A California Christmas (Silver Springs #7) - Brenda Novak Page 0,100
dark in back. Only one dim light bulb hung over the back door so that employees could see well enough to haul the trash to the receptacle. Emery could see nothing else—just a fence and, behind that, raw land.
“There’s no one here,” she said peering toward that door from the corner of the building. She wasn’t about to walk down there even with Terrell. The email invite had to be some sort of game, she decided—but the next thing she knew, Terrell grabbed her arm and jerked her out of sight so quickly she didn’t even have the chance to scream.
As soon as she realized that he’d tricked her, that the entire past hour had been a setup, she opened her mouth to cry out. But it was too late. By then he had his hands round her neck and was squeezing so tightly she couldn’t breathe.
“Leave Ethan Grimes alone. Do you hear?” he gritted through a clenched jaw, his eyes glittering in the darkness like the stars she could see over his shoulder. “Drop the suit and do nothing to threaten him or his job—or this won’t be the last you see of me.”
His hands still around her neck, he pulled her away from the building only to shove her into it again, this time lifting her a few inches off the ground as he did so and banging her head into the rough brick.
* * *
After the big Christmas party at school, Dallas had gone to the airport to pick up his three brothers, who’d flown into Burbank. They’d hurried back to Silver Springs to do a quick rehearsal for the wedding, after which they’d all had pulled pork, potato salad and barbecue beans at Cal’s ranch. It had been a loud, boisterous night with the nieces and nephews running around, trying to take the ornaments off the tree they’d decorated not only for Christmas but for the wedding.
Dallas had talked and laughed and played with the younger kids, carrying them on his shoulders or pretending to drop them to make them scream and laugh. He’d also enjoyed seeing the twins, Ryan and Taylor, who were on holiday break from graduate school, and Seth, who lived in San Francisco, worked as a sculptor and didn’t come around very often since losing his wife.
But the later it got, the more concerned he grew. He’d expected Emery to come through the door long before now and was beginning to worry that she hadn’t. The cookie store closed at ten and it was after one.
Where was she?
Aiyana had gone to bed and his two youngest brothers were gaming in one of the bedrooms since he, Seth, Ryan and Taylor were using the TV in the living room. They’d flipped off the lights, stretched out on the couches and put on a movie—a good one. Dallas should’ve been completely engrossed, and he would’ve been, except he’d finally broken down and texted Emery about twenty minutes ago to see where she was, and he still hadn’t received a response.
Was she angry with him? He’d known things were going to be awkward between them as they tried to navigate their friendship without sex, but he’d thought they could still communicate—until even his second plea went unanswered.
He thought of Cain and the night she’d had dinner with him. Had she met up with someone else from high school? Maybe she was having drinks with an old girlfriend and wasn’t checking her phone.
It had to be something like that, he told himself.
But she was in a lawsuit with her ex-boyfriend, and he’d heard the threats Ethan had screamed at her over the phone.
“What are you doing, man?” Seth asked, distracted by the light of Dallas’s phone going on and off every few minutes.
“Nothing,” he replied but when he stood, Ryan paused the movie.
“What’s up? Where are you going?”
“Mom told you about Emery Bliss, right?” Dallas said.
It was Taylor who answered. “Of course. That’s why I’m sleeping in the same room as Ryan.”
“Well, she should’ve been home by now. I’m going to drive to town, see if I can spot her car.”
Seth started to get up. “Should I go with you?”
“There’s no need to miss the movie. I’m sure everything’s fine. I’ll be back soon.”
* * *
It was one-thirty by the time Dallas spotted Emery’s car in the parking lot at the Blue Suede Shoe. It hadn’t taken long to find. Since that was one of the only places that would be open so late, it was