“Are you saying Jake was seeing Elaine?” Nikki asked, unable to make sense out of what Darcy was telling her.
“Don’t be stupid,” Darcy retorted. “Since the day he met you, Jake forgot any other woman existed. Just like Derek. What is it about you, Nikki, that causes men to make such fools of themselves over you?”
“Why did you try to kill Jake?” Nikki asked.
“You took the one thing I loved from me and I was going to return the favor.” She pointed the gun at Nikki with a shaking hand. “Derek loved you and you didn’t care!” Shoving Nikki off the road, Darcy said, “Walk.”
“I’m sorry about Derek—”
“Shut up. It’s too late for apologies now. When he first came to town, I begged you to leave him alone. Derek was so vulnerable and naïve. He wasn’t ready for the likes of you.” Nikki stumbled over a log and Darcy seized a handful of her coat to jerk her upright.
“The first time he tried to kill himself was December 16th, two years ago. Ring a bell? He crashed your wedding, and I chased him down. I finally found him at some fleabag motel with an empty bottle of valium in his hand. They pumped his stomach and you know what the first thing he asked me was? Why didn’t I let him die. I told him to hang on, that your marriage to Jake would never last. I never dreamed you’d be happy with him, that you really loved him. I’d tell Derek when the two of you were fighting and at first, he was hopeful, but I could see him sinking deeper into his depression as time went by and I couldn’t do a thing about it.”
“What about Zeke?” Nikki asked. “I don’t understand.”
“Derek was all I had and you were all he wanted, so I decided to do something about it. I thought maybe if I could split up you and Jake, you’d go back to Derek. I decided to work on the one weakness that you and Jake shared…your jealousy.”
Nikki watched the ground in front of her, debating on faking another fall. If she timed it right, maybe she could take Darcy down with her.
“Everything fell into place so perfectly that day…You should’ve seen your face when I showed you the letter that morning. I had to beg you not to confront Jake. As you know, it was pretty vague, and I told you we needed more proof. That same evening, I was driving by Elaine’s apartment, and I saw Jake’s car outside. How perfect was that?”
She chuckled and said, “Of course, good friend that I am, I called you right away and told you to meet me at the Conoco station across from Elaine’s apartment building right away. He’d called at lunch to tell you he’d be working late. When you saw Jake’s truck parked outside of her apartment, you wanted to knock down the door and drag them both out of there, but Jake came out before you had a chance. He hugged Elaine and kissed her cheek before he left. I swear, you were nearly purple with rage! Looked just like a lover’s tryst.”
Darcy chuckled and said, “You wanted to drive to Jake’s office to confront him, but I talked you into stopping at O’Malley’s Bar first, to have a drink and calm down. When you went to the bathroom, I put a roofie in your drink.”
“A what?”
“It’s this neat little white pill that reduces your inhibitions and increases your alcohol absorption. I mean, even a heavy drinker can get drunk on one drink. Best of all, it kind of KO’s your memory, too. The date rape drug, they call it. Well, it just seemed like destiny when Zeke walked in. I could tell the drug was hitting you. You motioned him over, and told me to go on, that you were sure Zeke wouldn’t mind taking you home. He got the hint, and the old pervert nearly broke his neck rushing back to his table to make an excuse to his cronies. I left there thinking, this is it. I didn’t have to do anything else to destroy your marriage. You were going to do it all by yourself.”
“Zeke,” Nikki repeated weakly.
“Don’t act so surprised,” Darcy said offhandedly. “Zeke is a lech. You knew it. I knew it. He was in the right place at the right time. You looked at him and saw the perfect opportunity to get back at both Jake and Elaine, and Catherine to boot.”
They had stumbled into a clearing. A cement block foundation was all that remained of some long forgotten structure.
Darcy grinned. “Look like a good place to die, Nik? I think I know how to work this. I’ll tell them your lover caught me going into Catherine’s, then forced us both to leave at gunpoint. He drove us out here in the country and forced us out of the car. Unfortunately, while he was busy murdering you, I made my escape. Jake thinks I have no sense of direction, so he’ll believe me when I tell him I’m not sure where we were. It’ll be weeks before they find you. My only regret is that this will completely clear old Zeke. On your knees, Nikki. Now.”
Nikki knelt in the snow and rotting leaves.
“You’re going to feel what Derek felt when he shot himself that night.”
Tears streaked down Darcy’s cheeks. “I went back home after you left with Zeke, and Derek was waiting there for me. I told him what I’d done and you would’ve thought he’d have been happy, but no…he was furious. He just had to run off and rescue you. Apparently, he scared old Zeke to death. He left in quite a hurry, didn’t he, Nik? Didn’t even have time to collect his socks.”
She laughed and said, “Just so you appreciate the whole irony of this, I want you to know that nothing happened between you and Zeke, thanks to Derek. But even before the accident, you didn’t remember that. Derek left you a note at his apartment, but I got it first. You didn’t deserve to read it. In it he told how he busted in there and ran Zeke off before anything happened. How you were doped out of your head, but you still cried for Jake. That was when he realized you’d never be his. After he made sure you were okay, Derek went home and shot himself.”
“And Zeke?”
“Of course, you didn’t believe Zeke when he told you nothing happened. You didn’t remember Derek being there at all, just Zeke taking you home and you waking up naked and hung over in your bed. You accused him of doping your drink, and you couldn’t go to Jake, now could you? Especially after he confessed about Elaine. It was all totally innocent, of course. Her boyfriend had beaten her up and Jake had taken her to the hospital to get her head stitched up. He felt guilty because he’d been talking to her, trying to get her to break away from Brandon, without your knowledge. You, of course, felt like a dog because you thought you’d slept with his stepfather. The sock thing was pretty funny. I would’ve tried to kill Jake sooner, but I wanted to see how that played out.”
Darcy pushed her hair out of her face and said, “To be honest, I like Jake. I just wanted him to hate you. I didn’t really want to kill him, but one way or another, I wanted you to know what it felt like to lose him. I didn’t know he would ask you for a divorce, and after a couple of weeks, I was getting pretty antsy, so I sabotaged his truck.”
“The phone calls …” Nikki asked, dazed. “What about the man who called me?”
Darcy shrugged. “Carlos, my waiter friend. He thought it was just a prank.”
Nikki’s thoughts flew by in a dizzying blur. There was no lover. There never had been. Darcy had spoon fed them the whole thing.
***
The chopper pilot spotted the car first, but by that time, Matt and Jake were only minutes away. They roared down a narrow twist of road and screeched to a stop behind Darcy’s red BMW.
The abandoned car filled Jake with a sense of dread.
He held his breath as Matt pried open the trunk, and exhaled sharply when he saw it was empty.
“Come on!” Matt yelled, pointing at the tracks left in the snow. Jake ran, with Matt on his heels.
They ran until they saw a flash of purple up ahead.
Darcy’s coat, he realized, and plunged on, ignoring the stitch in his side, ignoring Matt’s hissed command for him to stop, to stop right there, dammit!
As he approached the edge of the clearing, what he saw stopped him in his tracks. Nikki on her knees on the frozen ground, a pistol pressed to her forehead.
“The passenger. Who was in the truck with me that day?” Nikk
i asked.
Darcy shook her head. “I have no idea. You and I weren’t really speaking by the time of the accident, so I don’t know who you were hanging out with.”
“Why all these games? Why not just kill me or Jake outright?”
“The amnesia thing was unexpected, but interesting. I figured I could hurt you and not have to kill Jake to do it. I used your amnesia to plant the seeds of doubt even deeper in Jake’s mind. After all, I was the only one who knew the whole story. My only mistake was that I should’ve played it harder, but I wasn’t sure how much you said to Jake that morning. I wanted to rip him away from you the way you’d ripped my brother from me, but Jake proved yet again how gullible he is where you’re concerned.”
Jake slowly circled behind Darcy, into Nikki’s line of sight. Her eyes widened and he saw the almost imperceptible shake of her head. She wanted him to back off, but he couldn’t. If he could draw Darcy’s fire, Matt could take her down and save Nikki. Nearly numb with fear for her, he stepped into the clearing.
A branch underneath his boot snapped and Darcy whirled to face him. A gunshot cracked through the air. Jake felt a curious sense of weightlessness as he fell backwards in the snow.
***
“No!” Nikki screamed.
Darcy turned on her and Nikki heard another boom of gunfire. She watched as some invisible force lifted Darcy off her feet like a rag doll and slammed her against the ground. It took her a moment to comprehend that Darcy had been shot, too. Matt ran out of the clearing toward them.
In slow motion, she saw Darcy struggle to rise. With a trembling hand, she lifted her gun and pointed it at Jake.
Nikki charged her.
They tumbled over and over in the snow, scuffling for control over the weapon. The muzzle of the pistol jammed painfully in Nikki’s ribs and she fought to turn the gun away from her. Gunfire exploded between them. And although she felt no pain, Nikki felt a sudden burst of heat and wondered if she’d been shot. Darcy’s gray eyes stared into hers for a moment before she collapsed on top of her.
“Nikki! Nikki!” she heard Jake shout, and she tried to wiggle out from underneath Darcy.
He ran toward her, clutching his shoulder, but he looked like he was going to be all right. Nikki was so relieved she nearly sobbed. Scooting out from underneath her, Nikki rolled Darcy onto her back. She yanked off her coat and pressed it to Darcy’s midsection, trying desperately to stop the blood gushing from her wound.
“Somebody help her!” she cried.
After the paramedics rushed Darcy from the scene, Nikki fell on her knees and scooped up a handful of snow. She furiously scrubbed her hands with it, trying to clean the blood from her red, swollen fingers as hot tears streamed down her face.
Jake called her name, but she couldn’t stop. He knelt in front of her and seized both of her wrists.
“Nikki, stop,” he said gently.
She stared into his eyes, and then collapsed against him, sobbing into his chest. It wasn’t until he helped her to her feet and wrapped his coat around her that she realized how wet and cold she was. Her coat lay abandoned on the ground, soaked in Darcy’s blood.
“It’s over,” he whispered. “It’s finally over.”
Chapter 15
Nikki sat in the waiting room with Matt as the doctor patched Jake’s shoulder. He kept asking Nikki questions, but she was too disoriented to answer most of them. He called a doctor over, and she let them lead her to one of the curtained off cubicles. Even though they stood beside her, they sounded distant.
She heard Jake’s voice and tried to force herself to concentrate.
“Shock,” the doctor was saying, and Nikki heard a commotion as Jake pushed aside the curtain. Another doctor followed him, arguing with him about something, but Jake turned to him and said, “I’m fine. It’s just a flesh wound and I’m not staying here.”
She met his gaze and he said, “Nikki, are you okay?”
Nodding, she held out her arms to him and he held her.
“Take me to Catherine’s.” Glancing at Matt, she said, “I’ll tell you everything.”
Her fury built with every mile. All the agonizing, all the torment. The pain Jake had suffered. Because of lies. They pulled up in the drive and she jumped out.
Nikki stalked into the house, still covered in Darcy’s blood. Zeke and Elaine hovered around a frantic Catherine, and they all looked confused.
Zeke made the mistake of approaching her.
“Are you all right, dear—”
Chaos broke out when Nikki slugged him, a perfect right hook that caught him off-guard and nearly knocked him off his feet.
Matt, with his deep voice, boomed, “Enough!”
If he hadn’t been standing in the middle of Catherine’s living room, Nikki had the feeling he might’ve fired his gun in the air, like some cowboy from a Wild West show.
Nikki told her story, exactly as Darcy had related it. The others sat in stunned silence, a silence broken only by Zeke’s unconvincing protestations of innocence and Matt’s occasional curse.
Of course, Zeke denied the whole thing, but no one believed him. Even his daughter refused to meet his eyes. Jake never moved and his silence was more terrifying to Nikki than anything.
When there was nothing left to say, Nikki got up and walked outside, needing a moment alone. She was afraid Jake would hate her now. Even though it hadn’t actually happened, she’d intended to sleep with Zeke, just to hurt him, and had destroyed his mother’s marriage in the process.
All because she hadn’t trusted him.
The front door creaked open, and she knew it was Jake, but she didn’t turn around, afraid of what she might read in his eyes.
“Do you want to go for a drive?” he said quietly.
Nikki didn’t, because she didn’t know if she wanted to hear what he had to say, but she nodded.
They got in Catherine’s car and backed down the driveway. Neither of them said anything for a long while, until Jake finally pulled over in a little park area. When he turned to face her, Nikki realized she was holding her breath.
He took her hand. “Do you think you could ever forgive me, for all I’ve done? All this time, I was punishing you, but it was all my fault. If I had told you about Elaine—”
“You don’t hate me?” she blurted, amazed. “For Zeke?”
Jake looked at her like she was crazy. “Of course not! You were drugged. He tried to take advantage of you. You didn’t do anything.”
Nikki threw her arms around his neck and kissed him.
***
November 29
Nikki opened the front door and grabbed a freezing Matt by the shirtsleeve. “Get in here,” she said. “Where’s your coat?”
“Real men don’t need coats,” he said through chattering teeth.
“Real men don’t remember their coats, is more like it,” Catherine said behind her and Jake laughed.
“That too,” Matt admitted.
“Want coffee?” Jake asked.
“That’d be great.”
They gathered around the kitchen table and watched Matt gulp his coffee. Finally, he quit shivering and said, “I came to tell you about Darcy. They reached a decision and found her competent to stand trial. It’ll probably happen sometime in the middle of January.”
“About the same time I’ll be in divorce court,” Catherine remarked wryly.
“She’s still saying she doesn’t know anything about the passenger?” Jake asked.
Matt sighed. “Yep. Says she doesn’t know, and I don’t have anything either. Thought I had a hit with a missing girl from Ohio the other day, but the DNA didn’t pan out.”
Jake slipped his hand inside Nikki’s and she squeezed his fingers. They fell silent as they thought about the unidentified victim.
Catherine broke the silence. She smiled at them and said, “Well, guess who came by to see me last night?”
Nikki smiled. She already knew, had talked to her on the phone just before
Catherine arrived, but hadn’t had a chance to tell Jake.
“Elaine. We had a long heart-to-heart. I told her that even though I’m divorcing her father, I want to be there for her and Eliot. After ten years, they’re like my children, too, and I don’t want to lose them. I think we made a lot of progress, cleared up some misunderstandings. I’ve wanted to do that for so long.”
“I’m glad to hear that,” Jake said.
Matt cleared his throat. “There’s something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time, too.” He glanced at Catherine and Nikki watched a red blush creep up his neck. “You remember that remark you made about me never asking you to dinner?”
Catherine smiled. “I remember.”
“Well, I’m asking now. Don’t want the chance to slip by me again. When your divorce is finalized, you think you might wanna go to dinner with an old dog like me?”
“I think we can arrange that,” she said with a wink. “Better yet, you can come over and I’ll fix my famous chicken casserole.”
Jake groaned, and Matt’s face lit up. “Jake lived through it. I probably can, too. So it’s a date?”
“It’s a date,” she agreed.
***
The next morning, Jake was eating breakfast as Nikki read the Sunday paper. When the doorbell rang, she jumped up to get it.
A handsome blonde boy of about eighteen stood on the doorstep.
He glanced at her in surprise.
“Hey, MP! Why haven’t you called? Mom’s been going nuts.”
Nikki frowned and turned to glance at Jake. Pursing her lips, she turned back to the boy. When she didn’t speak, the boy’s perplexed look turned to one of unease. Suddenly, the room seemed to tilt.
“C’mon, sis,” he joked half-heartedly. “It hasn’t been that long.”
Nikki stared at him in confusion.
Images flashed through her mind in a crazy blur and she lurched backward.
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