Independence Day

by Amy Frazier

  Keri sat slumped on the toilet seat, her face flushed, her eyes half open.

  “Keri!”

  She didn’t move.

  Gabriella tried the door. Of course it was locked. “Keri! Open up!”

  Keri didn’t respond.

  The others in the restroom backed away uneasily.

  Not caring what they thought, Gabriella crawled under the door and into the stall. “Keri?”

  As her head lolled backward, Keri’s eyelids fluttered. She was hot to the touch. Burning up hot. As if she had a fever.

  “Help!” Gabriella unlocked the stall door, but couldn’t open it in the cramped space. She had to crawl back out underneath.

  “Help me get her out of there,” she pleaded as a dozen faces stared blankly at her. “She needs air.”

  Finally, one of the girls stepped forward and helped Gabriella lift Keri out of the stall and into the larger room where they laid her on the floor.

  “Omigod,” someone muttered. “She must have taken some bad shit.”

  Gabriella looked up. “What are you talking about?”

  “Ask Danny Aiken. He’s her boyfriend, isn’t he?”

  Had Danny given Keri drugs? Had he slipped them in her drink? Had she taken them on her own?

  At that moment, Keri turned on her side and retched. Her cell phone fell off her belt.

  Without thinking, Gabriella grabbed the phone and punched in 911.

  NICK FELT more alive than he had in a long time.

  After a slow start the evening had turned out to be fun. Now there was a word he hadn’t used recently. Chessie was right. He’d needed to loosen up a little. And loosen up he had with this new, sexy woman. They’d danced and flirted as if they’d just met. And, as one of the last couples to leave, they’d closed down the pops concert. Not in an administrative capacity, but as two people who didn’t want the evening to end.

  “Turn here!” At the light Chessie pointed down the Sea Road. “Let’s ride around the beach.”

  Turning the Volvo, he glanced in her direction. She had her window open and was letting her hand glide on the soft night air. As she rested her head back against the seat, her short tousled curls played about the smile on her lips. He couldn’t remember when he’d seen her so relaxed. And happy.

  “Did you have a good time tonight?”

  “You’re not supposed to ask me. Not on our first date.” Her voice was light and teasing. “I’m supposed to tell you.”

  “Well?” He stroked her thigh under that silky dress and felt a jolt of longing.

  She ran her hand lightly over his. “I had a terrific time tonight. Let’s run away together.”

  That’s how he felt, too.

  He followed the bend in the road and came out on the stretch where the beach was separated from the pavement by a ribbon of sidewalk and a low seawall.

  “Oh, how beautiful!” Chessie exclaimed as the stars and the moon reflected off the ocean’s surface. “Pull over!”

  “Do you want to get out and walk?” he asked as he turned off the ignition.

  “No. I want to…park.” In the moonlight, she sent him a sultry look.

  “As in…?”

  “As in teenage-just-got-the-license park.” She flipped up the armrest, then slid across the front seat to snuggle next to him.

  “On the first date?”

  “As you said, I’m a girl who knows my way around a good time.”

  “In the family sedan?”

  “The parents will never know.”

  He glanced at his watch.

  “Not on this date, mister!” she exclaimed, pulling the watch from his wrist and tossing it in the back seat.

  “You mean business.”

  She giggled, then turned on the seat to face him. It was amazing how perfectly her body fit up against his. “I mean business.”

  He slid the steering wheel up and the seat back.

  “Mm,” she purred as she twirled a bit of his hair between her fingers. “That’s more like it.”

  The moon shone through the open window, illuminating her face. With her silvered features and the short haircut, she didn’t quite look like his wife.

  He didn’t feel quite like himself.

  Tentatively, he kissed the corner of her mouth.

  “Oh, no,” she murmured, sliding her hand behind his neck and pulling him to her. “Like this.”

  She nipped his lower lip once before her kiss became passionate and deep and insistent. It was not a kiss to be dismissed as fun and games. It sent serious desire through his body.

  He ran his hand over her hip. Over the swell of her bottom. The silky fabric of her dress felt like a second skin, and in the dark interior of the car, it felt as if she might have nothing on. He closed his eyes and groaned.

  “I’ve been wanting to get you alone for a very long time,” she whispered huskily in his ear.

  At that moment he thought he glimpsed a part of what she’d been trying to tell him with the laundry, with the picket sign. Of the need for intimacy.

  He cupped her face in both his hands and held her so that he could look in her eyes. “I’m sorry,” he said.

  “Don’t be.” She smiled. “Be mine.”

  Words wouldn’t come. Instead, he pulled her to him in a kiss.

  With it, Chessie felt a change in Nick.

  For the first time in ages, he was with her, truly with her. In fact, she’d bet he wasn’t thinking at all, but was humming on pure physical auto-pilot. And all because of her.

  Oh, my, but he could kiss!

  She felt light-headed. Perhaps it was the short haircut and the unaccustomed feel of the night air against her neck. Perhaps it was the teasing silk of her dress against her skin. More likely it was Nick’s undivided attention. He’d really seen her tonight, for the first time in a very long while. And now he wanted her.

  Breathless, she pulled away, almost expecting to see a stranger next to her. But it was Nick. Handsome and strong and looking at her as if he could eat her alive.

  “You are so beautiful,” he murmured, running his fingers down the deep vee of her neckline, trailing shivers of pleasure along her skin.

  She demurred and shook her head as if to disagree.

  “You can’t tell me you thought those guys were asking you to dance because they took pity on you.” Gently, as if in awe, he touched her hair. “You’re a knockout.”

  “Thank you,” she said, feeling truly beautiful under his gaze. And powerful.

  She leaned across his lap, buried her face in the curve of his neck. And felt him inhale sharply.

  “Oh, no! I forgot about the dog bite!” She tried to shift her weight, but he held her tightly. “Does it hurt?”

  He chuckled and the sound reverberated through his chest. “Honey, I’m feeling no pain.”

  She began a gentle massage of his chest, moving her hand in slow circles, lower and lower still until she slid her fingers between the buttons of his shirt just above his belt buckle and felt his warm skin. “What are you feeling?”

  “I’m…”

  She slid her fingers below his belt and felt the trickle of hair that dipped directly from his navel south.

  “…feeling…”

  “Yes?” She ran the flat of her palm over his erection.

  “…like this.” Starting at her knee, he ran his hand between her thighs. Slowly. Under the fabric of her dress. Stopping just as his thumb grazed her panties.

  “Are you wearing a thong?” Incredulity threaded his words.

  “And if I am?”

  “Toto, we’re not in Kansas anymore.”

  With a shiver of anticipation, she unbuckled his belt…just as a light blinded her.

  “You folks need to move along.” The gruff voice seemed to come from right in the car with them.

  Her heart in her throat, Chessie started and hit the steering wheel with her elbow, sounding the horn.

  “What the hell!” Nick raised his hand to shield his eyes from
the brightness.

  Chessie adjusted her skirt over her legs.

  “Nick?” The voice behind the blinding light boomed with amusement. “Chessie?”

  Now she noticed the flashing blue lights behind the Volvo.

  “For the love of Mike, you’d think the two of you could take it home.” The police officer lowered his flashlight. It was George Weiss. Their neighbor. “Or at least get a hotel room.”

  As Chessie quickly moved to the passenger seat, she noticed Nick’s unbuckled belt. She gave him a sharp nod.

  Abruptly he shifted his hips away from the window. “Ow!” Apparently, as foreplay disappeared, so went the local anesthetic.

  George laughed right out loud. “As if you two needed any more notoriety.”

  “We were watching the moon rise,” Chessie explained sweetly.

  “Among other things,” George added, apparently unable to restrain his mirth. “I’m going to give you kids my usual safe-sex lecture.” He dug into his pockets. “And these.” He handed Nick a couple packets of condoms.

  “Save the lecture, George,” Nick muttered. “We’re heading home.”

  “Don’t let me come back in an hour and find you here.” George grinned as if he were really enjoying this. “I’d have to write you up.”

  “You’d love that.”

  “I would. But if you keep your nose clean and get this girl home safely… I’ll restrict the report to Thursday night poker—”

  The radio in the squad car crackled with urgency.

  “Gotta run,” George said. “Sounds like they need back-up at the Surf Club. God, I hate drunks.” He thumped the side of the Volvo with the flat of his hand. “Drive safe now.”

  Chessie suppressed a giggle. Nick’s face had been in shadow, so she’d been unable to read his mood. They’d been communing so exquisitely until George’s interruption. Would this development set them back?

  “Whose idea was this?” he asked, turning the key in the ignition.

  “Mine?”

  “And a damned good one it was,” he declared as he put the car in gear and accelerated so quickly she swore the old Volvo left a patch of rubber. Right in front of officer George Weiss’s cruiser. Martha wasn’t going to let them live this down.

  Nick extended his right arm. “Come here, woman.” He laughed. A deep, rich, heartfelt laugh.

  Joyfully, she slid across the seat again and buckled up in the center. Then she laid her head on his shoulder and sighed. The silence on the way home wasn’t from tension. It was from contentment. Life was good. If Nick could find humor in tonight’s turn of events, there was hope for them.

  “You know,” he said at last, caressing her arm, “just because we’re changing venue, doesn’t mean the night has to end.”

  “I like the sound of that.” Did she just say that? Dear Lord, give her strength. What was happening to her no-sex diet? The husky tone of Nick’s voice wasn’t offering cookies. It was offering a deluxe hot fudge sundae.

  “Besides, an officer of the law gave me these.” He pulled the condom packets out of his shirt pocket. “Now why would he do that if he didn’t mean for us to use—”

  He stopped speaking so abruptly, Chessie sat bolt upright. They were about to turn in to their driveway, but another police car blocked their way. Nick pulled over to the side of the road. As he did, officer Ken Nadick got out of one side of the cruiser, and Gabriella got out of the other.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  NICK COULDN’T BELIEVE his eyes.

  The kid getting out of the squad car didn’t look like his fourteen-year-old daughter. She looked like a hooker.

  “What happened?”

  “Gabby, are you okay?” Chessie was right behind him.

  Silent and sullen, Gabriella made no move toward them.

  “We picked her up with about a dozen other underage kids at the Surf Club,” Ken Nadick said.

  “The Surf Club!” Chessie exclaimed. “You were supposed to be spending the night with—”

  “Mom! I’ve already been read the riot act.” Gabriella started for the house, but Ken stopped her.

  “Not so fast, young lady,” he said. “You’ve got a lot to explain to your parents. Later. But right now you’re going to stay while I tell them the facts as I know them. Then you can all start on the same page.”

  Gabriella slouched against the squad car. Nick had seen that part-tough, part-scared look a hundred times in his office. On other people’s kids. He’d hear her side of the story, as Ken said, later. With a heavy heart he turned to the officer who headed up the substance abuse program for the high school. “What do you know?”

  “We got a 911 call from the Surf Club. Drug overdose. Turns into a drug bust with a bunch of underage drinkers as postscript.”

  “I wasn’t drinking!” Gabriella protested.

  With a severe look, Ken silenced her. “Your daughter had fake ID on her, but she passed the breathalyzer and the field sobriety test. I thought it best just to bring her home.”

  “How did you get to the Surf Club?” Chessie turned to Gabriella, astonishment and hurt written on her face.

  “You guys are going to have to work out the details,” Ken replied. “I’m sorry but it’s going to be a long night.” Opening the driver’s door of the cruiser, he nodded his head toward the Weiss’s house. “Consider yourself lucky. George had to follow his daughter to the hospital. She was the drug overdose.”

  “Keri?” Tears welled up in Chessie’s eyes. “Gabriella—”

  But their daughter had fled into the house. Chessie followed, leaving the two men in the driveway.

  “Thanks, Ken,” Nick said. “I wasn’t looking for special treatment.”

  “I wasn’t giving any,” Ken replied, getting into the squad car. “As I said, Gabriella was clean. She was just where she wasn’t supposed to be.”

  An understatement if Nick had ever heard one. He headed into the house to get to the bottom of this mess.

  Before he reached the kitchen, he heard Gabriella’s bedroom door slam.

  “Unlock this door at once,” Chessie ordered from above.

  He charged up the stairs. When he got to the top, Gabriella still hadn’t unlocked the door. “Open the door,” he said, trying to keep his anger in check. It was amazing how much easier it was dealing with other parents’ kids’ problems. “We’re going to talk.”

  Silence.

  “What’s she doing in there?” Chessie asked. “What’s she capable of?”

  Yesterday he might’ve been able to give his wife an answer. Today he couldn’t. “If you don’t open this door, I will,” he threatened. God, he felt like kicking it down.

  “Wait, Dad.” As if she read his thoughts, Isabel appeared from her room, a coat hanger in her hand. With the hook end, she jabbed the hole in the middle of the doorknob, releasing the lock.

  He and Chessie pushed into Gabriella’s room at the same time.

  Their daughter lay on her bed, her face buried in a pillow. He sat on one side, Chessie on the other. “Tell us what happened,” he said.

  Gabriella didn’t respond.

  “Gabby…” Chessie put a hand on Gabriella’s shoulder, but the girl jerked away.

  “We’re going to get to the bottom of this,” Nick insisted. “It’s time to own up.”

  Gabriella rolled to a sitting position, then scooted back against the headboard as if she wanted to get as far away from her parents as possible. Thick black mascara smudged her eyes.

  “You were supposed to be spending the night with Keri,” Chessie began. “What happened?”

  “We got invited to hang out with Baylee and Margot.”

  “How’d you get to the Surf Club?” Nick couldn’t believe he’d become one of the parents who lost track of his teenager.

  “Mrs. Weiss drove us.”

  “To the club?”

  Gabriella refused to look him in the eye. “To Baylee’s.”

  “And why didn’t you call your mother or tell us y
our change in plans? We both have cell phones.”

  “Mrs. Weiss knows them. Knows their parents. It wasn’t a big deal.”

  “Obviously, it was. You still haven’t told us how you got to the Surf Club.”

  “We walked.”

  This was like pulling teeth, but he persisted. “From Baylee’s house?”

  “No. Baylee’s dad drove us to Margot’s.”

  “So far you’ve lied to us, to Mrs. Weiss and to Baylee’s dad, and you’re not even at the club.” He paused to let the full import of his words sink in. To her mind or to his, he couldn’t be sure. “How did you get to the club from Margot’s?”

  “We walked.”

  “Where did you get fake ID?”

  “Some guys.”

  “Names?”

  “I don’t know their names.”

  She was lying. He knew it. His daughter was lying to his face.

  “Where did Keri get the drugs?”

  “I don’t know.”

  Another lie.

  “Where did you get these clothes?” Chessie broke in.

  The clothes. Neither Chessie nor he would ever allow either girl out of the house in an outfit like that. Nick hated to think what the men at the club had thought of this girl-woman in those clothes.

  Gabriella didn’t respond.

  “Three questions you don’t know the answers to.” Nick rose from the bed. “We can wait. You’re grounded until you can tell us the whole story.”

  “That’s so unfair!” Gabriella shouted. “I wasn’t drinking! I wasn’t doing drugs! I was just dancing!”

  Nick looked at her buzz cut and the heavy makeup. The skimpy outfit. There was far more than dancing going on tonight. This was a girl—his girl—who stood on the threshold of womanhood.

  “If everything was so innocent,” Chessie remarked, “why did you sneak behind our backs?”

  Gabriella looked as if her mother had slapped her. “You have some nerve dissing me,” she muttered.

  “I beg your pardon?” It was Chessie’s turn to look slapped.

  “I just went dancing with my friends!” Gabriella yelled. “You’ve been acting all weird in public! Before strangers! You embarrassed me and Dad and Isabel! I didn’t do anything worse than you’ve been doing all week!”