Page 19 of Calling All Angels
“’Twasn’t me. Marguerite, I suppose, had her hand in it.”
“Marguerite?”
Connor glanced around as if half expecting her to appear. “Ye asked about my supervisor once. That would be her.”
“But I saw you there last night.”
“After,” he conceded. “Time travels in a different lane there. It’s no’ like here where everything follows an orderly line. Time hardly matters where I’m from.”
“Is that why you keep looking at that dial on your wrist?”
Stuffing his hand into his pocket, he looked away toward the scene of the accident. “I thought you wanted to look around.”
He wasn’t about to tell her anything personal. Anything that meant anything to him. Emma gritted her teeth and got to her feet. Well, two could play that game. She started down the hill, slipping a little on the dew-slick grass with her one still-bare foot. Maybe she’d find her shoe around here somewhere. That seemed the least she could do.
At the bottom of the hill, heaviness pressed on her as she scanned the ground. There were bits and pieces of her car still scattered around, but the scene had already been gone over by the police, as evidenced by the little orange flags poking out of the ground where they’d found items of interest. She broadened her scope, walking much farther away from where her car had landed, not even sure what she was looking for. She spotted something glinting in the sun in the long grass. It was hers. A tall, gold, crystal-studded thermal cup with her agency slogan inscribed on the front.
Emma James Realty—When What You’re Looking for Is Home
Apparently, the police hadn’t done a stellar investigation here. What else had they missed?
The cup was dented now, broken, and more than a few of the rhinestones had been knocked off. She’d loved that cup. But looking at it now, lying alone in the middle of this grassy slope, it seemed…embarrassing. Unnecessary. She was suddenly glad the police had missed it. Why had she put rhinestones on a thermal cup anyway?
She couldn’t pick it up, so she left it where it was.
Connor was walking across the way, brushing aside grass with the toe of his boot. Every now and then, their eyes would meet across the field and she would quickly look away. Even now she felt him watching her as if he were trying to figure her out. Or musing on that secret he seemed to be keeping about her. Something about their past history? Which didn’t make any sense to her.
It was none of her business what had him so bent about her. But his attitude wasn’t irrelevant. Not only because they were stuck together until this situation resolved but because she depended on him to help her now that she was stuck here somewhere between her life and…death.
That thought sent a shiver through her. Who could have imagined that she’d be here today, picking through the remnants of an accident that had nearly—maybe—stolen her life? Just yesterday, everything had been going so well. She’d had her life under control, with big deals in the offing. She’d had Aubrey home with her again after being gone for so long at school, working at the agency for the summer. Today the company would have all left for a fabulous, all-expenses-paid Fourth of July vacation to Turks and Caicos.
It struck her then that not a single one of her employees had boarded that plane today for their well-deserved vacations, despite having fully paid tickets in their hands. Instead, they were all sitting in the waiting room at the hospital, waiting to see if she would live.
A sob worked its way up her throat as Connor’s words came back to her.No one said anything about fair.Indeed. Nothing about this whole situation seemed fair, least of all that Aubrey should be somehow in danger because of her.
She sniffed.Pull it together, Emma. No use getting emotional now. That won’t help anything.She was going to figure this out. She had to figure this out. Flicking a look back at Connor, she saw he was watching her again.Drat.She definitely didn’t need him to see her get emotional. He already thought she was a waste of his time.
He reached down and picked up something in the grass, studying it in his palm.
“What is that?” she called.
He proffered his palm, but she was too far away to see. “This yours?” he asked, arriving beside her in a blink of an eye.
“You have to stop doing that,” she said of his warp speed arrival.
“Sorry,” he said, holding out the object he’d found in his flattened palm. It was a seventies-style peace-symbol necklace, made of real silver, that bore a gaudy-looking green stone at its center. A bit of memorabilia—not worth a dollar, probably, but invaluable to her niece.
“It’s Aubrey’s,” she told him.
“’Twas near where your car landed.”
Emma inspected it. “She never takes it off. I can’t imagine what it’s doing here. It belonged to her mother, Lizzy. But Aubrey wasn’t here that night.”
“No, she wasn’t. Only you and those three others. Plus the emergency workers who came to help ye.”
“Threeothers?”
“Countin’ the one who found you. The one who didna call for help?”
