August Unknown (33 page)

“Colin!” She choked over a mouthful of water as she reached
up.

Colin
. Would it have hurt less if she’d simply punched
him in the balls?

He and Colin leaned over the side and each took an arm. Emily
cried out as Geoffrey pulled on her injured arm. A chunk of her cast came away
in his hand. He released her and quickly grabbed the belt loop on her jeans.
Soaking wet, she weighed nearly twice as much.

They hauled her on board and she collapsed on her knees. Colin
maneuvered himself between them and gathered her into his arms.

“Jesus, Emily, I thought I’d lost you again.”

Geoffrey backed away, feeling like an odd third wheel. It
seemed the background would always be his place in life.

She burst into tears. “It was Chelsie! She’s in the water.”

Colin froze. “Chelsie?”

“Someone’s in the water?” Trenton leaned over. He and Geoffrey
scanned the glossy surface. It rippled gently, thick and silver like liquid
mercury. The mournful wail of a seagull was the only sound in the deathly still
morning.

Colin guided her to the Seahawk’s rear seats and urged her to
sit down. She was shivering, hugging her broken arm against her body. Geoffrey
took off his jacket and draped it over her shoulders, and Colin pulled it closed
around her.

“Geoffrey...I’m sorry.” She looked up at him with shiny eyes,
and his heart cracked in two.

“Don’t apologize, Emily.”

Colin dropped to his knees in front of her. “It’s all right,
Emily. You’re safe now. Don’t worry about a thing.”

“You’ve got to call Sonja.” Emily’s voice, though soft, cut
through the still morning. “Where’s your phone?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Call Sonja now!” Emily burst into a fit of coughing. “Tell
her not to drink the milk in her refrigerator. Chelsie’s poisoned it.”

When Colin brought his phone out, she snatched it from him and
dialed. Trenton started the Seahawk’s motor and throttled forward. They circled
slowly, but there was no sign of anyone in the water.

“Bring us alongside
Penny Lane
,” Geoffrey told him.
“Maybe she got back on board.”

“No!” Emily stopped dialing. “She’s dangerous. She forced me
onto the boat with a knife and I think she dropped it on deck before we fell into
the water.”

She brought the phone against her ear. “Sonja, it’s Emily.
Sonja? Are you there? Yes, I’m all right. No, Sonja, shhh.”

Geoffrey leaned back against the front seat beside Trenton. He
felt so uncomfortable, he considered diving into the water himself. He could
hear the voice buzzing through the phone. Sonja was sobbing.

“It’s all right, everything is okay. Shhh, listen to me,
Sonja. Don’t drink the milk in your refrigerator. I’ll explain later. Yes, go pour
it out now, while we’re on the phone, okay? No, honey, I’m fine. I’ll be home
soon. I love you, too. It’s all over. It doesn’t matter, just forget about all that.
We’ll be like we were before. Everything is going to be the way it was again.”

That was all Geoffrey needed to know. She’d made her choice.
She flipped the phone shut and stared up at Colin with wide eyes. Geoffrey
turned around. She was in shock, and her true feelings were on her sleeve.

He had no doubt she truly cared for him and her decision had
been difficult. But now, having faced another life-threatening event, whatever
barrier in her mind that had prevented her from remembering her past—and
deciding her future—had been broken.

“It was Chelsie,” she said, rocking back and forth on the
seat. “I remember now. She pulled the main sheet loose so the boom hit me and
knocked me overboard. I saw her let it free.” She covered her face with her good
hand and cried. Colin sat on the edge of her seat and pulled her under his arm.

Geoffrey wanted to ask why this woman had tried to kill Emily,
and he had a feeling Colin knew exactly why, but it was no longer his place to
involve himself in Emily’s life.

He turned around and helped Trenton scan the water. He didn’t
care to watch the other man tenderly embrace Emily. The soft sounds of her
crying pulled at his heart, reminding him of what he’d lost.

A Coast Guard cutter slipped out of the fog and rumbled up
beside them. “Did you call in an emergency?”

“There’s a girl lost in the water,” Trenton shouted across to
the cutter. “Or she may be on board the sloop.”

The harbor patrol drifted closer.

“She has a knife,” Emily told them. “She was going to kill
me.”

The officers angled the cutter around so they could board
Penny
Lane
. Two of them moved stealthily across her deck, guns drawn, and went
below. They emerged a few moments later. “No one here,” one of them called
back.

Emily’s features crumbled. “She’s still in the water.”

“Take me over to
Penny Lane
,” Geoffrey told Trenton.
“I’ll bring her in.” He had to get off this boat, and stop watching the two of
them like the sorry loser of a reality TV show.
Most Pathetic Guy
.
Least
Likely to Get the Girl
.

“You want someone to help you bring her in?” one of the officers
who’d boarded
Penny Lane
asked him. Geoffrey shook his head. He needed
to be alone right now. He started up
Penny
’s motor and cast a last look
over his shoulder.

Emily had been wrapped in a silver survival blanket. She stood
in the back of the cutter, still in Colin’s ever protective embrace, speaking
to the Coast Guard officers.

Rays of sunshine slipped through the evaporating fog, mocking
him with its warmth and cheeriness. He didn’t look back again, only forward to
his bleak future, as he motored
Penny Lane
toward Newport Harbor.

It was over. Her attacker, like her past, was no longer a
mystery. Emily had remembered what happened that night on her fiancé’s ship.
She’d told her friend Sonja things would be back the way they were.

She was going home.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

“How’s my favorite patient doing?”

Dr. Carlson hung his clipboard by the door and gave her a
giant smile. Emily thought back to the first day she’d met him when he’d called
her the very same thing, even though she’d never seen him before in her life.

“Well, Dr. Carlson, I’ve just had my first shower in three
weeks. I’m peachy.” She laughed at the same time hot tears stung. Her emotions
were racing high, though she wasn’t sure if she was happy or sad. Her laugh was
dangerously close to turning into a gale of sobbing. Emily drew in a deep breath
to force it away.

The Coast Guard had questioned them for what seemed like
hours, yet in all that time, there had been no sign of Chelsie. Finally, they’d
taken Emily and Colin back to the marina where an ambulance waited to carry her
to the hospital. Her arm hurt terribly, and her cast was falling apart. She’d
hit Chelsie hard enough to shatter it. Since they were going to replace it
anyway, Emily had begged for a hot shower first.

It had felt like heaven.

“Your arm is fine. The bones are knitting nicely. You’ll only
have to wear a cast for another three weeks. Now, how about a different color
this time? I have passionate pink or gruesome green.”

Both were traffic-reflecting neon, but Emily thought something
bright would be good this time. She chose pink.

Colin walked in, strode over and kissed her on the cheek.
“How’s she doing, doc?”

“She’ll be fine, but then I knew that when we met three weeks
ago.” Dr. Carlson winked and patted her on the knee. He stood and kicked his
rolling stool away. “Nurse Thompson will be in to help in a moment.” He made a
hasty exit, as though he knew Emily wanted to be alone with Colin.

Colin moved to her right side to avoid bumping her exposed arm
and gave her a quick hug. “You had me worried for a minute.”

Emily leaned away. Colin’s smile faded.

“Time for you to come clean.” When he remained silent, she
added, “I remember what happened that night.”

He sighed and moved away. She stayed seated on the examination
table and watched him pace the tiny room.

“Sonja is pregnant,” she started for him.

He stopped and faced her.

“She told me that night on deck. She wanted me to break our
engagement.”

“I know.” His voice was heavy with regret. Emily’s irritation jumped.
How dare he pout like a poor abused dog somebody had kicked! She remembered how
angry she’d been that night, and took another deep breath to keep herself under
control. Now was not the time to rehash all that. Terrible things had happened,
but they’d survived them. Now was the time to heal, and rebuild.

“Were you going to tell me?”

“I should have, right away. I know that now.”

“Chelsie said she was too.”

He stopped, mouth agape. “Chelsie? No, I...” His shoulders
slumped. “Jesus.”

“How many times, Colin?”

He closed his eyes. Emily felt a twinge of pity for him, but
then she remembered his cheating had nearly cost her her life.

His nostrils flared as he blasted a heated breath. “Twice with
Sonja, once with Chelsie.”

Emily felt as though a prizefighter had just punched her in
the stomach.
This shouldn’t surprise me
, she told herself.
I knew as
much already
.

And now she knew how Geoffrey felt. Strangely, she hurt more
for him, for enduring this pain, than she did for herself.

I’ll make sure he never feels it again
, she vowed
silently.

“You wouldn’t set a date. I felt like that meant I was free to
do what I wanted. You have to understand—”

“
I
have to understand?” she repeated back, dumbstruck.

“I was wrong, I know that now.” He shook his head and sighed.
“I knew it then.”

He crossed the tiny office and took her uninjured hand. Emily
was too numb to stop him.

“I almost lost you, and I realize how stupid I was. If you can
forgive me, we can come out of this stronger than ever before. I swear, I’ll
spend the rest of my life worshipping you. Marry me tomorrow, Emily. We can put
all this behind us and have the life we deserve.”

Emily gently pushed his hands back and tugged hers free. She
shook her head. “No, Colin.”

“Emily, don’t do this.” His expression crumbled.

“It’s not meant to be.”

He grasped her hand again. “Yes, it is. I love you. You have
to believe that.”

“I do,” she told him, and she truly did believe it. “And I
love you, too. I will always love you. But I don’t want to marry you.”

“Emily, no. Don’t say that.” For a moment, his eyes begged.
Then, like a curtain being lifted, she saw his pained acceptance. “I can’t
believe I’ve lost you.”

“You didn’t lose me. I’m here, Colin. I survived, and I’ll
always be a part of your life. Just not as your wife.”

She lifted her good arm, beckoning him. He wrapped his arms
around her and cried silently, and her eyes burned, too. Not having the life
she’d thought was hers with Colin would always hurt, but now she realized that
life wasn’t real to begin with.

Sheriff Gaffney stuck his head through the door. He knocked
when he saw them together.

“Mike, hi. Come in.” She motioned him inside.

Colin turned away and swiped a thumb across his eye.

“Heard you had a little scrape out on the ocean.”

She nodded. “But I think I’m going to be okay.”

“Glad to hear it.” He shifted, turning his hat in his hand.
“The body of a young woman was pulled from the water. They’re bringing her into
the morgue downstairs. We’ll need you to make an identification.”

Colin drove a hand through his hair. “Oh, Christ.”

“You go. She was pregnant with your child.” Emily swallowed,
but couldn’t stop the two fat tears that spilled over and rolled down her
cheeks. She looked at Mike. “I have something important I have to do.”

* * *

Geoffrey slammed the front door and stalked to the kitchen.
Derek sat at the table, eating a cheese sandwich. The ink mustache was faded
and smeared, but still visible.

“What’s up, bro? You look a little scruffy.”

Geoffrey opened the cabinet where cookies and crackers were
kept and reached behind a large box of Jocelyn’s sugary cereal. He retrieved
the airline-sized bottle of raspberry vodka hidden there and poured it into a
glass.

“Dude, it’s not even noon.”

“So?” Geoffrey filled the rest with orange juice. “Those of us
who don’t have a problem can do this on occasion if we want to.”

“Ouch.”

He slugged a deep mouthful, refusing to let Derek make him
feel guilty.

“So where’s Emily? She was here last night, wasn’t she?” He
grinned and grunted out a ridiculous frat boy sound.

“She’s gone back to Astoria.”

“When’s she...she’s coming back, isn’t she?”

“No. She isn’t.” He turned his back, taking another deep
mouthful of his raspberry screwdriver.

Derek shifted behind him. “Oh. Sorry.”

“So am I.”

“No, really, I am, dude. I thought you two made a great
couple.”

Crap. Derek wanted to get sentimental. Geoffrey took a final
mouthful and poured the rest down the sink.

Emily was gone. It would hurt like hell for a long time, but
he would get over it.

No, he wouldn’t. She was one in a million. He should have been
more ardent when he told her exactly how he felt about her. He should have done
more.

Maybe he could. Did he dare? He had to.

He might look like a fool, and he’d probably have to do it in
front of that cretin Colin, but he could make one last effort to tell her he
was the man for her.

He strode out of the kitchen and reached for the doorknob
before he fully acknowledged the glimpse of Mike’s unmarked car through the
narrow door-side window.

He yanked open the door, fishing his keys out of his pocket
with the other hand.