begging him to stop. It sounded pretty bad so I beat on the door myself

I had the room next door. Then the cops came. One of them broke in the

door. It was only for a second, but I could see a woman sprawled on the

rug, bleeding. She had a gun and she fired it. She kept right on

shooting until she ran out of bullets."

Michael was swearing as he strode over to the phone.

On the screen, the news switched to a live remote outside the hospital.

The reporter, solemn-faced, announced that Emma McAvoy Latimer was in

guarded condition.

"Look," Michael snapped into the phone. "I don't give a d.a.m.n. You hold

them off awhile. I want a uniform outside her door twenty-four

hours, to keep out any reporters who try to get in to see her. I'll

make a statement myself this afternoon."

"You won't be able to stop it," Johnno said when Michael slammed the

phone down.

"I can hold them off for a while."

Johnno rose. There was no use telling Michael that Emma knew the price

of celebrity. She'd been paying it all of her life. "Marianne, you go

see Emma. I'm going to buy this copper some breakfast."

"I don't want-"

"Sure you do." Johnno cut Michael off. "It isn't every day you get to

share scrambled eggs with a legend. Go on, Marianne. Tell Emma I'll be

in soon." He waited until Marianne had started down the hall. "The first

time I saw Emma she was about three. She was hiding under the kitchen

sink in Jane's filthy flat. She'd been kicked around quite a bit

already. She pulled out of it. She'll pull out of it this time, as

well."

"I should have gotten a warrant," Michael said. "I should have pushed

her and gotten a warrant."

"How long have you been in love with her?"

He didn't speak, then let out a long breath. "Most of my life." He

walked to the window, jerking it up to let the air hit his face. With

his palms braced on the sill he leaned out. "Five minutes. If he'd

been five minutes later, or I'd been five minutes faster, I'd have

killed him. I had my gun in my hand when I went through the door. I

should have killed him for her. That's the way it should have been."

"Ah, the male ego." Johnno kept the same small sarcastic smile on his

face when Michael whirled on him. "I have an idea how you feel, but I

disagree. I'm glad Emma wasted the sonofab.i.t.c.h herself There's justice

in that. I only wish she'd had the chance before he did this to her.

Come on, son." Johnno patted his shoulder. "You need food."

Because he was too tired to argue, Michael went along. They were nearly

to the elevators when the doors opened. Brian and Bev rushed out.

"Where is she?" Brian demanded.

"She's right through there. Hold on." Johnno took his arm. "Marianne's

with her. You need to calm down before you go busting in there. She'd

had enough excitement for a while."

"Johnno's right, Bri." Bev battled back her own nerves to soothe his.

"We don't want to upset her. And we need to know what-how she got hurt.

Can you tell us what happened?" she asked Michael. "We've been traveling