by Maggie Price
She pressed her lips together to stop them from trembling. She had to think. Had to buy herself time until she figured out how to get away. “You killed them all?”
“That’s right. I’ll always protect you.”
The earnestness in his face made her stomach roll. “What were you protecting me from?”
“Ormiston was in a rage that you hadn’t found him his perfect match. He called, bad-mouthing you and the company. He threatened to sue. He insisted on talking to you, but I wouldn’t let him because his language was so vile. I tried to calm him down. He wouldn’t listen to reason.”
“But you said he changed his mind.” Growing fear had her voice shaking. “He wanted to extend his contract.”
“He didn’t. I told you he did so you wouldn’t be upset over what he was saying about you. I drove to his house—followed another car in through the gate while the guard was gone. I rang the bell and told Ormiston all he had to do was sign a form and we’d refund his retainer. He invited me in.”
“You…killed him for that?”
“He wanted to hurt you!” Mel’s fist slammed against the counter hard enough to rattle the teacups she’d placed there. “Villanova just wanted you. He would have used you, then tossed you away.”
“DeSoto…” Nausea swirled in her stomach, up her throat. “He flirted with me. There was nothing between us.”
“I saw the way he looked at you at your brother’s wedding.” Mel’s eyes narrowed. “That last time he was at your office, he stopped by my desk. He told me you wouldn’t date him anymore so he’d signed a contract to have a reason to see you a lot. He said that way he’d have a chance to change your mind about him. I told him he was wasting his time, that you would never have anything more to do with him. He didn’t like hearing that.”
The coolness in Mel’s smile had the blood draining from her face. She remembered Jake saying DeSoto had been angry when he’d seen him at the elevator. Jake. God, she needed Jake.
“I wanted Villanova home that night so I left messages for both him and the woman he had a date with. I told them both the other had to cancel. I went to his house and told him I was sorry for what I’d said. When I told him I could help persuade you to see him again, he asked me in.”
“And you killed him.” This couldn’t be real, Nicole thought. It couldn’t be.
“I’m sorry I hit you and knocked you off the porch,” Mel said, his eyes filled with remorse. “I didn’t know anyone was there, didn’t know it was you I hit. I never would have left you alone and hurt in the dark, you have to believe me.” He wiped a hand across his face. “I ran the opposite way from where you’d parked your car, so I didn’t see it. I didn’t know it was you I’d hit until Kathy called and said you needed me at the hospital. When I saw the bruise on your cheek, knowing I’d put it there, I wanted to die.”
“Harold?” Nicole asked through trembling lips. “Why him?”
“You called him, invited him to dinner. He wouldn’t have been good for you.”
“It was just dinner, Mel. Just dinner.”
“He would have made you unhappy. I know.”
“How…did you find out I’d asked him out?”
“I listened in on your phone call. I listen to all your calls. I read your mail. Talk to your friends. I know you so well, Nicole. Everything you’re thinking, I know.”
When he took a step toward her, she skittered back. “Stay away from me.”
Hurt slid into his eyes. “I’d never hurt you, Nicole.”
“You’ve hurt a lot of people.”
“I’ve protected you. That hasn’t stopped you from hurting me.”
She dragged in a breath, fighting back panic. “How did I hurt you, Mel? How did I ever hurt you?”
“That night, when you left Sebastian’s with the cop. I stood there, knowing what he was going to do to you. What you were going to let him do. I followed you out in the hall, saw you kissing him.” As he spoke, Mel’s lips tightened, his hands curved into fists. “I was going to kill him, too. Then Mother died and you came to me. You stayed with me. I knew you’d see how perfect we are together.”
“Jake” was all she could say as a dawning horror drained her blood.
“I don’t have to kill him now. When your sister-in-law was here, I overheard you tell her you’re not seeing him anymore. If you don’t see him, he can’t hurt you.”
“That’s right, he can’t hurt me. You don’t have to do anything to Jake.” Her vision blurred at the thought of Mel plunging a needle into Jake’s neck.
“I took really good care of Mother. I tried to protect her from the disease.” As he spoke, his eyes welled with tears. “I couldn’t save her, the doctors said I did all I could. But I can take care of you, Nicole. You’ll see. Nobody’s going to hurt you as long as I’m around.”
“I…need…to turn off the water.” Biting down on terror, she forced her numbed legs to work. Her fingers were shaking so badly, she could barely turn off the tap. Fighting back hysteria, she put her hand to her throat as she stared down at the kettle sitting in the sink. Full of water. Heavy.
Away was all she could think as she clenched her fingers around the kettle’s thick handle. She had to get away.
“You’ll see I’m right, Nicole. You’ll see.”
“The hell I will.” She whirled on him, swinging the kettle. The blow caught him on the side of his face. Water spurted from the kettle, sprayed across the floor. Mel landed sideways against the counter, his arms flailing. He hit the floor in a shower of china and muffins.
She dashed past him. His hand shot out. His fingers grabbed her ankle. With a jerk he brought her down hard onto her hands and knees. Screaming, she fought like a mad-woman against his hold.
“I love you.” His hand tightened, dragging her toward him. “I’ll never hurt you.”
Struggling, she scrambled for a handhold. Water from the kettle had turned the floor’s ceramic tiles as slick as ice. Fear bubbled in her brain as he dragged her deeper into the kitchen. “Let go!”
Somewhere in the distance she heard wood splinter, then the slap of shoes against wood.
“Nicole—”
“No!” Twisting, she kicked out with her free foot. Through a morass of terror her brain registered the solid blow she’d landed to Mel’s ribs.
“Let her go, you bastard!”
At first she thought she’d imagined Jake’s voice, that the shadowy figure leaning over Mel was only a vision. But the gun pressed against Mel’s head was viciously real. Deadly.
“Jake.” She gulped lungfuls of air. “Jake…”
“Nicole, stay still.” With his eyes fixed on Mel, Jake leaned in. “I said, let her go.”
Mel sobbed, then his hand loosened its grip on her ankle.
She scrambled up, her heart pounding like a piston. A dizzy wave of faintness drenched her body with sweat. She teetered when she discovered her legs would barely support her.
“Nicole, move back,” Jake ordered. He waited until she’d complied, then he said, “Okay, Hall, get up. Slow. You even breathe fast, I’ll shoot you.”
Mel rose, his hands raised. His shirt was wet on the front. Blood trickled from his cheek, which was already purple with bruising. When his gaze locked with Nicole’s, she saw the tears in his eyes. “I did it for you. I love you.”
Her whole body shaking, she looked at Jake. His eyes were hard, his mouth set as he held the gun on Mel with a rock-steady hand. “He killed them…all three. He’s ill. He needs help.”
“He gets a cell first.”
“I need you, Nicole.” Mel’s tears intensified. “I want to give you everything. I can’t live without you.”
“I’ll see you get help.” She felt physically, almost uncontrollably sick. “That’s all I can do.”
“That’s not enough. Not near enough.”
“It has to be.”
Late that night, Jake rang the doorbell of Nicole’s apartment. All day he’d analyzed the scene at Mel
Hall’s house, thinking about the panic that had hammered through him when he raced onto the front porch and heard Nicole scream. And the mix of fury and fear that gripped him when he saw her struggling on the floor with a killer.
Jake knew those images ought to be the ones that stayed with him. Instead, foremost in his mind was what had happened after the uniforms had led Hall away and he’d walked back through the house and into the living room.
Nicole had stood facing him, her arms wrapped against her waist, hands clamped tight on her forearms. She’d been sheet pale. Trembling. His need to touch her, to comfort, had been overwhelming, so he’d reached out. She’d jerked back, her chin snapping up, her eyes desperate and proud. If he lived to be one hundred, Jake knew he would never forget that gesture or the look on her face. Or the pain that had stabbed into his heart.
He had pushed her away—what the hell else had he expected from her?
He’d planned to wait until morning to see her. Give her time to recover some from the trauma, then plead his case.
If he had to wait another minute, he’d go crazy.
He jabbed the bell again. She had refused to spend another night at Bill and Whitney’s and insisted on coming home. Despite the fact Nicole hadn’t answered the phone when he’d called, he knew she was inside.
He was studying the lock, wondering how badly she would maim him if he picked it when the door opened.
She looked like a dream, standing in the same ivory robe she’d worn what seemed a lifetime ago. Her hair was loose, tumbling down her shoulders, looking like spun honey in the soft light.
His stomach clutched when she stared at him without expression.
“I’m tired, Jake. I don’t feel like company.”
When she started to close the door, he slapped his palm against it. “I need to talk to you. Tonight.”
“Jake—”
“Please. Nicole, please.”
She eased out a breath. “I suppose it’s best to get it over with.”
“Get what over with?” he asked when he stepped inside.
“I planned on calling you tomorrow. I didn’t thank you for saving my life today. That was rude of me—”
“Rude? A killer had you in his clutches and you’re worried about your manners?”
“I just want you to know I’m grateful. Thank you.”
His teeth clenched against the coolness in her voice. “You keep forgetting, I’m the guy you don’t have to thank.”
She turned, walked into the living room. “I also wanted to talk to you about Mel.”
The last thing Jake wanted to talk about was Mel Hall. “What about him?”
“How could he have been so obsessed, and me not know?” As she spoke, she lowered herself onto the arm of a wing chair. “How could I work with him day after day and not see how he felt?”
“He didn’t let you see.”
“But we were so close.” She squeezed her eyes shut, opened them. “If only I had seen, I could have done something. Stopped all those people from dying.”
“Something like that always seems possible when you’re working it out backward.” Jake walked to where she sat, looked down into her shadowed eyes. He wanted to touch her so badly he ached. “I’m a cop, and all I saw was what might be a case of puppy love on Mel’s part. I didn’t see what was really going on inside him, either.”
“What about Mel’s uncle Zebulon? Whitney said he gave Mel the curare. Do you think Zebulon knew what Mel was doing?”
“Whitney and I don’t think so. The uncle admitted to giving Mel the curare to brew in tea to help ease his mother’s pain. So far, we think that’s the truth.” He took a step closer. “Mel’s going away for a long time. He can’t hurt anyone else.”
“He’s so sick.” She pressed her fingers to her lips. “I’m going to make sure he gets help. I need to help him.”
“Then that’s what you should do.”
She rose slowly, as if the weight of the world lay on her shoulders. “I guess that’s all. Goodbye, Jake.”
His throat raw and his palms sweating, he took a step toward her, blocking her path to the door. “You think that ends it?”
She blinked. “No, Jake, you ended it days ago.”
“I thought I could push you away and go on with my life. I thought doing that now would be smarter than losing you somewhere down the line.”
“You did what you thought was best for you. I don’t want to rehash—”
“I didn’t want to face the fact that I wouldn’t let go of losing my family because to do that was to accept it.” He scrubbed a hand across his face. “Annie and the girls are gone. Dead. I didn’t die along with them, although for a long time I felt like I had.”
Nicole’s lips trembled. “I don’t know why you’re telling me—”
“You were right when you said I have good memories of my family. I do. But it’s all memories. I want to start living in the now, instead of back then. I’ve probably been ready to do that for a while, but I didn’t know it until you stepped into my arms at Whitney’s wedding. You made me feel alive again.”
“It…was just a dance.”
“It was everything. I just didn’t know how to handle how you made me feel. I do now.” Desperate she might send him away, he reached for her. When she didn’t resist, he gathered her to him. “I need you, Nicole.” He buried his face in her hair, breathed in her soft, warm scent. “I love you.”
He felt her body jerk, then go still. “What did you say?”
He leaned his head back and gazed down into her shocked face. He could read the nerves in her eyes as clearly as he could see their color. “I need you.”
“The other thing.”
He ran his hands up and down her robe’s silky sleeves. “I love you. I’m asking you to give us another chance. And to marry me.”
She flinched back, one hand pressed to her heart. Wariness clouded her eyes. “I, no. I…don’t know.”
He frowned. “What don’t you know?”
“What to think.” She put a hand to her temple. “From the moment we met, I’ve been on this emotional roller coaster. For a while, all I did was tell myself that you didn’t fit the bill, that you were all wrong for me.”
“Well, now you can tell yourself—”
“Then, that morning in the twins’ bedroom, even as you were pushing me away, I realized I’d fallen in love with you.”
The fist around his heart eased. “Thank God.” He reached for her, but she stepped back, held up a hand to stop him.
“No, I need to work this out, Jake.”
“We love each other. I have to believe everything else will work itself out.”
Wrapping her arms around her waist, she matched his gaze. “Maybe you think what you’ve said to me tonight is true.”
“It is true.”
“What if you’re wrong? What if you suddenly realize you’re not sure you can let yourself risk again? How do I know you won’t wake up some morning, knowing you’ve made another mistake? That you can’t let me into your life? That we should just forget what’s happened between us?”
A current of self-directed anger swept through him, burning brighter at the knowledge he’d caused her so much pain.
“I’m sorry I hurt you. I never wanted just one night with you.” He shook his head. “As for my being sure, do you think I would tell you that I need you, love you, then ask you to spend the rest of your life with me if I wasn’t sure?”
“I told you, I don’t know what to think. That scares me.”
He, too, was scared. Afraid he’d screwed up so bad that he’d lost her. “I’m asking for a second chance, Nicole. I’ll do whatever it takes. Tell me what it takes.”
She looked up at him, her eyes unreadable. “Twice in my life, I’ve been hurt by men.”
“I’m not proud knowing I’m one of them.”
“You hurt me, Jake. But it’s mostly my fault.”
“How could it be your fault?”
“I knew better, is how. I learned with Cole what could happen by jumping into a relationship and going solely with emotion. I knew, yet I did the same thing with you. I’m not going to do that again, Jake. Never again.”
Just the thought that he’d lost her stopped his heart. “Nicole—”
She angled her chin. “I want us to date.”
“Date?” He wouldn’t have been more surprised if she’d picked up the coffee table and smashed it over his head.
“Dating is my business, after all.”
“Look, I’m not going to register with your agency and go out with a bunch of lonely hearts while you’re making up your mind about me. Dammit, I’m in love with you. I’m not available.”
“You’re already registered with my agency.”
“For an undercover operation under a fake name.”
“Which is a nice loophole since I don’t date my clients.”
His eyes narrowed as hope flared inside him. “Maybe you’d better explain exactly what you’ve got in mind.”
“I don’t know you, Jake. I’m in love with you, but I don’t know you. I don’t have a clue what your favorite color is. I don’t know if you have hobbies, what you do on your days off, what type of movies you like. Your favorite foods.” Stepping toward him, she cupped her palm against his cheek. “I want to get to know the man I’ve fallen in love with. I need to get to know you. I’m asking you to give me time, as long as it takes, for my head to catch up with my heart.”
“By dating. You want us to date.”
“Yes.”
“Exclusively?”
“Yes.”
He let out the air clogging his lungs. He hadn’t lost her. “Just date?”
“For now.”
“And while we’re dating, I’m supposed to keep my hands off of you?”
“Do, and you’re a dead man.” Her mouth curving, she rose on tiptoe, her lips skimming his. “Some people sleep together on the first date, you know.”
“Good point.” He pulled her to him, slid his arms around her waist, his mouth taking hers in a long, slow kiss. When he felt her sway against him, he shifted his lips to her throat. “It’s red,” he whispered, nuzzling her soft flesh.
