Into the Fire Page 3

  Maggie felt as if she had been slapped in the face. To them she was an outsider. But I belong. She bit the inside of her mouth to keep from shouting the truth. The realization that the words she had no intention of saying had been on the tip of her tongue sent alarm through her.

  Kane nodded toward Maggie. “Thankfully Maggie was home to help Kenny.”

  “I’m sorry about the earlier reception. As you may have gathered by now, I’m Kenny and Ashley’s mother, Vicky Pennington. Thanks for saving,” her voice faltered for a few seconds before she swallowed hard and finished, “my little girl.”

  My little girl. But I am too.

  Both Kane and Vicky waited for a response. Maggie fought down the panic surfacing. She needed to escape, retreat to her apartment and regroup.

  “I’m glad I was here to help out,” Maggie finally said, her throat closing about the words. Her anger swelled to the surface, her fingernails cutting deeper into her palms. Why did you give me up? She was afraid to say anything for fear that question would tumble out.

  “I helped Maggie move in yesterday,” Kenny said, breaking the awkward moment of silence. “She paid me ten dollars!” He took the money out of his pocket and waved it in the air.

  Vicky shifted her attention to her son. “Ten dollars?”

  Envy, doubt and anger constricted Maggie’s stomach. She prayed none of her confused feelings were showing on her face. As Kenny and Vicky talked, Maggie saw her chance to escape. She took the few steps to the entrance and fled into the hallway.

  Her gaze fastened on her door, she headed for it. The sound of the one behind her closing relaxed some of the tension in her until she heard Kane say, “Are you all right?”

  “Great,” she murmured and thrust open her door. Safe.

  She turned to close it, but Kane had already slipped inside her apartment. She rotated away from his probing gaze. It was bad enough she felt this seesawing between anger and hurt. She certainly didn’t want him to see it in her expression.

  The sight of the disarray and stacked boxes accentuated her loneliness, a sense of abandonment. She hadn’t been prepared for this tangle of confusion twisting her stomach. In St. Louis she had thought she could handle this objectively as she did most things in her life. Wrong. There was nothing objective about this situation.

  “Maggie?”

  The sound of her front door finally being closed echoed through the apartment—her home now, hundreds of miles away from anything familiar. Why did I do this? Why couldn’t I be happy not ever knowing why my mother gave me up, what my heritage is? Lord, why do I have two mothers who don’t really want me? She desperately sought the strength she always gained when she turned to God for reassurance and comfort.

  “Maggie, you aren’t all right.” Kane touched her hand, sending a bolt of recognition up her arm.

  His nearness further eroded her self-confidence, making herself doubt her sanity for even considering this move. She’d gone through life insulating herself from others, and suddenly the walls were crumbling, her usual defenses no longer working. She stepped away, needing to put some distance between them.

  His worried expression prompted her to say, “I’m fine. Why do you ask?” None of the nonchalance she wanted to project came across. She held herself so taut that her body ached.

  “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe it was the pale tone to your skin, or the fact you didn’t even tell Kenny and Vicky goodbye.”

  Feigning an interest in an open box, she lifted her shoulders in a shrug. “It isn’t every day I save someone’s life.”

  “True. But my gut instinct tells me something else is going on here.”

  She picked up a book and flipped through it as though she hadn’t a care in the world. “What possibly could be going on?” When she thought she had herself under control, she faced him.

  He studied her, that piercing gaze of his roaming over her as though he could read her innermost thoughts. She prayed he couldn’t because after that scene in the Penningtons’ apartment she didn’t know if she could go ahead with her quest. She wanted answers, not a relationship with her birth mother. She’d already had one with her adoptive mother that hadn’t turned out well. Why subject herself to another?

  But still, there were blank holes in her family history she wanted filled. Could she form a friendship with the woman across the hall and discover the answers without disrupting anyone’s lives, especially Kenny’s and Ashley’s?

  Shaking his head, Kane massaged the back of his neck. “You know I usually make it a habit to stay out of other people’s business.”

  “Safer, isn’t it?”

  The intensity in his eyes trapped her. “Yes. Much safer.”

  For a long moment she stared at him. She glimpsed his vulnerability, a flash of pain, and that touched her battered heart. She wished she could deny his potent effect on her, but she couldn’t. She wished she could deny the spark of interest she sensed in his eyes before he veiled it, but she couldn’t. Just as she couldn’t give up her quest when she was so close to finding some answers.

  They both had their secrets. The barrier he had placed around his emotions was strong, possibly impregnable, and she had never been good at tearing down another’s defenses because she couldn’t get past her own, fortified from years of rejection.

  She averted her gaze. “Did you take care of everything in here yesterday?” That ought to be a safe enough subject. His visual assault still tingled up her body. She kept her eyes fixed on a spot across the room.

  He moved toward the front door. “I believe everything is good to go. If not, Edwina can take care of it.”

  “Kane.”

  He stopped and glanced back at her, his expression completely masked, no vulnerability evident.

  “Yes, Maggie?”

  “Thanks.”

  “For what? The Penningtons are special to me. I should be thanking you for saving Ashley.”

  “For your help today.” For understanding and not pushing, she finished silently.

  He inclined his head toward her, then left. The door closing magnified the feeling of loneliness that had inundated Maggie earlier. She looked about at the chaos. She felt her life was like the items in the boxes, not one of them in its proper place.

  Suddenly she needed to get away from the apartment. Walking into her bedroom, she dug through a box until she found her jogging clothes. One of the best ways she had found to handle her stress was to exercise—hard. After donning her shorts, T-shirt and tennis shoes, she left to run until she was too exhausted even to think.

  An hour later and bone tired, Maggie let herself into her apartment, removing her earplugs attached to her cell phone and placing them on the table in the small foyer. The idea of a hot shower prodded her to move faster toward her bedroom even though her muscles ached from her grueling workout.

  She entered the room, her gaze immediately fastening onto the boxes stacked against one wall. An unfamiliar scent accosted her nostrils. The hairs on her nape tingled. She started to turn.

  Thud!

  Something hard slammed into the back of her head. As she crumbled to the floor, the blackness swallowed her up.

  Chapter Three

  Pain pulsated a pounding rhythm against her skull. Maggie reached up and touched the spot that throbbed. A sticky substance coated her fingertips. Although the darkness reeled behind her closed eyes, she slowly opened her eyelids. Light assaulted her, and she shut them immediately.

  What happened?

  Again, she inched her eyes open, letting them adjust to the brightness that illuminated her bedroom. She held her hand up in front of her face and saw the red that covered her skin.

  Someone hit me?

  She remembered coming into her apartment and heading for her bedroom. After that, a blank slate greeted her probing. She was lying prone on the hardwood floor, so something had happened. But what?

  As though in slow motion, she twisted to her side to push herself to her feet. Halfway up, the room
spinning before her, she clutched the small table by the doorway to steady herself. It came crashing down on top of her. The books she had stacked on it tumbled into her and sent her collapsing to the floor. She hit her head in the same place that hurt. Pain streaked outward in waves that threatened to drive her back into the black void.

  * * *

  Edwina Bacon shuffled toward her recliner in front of her TV when she heard a loud noise as if something above her in Maggie’s apartment struck the floor. After all that happened in the past month, the manager of Twin Oaks skirted her chair and made her way toward her front door. She jingled her keys in her pocket to make sure she had them and left her place.

  With her hand on the ornate carved banister, she climbed the stairs as quickly as she could.

  At Maggie’s place, Edwina rang the bell.

  Nothing.

  She pressed in the white button a second then a third time.

  With a glance from side to side, Edwina removed her key ring and found the one to Maggie’s. If she wasn’t home, what caused that sound? If she was home, why hadn’t she answered the door?

  Edwina inserted her key and paused before turning the handle. Memories of Henry’s death only weeks before inundated her. She prayed this wasn’t a repeat of what happened to Henry. For a few seconds she thought of going back down and calling Kane or her nephew at the police station.

  Lord, what should I do?

  What if Maggie had fallen and hurt herself and couldn’t come to the door? What if she needed help now? With her teeth clenched, Edwina twisted the knob and pushed the door open.

  “Maggie? Are you all right?”

  Edwina stood in the entrance and glanced around, relieved nothing seemed disturbed. Although there were still unopened boxes scattered about the living room, she moved a foot into the apartment, leaving the door wide open.

  “Maggie,” she called.

  A moan sounded from the bedroom. Edwina hurried as fast as she could down the hallway. Her heartbeat thudded with each step against the hardwood planks.

  Then Edwina saw Maggie. She lay on the floor, her eyelids fluttering. Books were scattered about her, and a small table sat at an angle across her stomach.

  With an effort, Edwina knelt next to Maggie. Edwina pressed her lips together to keep her own moan inside her at the pain in her aching knees. Maggie needed her help.

  “Maggie,” she touched the young woman’s shoulder, “what happened?”

  Maggie grimaced as her gaze connected with hers. “I’m not sure.”

  “Here, let me help you up.” Edwina pushed the small table to the side, slid several books away and clasped the new tenant’s arm.

  Maggie attempted to hoist herself up, but pain flitted across her features.

  “Where are you hurt?” Edwina’s gaze fixed on the red stain on the wooden floor.

  Maggie sank back down, drew in a deep breath and brought her hand to her head. “Here.”

  “Let me see.” Gently Edwina turned the young woman’s head and saw the gash and her hair matted with blood. “You must have hit your head hard when you fell.”

  “No.”

  The weakness of her denial made Edwina look back into Maggie’s eyes, dulled with pain, the young woman’s features pale with a gray tinge.

  Silence reigned for a good minute, the new tenant’s brow creased as though she were recalling something. “Someone hit me from behind.”

  “Someone was in here?”

  “Yes,” Maggie said in a more definitive voice. “When I came home from my jog, the person must have been in here waiting for me.”

  “Why?”

  “I don’t know. A robbery attempt?”

  Edwina felt the shiver that shimmied down Maggie’s body. “I’m calling my nephew. He’s a detective with the police department. We can’t have this in our apartment building. You lie right there while I get some help.”

  “But—”

  “Don’t move. I’ll be right back.” Edwina struggled to her feet, her breathing coming in gasps, and started for the door.

  * * *

  With Maggie’s shock receding, a thought wormed its way into her mind. She could have been killed. Suddenly the idea of being by herself in her apartment caused her to blurt out, “Don’t leave me.”

  Edwina halted. “Oh, dear me. I’m not leaving. I’m just going to make a few calls.”

  Maggie gestured toward the bedside table, finally managing to sit up slowly. “I’ve got a phone over there, and it’s hooked up.”

  Edwina spotted it, and her face brightened into a smile. “That you do.” She shuffled over to the bed and sat while she punched in the numbers.

  Maggie listened to her make two calls, first to Kane then to her nephew David Morgan. Although Edwina’s words were muffled, Maggie heard the concern in the older woman’s voice. And Edwina’s sober expression only confirmed the seriousness of Maggie’s situation.

  She tried to think what she should do, but the throbbing pain encompassed her whole head now as though a marching band performed inside her skull. No coherent thoughts materialized, and she wilted back against the wall.

  A few minutes later while Edwina was still talking to her nephew, someone entered her apartment. Hurried footsteps resonated down her hallway. Was her attacker returning to finish the job? Maggie tensed, that slight movement pulsating a warning to her brain she ignored. She labored to sit straight up, but the action increased the hammering pain in her head until she could no longer ignore her plight.

  Kane appeared in her bedroom doorway.

  Exhaling her pent-up breath, Maggie wished she was anywhere but sprawled across the floor, her hair a tangled mess, her workout clothes askew. There was nothing dignified about her position, but she was so glad it wasn’t the intruder returning.

  “Edwina told me someone broke into your apartment.”

  Kane bent over and lifted her up into his arms as though she weighed ten pounds. As he walked to her bed, his clean scent of soap with a hint of pine wafted to her. She resisted the urge to lay her head on his shoulder and surrender to the blackness that edged closer with each jarring motion.

  Gently, as though she was precious to him, Kane placed her on her coverlet. Its softness cocooned around her legs as she eased back against the headboard. She was careful not to get any blood on her linens, careful not to make any sudden moves or touch the place where her intruder struck her. “Thanks.”

  He hovered above her, the look on his face hard and somber. “You need to be checked out at the emergency room.”

  “I know.” The pounding against her skull underscored her need to see a doctor. She knew the dangers of a concussion, and if the pain was any indication, she had a doozy.

  Edwina hung up. “Kane, can you take Maggie to the hospital?”

  “Yes.”

  Maggie wanted to protest but wouldn’t. She hated being beholden to anyone, but she really didn’t have much of a choice. She couldn’t see driving herself to the emergency room.

  Edwina turned toward Maggie. “I’m having David meet me here to check out your apartment. Then we’ll come to the hospital. He’ll get a statement from you there. Do you think anything is missing?”

  So many of her things were still in boxes. Maggie, without moving her head, made a visual sweep of the room. “Nothing looks disturbed, but I’ll need to go through what I have to be sure.”

  “I noticed your TV and laptop in the living room. Where’s your jewelry? That’s something else a burglar takes.” Edwina pushed herself off the other side of the double bed.

  “In the jewelry box on my dresser.” Maggie pointed toward it.

  Edwina retrieved it and set it in Maggie’s lap. “You might want to check it.”

  She opened the intricately carved box of cherry wood that her father had given her two birthdays ago, right before he’d died. The thought pained her more than the ache in her head.

  She didn’t have much but the few valuable pieces—a gold cross on a delicat
e chain, a cameo pin, a ring with a large red garnet encircled with tiny diamonds and a pair of opal earrings—were all there among her costume jewelry. “Nothing’s gone.”

  “Odd,” Edwina muttered as she took the box back to the dresser.

  Kane moved close. “Ready?”

  Maggie inhaled a deep breath. “As ready as I’m going to be.”

  She started to swing her legs over the side of the bed at the same time Kane began to scoop her up into his arms. She held her hand up. “I can walk.”

  There was no way she wanted him to carry her to his car. The very thought sent panic through her. The twenty seconds she had been in his embrace earlier was all she cared to experience. Liar, she chided herself. She’d enjoyed the feel of his arms about her more than she wanted to admit.

  But as she slowly rose from the bed, her wishes were denied. The room rotated. She collapsed back and clutched the coverlet to keep herself upright. The jerking action, however, swirled the room faster. She closed her eyes, but that only caused the dark to revolve. Her stomach roiled. That was when Kane’s strong arms enveloped her in their protective circle. Again, he lifted her effortlessly and headed toward the door.

  The exertion of holding her head up was too much for her. She surrendered to her earlier urge and laid her cheek against the cushion of his shoulder. The motion of him walking jounced her so she slid her eyes shut and bit down on her lower lip. Nausea continued to agitate her stomach. This bump on the noggin was worse than she’d thought.

  * * *

  “I don’t want to stay overnight!” Maggie tried to keep her head steady because any movement sent pain through her and riled her stomach. When would the medication the doctor gave her start working?

  Kane folded his arms across his chest. “Well, I’m not taking you home, and I doubt you’re in any condition to walk the ten blocks.”

  “Did anyone tell you that you’re not very accommodating?”