Page 21 of Deadly Attraction
“She believes she’s his mother.”
“You’ve done your homework.”
“A little light reading. She’s as crazy as he is, correct?”
“Crazy is technically not a mental health term.”
Mitch just stared at her.
Emma let go a mental sigh. He was so sexy, standing there totally exasperated with her. “I’ve not had the pleasure of analyzing Linda in person, so I can’t attest to her true mental state, but she appears to suffer from delusions of grandeur. Meaning, she believes she is the famous character, Mary Monahan. Chris, on the other hand, wants everyone to believe he had a psychotic break and suffered from a similar delusion of being Tom, but believe me, he’s simply a sociopath manipulating the system.”
“So you’ve said. This woman is dangerous, Dr. Collins. She’s willing to kill for him.”
“I doubt she did any killing herself. Not her style.”
“She has a beef with you, does she not?”
Boy, did she. “She believes Chris is her son and he’s here to save the world. I’m a roadblock to that.”
“So that’s a yes?”
Emma looked down at Salt and Pepper, both lying at Mitch’s feet again, panting and watching her. “Yes.”
“I have to strongly recommend once more that we leave here and get you to a safe house.”
Never.Running from Chris was one thing. Running from Linda was out of the question.
She will not drive me from my home.
Of course, not heeding Mitch’s warning was stupid. Which was exactly the look he was giving her—thehow can you be a complete imbecilelook.
Emma steeled herself. “Two years ago, one of Chris’s fans upended my life. He took everything from me—the people I cared about, my home, the future I was planning. Please try to understand that this ranch, and everything I’ve built here, is the one thing that saved my sanity. Leaving here, giving Chris and Linda that kind of power, is the one thing I cannot do.”
Leaving Mitch, she went inside. The kitchen felt warm and cozy, and she leaned her backside against the counter for a moment, drawing in deep breaths. He followed, the dogs trailing behind him.
Yanking out the drawer beside the sink, she grabbed a bag of M&Ms from her secret stash. “I’m not scared of Linda Brown,” she told him around a mouthful of chocolate. She always went for the M&Ms when lying. “Let her come.”
“Is there anything you are scared of?” Mitch asked, his eyes serious and thoughtful.
“Sure,” she said, popping another M&M. “Plenty of things. The one thing I’m not scared of is crazy people.”
Collins was either brave or incredibly stupid.
At this point, Mitch was pretty sure she was both.
The doctor hustled up the stairs, M&Ms in hand, acting like her pants were on fire. He’d seen the lie in her eyes, the tremble in her hands as she shoved the colorful chocolates into her mouth like a starving woman.
Now, he watched her from the bottom of the stairs, trying not to enjoy the tight fitting jeans and the way they hugged her curvy ass.
Damn, she was a handful.
He sort of liked it.
When was the last time a woman had told him no? The last time one had presented this much of a challenge?
He couldn’t remember.
“Where are you going?” he yelled up the stairs after her.
