He took one of her hands in his. "Give it some time to cool down. Time for both of you to calm down and be able to talk without hurting each other. Do you love him? Do you really love him?"
She nodded and swallowed around the lump in her throat. Tears rolled down her cheeks from beneath her sunglasses. Gently, he took off her sunglasses. He set them aside, dug in his pocket for his handkerchief, and wiped away the tears. Her eyes were all puffy and red from crying. It had obviously been a miserable weekend for her.
"I like your shades. Are they new?"
She gulped back the rest of her tears and nodded.
"The old ones were pretty neat. What happened to them."
"They kind of had an accident."
"What kind of an accident?"
"Well, they somehow got under my foot and they got stomped twenty or thirty times."
"That would do it." He bit back a smile. "Listen, if you ever get mad at me, let me know. I don’t want to be in the way of that foot." He eyed her feet carefully. "Which one was it?"
Nikki laughed despite everything. "You’re a clown. You know that?"
"Yeah, but I made you laugh." They sat on the rock until it started to get dark; they talked about anything and everything but Jarrod and their problem.
"I guess you’d better take me back. Ol’ Jarrod’s probably going to be really ticked off when we get there." He rolled his eyes. "Come on." He got up and held out his hand.
They got down from the rock and walked back to the car. The trip back to town took considerably longer than the trip out due to Nikki’s reduced speed.
Nikki pulled up in front of Jarrod’s house and turned off the car. "Thanks, Steve."
"You’re welcome. I’m sorry if I caused any more problems between you two." He leaned over and kissed her cheek.
"You didn’t. We had plenty before I came over here tonight." She saw someone walk from the house toward the car and stiffened. As Jarrod came closer, she saw he looked even worse than he had before. A pain stabbed through her heart as she saw the bleak look on his face.
He crouched down to look at them through the open passenger window. "Steve. Nikki. I’m sorry I was such a jerk earlier. I haven’t been quite myself the last few days."
Nikki lowered her eyes and wished it was still light enough so she could hide behind her sunglasses. "I haven’t either." Her voice was soft.
"Call me if you need anything." Steve squeezed her hand and got out of the car. Jarrod moved aside. Steve gave his brother a look that warned him to be careful and walked toward the house. Jarrod crouched down by the open door.
An awkward pause followed. "Maybe we could talk about this later. In a few days when things seem a little clearer." Nikki sighed and continued, "And a little calmer."
"That’s a good idea. Call me?" Jarrod tried to tamp down the hope that surged through his veins.
She nodded. "I will. In a few days."
"All right. Take care. I’m sorry for what I said. I know you wouldn’t be involved with another man." He swallowed hard and said softly, "I love you, Nikki. Forever."
A tear trickled down her cheek at his words. "I know. Me too." She paused. "I guess I better go now."
He nodded and stepped back from the passenger door and shut it. "I’ll talk to you later." She nodded and started the car. She glanced over at him, he raised a hand and then lowered it.
She swallowed hard, turned on the headlights, and drove off. When she looked back, she saw Jarrod on the sidewalk with his hands jammed into his jeans pockets. He looked very alone.
* * * * *
She pulled into her driveway and Lainey walked out to the car to meet her. "How are you feeling, honey?"
"I’m okay. I thought about Jarrod a lot and decided to talk to him when I got back. Unfortunately, we got into another fight. We decided to try again in a couple of days." She walked around to the trunk to retrieve her suitcase.
"Sean and I are engaged to be married," Lainey said bluntly.
Surprised, Nikki dropped her suitcase on her foot. She sat abruptly on the driveway and cradled her foot. "If I didn’t know better I’d say there were weights in there." She moaned and took her shoe off. The toes looked a little bruised already. She wiggled them. They hurt but they moved, so they weren’t broken.
She sighed and looked up. Lainey looked at her apprehensively. Nikki stood up and gave her aunt a big hug, her shoe still in one hand. "Congratulations. I hope you’ll always be as happy as you have been since you’ve met him." Her voice was low and full of emotion. "Next time you decide to spring something on me, could you wait until I set down my suitcase?"
Lainey laughed, slightly breathless. "I’ll try to remember that. Do you like him? He’s so special. I can’t believe how good he is to me. How nice it is to be around him." She sighed dreamily. "I sound like a teenager.
"Good. You’ve earned it." She looked at Sean’s car in front of the duplex. "Go back inside. I’m fine."
"Nikki, why don’t you come over for a while. Sean would love to see you again. He’s said more than once that any woman who can hit like you can has got to be one hell of a woman." She smiled. "I guess I should take up boxing, then he’d think I was great too."
Nikki laughed and hugged Lainey again. "Sean already thinks you’re great and three’s a crowd, Lainey. Besides, I need to think some more. Will you keep Bunc tonight? I’ll pick him up tomorrow."
"Sure, no problem. Let me know if you need anything." Lainey blushed. "The door will be locked, so I guess you can’t come over unless you knock real loud or call first."
"Okay."
Nikki watched Lainey walk into the house before she picked up her suitcase and, shoe still in hand, limped inside. She opened the door and sighed. Maybe she should have said she wanted Bunc tonight. At least he’d be some company.
Oh well. She was exhausted. She didn’t need company, she needed sleep. She left her suitcase by the door and dropped her purse on one of the barstools. Tomorrow was soon enough to worry about unpacking.
She weaved down the hall and barely made it to the bedroom. She slipped off her shoes, dropped onto the bed, and didn’t bother to undress. She was asleep within minutes, so tired she didn’t even dream.
She woke with a start, her heart slamming into her ribcage. Another noise at the front door made her realize that was what woke her. She knew she’d locked the front door, she always did. She wondered if it was Lainey or possibly Jarrod. Wouldn’t Lainey use the connecting door and Jarrod knock?
She reached for the phone and dialed 9-1-1.
Chapter 23
When the operator answered, she whispered, "Someone is breaking into my house," then she gave her name and address. She set the receiver down gently on the night stand and heard the faint squawk of the operator’s voice. She looked frantically around the dark room. There had to be something she could use as a weapon. Her gaze stopped abruptly at the glint of scissors blades on the dresser.
She stepped slowly and softly as she crossed to the dresser and picked up the scissors. She had debated whether or not to buy a gun, but had never made a final decision. In her purse there was a new can of pepper spray that she’d purchased after the run in with Davies, but her purse was in the dining room. The scissors would have to do.
Her heart beat so loudly, she wondered if whoever was breaking into the house could hear it too. She crept to the doorway of the bedroom and stopped to listen. There was definitely someone else in the house.
And it wasn’t someone who should be there. The person in the living room tried to be quiet, but obviously didn’t know the actual layout of the room.
She crept back to the phone and picked it up. "Whoever was trying to break in is now in the living room. Get someone over here right now!" Her whisper sounded unnaturally loud in the stillness.
She set the phone down again and tried to decide what to do next. She could lock herself in the bathroom and hope the police showed up before the door got broken down. But the only windo
w in the bathroom was too small to crawl out of. She shuddered. She couldn’t stand to be trapped in there.
The windows in the bedroom had screens and would make too much noise to get open. By the time she could get the window open and the screen off, whoever was out there would be in here.
Whoever lived in the duplex before must have had small children since there weren’t locks on the bedroom doors at all. Not that a standard lock would slow a determined burglar down for more than a few seconds. The dresser was the only piece of furniture that was close enough to the door that could be shoved in front of it. But it was so big and heavy, she doubted whether she could get it in front of the door in time to block the burglar’s entry.
The door from the kitchen to the garage was out of the question. The kitchen was right next to the living room, too close to get out the door into the garage, open the main door, and escape.
There was the connecting door, of course, but Lainey had started to lock it when Sean was over. Sean was a cop and he could help, but if she made enough noise to attract his attention, the burglar would hear. And so would Lainey. Lainey wouldn’t hesitate to follow Sean over and she didn’t want her aunt in any danger. If she hung up the phone and dialed Lainey’s number, she would still put her aunt in jeopardy.
The only other door was the sliding glass door in the dining area. Since the living room was adjacent to the dining room, there was no way she could get out of that door.
She heard a dull thud and a low curse; he’d tripped over the suitcase. Great. She grimaced fiercely. I would get stuck with a clumsy thief. She started slowly down the hall, the scissors clenched tightly in her right fist. If he had a gun, she was in trouble unless the cops got here quickly. If he didn’t have a gun, she’d give him a run for his money.
She had just stepped from the carpeted hallway onto the linoleum kitchen floor when the light switch was turned on from the other side of the room. Momentarily blinded, she threw her left arm up to shield her eyes.
"I’ve finally got you where I want you, you bitch! You’ll pay for what you did! I’ll do to you what I would have done to that worthless brat! Do you know how much money we were going to get for a ransom? Not that he would’ve gotten the kid back alive, but we would have been rich!"
Nikki’s heart stopped. It was Davies! But how could it be? The cops were supposed to have an APB out on him. Surely they would have found him by now. And he had a huge knife in his hand. She’d never been able to force herself to see the movie Psycho after what had happened to her mother, but she’d seen the previews. The knife looked horribly similar. Memories of her father with a machete that dripped blood clenched in his hand slipped into her mind, and refused to leave. She didn’t want to die! She didn’t want to die like her mother had!
Her heart started to beat again and she shuddered. She prayed desperately for the police, or anyone, to come quickly; she blinked and lowered her left hand to her side. She realized suddenly that her right hand was shielded from view, and that she still had the sharp pair of scissors clenched tightly in her fist. Scissors weren’t much defense against a large knife. But they were better than nothing.
What she needed to do was stall for time. She licked her dry lips and cleared her throat. "Davies. Why did you want to hurt her anyway? She’s just a little girl. There was no reason to hurt her. Jarrod would have given you the money."
Davies took a single step forward and started to scream incoherently as he waved the huge knife around. Nikki backed up a step and wondered if the noise would wake Sean and Lainey. Did Sean even have his gun with him when he was off duty? Nothing else would stop Davies. From behind Davies stepped a small blonde woman. Chloe! Great! Now what? It clicked suddenly that Chloe had followed her from Jarrod’s house to her home. It hadn’t been her imagination at all.
Her mind raced frantically. What else could she do or say to hold him off? Why weren’t the cops here? It seemed like hours ago that she’d called when in fact it had been only a few scant minutes.
Davies eyes were wide with rage and insanity as he waved the knife in his hand. "You see this? Do you want to know what I’m going to do to you?" He went on to describe in horrifying detail what he intended to do to her. Chloe stood behind him, a smirk on her face as she watched the scene unfold while she leaned against the wall comfortably as if she waited for the show to really start.
Nikki swallowed hard. Her limbs felt like jelly. She felt almost as helpless as she had when her father had killed her mother. She shuddered as the image of her father again superimposed itself over Davies.
The scissors were clenched in her sweaty fist, but she didn’t know if she could move to save her life. The wall was the only thing that held her up at the moment.
Nikki could never say what triggered his attack at that precise second. All of a sudden he raised the knife and rushed toward her. The scene turned into slow motion and it felt as if she were swimming in molasses when she tried to move out of the way.
Davies had almost reached her when she was finally able to move at regular speed. She pushed away from the wall and started to bring the scissors forward that she still held tightly gripped in her hand. She was too late.
The upraised knife descended and she tried to back up. A white hot pain ripped through the left side of her chest and consumed her body in its heat. She gasped in shock and pain, looked into Davies’ mad eyes and down at the knife that stuck out of her body. He pulled the knife out, which made a sickening sucking noise, and raised it again.
A rush of rage and adrenaline surged through her. She would not die like her mother had! She would not be a helpless victim again! She brought the scissors back as far as her arm would reach and swung them forward and up with all her strength. He screamed, a high shrill sound, as the scissors went deep into his abdomen. So deep the handles clenched in her fist were all that showed.
He staggered back several steps and sank to his knees on the linoleum, the bloody knife still clenched in his hand. Then he slowly toppled onto his side. Chloe opened her mouth in a high-pitched scream and started toward Nikki.
The front door collapsed with a crash at the same time the connecting door slammed open. Nikki grabbed onto the counter with her right hand and held on tightly as she swayed dizzily.
Sean, dressed only in pants that were zipped and not buttoned, with a service revolver in his hand was first down the hallway. Lainey wasn’t far behind, a robe thrown hastily what looked like a sexy peach negligee.
Two uniformed police officers with their guns drawn rushed through the living room and into the kitchen. Jarrod, his face ashen and lined with tension, was right behind them. The policemen grabbed hold of Chloe and tried to restrain her.
When Jarrod tried to get past the cops and his ex-wife, Chloe managed to jerk one hand free and raked him across the face with her sharp nails. Jarrod didn’t appear to notice or slow down, even though blood started to ooze from the scratches on his cheek. The cops wrestled the screaming woman to the floor.
"The cavalry always did get there too late." Nikki swayed against the counter and tried to hold on while blood poured down her chest. The room started to rotate slowly, all the worried faces around her swirled in the opposite direction.
Her eyes rolled back and she started to crumple. Sean, who stood the closest, caught her before her head hit the floor. He lowered her to the floor and started to bark orders. Lainey rushed to get some clean towels to stop the bleeding while Jarrod, who ignored everyone else, rushed to Nikki’s side.
Nikki felt something cool and damp stroked across her face. She moaned and tried to open her eyes. "Take it easy, love," Jarrod’s voice was heavy with strain. "Just relax. The ambulance is on its way."
The two cops didn’t pay too much attention to what they thought was a corpse on the dining room floor, they were too busy as they tried to get Chloe subdued. Davies stirred; he knew this would be his last chance. He made it to his feet before anyone noticed and with a cry of rage, raised the knife again
.
A single shot rang out and the scream cut off abruptly. "Is he dead this time?" Sean’s angry voice spit into the silence. "This is goin’ in the report. Don’t you know always to check a body before you turn your back on it? Are you both rookies or what? How many of you does it take to cuff one small woman?"
Chloe, face-down on the floor her hands cuffed behind her back, started to scream again when she saw Davies’ sightless eyes stare straight at her.
Sean put his gun on the kitchen counter. "Somebody bag the gun. They’ll be wantin’ it as evidence. Get that screaming female out of this house right now."
Nikki stared up into Sean’s face. "Thank you, Sean." Her voice was low and strained. The sounds of Chloe’s screams dissipated as the cops dragged her out of the house and to the squad car.
"You’re welcome, darlin’. I just wish I could’ve gotten here a wee bit sooner." He knelt down again and patted her hand. "How ya feelin’?"
"I hurt." She looked up into Jarrod’s eyes. "Do you have to push so hard?"
"We need to stop the bleeding. You’re probably going to need a blood transfusion as it is." Jarrod’s worried eyes gazed into hers as his free hand stroked the hair back from her face.
Nikki moved her right hand to touch his and stopped abruptly at the sight of Davies’ blood that covered her hand. She started to tremble and shake. "Get it off! Please get it off! Oh, God, get it off me!" Her voice rose to a shriek.
"Hush now, we’re getting it off," Jarrod’s voice soothed her as he stroked her face. "I love you, sweetie, just hold still now. Hold still, that’s it. We want your shoulder to stop bleeding."
Nikki opened her eyes to see Lainey clean her hand with a washcloth. Tears started to roll down her cold cheeks. Jarrod wiped them gently away with his fingers, as he talked in a low, steady voice the whole time. Words that soothed flowed over her but didn’t have any meaning.
The ambulance arrived and Sean and Lainey were pushed out of the way. Jarrod, however, was not about to be pushed anywhere.
Alice Carpenter Page 19