Back on Solid Ground

by Debra Trueman

  “What?” Niki was floored. He could tell Stacy was about to lose it, and he wasn’t sure how to diffuse the situation.

  Stacy put her fingers to her temples and pressed hard, trying to release the pounding that was building up in her head. It was without question the ultimate betrayal.

  Niki moved over to Stacy’s chair and got down on his knee so that he was eye level with her. “What are you talking about?” Niki asked her. “Talk to me.”

  “My father paid you to kidnap me,” she said, bursting into tears. “Didn’t he?” she said louder, demanding an answer.

  “Absolutely not,” Niki said emphatically. “Look at me,” he said. When she didn’t respond, he took her chin and turned her head towards him. “It wasn’t your father who hired us. Do you hear me? I swear, it wasn’t your father.”

  “Then, he paid whoever hired you,” she said despondently.

  Niki thought about what she was saying and was horrified that it might be true. He couldn’t imagine how a father could do that to his own daughter, especially to someone like Stacy. Just the thought of it made him want to beat the shit out of the man.

  Carlos, Eli and Jason had been listening to the conversation, and Jason joined in. “Why do you say that, Stacy? Why would your father have someone kidnap you?”

  “For my money,” she said. “If I’m out of the picture,” she started to say, then stopped cold. She looked up, horrified. “He didn’t just hire someone to kidnap me, he hired someone to kill me.” The four were silent, absorbing what she had said. “My father hired someone to kill me,” she said flatly.

  Niki went to the bar and poured himself a Crown on the rocks. He was infuriated by what Stacy was telling him and disgusted that he was a part of it. He didn’t mind crimes against property but he hated crimes against persons. They were too damn personal, and he was pissed that he had made an exception when he agreed to nab Stacy. He had only agreed to it after his client assured him she would be ransomed and returned unharmed. Niki downed the drink then poured one for Stacy.

  “Here,” he said, handing her the drink. “Drink this.”

  Her pupils were huge, and set against that incredible green, it made her look otherworldly. Niki was mesmerized, completely sucked in. Stacy took a couple of sips and stared down into the ice, saying nothing. She was having a hard time concentrating. The men were speaking in hushed tones, but she could overhear enough to know that the report of their deaths was as much a surprise to them as it was to her. Obviously, they had not acted alone in the bank robbery and there was a middle-man somewhere. But more importantly, whoever had staged their deaths had made the decision to do so on his own.

  She took some more sips and tried to think clearly. Get your act together, she told herself. Your life depends on it. Stacy stood up and started pacing the room. Thank goodness she did some of her best thinking when she was stressed. “I’ve got to withdraw my money before my accounts are frozen,” she said, thinking aloud. The gravity of the situation hit her and she realized if she didn’t act immediately, she could lose everything. Stacy turned to Niki and grabbed his arm.

  “I’ve got to withdraw my money before the banks are notified of my death,” she said frantically. “Will you help me do that?” she pleaded with him.

  Niki started to say something, but Stacy interrupted.

  “I’ll hire you!” she exclaimed. “I’ll hire all of you,” she said, looking from one to the other. “That’s what you do, isn’t it? People hire you to do jobs. Someone paid you to kidnap me, right? Well, I want to hire you. I’ll pay you whatever you want. Name your price.”

  The men were stunned. Finally, Niki spoke, “We’re definitely going to need to talk in private before we can give you an answer on that.”

  “But if we don’t do something now it’s going to be too late,” she said desperately. “I won’t have anything to bargain with if all my accounts are frozen!”

  “Today is Sunday. Nothing will be done with any of your accounts until tomorrow at the earliest,” Niki stated.

  “Today is Sunday?” Stacy repeated.

  “Today is Sunday,” they assured her.

  She let the words sink in. “Okay, that makes a difference, doesn’t it?”

  “It does,” Niki assured her. “We’ll discuss your proposal and let you know what we decide. In the meantime, get something to eat, I know you’re hungry.”

  “No, I’m fine,” she said, still dazed.

  “No, you’re not fine,” Niki said. He handed her off to Jason. “Get her something to eat. I’ll be in there in a minute.”

  Stacy had finished her breakfast by the time Niki made it into the kitchen.

  He poured himself a cup of coffee and stuck some bacon in between two slices of toast. “You feel up to a walk?” he asked her.

  “Sure.”

  They walked down to the water and sat in the sand watching the waves pound the beach. The storm was getting closer. The waves were huge and there were whitecaps everywhere.

  “I need you to tell me about your father,” Niki said, looking out at the water.

  “What do you want to know?”

  “For starters, what makes you think he would hurt you?” Niki asked.

  She took a deep breath before beginning. “There has always been animosity between us, as far back as I can remember. We’ve never been close, basically we tolerated each other,” she said. “My mother was killed in an accident in May. It was a boating accident . . . really bad,” she said, stating facts and not allowing emotion to enter the conversation. “When my mother died, she left me the company and my father was bitter about that. Then my grandmother, his mother, passed away two months later and she left her entire estate to me. She basically cut my father out of her will. She left him $1,000 with the proviso that if he contested, he wouldn’t even get that. It was humiliating for him, but it wasn’t my doing. I certainly didn’t coerce my family into leaving him nothing. The subject had never even come up with either my mother or my grandmother,” she explained. “But my father blamed me and accused me of just that. He said that I brainwashed my mom and my grandmother and poisoned them against him. The truth is the man’s a lazy good-for-nothing bum and they didn’t need brainwashing – they knew it all too well.”

  “You think he was mad enough to hire someone to kill you?”

  “I never would have thought so, but when I saw him on TV, I knew,” she said. “I know he did.” She put her hand over her stomach. “I feel it here.”

  “Maybe what you’re feeling is a bullet wound,” he suggested.

  Stacy ignored the remark. “He was in debt, too,” she stated. “I called him and offered to help and he turned me down flat – said he didn’t need my help. That was a month ago. It was the last time we spoke.”

  Niki had been skeptical, but he had to admit it was certainly possible, maybe even probable. Someone had paid for the kidnapping. He had assumed it was his client, but his client could just be a middleman. Stacy’s father could very well have hired his client to arrange for the kidnapping, or perhaps even the murder, of his daughter. Especially if she was the one with the money.

  “You know something else?” she said. “I think he has a life insurance policy on me.”

  Niki turned and looked at Stacy. Her theory was sounding more and more likely; when you added it all up, it made sense. And while Niki didn’t put stock in Stacy’s gut feeling, he knew that Carlos definitely would.

  “Oh, crap. I sent him an e-mail from Eli’s computer,” Stacy said, burying her face in her hands. “He’s going to know I’m not dead.” Then she thought about it for a moment and said, “I don’t know if that’s bad or good.”

  “We could actually turn that in our favor, assuming he did it.”

  “He did it.”

  Niki was getting ahead of himself. He hadn’t even discussed Stacy’s proposal with the others; it was way too early to be discussing strategy with her.

  “I think I have what I need,” Niki said,
getting up. He offered his hand and helped Stacy up. The wind had picked up and the palms were blowing sideways. “Let’s get back before this thing hits,” he said.

  “It’s not a hurricane is it?” Stacy asked, with a worried look on her face.

  Niki looked out at the water and at the sky, then at Stacy. She was so damn pretty. “It’s gonna piss down,” he said, with a mischievous smile. “This place is incredible in a storm.”

  Stacy and Niki got back to the house just as it started to sprinkle.

  “You’re going to stay with Consuela while I talk with the others,” Niki said, leading Stacy down the hallway of the lower level. “And I assume that you will have the decency not to try to escape while we discuss your proposal.” He looked to Stacy for confirmation.

  She made an X across her chest. “Cross my heart,” she smiled up at him.

  Her green eyes were mesmerizing, and Niki’s stomach did that flip thing again. He was standing there staring down at her and he had an overwhelming desire to kiss her.

  “What’s the matter?” Stacy said.

  “Nothing,” Niki said, shaking it off. They started back towards Consuela’s room, but he couldn’t shake it. He turned around and grabbed Stacy, then pulled her face towards his and kissed her long and hard on the lips. She smelled good and she felt good and Niki had to make himself let go of her.

  After the initial shock of being grabbed, Stacy was content to let Niki kiss her. She didn’t fight him or try to pull away, and when he finally let go of her, Stacy felt weak-kneed and dizzy. Niki stared down at her with an angry look, then abruptly turned and walked down the hall towards Consuela’s room. It took Stacy a couple of beats to get her shit together, then she caught up with Niki as he knocked on Consuela’s door.

  Consuela came to the door and Niki told her something in Spanish. Stacy could speak more Spanish than she could understand, and Niki had spoken too fast for Stacy to catch what he was saying. Consuela motioned for Stacy to come in and Niki disappeared without saying another word to Stacy. He went straight upstairs to the living room and confronted Carlos about his comment on the flight over.

  “What’s the deal with the media naranja thing?” Niki asked, irritation thick in his voice.

  Carlos smiled. “Media naranja means half the orange.”

  “I know that. What about it?” Niki said, waiting for Carlos to explain.

  “Well, if you are half the orange, your media naranja is the other half. The part that makes you whole.”

  “And what’s the deal with the eyes,” Niki asked.

  “Just what I told you on the plane. There’s a connection between you and Stacy and obviously you can feel it or you wouldn’t be here asking me about it. You know it’s there and so does she. What you choose to do about it is your choice. And hers, of course.”

  “Well is there some bad shit that happens if a person fights the connection or doesn’t give in to it? Does your superstition give any insight into that? Your voodoo stories always threaten hell and damnation if a person doesn’t do what he’s supposed to,” Niki said, annoyed.

  Carlos laughed. “There’s no curse attached to the story, if that’s what you mean. It’s meant to be a good thing, Niki, not a bad thing,” Carlos clarified.

  “Well it’s not a good thing!” he said angrily, and stormed out of the room.

  Chapter 12

  Stacy was dazed by Niki’s kiss. She had no idea what inspired it and she was confused by Niki’s reaction afterward. But what was most disturbing was how much she enjoyed it. The attraction was perverse, but it was equally undeniable. Stacy pulled herself away from her thoughts and greeted Consuela.

  “Buenos dias,” Stacy said, smiling at the little housekeeper. Stacy guessed that she was in her mid 30s.

  “Good morning,” Consuela said, with a heavy accent.

  “Oh, you speak English!” Stacy exclaimed.

  “A little,” Consuela said, measuring a millimeter with her fingers.

  Stacy looked around. It was a large room furnished with expensive furniture, much like the rooms upstairs, but it had a totally different feel than the guest rooms. The room had lots of personal touches. There was a Miami Vice poster of Don Johnson on the wall above Consuela’s bed, and Stacy had to restrain herself from laughing out loud. There were lots of framed pictures of Consuela with different people, decorating the bookshelves and the top of her dresser. And there were little knick-knacks scattered throughout the room. Evidence that the room was actually lived in.

  Stacy smiled at Consuela. “It’s very nice,” she said.

  “Sit, please,” Consuela said, motioning to the most comfortable chair in the room, as she sat down on the bed.

  The two women chatted in broken Spanish and English, each thrilled to have female companionship in this house full of men. Stacy related the entire story of how she came to be at the villa, culminating with the kiss right outside Consuela’s door, and Consuela listened wide-eyed as if Stacy was relating the plot of a dicey romance novel. Within the hour, they were friends.

  Consuela got up from the bed. “You wait, I be back,” she said. She disappeared into the bathroom and returned with a pair of scissors and a comb. “I fix your hair,” she said smiling.

  “You know how to cut hair!” Stacy said, thrilled.

  “Si, I cut your hair.”

  Stacy went to the sink and wet her hair then took a seat in front of the vanity, and they talked and laughed while Consuela chopped away on Stacy’s hair. Consuela finished the haircut and Stacy went into the bathroom to blow dry her hair. She came back out five minutes later in tears.

  “Thank you so much!” Stacy said, hugging the little housekeeper. Consuela had cut bangs and layers around Stacy’s face so that she couldn’t even tell where it had been butchered.

  “You like?” Consuela asked, pleased.

  “It’s the best haircut I’ve ever had!” Stacy said, looking at herself in the mirror. “Es la mas buena!” Stacy attempted in Spanish.

  There was a knock at the door and Consuela went to open it.

  “Hola, Consuela,” said Eli. “Como estas?” He poked his head in for Stacy.

  “Check it out!” Stacy said, fluffing her hair. “Consuela fixed my hair!”

  “Consuela did that?” Eli asked in surprise. The cut made her hair fall around her face, framing her high cheekbones and accentuating her eyes even more. “I’ll take her off your hands, Consuela,” Eli said in Spanish.

  Stacy hugged Consuela again. “Thank you so much. Come visit me upstairs some time.” Consuela looked to Eli and Stacy told her, “You don’t need to ask him, just do it.”

  Great, Stacy influencing Consuela. Just what we need, thought Eli. He pulled her out of the room before she could do any more damage.

  “So what did you decide?” Stacy asked, as soon as Consuela closed her door.

  “We haven’t had a chance to discuss it yet,” Eli said, knowing Stacy would be mad.

  They went upstairs and joined Niki and Carlos in the living room. Niki had the French doors open and was standing in the doorway watching the storm. He came inside when he heard Eli’s voice.

  “You cut your hair,” Niki said.

  “Consuela did it,” she said.

  “Apparently Stacy and Consuela have become friends,” Eli said unenthusiastically. Then under his breath to Niki, “Big mistake leaving them together.”

  Niki was staring at Stacy. “You look good with that fringe stuff,” he said, motioning to his own forehead.

  “Eli said you haven’t even discussed my offer,” Stacy said, exasperated. “What are you waiting for? We need to have a plan in place when the banks open tomorrow.”

  “Jason got busy with something,” Niki said, refusing to elaborate, but before Stacy could protest, he added, “We’ll get to it before tomorrow.”

  The delay was making Stacy nervous, but she didn’t want to push them in the opposite direction, so she backed off. She walked over to the French doors and lo
oked out at the rain.

  “Oh my God!” she said in alarm. “Look how hard it’s raining. You can’t even see the ocean.”

  Niki went over and stood behind Stacy in the doorway and watched the storm. The rain was coming down in sheets and buckets, and there were continuous bolts of lightning streaking through the sky. Thunder was booming all around them and the trees were blowing sideways.

  Stacy turned around, her red hair blowing around with the wind, and looked up at Niki.

  “Is this a hurricane?” she asked, petrified.

  “I think it’s classified as a tropical storm,” he said calmly, trying not to alarm her further.

  Stacy was horrified. “Have you ever been here during a tropical storm?” she asked, fighting tears.

  “Tons of times,” Niki said, and he smiled at her for the first time since he had kissed her. He reached out and touched her cheek. “Don’t be scared,” Niki said. He brushed Stacy’s hair behind her ear with his finger. “This house is solid as a rock,” he said reassuringly.

  The gesture was too much for Stacy and she lost it. She moved into Niki and rested her head against his chest and started crying. Niki put his arm around her. “Hey, come on. Don’t cry.” He was at a loss what to do, so he just held her. Carlos and Eli were watching discreetly from inside the room. They had missed whatever led up to Stacy crying in Niki’s arms, but they were not going to miss the outcome.

  “Stacy,” Niki said, pulling her away so he could see her face. “What’s the matter?”

  She looked up at him pitifully with tears streaming down her face. “I just need you to tell me everything’s going to be okay.” Then she put her arms around Niki’s waist and buried her head in his chest.

  Niki wrapped his arms around Stacy and held her tightly. He was completely and utterly captivated by this woman, and he knew he would do whatever it took to protect her. Niki stroked her hair and held on to her. “Everything’s going to be okay,” he whispered. “Everything’s going to be okay.”

  “Looks like our decision’s been made,” Eli told Carlos.