Things pretty much began and ended there.
Nothing had turned out anything like she’d planned. For all intents and purposes, her life had ended that night almost as surely as Heather’s had. The only difference was that Emily was still breathing. Few nights passed that she didn’t lie in bed and wonder why she was supposedly the lucky one. She rolled her eyes. Not so lucky. Anger at her own thinking blazed through her. She had no right to think like that when Heather was dead.
Another memory distracted her from the self-deprecating thoughts. She wondered to this day what it was that Heather was supposed to have told her that night.There’s something we have to talk about when you get back...something really important.
All these years that idea had haunted her. Heather intended to tell her something important. Emily glanced across the expanse of bleak headstones. The man who had taken Heather’s life and robbed Emily of so much hadn’t moved. He still stood like a statue next to his mother’s grave. He hadn’t knelt down for a closer inspection or checked for errant weeds. Just stared at the headstone as if waiting for some news flash or epiphany.
His mother had been a soft-spoken woman with the same dark hair and intense gray eyes as her son. She’d insisted time and again at the trial that her son would never harm anyone. That he was a good boy. But no one had believed her. Even Austin’s court-appointed attorney hadn’t believed her.
He’d just done what the court forced him to do: represent a man who couldn’t afford legal representation otherwise.
The judge and the jury had all sympathized with the Baker family ... with Emily.
Emily pushed to her feet. Thought about returning to her SUV just in case Austin decided to leave, but he still hadn’t moved, so she didn’t bother. Instead, she watched him.
His profile could have been chiseled from the same stone as any of the ones marking these final resting places. Lean, angular features that tugged at long-banished memories. She had loved looking at him ...before. Square jaw softened by full lips that had spent most of their time stretched in a cocky grin. Eyes that twinkled with wicked invitation. The way he’d smelled ... the way he’d said her name in that teasing lilt had beckoned to her on every level.
“There isn’t a day goes by that I don’t miss her.”
Emily spun toward the voice, her heart in her throat. Troy Baker, Heather’s brother, moved to her side. Guilt and shame scalded her as if Troy might see that she’d allowedthosethoughts for even a second.
“Troy, Jesus, you scared the hell out of me.”
He threw his arms around her. Emily ignored her jangling nerves and hugged him back just as fiercely.
“Sorry, Em.” He pulled away as if he’d rather not let go and stared down at his sister’s grave. “My folks told me what you did at that stupid trial. How you told them the truth just the way you did the first time.” His gaze met hers once more. “I appreciate that more than you can know. I couldn’t be there. I knew what was going to happen and I couldn’t take it.”
She cleared her throat of the emotion lodged there. “It was the least I could do, Troy. Heather would have done the same for me.”
He nodded. “She would’ve. She loved you like a sister, Em.” He laughed softly, the sound painful to hear. “She’d have given me up for you any day of the week.”
Emotion flooded Emily’s eyes and she couldn’t hope to contain it. “No, she wouldn’t. She loved you, too, even if you were a pain in the butt. Fifteen-year-old guys can’t be counted on for much else.”
He smiled, his eyes bright as well. “I don’t want him to get away with this, Em, and it feels exactly like he has.” Emily’s gaze moved across the cemetery and settled on Clint Austin once more. It was hard to believe they were all standing in the same place like this. Austin appeared completely oblivious to their presence, but he couldn’t be.
“He’s not going to get away with anything,” she said out loud. That was a promise. And until she could make that promise a reality, her presence would remind him every day that he wasn’t wanted here ... that he was a murderer.
“You’re right,” Troy agreed. “He’s not, because I’m going to do whatever it takes to see that he doesn’t.”
Emily hadn’t seen Troy often since the trial, but she recognized the same resolve in him that she felt.
“If we watch him closely enough ... make his life miserable enough,” she proposed, wondering if Troy had a similar plan, “he’s bound to break at some point or at least make a mistake.”
“Maybe,” Troy contended, seeming to reflect on something a moment before he went on. “But personally, I don’t think he’ll live long enough for us to have to worry about whether or not he makes a mistake.”
The sheer hatred in Troy’s voice scattered a cold spray of goose bumps across her skin. She couldn’t deny that the thought of killing Austin had crossed her mind. It had. But a part of her always recognized that the notion was wrong.
Somehow she didn’t sense that same comprehension in Troy. She had to be overreacting. She’d known Troy Baker his whole life. As much as he loved his sister, he wasn’t a killer.
Movement in Emily’s peripheral vision dragged her attention back to Austin. He was finally leaving.
“I should go,” she said to Troy, though she felt reluctant to leave him. She hoped he wasn’t going to do anything rash. Her need to keep an eye on Austin won out.
Troy wrapped his fingers around her arm and held on when she would have moved away. “Don’t go, Em. Stay and talk to me. We can visit Heather a while longer.”
She started to argue when he tagged on, “Don’t worry about him. He’s not going to get into anything tonight. Trust me.”
8
