August Unknown (30 page)

He didn’t ask how long she would stay. He didn’t want to know
the answer.
Just enjoy what you have
.

They walked hand in hand through the dark house to the
kitchen. The living room was still glowing blue. Peering in, they saw Derek
sprawled across a floor pillow, snoring. A circle of saliva stained the fabric.

“Shhh.” Geoffrey pulled her toward the foyer to go around the
other way.

Emily stopped him and pointed. “Look.”

An empty pint-sized bottle stuck out from under the edge of
the pillow. Geoffrey shook his head, determined to ignore it.

But when he looked back at Emily, she was smiling wickedly.
She crooked a finger at him to follow. Once in the kitchen, she retrieved a pen
from the oversized coffee mug by the phone. “There’s more than one way to teach
someone a lesson.” She removed its cap and pantomimed a curly mustache below
her nose.

He grinned and took the pen. Her eyebrows crept up as Emily
retrieved a permanent marker from the mug and offered it to him instead.

“You’ve got a mischievous streak.”

“Do you like it?”

“I do.” He pulled her close and kissed her. “But I won’t do
anything that might keep him from taking that modeling job back in New York.”

Emily shrugged and slotted the permanent marker back into the
coffee mug.

They tiptoed back into the living room and ever so slowly,
Geoffrey drew a Dick Dastardly mustache under Derek’s nose.

“There. Now he’s Derek Dastardly.”

Emily covered her mouth to keep from laughing.

Derek was clearly out for the count, so they didn’t bother
being quiet as they went back to the kitchen. Geoffrey poured them each a glass
of orange juice and served a single, giant slice of coffee cake onto a plate.
Between bites, he fed Emily small mouthfuls, enjoying the way she delicately
closed her lips over the fork each time.

He remembered how pale and sad she’d looked when he first saw
her in the hospital, and how even then she’d been remarkably beautiful. Now,
with her health and happiness restored, she positively glowed with vitality, exactly
like he knew she would that first day.

She remembered her past, yet she’s here with me
.
Geoffrey knew only of the determined young man who wanted her as his wife; yet
he, and whatever else waited for her in her past, was not enough to convince
her away.

She’s here with me
, he thought in awe.
Me, the
football captain’s brother
. It was amazing, miraculous, and wonderful.

But would she stay?

* * *

Morning sickness forced her out of bed before the sun was up.
A hot shower always made it better. Since she was dressed by six a.m., she
decided to make another pass at the beach house.

Emily’s car still sat next to Barthlow’s gargantuan SUV. A sheen
of dew pebbled the windshield. Now that the little bitch remembered who she was
and where she lived, there could only be one reason she was here.

“And I’ll bet it wasn’t to stay in the guest room.”

Emily was probably playing them both.
Tramp
. A bitch
doesn’t change her stripes.

Colin deserved better. Hell, Geoffrey deserved better, but she
didn’t give a shit about him.

Yesterday afternoon, she’d been relieved and excited to follow
Emily back to Newport. Her choice to return to Geoffrey meant Colin might be free
after all.

But after a wretched night spent puking up her dinner in the
cheap hotel downtown, her mood was foul. She understood it didn’t matter who
Emily chose. Gone didn’t mean forgotten. If the slut hadn’t already remembered
what happened on the boat, she would soon.

No, it was time to finish what was started the night of the
storm.

Emily had to die.

* * *

Emily quietly pulled the front door closed and breathed in the
cold, moist air. The morning was blanketed in fog and the air held the coming
chill of winter. On the other side of the house, the ocean crashed against the
beach in its never-ending surge and pull.

It was wonderful here, but it was wonderful in Astoria, too.
Colin had been her whole life, and there was sweet comfort in the familiar. Geoffrey
was a magnificent new discovery, and there was brilliance in new love.

She hadn’t slept at all, but the drowsy fatigue from a night
of making love felt wonderful. After sharing the coffee cake, they’d returned
to bed and made love a fourth time so slowly and tenderly it hadn’t been so
much an act, but a passage of time spent as one. Geoffrey was a fantastic,
tender, and generous lover, whereas Colin could be called...energetic.

Last night had been beautiful, and she wouldn’t take it back
for the world, but it had not been fair to Geoffrey. What would happen to him
if she chose Colin?

Emily now knew she could find her way in a new world, but did
she want to? There was something deeply reassuring about familiarity,
especially since she’d come so precariously close to losing it. But there was
also something magical in new discoveries, and embarking on the unknown.

How could she ever choose between them? She loved them both so
powerfully, and couldn’t imagine being without either of them.

She started her car, ran the wipers once across the
windshield, and pulled onto the narrow street leading to the highway. Once up
on the crest above the house, she looked out over the water. In some places,
she could see the frothy waves creeping over the sand, but on others, the ocean
was completely obscured by the fog.

Colin hated sailing in weather like this, but it had always
excited her. The day she’d passed her United States Coast Guard rating for
stellar seamanship, the weather had been thick with fog like this. She now
remembered that day, and how she’d handled the boat with confidence as the Coast
Guard agent watched.

She thought back to the town she and Geoffrey had driven
through and how she’d wondered if she came from a fishing family, or a mining
family. In the early years when she helped out her dad, she had enjoyed
herself, and later it had become her job, but she had never actually chosen
seamanship for her future. It had gone unsaid, but been expected, that she
would step into the family business.

Maybe she didn’t need to make a choice now. Maybe this was
time she deserved to claim for herself. She’d nearly died—she had the right to
be a little selfish. She’d always flirted with the fantasy of attending
culinary school. Maybe now was the time.

But she couldn’t do that to Colin or Geoffrey. She was deeply
embedded in both their lives, and they deserved an answer.

She pulled Cherry Pit into a front parking spot at the
Mirthful Mermaid, and then realized it wasn’t even eight a.m. The only other
car there was the van driven by the owner of the hardware store next door.

She heard spraying water in the alley. Jose was hosing down
the garbage cans.

“Good morning, Jose. Is Millie up yet?”

Jose looked up and smiled. “Oh, hello, Miss August. She gone
to Woodland for farmers market. You want to go inside? The door is open here.”
He gestured to the side door.

Although a cup of hot coffee was almost too good to pass up,
so was the first foggy morning of fall. “I think I’ll go sit on the pier for a
while. If Millie comes back, tell her I’ll be back in about an hour.”

She trotted across the deserted highway to the marina. Cloaked
in the haze, the foghorn rolled its deep call, and the harbor buoy’s bell rang
on the gently rolling waves.

She walked slowly down the path to pier fifteen and entered
Geoffrey’s code in the electronic keypad. Before she could finish, the gate
eased open under the pressure of her fingers. There was something wrong with
the lock.

Emily sat on the end of the pier beside
Penny Lane
’s
slip. The fog had completely swallowed Yaquina Bay Bridge. Somewhere in the
misty haze, screeching gulls followed the steadily louder hum of a returning
boat. She smiled to herself. The gulls, and the early return, meant they’d had
a good catch.

She stared into the fog and let the gentle swells of the
glossy water soothe her mind.

Deciding between Colin and Geoffrey would be impossible. Not
because she couldn’t choose, but because she couldn’t bring herself to hurt
either of them by choosing the other.

She wished she’d never gone overboard, never found herself in Newport,
never even gone out that day on the charter. Her life would be so much easier
if none of this had ever happened.

As soon as she had the thought, her stomach clenched with
regret. She couldn’t bear to wish she’d never met Geoffrey. He was a wonderful
man, and her life was richer for having known him. She loved him, pure and
simple. Nothing could ever take that away.

Quick, light footsteps sounded on the pier behind her. For a
fleeting moment, she thought it was Gran Millie.

A svelte silhouette emerged through the mist, slowly taking on
color. The figure was familiar, and Emily shivered under a blast of icy fear.

She stood and faced the raven-haired woman. Thick, oily terror
slid into the pit of her stomach.

“Chelsie.”

“Remember me, do you?” One hand was pushed under the lapel of
her denim jacket, hiding something.

Emily sidled to the left, every molecule in her body screaming
at her to run.

“Not so fast.” Chelsie thrust her hand forward. Her fist
wrapped around the thick black handle of a hunting knife, its silver blade gleaming
in the wan light. “You’ve been a hard woman to get a moment alone with, Emily.”

Chapter Twenty-Five

The sound of a car door slamming brought him from the edge of
sleep. When the engine started and it pulled away, he understood. He was alone.

Emily was gone.

Had he pressured her last night? He hadn’t said anything about
her staying. Maybe that was it—she thought now he didn’t want her to?

No, how could she possibly think that after last night? She had
to know how he felt about her after the way he’d held her and touched her. Made
love to her like there was nothing in this universe but the two of them.

Was it possible he’d been too needy? He wished he’d told her
there was no pressure, that she had as much time as she needed to make her
decision, even while in his heart he wouldn’t have meant it. He was only human,
and that selfish niggling deep inside his gut could be silenced and ignored,
but never truly eradicated. He wanted her for himself, dammit!

But even though that selfish part existed, he couldn’t let it
rule him. He had to explain.

Geoffrey rose and took a quick, cold shower. The frigid water
helped clear his mind and wash away any fanciful feelings. He could be all
business, and let his head do the talking while his heart waited in the
sidelines.

Derek was still unconscious in the living room. Void of
sympathy for his self-induced illness, Geoffrey happily ran the coffee grinder.
He heard his brother grumble awake as he started the coffee maker.

“What time is it?” Derek croaked from the living room. He
appeared at the steps to the kitchen, his hair tousled and his eyes bloodshot.

Geoffrey nearly laughed out loud at the sight of what he and
Emily had done last night. Derek sat down at the kitchen table, smacking away
the dryness in his mouth and looking utterly hilarious with that drawn-on
curly-cue mustache.

The sight only made him ache more painfully for Emily. She was
an enchantress he couldn’t exist without.

“You were up late,” he commented with a forced straight face.
“What’d you watch?”

Derek shrugged. “Junk. Is that coffee ready yet?”

The pot was almost full. “I’ll get you a cup,” Geoffrey said cheerfully.
He poured them each a steaming mug and watched Derek pad off to his room at the
back of the house.

After only two mouthfuls, Geoffrey grabbed his keys and
started toward the front door. Emily would be at the Mirthful Mermaid. He had
to explain that he would give her whatever time she needed.

Derek’s perturbed voice rang through the house. “What
the—awww, man!”

Geoffrey laughed to himself as he stepped out into the misty
morning. It felt good to have Derek more frustrated than him for once. Maybe he
should have taken the permanent pen Emily offered, after all.

* * *

Emily swallowed past the burning fear caught in her throat.
“How did you find me?”

She was afraid to ask what Chelsie wanted, afraid to even look
directly at the knife, afraid to acknowledge it in any way.
Ignore it, and
maybe she’ll change her mind and put it away
.

Unlikely.

“It wasn’t easy.” Chelsie’s beautiful black hair swirled
around her shoulders, rippling with the jerk of her arm as she thrust the knife
forward. “They’d listed you as a traffic accident victim. A hacker I know gave
me every drowning and Jane Doe record in Washington, Oregon, and California. I
almost didn’t come down here to check it out, but the Newport police were so
secretive about your file, I knew something was strange. And low and behold, here
you are.”

Emily forced away the choking fear. “What do you want?”

Chelsie advanced, urging Emily toward the other side of the
pier. “Get on the boat. Your new boyfriend won’t mind.”

How did she know it was Geoffrey’s boat? Emily’s mind whirled
with confusion as she shuffled sideways, her gaze never leaving Chelsie’s.

Chelsie glanced once over her shoulder. “Hurry it up!” She
lunged forward, urging Emily on with threatening jabs. Once Emily mounted the dock
step, Chelsie knelt and unraveled the mooring lines from their cleats.

“You just have to bat your little eyelashes and they come
drooling at your heels, don’t they?”

What was she talking about? Chelsie looked different than
Emily had ever seen her. There was something in her eyes, something dark she’d
never noticed before.