Page 28 of Two Favors Repaid

Now run.

She ran. She wasn’t the stupid stock character who died in those first seconds of the movie. Maybe she’d had a rough year, but she had just started painting again. She’d been close—not as close as she’d like, but close nevertheless—to having sex with Rob Hope, and she was going to do everything she could to get another chance at it.

Just as she was reaching the door, she slipped on something. She managed to keep herself from going down but ended up ramming her shoulder against the doorway, hitting her injured arm. The sudden flare of pain was breathtaking.

Ignore it. Run!

She ran out into the sunlight just as another pop came. This time there was no pain. She looked behind her, because she simply couldn’t help herself, and saw a shadowy figure in the hallway, holding something in his hand.

The cobbled path to the front gate now seemed miles away.

I’m never going to make it.

Of course you’re going to make it.

Emma ran, clutching her bag. She needed it to call Rob but couldn’t stop to fish for her phone. She promised herself if she got out of this, she’d start carrying her phone in a pocket—somewhere easy to reach.

Breathless and dizzy with fear and pain, she continued to run.

“Emma!” a voice said. It was a feminine voice. Emma looked up and saw Jessy. The marine biologist was at the gate, her expression worried.

“Jessy, get away from here. Somebody’s shooting at me!”

Jessy was looking behind Emma and taking steps towards her.

“There’s nobody there, Emma. It’s okay. You’re okay.”

And suddenly she was in the other woman’s arms, and Emma felt a fear and relief so strong it threatened to bring her to her knees.

“Shit, is that blood? What happened?”

“He shot me. Did you see him?”

“I didn’t see anyone. Just you, running.”

“What are you still doing here?”

“It didn’t seem right to leave you here alone.”

Emma looked behind her. “Call Rob … we need to find Jonas.” She felt Jessy’s strong arms go around her and then didn’t feel anything else.

Chapter 8

Rob

“What the hell were you thinking, Emma?” he growled. He held on to the doorframe for support. He’d been told Emma was okay, but he needed to see it with his own eyes. He felt almost faint with relief to see her sitting up on the stainless-steel emergency room bed. He watched her large eyes fill with tears and stopped in his tracks. He didn’t want to cause her any pain.

“I’m sorry,” he said quickly. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”

She shook her head violently. The clip that held her curls together bobbed precariously on top of her head.

“I’m not upset at you, Rob. I just realize how stupid what I did was. If Jessy hadn’t been there … but I was just thinking about Jonas. I got upset when I heard he’d shown up at the school. And that’s exactly what Ford’s friend wanted, of course. He wanted to make me so anxious that I would stop thinking. And I played right into his game.” Her hands were clenched into fists on her lap.

Rob’s mouth opened in surprise at her spot-on analysis of the situation.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Rob asked, turning around to include Dr. Leroy, who had just walked through the door and was looking at him suspiciously.

“My patient needs to rest, Chief Deputy Hope. She doesn’t need more questions. Shouldn’t you be out there trying to catch whoever did this?”