She chuckled. “You’ve only known me for a week.”
“And in that time I’ve come to that conclusion.”
Colin nudged Emma with his elbow. “Cut your losses. I’ve never been able to win with Grace.”
Emma let out a long breath. “Okay. I am tired. I could use a nap. Will you set the alarm for me, Colin? I don’t want to sleep more than an hour and a half.” Not waiting for him, she started across the kitchen, keeping track of the steps she had taken.
He came up behind her. “You sure are getting independent.”
She threw a smile over her shoulder. “Amber and Grace have been helping me. Every day I’m learning more and more about how to get around in here. I’ve mastered the downstairs. The past few days I’ve been working on the second floor and Amber even showed me the basement in case I decide to do any laundry.”
“You want to do your own laundry?”
“I might. I want to help Grace as much as possible while I’m here.”
“Yeah, well, don’t do what I did once. I’m now the proud owner of several pink T-shirts and they aren’t my daughters’.”
Emma laughed, picturing Colin wearing one of his laundry mistakes.
“How did the cooking lesson go?”
She paused in the hallway outside her bedroom. “Not too bad. I suspect I still have some flour on me.”
Colin stepped closer and brushed his fingers across her cheek. “Just a little.”
She fought the urge to lean into his touch. So much was happening in her life, and she didn’t know how to deal with these feelings he generated in her. She pulled back, grasping behind her for the door frame. “I appreciate you setting my alarm. I want to take extra care to look nice tonight. Some of the ladies have been so kind to me.” She was still amazed that so many were praying for her.
Colin walked toward the nightstand. “Ninety minutes.” Clicking sounds cut into the silence. “You’re all set.”
When he rejoined her at the doorway, Emma stood to the side to allow him by, not sure what to say to him. Finally she simply said, “Thank you.”
“See you later.”
His parting words left her happy and sad at the same time. What was going on with her? This wasn’t the time or the place to lose her heart. It would never work. Her emotions lay bare and frightened her more than anything, more than facing blindness. How could anything be real when they came from all that was happening? His feelings came from guilt over hitting her. Did hers come from gratitude? She didn’t know what was real.
The insistent beeping of her alarm jolted Emma awake. She fumbled for it, blissfully turning it off. She hated that sound and usually didn’t set an alarm. “Why didn’t I just ask Colin to call me?” she muttered, then instantly knew the answer. She didn’t want to be any more of a burden to him than she already was.
Swinging her legs over the edge of the bed, she sat, searching with her feet for her shoes then sliding into them when she found them. She pushed her hair out of her face and hooked it behind her ears. What to wear to a meeting of the ladies at the church? Jeans? A dress?
Crash!
Emma jerked her head up, staring in the direction of the door. What was that? Was Grace all right?
Emma pushed off the bed and headed for the door. Opening it partway, she cocked her head and listened. The unnatural silence stilled her movements. Then she heard the sound of footsteps in the kitchen and low murmurs. Two people? She swung the door wider, leaning out into the hallway. Did Grace have a visitor? Was Colin still here?
She started for the kitchen.
A gruff masculine voice saying “Will you shut up” halted Emma’s steps. She knew that voice. She’d heard those very words recently. Backing up, she groped for the entrance into her bedroom. Something was terribly wrong.
Chilled to the marrow of her bones, she swung around and raced across the room to the nightstand where the phone was. When she put the cold plastic against her ear, the quiet taunted her. No dial tone. Nothing! The receiver dropped from her numb fingers, landing on the bed. And her cell was in her purse in the kitchen, where she’d left it earlier.
She pivoted, facing the door. The feeling of being trapped quaked her to her core.
NINE
Emma’s black world came crashing down on her. Panic and indecision held her immobile as she strained to listen for any sound of approaching footsteps.
Hide. Now!
Those two words propelled her into action. She raced for the door, her outstretched hands seeking any objects in her path. Maybe she could make it out the front before they saw her.
“What if she ain’t here?” came a high-pitched male voice from the living room right off the foyer.
Emma froze. Trapped. She remembered that voice in the woods. Its cadence flashed a memory of hiding in the bushes, so terrified that she would be found.
“She’s here. I’ve been watching.”
The chilling words choked her with renewed terror. She turned her head from side to side as though scanning the hall for a hiding place when in reality all she could see was a black wall before her eyes.
Go back to my room? Hide under the bed? In the closet?
She shook those places from her thoughts. Too obvious. Then she remembered the door to the basement at the other end of the hallway. Without another second’s hesitation she backtracked and went past her bedroom, trailing her hand along the wall until she encountered the doorjamb.
“Let’s check downstairs first, then upstairs,” the gruff voice said. “She’s probably hiding since that lady knocked over the chair.”
Grace! What have they done?
“Yeah, but she’s blind. She’s can’t go too far. We’ll get her.”
The almost feminine sounding voice grated down Emma’s spine as it had in the woods. Quietly she eased open the basement door and slipped inside, turning the lock. It wouldn’t keep them out for long, but anything that slowed them down gave her hope someone would come.
Poised on the top stair, she tried to recall the day before when Amber had given her the tour. For a few seconds she couldn’t think of a thing as fright erased her memories. All she could concentrate on was the heavy thud of footsteps advancing through the first floor, getting closer and closer to the basement door. Then the incessant ringing of Grace’s cell in her purse by the front door vied for her attention. Muffled voices followed, then silence for a moment. Hope flared. Maybe they would leave. Footfalls started again, coming down the hall.
With her hands on the banister, she descended the steps into the musty-smelling room where the washer, dryer and furnace were located. Not a lot of places to hide. Four feet into the center Emma remembered the light that dangled from the ceiling. If she could unscrew the bulb, then if they came down here, at least they would be in the dark like her. Where had Amber said it was? Closer to the washer and dryer?
Flinging her arms in the air, she moved toward the far wall and discovered the single light. With trembling hands, she took it out of the socket, the bulb slipping from her fingers and crashing to the cement floor. The sound echoed in the dank, small basement, shooting a fresh wave of fear through her.
Hide!
She groped for the washer, hearing the crunch of glass beneath her shoes. She touched the appliance’s smooth surface, then slid her hand along the edge until she came to the metal shelves. On the other side a space big enough to fit her body into beckoned. She squeezed into it and waited, her labored breathing reverberating through her mind.
Colin hunkered over his desk in his study, scribbling some ideas for a sermon on a pad. His mind kept wandering to Emma and the past week. Finally in frustration he gave up and dropped his pencil on the nearly blank piece of paper.
Leaning back in his chair, he combed his hands through his hair and stared up at the ceiling, trying to bring order to his chaotic thoughts concerning Emma.
He’d been happily married once and knew what a good marriage was like. He’d never really envisione
d falling in love again, and yet the feelings forming for Emma reminded him suspiciously of love. How could that be possible in such a short time? He and his wife had been high school sweethearts and had known each other for years before marrying. They’d had the same deep faith in the Lord. Neither was true with Emma and him. But every time he was around her, all he could think of was having a future with her.
Lord, I don’t know what to do. I can’t seem to stop these feelings from developing. But I don’t see it working. What do You want me to do?
Resting his elbows on his desk, he scrubbed his hands down his face, weary. The mad pace of the past week hunched his shoulders and sagged his head.
The blare of the phone next to him jerked him upright. He snatched it up. “Hello.”
“Colin, this is Linda. I’ve been trying to get hold of Grace, but her line is busy, has been for the past fifteen minutes. I even tried her cell phone. No one answered. Our meeting has started. With all that’s been going on I was kind of worried. She’s always on time.”
Colin’s grip strengthened about the plastic receiver. “I’ll go over and see what’s going on.”
After hanging up, he bolted to his feet and strode to the window that faced Grace’s house. Lights blazed from almost every room on the first floor and his aunt’s car was still in the driveway. Something wasn’t right. He felt it in his gut. Quickly he picked up the phone and punched in the number of the sheriff’s office.
When J.T. came on the line, Colin said, “Grace and Emma didn’t show up at the ladies meeting. Something’s going on at the house. I’m going in.”
He dropped the receiver into its cradle while J.T. was shouting for him to stay put. That wasn’t going to happen. He knew firsthand how important every minute—every second—could be in a situation like this.
Colin raced out the back door and across his yard, his heartbeat thumping against his chest at a mad pace. Using his key, he let himself into Grace’s kitchen. The sight of his aunt stretched out on the tile floor seized his breath. Kneeling next to Grace, he felt for a pulse at her neck and released the trapped air in his lungs with a sigh. She was alive.
But is Emma?
That question drove him to his feet. He heard movement above him in two different rooms. Good, that meant they hadn’t found her yet or they wouldn’t still be searching.
All his earlier training came rushing back to him. First, he needed to check Emma’s bedroom. If she wasn’t there, he would take care of the two upstairs then find her—he hoped—before the intruders did.
He slipped off his shoes so his footsteps would be silent. Making his way to Emma’s room on the first floor, he searched every place she could have hidden, seeing evidence—closet in disarray, the bedspread lifted—that the men in the house had been there before him.
The slamming of a door above him drew him back into the hallway. Something heavy crashed to the floor. They were getting angry. Good. That could work in his favor.
“She ain’t here,” a high-pitched male voice said at the top of the landing.
“She is, Manny. I’ll recheck up here. You go downstairs. Get that door open if you have to bust it down, then search whatever is behind it. And make sure that lady is still out cold.”
Prodding steps resonated through the house as Colin glimpsed a short, stocky man coming down the stairs. In Manny’s hand a semiautomatic gleamed, riveting Colin’s full attention. He pressed back against the wall next to the entrance into the living room and waited for the man to enter on his way to the kitchen to check on Grace.
Noises from above bombarded Emma. She crouched lower, curling herself into a ball while her pulse beat so rapidly she felt faint. Although she had locked the basement door, she knew that wouldn’t keep them out for long. They had tried it once and moved on for the time being. They would be back when she wasn’t discovered anywhere else.
Lord, help me. Please. I’m so worried about Grace. Is she alive? I might not be worthy but she is. Please help her, at least.
Colin inched closer as the sound of the man grew nearer. He’d only have one chance. Emma and Grace’s lives depended on him succeeding. A foot inside the living room, Manny halted and began to twist toward Colin, raising his gun.
With lightning speed, Colin leaped forward, bringing his hand down on Manny’s arm. The semiautomatic clanked to the area rug a few feet beyond the entrance, masking its sound somewhat. The short, stocky man fell to the right, going after the weapon. Colin followed, throwing his full weight on top of Manny.
Their rolling bodies knocked into an end table, the lamp smashing to the hardwood floor. In the distance Colin heard running footsteps coming down the upstairs hall. He only had seconds before the other intruder would be on top of him.
With a strength born out of desperation, Colin broke free of the bear hug Manny had him in and pushed back, lifting his fist and slugging the man. He hammered his balled hand into Manny’s face until he went limp.
The man above came crashing down the stairs, yelling, “Manny, where are you? Did you find her?”
Snatching up the gun, Colin jumped to his feet, rotating as a tall, thin man charged into the living room, his weapon poised in front of him.
Lord, forgive me. Colin aimed and fired at the same time the second intruder got off a shot.
Two shots thundered through the terrorizing silence. Emma trapped the scream inside her. Every inch of her shook. She clasped her hands together and bowed her head. Please, Lord, protect Grace. Then an even scarier thought invaded her mind. What if Colin was upstairs? What if—
She heard some noise as though people moved around on the first floor. She curled herself into the smallest ball possible as far back into the corner as she could go and waited.
Five minutes.
Ten minutes.
Someone tried the handle to the basement door. Muted voices drifted to her, then the sound of a key being inserted into the lock. The door swung open and light flooded down the stairs.
Emma blinked. Light? She saw it! Elation at regaining her sight pushed her fear to the side for a few seconds until footfalls pounded down the wooden steps, drawing her full attention to the stairs.
“Emma? Are you down here?”
The sweetest voice in the whole world pierced through the thudding of her heartbeat in her ears. She sprang up and rushed toward Colin, launching herself into his arms at the bottom of the stairs.
A fleeting image of the man burned itself into her mind as she buried herself in his embrace, sobs shaking her. “I—I—thought you—were them.”
“J.T. has them in handcuffs upstairs. You’re safe now.”
Emma drew back, Colin’s face in the shadows thrown by the light coming from the first floor. “Grace? Is she all right?”
“Other than being furious and having one terrific headache, yes. What about you?”
“I can see you!”
He stepped back into the light flowing from above, and for the first time, she saw Colin. Her breath caught at the handsomeness of his dark features. It shouldn’t have surprised her, because of his gentle, caring nature, but his perfection did shock her. He’d played down his appearance so she had concluded he had been plain looking. He was anything but plain, which endeared him to her even more. Not because of his attractive features but because it hadn’t mattered to him. In her life and profession a person’s looks had been everything. She’d often been surrounded by people who obsessed about their appearance. With Colin, she had been forced to explore beyond that.
He arched a black brow. “You aren’t normally speechless.”
Tears glistened in her eyes, making his image blurry. “You are so beautiful.”
“I am?” he exclaimed, dismay descending over his features.
She chuckled, took a step closer to him and laid her hand along his strong jaw, stroking its length. “No, I don’t mean your looks, but your soul. You don’t need me to tell you that you’re handsome, but you should hear from me how good you are. Yo
u saved my life a second time.”
He flushed beneath her fingertips. “I—I—” He snapped his mouth closed.
She caressed his full lips, staring at them as they curved slowly into a mischievous grin.
“You’d better stop that. We have probably the whole sheriff’s department upstairs. I wouldn’t want to shock anyone in my congregation.”
“Why, Reverend Fitzpatrick, whatever do you have in mind?”
“This.”
He dragged her to him, flattening her up against him while he kissed her. She raised up on tiptoes and wound her arms around him, wanting to get as close as possible. His warmth chased away the chill that had been embedded in her bones when the intruders broke in.
When he drew back, his forehead touched hers and his hands cradled her face. “I want you to look at the two men before the sheriff takes them away. One has been shot and will go to the emergency room. The other has a few cuts and bruises on his face.” One corner of his mouth quirked up. “I’m afraid I got a little overzealous in subduing him. Maybe one of them will trigger a memory.”
“I remember both their voices. They were the same ones I heard in the woods.”
“Then maybe you can identify them as your brother’s killers.” He took her hand out of habit and led the way up the stairs to the first floor.
Emma blinked at the brightness of the light the closer she came to the entrance into the basement. Voices coming from the living room penetrated her world. She had been in the dark for so long both figuratively and literally, that it took her a moment to get her bearings.
Colin started for the front. She hung back, suddenly apprehensive about seeing Derek’s murderers. What if she couldn’t positively identify them? What if she didn’t remember them as the ones in the cabin? She recalled her flight through the woods, the voices, even running out onto the highway and Colin’s SUV coming toward her. But before that was still a blank.
The warmth of Colin’s grasp and his comforting expression anchored her and gave her the strength she needed to confront the two men who most likely murdered her brother.
So Dark the Night Page 13