Unable to stomach the men’s conversation, I turned away. My eyes wandered about the expansive apartment until I found the door to Greg’s private storage area.
“What about David’s paintings?” I waved to the storage room door. “Caston kept them in there. What happens when the police find them?”
Dallas stared at the storage room door. “Better not risk leaving anything behind that could cause problems down the road for any of us.” He looked about the apartment. “Any idea where he keeps the key?”
I pointed at Caston’s body. “On a key chain in his pocket. It’s a funny looking square key. A gold one.”
“Then I’ll get the paintings and take them with me,” Dallas pronounced.
“Why don’t you give the paintings to me?” Uncle Lance suggested. “I know a certain Italian gentleman who is a big fan of David’s work. I could present them to him as a sort of thank you for all of his help.”
Dallas shrugged as he looked at David. “You all right with that?”
“Seems the least we could do for Uncle B,” David agreed.
Uncle Lance reached into his trouser pocket, pulled out his keys, and tossed them to David. “Take my Jag and get Nicci out of here. We’ll clean up.”
“Stay at the dead girl’s place tonight,” Dallas instructed. “I suggest you make it look like the girl suddenly decided to leave town. Just in case anyone comes looking for her.”
David nodded. “I know what to do.”
“In the morning you two can head out to your house,” Dallas advised.
I turned to David “What house?”
He grinned at me. “A place I purchased a few months back, or should I say Dan Goldvarg purchased, outside of the city.”
“Keep the car,” Uncle Lance offered. “I’ll get another one and I’ll send you some new plates in your new name.”
My lower lip quivered as my gaze shifted to my uncle. “Uncle Lance….”
My uncle pulled me into his arms and hugged me. “I’ll take care of everything, Nicci. I promise I’ll talk to Billy. He’ll understand. Just do what David tells you and everything will be all right.”
I stepped back from my uncle’s embrace and became distracted by the artic eyes of Dallas August standing beside him.
“Will I ever see you again?”
Dallas gave me a half-smile. “One day. You take care of him,” he said, pointing to David.
I kissed Dallas on the cheek. “Thank you. Thank you for everything you have done for me.”
His scowl quickly returned. “Time to go.”
David wrapped his bloodstained arm around my shoulders and guided me toward the emergency exit door. I glanced back once more to my uncle and Dallas. A swell of emotion inundated my heart. I was not ready for this. I wanted to be me and not have to walk away from everything I had known to become some stranger with bad diction. Then I caught sight of the two dead people on the floor. I immediately regretted my paltry concerns. I was alive. The meaningful familiarities of my life paled in comparison to the reality of their demise.
As we slowly made our way down the stairs, the realization of what had just happened hit me like a swift kick in the gut. My slight shaking turned into an uncontrollable trembling and my respirations came in accelerated gasps. David’s arm tightened around me when we emerged from the building.
“I know how you feel Nicci,” he whispered. “It’s not every day you get to die.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Jenny Ryan lived in a yellow shotgun cottage on the end of Magazine Street near the outskirts of the Garden District. The slender house with its opaque glass front door and old-fashioned beveled glass windows was not what I expected. The raised structure seemed too plain a residence for the flashy Jenny Ryan I remembered.
David and I sat outside in my uncle’s red Jaguar as we watched the darkened house for any sign of activity.
“Any roommates you think?”
“Only one way to find out,” David admitted and opened his car door.
We walked slowly up the small path that led to the porch steps. I pulled her keys out of her big black purse and looked nervously at the neighboring houses.
David put his arm about my waist while we stood before the front door. “Take your time. If anyone is watching, they will think I’m a date.”
I began trying the keys one by one in the lock. The third key opened the dead bolt on the other side of the door. I gently pushed the door open and we eased our way into the house. I could feel my heart racing. I jumped when David turned on a lamp just inside of the entrance. He shut the front door and locked it.
He reached for my hand. “Let’s take a look around.”
We went room by room, which did not take long since the house only had a living room, kitchen, bedroom, and a bathroom. I noticed during our search that the place was sparsely furnished and there were no pictures or artwork decorating any of the walls.
“She didn’t have much,” I commented, scanning the bedroom.
The small room contained only a twin bed, a round nightstand with a brass lamp on it, and a plain oak dresser. I opened the closet and discovered only a few cocktail dresses, a couple of pairs of slacks, and some blouses. She had only five pairs of shoes, and one small suitcase, neatly arranged on the closet floor.
“Seems Greg didn’t help her financially.”
“Greg was a cheap prick,” David grumbled and sat down on the bed. “Barely enough room on this thing for both of us.” He removed the gun from the waistband of his pants and set it on the nightstand.
I rested my eyes on the bloodstained sleeve of his white shirt and David noted my concern. He began undoing the buttons on his shirt. “Perhaps you should soak this tonight to help get some of the blood out. I’ll need to wear it tomorrow when we leave here.”
He put the shirt down on the bed beside him, and I eyed the taped bandage around his left shoulder, the bruise on the left side of his chest, and the purple discoloration under his right eye.
“Am I really worth all this?” I asked, my voice quivering.
He got up from the bed and came over to me. He gingerly put his arms around me. “You are worth every scratch, every scar, every bruised rib, and every tooth implant.” He tenderly kissed my lips, and just as he was about to pull away, I placed my hands about his face.
“Don’t stop,” I begged. “I need to feel like I’m still your Nicci, at least for one more night.”
He gaze into my eyes and smiled. “From now on you will truly be my Jenny.”
He kissed me again and an overwhelming surge of urgency overtook me. I wrapped my arms around his neck and molded my body to his. He recoiled slightly when I pressed too hard against his left shoulder.
I immediately broke free of his embrace. “I’m sorry. You’re still sore. I shouldn’t have—”
His mouth crashed into mine. He eagerly started tugging at the buttons on the front of my long-sleeved shirt.
My mind screamed with rationalizations against what we were about to do. We needed to stay alert and not become distracted. Even so, I didn’t listen to my practical thoughts. I was being driven by pure desire. I needed to have David next to me. I wanted to feel something normal and familiar in this surreal setting.
“I want you inside of me,” I whispered, dropping my shirt to the floor.
I unzipped his khaki pants and pushed the material down, until his trousers fell to his ankles. He helped me slip out of my jeans and kicked his pants away. My fingertips traced the thick muscles down his back. When they came to his firm ass, I kneaded my fingers into his flesh, hungry for him. He undid my bra and delicately skirted over the outline of my breasts, waist, and then he tossed his arms around me. Lifting me from the floor, he eased me onto the bed. David’s eyes devoured my naked body.
“I forgot how beautiful you are.”
His mouth closed around my right nipple. I arched my body into his, teasingly grinding my hips against his erection. David moaned and drove his teet
h into the tender skin at the nape of my neck. He ran his hand down the length of my belly until his fingers came to rest between my legs. As he mercilessly began stroking me, I wrapped my legs around his waist.
“Yes, now, David,” I begged.
David lowered my legs from about his waist. “Not yet, my love. I plan on taking my time with you.”
His lips started working their way down my body. Kissing my neck, shoulders, breasts, and stomach, he spread my legs wide apart and kneeled between them. He kissed my right knee and then his lips slowly made their way down my inner thigh. I groaned softly as I felt his mouth closed over my sensitive folds. Gasping, his tongue drew circles around my sensitive nub. I reached for his hair, clutching it in my hands.
As he brought me closer to climax, my body bucked with each tingling wave of pleasure. Then, like an unstoppable force, the orgasm ripped through me. I screamed out his name and grabbed at the sheets around me. Almost as soon as my body began to relax, his teeth nipped at my nub, quickly sending me toward an intense second orgasm.
When he finally stopped, I was covered in sweat and my body was throbbing. I lay spent on the sheets below him.
“My turn,” he murmured to me.
Flipping me over onto my stomach, he pulled my hips up to meet his. He kneeled behind me, his fingers teasing my wet folds, and spread my legs apart.
I raised my head and gave a guttural cry as his fingers renewed my desire. Before I could climax he stopped, and without warning, thrust deep inside of me. I gasped with pleasure and surprise. He pulled out of me and slammed into me again.
“Harder,” I called into the darkness.
David moaned, and responding to my demands, he increased the depth and force of his every thrust.
My muscles tightened as the tension mounted inside of me. And just when I was about to beg him to stop, my body let go in one unforgiving jolt.
I screamed with such abandon that it felt as if I had completely lost control. Then David’s arms tightened around me.
“Nicci,” he cried, and shuddered against me.
A few moments later, we were lying on the bed, blissfully satiated, when David raised my face to his.
“My God, woman, what have you done to me?”
I laughed into the recesses of his neck. “I guess I should apologize for attacking you like that.”
He pulled me to him. “You’ve changed. You’ve never been that—how can I put this diplomatically—assertive with me before.”
“I haven’t changed. I just needed to feel you and to be with you. I can’t explain it.”
“I like you this way. I like the new Nicci.”
“Same old Nicci, David. I’m just not holding back anymore. From now on I’m going to live every day, every second, to the fullest. For the first time in my life, I’m going to start living, really living…with you.”
I rolled over and climbed on top of him. I hungrily sank my teeth into his neck. I lowered my hips onto his and slowly began teasing him by gently rubbing my folds over his growing erection.
“Now what do you say we do that again.”
David wrapped his right arm about my waist and flipped me on my back. He held my hands above my head, tempting my right nipple with his tongue.
“Yes, let’s definitely do that again,” he murmured. “We’ve got a lot of catching up to do.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
The next morning, David stood by my side and listened while I called The Carol Robinson Art Gallery on Jenny Ryan’s cell phone.
“Hey there, it’s Jenny,” I said, trying to imitate Jenny Ryan’s New Jersey accent.
“Jenny?” a woman’s voice said on the other end of the line. “It’s Leslie. You sound terrible. Do you have a cold?”
“Yeah, I do, Leslie, but that ain’t why I’m callin’.” I cringed at the sound of my voice. “I, ah, I’m quittin’. I’m gonna head back home for a while. I’ve had enough of N’awlins.”
David was trying the best he could to stifle his laughter.
“I don’t understand. You seemed so happy here.” Leslie sounded genuinely concerned. “Why just last week you were telling me and Helen how much you loved it here in New Orleans.”
“Yeah, well, things change, ya know?”
There was an uneasy moment of silence on the other end of the phone. “You told me you never wanted to go back to New Jersey,” Leslie eventually stated.
I felt a sudden rush to get off of the line before the conversation got too uncomfortable. “Look, Leslie, I gotta go. I’ll send you a line from Jersey and let you know where I end up. See ya.”
I hung up the phone before Leslie could get in a reply.
David raised his dark brows. “Well?”
“I guess she bought it. Seems Jenny told them she never wanted to go back to New Jersey.” I gazed around the small bedroom. “Now what do we do?”
“We go home.”
***
While David searched the house for any important personal items belonging to Jenny Ryan, I packed up all of her clothes into her one suitcase and threw it into the trunk of the red Jaguar. After I had locked her front door, I placed her house key in the mailbox.
“Do you think anyone will come searching for her?” I asked David, climbing into the front seat of the Jaguar.
“Who knows? I found nothing among her papers to indicate that she had anyone who cared about her.” He put the car in gear and slowly pulled away from the curb.
The little yellow house grew smaller in my passenger side mirror. “That’s so sad,” I whispered.
David reached for my hand. “I know, Nicci. It makes you appreciate what you have.”
I marveled at his profile and noted the bruises on his face. “Yes, it does.”
The wind from the open window tossed his wavy, brown hair about while David maneuvered the car down Magazine Street.
“This feels familiar,” I commented. “That day at St. Louis Cathedral—”
“We went to City Park in a Jaguar very much like this one,” he cut in, finishing my words. “I think that was the day I started falling in love with you.”
“When we first met you asked me about my dreams. Do you remember?”
“What are your wants, your desires, your dreams? I’m still waiting for you to tell me, Nicci.”
“I never had any wants or desires until I met you, David. As far as my dreams go, well, they came true the moment I found out you were alive.”
I watched David negotiate the Jaguar onto the open expressway, and I realized how much his love had changed my life for the better. We may not have taken an easy path, but as Dr. Appell had said, ‘it’s not the destination but the journey that matters.’ I could not imagine being on such a journey with anyone else.
“I love you, David. Did I ever tell you that?”
“About bloody time you said it,” he grumbled.
The emotion I saw in his eyes warmed my heart.
I settled back in my seat. “So where is this house of yours?”
“Hammond.”
I bolted upright and stared at him. “Hammond?”
“You didn’t think I would let you sell my house to any stranger, did you?” He laughed at my reaction. “I had George retain an attorney who handled the closing paperwork for me. Even made sure the act of sale was filed under another name so Simon wouldn’t find out about it. Since I paid cash for the place, there weren’t a lot of questions asked by either the real estate agent…or the seller.” He winked at me.
“No wonder I recognized the name Dan Goldvarg. I saw that name on the initial offer documents my agent sent me when I was in Connecticut.”
“Even bought some furniture for the place a few weeks back.” He shrugged. “It’s not much but it’s enough for us to get settled. Just a bed, a table and chairs for the dining room, and a new couch,” he fussed with a roll of his eyes.
“Perhaps we should move the couch in to the bedroom for a while. Just to make sure,” I teased.
>
“You know what?” David flashed me his warm, wonderful smile. “That sounds like a great idea.”
Epilogue
There was a slight December drizzle coming down as the bride and groom made their way out of the St. Charles Presbyterian Church. The bride, dressed in a long gown of light blue silk, waved happily as the wedding guests threw grains of rice about her head. The groom, dressed in a dashing gray morning suit and light blue tie, helped his bride into the back of the limousine. He stopped just before he entered the limousine and peered at a red Jaguar parked across the street from the church. He waved his hand slightly, nodded his head, and then dipped into the back seat.
“I think he saw me,” I said hopefully, turning to David in the driver’s seat beside me.
“Bill saw you, Nicci. Lance told him we would be here. I know how much he and Betty wanted you to be a part of their wedding, but I’m sure they understand.”
He caressed my cheek with his left hand. The glint of the gold band around his third finger caught my eye and made me smile.
“I wish they could have been at our wedding. One day, I promise, we will have a big ceremony with all your family in attendance,” he avowed.
“I don’t know. You, me, Dale, and Harding seemed kind of romantic.”
David snickered. “The justice of the peace and his dog were hardly what I would call romantic.”
I turned back to see the crowd of wedding guests cheering while the newlywed’s limousine drove away. Aunt Hattie was crying into a hankie as Uncle Ned gently patted her shoulder. Colleen and her husband, Ray Phillips, stood next to them. Colleen’s baby bump stood out prominently from underneath her blue satin and white lace dress complete with long white gloves. I chuckled; heartened by the fact that Colleen had not given up her dreams of becoming the next Chanel. Next to Colleen, I saw my Uncle Lance and Auntie Val hugging each other and laughing.
The Nicci Beauvoir Collection: The Complete Nicci Beauvoir Series Page 82
