So Dark The Night. Margaret Daley

was a blank except the pain piercing through her shoulder like a red-hot poker.

      The swishing sound of the door opening alerted her to someone entering her room. She automatically looked toward where she believed the door was even though her world was dark, no face materializing before her.

      “Who is it?” She hated the need to ask, but she hated even more knowing someone else was in the room seeing her like this. She felt so vulnerable, so alone.

      “Your dad, Emma.”

      The deep baritone of her father’s voice sliced through her fragile control, causing every muscle to tense, a different kind of hurt, buried for years, surfacing. She tried to visualize on the black screen in her mind what her father looked like. All she could recall was the last picture she’d seen of him in the newspaper a year before. Grainy, his features vague. The photo of him was at a distance. Like their relationship.

      “I’ve come to take you home.”

      Her hands curled around the covers. “Where’s that? Your home? Mine? Mother’s?”

      “Mine.”

      He said it with such force and confidence that Emma blinked. “No.”

      “What do you mean, no? Your life may be in danger. You’re—” He paused as though he couldn’t think of a word to describe the condition her life was in. “You’re injured. I won’t accept your answer.”

      His powerful voice bombarded her at close range. If she reached out, she could probably touch him. She balled her hands into tighter fists even though the action caused her more pain. She concentrated on the pain streaking up her arm to take her mind off her reeling emotions. “You have no choice. I am not leaving with you.”

      “You need special care. You need to be protected.”

      Where were you when I was growing up? She wanted to shout the question at him. Instead, she pressed her lips together to keep from saying anything because she knew it was useless to argue with the man. He was a force to be reckoned with, and right now she had no strength to fight anyone.

      “You aren’t thinking clearly, Emma. Someone murdered Derek. Someone shot you.”

      That much she knew. It was all the space between those two events that was blank—like her view of the world through her eyes. Dark. Nothing.

      He touched her arm. She winced and tried to pull away, but his fingers clasped around her. She thought of her dream, of the talons gripping her.

      Frustration, mixed with hopelessness, swamped her. Tears welled up, but she choked them back. Not in front of this man who didn’t have a heart. Never again. Those years long ago crying herself to sleep had taught her the uselessness of tears.

      He removed his hand from her arm. “That woman has filled your mind with lies for years.”

      “It wasn’t your choice to divide the family down the middle?”

      “The past has nothing to do with the here and now. I have hired a bodyguard for you.”

      “No. I don’t want anything from you. Don’t you get it? I can’t see. I don’t even remember what happened. I’m certainly no help to the sheriff. I’m not a threat to anyone.” She searched the covers for the call button. She couldn’t take another moment with the man who had given her up and never had anything to do with her after her mother divorced him, except an occasional call on her birthday or during the holidays.

      “I’m not walking away this time, Emma.”

      He must have moved from the bed toward the door. There was an odd sound to his voice, a thickness, but she didn’t want to dwell on what it could be—probably frustration at not being able to control her. Control was paramount to her father. Wasn’t that one of the reasons her mother had left him?

      A bone-weary exhaustion compelled her to close her eyes, to relax the taut set of her body. It took too much energy to remain on guard. “I don’t want you here. Please leave,” she murmured through dry lips. She needed water, but she didn’t want him to see her try to find the pitcher and plastic cup the nurse had left on the beside table. She couldn’t appear helpless in front of him. Strength was the only thing he related to.

      “For the moment. But I’ll be back, Emma.”

      The sound of the door closing drew a breath of relief from her. She waited a few minutes, gathering her energy before attempting to get a glass of water. She tried lifting her uninjured arm, but her confrontation with her father had sapped more of her strength than she had thought. Parched, she lay helpless in her bed.

      Why is this happening to me?

      She wanted to scream and hide at the same time. She wanted to sleep but was afraid the nightmare would return. She wanted to be in control of her life. She wanted her big brother to hold her and tell her everything would be all right. Over the years she had wanted a lot of things, but that didn’t—

      “Miss St. James?”

      She gasped, totally taken by surprise. That thought sent panic through her. So exposed. Alone.

      “Colin Fitzpatrick.”

      “The reverend? Why are you back?” Please leave me alone. Can’t you see I don’t want visitors? Can’t you see I’m barely holding myself together?

      “I couldn’t leave without telling you why I visited in the first place.”

      There was a long moment of silence that heightened Emma’s feeling of vulnerability. She had no idea what was really going on around her.

      “I was driving the car that hit you.”

      “Hit me?” Emma murmured, her forehead wrinkling.

      “Last night my SUV struck you on the highway.” As that sentence tumbled from his mouth, Colin’s guilt prodded him forward toward the woman who looked lost in the hospital bed, as though she was unraveling before his eyes.

      “You were there?” Her frown deepened.

      “I tried to avoid you. I thought I had. But—” His words died on his lips.

      She touched her shoulder where the bandage was. “I thought I was shot.” Closing her eyes, she buried her face in her hands.

      “You were.”

      With a shake of her head she looked in his direction. “I’m confused. I wish I remembered what happened. I was shot but you hit me, too?”

      Colin nodded, then realized she couldn’t see him and said, “Yes.”

      “Why didn’t you tell me that earlier? What kind of game are you playing? Who are you, really?”

      The questions lashed out at him, and he took a step back. “I’m exactly who I said I was. I’m a minister. I was driving home from a conference with some members of the youth group at my church when the accident occurred.”

      “What do you want from me?”

      “Nothing.”

      “Nothing?”

      The confused look on her face spoke volumes to him. He wondered about the cynical expression as he said, “I want to help you. I know how hard it is to lose someone you love. I told you earlier that I was a good listener. If I—”

      “Please,” she interrupted, turning her head away from him. “I just want to be left—”

      The door opened. Emma stopped in mid-sentence, the sound prompting her to glance toward the person entering. Colin didn’t need any introductions to the older woman making her entrance. Her honey-colored hair fell to her shoulders in thick, lustrous waves, not a hint of gray. Her beautiful, flawless face held no wrinkles, as though time had stopped for her at thirty or she’d had the use of a good plastic surgeon. Her wide, cobalt-blue eyes were full of concern as Marlena Howard walked toward the bed where her daughter lay.

      “Emma,