're not going to." And with that, he charged back into the building.
A fire engine came around the corner, siren blazing. As the firefighters jumped out, one ran over to help her. "Two men are inside," she told him. "Second floor."
"Got it." He turned to the other firefighters. "Two men on two." Then he turned back to her. "Let's get you some oxygen."
The paramedics led her to the curb and sat her down. They gave her an oxygen mask, and she took welcome breaths of the clean, fresh air. Her gaze never left the front of the building. Finally, she saw Max coming outside, Robert Brady hanging limply over his shoulder. With the help of a firefighter, Max put Robert on a stretcher and then rushed over to her.
"Are you okay?" he asked, his gaze searching her face.
She nodded and pulled the oxygen away from her mouth.
"Don't do that," he said.
"Just let me say something."
"You always have to talk," he said with tenderness in his eyes.
"He looks worse than me, right?"
He grinned. "Now I know you're all right. Yes, it looks like you beat the crap out of him." His smile faded, his gaze serious. "I'm sorry, Emma. I'm sorry you had to go through that alone, that I wasn't there, that I didn't answer my phone."
She put her fingers to his lips. "Hush. It's going to be fine. And this was about me; it wasn't about you. He hated me my entire life."
"Tell me later. Put the oxygen mask back on."
"One more thing."
"What?"
"I love you, Max. You don't have to say anything back. But I just had to tell you that."
His gaze filled with emotion but before he could say anything, they were interrupted by Burke. Her older brother looked furious and terrified at the same time.
"What the hell happened in there, Emma?" he demanded. "It was Robert Brady?"
She nodded. "Robert wanted us both to die in the fire. I couldn't let that happen. So I used the moves you showed me a long time ago."
"You're going to the hospital to get checked out."
"I don't need to go to the hospital. Robert needs the ambulance, not me."
"I'll drive you to the hospital," Max said.
"Not you, too," she groaned.
"Burke is right. You need to get checked out. Get those cuts fixed up."
She put a hand to her cheek, feeling the swelling. She had no idea what her face looked like, but judging from the expressions of the two men in front of her, she didn’t look good.
Max helped her up. "Don't waste any more energy arguing. You can be independent after the doctor says you're okay."
She was actually relieved to have his body supporting her. She felt a little shakier than she'd anticipated.
"Take care of her," Burke told Max.
"I will," Max promised.
Something very male passed between them, but Emma didn't have the strength to say she could take care of herself. The events of the past hour were starting to catch up with her.
"I'm fine, Max," she said, as he helped her into his car.
"I need someone else to tell me that besides you."
* * *
Emma was in the Emergency Room for almost an hour. Max paced back and forth in the waiting room wondering if something was really wrong with her, something that some antibiotic ointment and a few stitches wouldn't cure.
While he waited, all he could think about was the fact that he'd almost lost her. She'd fought for her life. She'd knocked out Robert cold, but when he'd entered the apartment, he'd seen her struggling to get up, to make it to the door. And he would never ever forget the fear of that moment. If he'd been two minutes later, she might have succumbed to smoke inhalation.
Damn! His whole body shook at the thought.
He ran a hand through his hair and paced another quarter mile in the waiting room. Finally, a door opened and Emma was wheeled out. She had a bandage on her temple, her right eye was almost swollen shut, and the rest of her sweet face was filled with blue and purple bruises.
He wanted to put his own fist on Robert's face. And seeing her now, he wished he'd left that son of a bitch to die.
"I'm okay," she said gently. "It looks worse than it feels."
"I don't believe that for a second."
"It's true." She gave him a soft smile. "Believe it."
He drew in a much-needed breath and slowly let it out. "I'll take you home."
She nodded. "I guess that would be my parents' house." She gave him a watery smile. "We're both homeless."
He hadn't given his apartment one thought.
"I'm sorry that you lost everything because of me," she said as he helped her stand up.
"I didn't lose anything that mattered to me, Emma."
"I broke your surfing trophy. That's how I knocked Robert out."
He smiled. "Well, it finally came in handy then. Come on, let's get out of here." He put his arm around her shoulders as they walked out of the hospital.
"How is Robert doing?"
"He'll survive. He's been admitted for the night, but he's under arrest and there are two guards at his door. He's not going anywhere except to jail for a very long time."
"Harry and Christian will be devastated."
"They're both with him."
"Did you talk to them?"
"Only briefly. There will be time to get all of our questions answered." He helped her into the car and slid behind the wheel. "Where do your parents live?"
"It's not far. I'll give you directions." She paused. "I'm actually surprised my family didn't show up in the Emergency Room."
"Burke came to the hospital along with his crew. They got another call so they had to leave, but he did say to tell you that he'd called the family and told them not to come, that you were all right and would be home soon. He said you would you owe him for that."
She gave a tired smile. "I do owe him. It's nice to have a minute to catch my breath."
He had a million questions he wanted to ask her, but he needed to give her a chance to recover. Emma was tough, but she was also human and a little bit in shock.
"Robert really hated me," she said a moment later.
"We don't have to do this now."
She ignored him, her tone reflective. "It actually started with my birth."
"What?" he asked in surprise.
"Robert's mother left the family when Robert was about five. No one ever knew why. She just took off. Well, apparently Robert tracked her down recently, and she finally came clean and told him that she'd had an affair with my father. Apparently, my dad was unhappy that my mom was spending so much time with the new baby—with me. So he hooked up with Robert's mom. It lasted for a few years I guess. I don't really know what happened after that. Neither my father nor his mother ended up together, and Robert's mom was not part of Robert's life after she divorced his dad. So I don't know where she went or why she stayed away from her kids. I just know that Robert, in his twisted mind, put me as the source of all his problems."
"That's crazy," he said. "No wonder we couldn't figure out a logical reason for someone targeting you. There wasn't one."
"He has so much hatred for me, Max. The depth of his anger stunned me. He had a long list of things I'd done to him, competitions he'd lost to me. He said he tried out to be a firefighter, but I got the job. I don't even remember that ever happening. And then his hatred of me grew when Christian told him he'd lost the investigator job to me. Apparently, Christian went into a downward spiral after that and his wife left and Robert decided it was time for me to pay for all the trouble I'd caused his family. And he wanted me to know that I wasn't as good as I thought I was." She paused. "He was high on something, too. It seemed like he had superhuman strength when he was holding on to me."
Anger tore through Max at the reminder of how close Emma had been to dying in that fire. But she was safe, he told himself, and he would make sure that Robert went away for a very long time.
"I think Sister Margaret drove Robert crazy," Emma added. "She tried to talk him into giving up. She wanted to pray for his soul, but somewhere along the way she'd lost her rosary. He got tired of her incessant pleading, so he finally went back to his house, got Christian's rosary and took it to her."
Another piece of the puzzle fell into place.
"Robert said he was going to let her go eventually," Emma said. "He didn't want to kill a nun. I guess something in his Catholic school upbringing stuck. He was just going to disappear. But when she died, he realized it was over. If he got caught, he was going to be charged with more than arson." She paused. "Take a right at the next corner. And then it's the first left after that."
"Are you going to tell your mother about your father's affair?" Max asked.
She sighed. "That's a tough one. I don't really believe in secrets, and neither does my mom, so I will tell her at some point. I know it will hurt her, but I don't want there to be anything between us."
"I think that's a good decision."
Within minutes he was pulling up in front of her parents' house. He knew he should let her go inside on her own, but he couldn't tear himself away from her just yet. "I'll help you into the house."
"Where are you going to stay tonight?"
"I'll figure that out later."
As they got out of the car and walked down the driveway, Emma said, "You're about to see the Callaways in full protection mode. Are you up for it?"
"Bring it on," he said, as he followed her into the house.
* * *
Emma had not been joking. Once they walked into the kitchen, Emma was swarmed by family members and peppered with questions about her health, the fire and everything else. He felt very protective of her and wanted to step in and tell everyone to back off, but this was her family, her turf, so he stayed silent.
Fortunately, her mother took charge, insisting that Emma go upstairs to her bedroom where she would bring her some dinner. Everyone else could see her later. Before they left the kitchen, Lynda turned to him and gave him a firm smile.
"You stay, Inspector. Someone will get you dinner."
"That's not necessary."
"It is necessary," she said firmly.
"Don't try to argue," Jack advised. "You won't win."
As Jack and Lynda took Emma upstairs, Aiden said, "I hope you like spaghetti."
"That's great," he said.
"I'll get it for you," a woman said. "I'm Shayla, Emma's youngest sister. We met briefly at my dad's party."
"I remember. Thanks."
"No problem."
"Let's sit down," Aiden suggested, motioning toward the big kitchen table.
As Max took a seat, Aiden introduced him to the rest of the family, Emma's older sister, Nicole, and two other brothers, Drew and Colton.
"So, is she really okay?" Aiden asked as they sat down.
"She will be."
"Burke said it was Robert Brady. I couldn't believe it. We all grew up together, and now he tries to kill Emma?"
"His thinking was obviously twisted," he said, deciding it would be better to let Emma tell the story, especially since part of it involved her biological father.
"Did Christian know?" Aiden asked.
Max shook his head. "He said no. I talked to him briefly at the hospital, and he seemed as shocked as everyone, including his father."
"Old Harry is going to be beside himself," Drew said, listening in on their conversation. "Robert is the one who burned down his dad's bar, right?"
"Yeah, apparently Harry cut Robert out of the business a few years ago, so I guess the bar didn’t mean anything to Robert."
Shayla set a plate in front of him. "Enjoy."
"Thanks." He took a bite of spaghetti and then said, "Here's what I know. Robert kidnapped Sister Margaret because she saw him break into the school. He took her to the Morettis house in Tahoe and hid her away there. When she died of a heart attack, he panicked. He had to get rid of her body so he set the fire at the bar and left her body there."
"But why Emma?" Aiden asked.
"She can tell you more about that. They had a conversation before I got there, but Robert blamed her for his brother not getting an investigator position and also for his failure to get hired as a firefighter when Emma and he were competing several years ago."
Aiden's mouth drew into a tight line. "If he wasn't already in the hospital, I'd put my own fist through his face."
He saw the fury in Aiden's eyes and knew exactly how he felt. It had taken all of his self-control and discipline to force himself to pull Robert out of the fire.
"Go ahead and eat," Drew urged. "You've had a long night, too."
"I'm all right," he said. "But this spaghetti is good."
As Drew left, Aiden gave him a thoughtful look. "Are you and Emma together? Is this more than a professional relationship?"
"Yes," he said, without hesitation. "We're together. And I'm not going anywhere."
Aiden nodded, giving him what looked like an approving look. "Okay."
"Okay," he echoed.
Aiden had accepted his decision. Now he just needed to tell Emma. Her words of love had been burning in his brain since she'd said them, and he'd wanted to answer her back, but he hadn't had a chance. He didn't intend to leave until he did.
* * *
An hour later, Max entered Emma's bedroom. She was fast asleep. He sat down on the foot of the bed. It physically hurt him to look at the bruises on her face. If he could replay the day, he would have found a way to get to her before Robert did.
Emma's mom stepped into the room, her gaze moving from her daughter to him. She smiled. "Are you staying?"
"If you don't mind. And just so you know, I love her."
"I figured as much. Are you a good man?"
"Trying to be."
"I like honesty. So does Emma. She was hurt before. I don't want to see that happen again."
"I would never hurt her."
"She told me that you saved her life today."
"I wish I could have saved her from the beating she took."