August Unknown (27 page)

Emily was even more confused. “This doesn’t make any sense.
Who was in the alley?”

Geoffrey swiveled toward her and took her hand. “Are you sure
you saw a woman?”

She didn’t answer. She wasn’t sure of anything, anymore.

He looked over his shoulder. “Gran, when did you last see
Stinky Stan?”

“Who?” Emily asked shrilly.

“He’s a transient who hangs around here,” Millie told her. “I
give him leftovers from the kitchen, so sometimes he sleeps in the alley. He’s
never bothered anyone, so I let him be.”

Geoffrey faced her. “Are you sure it wasn’t a man you saw in
the alley? Mike was thinking—”

She shot to her feet. “He thinks I’m crazy. He didn’t believe
me that there was someone in the house, and now he thinks I saw a bum in the
alley.”

“You’ve suffered a very traumatic experience. If you did fight
with this Sonja girl that night, it’s possible your mind is conjuring a threat
to compensate.”

“Now you sound like Dr. Lohman.”

“I believe you saw something,” Geoffrey said quickly. “But
even you said you only saw a shape.”

“I heard a woman curse.”

“Maybe he was headed up the alley, and you startled him when
you knocked the boxes over,” Gran Millie offered. “He does have sort of a high-pitched,
raspy voice.”

Colin stepped close and slipped his arms around her. “It
doesn’t matter. You’re safe now. It’s all over. I’m not going to let anything
happen to you.”

Chapter Twenty-One

Emily didn’t know how to put into words what she needed to
say. No matter how gentle she was, she knew Geoffrey would be hurt.

A long moment’s silence passed as they all waited for her.
Like entrants in a contest waiting to see who won, it seemed they all held
their breath in anticipation.

“I need to see my parents,” she finally said. “Colin, where is
my car?”

Geoffrey glanced away. A sharp strike beat in her chest.

Colin smiled, obviously feeling like he was the winner. “At
their house in Palos Verdes, with what’s left of your stuff.”

Emily realized the magnitude of what her family and friends
must have gone through over the last month. “What about the house in Seaport?”

“It’s empty. Your parents put it back on the market.”

She should have expected as much. It was still technically
their house; she had only been renting it. But the idea of her things being
sold, or donated, broke her heart. That was her life, and as foreign as it
still felt, now it was nothing more than garage-sale remnants. She swallowed,
forcing the thought away. Why did she suddenly feel depressed, as if a great
event had just come to an end?

Because I’ve realized that my life isn’t here, but it isn’t
there anymore, either
.

She took a deep breath. Wherever she chose it to be, her life
needed to be rebuilt. She could survive. She wouldn’t let this thing beat her.

She glanced back at Geoffrey. He stood quietly beside his
grandmother, eyes downcast.

“Gran Millie, I know I only started here, but I’d like to keep
my job.”

Millie’s expression brightened. “Of course. Customers adore
you.”

“What about your job at Northwest?” Colin interjected.

She turned back to face him. His expression had turned almost
as forlorn as Geoffrey’s. “I can hardly sail with a broken arm. Besides, I
don’t remember sailing.”

His eyes grew wide. “Nothing? Jesus, Emily. You hold a
captain’s rating.”

She shook her head. “Not a thing.”

“But you live in Astoria.”

She couldn’t do this, not now. She took a breath, gathering
her resolve. “I need to speak to Geoffrey alone. Could you wait outside at the
car?”

“Yeah. Sure.” He threw an uneasy glance at Geoffrey and Gran Millie,
and then turned and headed out.

Sensing their need to be alone, Millie gave her a hug and a
quick kiss on the forehead. “I’m here when you need me, honey pie.” She then
hurried away, subtly wiping the corner of her eye.

Emily took Geoffrey’s hand. His was limp; he didn’t squeeze
her fingers as he always did.

“Geoffrey—”

He forced a smile. “It’s okay, you don’t have to explain.”

“Yes, I do.”

This wasn’t fair! Was she being punished? Whoever said “it was
better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all” had never had to
choose between two men.

Her heart swelled with love and it took every ounce of
strength she had to prepare to walk out the door.

“You said you didn’t want an answer until I remembered my
past.”

He glanced at her hand where his mother’s ring still adorned
her finger.

“I still don’t have an answer for you.” The first sting of tears
burned. She blinked them away. “But I meant what I said. I love you, Geoffrey.
Nothing will ever change that.”

Now his fingers did squeeze. “I know.”

“I have to see my parents, or I wouldn’t leave at all.”

He only nodded.

“I’ll be back in a couple of days.”

He slipped his hand around her neck and pulled her close.
Emily met his lips eagerly, drinking in his kiss like a lifesaving elixir. His
tender touch renewed her strength and filled her with hope.

He kept his eyes closed for a few seconds, as if savoring a
last taste of her.

“Be careful. I believe you about the woman in the alley.” He
mustered a thin smile. “As much as I hate to say this...” His gaze flicked past
her to the window. “Don’t go anywhere alone.”

She held his hand as they moved apart. “Don’t worry. I’m not
taking any chances.” Finally, with arms outstretched, she had to release him.

A seizure of pain filled her chest as she walked toward the
door. She wanted to turn around, to take a last look at this man she had come
to love so dearly, but she knew it would be her undoing. Instead, she
concentrated on what she knew she had to do next.

* * *

With a heart turned to solid stone, Geoffrey watched her leave
the building.

Leave him
.

That man, Colin Ridgley—
her fiancé
—stood outside
looking through the window. When Emily stepped through the door, he pulled her
under his arm.

That quickly, she was gone.

Gran Millie reached up and put a hand on his shoulder.

“You okay there, sport?”

“No.” He shook his head. “I’m destined to lose.”

She rubbed a circle on his back, like she used to do when he
was little. “Don’t say that. No use anticipating the worst.”

He turned and faced his grandmother.

She smiled wanly. “I’ve got a feeling about her. She’s
special, that one.”

As if he didn’t know that better than Gran did.

His grandmother gave his hand a pat. “She’ll be back.”

Inside, he wasn’t so sure. But it wasn’t himself he was
worried about; it was Emily.

“I just let the woman I love walk out of here with the person
who very well may have pushed her overboard.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Colin took her under his arm and buried his nose in her hair
as they walked to his Jeep. “I still almost can’t believe it.” He breathed deep
and sighed a hot breath against her neck. “I never gave up on you.”

She laughed. There was something wonderful about being near
him, remembering him. They had a lifetime of memories together she was eager to
reclaim as
her
memories. Memories someone had tried to take away from
her.

He was like a book she’d read a long time ago. Opening the
cover again would refresh her memory of the story within.

Still, she couldn’t escape the uneasy feeling things were not
as perfect as they should be. “Let me drive. You’re distracted.”

“Sure. That way I can stare at you the whole way back.”

He handed her the keys and jogged around to the passenger
side. In the back of her mind she knew if it were Geoffrey, he would have
opened the door for her. They were two very different men, she realized. It
only made her situation harder.

She started the Jeep and pulled onto the narrow highway. As
her memory started slipping back, like a trickle of water slowly filling a
bucket, she suddenly remembered Newport. Not what she knew of it now, but
having visited it once before. They’d sailed into Copper Marina on the other
side of the inlet. Still, though she remembered coming in on the boat, she
didn’t remember anything about operating it.

“My father is going to drop ten years when he sees you.”

She couldn’t wait to see him, too. Since the seventh grade,
when her family’s financial problems began and her father started drinking,
Graham had been like her surrogate parent.

“You never told me who was on board that day.” She could feel
him watching her as she drove. She hoped she didn’t sound too suspicious.

“You don’t really think someone has been trying to kill you,
do you?” When she didn’t answer, he went on. “Well, Sonja, as you know. Tim, Sean,
Will, Joseph, Chelsie, Jessica, me, my father...the passengers from the charter
that day, but they were seasick as hell, puking their guts up below.”

She tried to picture their friends. The only one who would
come to mind was Graham.

“And Sonja has red hair?”

“You don’t remember them at all?” He slid his hand over her
thigh as he slipped closer on his seat. “Don’t worry. It will all come back to
you when you see them.”

“I meant what I said, Colin. You can’t tell anyone else about
me until
I
say it’s okay. I’m visiting my parents, then I’m coming back
to Newport.”

“Maybe after you see them, you won’t want to.”

It was pointless going round and round with him about it. A
peculiar ache started in her stomach and grew stronger as they left town and
merged onto the main highway north.

“Be straight with me.” She used her firm voice. “Did we break
up?”

He leaned away. “No. No way.”

“Then why did I take off my ring?”

Colin pushed back into his seat. He glanced out his own
window, avoiding her gaze. Another familiar trait of his.

“I don’t know. I honestly don’t. You didn’t take it off in
front of me.” After a moment’s silence, he added, “Are you asking because of
that guy?”

“Geoffrey.”

“Whatever.” From the corner of her eye, she could see him
gritting his teeth, as though saying Geoffrey’s name tasted bad. “I saw him
kiss you.”

The need to defend herself sat sourly. “He and I have become
very close.” After she’d said it, she wished she hadn’t. He had no right to
intrude.

Something had happened between them that Colin wasn’t telling
her; she could feel it.

“How close?” Colin demanded. “Did you sleep with him?”

She scowled at him before quickly turning her eyes back to the
road. “No.”

“What really happened to your arm?”

She supposed that question was fair. “The night of the storm,
I walked in front of a car.”

“His car.”

“Yes,
his
car,” she snapped. “He took me to the
hospital and paid my medical bills.”

“And you’ve been with him this entire time?” This time when
Colin spoke, there was so much hurt in his voice she couldn’t hold onto her
irritation, even though she had the inescapable feeling she was angry with him
for something she didn’t yet remember.

“He’s been very generous. You should be grateful.”

“Of course he was,” Colin drawled. “He wanted a piece of ass.”

“Colin!”

“Emily, look at yourself in the mirror sometime. You’re
gorgeous. What man wouldn’t want to take you home? He was probably trying to
keep you from remembering.”

“He would never do that.” Her anger mounted. He was out of
bounds with accusations like that. She tried to imagine how he felt, and
remembered he’d always had a jealous streak. Still, he was pushing her buttons
the wrong way.

“You heard him,” Colin continued. “He found the missing
person’s report this morning, but he didn’t say anything.”

She pulled the Jeep to a stop behind a line of traffic at the
last stoplight before Highway 1’s speed limit increased.

“Colin, listen. He was a perfect gentleman the whole time and
he only acted in my best interests. It was either stay with him, or in a
women’s shelter.”

He shifted closer again. “I suppose that was better than
staying at a shelter.” He forced his voice to remain low, but he still wore a
scowl. “Remind me to send him a thank-you note, or something,” he finished in a
sarcastic tone.

Emily glanced sideways. “How did you find me?”

Maybe knowing how he found her would help her discover how her
attacker had found her, too.

“I saw your lifejacket on a boat in Freeport yesterday. They
told me they found it on the jetty across from that restaurant.”

Yesterday
. Whoever had been following her, they’d found
her long before that.

“Was anyone helping you look for me?”

“Chelsie, Sean, Tim, and Joe. They all were, for a while. Then
everyone started to think I was crazy and I should accept that you were gone.
Everyone went to your funeral except me.”

She glanced at him, somewhat surprised. “You didn’t go to my
funeral?”

He shook his head. “I knew you weren’t dead. I could feel you,
alive.” He put his hand over his heart. “In here.”

Heat bloomed in her middle and a whole new rush of tears stung
her eyes. “You never gave up on me.”

“I told you that. I love you. I could never give up on you.”

Her throat choked up and she could only manage a whisper. “I
love you too, Colin.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

Colin flipped open his phone. He glanced at her as he spoke to
his father. “Can you meet me at the Atkinson’s new house in about a half hour?”

She heard Graham’s voice buzzing through the earpiece. She
couldn’t wait to see him, and her parents, and the looks on their faces when
they saw her.