There was a long pause, then, “Is this some kind of joke?”
“Do you think it’s funny?”
“Not at all. I just... I have no clue what’s going on. Or how you got my number. I didn’t ask anyone to threaten Emery. You didn’t hurt her, did you?”
“Stop playing games, or I’m going to contact all the local news stations—including the one you work for—and tell them what you had me do.”
“I didn’t have you do anything!”
Dallas was beginning to believe him. He couldn’t imagine why anyone else would be behind what’d happened, but Ethan sounded sincere.
“What’d you do to Emery?” Ethan asked. “You said you had your hands around her neck? You didn’t choke her, did you? Is she okay?”
“She’ll be fine. I just threatened her, like you said. And now it’s time for you to make sure I don’t get in trouble for it. Bring five hundred dollars and meet me at the Santa Monica Pier tomorrow at a quarter after midnight—right at the Ferris wheel—or the entire world is going to know that you sent me to Silver Springs to make her drop the lawsuit. Then the police will be coming for you, too.”
“This is bullshit,” he cried. “There’s nothing the police can do. I’m not responsible for whatever you did to her.”
“Stop fucking around! We both know that isn’t true, so you’d better show up with the money—or else,” Dallas said, and disconnected.
“What’s going on?”
Startled, Dallas whirled around to find Seth standing in the shadow of the porch. “You followed me?”
Seth didn’t answer the question. “Who was that?” he asked, pushing away from the wall.
“His name is Ethan Grimes. I told you what happened with Emery losing her job and all that.”
“You did.”
“That it was her coanchor who must’ve been behind the attack on Friday night.”
“Let me guess—he claims he didn’t do it?”
“Yes. I expected him to deny it, but... I don’t know. He sounded pretty convincing.”
“He has to be responsible,” Seth said. “It doesn’t make sense that it could be anyone else.”
“That’s what I thought. But...what about Heidi?”
Seth pursed his lips. “The producer?”
“Yeah. No doubt she’d like to see Emery drop the lawsuit against the station as much as Ethan would like Emery to drop the lawsuit against him—and if Emery dropped one, she’d probably drop the other. Having it go away could possibly save Heidi’s job.”
“I’d be stunned if it was her. Doesn’t feel like something a woman would do.”
“That’s a stereotype,” Dallas pointed out.
He shrugged. “You’re right. I suppose it’s possible.”
“Well, I’ll see if Ethan shows up with the money and go from there.”
Seth tilted his head, a skeptical expression on his face. “Can’t you get into more trouble for blackmailing someone than fighting?”
“It wouldn’t be a fight—it would be a beating. And that’s called assault. So, no. Besides, this isn’t blackmail. I’m not going to take his money. I just want to find out who’s responsible so that I can shut him—or her—down.”
“Because you’re not in love with Emery...”
Seth’s sarcasm irritated Dallas. “I never said I didn’t care about her.”
Seth seemed to consider his response. “Fine. We’ll give it a try.”
“We?”
“I’m going with you tomorrow night.”
“Why? You don’t need to get involved.”
“I’m jumping in to make sure a cooler head prevails,” he said, but Dallas knew Seth was coming along to watch his back. He just wasn’t the type to ever admit to something that sentimental.
“Sure you are,” he muttered.
26
It hadn’t been easy to tell Susan that she was going to leave town early. But her employer took the news well. “That’s fine,” she said. “My granddaughter just got out of school for Christmas break and is eager to earn some money to buy presents. She can step in. She’s helped me so much in the past, I won’t even have to train her.”
“And you’ll have Tobias, right? The way he looks out for you makes me feel a little better.”
An affectionate smile curved Susan’s lips. “I don’t want to be a burden on Tobias. But you’re right—he makes it a point to check in and do what he can.”
Emery almost left it at that, but she was so curious about Susan and Tobias’s strange relationship that she couldn’t stop herself from asking how it had come to pass. “Is there a particular reason he’s so attentive? I realize this might be none of my business, and it’s fine if you’d rather not tell me, of course, but you mentioned that he’s taught you not to judge others and...I can’t help wondering how.”
Susan stopped lifting the oatmeal cookies she’d just baked into the display window. “You haven’t heard?”
“Heard what?”
Setting the spatula aside, she leaned one hip against the counter. “You know my son’s a paraplegic. He worked at New Horizons but moved to LA a couple of months ago when he was offered a fabulous job as part of an IT team for a big company. He’ll be home for Christmas, but you’ll be gone by then, so you’ll have to meet him another time.”
Emery spotted movement outside the front window and thought they were about to get a new customer, but was relieved when the small group passed by the store without coming in. “If he’s anything like your daughter, I’m looking forward to it.”
“You’ll like him—everyone does,” Susan said confidently. “Anyway, when he was only eleven and my daughter was seventeen, she took him to a party without my permission. She wanted to see Maddox, her husband now, who had Tobias with him. Tobias was on some type of drug—acid, I think—and while he was wandering around the house, he found a handgun in the nightstand of the master bedroom.”
Emery covered her mouth. “Oh no...”
“Oh yes,” Susan said ruefully. “Atticus was looking for a quiet place to watch TV, away from all of those partying teenagers, but when he walked into the master bedroom, he startled Tobias at the wrong moment.”
Emery’s heart dropped along with her hand. “Don’t tell me he fired the gun.”
Susan nodded sadly. “I thank
