“That’s okay, Mom. I’ll just go grab a shower and come back.” He glanced at Nikki and she shook her head.
“Listen to your mother. Go home and rest.” Nikki gave him a gentle smile. “You’ve been very kind to stay like you have, but you need a break from this place. We’ll be fine.”
Jake reluctantly agreed. He needed to get away from those sad eyes for just a little while.
But he couldn’t get away, not really. All the way home, thoughts of Nikki plagued him. What was he going to do now? He wanted to hate her, but how could he when he had no idea how to stop loving her first?
Jake was glad to see his house. He had loved this place at first sight, though Nikki had longed for something more modern. It was an eighty-year-old Victorian, not very different from all the other houses in the neighborhood, but it seemed to have a character of its own. He once had big plans for this house, and the family he’d hoped to fill it with. After scooping up the paper on the welcome mat and unlocking the door, Jake walked through the foyer and into the den. He sank into the plush green sofa, wanting to scan the paper before he got in the shower.
The twisted carnage of his Dodge Ram was on the front page. Jake stared at it in shock.
How had Nikki gotten out of that?
The article was suitably vague, just reporting that an unidentified passenger of the vehicle driven by Mrs. Hawthorne had perished in the crash. Nikki hadn’t been wearing her seatbelt, something he often chastised her for. This time, he was glad she hadn’t. She had been thrown from the truck as it made its murderous descent down the mountainside. He wondered about the pickup’s brakes. Was it really possible that someone had sabotaged them? The idea seemed ridiculous. Who would want to kill Nikki?
The thought struck him as he climbed the stairs.
Not Nikki, you.
Jake stopped cold, the hair on the back of his neck prickling.
Maybe someone thought it would be easier if he were out of the way, without the mess of a divorce. His thoughts troubled him as he showered and shaved.
Would someone kill to have Nikki?
Instantly, he knew the answer to that and shuddered.
Jake checked the answering machine and listened to what was mostly a barrage of phone calls from Nikki’s friends, although five calls were from his office. He hoped nothing had gone wrong with the Stephens building.
Finally, with a resigned sigh, he picked up the phone to call Darcy. Darcy Harrison had been Nikki’s best friend since seventh grade, when they sat around mooning over rock star posters and making prank phone calls. Jake liked Darcy. She was the only one of Nikki’s friends who didn’t treat him like the pool boy, even though she probably had more reason to dislike him than any of them. Nikki had broken Darcy’s brother’s heart when she married him.
He and Nikki were from different worlds, and Jake had deluded himself into thinking that it didn’t matter. To put it bluntly, Nikki had married down when she became his wife. Jake made a respectable living, and he had inherited a little money when his father died, but it was a pittance compared to what Nikki had grown up with. She was used to having butlers and maids, and she gave it all up for him. Nikki told him that it didn’t matter, that she loved him, and for a time, he believed her. Still, some part of him couldn’t help but wonder if she would’ve even approached him that day if she’d known the white Porsche he was leaning on had not belonged to him.
Jake clutched the phone a little tighter when he heard Darcy’s ‘hello’. There had been an underlying tension between them lately, and also between her and Nikki. She knew Nikki’s secrets and couldn’t tell him. Now Nikki couldn’t either.
“Darcy?”
“Jake, I just saw it in the paper! Why didn’t you call me?”
“I didn’t think, Darce,” he replied. “It’s all so strange. She doesn’t remember anything.”
“So I hear. As soon as I saw the paper, I called the hospital. I just got off the phone with Catherine. She said she was staying with Nikki tonight.”
Jake could tell by her tone that she found the thought of those two together as unsettling as he first had.
He told Darcy everything he could about Nikki’s condition, then took a deep breath and asked her what he really wanted to know.
“Do you know who her passenger was, Darcy? Was it him?”
There was silence on the other end of the line.
“So you know,” she said finally.
“She admitted it the night before the accident, but she wouldn’t tell me who.”
“I swear to you, Jake, I don’t know. I know he’s rich and powerful…and married.”
Great, another marriage ruined.
“She would never say his name, or even hint. She grew furious when she realized that she was probably going to lose you and said that she wasn’t going to let him just sit by while she lost everything. She was going to press him to leave his wife.”
Hot, bitter tears scalded his eyes. Nikki hadn’t cared, not about him, not about their marriage. She was just concerned about losing her precious possessions.
“Jake…for what it’s worth, I told Nikki she was crazy for cheating on you. That big fight we had a couple of weeks ago, that’s what it was over. I told her not to use me as an alibi anymore, that she should tell you the truth.”
“Thanks, Darce,” he said hoarsely and hung up the phone. He held his face in his hands and cried.
Slowly, Jake came to the conclusion that this wasn’t doing him any good. He went back upstairs and opened the door to Nikki’s room. He could still smell her perfume in here and it made his heart ache anew. Jake went to the closet and pulled out a small overnight bag. He filled a cosmetic case and tried to pack a few items that he thought she’d want, like her brush and some hair clasps. He pulled open her closet and picked out an outfit, on the off chance that she might be released from the hospital soon.
Jake felt emotionally drained, like he was more robot than man, until he opened her dresser drawer to find her nightgowns. Nikki loved silky things, favoring their soft sheen over the roughness of lace. As Jake plunged his hand into that drawer, the delicate fabric tormented him, taunting him with its whisper. He pulled out the long red gown that she wore for him the last time they made love. As he rubbed the polished fabric between his fingers, he could recall with painful clarity exactly how she looked in it.
She stood at the foot of the stairs when he came home from work that evening, waiting for him. His heart nearly stopped when he saw her standing there, a seductive smile on her lips. His beautiful, raven-haired enchantress.
Had she worn this same gown for her lover, too?
With a strangled cry, Jake tore at the fabric, feeling a vicious sense of satisfaction as he heard it rip. He felt the same hatred surge in him as it had that night. He had wanted to smash Nikki’s delicate porcelain face when she admitted the affair, right here in this room. Even though he had known it, some part of him had desperately clung to the notion that he was wrong.
“Stop it, stop it, stop it!” Jake berated himself. He picked up the bag and ran from the room, leaving the ruined gown lying on the bed and the dresser drawer hanging open.
Downstairs, Jake picked up the phone and called his general foreman.
“Jake! Thank God,” Hank said.
The tension in Hank’s voice instantly snapped Jake out his fog. “What is it? Is it one of the men?” Visions of a construction accident loomed in his head and Jake closed his eyes. He ran a tight ship and knew all his workers. They weren’t just employees; most of them were friends.
“No, Jake. We’re all fine. Nobody’s hurt,” Hank said, but his voice was funny, tight. “It’s just – well, hell – something’s happened at the office and I think you need to see it. I didn’t want to call you at the hospital.”
“What’s going on?”
After a moment’s hesitation, Hank said, “It’s not something I can talk about on the phone. I locked everything up, so you just come out when you can
.” He hung up before Jake could say anything.
Troubled, Jake replaced the phone in the cradle. It must be something major to get Hank Timmons upset. He grabbed his jacket and headed out the door.
The wind picked up, making Jake hunch his shoulders as he headed toward Nikki’s car. Winters in middle Tennessee were usually mild, but Jake wouldn’t be surprised if they saw the season’s first snow soon.
Jake was still shivering when he pulled onto the highway, so he stopped at a Burger Barn drive-thru to get a cup of coffee before he went to the office. He had a feeling he was going to need it. He hadn’t taken the first sip of it when a car pulled out in front of him, cutting him off. Jake hit the brakes hard and sloshed a little of the hot brew down the front of his shirt. Cursing, he reached into the glove box in search of napkins, but came away with something else.
He glanced at the real estate brochures with a mixture of anger and sadness. Nikki had been house hunting. Jake pulled into a convenience store parking lot and looked them over.
Ritzy neighborhoods.
The guy must have been loaded. Someone who could give her all the things that he never could. Suddenly, Jake just felt very tired. He stared at the thin gold band on his hand.
Only a fool would still be wearing this ring. But he had always been a fool when it came to Nikki.
Who was this man?
The thought ran an endless loop in his mind, driving him crazy. Had someone really tried to kill him, and if so, how could he protect himself from a faceless enemy?
Jake thought the only man who wanted to kill him was already dead.
Seeing Hank Timmons did nothing to erase the apprehension he felt. His usually imperturbable foreman refused to meet his eyes.
“C’mon,” Hank said gruffly, as he fumbled with the key ring clutched in his meaty hand. “I hated to call you at the hospital, Jake, but I wasn’t sure what to do. Thought about calling the cops, but I figured you needed to see it first.” He strode toward Jake’s office and Jake trailed behind him. One of the crews was just clocking out and a few of the men called out greetings. Jake could only nod at them, his mouth suddenly dry. Sparing a quick glance over his shoulder, Hank unlocked the door and pushed it open.
The smell assaulted Jake before he could see inside. It was Nikki’s perfume, but it was heavy, overpowering, as if the place had been soaked in it. Jake’s eyes watered as he stepped over the threshold. Hank shut the door behind them and Jake almost called out to him to leave it open before he realized what Hank was being so secretive about.
He stared at the scene before him in shock.
Jake’s eyes were tearing, burning, but he didn’t know if it was from the perfume or fury. Across one wall, over the top of a picture of him and Nikki, someone had spray painted NIKKI BELONGS TO ME. Things were strewn around the office. Her things.
Jake yanked a pair of purple panties dangling from the ceiling fan with so much force that the wooden blade snapped. Everything had been knocked off his desk onto the floor and now the top was littered with hundreds of pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.
A cartoon screensaver on his computer caught his eye. A little cartoon man waved at him and pointed to the bottom right corner of the screen, where “Click here” flashed at him. Jake did, and a picture of Nikki materialized on the screen. She lay on their bed with a phone cradled to her ear, wearing only Jake’s faded University of Tennessee T-shirt and a pair of white panties. She was sticking her tongue out at the cameraman.
With a growl of fury, Jake picked up the monitor and hurled it across the room.
“Do you want me to call the police?” Hank asked in a hesitant voice. Jake had almost forgotten he was there.
“No, just…just leave me alone a minute, huh?” The cloying scent of the perfume was beginning to make him nauseous, but Jake was already sick with a rage that he didn’t want to take out on Hank. Nodding, Hank closed the door behind him. Pushing open a window to breathe, Jake flung a peach camisole that he hadn’t seen in awhile out of his chair and started shoving the pieces of the puzzle around.
What he saw made him even angrier.
Son of a bitch didn’t even have the guts to leave him all the pieces.
What he had was three-fourths of a photo of a wet, bikini clad Nikki in another man’s arms.
What he didn’t have was any part of the man’s face.
***
It was growing dark outside when Jake emerged from his office. He managed to clean up most of the mess, but someone would have to shampoo the carpet. His head pounded, and he just wanted to go home.
“Jake?”
Turning slowly, Jake shouldn’t have been surprised to see his foreman standing there. Although he was a man of few words, they didn’t come more loyal than Hank.
“Hey,” the big man looked abashed. “I was worried about you. You okay?”
“Yeah.” Jake forced a smile. “Yeah, I’m okay. Been a rough week, you know.”
“You don’t want to call the cops?”
Jake thought of the way the detective at the hospital had talked to him. No doubt he was already the prime suspect. He wasn’t going to give them more ammunition.
“Nah, no cops. I’ll take care of it. But could you get someone to clean the carpet for me tomorrow?”
Hank shifted uncomfortably and muttered, “Okay, Jake. If you need someone to talk to, you know—”
“I know,” Jake interrupted with a smile. Hank nodded and started to walk away when Jake said, “Hey, when was the last time you were in there?” Hank was the only person with access to Jake’s office besides him.
“Nobody’s been in there since you were last, boss. I had to go in there today to get a copy of the Bergman plans.”
“So it could’ve been vandalized last week.” Jake mulled it over. Maybe it had been done before the accident. He thought of the unidentified body in the truck.
Maybe – just maybe – things had already been taken care of.
A cold rain started to fall as Jake watched his foreman drive away. He climbed in the car and just sat there for a while, staring through the rain-streaked windshield. His mind ran a constant loop of all their friends and acquaintances, trying to find a suspect.
It would be interesting to see who turned up missing in the next few days.
Reluctant to go home, Jake remembered that Kelly was out of town. Maybe Eliot could help him put things in perspective. Jake pulled onto the highway, feeling better at the thought of talking to his friend.
Tired of the endless questions in his head, Jake flipped on the radio station and turned it off again when he recognized the first few bars of Nikki’s favorite song. He laughed as the wipers beat against the windshield. How impossible it all was, to think of extracting Nikki from his life. Since the day they met, every thought he had was connected some way or another to her. Even if he left town, if he left the country, for that matter, how could he erase his memories of her? The way she laughed, the way she tilted her head when she smiled. The way they made love as silver moonlight spilled through their bedroom window, and afterward – oh God, especially afterward – when Nikki would become a different woman in his arms. In the cover of darkness, she was someone soft and vulnerable, someone who needed him. She told him her lonely childhood, her dreams and her fears.
Nikki trembled and her tears had burned his chest the first time she told Jake she loved him, even though he’d confessed it first.
“Sometimes I feel so cold inside and wonder if something’s wrong with me because I just don’t give a damn. I used to think my heart was all ugly and black inside, because I didn’t fall in love like other people did. Then I met you. I swear, Jake, the first time I ever felt anything was when I took your hand.”
That was the Nikki he fell in love with and now he had that woman 24/7. The Nikki in that hospital room ripped his heart to shreds.
“Dammit,” Jake said softly.
Eliot wasn’t home. So lost in his thoughts, Jake hadn’t noticed the darkness
of the house or the absence of Eliot’s Porsche until he had driven all the way up the elm-lined drive.
Discouraged, he followed the paved circle of the driveway and headed home. He drove on auto-pilot and was a little surprised to find himself pulling up in front of his house a few moments later. Jake lurched up the sidewalk like a drunk, so tired he could barely walk. When he moved to stick his key in the door, it swung open wide.
“What the hell?” he muttered, instantly alert.
Had he forgotten to lock the door?
As Jake stood in the doorway, something crashed upstairs.
***
“Are you okay, dear?” Catherine called from the other side of the shower curtain.
“I’m fine,” Nikki said, too embarrassed to admit that wasn’t really true. While she welcomed the shower, the hot water seemed to drain her energy, leaving her muscles weak and quivering. She hated being so helpless. Clutching at the silver handrail, Nikki washed her body, but couldn’t lift her arms above her head to wash her hair. She rested underneath the hot spray until she felt ready to try again.
A wave of dizziness assaulted her and heat flooded her face as she let go of the bar and raised her arms. Nikki swayed and nearly fell through the blue plastic shower curtain. Reacting quickly, Catherine pushed her back toward the handrail, then reached around the curtain to steady her.
“Let me help,” Catherine said.
“My hair. I can’t wash my hair.”
Catherine adjusted the faucet and gently washed Nikki’s hair. Nikki clutched the rail until Catherine turned off the spray and handed her a towel.
“I really must remind Jake to bring some of your things,” Catherine said as she helped Nikki into a white hospital gown. She wrapped a towel around Nikki’s head and Nikki leaned on her as they made a slow, awkward shuffle back to the bed. A ten minute shower exhausted Nikki. As she sagged against the pillows, she noticed the water spots darkening the front of Catherine’s powder blue sweatshirt.
“Your shirt—” Nikki said. “I’ve ruined your shirt.”
“Nonsense, dear. Just a little water. It’ll be fine.” Catherine toweled Nikki’s hair, and then retrieved a comb from her purse and gently went to work on Nikki’s tangles.
Unforeseen Danger Page 4