“Something special happened to me this morning. I don’t understand it but I think maybe God was blessing me for coming home. All during that hymn I felt as if I was singing just for Him.”

  “It showed.”

  “Good.”

  “I was wrong,” Travis said with a slow nod.

  “About what?”

  “You. Your music. Asking you to stay in Serenity when you have so much talent was selfish. I should have either let you leave with my blessing or gone with you to Nashville.”

  “I wish you had,” Emma said quietly. “But it’s too late. We can’t go back.”

  “We might be able to start over,” he suggested, holding his breath as he waited for her reply.

  It didn’t come. Emma simply eased back in the truck seat and began to gaze out the window at the passing scenery, making her negative opinion as clear as if she’d stated it openly.

  Emma was unwilling to try again with him, not that he blamed her. She’d found a different life in the city and had enjoyed the accolades of fans, just as she had that morning in church. Her talent was real. Incredible. And should be shared with the world.

  Travis huffed. In taking her to church with him he had hoped she would see that Serenity was where she truly belonged. Instead, the opposite had happened. Because he had been given a glimpse of Emma’s special gift that had blown him away, he could no longer deny that he’d been wrong all along. She was wasting her amazing ability by staying in the little Ozark town and he was not going to try to stop her when the time came for her to leave again.

  Even if it broke his heart to release her and wish her well in her new life, he was going to advise her to follow her dreams. It was the only fair thing to do.

  Travis’s jaw clenched. He could do it. He would do it. No matter what it took to convince Emma to take advantage of the opportunities the good Lord provided, he was going to stick to his decision.

  For her sake.

  And for the sake of all the folks who were going to be uplifted listening to her blessed voice.

  An overwhelming sense of loss flowed over and through him. Letting Emma go after all this, when they’d faced danger together and had relied upon each other so dramatically, was going to be much harder than it had been before. And their previous goodbye had nearly destroyed him.

  * * *

  The sun had passed its zenith when Travis pulled into the long drive leading to his property. Emma squinted against the brightness and shaded her eyes with her hand while peering ahead.

  “I think I see a car in your yard. Could Cleo have beat us home?”

  “I doubt it. She’d want to tell her friends all about her adventure in the hospital. Knowing her, that won’t be quick.” Travis slowed and leaned on the steering wheel. “Besides, her car is blue. That one’s silver.”

  “Maybe you’d better stop out in front and see who it is before driving around back.”

  “My thoughts exactly,” he said.

  “Thank goodness you have your gun with you.”

  “Um, not exactly. The city police confiscated it at church.”

  “Uh-oh. Not good.”

  Judging by the stern look he gave her in reply, Travis agreed. “You stay in the truck. This time, I mean it.”

  “You meant it before,” Emma said with a smirk she couldn’t subdue. She realized he was deathly serious, yet her impish side kept insisting the situation could not possibly be that dire. After all, it was a sunny Sunday afternoon, the police had Ben in custody and chances were good that when the patrol cars had surrounded both the church and the local hospital, Blake and Jet had made themselves scarce. They might be malicious but they weren’t stupid.

  Travis rolled his eyes. “Will you please try to be serious for once, Emma?”

  “I’ll try, but it’s hard when I’m so thankful to be alive. What an incredible morning we had.”

  “I’d like to think the rest of the day will be more peaceful,” Travis said flatly. He brought the truck to a full stop directly behind the late-model silver-gray sedan.

  Fidgeting, Emma pointed. “Look. Tennessee plates.”

  “So, I see.”

  Emma’s mood crashed. All desire to tease vanished. Her pulse hammered. Her breathing grew ragged. With trembling fingers she reached for the door handle.

  “No!” Travis almost shouted. “Stay here.”

  She meant to do as he’d ordered. She really did. But when she looked past the strange car and saw movement in the shade of the covered front porch she couldn’t stop herself.

  A frail-looking little girl was standing alone on the top step. Her golden hair was messy, her clothing baggy and dingy, yet Emma knew instantly who it was.

  She bailed out of the pickup truck. “Sissy!”

  With open arms, the child met her at the foot of the stairs. “Emma!”

  Both were weeping tears of joy as they embraced. The child’s reedy voice rose. “Where did you go, Emma? Why did you leave me?”

  She kissed Sissy’s fine hair and smoothed it back so she could meet her querulous gaze. “I was sick, honey. I would never have left you otherwise. I didn’t know what I was doing.”

  Until that moment, Emma had not noticed anyone else on the porch. When she heard Travis coming up behind her she was so overcome she just wanted to share the joy.

  Lifting Sissy while the child’s arms were wrapped around her neck, Emma blinked back tears and grinned as she turned to him. “This is Sissy.”

  From the porch came a drawl that was also very familiar. Blake Browning said, “We’ve missed you, too, Emma.”

  Survival instinct spurred her closer to Travis, including the child in their mutually protective embrace. The more Emma stared up at Blake, the more she recalled. Although her thoughts were still random rather than well organized, she was certain of a few salient points.

  One, she feared this man above all others. Two, he was Sissy’s father. Three, her friend Robbie had been terrified of crossing Blake.

  Travis pushed Emma and the child behind him and stood firm. “Get out of here. You’re not welcome.”

  “I can see that,” the fair-haired man replied, grinning to expose badly stained teeth. “We’ll go. I just thought Emma might like to see Sissy again. They used to be real good buddies.”

  “Let me take care of her for you,” Emma pleaded. “You know I’ll do a good job. I promised Robbie.”

  “So, you did.” He’d sauntered down the steps and stopped barely five feet away. “I’d like to talk to you about that while I’m here.” He eyed Travis. “In private.”

  Travis stayed between them and palmed his cell phone, keying 911 with his thumb. “No way,” he said. “You can either get in your fancy car and leave now, or wait for the sheriff. It’s up to you.”

  “Emma wants to talk to me, don’t you?” Blake challenged, pinning her with his narrowing gaze.

  She shook her head and held the child close. “I have nothing to say to you.”

  “If you care about Sissy you’d better reconsider,” he warned, pointing down the driveway. “Step over there with me right now or, I swear, you’ll never see the kid again.”

  By this time, Sissy was clinging so tightly to Emma’s neck she could hardly breathe. At that very moment, when she had the child in her arms, Emma felt safe in resisting Blake. The fact that he was Sissy’s father, however, gave him the upper hand legally, whether anybody liked it or not.

  Turning to Travis, she reluctantly passed the clingy little girl to him and reassured them both. “I’ll just be a second. You can stand here and watch. It’ll be all right.”

  Her gaze captured Travis’s as she untangled herself from Sissy’s tight hold. Emma willed him to understand. To let her do this her way without interference.

  “It’ll be okay,” she whispered, kissing the child’s cheek. “Trust me. This is a very nice man. He’s my friend, too.”

  One tentative step backward told her Travis was going to let her to talk to Blake alone. If they had not had the child to worry about, Emma doubted her protector would have been nearly so accommodating.

  Blake Browning led the way, his walk the proud strut of a victor. Well, Emma mused, let him think he’d won if that was what it took to get him to leave her alone. Besides, the longer she managed to stall him, the more chance that the sheriff would arrive in time to take him into custody.

  Lurking in the back of her mind was the suspicion that there was little or no evidence against Blake that would warrant his immediate arrest. Unless they could get Ben to talk, to reveal the names of everyone involved in the plot against her, Harlan wouldn’t be able to hold Blake for very long even if he did run him in.

  Trembling, Emma crossed her arms to help still her telltale nervousness and positioned herself so she could look back at Travis and Sissy as well as face her nemesis.

  “Okay. Here I am. What is there to talk about?”

  He cursed colorfully. “You can’t fool me. You know what I want.”

  “Actually, I don’t,” Emma said flatly, amazed at how strong and settled she felt inside. “If you’d done your homework you’d know I have amnesia.”

  “Yeah, right.” He snorted. “You recognized Sissy and me.”

  “I haven’t forgotten everything. Just the worst times. Some of the things that happened to me are coming back, but until the other day I couldn’t even remember Robbie’s name.”

  “That’s really too bad. For you and for the kid,” he said, sneering to demonstrate disbelief. “I’m disappointed in you, Emma. I thought you were a lot smarter than my wife.” He chuckled without mirth. “Maybe that’s the problem. Maybe you’re too smart for your own good.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I barely remember a thing about Robbie.”

  “I suppose you don’t know why she confessed and landed in prison, either.”

  “No, I don’t.” Waiting, Emma silently prayed that his over-inflated ego would prod him to tell her more.

  “Then listen up.” Blake stepped closer and bent to speak, lessening any a chance of being overheard. “I told her she could either take the fall for the rest of us or I’d see that Sissy disappeared. For keeps. And I’m telling you the same thing. If you don’t tell me where my thieving wife hid all that money she took from me and the boys, you won’t ever see the kid again, either.”

  Thunderstruck, Emma stared at him. There was an element of truth behind his appalling claim and more than one way to interpret it. Robbie might have hidden something from the others if she’d thought doing so would protect her child, planning to use the missing loot as a tool to guarantee Sissy’s safety. That was how Emma intended to play this.

  “If anything happens to that little girl,” she warned, hands fisted on her hips, “I will see to it that whatever money Robbie hid goes up in flames. I’ll put a match to it myself.”

  “Nobody’s that crazy.”

  “I am. Ask anybody. I was totally out of my head when you got through with me. If I hadn’t escaped I’d probably have stayed so mixed up I’d never have recovered.”

  To her surprise, Blake began to laugh louder. “Yeah, well, that didn’t go quite like I thought it would.”

  A tremor zinged up Emma’s spine. “What do you mean?”

  “Just what I said. How do you think you managed to get away from me? Huh? I’d had you chained up tight, yet suddenly you were able to get loose. Doesn’t that seem strange?”

  “Maybe Sissy let me go.”

  “Oh, she did. Following my orders. What surprised all of us was that you took off without her. I’d figured you’d grab her and head for the money so you’d have something to live on while you tried to keep me from finding you. Unfortunately, you didn’t behave the way I’d expected. That’s why I had to track you down the hard way.”

  “You let me go?”

  “Sure. I was beginning to think you’d be too panicked to find the key I’d put under the mat. When you finally did, you took off so fast I lost sight of you.”

  “But you knew I’d come here?”

  “I had a hunch. After all, where else would you go?”

  Where else, indeed, Emma thought, chagrined. She had led Blake and the others right to the one place where she’d felt safe—and had thereby spoiled it, as well.

  “All right,” Emma said, bluffing and praying she’d be able to fool him, at least until she could come up with a better plan. “I’ll consider telling you what you want to know if you’ll let me take care of Sissy.”

  “I might. I might not. You’ll have to spill Robbie’s secret before I make up my mind.”

  “Let me keep her tonight while I sleep on it. I’ll give you my answer in the morning.”

  “And let you sic the law on me before then? No way, lady.”

  “I won’t say a word. I promise.”

  Blake’s eyebrows arched and he stared at her. “Better not. Either you keep your mouth shut or the deal’s off, understand?”

  “Yes.” In the distance she thought she heard sirens. “Sounds to me as if you’d better get going or you’ll meet Harlan Allgood again whether you like it or not. You remember him, don’t you?”

  “Oh, yeah. He was a smart-aleck deputy when me and Ben were kids. Never could take a joke.”

  “This is no joke,” Emma told him. “If you expect to stay ahead of the cops, you’d better leave your daughter with me now and get going.” His hesitancy made her wish she had Cleo’s shotgun at hand.

  Blake shook his head. “No way. The kid’s my insurance. And don’t try anything funny. Remember what I told you.”

  “I remember.”

  Hurrying back to rejoin Travis, Emma kissed Sissy’s cheek again and forced a smile. “I’ll see you again soon,” she told the child, holding out her arms. “Come on, honey. Time to go with your daddy.”

  Walking close beside her, Travis resisted handing over the clingy child. “You’re not going to give her back to that, that...”

  Emma could tell he was restraining himself rather than speak too plainly. “It’s just for one night,” she said with an exaggerated wink, praying he’d realize she was actually hoping to come up with a counterplan in spite of the way her actions appeared.

  His head was cocked, his brow furrowed, as Travis reluctantly released the little girl to Emma so she could carry her to the car.

  Satisfied, Blake slid behind the wheel. “Put her in the booster seat in the back and hurry it up. Those sirens are gettin’ too close for comfort.”

  Opening the sedan’s rear door on the side opposite the driver, Emma saw not only the child’s safety seat but an assortment of stuffed toys, Sissy’s jacket and a small, crumpled blanket.

  Slowly, purposefully, Emma leaned in. She now knew exactly what to do, but so much depended on close timing she wasn’t certain her plan would succeed.

  Instead of placing the girl where she belonged, Emma set her on the floor of the car and leaned across the booster seat to hide what she was really doing.

  “I can’t find the seat belt,” she said, stalling and listening to the crescendo of more than one siren swell in the background. Hooray! Harlan had company.

  She kept her head down and used her long hair and her shoulders to block Blake’s view so he couldn’t see her substitute a teddy bear for Sissy. Then she draped the child’s jacket over the stuffed toy. A silly ruse like that wouldn’t fool anybody for long but it was the only chance they had.

  While she remained half in and half out of the car and continued to stall, Emma whispered to Sissy, “Slide out and hide behind me.”

  For a few chilling moments she wondered if Sissy was going to balk. Then, she slithered out.

  A quick peek showed that not only had the child escaped, Travis had seen her do it and had gathered her up. She was safe. For the present, anyway.

  Emma kept listening and fussing with the seat belt, pretending to be doing as she’d been instructed. She didn’t dare give Blake time to realize that his daughter was not actually in the vehicle with him until the police were almost upon them.

  “Forget the belt. I’m out of here,” Blake barked, dropping the car into gear.

  It lurched forward. Emma felt the edge of the door opening bang into her shoulder. “Wait!”

  He didn’t, of course. She’d been counting on that. With a mighty lunge, Emma threw herself backward. The car’s forward momentum slammed the door.

  Landing flat on her back on the edge of the driveway, Emma watched Blake speed off. If he stopped and tried to return at this point, he’d meet the sheriff for sure.

  What a man like that would do after being outsmarted was anybody’s guess. Emma figured whatever form of retaliation he chose, it was not going to be pleasant.

  She smiled through tears of joy and temporary pain. She’d saved Sissy. Now all she had to do was remember enough about her past to save herself.

  FOURTEEN

  Travis could barely believe his eyes. Not only had Emma risked her own life, she’d almost let Blake get away with Sissy.

  Holding the child’s hand, he was beside Emma in moments. “What in the...?”

  With a grin that belied the hard landing he’d seen her make, Emma rolled onto her hands and knees before standing up. “Whew! That was close.”

  “Of all the idiotic...”

  Emma had been brushing herself off. Now she raised a hand. “Simmer down. I knew what I was doing.”

  “I strongly doubt that.”

  “It worked, didn’t it?”

  Anger was only part of his problem and he knew it. When he’d seen Emma dive backward as the car roared away, he’d been so alarmed he didn’t think his pulse was ever going to slow down.

  If Harlan hadn’t pulled up at that moment, he was afraid he’d have said something he’d have regretted.