An Angel for Emily Read online

  “Oh,” she said, swallowing. “Good. I’ll…” She lowered her voice to try to sound sexy. “I’ll wear my new gift from you.” Maybe if she reminded him of black silk, he’d get his mind off—

  “Like hell you will! I’m going to put you inside a cardboard box while I talk to you. But afterward we can have a little show-and-tell.”

  She looked at her watch. “I think I better leave now. And don’t forget the yellow roses.” She was trying to sound lighthearted.

  “Sure. Lots of ’em. Call me the second you get back.”

  “Yeah, sure, and talk to your machine.”

  “He loves you nearly as much as I do.”

  “The feeling is mutual. Bye.”

  For a moment, Emily stood looking at her suitcase in indecision. She should obey Donald and get out of there. Yes, that would be the sensible thing to do. But the next second, her hand was on the doorknob, her suitcase on the floor by her feet. She had to find him and warn him!

  She never got a chance. When the door flew open, nearly hitting her in the face, there stood Michael Chamberlain—and it didn’t take much to see that he was enraged.

  He looked from her to the suitcase then back to her face again. “You were going to leave me, weren’t you?” he said under his breath.

  Emily backed up. “How did you get in here? That door was locked.”

  “Making doors open seems to be one of my powers,” he answered in dismissal as he advanced toward her, his jaw set. “It’s bad enough that you don’t recognize me, don’t remember me, but you were going to leave me as well.”

  “You are insane, you know that?” Her back was against the dresser and he was still coming closer. “And for your information, I was planning to find you and warn you.”

  Just as he got so close that she could feel his breath on her face, he turned away. “I saw this body on your—”

  “Television.”

  “Yes. Someone wants to kill me.”

  “No, they have already killed you,” she said, then couldn’t believe what she was saying. “But you’re innocent. I talked to Donald about you and—”

  “You did what? You told someone about me?”

  “Only Donald. Listen, I can draw you a map and tell you how to get to an abandoned cabin up in the mountains. I’ll even give you my car, and you have money so you can buy yourself groceries and you can hide out there.”

  “And how long do you think it will take your police to find out that you were with me? Ten minutes? Fifteen?”

  For a moment he ran his hand over his face as he tried to calm himself. “Look, Emily, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do here on Earth, but it has something to do with you and I’ve spent all the time I can spare in courting you so—”

  “Courting me! Is that what you call this? You threatened to charge me with drunk driving if I didn’t let you—”

  She broke off because Michael, in one swift movement, grabbed her in his arms and put a hand over her mouth. Emily tried to squeal in protest but his grip was too strong. A second later, a knock sounded on the door. Squirming with all her might, Emily tried to get away, but Michael held her tightly.

  “Miss Todd,” came a man’s voice.

  Michael started pulling Emily toward the window as though he meant for her to climb out of it, but she grabbed the sides of the frame.

  “They think you’ve helped one of the ten-most-wanted criminals,” he said into her ear. “What do you think they’ll do to you?”

  As soon as Emily thought about those words she quietened. Neither she nor Donald wanted the publicity that would be generated by her being found with this man. Michael removed his hand from her mouth to push the window up higher.

  “But I’m innocent!” she hissed, then tried to push past him to get to the door.

  “So was Michael Chamberlain,” he said into her left ear.

  Emily hesitated only a second before she climbed out the window onto the tiny balcony, Michael right behind her.

  “Now what?” she asked, her back pressed to the wall. “Do you spread your wings and we fly to the ground?”

  “Wish I’d brought them,” he said seriously, as though she hadn’t made a joke. He was looking at the building. “No wings, but we can go down that,” he said, nodding toward a drainpipe that ran down the side of the building.

  “If you think—”

  But Michael had already lifted her to the balcony rail and was bending her backward as he studied the drainpipe. “Put your foot there and hold onto that ledge.”

  “And then what?”

  Looking back at her, his eyes twinkled. “Then you pray very hard.”

  “I hate angel jokes,” she said under her breath as she stuck out her foot. Getting over the balcony was easier than it looked, thanks to the building’s fancy carpentry, which was a veritable lacework of beading, molding and curlicues that seemed to protrude everywhere.

  However, when Emily was on the ground, she found that she was shaking so much she had to sit down on a large stump to steady her knees.

  “Catch!” she heard, and looked up in time to miss being hit in the face by two full laundry bags.

  Within seconds Michael was on the ground beside her and he had another bag in his hand. “I couldn’t carry the suitcase so I put everything in these.”

  Opening one bag she saw her clothes and toiletries jammed inside. For a suspected killer he certainly could be thoughtful.

  “Let’s go,” he said, then grabbed her hand and started running toward the parking lot.

  As soon as they reached her car, Emily panicked because she didn’t have her handbag. “I’ll find it,” Michael said, dumping first one then another laundry bag out onto the back seat.

  Emily was so annoyed at his reading her mind that she didn’t protest the mess he was making, but just got into the car and waited until he got in beside her and handed her the keys. “Where to?” she asked angrily. Her ankle was hurting and there were three bleeding scratches on her hand from some thorny branch that grew alongside the hotel. Besides that, she was tired and very frightened.

  “It will be all right,” Michael tried to reassure her as he reached for her hand, but she jerked away from him.

  “Sure it will,” she said as she backed out of the parking lot. “I’m about to be arrested for harboring a fugitive but everything will be just fine.”

  She didn’t look at the man beside her as she pulled up to the entrance of the hotel, and she didn’t bother asking him which way he wanted to go. No doubt he’d start that angel business again and tell her he only traveled north and south.

  Emily drove east, the opposite direction of her hometown, down what looked to be a farm road. Immediately, she began to think how much she hoped she’d be able to go to work on Monday. Beside her, the man sat quietly, not saying a word. But she was very aware of his presence.

  Emily’s mind was moving rapidly, filling with thoughts of how to get rid of him. Had that been the FBI at the door of her room? Or was it room service? Had she ordered anything? Maybe Donald had called someone. For all she knew, the person behind the door had been her savior, not her enemy as this man had made her think. Maybe—

  “Stop here,” Michael said softly.

  Glancing at him, Emily saw that he was frowning deeply. There wasn’t much light, but she could see that he was deeply worried. Ahead of them were the lights of what looked to be a terrifically sleazy motel/cafe. Maybe he wanted to get something to eat.

  “No! Here,” he said forcefully. “Let me out here.”

  “But—”

  “Now!” he said, and Emily nearly screeched to a halt by the side of the road, then watched as he got out of the car. “You’re free, Emily,” he said softly. “Free to go. Tell anyone who asks the truth, that I kidnaped you and forced you to go with me. Tell them I did it at gunpoint. You mortals love guns. Good-bye, Emily,” he said, then shut the door.

  Emily didn’t waste even a moment getting away from him. A great rush of