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be paying legal fees. What’s a few million to me? I will bury him in paperwork.”
     
    He’d been doing such a good job of making Emma forget he was one of those rich people she despised, who had more money than they knew what to do with and mostly did nothing with it. But that little diatribe neatly reminded her.
     
    “See that he does,” Josh said, and then hung up. He turned back to her and gave her the sheepish smile, but it failed to move her the way it usually did. “Sorry about that.”
     
    Emma gave him a short nod. “I need to go, actually. Something important just came up and since we’re finished here. . . .” She trailed off, her feet itching to get a move on. Josh blinked.
     
    “Oh. I thought we were going to—”
     
    “I’m sorry. It’s very important. We’ll talk tomorrow.” She knew she was being rude, but all she could think about was that both her parents had died in a hospital without her having a chance to say goodbye, and now her only living relative was in one of those places. Fighting down panic, Emma hurried out the door.
     
     

Chapter 8
     
     
    Todd was sitting up in the hospital bed, a bright white bandage above his left eye, when she skittered into the room. He smiled at her around a spoonful of red Jell-O.
     
    “Hey Ems.”
     
    She pulled out the bedside chair and sank into it, her heart finally beginning to slow now that she was actually looking at her little brother. She brushed his hair off his forehead gently, careful not touch the bandage.
     
    “What did you do , T-rex?”
     
    He offered her the Jell-O cup. “You want some of this? It’s cherry. I know that’s your favorite.”
     
    Emma narrowed her eyes. “Todd,” she snapped. “What did you do?”
     
    “I sort of wrecked a dune buggy. But it’s no big deal!” He slurped noisily at another spoonful of gelatin, avoiding her eyes.
     
    “What were you doing driving a dune buggy?” She gritted her teeth as she waited.
     
    He finally raised his gaze to hers, eyes round with feigned innocence. “Racing. But Ems—”
     
    “Why on earth were you racing dune buggies?” She quirked a brow, praying she was wrong about the words about to come out of his mouth.
     
    Todd fiddled with the Jell-O cup, peeling away a bit of the lid that was still stuck to the edge. “There’s this big race in Las Vegas. The winner gets, like, half a million dollars. All you have to do is place in the qualifying round.”
     
    “And pay a ‘small’ fee?” she guessed.
     
    “Well, yeah. But it’s only a thousand bucks, and you can win half a million!”
     
    Emma rested her forehead against the side of the hospital bed with a sigh. “Where do you plan on getting this thousand dollars, Todd?”
     
    “I was going to use the watch as collateral for a small loan. Just until I won in Vegas.” He plucked at the sheet beside her head.
     
    She raised her head and blinked in confusion. “The watch we don’t have in our possession?”
     
    “But we will soon! It’s only another week until the ball.” He beamed down at her as if she were the brightest child in a gifted class. Emma inhaled deeply through her nose.
     
    “Let me get this straight. You’re having me go to all this trouble—commit a crime —in order to get Dad’s watch back so you can turn around and pawn it?”
     
    He flinched, his skin paling. “Not pawn it, just use it as collateral. It’s totally different.”
     
    Emma shot up from the chair, cheeks burning and fists clenched. “Todd Alexander Ness, what is wrong with you? That is our father’s watch, passed down in our family from generation to generation. It’s not a poker chip, it’s not a down payment on a damn dune buggy race. It was daddy’s !”
     
    Todd recoiled, mouth tightening, green eyes dark with hurt. “I know that, Emma.”
     
    “Clearly not,” she fumed, “or you wouldn’t be planning to risk it again before we’ve even gotten it back.”
     
    “Well I can’t do