No Denying You (Danvers #5)(60)

Ava cleared her throat to get his attention. “We just wanted to see if you wanted to grab a drink?” Before he could answer, Jason and Claire stepped into his now crowded office. Since office hours were officially over for the day, the head of Danvers and his wife were holding hands. Brant felt a pang that he was powerless to control. He needed to find Emma.

He started to clear his desk to do just that.

Claire stepped forward. “Brant, how is Emma doing? I guess it’s too soon to know any type of arrangements yet, but we want to do something for her. All of us would like to be there for her.”

Brant dropped the papers he was holding, looking at Claire in confusion. “What are you talking about? Arrangements for what?”

Jason stepped forward and put his arm around his wife. “Didn’t Emma talk to you when she left today?”

“Er . . . we talked some this morning. She went home, though, hours ago.” He didn’t feel the need to elaborate as to why. “What’s going on?”

“Beth came to my office and said that she had run into Emma in the lobby and that she was hysterical. Her sister . . .”

When Claire stopped, Jason stepped in for her. “I believe her sister has passed away. Beth insisted on taking her to the airport and helping her get a flight home. She tried to go with her, but there was only one seat available. We were all concerned and want to make sure that she arrived home safely.”

“Oh my God!” Brant surged to his feet. “I didn’t know. She came in here this morning and hugged me, but I thought . . . f*ck . . . no . . . no . . . no! She needed me and I practically threw her out. NO!” His chest was tight, his heart was racing and there wasn’t enough air in the room. He had never felt anything like this before. The concerned and shocked faces before him were starting to spin out of focus.

“Brant!” He vaguely heard Ava’s voice before she was beside him. Before he knew it, he was sitting in his chair with his head between his legs. “Easy, slow breaths. Slow and steady.” For what felt like hours, he focused on getting his breathing back under control. The heart attack that he’d thought he was having was looking more like his first panic attack. He had to get himself under control. This wasn’t about him; it was about Emma. He had already let her down in the worst way imaginable today. It was time to find her.

Everyone gave him a wary look as he got unsteadily to his feet. “Mark, I need to go to Florida right now. . . .”

Without any questions, Mark pulled out his phone and they heard him instruct his pilot to fuel the jet. “You’re all set. He was already staying near the airport, since I was planning to head out later tonight. He’ll change his flight plan and be ready when you arrive. My car is downstairs. Ava and I will drop you.”

Brant assured Jason and Claire that he would be in touch and followed Mark and Ava out. His head was reeling, but his usual sense of organization was kicking in. If he could just stay focused on the task of getting to Emma and block out the emotion, he could make it. If he stopped to think back on what he had done to her when she had come to him today, it would be all over.

He would fall apart and be useless to her. I’m coming, baby, I’m coming.

Emma had no idea how she had made it through the flight and the taxi ride to her parents’ home. There had been no chance of being stopped by security or dogs this time, as she had nothing but her purse and the clothes on her back. Robyn . . . Oh my God, Robyn. It couldn’t be true. When she walked in the door, her parents, Robyn and Boston would all be sitting there laughing and so relieved. It was just a misunderstanding. Some awful trick someone had played on them. In the part of her mind still capable of rational thought, she knew that no one would ever play this type of horrible joke on her family—she needed to believe that there was some hope, though. It was all that had kept her going since the call. She had fallen apart when her father told her the news. She had sat at her desk for a few moments before rushing to Brant. She had needed him to hold her, to tell her that everything was okay. When he had thrust her away from him and yelled at her, she had crawled into her shell and gone into survival mode.

Thank goodness for Beth. Without her, she would have driven herself to the airport and she was in no condition to do that. She vaguely remembered Beth arguing and pleading with the airline to let her have a seat on the plane. It didn’t happen, though, and Emma was on her own. She had made it, though. She had broken all records for speed getting home to her family. Except now why was she standing at the front door, afraid to go in? Because if you go in, then it’s real. Instead of opening the door, she dropped to the steps, needing just another moment. When the door opened behind her, she looked over in surprise as Boston lowered himself to the step beside her. She laid her head on his shoulder and murmured, “It’s true, isn’t it?”

He let out a breath that sounded more like a sob and said, “Yeah, she’s gone, Em.”

“What happened? Dad said that she drowned. How is that possible? Robyn could swim like a fish.”

“She was surfing a new break with some of her friends. From what we’ve been told, the surf was pretty brutal and she wiped out over some coral. Her leash was tangled. She had taken a big hit to her head and they think she was too disoriented to free herself.”

Emma could tell by the shaking of Boston’s body against hers that he was crying. She turned and put her arms around him, burying her face against his big shoulders. They stayed that way until their father found them sometime later.