Page 264 of The Parkers' Handsome Holiday
Afterwards, I held her tight, loving the feel of her in my arms. She smiled up at me and I brushed her hair off her forehead.
I felt suddenly lighter than I had in a long time. Sharing my past with Emma had made me realize that I’d been carrying around the guilt of the desert woman’s death with me, wrapping my grief around me like a cocoon. Emma’s words made the difference, absolving me.
Although I might not have been able to save the woman in black, I could work my hardest to keep Emma safe. At the same time, I had to let her be an equal partner. She was smart, good at noticing things others didn’t. Those were valuable skills, and they shouldn’t be ignored just because I was worried about her.
All my life, I’d relied on myself. Coming from a broken home in a bad neighborhood, I’d had a hard time trusting others. I’d finally come to believe that Matt had my back, and then my Delta Force comrades. But after that day in the desert, I’d retreated into myself again. I’d thought then that it was myself I couldn’t trust. I was the one who’d let everyone down.
Now I realized that sometimes things happen in life that you couldn’t change. All you could try to do was rebuild and try to prevent more pain in the future. I wanted to rebuild now, wanted to learn to trust again.
Emma would provide the perfect opportunity to come back out of my shell. She would push me, challenge me, but also depend on me. I could build my confidence again while she worked at my side. I would value her like I valued my fellow warriors. I would watch her back like I watched theirs. And she would watch mine.
My phone rang, and I dug it out of my pants pocket. “Hello?”
“Walsh? It’s Douglas.”
I sat up, feeling suddenly guilty. Did he know Emma was here? How had I forgotten that Emma was the boss’s daughter?
“I was just down to the station, and I thought I’d fill you in on what was going on with Dexter Jansen.”
As I listened, Smith explained the whole sordid affair. It seemed that Jansen hadn’t been waiting for a product rollout, and there was no corporate espionage afoot, just as Emma had suggested. Jansen had been hiding out from organized crime figures.
The businessman had somehow gotten his hands on proof of the city councilman taking bribes, and he’d promptly tried to turn around and blackmail Drake. Drake had, of course, turned to his crime family buddies, and they’d turned their attention to Jansen.
Apparently, they’d made the assumption that Jack and Emma were in on the blackmail. When Emma had followed the man from the photo to the deli, she’d been fairly obvious in her pursuit.
I didn’t blame her. Tailing a guy without getting caught was an art form and she’d never trained for it. He’d watched her from inside the deli, and when she’d started to leave, he’d tailed her with two of his friends in one of their cars. She hadn’t even noticed she was being followed.
I thanked Smith for calling, and told him I planned to take it easy for the rest of the day, but that I’d be back in the office Monday morning. Then I hung up.
Emma was watching me, and I pulled her tight to me so that her head was resting on my shoulder. I related the bits that she hadn’t overheard, and I saw her start to blush.
“I’m such an idiot,” she groaned. “I led the bad guys right back to us.”
I leaned over to kiss her on the tip of her nose. “You couldn’t have known.”
“You would have seen them following you.”
I shrugged. “Maybe. Maybe not. And I did have training. You were doing this on the fly.”
Emma laughed. “Right. Well, then, I’m going to declare that I cracked the case.”
I laughed. “Is that so?”
“Yes.” She nodded, then continued, matter-of-factly. “I figured out about the councilman, and where their home base was. And I even got them to follow me back and led them into our trap.”
“Our trap?” She was ridiculous. And adorable.
“Yes. I set them up, you knock them down.”
I laughed, and she joined me. Then I turned to her, holding her steady while I gazed into her eyes. “It might have worked this time, but if you ever put yourself in danger like that again—”
“I know, I know,” she said, covering my mouth. “From now on, I’ll leave the really dangerous stuff to you.”
I nodded. “I can’t have the woman I love luring dangerous criminals into traps every day.”
She smiled. “Say it again.”
“What exactly do you want me to say?”
