Page 7 of Two Favors Repaid

He nodded, but there was no joy in his gaze.

“Don’t look too happy about it,” she laughed.

“I’m sorry. You know I’ll help you, Emma. So, what’s the third thing?”

“Forget the third thing,” she said. No way she was going to tell him that, after a year of taking care of her needs herself, she’d decided to find a man to have sex with.

“Why don’t you tell me what you’re you doing here, Rob? You’re clearly worried about something. If it’s not Joe, it’s not the truck, and it’s not the lamp post, then what’s going on?”

Rob’s square jaw clenched. “I don’t know how to tell you this, Emma.” She remembered what he’d looked like a year earlier, the night he’d braved a storm to help drag her from the ocean. His look had been fierce then. Now his green eyes were full of pain and worry.

“You’re scaring me Rob.” Emma placed her mug on the counter with shaking hands. “Are Natalie and Hunter okay?”

He raised his hands in a calming gesture. “Yes, yes, they’re fine. Look, I’m making a mess of this. I’ll just come out and say it: Lorraine Vasquez, from the FBI, called me this afternoon. They captured Stephen Ford several days ago.”

Emma exhaled sharply until there was no air left in her lungs. She had to remind her body to breathe in again. “Where?” she asked in a shaky voice.

“He’s in Roanville.”

“That’s less three hours from here,” she breathed. She moved her shaking hands away from the counter so Rob wouldn’t see how rattled she was.

Rob nodded. Now that he’d spilled the news, he looked almost relieved.

“This is … it’s good news, right?” she asked, hating that her voice sounded so thin.

“It is,” Rob agreed but his green eyes blazed.

“There’s something else,” Emma said.

“He won’t disclose the location of his last two victims.”

“He’s killed again,” she stated.

Of course he has.

“Two young women. Friends. He took them together. The FBI thinks they’re both dead. Their blood was in the trunk of his car, but the police haven’t been able to find the bodies.”

At the mention of the word trunk, Emma felt all the blood leave her face. That one word took her right back to that fateful afternoon. Suddenly, she was back in the trunk where Ford had stashed her. She could feel every bump on the road. Her nose filled with the smell of old leather and gas. She felt herself sway and knew she was going to fall.

A moment later, Rob’s arms enveloped her. He was gentle with her. She felt him pick her up and carry her to the couch. She touched the bright orange velvety material, hoping it would steady her.

“I’m sorry, I don’t …”

“It’s okay,” he said, his eyes blazing. He got down on his knees next to her. “You never need to apologize to me.”

There’s more to this story.

“Please tell me the rest, Rob,” she begged, holding on to his arm like it was an anchor.

“He won’t disclose the location of the two girls to anyone … except to you or Natalie.”

Emma inhaled a sharp breath.

“We’re not calling Natalie, no matter what” she said protectively, thinking of her friend’s newly rounded body. “She doesn’t need him in her life right now.”

“I know. But I don’t want you to meet him either,” Rob said in a low voice.

“But you think if I meet with him, he’ll tell me where the women are?”