by Jo Leigh
“If I were you, I’d commit suicide,” she said.
Nick bit back a laugh while he made sure he could get to his gun. He didn’t think Henry would go off, but he’d be ready.
“He’ll get tired of playing with you,” Henry whis pered. “And when he does, he won’t give a damn what I do to you.”
“I’m breathless with anticipation,” she said. “Now, please. Go. Tell Todd I’ll be ready at six.”
Henry breathed so heavily Nick could see his nostrils expand and contract. But he didn’t say any more. He just turned and headed for the door. As he passed Nick, he bumped his shoulder, forcing Nick into the side of the end table. It hurt, but Nick didn’t make a sound. He just smiled real pretty.
Henry slammed the door when he left.
Jenny sagged, but then she must have remembered she wasn’t in the clear. That every move was being recorded. “I swear,” she said, turning to Nick, “the man lives for drama. I can’t believe he’d be upset about us getting your phone.”
“He’s just doing his job.”
“I suppose.”
“We’ve got a few hours before you have to be ready. Anything you want to do?”
“If I can, I’d like to see Patrick.”
“I’ll check with Mrs. Norris. Sit tight.”
It wasn’t easy to walk out of the room as if they had just gone to change his phone battery. He wanted to touch her, to finish the long, slow, sweet time of coming down, of holding each other, whispering secrets and lies. But they didn’t get to have that slice of normal. Instead he had to go ask permission for Jenny to see her son for an hour before she had to dress like a call girl for the sickest bastard in America.
He closed the door behind him and walked the short distance to the nanny’s room. He had to wait a minute for Mrs. Norris to answer the door, and when she did, she was holding Patrick. The kid saw Nick and his face lit up as if he’d seen Santa or the Easter Bunny.
When Mrs. Norris held him out, Nick took him. It was weird, because the only other kid he’d held was his niece, Sarah, who’d been about three. She’d stiffened and screamed so loud he thought he’d need hearing aids. Needless to say, Sarah had gone to her mother and Nick had stayed the hell away from toddlers.
Only, Patrick didn’t have that reaction at all. He grabbed on to Nick’s neck, yelling, “Nick, Nick!” so loud he’d wake the neighbors, if they’d had any.
“Well, you certainly have a friend, don’t you?”
“I guess,” he said. “Don’t know why.”
“Nick!”
Smiling, Nick looked into the boy’s dark eyes, so inquisitive and eager. “How you doin’, kiddo?”
“I made pizza!”
“You did?”
Patrick nodded so hard his hair flopped up and down.
“With cheese.”
“Wow. That must have been great.”
“I spilled ’matos all over the floor.”
“Oops. I bet that made a mess.”
Patrick nodded again. “Mrs. Norris says I’d try a staint.”
“A ‘staint,’ huh?”
“Yeah.”
Nick grinned, looked up to see Mrs. Norris smiling right back.
“And know what else?”
“What?”
Patrick held his hands out as wide as he could. “Mrs. Norris loves me this much.”
“That’s a whole lot.”
“But not as much as Mommy.”
“Right. No one can love you as much as Mommy can. And you know what?” He raised his gaze to the nanny. “She’d love to come see you right now.”
Patrick shouted and Mrs. Norris nodded. When Nick turned to go tell Jenny, he saw he didn’t have to. She was standing just behind him. Crying.
He went to hand the kid back, but Patrick caught sight of Jenny, and that was all they wrote. He was in her arms in a flash and Jenny was wiping tears as she laughed and marveled at his pizza adventure.
What the hell were they doing in this freak show? These were good people. Decent. Normal. The last people on earth that should be caught up in the end of the world.
But then, that’s why he needed to stop Todd, wasn’t it? Because of Jenny and Patrick. And all the Jennys and Patricks and Mrs. Norrises out there.
So the lesson here was simple. Keep his pants zipped, his hands to himself and stop the madman next door from sending them all to the great beyond. There were still things that needed to be done here.
Patrick needed to grow up. Jenny needed to be happy.
TODD SEEMED in a particularly good mood, which Jenny was going to spoil if she didn’t get with the program. He’d taken her to one of his favorite restaurants, Papillion, at the top of Le Mystique, one of his smaller hotels. It would have been nice to go somewhere he didn’t own and everyone didn’t kiss his butt, except that would be asking for the moon.
She had to admit, the meal was fantastic. She’d had a goat cheese and balsamic salad, then a filet mignon that was extraordinary. Everything was the best, the most, the finest. As was the view. She could see the entire Strip from her seat, aglow in the magic of neon and moonlight. It really was beautiful, if you just looked at it as color and light. As hard as she tried, though, she couldn’t quite forget the facade. Just like she couldn’t forget the handsome man across from her wasn’t a man at all. She couldn’t have said exactly what he was, except that he wasn’t human.
Todd sipped some Scotch, ate a piece of his steak. Behind him, a gloved waiter, a sommelier and the maître d’hovered, waiting for him to lift his finger, at which point they would appear at the side of the table as if conjured from a magic lamp. It must be traumatic for him to have to go to the bathroom for himself.
“I’ve been thinking about my boy’s education,” he said.
She didn’t cringe. In fact she smiled, looked interested and eager to hear his thoughts.
“Military school is the way to go. He needs to understand discipline, honor, duty. Then to prep school. Andover. Or Choate. I don’t know yet.”
“That’s a good plan for later, Todd. But you know, he’s not even ready for kindergarten yet.”
“I’m having an early childhood specialist come in to see him twice a week. He’ll be reading before he’s four.”
“Do you think it’s a good idea to push so hard when he’s so young?”
Todd’s smile shifted, and she got it. She was the one who’d pushed too far and she’d better backtrack—fast.
“On the other hand, he is so special. I’m sure he’s aching to read.”
“Yes. That’s right. He wants to perform, I can see that in him. I was like that when I was a child. Reading before I hit the age of three. My parents, they didn’t have a clue what to do with a child with my capabilities. The smartest thing they could have done was to find me parents who knew what they were doing, and sign me over.”
“But look at you now. It seems to me everything turned out perfectly.”
He smiled at her, this one as genuine as he could manage. “That’s very astute. I like that, Jenny. Very much.”
“Just telling it the way I see it,” she said.
He nodded, happy with her fawning, happy knowing his son was just like him.
She put her napkin on the table. “Please excuse me,” she said, standing. “I have to go to the ladies’ room.”
“Wait a minute,” he said as he reached into his pocket and pulled out his money clip. He handed her a fifty.
“Thank you,” she said. “I won’t be long.”
He looked pointedly at his watch. “Don’t be.”
She kissed his cheek, then hurried to the back of the restaurant. The whole way there she kept her smile in place, her bearing as regal as she knew how. When she went in to the lavishly appointed ladies’ lounge, there were two women there, so she barreled through to the bathroom and locked herself in a stall.
Her face crumpled before she did and she found herself sitting on the commode, pressing her fingers on her closed eyelids so she wouldn�
��t cry. She couldn’t cry.
Seeing Patrick in Nick’s arms had been the last straw. Making love with him had knocked her for a loop, but when she’d seen him with their baby…
The tears wouldn’t be held back. They came, hot and plentiful down her cheeks, dripping onto the twenty-thousand-dollar pale gold dress.
This was not good. She couldn’t come out of the bathroom looking as though she’d lost her best friend. She hadn’t even brought her purse, so there went any chance of fixing her makeup.
No, that wasn’t true. This was Papillion. The rest room had an amenity bar. There was perfume and hair stuff, and if there was any mercy in the world, the attendant would also have some makeup.
As for Nick and Patrick, they would have to wait. She wasn’t about to think of them here, in this toilet. Or out there, with that horrible man. They deserved the best she could give them.
Tonight, when she’d been excused, she’d curl up in bed and she wouldn’t sleep for hours and hours. She’d remember every second of her time with Nick. She’d picture the two of them together. At least in her bed, under her covers, she could have some joy.
She blew her nose, patted her cheeks and walked out of the stall. After she washed her hands, she went around to where the attendant sat in her starched uniform. Mercy was present in the form of pressed powder, mascara and rouge. Not exactly in her colors, but Jenny didn’t care.
She took pains fixing the damage, and when she was finished, she gladly handed the nice woman the fifty-dollar bill. Then she went back for round two, with firm determination not to think of her men until she was alone.
Todd looked at his watch when she got back, and he didn’t seem upset. It could all be an act, of course. She’d find out later. One thing about Todd, he liked to enumerate her sins, real or imagined.
“You look beautiful,” he said as the waiter held her chair for her.
“Thank you. I want to make you proud.”
“You do, my love. When you’re good, you’re very, very good.”
“And when I’m bad?”
“You’re punished.”
Her smile froze on her lips, but he thought it was hilarious. She laughed along with him and ordered a second Scotch.
Todd called the waiter and whispered something to the young man, who bowed, then disappeared. Todd turned back to her. “I visited Patrick today.”
Jenny’s blood grew cold. “Oh?”
“He’s one hell of a scrapper, that boy. Good set of lungs.”
“He can be quite, uh, loud.”
“Huh. I was somewhat concerned about a few things.”
“What are those?”
“First, I asked him to call me Daddy. He won’t.”
“He’ll learn, Todd. He’s just a baby.”
Todd grunted. “What about that thing on his back.”
Jenny swallowed. She hadn’t wanted Todd to see it. God, how she hadn’t wanted that. “It’s a birthmark, that’s all. It doesn’t hurt him.”
“I want it removed.”
“The doctor said it was perfectly harmless—”
“We’ll have it removed. I don’t want him having any deformities.”
“I understand.”
He smiled again. “Did he show you what I brought him?”
“No, he didn’t. But I didn’t have much time with him today.”
“I’m sure you’ll see it tomorrow. It’s a fire truck. Large. Perfectly to scale. I special ordered it for him last week.”
“That was very kind, Todd.”
“He’s my son. He’ll have everything.”
“I know,” she said.
“Including parents who are married.”
Her fork clattered to the table as the waiter reappeared, only not with a glass of Scotch but a bottle of French champagne. Her heart nearly stopped when Todd pulled out a blue-velvet box and opened it, so slowly she wanted to scream.
The diamond was pink, and it was a monster. She had no concept of how many carats it could be, but she doubted she’d be able to lift her hand once it was on.
“Are you surprised?”
“Yes. Very.”
“You didn’t think I’d forgiven you, did you?”
“No, Todd, I didn’t. I thought…”
“You thought I wouldn’t want you back, after you left the way you did. After you abandoned me. And then, when I found out you’d had our child and never even called—”
“Todd, I’m sorry about that. I was wrong.”
“Yes, you were. And I have no doubts you’ll never do anything like it again.”
“No, never.”
“Give me your hand.”
She willed herself not to shake as she reached across the table. He put the thing on, a marquis so big it looked like something from a museum, or a joke shop. But she knew it was real. He’d never buy anything that wasn’t the best.
“It’s the largest pink diamond in the world.”
“It’s stunning, Todd,” she said as she brought it close to examine it. “I’m speechless.”
“I would think so. It’s worth over four hundred thousand dollars a carat. That’s over eight million dollars on your finger.”
“Oh, God, Todd. What if something happens to it? I’d be afraid to wear it.”
“You’ll wear it. And it will be safe.”
“But—”
“It will be safe,” he repeated, so forcefully that she knew there would be no more discussion. “The wedding will be on the Fourth. We won’t have many guests. But you’ll wear that ring and a wedding band when we take down the El Rio. Nothing will ever be the same after that night, let me tell you. Nothing.”
“I know, Todd. I know.”
Chapter Twelve
Nick saw the engagement ring on her finger and the bloodlust rose in him like bile. He had to end this, and damn soon.
With the implosion only days away, his work with the demolition company was becoming more pressing. So pressing, Todd had assigned one of the newer guys, Bill Hodges, to watch Jenny for longer and longer stretches. Nick wasn’t thrilled with the arrangement, but there wasn’t much he could do about it. Since that day they’d made love, he’d only been with her a few hours here and there, mostly in the afternoons, when she was with Patrick.
They hadn’t had a chance to talk, although she’d effectively communicated her desperation in a hundred ways.
She was getting panicky, and he couldn’t blame her. Marriage to Todd was the ultimate nightmare. His worry was that she’d do something foolish, which would alert Todd to her intention to escape.
Perhaps Todd already knew she was up to some thing. That could explain why he’d sent her to her room each night, directly after dinner.
In their brief snatches of conversation, she’d told Nick that Todd was more and more preoccupied. He was even more secretive than usual, but he had told her to prepare for an extended trip after the Fourth. A honeymoon that would take them to Europe and Asia. Which meant that Nick was right—whatever he was planning was going to happen on the Fourth.
The demolition team had performed many implosions of even larger magnitude than the El Rio, but given the number of tourists who would come out for the show, they were being extraordinarily careful in the planning stages. They kept Nick informed each step of the way.
Nick, in turn, worked with the local authorities to ensure nothing would go wrong. A very tight area was going to be cordoned off to the public. One of the conditions was that the building implode in its own footprint, with no margin for error. All the tests had gone well, but still, it would require massive crowd-control personnel, which worked well, as Nick made sure most of the temporary hires were agents. Todd, whatever he was planning, would be surrounded.
Nick felt certain they didn’t have to worry about the bomb being detonated on the Fourth. Todd wasn’t suicidal. He also felt sure the ultimate target wasn’t going to be Las Vegas or anywhere on the West Coast. Alerts had been given to all agencies, and there was h
eightened surveillance at all points of entry. Nick was fairly sure all the players were already in town, but no one aside from the Pakistani had been pinpointed.
For today, at least, his work on the implosion was done so he could spend some time with Jenny. He wanted to find a safe zone, so he could find out what she was up to.
He knocked on her door and she opened it within a few seconds. Her smile seemed forced, which wasn’t anything unusual. The engagement, if one could call it that, had surpassed her limits. Did Todd not see that? Or did he simply not care? Probably the latter.
“How are things at the El Rio going?” she asked, as if she gave a damn.
“Great. It should go off without a hitch. Listen, I was thinking this afternoon it might be nice to take Patrick to the pool.”
Her mouth opened as her eyes filled with dread, but before she could protest he said, “I mean, the private pool outside your suite. Just the three of us.”
Jenny relaxed. He’d known, before he asked, that there was no way she’d go out in public in a bikini, not the kind Todd insisted she wear. But she might go for the private pool. If he could get her in the water, they could speak. Todd was good, but he wasn’t a magician. There were no microphones in the deep end. There had been a directional mike off the patio door, but that was, as of an hour ago, dysfunctional.
“Sure, that sounds like fun,” she said. “I’ll go change.”
“Great. I’ll go tell Mrs. Norris, so she can get Patrick ready.”
With a smile that looked nearly real, Jenny headed off, but before he reached the door, she stopped him. “Please ask Mrs. Norris to put Patrick in a T-shirt and trunks. I don’t want to risk him getting burned.”
“You got it.”
She smiled again, a little brighter this time, and went off to change. The thought of her in the closet was something he couldn’t afford to contemplate, so he went next door. Mrs. Norris was as pleasant as always, getting Patrick ready per instructions with a minimum of fuss.
Just as they were heading out of Patrick’s bedroom, Jenny knocked. She wore a sleeveless, floor-length dress to cover her suit and a wide-brimmed hat for her head. He’d never seen anything so pretty.
“Here’s his sunscreen,” Mrs. Norris said, handing a tube to Jenny. “He’s eaten lunch, but I sliced a few carrots for a snack. That and some juice should see him through.”
