A Time to Live (14 page)

Nikki nodded.
Even though she had been to the café only once, that was apparently enough for Barbara to call her by name and know what she wanted.

“Here,” Barbara said, handing her the coffee and small packets of cream and sugar.
She scowled slightly. “You okay, dear?”

Nikki nodded, but stared at the coffee glumly.

“Why don’t you tell old Barbara what weighs so heavily on those small shoulders of yours?”

Nikki rolled her eyes.
“Geez, Barb, you’re no older than I am.”

Barbara laughed.
“I know but it comes with the territory. Don’t you know waitresses and bartenders are half psychiatrist?”

Nikki shook her head, chuckling softly.

“I’ll wager its man trouble,” Barbara said, lowering her voice to a conspiratorial whisper.

The door opened, ringing the small bell.
“Hi, Barbara,” Josh’s voice said. “And wow, look who’s here. How’s it going, Nikki?”

Nikki rolled her eyes
again and looked at Barbara. “Let me guess, he’s heading straight over here.”

Barbara nodded and winked.
“Hi, Josh,” she said pleasantly. “Coffee?”

“Please,” the young man replied
, taking the stool on Nikki’s left.

Nikki forced a smile.
“Hi, Josh.”

“I was beginning to think that mountain swallowed you whole.”

Barbara brought Josh his coffee just as another patron entered, sitting at a table on the other side of the café.

“The storm got a little rough,” Nikki said.
“But I weathered it just fine.” She hesitated. “I thought you had to go back to the university?”

His jaw tightened.
“I did, but the board rejected the funding for my research project.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

Josh shrugged. “Nikki,” he said softly. “I heard that something happened with Michael. Are you all right?”

“I’m fine, Josh, Michael saved my life.”

“Well what do you know,” another voice said. “The little miss is still alive. I thought for certain that half-breed would have added another notch to his belt by now.”

Nikki’s head snapped around.
She saw Taylor, Rod, and Sanders, standing in the door. Taylor said something to Rod and the man nodded, quickly leaving.

“Talk about unwelcome company,” Nikki growled.

“I hear you,” Josh said, scowling.

Taylor sauntered up to the counter, sitting a few stools down. Sanders sat next to him, but his icy green eyes remained locked on Nikki.
His black hair fell loose around his shoulders. He wore a heavy jacket, jeans and boots.

“You know, missy,” Taylor drawled, “defending Roumare is not the smartest thing to do.”

“Neither is trying to knock women off of cliffs.”

“I heard about that.
You really should be careful. Accidents can happen. Of course, what happened to Joanna and Roumare’s wife wasn’t an accident.”

“Shut up, Taylor,” Josh snapped.

Nikki stiffened, her stomach curling into a sickening knot. “Wife? Michael is married?”

Josh quickly moved to block her line of vision. “Ex-wife, Nikki,” he whispered. “Let’s go, I can explain everything.”

“Back off, shrink,” Taylor said with a sneer. “The lady should know that the half-breed breed’s wife and a woman he dated were found raped and murdered on his land.”

Horror cut through her.
“What are you talking about?”

Taylor grinned wickedly.
“Aw, Starwell, didn’t you tell her? You should at least pay attention to your civic duty.”

“I said shut up, Taylor.
There’s no evidence—”

“To hell with the evidence.
Those women were mauled so badly, they had to use dental records to identify them. Both were blonde, petite, pretty, just like our little missy here. Laura divorced Roumare and Joanna had a nasty break-up with him. He didn’t take the rejection well and now they’re dead. We wouldn’t want to see anything like that happen to missy now, would we?”

The sick feeling in her stomach grew and Nikki bolted to her feet.

“Nikki,” Josh said, moving with her. “Let’s go somewhere else, where we can talk privately.”

“Aw, what’s wrong, missy?” Taylor said as he stood.
“Your half-breed boyfriend didn’t tell you what happened? Of course, Laura and Joanna ain’t talking anymore, but if you don’t believe me, you can still ask Denise, at least she survived the attack—”

Josh lunged, grabbing Taylor by his shirt.
“I said back off, Taylor.”

Sanders rose slowly, his features as hard as granite.

“Now, shrink,” Taylor said, grinning. “You’d better let go or Rory here might break your fingers.”

Josh shoved Taylor backward.
“Just leave Nikki alone. You have no right to harass her with lies.”

“Rory, I think Starwell
here needs a lesson in manners.”

Sanders’s expression turned to pure loathing
, but it was directed at Taylor. “Starwell,” he said, his voice deep and graveled. “Perhaps you and the lady should leave. I don’t want things to get ugly.”

Taylor frowned,
but said nothing. Sanders strode past Taylor and straight toward Nikki. “Miss, allow me to walk you to your vehicle.”

Nikki took a step back, staring up at him.
“No thanks,” she whispered and sprinted for the door, her chest aching terribly.

“Nikki, wait,” Josh called.

The door opened just as she reached it. A small girl stood in the way.

“I heard the animal found another toy,” she said softly.
Her voice was low, but the venom Nikki heard shocked her. The girl had been pretty at one time. Two terrible scars cut across her face. One on the right side started from the corner of her mouth and ascended across her cheek to the bottom of her ear, as if she had been slashed with a knife. A portion of her earlobe was missing. On the left side of her face was an awful burn scar that went from her cheek to her throat and disappeared under her blouse. Nikki wondered why she dressed so revealing with a low cut blouse and skin tight jeans. Her long blonde hair was pulled into a barrette and her blue eyes glittered balefully. She seemed to be flaunting her scars.

“Take a good look,” the woman said between her teeth.

Nikki froze in shock, seeing Rod standing beside her.

“I’m Denise.”

“So?”

The woman’s lip curled into a sneer, making her scarred face look even more awful.
“It might be you next.”

An invisible force slammed into Nikki’s chest and dizzied her.
Why would Denise threaten her? Nikki didn’t know what was going on, but she couldn’t deal with this, not now. She mumbled her apologies and pushed past the woman.

But Denise followed her, grabbing her arm.
“Look at me!”

Anger roared within Nikki, making her aching chest worse.
She rounded on the smaller woman. “I have no idea what you are talking about.”

Denise’s eyes widened in shock.
“You really don’t know, do you?” Surprisingly, her voice softened. “Look, I don’t want anyone else to get hurt. No one deserves to be raped and mutilated. But you’ve got to get away from Michael. He did this to me.”

Nikki staggered backward.
Michael mutilated her? No! It wasn’t possible! He couldn’t—

Terror seared her soul.
No! It wasn’t true! But everything Taylor had told her suddenly made sense as well as Michael’s ostracism. Oh dear God, what kind of an animal was he? Nikki took another step back, trying to find her balance, and plowed into Josh.

“Denise,” he snarled.
“Get away from her.”

Nikki suddenly felt terribly trapped, her breath rattled in her throat and spots hovered before her eyes.

“Rod,” Sanders growled. “Move out of the way. Denise, let her go.”

The two moved aside and Nikki bolted.

Josh caught her at the Bronco. “Nikki, wait, please.”

She saw Rod, Taylor, and Denise standing at the door of the café. Denise acted as if she wanted to follow
, but Sanders firmly planted himself in the way. “Leave her alone.”

Why was Taylor’s body guard stopping them?

“Nikki, please,” Josh said, “it’s not as bad as Taylor made it out to be. You know he hates Michael. Let’s find a place where we can talk, just the two of us.”

Tears streaked down her cheeks.
“Just leave me alone, Josh.”

She jumped in the Bronco and tried to shut the door
, but Josh held it open. “Nikki!”

“Enough,” Sanders said striding towards them.
“Josh, let her go.”

“Mind your own business.”

Sanders curled his lip. His hand closed around Josh’s arm and forcefully hauled him away. “I said leave...now.”

Josh swallowed hard, glaring at the man.
He seemed to realize discretion was the better part of valor and quickly retreated. “Nikki, if you need anything, call me.” He hurried away.

Sanders gripped the door, ducking his head to look at her directly.
His jacket opened slightly and Nikki thought she caught a glimpse of a shoulder harness with a gun, but he zipped up the jacket before she was certain. Once again, he locked her in his chilling gaze. “If you know what’s good for you, you’ll leave now. Get off this mountain.”

Anger and fear made her body shake.
She didn’t have time to start over. “This is my home. I’m not going anywhere.”

Sanders scowled, his green eyes gleaming.
“Do you have a death wish? You’ve been marked, girl. Leave now.” He slammed the door shut and stalked away.

Terror seized her and she fumbled with her keys in the ignition.
Finally, the engine started and she roared out of town.

Tears fogged her vision and streamed down her cheeks.
Michael had been married? Both his wife and a girlfriend found raped and murdered on his land? And Denise...what he had done to her....dear God. That Michael could be such a vicious animal was almost impossible to comprehend. He had helped Nikki so much and never made her feel threatened. But the intruder - now that made sense. Her terror intensified.

Michael had appeared the first night the shadow stalked around her house.
Aside from the footprints, which appeared slightly smaller than Michael’s, she had no evidence of the stalker’s identity.

But Michael had saved her life, he had stayed days in her home helping her.

When he left, there had been the phone call, and the second time the intruder broke into her house. Nikki had seen Michael emerging from the woods opposite from her house. He said he had sensed trouble and returned to help her. From what he had told her about his unusual instincts, it was possible. But what if he was lying about all of that? What if he had been the one who tried to attack her?

He didn’t take the rejection well,
Taylor had said.

What if Michael was just doing all of this to make her turn to him for comfort.
He hadn’t tried to hurt her because she never really rejected him.

Nikki pulled into her driveway, rubbing the tears from her eyes.
This was crazy. She had no reason to doubt Michael, not after all he had done for her. But fear continued to gnaw at her gut.

Was it possible?
Did the sleepy town of Shadow Mountain have its own serial killer?

One that now stalked her?

Nikki hurried inside, locking the door behind her, again scrubbing the tears from her eyes.

Of course, Taylor and his goons had tried to knock her off a cliff.
And Sanders appeared as if he carried a gun - he was the one who said she had been marked, and he worked for Taylor. Maybe he knew Taylor was the stalker and that’s why he warned her. Or maybe he was the stalker - no, the footprints would have been larger.

Another fear cut through her.
What if Bradley had somehow followed her and was trying to scare her into going back to L.A.? Nikki scoffed at that thought. No doubt Bradley was perfectly happy with Stacy, and relieved to no longer tend to an invalid.

What could she do?
Perhaps she should leave Shadow Mountain and find somewhere else to live. No. Her life was too short to run. She had put a lot of work into the cabin and wouldn’t have time to do it again. This was the place where she always wanted to live. What did it matter if she died from cancer or by getting her throat slit?

Do you have a death wish?
Sanders’s voice whispered in memory.

She shuddered, muttering to herself.
“Geez, Nikki, get off of it. If you’re going to die, it will be the cancer, not because of a psycho maniac.”

Despite her bold mutterings, Nikki’s resolve broke.
She covered her face with her hands, sobbing bitterly. Somehow, she made it to the kitchen and pulled out a bottle of wine. She rarely drank anymore, but right now she didn’t care.