Page 129 of Obsession

“Why did you kill my brother?”

“He was going to hurt Mary Jo. I couldn’t let him do that.”

“But then you killed her.”

He shook his head. “That was an accident. She ran from me. Slipped and fell into the ravine. When I reached her, she was already dead.”

“Those other women didn’t run from you.”

“Shut up!” He jerked her by the arm. “Come on.”

“Where are we going?”

“Away from here.” He flashed the beam toward a path and half dragged her to wooden steps that led down to the river, where a boat was tied to a dock.

No. She wasn’t getting on that boat ... Halfway down the steps, she stumbled, and when he reached for her, she grabbed his hand and jerked him off balance. He fell past her, flailing in the air as he grabbed for the handrails.

Emma bolted up the steps. Suddenly a bullet whizzed past her. She was a sitting duck on the stairs. Ducking under the rail, she jumped, grabbing anything she could to keep from tumbling down the side of the cliff.

Everything she caught only slowed her descent until she lay sprawled next to the water. Suddenly Corey stood over her with the pistol aimed at her head. “I don’t know why you had to fight me.”

He raised his arm. Emma closed her eyes.

A shot rang out. Then another.

She opened her eyes. Corey lay sprawled at her feet, and someone was running toward her.

“Emma! Are you all right?”

“Sam?” She’d barely raised up when he scooped her up in his arms. Behind him was Nate and ... was that Sam’s father? “How did you find me?”

“My dad. He remembered the boat dock, and we took a chance that’s where Corey was headed. I was so afraid we wouldn’t make it in time.”

He set her on the bottom of the steps, and she glanced toward where Corey lay. Nate knelt beside him. Sam gasped and she brought her attention back to him.

“Your feet are bleeding. Where are your shoes?”

Emma had been so scared she’d forgotten all about her feet. “He took them. Thought it would keep me from running.”

Sam smoothed her hair back. His brown eyes held hers captive. “He didn’t know you very well, did he?” His lips claimed hers. When he released her, he said, “I’m never letting you go again.”

She laid her head on his chest. “Good. ’Cause I’m not letting you go either.”

75

Three weeks later

Emma climbed out of Sam’s SUV at the Natchez City Cemetery and glanced toward where they’d buried Ryan. Gordon, hoping to mitigate some of the trouble he faced for interfering with an investigation, had shown them where he’d helped Trey bury her brother’s skeletal remains at his cabin. She was thankful they hadn’t dumped them in the river.

Sam waited at his SUV while Emma walked up the hill to Ryan’s grave. She’d come to the cemetery today to say her goodbyes and knelt in front of his headstone. Gordon had confessed that Sheriff Carter had orchestrated the whole sad affair when Trey called him, panicking because Mary Jo and Ryan were dead.

She traced his name with her finger. Ryan Thomas Winters. Ten years of looking for Ryan, and he was so close all that time.

“I’m sorry I didn’t go with you that night and that I was so angry with you,” Emma said softly. She rocked back on her feet while a mockingbird sang in the tree shading the grave. “When we were little, you were the best brother ever. I wish things had been different.”

Things like his addictions. She’d finally come to let go of the guilt from the words she’d hurled at him the night of their birthday.But she also accepted that Ryan alone was responsible for his choices. “I miss you like crazy,” she said. “And I love you...”

Emma stood and stared at the tombstone another minute and then turned toward Sam’s SUV. An older black gentleman waited near it and was talking with Sam.

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