Back on Solid Ground (13 page)

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 looked
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.

Carlos
nodded.  “Absolutely.”

Jason walked
into the room and took in the scene.  “What’s the matter with Stacy?”

“We missed
that part,” Eli said.

Jason looked
back over at Niki.  “He’s in love with her,” Jason stated.

“Definitely,”
said Eli.

“Good,” said
Jason. “I didn’t know how I was going to tell him that we weren’t going to give
her to our client.”

“Yeah,” Eli
agreed.

“They look
good together,” Jason said.

When Stacy
finally stopped crying, she didn’t let go of Niki.  She knew how irrational the
attraction was, but she didn’t care.   She felt safe in his arms and right then
there was no place she would rather be.  Stacy squeezed Niki tighter. 

“I haven’t
cried this much in one day since my mom died,” Stacy said.  Niki was lost in
thought as he held her, her head resting against his chest.  “I can hear your
heart beating,” she said.

Niki let go
of Stacy and looked into her eyes. “You are so dangerous,” he said.  He tilted
her chin up and kissed her gently on the mouth and this time, Stacy kissed him
back.  The kiss radiated through his whole body.  She was like some magnetic force
field drawing him in, and it took everything he had to pull himself away from
her. 

Stacy nestled
back in against him, and Niki closed his eyes and held her to him.  The urge to
protect her was tremendous, like nothing he had ever felt.   He continued to
hold her until she made the first move to pull away.

“You okay now?”
he asked, and Stacy nodded her head.  “You ready to go back in?”

“Yeah.”

Niki took Stacy
by the hand and led her back inside.  Neither Eli, Carlos nor Jason attempted
to conceal the smile on his face, but Niki was not the least bit
self-conscious. 

“We’re
working for Stacy now,” Niki told them.

“Right,” said
Jason.

“Good
decision,” said Eli.

“Excellent,”
agreed Carlos.

They all
looked at Stacy. “You won’t be sorry,” she promised.

“We have a
lot to do before morning,” Niki said.  “Let’s get started.”  He handed Stacy a
pad and pen.  “First of all, you need to make a list of your holdings.  We’re
just going after your liquid assets right now, so don’t bother with real estate
or assets that are not going to disappear overnight.  We can deal with those
later.”

“We need the
name of the institution and the name on the account,” Eli said.

“I only know
the account number on my checking account,” Stacy said.

“That’s not a
problem,” Niki assured her.  “Eli can get that.”

She looked
over at Eli.  “You can?”

“Give me your
social security number and there’s nothing I can’t find on you,” he said.

Niki turned
to Jason.  “Jason, you call our Swiss and Cayman bankers at home and have them
get things started on their end tonight,” said Niki.  “This has to go down
first thing in the morning.”

“Give me an
idea of how much we are talking about,” Jason asked Stacy.

“Several million,”
she said.  “But a lot of it is in stocks and mutual funds.  Does that mean I
have to sell everything I have?”

“No.  We’re
just going to do a bit of rearranging right now so your father can’t get to
it,” Niki said.  Just the mention of Stacy’s father pissed him off.

They worked
on the details of their plan for the next three hours and Stacy was mentally
exhausted. 

“I need
food,” she groaned.

“Yeah, let’s
take a break,” said Jason.

The tribe
moved into the kitchen just as Consuela was leaving, and there were wonderful
smells coming out of the pots on the stove. 

“Consuela!”
Stacy said, and she gave the housekeeper a hug.  “Come eat with us,” she said,
dragging her back to the kitchen. 

“No,”
Consuela laughed.

Eli looked at
Niki and rolled his eyes.  “What’d I tell ya?” Eli said, then he put his arm
around Consuela and squeezed her.

“I love my
hair,” Stacy told Consuela, smiling.

Consuela
smiled back at her.  “Muy bonita,” she said, and then in English, “very
pretty.”  Consuela turned to leave, but on her way out she walked up to Niki
and whispered something in his ear.   Niki looked down at Consuela, shocked,
and she smiled up at him and nodded her head.

“What’d she
say?” Stacy asked when Consuela had gone.

“
What
did you two talk about while Consuela was cutting your hair?” Niki asked.

“Just girl
stuff,” Stacy said vaguely.  “Why, what did she say?”

“Something
about our children being beautiful,” he said, thoroughly annoyed.

“Bullshit!”
Stacy exclaimed.

“I swear to
God,” Niki said, holding up his hands.

“You need to
stay away from Consuela,” Eli told Stacy.  “You’re a bad influence on her.”

“I am
not
a bad influence, and why would you say that?” Stacy said, offended.

“It’s nothing
you do on purpose,” Eli said, grabbing a beer out of the refrigerator.  “It’s
just the way you are,” he said.

“And what the
hell is
that
supposed to mean?” she said, irritated.  “If you didn’t
want Consuela and me to become friends, why did you stick me down there with
her in the first place?” 

“I guess we
didn’t realize that you befriend everyone you speak to,” Eli said
sarcastically.

“Well I
haven’t befriended you, have I?” she shot back.

“Oh, you have
too,” he said, reaching over and messing up her hair. 

Stacy pushed
his hand away.  “I am
not
a bad influence,” she said, pouting.

“So Consuela
cut your hair?” said Jason, checking it out.  “It looks good,” he told her. 
“Maybe I’ll get her to cut mine.”

“Thanks,” she
said grumpily.  She went to the refrigerator and stood there holding the door
open while she decided what she wanted to drink. 

Eli moved
over and rested his arm heavily around her shoulder and peered into the
refrigerator with her.  “You mad at me?” he whispered in her ear.

“Go away,
Eli,” she said, trying to remove his arm.  He made it too heavy to move. 

“I’m just
giving you a hard time,” he said. “You’re just so much fun to tease – you
always
take the bait.”

Stacy grabbed
a beer and tried to get out from underneath Eli’s arm, but he wouldn’t let her
go, and the more she struggled, the harder she laughed.  Eli closed the
refrigerator door and walked Stacy across the kitchen in what had turned into a
headlock.  Stacy was trying to get away, but she couldn’t budge Eli’s arm.  

“Help!” she
laughed.

Niki, Carlos
and Jason were watching and laughing, making no attempt to intervene and help
Stacy.

“Now,” Eli
said, “I want you to tell me that I
am
your friend.”

“Let go of
me!” Stacy said.  She had stopped struggling because she knew it was useless.

“Say it,” he
said.

“Dammit Eli,
let go of me!” she said.

“Not until
you say it,” he said. 

Eli wasn’t
going to back down, and her side was killing her from laughing, so Stacy 
finally relented.  “You’re my friend,” she said.

“What?  I
didn’t hear you,” he said, turning her around so she was facing the others.

She was
laughing so hard that it was difficult to talk.  “You’re my friend!” she said
louder.

Eli unlocked
his grip on her head and let go.  “There,” he said, straightening her up.  “Was
that so hard?”

Stacy slugged
him in the chest.  “And thank all of you for coming to my rescue,” she said to
the others, fixing the neckline on her shirt.

“Let’s eat,”
said Carlos.  He fixed a plate and handed it to Stacy, then fixed one for
himself.

“Thanks,
Carlos,” Stacy said, taking a seat at the table.  “How in the world did you end
up being a bad guy?”  Then she looked around the table and said, “These guys 
must have corrupted you.”

Carlos
laughed out loud.  “Stacy Trent,” he said, “you are a delightful addition to
our household.  And if you weren’t already going to have beautiful children
with Niki, I’d marry you myself!”

Everyone
roared except for Niki.  He turned to Stacy after he finished choking on his
beer.  Just looking at her made him smile.

“What
did
you say to Consuela?” Niki asked.

“Nothing that
would make her say
that,
I assure you.”  Stacy was amazed at the
strength of the attraction she felt for this guy.  It was way past lust or
desire.  There was something almost transcendental to her feelings for him.

“Did you tell
her that I kissed you?” he interrogated.

“Well, yeah,
but I never said I liked it.”

“Oh, you
liked it,” Niki said confidently, his green eyes penetrating hers.  Stacy
turned red.  “You’re blushing,” Niki said in confirmation.  “See, you liked
it.”  He picked up his fork and went back to eating.

“She’s
actually embarrassed,” Eli said.  “I didn’t think it was possible.”

“Shut up,
Eli,” Stacy said, irritated.  “And don’t be ganging up on me,” she said,
looking from brother to brother.

There was a
bright flash followed by a huge clap of thunder and a tree in front of the
house went down.  Stacy screamed and ran to the middle of the kitchen and was
standing there with her arms wrapped around herself.  “I don’t like this at
all,” she exclaimed. “And I can’t believe you brought me to this stupid island
during a hurricane!”

“You’re
inside,” Jason said.  “What are you so scared of?”

“That,” she
said, pointing out the window.

“It’s
awesome.  Just enjoy it,” Jason said.

“What is it
with you and bugs and storms?” Niki asked.