by R E Gauthier
Kelsey went in search of Aisling and Nikki. After her afternoon nap with Miranda, she felt entirely rejuvenated. Clear-minded, and free of the annoyances of the constant bickering, Kelsey’s headache disappeared as well. Hoping that her best friend and cousin would be able to work together to figure a way out of their predicament, Kelsey decided to get them working on a plan. She made a promise to be home for her wedding, and she aimed to keep it.
About to give up, Kelsey decided to look one last place, Aisling’s office. Knocking on the door, she listened to see if she could hear movement inside. As she pressed her head to the door, images of a naked Nikki slammed into her mind. Pulling away quickly, Kelsey thought she must have got it wrong. Disturbed by what she saw, she turned to leave when the door opened behind her.
Aisling’s head popped out. “Did you knock? I thought I heard a knock, but you look to be leaving.”
Kelsey saw another image of Nikki lying on a sofa or desk. Shaking her head, she said, “I’m sorry I interrupted you. I thought I would come to find you and Nikki to talk about a plan to get us out of all this, but it can wait.”
“Kels, what’s wrong?” Aisling reached and took Kelsey by the arm.
Shaking her head to dislodge the disturbing images lingering in her mind, Kelsey closed her eyes. “I think I’m coming down with something or…oh damn, Aisling, I need to get away from you right now.”
“Kels, you’re worrying me. What is it?”
Kelsey whispered, “I won’t judge you; Nikki is a beautiful woman, and she’s turned many heads, but please stop thinking about her naked.”
Aisling’s mouth opened and closed without uttering a sound. Then Aisling laughed out loud. “You have it partly right. I forgot about our bond…Nikki, she’s found us out. There is no reason to hide any longer.” Opening the door, Aisling revealed a half-naked Nikki standing behind the door with a throw from the sofa in Aisling’s office, draped over her shoulders.
Nikki smiled weakly. “Hi, Mack. Aisling and I were hashing things out and—”
Kelsey held up her hand to stop Nikki’s lame excuse for how she wound up naked in Aisling’s office. “You were arguing, and your clothes fell off. What a likely story. It seems like it happens to you a lot. How easily you have forgotten Willow, or was it, Mouse? I’m going to go take a walk. The next time I see you two. I hope to see you fully dressed.”
Kelsey heard Nikki sputter, and Aisling asked her to come back. She kept walking until she reached the far edge of the property. Her usual bodyguard, Matt, had a tough time keeping up. Once she stopped, the anger had dissipated somewhat. Over the years, Nikki would get many women into her bed. Today for the first time, Nikki’s conquests hit too close to home. She’d hope that her best friend and cousin would someday be friends, not lovers. Nikki ruined that dream by not being able to keep her hands to herself. Nikki wasn’t able to commit, and Aisling would get hurt, making future gatherings with the two women, awkward and strained. Why, Nikki, why?
Chapter Forty-Three
MacKenzie’s Estate. May 10, 2012
After leaving Aisling’s office, Nikki went in search of Mack. Nikki found her wrapped in a throw in the garden; her best friend looked crushed. She knew she needed to make things right. Still not sure how she was going to explain her actions, Nikki decided to tell Mack the truth. She didn’t know how or why it happened. Until today, Nikki had thought people who fell in love, at first sight, were foolish, pathetic people, or at least naive. The love Miranda and Mack shared was exceptional. The kind of once-in-a-lifetime love people describe in stories or movies. Nikki never believed that sort of thing would or could happen to her.
Nikki never thought her heart would betray her, but then she had never met Aisling before. When she left Pittsburgh, she thought when she returned, she and Willow could see what would become of their attraction. The thing is, with every woman, safe for Aisling, Nikki only had an attraction to keep her interest. Willow provided Nikki with a piece of her past, the school-girl crush, but Aisling opened a part of Nikki’s heart, she didn’t know existed. Meeting the arrogant, obstinate, and irritating cousin of her best friend made Nikki feel things she thought she’d never feel. I’m going to have to make Mack understand; it’s not like all the others.
While she mused about how she would explain it to Mack, Nikki almost stumbled upon her best friend in the barn. Mack sat on a stool with her head in her hands. “Mack, I’ve been looking all over the place for you, and look, I’m fully dressed.” Mack’s scowl told Nikki it might be too soon to joke about her finding Nikki in a compromising position.
“I’m not amused; what is your problem? Why can’t you keep it in your pants? Of all the women you have to mount, and surmount, as you like to call it, why did it have to be Aisling?”
Nikki felt Mack’s deep disappointment in her. Shaking it off somewhat, she softly said, “she’s not like the others.”
Mack stood and brushed off the front of her jeans in irritation. “Is that supposed to make it better? What does that even mean? How is Aisling not like the others?”
“Well, I cannot explain it, but I’ve never felt this way before.” Nikki wanted her explanation to sound profound or monumental in some way. Even to her ears, it sounded lame.
“No? Not like with Jess, or that woman was her name, oh, yeah, Anna. How about Deb, you’re not going to tell me you didn’t sleep with her, because I know you too well. And then there is this Willow, or you told me it was Mouse; you forgot to tell me you were sleeping with her. Nikki, the last thing I need is you hurting my cousin while we figure out a way to get back home. Why? Why, Nikki?”
Each of Mack’s words was like a slap to her face. Nikki knew Mack was right about her less than thoughtful treatment of women. Hadn’t she told herself the same thing after she fucked Lindsay in the cemetery? Hanging her head, Nikki tried again to make Mack understand her feelings were real for Aisling. “You have every right to be upset and skeptical that I could ever have deep feelings for any woman. I’ve never given you a reason to think otherwise. All I know is, I’m more surprised by, no shocked about what is happening to me. Do you remember trying to explain how you met Miranda? How you felt such an immediate connection; that is how it is with Aisling.”
Mack scoffed. “Yeah, and all that bickering and angry posturing you two were doing was what? Foreplay?”
Nikki shrugged. “I don’t know; I don’t understand it myself. I felt an intense dislike the moment I set eyes on Aisling. All of the things she put you through shaded my view of her. I just hated how you were hurt, and I don’t know. It all came out when I was around her.”
Mack growled. “Yeah, until your clothes fell off, and you were on each other like rabbits.”
Half-smiling, Nikki said, “it didn’t happen exactly that way; more like we came together like—”
Mack closed her eyes and held up her hand. “I don’t need to hear the specifics. It doesn’t sound like anything more than lust. Didn’t you tell me once that the only thing better than a woman waiting in your bed, was having the choice of many women in your bed?”
Nikki grimaced. Those words were her own. Mack threw them back at Nikki as a reminder of how callus she treated the women she met. Hanging her head, Nikki rubbed her hands on her pants. “I did say that, but I was wrong. I may have thought I was right at the time, but I never met Aisling before.”
Mack took a step back and made a sound deep in her throat.
Nikki could have sworn she heard Mack squeal. She looked up to see what may have caused her best friend’s reaction. “Mack, what is it? Did you see a rat?”
Mack shook her head. “No, you’re telling me the truth. I heard it in your voice and saw it in your mind. You’re falling in love with Aisling. When you spoke about Mouse or is it, Willow, I felt a sweet kind of affection coming from you. But that’s nothing compared to what I feel from you now.”
Nikki frowned. “Her name is Willow, but I knew her as Mouse in our coding group. When I ment
ioned her to you, I didn’t want to use her given name. You told me to involve no one, but Willow helped me find you. The affection I feel for her is real. I’ve had an unrequited crush on her for years.”
Mack cocked her head. “Unrequited?”
Nikki frowned. “It isn’t now.” She shrugged and half-grinned. “I know how bad that sounds…” Nikki let the rest go unsaid but squirmed, thinking about what Mack said about falling in love. “I’m scared, Mack.”
“Nicole Hyland is afraid; of what?”
Nikki closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Falling in love scares the hell out of me.”
Mack chuckled, then nodded, her voice sounding sympathetic to Nikki’s plight as she said, “does Aisling feel the same way?”
Nikki only frowned, but thought inwardly: Probably not.
Behind her, Nikki heard Aisling’s voice say, “I think you should let me answer that question.”
Turning, Nikki saw the laughing hazel eyes and dimples winking at her. Her knees went weak, and her brain went to mush.
Behind Nikki, Mack chuckled. “I hope you haven’t broken my best friend. We may need her to find the Ghost, to get back home.”
Aisling’s beautiful smile grew into a broad toothy grin, as she said, “I hope I haven’t either.”
***
Aisling’s Office, May 15, 2012
The days passed by quickly as the three women worked seamlessly. Kelsey saw such a change in her cousin. Aisling smiled all the time, joked, and, most of all when Kelsey suggested they work together to devise a plan to trap the Ghost, Aisling agreed wholeheartedly. Nikki definitely had a very positive influence on Aisling. The two women whispered at times and smiled at each other. Thankfully, Kelsey found a blocking incantation to keep from seeing into the two women’s hearts and minds. She didn’t have to try hard to figure out what they might be thinking. They only had eyes for one another. Kelsey smiled, recalling how she fell in love with Miranda.
In the plan, Kelsey concocted, they all had parts to play. For the trap to work, everyone had to do their part. That was the only sticking point on Aisling’s end. Kelsey needed her cousin to contact her father to use him as bait to draw out the Ghost. She didn’t want to put her uncle in danger but saw no other way. Aisling kept making up excuses. “Aisling, for this to go without a hitch, you need to contact your father. We’ll keep him safe, but he has to draw him out; no one else can do it.”
The smile on Aisling’s face faded. “I’m afraid; I can’t do that. I hoped I wouldn’t have to tell you before this was all over, but mom doesn’t know, and she can’t find out.”
Nikki put a hand on Aisling’s shoulder. “What is it? You look like you’re about to cry.”
Kelsey had to agree, Aisling’s eyes were nearly brimming with tears, and she sniffed loudly to hold them in. “I promise we’ll do everything in our power to protect him.” She wanted to reassure her cousin; she didn’t take this lightly.
Aisling shook her head. “It’s not that,” she said before a sob escaped, and she broke down.
Nikki took Aisling into her arms immediately, her brows raised.
Kelsey shrugged, uncomfortably; her cousin’s pain was getting through the block. It was that palatable. “Aisling, please tell us what has you so upset, if it’s not the fear of him getting hurt, what is it?”
Aisling sobbed.
Nikki cooed and rubbed Aisling’s back. “Come on; we can’t help if we don’t know what has you so upset.”
Aisling pulled Nikki closer and sobbed louder.
Kelsey left the two women alone to get tissues for Aisling, and some tea for everyone. When Kelsey returned to the room, several minutes later, Nikki still had Aisling in her arms, but Kelsey’s cousin stopped crying. “Here’s some tea.” She placed the tea on the table in front of the sofa, where Nikki and Aisling sat. Handing the box of tissues to Aisling, she asked, “are you feeling well enough to tell us what has you so upset.”
Aisling’s eyes were swollen and red. Her face, red, and splotchy. She attempted a weak smile and nodded. Accepting the tissues, she blew her nose a few times and wiped her face with her hands. “Thank you, Kels. That’s the first time I’ve allowed myself to cry. I thought if I didn’t, it wouldn’t be real.”
Nikki rubbed Aisling’s back. “It’s not good to hold things in, just ask Mack.”
Kelsey smiled and nodded. “Yeah, it’s never good. You can tell us anything.”
Aisling rubbed her hands on her jeans before clasping them on her lap. “Please close the door; I can’t have anyone overhearing, and this getting back to mom. Promise me that when you hear this, you won’t get angry.”
Kelsey stood and closed the door. Returning to the chair across from the sofa, Kelsey saw the question in Nikki’s eyes.
Nikki clasped Aisling’s two hands in her own. “I promise; we’re ready when you are.”
Kelsey wanted to reassure her cousin but wasn’t sure if she could say she wouldn’t get angry. “Yes, we’re here for you; you can tell us anything.”. Nikki’s raised brows and firm lip line convinced her to continue. “I promise not to get angry,” she said reluctantly.
Aisling smiled weakly. “Thank you,” she said softly, before pausing to take a sip of tea. Setting the cup down with shaky hands, Aisling straightened to continue. “Your plane isn’t going to work because I cannot reach out to my father. I cannot because he’s dead.”
Chapter Forty-Four
Aisling’s Office May 5, 2012
Once the initial shock wore off from Aisling’s admission, Kelsey asked her cousin to explain how her father could be dead. When they spoke about him before, and Aunt Cat talked about him, they said he was deep undercover, trying to flush out the Ghost. She didn’t understand how Aisling and Aunt Cat could lie when they knew he was dead. Nikki sat silently, glancing between Kelsey, and Aisling. Kelsey figured her best friend didn’t know how to react to this revelation; Kelsey certainly didn’t either. “I promised not to be upset, but I can’t keep from being shocked. Both you and Aunt Cat acted as if he’s been away, and you’re expecting him back. I need to understand how that can be.”
Aisling had a far-off look as she explained what happened. “Almost two years ago, before mom was diagnosed, dad was away looking for signs of the Ghost. No one had heard about him, and there was chatter the Ghost may have died. Dad followed the trail and called to say he was close to learning everything. That was the last time I heard from him. Two days later, the police in Rome notified me that dad was in a car accident. He died at the scene from what appeared to be a heart attack.” Aisling paused to take another sip of tea and blow her nose.
Kelsey watched Nikki hug Aisling close. Smiling, she was glad Nikki was here. She wasn’t sure she could be as supportive as Nikki was being. Aisling had lied once again. Holding in her brewing anger and swallowing it down, Kelsey encouraged her cousin to continue her story.
Aisling closed her eyes as she spoke again. “We thought it was over. If Dad had found out that the Ghost died and Dad was gone, there wasn’t a reason for us to stay dead. The thing is, no one could deny or confirm the rumors of the Ghost’s death. They couldn’t find any evidence among my father’s belongings. My father’s death was ruled a natural death in Rome, but when we had an autopsy done here, it was officially ruled a murder. Someone had given my father a lethal dose of insulin to cause his cardiac arrest. My father wasn’t a diabetic; there was no plausible reason why he would take it himself. No one but the Ghost had the means or reason to kill my father, so the Ghost can’t be dead.”
Kelsey interjected. “But with your father gone, you could come home. There wasn’t any reason to keep hiding. The people who wanted your father dead, and paid the Ghost to do it should be satisfied your father was gone.”
Aisling dropped her head into her hands. “No, that may have been the case when this all began, but through the years, the Ghost wanted to kill us all. Mom and I were still in danger, and Dad wasn’t here to help us any longer.
Furthermore, everything Dad did undercover; all the information he gathered was on a hard drive. In the event, my father died; it was to go to Interpol. We haven’t been able to retrieve it. No one knows where it is.”
Kelsey stood to walk around the room. Irritation grew inside of her.
Aisling looked up, tears brimming in her eyes again. “Mom’s mental and emotional state couldn’t handle the news that Dad died, so I never told her.”
Kelsey rocked back on her heels and closed her eyes. Shock, disbelief, and rage bubbled up; she fought them back down. Taking a large gulp of her tea, she tried to swallow the lump in her throat. How could you not tell her? She had a right to know.
Aisling’s eyes bore into Kelsey. You promised you wouldn’t get angry.
Kelsey stared back. I promised I wouldn’t get angry, but I had no idea you’d been so cruel. Aunt Cat deserves to know.
Nikki cleared her throat. “I don’t know what’s going on here. But you both got quiet, and the staring is creeping me out.”
Kelsey apologized.
Aisling followed suit, then said, “you both have every right to be upset, but you were not here. Mom’s doctors said her mental health was fragile. She still thinks Dad is away. During her lucid moments, I’m sure she knows something is wrong, but I’m not going to be the one who breaks her heart. We’ll have to find another way to draw out the Ghost.”
Kelsey was too irritated to stay still; she paced around the room. “But still you shouldn’t have kept it a secret; your mom deserved to know the truth. Hadn’t there been enough lies?”
Aisling opened her mouth, then closed it without saying a word.
Nikki stood up. “I’m going to ask the question that has been burning a hole in my mind since you mentioned the Ghost could be dead. Who is to say he isn’t? Has there been any definitive proof he’s still alive?”
Kelsey nodded. Nikki asked the question she wanted to ask. “Yeah, how do you know he’s alive?”
Aisling stood and walked to her desk. “Nikki, you said you saw information on the Ghost from the Interpol mainframe. Do you recall seeing the last confirmed death at the hands of the Ghost?”