“I know it’s piss-poor timing with the day you’ve had. I’m going to finish up as soon as I can,” he said.
“I’ll be fine. It’s really better to know. It doesn’t really change anything though. I’ll go home, see Spotty, Walter’s family… my life will just return to normal but I won’t have some mystery hanging over my head anymore, right?” she said with a more positive attitude than she felt.
“You are a horrible liar… but I do agree with one thing. You will be okay. Promise me you will stay with Ava and whatever family goes back with her,” he said. “I don’t like you on that farm alone.”
Emmie rolled her eyes. “Silas.”
“I mean it. Things are volatile there. You will be fine, I just don’t like you out there alone.”
Volatile? How were things volatile? “Okay. I promise.”
He smiled.
“Promise me you aren’t headed to Bardston to get shot by some hillbilly moonshiner,” she said with a laugh, wrapping her arms around his waist.
“Promise.” He laughed.
“What time are you leaving?” she asked, breathing him in.
He groaned at the sight of Trick and Gabe headed down the stairs with their bags. He leaned forward and planted a lingering kiss on her lips. “Now.”
Chapter Twelve
Emmie followed Trick and Silas to the door, her hand firmly tucked in Silas’s. She slipped his coat off and handed it back to him. Her heart sank as he took it from her. She hated that he had to leave without knowing when he’d be back. Even worse, she had a horrible suspicion that he wasn’t only going to help research and try a case. She didn’t like the thought of him in danger especially when she’d be so far away.
“Try to stay out of trouble while we’re gone,” Trick said, squeezing her arm. “Not roaming the streets in men’s blazers. No apple pie…”
She laughed. It felt good to laugh. She’d had enough tears the last few days.
“Shut up, Trick,” Silas said but his grin gave away his true emotion. “Is Gabe coming?”
“Yeah, he should be down any minute. I’m gonna head out to the car,” Trick said.
Silas turned his attention to Emmie. She looked beautiful tonight. He hated leaving her but he had to make things right with work. He’d worked too hard for years to screw up his reputation now. Lifting a hand he ran his finger down her cheek. Her skin was so smooth. He loved the way she leaned into his touch.
“I’ll be back soon. Before the holidays,” he said.
Thanksgiving was a month away, Christmas was two. She wondered which holiday he was referring to. But she didn’t ask. She didn’t want to be needy or make him feel guilty for leaving. She’d been fine for twenty-one years, she’d be fine another month or two.
“Stay safe, okay?” she whispered.
He grinned, “I’m gonna be fine. And Trick’s advice wasn’t that far off the mark.”
She smiled again and nodded.
Silas wrapped his hands around her waist and pulled her in close to his body. Leaning down he kissed her forehead and then pressed his lips to hers. Just when she thought he was pulling away he leaned over and whispered in her ear, “Mo chuisle.”
Emmie pulled back and frowned confused. What had he said? She was just about to ask when he turned away and headed for the door. Gabe was standing at the car waiting for Silas. She hadn’t seen him move by her. He nodded then waved before dropping down into the backseat. When Emmie turned around she was surprised to find Ava standing a few feet behind her. Ava looked bad. Those were three words that she rarely ever put together. Usually Ava’s whole mission in life was to look good. For a second Emmie felt horrible. She and Ava were still in the middle of an argument and she had forgotten all about it.
Emmie walked right up to her. She wasn’t sure what she would say but thankfully, she didn’t have to worry about it. Ava spoke immediately.
“I have nothing to offer other than… I’m sorry.” She shrugged.
Emmie nodded. “I know. It sounded bad. I just can’t believe you’d actually think I would do something like that.”
Ava looked at her feet. “Well, I just,” she paused a while before continuing, “I have no excuse.”
This was rare. Ava never was speechless. Ava was never humble. She must feel awful. Emmie decided to just let it go.
“It’s okay. Let’s just forget about it. I’d like to pretend last night never happened,” she said, touching her friends hand.
Ava shook her head in agreement.
“I’m sorry if it ruined your engagement weekend,” Emmie said honestly.
“Pish posh.” Ava waved her hands sounding more like her self. “What are you talking about, I had a fabulous party… and last night, it didn’t happen, remember?”
A comfortable silence filled a few seconds before Ava spoke again. “Are you okay?”
Emmie looked at her friend’s eyes. She knew at once that Gabe had filled her in on everything. Emmie nodded.
“Want to talk about it?” Ava asked. Again this was unlike herself. Ava usually talked about things even if you didn’t want to.
“Not really,” Emmie answered honestly.
Ava bit her lip trying to keep her mouth quiet. “There is a silver lining, you know.”
Emmie laughed. If anyone could put a positive spin on this it was Ava. “Well now when I marry Gabe, we really will be sisters.”
Ava wrapped her arms around her friend and hugged her like she hadn’t since they were kids. “I’ve got an idea. Let’s have some tea.”
“Oh, Ava. I’m not sure…” Emmie started but Ava was already pulling her through the hotel toward the great room where the party was last night.
But it turned out to be the right choice. They drink their “tea” from the fancy cups. Only a cup tonight though and it was mixed with water. Not as strong. Ava made Emmie laugh telling loud animated stories about the girls from Chicago. Apparently the queen had thrown herself at Pete and hilarity ensued. Emmie couldn’t say how much time had passed but it was nice to strip everything from her mind and focus on Ava’s storytelling for a bit.
“Give me your cups girls,” the bartender said in a clipped tone.
“What?” Emmie asked. She was only half finished.
Ava was staring at the doors to the restaurant that had closed on their own. She could hear loud voices on the other side. All at once people in the restaurant started to frantically move around the room. The bartender took their cups from each of their hands and dropped them into a drawer. The doors opened again and it all finally clicked. Fifteen police officers stood when the doors opened. They shouted something but Emmie couldn’t hear them over the scuffling. She grabbed Ava’s hand and moved from the stool she was seated on. She felt someone grab her arms. Emmie screamed and stepped on a toe. Her foot came down heavy on a boot… of a police officer. It startled him just long enough for him to loosen his grip. She tore away. Another pair of hands grabbed her. She tried her move again but this time it failed.
“Come with me, girl,” a male voice called. Emmie glanced from the corner of her eye. He was not a police officer. It was the waiter who’d given her the punch the night before.
She held tighter to Ava’s arm and they let the voice lead them to the same corner Silas had taken her yesterday. He moved a little further to the right and touched a panel, pushing the girls through the door that popped open to him. They walked through a long, dark tunnel, only able to feel their way out through the brick-lined wall. After walking twenty or so yards, Emmie stopped.
“Open it up,” the man said.
Ava and Emmie felt around on the cold steel door. “I’ve got it,” Ava said.
And with a quick pop, the door pushed open. The man grabbed their arms again and pulled them onto the street. It was dark and quiet. Emmie turned and took in the sight of their rescuer. She frowned. Odd that he wasn’t wearing his uniform tonight.
“Oh no,” Ava said under her breath. She grabbed Emmie’s hand.
When Emmie followed her gaze she saw what had startled her friend. A man in a suit and two police officers were walking toward them. Emmie did not like the look on their faces. It was smug. But what she found most alarming was the expression reflected on the server’s face. She tried to wiggle from his grip and he clamped down harder on her arms. That’s when she knew for sure. She and Ava were not being saved. They had been herded.
“Why?” she asked him through gritted teeth.
“Sorry, Miss. It’s not personal. You just need to learn your lesson. Drinking is of the Devil. You’s a good girl, they ain’t gonna keep you too long,” he said.
“Thank you Smith,” the man in a suit called. Then he slipped the server some cash.
The police officer’s split and each grabbed a girl. Emmie turned to the man. “Oh yeah.” She gave a pointed look at the cash. “I thought this was about morals. So why are you taking money?”
The server only smiled and tipped his hat in reply. “We’ll remember who you are Smith,” Ava shouted at him.
“I’m counting on it,” he said, turning his back and walking down the street.
Chapter Thirteen
Emmie and Ava held hands in the back of the car as they were led back to the station. Ava looked up at Emmie after they’d driven a few minutes.
“Well, at least we weren’t in the car the reporters were taking pictures of, that’s something right? I mean that’s not the kind of attention I was hoping for today. I don’t even have on a good dress,” Ava said with a grin.
Emmie snorted. “Ava, you’re absurd.”
Ava smiled. “Thank you. I try.”
They were pulled out of the car and led into some room. The men were together in one cell and women were put in another. Emmie felt sick at her stomach. How were they going to get out of this one? She and Ava sat next to each other in silence. There was one loud woman yelling at the police officer sitting a few feet away behind a desk. She’d been pulled out of the cell and, from the looks on the police officer’s face; it didn’t look like they were going anywhere Emmie wanted to be. When her adrenaline came down Emmie felt her hands start to shake. What were they going to do? How long had they sat there: an hour, a day? She couldn’t say. All she knew was it felt like all eternity.
“DeCarmilla, Talbot. You got visitors,” a man in a suit said from behind the bars.
Before they could ask any questions Ava’s father stepped around the corner, followed by Gabe’s. When Emmie saw the reactions on their faces she looked down at the ground. They were not happy. The girls were pulled from the cell, led out the back doors of the station, and ushered into a black car. The backseat was huge. It had two rows of seats, so all four could sit in the back. They drove for a while in silence before anyone spoke up.
“I’m sorry Papa,” Ava said, looking at her father. “I didn’t think that…”
The look he flashed her made her shut her mouth. “You’re damn right you didn’t think. You’re mother and I indulged you too much. We will talk about this when we get back to the hotel.”
Emmie spent the rest of the trip staring at her hands or feet. She was not looking up at either of these men. They pulled around the back of the hotel. A man was waiting to open the door. She and Ava were led to a small room with a table. It didn’t feel that different from a room she had seen once at the pig back home. The furnishings were nicer, but the feel was the same.
Silas’s father and Vince were in the room waiting when they arrived. What would Silas’s father think of her now? Good lord. She’d only had two sips from the teacup. Three tops. It was most certainly not worth all this.
“Tell us what happened.” Silas’s father spoke first.
Ava recounted the story. Everything from ordering the drink until they’d been betrayed outside.
“And did you know this man that led you outside?” Gabe’s father asked.
“No. I’d never seen him before,” Ava answered honestly.
“Actually,” Emmie started and swallowed hard as she spoke the first time to the assembled group, “I did know him. Sort of.”
“How did you know him, girl?” Michael asked, his Irish accent lilting the phrase.
“Well, I talked to him a bit last night. He was from Larue County,” she said.
“He was at the party last night?” Al, Ava’s father, asked.
“Well, yeah. He was one of the servers. He was so nice all night. He brought me several cups of punch,” she said honestly. “He seemed like a good country boy. I had no idea…”
She trailed off, unsure how to finish the sentence. Gabe’s father shook his head at her like he was disappointed.
“And you just trusted him immediately? So much so that in the middle of a raid you just followed him through a dark tunnel…” Marco just laughed and shook his head like he couldn’t believe it.
Emmie was annoyed. She crossed her arms and looked him right in the eye as he continued.
Marco Del Grande grinned, “You’ve got your mother’s naïve heart. Emma you cannot just trust everyone with a nice voice and a deceiving smile.”
“No. I guess not. It’s a shame my mother didn’t learn that lesson,” Emmie spit.
“Do not talk to me like that young lady. It was my cash that bought your way out of that cell tonight,” Marco said.
“You have no right to reprimand me. You cannot come in here and play Daddy now. Not after all this time,” she said as the door to the room opened. “You haven’t earned that right.”
“I have,” a cold voice filled the room. She turned to meet Silas’s dark grey-blue stare.
She bit her lower lip as he moved across the room toward her. Emmie rubbed her face to clear her thoughts. Silas was here, and he was mad. Mad might be an understatement.
“You didn’t have to come back. It is under control,” Emmie said, looking up at him.
He stood over her, looming. “I’ve not even been gone an hour and someone stops our car to tell me you’ve been arrested.”
Emmie cringed. When he said it like that it sounded bad. “I know.” She shook her head and shrugged.
“What’s this I heard about you following some man?” he asked. He’d heard that after he entered the hotel.
“You know him. I mean you met him too. He was the guy I was talking to when you came to get me. Remember the server that I got the punch from? The police officer said his name was Smith. He had dark curly hair,” she explained.
“Yeah, I remember the boy.” He rubbed his jaw and thought for a moment. His hand came down on the table next to her. She jumped out of her skin. “What the hell were you thinking? What kind of fool follows a man into tunnel?”
She stood and faced him square in the eye. “Don’t you cuss at me, Silas McDowell. You don’t scare me so you can keep your little antics for somebody else.” She shoved her chair into the table. Emmie didn’t have to sit here and listen to this. Not from some man trying to play Daddy and not from him.
“Stop,” he said, grabbing her around the waist.
“Easy son,” his father called from across the room.
“Don’t touch me right now,” she said through gritted teeth.
He pulled her closer to him but his touch was softer than before.
“She said for you to let go of her Silas,” Ava said.
Silas gave Ava a look that silenced her. She rolled her eyes at him.
Gabe stood to walk over, Silas let go of her. She walked out of the small room and was surprised to find herself in one of the kitchens. She hated that she had no idea where she was going but she walked anyway. She’d have been lying if she said she was surprised that she heard a set of footsteps following her. Just before she reached the swinging door leading to the bar, he pulled her back into him.
“I do not want to talk to you right now. You can talk to me when you will treat me with respect,” she said, never turning around.
“I do respect you. Clearly more than you respect yourself, if you’re followin
g some strange man in a raid,” he said with a raised voice. “I’m sorry I swore at you, but my God Emmie, what were you thinking? Do you know who could have been waiting for you in that tunnel. I hate to say this but the police were the better alternative.”
“Yeah, I know,” she said because it was the truth.
Chapter Fourteen
“Thirty-five minutes,” he said, wrapping his arms about her waist. This time he laughed after he said it and rested his chin on the top of her head.
“I know,” she repeated and turned in his arms to face him.
“Do you see why this makes me nervous to leave you? If I didn’t know that you were going to be with the DeCarmillas, I swear I’d have my father take you back to Chicago.” He gave her a crooked grin.
“I’m not visiting Chicago without you to show me around,” she said, pushing his chest.
“You sure I can’t convince you? We’ve kept Jemma outta trouble all these years, I’m sure my family could take care of you.” Although he was smiling she could tell he was serious. Testing the waters to see if she would pack up leave with his family.
“No. I need to get home. Spotty, Walter, Max—they need me to check on them.”
Silas nodded. He still wasn’t exactly sure what made him so protective of her. What made him want to take care of her… make decisions for her? He always seemed at a constant struggle. How could this girl he had known for only a few months have such a power over him? She was his soft spot… his weakness. And he knew weaknesses were bad. He sighed and rubbed his jaw as he thought.
“When are you leaving?” she asked.
“Soon. I shouldn’t even be here now.” He growled again.
“I’m sorry. Thank you for checking on me but I was fine,” she said, crossing her arms about her chest.
“You were not fine on your own…” He pointed toward the room he had exited. “If not for them you would still be sitting in jail.”
Rise and Shine (Shine On Series, Book 2) Page 7