by Lisa Jackson
“Why don’t you get ready for work and I’ll drive you.”
“You don’t have to—” For the first time she realized she was missing her car. She half ran to a window, wiped the glass with her sleeve and stared down at the parking space assigned to her. Empty. Her red-and-white convertible wasn’t in its usual spot. “I don’t suppose you know what happened to my car?”
“My guess is it’s at the airport.”
“The airport!” she cried, her temper flaring again. If he’d only been honest with her earlier, she’d have her own set of wheels by now.
“But then again, maybe not. You didn’t have a parking ticket on you.”
“How do you know?” she demanded, but the answer was clear as the glass top of her coffee table. He’d been given her purse at the hospital when she’d been lying in that tiny room trying to piece together her memory—attempting to recall taking vows with the mysterious, badtempered man who had claimed to be her husband. He could have put anything in her purse or taken anything out. Hence, the wedding ring—that blasted symbol of deceit. “Oh, Lord, this is a mess,” she said with a sigh as she sank onto the couch and closed her eyes. “What am I going to tell everyone? My entire family thinks I’m married. And Connie. What can I say to her?” She cast an accusing glare in his direction. “When you plot to turn someone’s life upside down and inside out, you don’t miss a trick, do you?”
Trying to stay calm, she rested the heel of one of her Reebok shoes on the tabletop and wondered how she was going to face the day. There would be questions about her accident, her face, her honeymoon, her husband. What would she say? What could she?
“You don’t have to tell anyone what’s going on.”
“Oh, right! Next you’ll be suggesting that I keep pretending that we’re married.” She lolled her head back on the couch and sighed.
She heard him skirting the coffee table as he walked to the fireplace. “What would it hurt?”
“It’s a lie.” She cracked open one eye.
“It doesn’t have to be.”
Her heart stopped for a second, before she found her voice. “Yes it does,” she said, quietly. A part of her wanted to take the easy way out, keep the lie going until things settled down and to stay with this dangerous, erotic man. Then she could tell her friends and family the truth. Later she could leave him…or would she ever find the strength to let go? Slowly she shook her head and forced her gaze to meet his. “It’ll only get worse.”
As the words fell from her lips, she remembered her older sister, Jan, on bent knees, examining a cut on Nikki’s chin as she had sat, white-faced and trembling, on the edge of the bathtub. “Geez, you look horrible,” Jan had said.
“Thanks,” Nikki muttered, fighting tears.
Her elbow ached and her face felt as bad as it probably looked. There was still gravel ground into the skin of her forearm and blood had dried all the way to her wrist. “So what happened?” Jan had asked, seeming uncertain as to how concerned she should be.
“I fell off my bike.”
“And how.” Jan reached into the medicine cabinet for a dangerous-looking brown bottle and gauze.
Tears welled in Nikki’s eyes. Tasting blood in her mouth where her teeth had bitten into her lower lip, she told Jan the truth. Nikki had been riding her bike with her friend, Terry Watson, a devil-may-care girl whose sense of adventure appealed to Nikki. With her pale blond hair, round blue eyes and quick smile, Terry was popular and had a reputation for being a little bit daring. That day, while Nikki was supposed to have been studying for a history test at Terry’s house, Terry had shoved her books aside and come up with an alternate plan. With only a little persuasion, Terry had convinced Nikki that they should ride their bikes down to the big Safeway store that was three miles away. The only trouble was that the store was located far beyond the boundaries their parents had agreed upon.
The girls had taken off, full of adventure, thrilled to be doing something just a little bit naughty. They had planned to be back by the time Terry’s mom got off work. No one would have been the wiser.
The traffic had been wild, four lanes going fifty-five miles an hour, and the clouds that had been threatening all day suddenly let loose, pouring rain onto the streets, creating rivers flowing into the gutters and turning the day dark as night.
Headlights flashed on, tires sprayed water onto the sidewalks. Rather than ride to the crosswalk, Terry had decided to zigzag across all four lanes of traffic.
“Wait for me!” Nikki had yelled, and Terry, hearing her voice, had turned her head. A car, rounding the corner, had skidded as the driver slammed on his brakes. Horns had blared, tires had squealed. Nikki had squeezed on her brakes. The bike had shimmied in loose gravel, then slid. Nikki had fallen, scraping her knees and elbows and face, her bike flying into the traffic to be crumpled beneath the wheels of a pickup.
“Crazy kids!” The truck’s driver had been livid. “I could a killed you both!” Built like a lumberjack, with a full beard and snapping blue eyes, he’d walked over to Nikki, full of wrath until he saw the scratches on her face and arms. “Hey, kid, are you all right?”
“Fine,” she’d stammered, though she felt wretched. But she’d known her injuries weren’t nearly as bad as the fear that settled around her heart. Her parents would kill her when they found out.
A lady dressed in a long raincoat and huge round glasses speckled with rain, had climbed out of her small compact car with its emergency lights flashing. Shoulders hunched against the downpour, she’d said, “I think we should call an ambulance.”
No! “I’m okay, really.” Nikki had fought to hide her pain and she reached for the handlebars of her bike just as Terry, face pale as death, had wheeled up.
“We gotta get out of here,” Terry had insisted.
“Now, honey, the police—”
That did it. Nikki had hauled her bike up on its bent frame and jumped onto the seat. The rear wheel had rubbed against the fender, and she was stuck in third gear, but she hadn’t thought, just ridden, like the proverbial bat out of hell, as fast as her legs could pedal, all the way home.
“And that’s what happened,” she had admitted to her sister as she’d tried to balance on the edge of the tub.
Jan had rolled her eyes. “Big trouble, Nik. Big, big trouble.” She’d swabbed Nikki’s cuts with iodine and as Nikki sucked in her breath through teeth that felt looser than they had earlier in the day, Jan predicted, “Dad’s gonna kill you.”
He hadn’t. In fact he’d been downright kind as he’d sat on the foot of her bed, hands clasped between his knees, his suit rumpled from the drive home. “I’m just thankful you’re alive,” he’d said, his voice filled with reproach.
Nikki had wanted to burrow down beneath the covers of her twin bed and never come out. She’d let him down and she felt miserable. Tears had drizzled from her eyes and she’d rolled her lips inward and clamped down hard to keep from sobbing.
“I hope you’ve learned your lesson. I trusted you to be where you’d told me you’d be. I thought I could believe you.”
Nikki had blinked hard and swallowed that evergrowing lump in her throat. If only she could undo what had been done!
“But now…well, we’ll have to start over, Nicole. Trust isn’t just given out—it’s earned, you know.”
“I’m sorry, Dad. I’m so, so sorry.”
“So am I, sweetheart, but this time sorry isn’t good enough. You could’ve been killed. For the time being you’re not to see Terry unless it’s at school, and you’re grounded for…well, until I can trust you again.”
Her future had stretched out endlessly before her. She’d been certain she’d become an old maid before he believed her again. Oh, she’d wanted to die right then and there. Take me, Lord, I’m ready. I can’t stand the thought of being cooped up here until he trusts me again. He never will. Never, never, never!
God, that had been a long time ago. Nikki rubbed her arms and realized that Trent was star
ing at her. Waiting for her to respond. “I’m not going to lie about it,” she said, then realized how ridiculous her words sounded. “Well, I’m not going to lie anymore. I’ll just say that it didn’t work out, we rushed into things and that we’re separated.” Cringing inside, she heard “I told you so” being repeated to her over and over by her family and friends.
Pain darkened his gaze and he cleared his throat. “It would be best if we played along with the charade a little longer,” he said, measuring the words.
“Why?”
“Until this mess with Crowley is straightened out.”
A cold trickle of fear slid down her spine, but she hid it. “Why don’t you tell me all about the good senator? And since we didn’t go to Salvaje together, why were you down there? I can’t imagine that you spend your vacations in the tropics hoping for some woman to lose her memory so you can pounce and take advantage of her.”
His eyes flashed dangerously. He rubbed his chin and swore, as if he didn’t want to divulge anything to her. “It’s been rumored, but hushed up for the most part, that the senator’s into taking bribes. Nothing’s been proven, of course, and with public officials there’s always a lot of conjecture, and our boy Diamond Jim is as slippery as he is popular. Nothing can be pinned on him—he just seems to slide away from scandal.”
“What’s this got to do with you?”
One of his fists closed for a second and a wave of tension tightened every muscle in the back of his neck. “I know the senator. I have a bone to pick with him.”
“What bone?” she asked, surprised that he was opening up.
“It’s personal.”
“Don’t you think I’m involved, personally?”
“Let’s just say I wouldn’t cry if he went down in flames.”
“So you and I went down to the island independently.”
“That’s right. That’s why Rosa, the clerk, recognized you and didn’t know me.”
“And then what?” she said, watching as emotions, strong and angry, played across his face.
“We weren’t on the same flight. I’d followed Crowley earlier. You showed up a couple of days later and I recognized you and I thought you might be headed for trouble. I didn’t want to blow my cover, so I just kept my eye on you. I figured, from overhearing your conversation with Connie at the Observer that you’d be tracking down Diamond Jim as well.”
“So…you were following me.”
“And Crowley.”
She clucked her tongue. “Busy boy.”
“By that time I’d done my research on you, your father, your boyfriends, your interests. Everything. I knew all about you.”
“Charming,” she muttered with more than a trace of sarcasm.
He ignored the dig. “Obviously Crowley knew you were onto him. He must’ve recognized you since he’s in tight with your dad. But I don’t think any feelings he has for your old man would affect his ambitions and you, lady, were and are a threat to him.”
“How would he guess?”
“He’s a powerful man with more than his share of connections. I wouldn’t be surprised if one of your co-workers is in the senator’s back pocket.”
“Who?”
“That much I don’t know,” he admitted, scowling slightly. “So I kept dogging you and I knew you’d planned to see the mission because I’d overheard you talking to the concierge at the hotel, asking directions. I made sure I got there ahead of you and then…” Guilt shadowed his eyes and he rubbed a hand over his mouth. “…I wasn’t paying attention and suddenly I heard you scream. I ran as fast as I could and found you on the lower ledge. The rest you can figure out.”
“What about the man who pushed me?”
Trent shook his head. “Didn’t see him.” When he realized she was about to protest, he held up a hand. “I’m not saying he didn’t exist, I’m just telling you I didn’t see him. He could’ve hidden, I suppose. All I was concerned about was getting you to safety.”
“And deciding to pretend to be my husband.”
“As I said, originally I did it so that I could stick close to you and keep you safe. That hospital didn’t have the best security in the world and I thought Crowley might send one of his goons to make sure you didn’t talk. That part worked.”
“But only because I didn’t regain my memory. What would have happened if I’d suddenly remembered everything?”
A muscle worked in his jaw. “That was one bridge I thought I’d cross when I came to it.”
“And that’s why you didn’t…rush things in the bedroom.”
He slid his jaw to the side. “I told myself that I’d keep my hands off you. Your injuries were enough reason.”
“But—”
“Oh, hell, Nikki,” he exploded, “I couldn’t help myself! I knew it was wrong, but I didn’t exactly rape you now, did I?”
She blushed darkly. “You took advantage of me.”
“So sue me! Call the damned police! Do whatever you have to, but, for God’s sake, believe me! I couldn’t keep away. I wanted to. Hell, I knew making love to you would be a mistake, but it was a risk I had to take.”
“You didn’t have to do anything.”
He sighed loudly. “It happened, Nikki.”
Her heart started to crack again, but she refused to play the part of the wounded victim. Unfortunately part of what he said made sense and the truth be told, she didn’t want to leave him. Not yet. Not until she was stronger. Climbing to her feet, she said, “Okay, we’ll go along with the charade, for just a few more days, until I can figure out how the hell to divorce you quietly. Then, a clean break.”
“Fine.” He seemed relieved. The lines of tension around his eyes became less prominent.
“But I am going to work.”
He started to argue, thought better of it and nodded curtly. “I’ll drive you and pick you up, then we’ll go to the airport and try to locate your car.”
There was no sense belaboring the point. At least the ground rules were set down, not that they might not shift at any minute. She found a set of towels in a cupboard and, after announcing she was going to take a shower, locked the bathroom door behind her and turned on the old spigots. Steam rose to the ceiling as she stripped off her clothes. So she wasn’t married. Good. Soon Trent would be out of her life forever.
She pushed aside the shower curtain and stepped beneath the hot spray. As she reached for the shampoo bottle, she noticed her ringless left hand and bit down hard to keep from sobbing. What was wrong with her? He was a phony! A sham! A liar! No better than Judas Iscariot or Benedict Arnold!
So why did she still love him?
CHAPTER TEN
“Congratulations!” Connie, perched on the corner of Nikki’s desk, dropped a white package with a big silver ribbon next to Nikki’s computer monitor. Rawboned and strawberry blond, she’d grown up in West Texas and had never gotten rid of her drawl. Her long legs swung freely from beneath a short black skirt and when she smiled her eyes sparkled like liquid gold.
“What’s this?” Nikki asked, but with a sinking sensation, she knew. The silver wedding bells on the wrapping paper gave the gift away.
“Open and find out.”
“I can’t.”
“Sure you can.” Connie pretended to look wounded. “Unless you want to wait until Trent’s around—”
“No!” Nikki grabbed the package, read the card and pulled off the ribbon and wrapping paper. Inside was a cut-crystal vase with fluted sides. “Oh, Connie, it’s beautiful,” she said, feeling like a thief. “I…I don’t know what to say.”
Connie grinned. “You don’t have to say anything. Now, check your schedule. Some of us want to throw you a belated wedding shower, probably early next month.” She leaned over the desk and flipped through the blank pages of Nikki’s calendar. “How about the tenth?”
“I…I don’t think so,” Nikki said, touched, but trying to come up with some reason to avoid the celebration. She felt like a phony and a fraud, a
person who would lie to get whatever she wanted.
“It’ll be fun. Jennifer knows a male stripper and—”
“Oh, Connie, really, don’t,” Nikki pleaded. Everything was snowballing too quickly and she felt as if her life was beginning to careen off course. She touched Connie on the back of the hand and decided she had to confide in her friend. “Look, I’ve got to tell you something,” she said, glancing over her shoulder.
Max Van Cleve was striding toward her desk. His wavy blond hair was combed perfectly, his white shirt starched.
“Later,” Nikki said to Connie. “I’ll tell you everything at lunch.”
“What is it? Trouble?” Connie guessed from the lines of worry that seemed intent on permanently etching Nikki’s brow.
“Just wait, okay?” She didn’t want Max overhearing any of their conversation, and thankfully, Connie seemed to finally get the message.
“I hear congratulations are in order,” Max said, showing off perfect white teeth. “How about a kiss for the blushing bride?” He was teasing, she knew. He’d been married to his wife, Dawn, for three years and the two of them still acted as if they were on their honeymoon. At that particular thought, Nikki’s stomach did a little flip. Honeymoon. Salvaje. Trent.
“First of all, I don’t blush, and secondly, I wouldn’t want to make Dawn jealous,” she quipped back. She felt like such a traitor. For years she’d prided herself on her honesty; she knew that much from the bad taste in her mouth every time she tried to lie.
“Me?” He pointed a finger at his chest. “Do anything to upset my wife? Never. Just the same, you owe me one.” He rapped his knuckles on the edge of her desk and walked toward the reception area.
