Somewhere Only We Know (31 page)

Everything had happened so fast. One minute she'd been making meatballs and the next she'd been fighting for her life. She looked toward the kitchen, thinking foolishly for a moment that she should make sure the oven was off. But the charred curtains and blackened walls reminded her that there would be no meatballs left to save, and she was lucky to be alive.

As she glanced down at the carpet, she could picture herself lying there. She saw Shelby with the needle in her hand. She'd known that she was going to die if she didn't do something. She'd never been so scared in her life.

The memories made her shake, and cold chills ran through her body, drawing goose bumps along her arms. She pulled the blanket off the back of the couch and wrapped it around her shoulders, telling herself everything was fine. She was all right. Shelby was on her way to jail. They were safe.

She just wished she felt safe.

Then Burke came through the door, his gaze immediately seeking hers. And those blue eyes of his immediately steadied her. He sat down on the couch next to her. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have left you alone."

"You were right outside the door."

"You're cold. You're in shock. Let's get you to the hospital."

Part of her wanted to argue, but the other part of her wanted to get out of the apartment so she could stop reliving Shelby's attack. "Shelby was so strong. It was like she had superhuman strength."

"You were dazed from the head injury."

"I was fighting to stay conscious," she agreed. "Maybe that's why she seemed so much bigger and more powerful than I was. I wasn't sure I could beat her."

"You were fighting hard when I came in," he said, admiration in his eyes. "You're something else, Maddie Heller. You don't give up, not even when the odds are against you."

"It was fight or die. I think I was losing. But you came him and pulled her off of me."

"I know you're going to go over it a lot in your head, and I want you to talk to me about every second of it," he told her. "But right now I want to get you to the hospital." He stood up and pulled her into a standing position. Then he put his arm around her. "Hang on to me, babe. I won't let you fall."

She had no intention of doing anything else.

Burke drove her to the hospital, and within minutes she was taken into an examining room. Burke insisted on accompanying her into the room. She sat down on the table while he hovered nearby, ready to make good on his promise to catch her if she was about to fall.

While they were waiting for the doctor to come in, Burke's phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket to check the number. "Max."

"You should get it."

"Hello? Yeah, we're okay. We're at the hospital. Maddie is getting checked out." He paused. "We're at St. Mark's." He listened for a few moments, then added, "All right. Thanks."

"What's happening?" she asked.

"Max is on his way over here."

"Did he say anything about Mitch or Shelby?"

"Mitch is in intensive care, but he's holding his own. Max said he'd fill us in on everything else."

"It's weird that we're here at St. Mark's."

He gave her a questioning look. "What do you mean?"

"That's how Shelby got me to open the door. I didn't know it was her actually. I got a call on my cell phone. The woman identified herself as a nurse from St. Mark's. She said you'd been in an accident and wanted me to come to the hospital. I rushed out the door without thinking and bam, she hit me over the head. How stupid was I?"

Burke shook his head, his lips drawing into a tight line. "You couldn't have known. Shelby certainly had quite a plan going. She called me on my way to Mitch's house. She asked me to meet her after I saw Mitch. She made up some story about having something to show me. I guess she wanted to make sure I'd be out of the apartment. She was so calm on the phone. She sounded totally normal. But now that I think about it, she'd probably just finished poisoning Mitch and setting his house on fire."

"It's hard to believe anyone can be that evil."

"She's sick and very good at covering up that sickness. She's never had problems at work, never missed days for no reason, never acted out in any way. She's always been super calm, the kind of dispatcher who handles every crisis as if it's nothing. When I think about all the parties, all the dinners, all the days I spent talking to her, being her friend…" He shook his head in bewilderment. "It's beyond unimaginable. And Leanne befriended her, too. Shelby was helping to plan our wedding. But then apparently she decided to kill Leanne instead."

Maddie suddenly felt like it was Burke who needed her strength now. She put a hand on his arm. "It's going to take a while to sort through all the events and even longer to get through all the emotions. Don't try to do it all in one night."

As she finished speaking, the door opened and the doctor walked in.

Burke stepped off to the side while she was examined. The doctor asked quite a few questions that were meant to test her cognitive skills. Apparently, she didn't do a good enough job answering them to get her out of a CT scan.

"I'll be in the waiting room when you're done," Burke told her.

"I don't need this test. I'm fine. I have a hard head."

"I'm going to wait for the doctor's opinion. Do you want me to call your parents?"

"No, not yet. They'd just worry. Let's wait until all the tests are done, and I can honestly tell them I'm as fine as I think I am."

"Okay." He kissed her on the forehead. "I'll see you in a bit."

She nodded, wanting to get the test over with as quickly as possible so she could go home—wherever that was.

* * *

When Burke entered the waiting room, he found Max and several members of his family waiting for him including Colton, his father and his mother.

"Burke," his mom said, coming forward first. "Are you all right?"

"I wasn't hurt at all," he assured her.

"How is Maddie?"

"I think she's all right, but they're doing a CT scan of her head to make sure there's nothing going on that we have to worry about."

His mom looked immensely relieved at his words. He turned to Max. "Did you fill them in?"

"On what I know," Max said. "Emma is investigating both fire scenes, but it appears that Shelby was working alone. I've gotten a brief statement from her but she's still being questioned."

"Is she at the station or the hospital?"

"She's at San Francisco General Hospital. She's in the Psych Ward, and she's cuffed to the bed. She's not going anywhere."

"Good."

"Why don't you tell us what happened, Burke?" Colton suggested. "We've heard bits and pieces."

He ran a hand through his hair as he took a breath. "Here's the short version. Shelby was apparently obsessed with me and has been for a long time. She ran Leanne's car off the road. And she waited for me to get over my grief and turn to her. But that didn't happen. Then Mitch got a new private investigator and started digging into the accident. He apparently found out that Shelby was involved. I don't know exactly how he figured that out." He glanced at Max. "Do you?"

Max nodded. "His investigator found some trace evidence, a partial license plate that led to a truck registered to Shelby's cousin. The investigator confronted the cousin and was able to get him to confirm that Shelby had borrowed his truck that day. I'll have more details when we finish getting Shelby's statement. But it looks like she lured Leanne to a meeting place near the firehouse. Apparently, as a dispatcher, she was aware of what intersections did not have security cameras or much foot traffic in the area. She set Leanne up to be on that street at that time and then she rammed Leanne's small compact car with her cousin's truck. It was not a match Leanne could win, especially since she was blindsided."

Burke felt another rush of anger at the explanation, followed by a wave of pain for Leanne.

"I don't think Leanne ever saw it coming," Max said. "If that helps."

"Nothing helps," he said. "So I guess once Mitch confronted Shelby, she decided to kill him. Once she'd gone that far, the only person left in her way was Maddie. Shelby saw Maddie and I together at the bar and other times. She knew we were getting close, so she went to Maddie's house with a syringe full of something and was going to kill her and cover up the murder with a fire."

"Oh, my God," his mother breathed. "How terrifying for Maddie."

"She was really brave. She was fighting Shelby when I got to the apartment."

"I never would have guessed Shelby was crazy," Colton said. "I thought she was totally normal."

"We all did," he said. "I must have missed some really big flags." He turned toward his father, expecting to see judgment in his dad's eyes. His father didn't suffer fools, and Burke certainly felt like a fool for never realizing Shelby was hurting the people around him. But all he saw in Jack Callaway's eyes was compassion. "I feel like I let everyone down," he muttered.

"You didn't let anyone down, son," Jack said. "You had no way of knowing what Shelby was capable of doing. And from what I understand, you saved her life today."

"He saved Mitch's life, too," Max said.

"I did what I was trained to do," Burke said with a shrug. "I hope Mitch recovers. He has some things to answer for, but he doesn't deserve to die. So that's all for now. I'm sure we'll know more in a few days."

"Where are you going to stay tonight?" Lynda asked.

"Probably a hotel."

"You can always come home. We have plenty of room—for both you and Maddie." She paused. "She's special to you, isn't she?"

"Very much so. She has been special to me for longer than I care to say."

Lynda smiled. "I'm glad. Let us know if you need anything."

"Take your next shift off," Jack said.

He hated to take off work, but in this case he did feel like he needed a few days." I will do that. Thanks for coming."

"We're always here for you," Lynda said, giving him a quick hug.

As his parents and Colton left, Max lagged behind. "I need to get a statement from you, Burke. Do you want to do that now?"

"I'm not leaving Maddie."

"Then we'll do it here," Max said, pulling out his notebook. "I think I know most of what went down, but let's run through it one more time."

They sat down in chairs by the window, and Burke painstakingly repeated every move he'd made that day, thinking as he did so that if he'd hit a red light or got delayed by traffic, two lives could have been lost. He was damn lucky, and he was going to make the most of the second chance he'd been given.

* * *

"The Ritz Carlton?" Maddie asked as Burke pulled up to the valet in front of one of San Francisco's most beautiful hotels.

"Why not?" he said with a shrug.

"It's expensive."

"I want you to be comfortable tonight. You need to rest and recuperate."

"The doctor told you I'm fine."

"The doctor told me you had a mild concussion. That's not fine," he reminded her as they got out of the car. "So we're going to get you into bed and order up some room service."

"I can't believe it's almost eight o'clock. Where did the day go?"

"Let's not think about the day right now."

"Okay." She was more than happy to go along with that plan. Her headache was better after taking some medication, but she was really tired and also starting to feel quite hungry. Thinking about food reminded her of meatballs, which reminded her of Joel. As they walked up to the front desk, she said, "I should call Joel and tell him I'll still be ready to work on Friday. News of the fire at your place has no doubt spread through your family, so Kate has probably told Joel, and he's going to be worried that I'll bail on him."

"So you'll call him. After you get into bed. After we order room service." He handed his credit card to the clerk.

"You're being quite bossy tonight."

He gave her a smile. "Just tonight?"

She laughed. "Good point. It is your natural tendency to tell people what to do."

He shrugged, turning back to the clerk to finish checking in. Once they had their keys, they walked across a gorgeous lobby with marble floors, crystal chandeliers and elegant furniture. It felt nice to be out of the smoky apartment and away from the memories of what had almost happened.

Burke punched the button for the elevator. "You just need to accept the fact that I'm going to take care of you whether you like it or not, Maddie."

"I like it—I like it a lot."

He groaned. "Do not smile at me like that."

"Like what?" she asked mischievously.

"You know like what. You're going to rest tonight."

"You seriously think we're going to share a bed and go straight to sleep?" she asked as they got onto the elevator.

"I seriously think that. Your health is the most important thing."

"We'll see," she said lightly.

A few minutes later, they entered a luxurious oversized room with a king-sized bed, a love seat, a small table and chairs, and an amazing view of the city lights. Maddie wandered over to the window and looked out at San Francisco.

Burke came up behind her, sliding his arms around her waist, pulling her up against his chest.

"It's a beautiful night," she said, turning so she could face him. "I'm really happy I'm still here to see it."

Pain and anger moved through his eyes. "I'm so sorry I put you in danger, Maddie."

She quickly put a finger against his lips. "Hush. No blame, Burke."

"There's a lot you haven't heard Maddie."

"And I want to hear it all, but not right now."

"Okay. But I have to ask one thing."

"What's that?"

"Did it bother you that I saved Shelby's life? She'd just tried to kill you, and I was talking her out of taking her own life. I can't imagine what you were thinking."

She met his gaze head on. "I was thinking that I'd fallen in love with an amazing man, someone strong, noble, unselfish, and incredibly caring." Her eyes blurred with tears. "Watching you save your enemy just made me love you more. I just hope I can live up to you, Burke. I've made so many mistakes—"