Emma's Home (The Fairfield Series) (23 page)

Reaching down to massage her breasts, Jake pinched her nipple.

“Jake, I’m close,” she screamed. Jake pulled out quickly, and Emma felt the loss immediately, moaning in disappointment.

He flipped her over on her stomach ordering, “Up on your knees baby.” He gripped Emma’s hips in his strong hands and entered her again thrusting as far as he could push. This position changed the sensation and Emma quickly felt the familiar explosion as she went over the edge again. Jake continued for a few more forceful strokes until he felt his cock strain and climaxed, jerking and releasing into her waiting body. He collapsed onto her back, feeling numb in ecstasy. Both breathing heavily, Jake soon rolled to the side to take his weight off of her tiny frame. Emma continued to lay on her stomach with her head turned to face him.

They lay for a while, facing each other, saying nothing but feeling everything. Sometimes, Emma thought, words aren’t necessary. All she needed was right here beside her in the bed. This magnificent man who showed her more and more each day what it is to be cared for. She basked in his love, stroking his arm, looking into his baby blues. Jake rubbed his palm along her back, over the globes of her ass and back again.

Her cell phone chirped with a message, and they quickly looked at the clock, then back at each other.

“We’re late!” Emma cried as she started to jump from the bed. Jake pulled her back down on top of him, hardly feeling her weight. He held the back of her head and pulled her in for a deep, but soft kiss. Emma relaxed into the kiss. Slowly he released her, smiling up at her beautiful face.

“I love you, Emma girl,” he whispered. Looking down at this handsome, caring man, Emma smiled back.

“I love you too, Jake,” she replied. “Always,” she added gently.

A
cold front moved in and a pre-Christmas snow was predicted. It was the week before the holidays, and the students were anxious to be out.

“My students are bouncing off the walls,” Laurie complained. “You should be glad you are at the high school.”

Emma laughed. “What makes you think teenagers are any better than your first graders? They are just as excited, only bigger!”

Laurie had called Emma before school, checking to see what she and Jake were doing for Christmas.

“I guess we will be with his mom,” Emma answered. Laurie heard the wistfulness in her voice.

“You miss your house, don’t you?” Laurie asked.

“Yeah. Don’t get me wrong. Mary is great. But I so wanted to decorate my house for the holidays and have people over. I have now been out of my house for two weeks, and I am going crazy,” Emma replied. “Oh, the first bell is ringing and I have hall duty. Talk to you after school.”

Emma was back in her office later, when Brad asked if she could see him.

“Sure, come on in,” she greeted. It had been a few weeks since she had talked to him. Looking at him closely, he appeared nervous and yet was making eye contact. “What’s up?” she asked casually.

“Ms. Dodd, I need to you tell something.” Emma sat quietly, giving Brad the opportunity to talk at his own comfort level. “The night of the fire, remember? At your house?”

Encouraged, Emma nodded willing for him to continue.

“Well, I was near there,” he paused but then quickly added, “but I didn’t start it.”

“Okay,” Emma said gently. “Can you tell me what did happen?”

Taking a deep breath, he plunged on. “Me and the guys go to the park, down by the little river, kind of on the back side of where you live now. We discovered it last summer.” He looked back up at Emma, with a guilty look. She sat quietly, waiting for him to continue.

“We found that it was a good place to umm… party, you know?” He blushed a little, as though he was embarrassed to be admitting that he partied. Emma gently smiled at him.

“We liked it because it was back over that ridge, and the Park Rangers never go down there and well, until you moved in, there hadn’t been anyone living on your side of the river in years. We could play music, drink beer, and sometimes take our girlfriends there. When it was warm, we would even swim some ‘cause the water wasn’t too fast at all.” Brad chuckled. “We used to wonder why they called it a river when it was more like a big creek. I know that is why our grades were slipping at the beginning of the year. Senioritis hit and we just wanted to party.” He looked back up into her eyes and stated firmly, “But we NEVER had a fire there, I swear.”

He paused again and then continued. “We knew it was illegal to have fires in the park and we just never wanted to take a chance on doing something that stupid.”

“What happened the night of the fire?” Emma prodded.

“It was only me and a couple of guys hanging out drinking. We heard some noise across the river, and we started to walk over. We started seeing some flames, and the other guys ran off.” He looked away, an expression of embarrassment crossing his face.

“We knew we could get in trouble being out there drinkin’.” He raised his eyes back to hers. “I ran over the log connecting the two sides and saw someone near the flames of the hut. Smoke was coming out, and the flames were shootin’ up. I couldn’t get a good look at who was out there, but he turned around and saw me. Ms. Dodd, I’m ashamed to say, I took off runnin’ too. I hightailed it back over the log and caught up to my friends. I didn’t say anything at first – no one was hurt and I just went home.”

“Brad, you could have told me. We could have told the police. Drinking in the woods with your friends isn’t a good thing, but I know your parents would want to know that you were safe. Jake and your parents could have helped out. What were you afraid of?” she asked.

Brad shook his head slowly, eyes misting over. He raised a hand up, pressing his fingers into his eyes trying to keep the tears from falling. Emma quietly leaned over and pulled a tissue out of the box on her desk, holding it out to him. He took it gratefully, wiping his eyes. Then he looked back at her, straightening his back. Emma waited until he was composed enough to continue.

“What happened then, sweetie?” she asked gently.

“The next mornin’ I told my friends that I was going to the police. They’re good guys, Ms. Dodd. We were all scared but we were all going to go together. When we got to my truck after practice, there was a note on the windshield. It was a warnin’.”

Emma’s blood ran cold.
Oh my God. Brad’s been threatened too.

“The note said that I was to stay quiet or they would make the evidence look like we did it and I’d lose my scholarship. Me, Scotty, Rick, and Nate all just looked at the note and froze. Ms. Dodd, I’m not afraid to tell you we were scared shitless,” he said emphatically.

“I’m sure you were. I would have been too,” Emma confessed. She looked at him wonderingly. “What’s changed now, Brad? Why are you telling me this now?”

Brad sat quietly for a few minutes, pulling his thoughts together. He raised his teary eyes up to hers.

“I just heard my parents talkin’ about how you’ve been gettin’ notes too and how someone is tryin’ to get to you. They said you’d been chased out of your house. That’s just not right, Ms. Dodd. I thought about it all night and decided it was time to man up. I talked to the boys this morning. They know I am here. They agree.”

Emma reached over and placed her hand on his arm, smiling at him. “Brad, keep this in mind before you beat yourself up too much. It is not the measure of a man in the mistakes you make. But in how you choose to correct those mistakes.”

Brad glanced up into her smiling eyes and found himself smiling back. He felt lighter than he had felt in months. Taking a deep breath, he asked her what they should do now.

Emma thought for just a minute. She told him that she would call Jake and let him know what was going on. She also said she would call his parents and talk to them as well. She was going to tell Wendy and Bill to come pick him up after school and have them with Brad when he gave his statement to the police. Brad nodded, seemingly relieved for the first time since he came into her office. She stood as he did, pulling him into a hug.

Looking into his eyes, she smiled and said, “You did good, kiddo.” He just nodded and left her office.

Emma sat back down, feeling better than she had in a long time. Pondering the new information, her mind began to race with ideas.

Finally, we may be getting somewhere. Who would have wanted to burn down the shack? The only reason would have been if there was something there that they did not want anyone to know about. That property had been vacated for years so the hut in the woods would have been the perfect place to hide something. And when I moved in, it may have made someone nervous. I know the police checked out the area and didn’t find anything. But maybe, something was missed.

Grabbing her phone, she called Jake. His phone went straight to voicemail. She left a message that told him to call when he got a chance. She then called the station to see if Mike or Tom was available. The dispatcher put her through to Mike.

“Hey Emma, what’s up? You finally decide to dump Jake’s ass and give me a chance?” Mike joked.

Emma laughed. “No, but if I ever do, I’ll let you know,” she joked back. “Listen, I wanted to let you all know that Brad Evans and his parents are coming to the station right after school. He and some guys were near that old hut that burned and he may have seen something suspicious.”

“What did he see?”

“I want him to tell you himself, but I will just say that he saw a suspect at the time of the fire. It seems that he and some of his friends ran but then got a threatening note to not tell anyone. I wanted to talk to Jake because I was going to head back over to my place and see if there is anything suspicious still there.”

“Don’t be foolish, Emma,” Mike admonished. “You know Jake would shit if he knew you were off by yourself over there. We didn’t find anything and determined it could have been a vagrant that had used the property because it had been vacant for so long.”

“I know, Mike. But what if there is something there. A vagrant wouldn’t threaten Brad’s scholarship if he told anyone.”

There was silence on the phone as Mike pondered this information. “You’re right, Emma. But I don’t want you to go. How about if I drive out there myself, check things out again. You could come in here to the station, wait on Jake, and be here when Brad, Wendy, and Bill get in.”

Emma had to admit that Mike’s plan made sense. She agreed, hung up, and then realized the last bell had rung. Looking out of her window, she saw Wendy and Bill picking up Brad. She called them earlier, knowing this was going to be hard on them, but they were proud of Brad for coming forward. Reaching for her purse, she checked her cell phone noticing that Jake had not yet returned her call. Walking to her car she glanced over when she saw Coach Ted jogging to his truck. As she was driving through the parking lot, ready to head to the station, Ted peeled out leaving her to stare after him.

Did Brad tell the coach what he was going to do? Why else would he be heading out of here as though his ass was on fire?

Quickly changing directions, Emma decided to head over to her place. She would be safe if Mike was over there, and she didn’t want to waste any time. She tried Jake’s cell phone again but he still didn’t pick up. Calling the dispatcher, she was told that Jake and Tom were already in the interview room with Brad and his parents.

“Just tell him that I have headed over to my place to check out the burned hut with Mike. I have some suspicions and want to check them out.” She didn’t want to mention Ted’s name; she had no proof that he was involved in anything illegal and wanted to be careful what she said.

Seeing that Ted was traveling a few cars ahead of her, she wondered if she should follow him instead of going to her place. Her decision was made a few blocks away when she was stopped by a red light. She lost track of Ted, but didn’t care. By now she convinced herself that she needed to be with Mike looking over the burned area. Pulling into her driveway, she followed the familiar curves until her house came into view. Even in the dead of winter, the sight of her house warmed her heart. She couldn’t help but smile, determined to put an end to whatever was keeping her from enjoying her home. Driving toward the garage, she parked outside. Stepping outside of her car, a blast of cold air swirled around, showing that the temperature had dropped significantly. Leaning back in, she grabbed her scarf. Shoving her keys in one pocket and her cell phone in the other, she started off around the house.

Tromping over the dead grass she thought back to the activity of last summer; Brad mowing, Helen planting flowers, and Jake coming around to see what needed to be worked on.

More determined than ever, she headed into the woods at the back of her property towards the Little River. The last time she had been in the woods it was fall and there were still a lot of leaves on the trees, full of red, gold, and orange. Now as she walked, she noticed how desolate everything looked. Winter was not her favorite season. The wind kicked up and she wrapped her scarf tighter around her neck.

She found herself attempting to walk carefully and quietly, but had no idea why. It was as though she instinctively felt fearful, without knowing what there was to be afraid of. She desperately wished she had either called Mike to see when he would be here or that she had waited on Jake.

Emma stopped suddenly at the sound of voices raised in anger. Her heart began to pound as she wasn’t sure what to do. Peering ever so slowly around the large tree that was blocking her sight, she tried to discern who was in the woods near the river. She could see two men, but only one was partially visible.

“I’m done, you hear me? I’m out,” one of the men said.

“You’ll be done when I say you’re done. Nothing’s changed. We’ve got a good deal here and it works because you don’t ask questions, you just do what I goddamn tell you to do.”

“No more, I’m telling you. I’ve sat back and watched my boys be scared, but no more,” the first one shouted again.

My boys? Oh my God, that’s Ted.