"What is that?""Where?""On the beam."He rolled over, looking up into the rafters of his house. "You can see that?"She laughed. "I have very good vision, I'll have you know.""You must." He laughed, too. "You're the first person to notice them."She moved into his arms. "Why do you have cameras on your beams?""It was part of a security system. But they've been modified.""Modified to do what?""To take video.""You take video of people in your bedroom?" She pulled away, pushing at the pillows as she moved into a sitting position. "You make sex films?""No, not really," he said, sitting up and trying to tug her into his arms. She moved away. "Emma," he said, reaching for her arm, but she slipped out of his reach.She walked through his house with her head rolled back on her spine, searching all the beams that crisscrossed his ceilings. She saw another, then another, still another. There were at least six, maybe seven."What are they for?"He was standing against the wa

When Emma next woke, Steve was sitting in a chair beside her bed."Hey," he said, leaning close and running a finger down the side of her face. "How do you feel?""Like I rolled my car a few times," she said.He smiled, but it wasn't one of those smiles that filled his eyes with that sparkle she had always associated with him, with the happier moments of their time together. It had been a long time since she had seen that.Emma's eyes filled with tears. She turned, stared up at the ceiling."Hey," he said again. He ran his hand over the curve of her jaw. "You're going to be okay.""No," she said, shaking her head, and then regretting it as pain burst through her forehead. "Nothing's ever going to be okay again.""Emma-" he picked up her hand and kissed her palm lightly. "Nothing is set in stone."She just shook her head again.The door opened a moment later. The doctor came in, all business, blustering through a quick exam. When he was done, he handed Steve some paperwork. "Yo

Ray found them in the same positions they'd been in before, Emma curled up on the couch while Steve stood at the French doors, staring out at the swing set. He came and sat on the coffee table in front of Emma, leaning over to kiss her cheek gently."How are you?""I'll live," she said, with a soft smile."Good." He took her hand and held it between both of his. "Jen wanted to be at the hospital first thing this morning, but I talked her into going to get the boys for your mother. Convinced her that would be the best way to help you."Emma smiled. "Thank you, Ray."He nodded. He glanced over at Steve and then raised his eyebrows at Emma, as though asking what the deal was. She just bit her lip. Too long a story to tell."So, you wanted to talk to me?"Steve came over and sat on the couch, careful to sit with some distance between his body and Emma's. "Someone is trying to set Emma up."Ray's eyebrows rose again. "For what?"Emma glanced at Steve. He gestured for her to speak.

"I talked to McWhorter, the contractor, this morning," Steve was saying around a bite of Danish. "He said that he turned in all the keys he and his men had.""Do you believe him?" Ray asked.Steve shook his head. "I keep the spare keys in a locked drawer in my office. There was one missing."Emma sipped at the hot vanilla latte the waitress had just brought her. "Who else has a key to our house?"Steve looked over at her, his eyes so dark from a restless night's sleep that they looked almost as bruised as hers. "Just your parents. And Liz."Emma's eyebrows rose. "Why would Liz have a spare key to our house?"He sat back, pushing his thumb into a corner of his Danish. "She ran by the house a few weeks ago to get some paperwork I had forgotten. You weren't there, so I had to give her my keys. I gave her a spare the next day in case it happened again."Emma glanced at Ray. He was watching the two of them like a child waiting for World War III to break out between his parents. She b

Emma slid the key into the small lock and took a deep breath. She wasn't sure it would open. He had told her it would, but some little piece of her was still uncertain about this, about all of it. What if he had lied to her?It did turn.Steve stood behind her close enough that she could feel the heat of his body. She had expected him to argue, to insist they drop the whole thing and go home, back to their broken lives. But he didn't say a word when she told him what she wanted to do. Simply drove them to the bank like it was something they did every day.She flipped the little door open and reached inside for the safety deposit box. Steve grabbed it as it began to fall into her hands, lifting it away from her and carrying it to the small table. She hobbled over, her ankle still causing her a great deal of pain. Her knee, too, had gotten stiff where the stitches pulled and tugged with every step. Between the two injuries, her sore ribs and constant headache, it was a miracle she was