Free Fall (17 page)

He left the room and stalked down the hall to the elevator. Once in the lobby, he headed toward the exit at a slower pace, cautiously surveying the premises for any sign of Michelle. Outside in front of the hotel there was a waiting taxi and he dove into it like a man on the run. "Get me to the airport, fast!" He barked to the driver. He hoped he would be on time for the next flight out. In the taxi, he silently rehearsed a story to tell Nina.

NINE

WHEN
Nina and Trish arrived home Joseph enfolded her into his arms like a man who’d been gone for weeks instead of thirty-six hours. She noticed that he looked pale and had dark shadows under his eyes. "You look really tired, hon."

"I am. I worked pretty hard to finish the scene so I could get home sooner."

"I tried to call you about three o’clock in the morning, you must have fallen asleep." Then she explained why she and Trish had spent the night at Laura’s, and her suspicion that Karen had bribed the guard to refuse her entry through the gate.

Joseph looked away. "I never got the call." He pulled out his phone and scanned his logs. "Nothing's here. Believe me, I would have called you right back."

"Oh well." Nina was exhausted, too. She took off her shoes and lay down on the couch.

Joseph sat at her feet. "I’ll arrange a meeting tomorrow with Tom’s lawyer and get a restraining order. I’ll also tell the security firm not to let her near the gate. And I’ll have a word with the guard on duty, because you’re on the guest list with full access anytime you want." His face betrayed his anger. "Maybe we should hire a bodyguard."

"No, I really don’t want to walk around in public like that, Joseph. Please, don’t say anything to the guy at the gate either. It will get back to Karen. If she did do this, I don’t want her to know that it had any effect on us."

She and Trish spent the entire day lounging around in the living room watching TV. Joseph sat with them and it seemed to Nina that he didn’t want to let her out of his sight. Not that she minded, but she doubted that Karen would be showing up at the door. What could she do to us here? She wondered at his clinginess. He seemed unusually subdued, as did Trish, and Nina hated the fact that they were worried about her. It made her feel like a child and besides, she would now be worried that they were worried and that just made things worse.

She and Joseph headed to bed early and once in the bedroom he jumped on her before she was half out of her clothes. Like a man possessed, he took her hanging off the edge of the bed, without any foreplay whatsoever. Then he flipped her over and pushed her into a kneeling position, where he pounded into her from behind and seemed to lose control of himself as he thrust into her over and over. His hips slammed into her as he finally reached orgasm. "God," he panted. "I’m sorry. Did I hurt you?"

"Uh, no honey. Geez is this what comes from two nights away from each other?"

"I guess it's just stress." Joseph tucked her into bed and then snuggled up with her in the crook of one arm.

"You know I love you, don’t you?" He said.

"Well, yes. I love you, too," Nina smoothed his chest with her hand.

"I just want you to know that. I don’t want all this shit with Karen to make you doubt me. I’m afraid of losing you."

"I don’t doubt you, but you know, I’ve haven’t got much to go on. I mean, where do you want this to go? Do you want me to live here with you indefinitely? Have you lived with a girlfriend before?"

"No. You’re my first." Joseph hugged her tight. "Maybe you should close up your apartment and move your stuff down here. Do you want to live here with me?"

"Yeah, I suppose that’s how it’s going to be," Nina said.

"You don’t sound too sure of yourself." Joseph propped himself up and looked down at her. "We can go to Seattle if that’s where you want to live."

"Joseph, that’s crazy, you have a job here." Nina entwined her fingers through his hair. "It’s all good. I’m good here. If the show takes off, then what? You’ll go on hiatus eventually, right? We can go back and forth from Seattle and LA. I’m grateful that you’re willing to go to Seattle, but I wouldn’t be able to live with that because it would make you unhappy. Now that I know that you would do that for me it makes all this stuff with Karen seem insignificant. I’ll be fine. I’ll be wherever you are until the end. Whatever end that will be."

Joseph kissed her tenderly. "Okay, babe."

Several hours later, Joseph opened his eyes to a raging hard on. He lay there in the dark trying to decide if he should wake Nina. Then she moved sleepily and draped herself across his body. Rubbing her cheek against his, she whispered, "Wakie, wakie." Her soft hair brushed along his chest as she lowered her head. Grasping his erection, she stroked it with both hands and whispered, "Beautiful." Taking it into her mouth she slowly allowed his full length to slide inside and hummed deep in her throat.

Joseph tugged gently at her hair and she climbed on top of him. Positioning herself above him she permitted him to slip inside her. Leaning forward she propped herself up with one arm straight beside his head and started moving her hips in a measured pace. Joseph held onto her buttocks and helped her rhythm until she came, gasping, with her lips parted and her head thrown back.

She slowly extricated him and lay on her side, bumping against him until he spooned her. Joseph stayed awake and listened to her breathing while she slept until the sun came up.

"Trish. You’re going to miss your flight," Nina said. Gently, she tried to step out of her friends embrace. People at the airport swarmed around them with their kids and piles of luggage, all racing to get somewhere else.

Trish let go of her reluctantly. "Don’t be mad at me, okay? If you want me to support you, I’ll support you. If you want me to encourage you to come home, I’ll do that too."

"I want you to support me," Nina said.

Trish hesitated, a pained expression on her face. "You could just come home for a visit though. Right?"

"Of course! Trish, honey I’m not mad at you. I don’t ever want you to tell me anything but the truth, ever. Like you always do. Don’t ever pull any punches with me, okay? I love you. I’ll think about what you’ve said."

Trish looked relieved. "Call me next week?"

"As per usual, my friend," Nina replied. She watched while Trish went through the security and when she reached the other side of the screening gate, gave her one last little wave. Then she walked back through the terminal to the parking garage feeling foolishly conspicuous. She felt like she was being watched all the time now. She walked around her Jeep checking the tires just in case there was any vandalism. All the way home, she kept looking in the rearview mirror to see if anyone was following her. Joseph had asked to come with them, but Nina wanted to see her friend off alone. He was supervising her every move and Nina was feeling resentful. Her resentment was not towards Joseph, but toward the idea that she couldn’t walk around in public without fear of being sabotaged by anyone at any time. This restriction on her freedom gave her a new perspective on the things she took for granted before.

Three days later, Joseph was at the studio. With assurances that she would call him immediately if anything happened, he unwillingly left her alone. Nina put on her swimsuit, grabbed a towel, a bottle of sparkling water, and went out in the late afternoon to the pool. She swam laps for twenty minutes and then lounged in the sun reading a Bernard Cornwell novel. After an hour she moved under the shaded umbrella and read for another two hours, losing herself in the violence, bloodshed and war tactics of Vikings in the ninth century. She purposely distracted herself from thinking about Karen and the situation she was in. It was twilight when she gathered up her stuff and went inside.

Physically she felt pretty great. She felt refreshed and clear headed. She showered and then rubbed lotion all over her body until her skin shone a golden brown, smooth and warm from her bake in the sun. Padding downstairs, she grabbed an acoustic guitar and lay upside down on the long divan in loose shorts and a soft cotton top, her hair hanging over the edge, the guitar sitting on her stomach. She strummed a melody on the strings and sang

Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, she saw movement through the windows that led out to the patio. With a yelp of surprise she sat up. In the long shadows of the setting sun she saw the movement again. The back of a man, walking through the perimeter of bushes that surrounded the pool. She caught a glimpse of a blue baseball cap bobbing over the top of the bushes before he disappeared out of sight. Nina squinted through the glass trying to catch sight of him again.

"Hey, babe." Joseph stood at the bottom of the stairs.

"You scared me! Were you just outside by the pool?"

"No. I came in through the front door."

"There’s someone outside! I just saw him walking through the bushes!" Completely spooked now, Nina went over to the bar where she picked up her phone, ready to call 911.

Joseph went to the sliding glass doors and looked outside. "I don’t see anyone."

Nina cautiously approached the doors, exposing herself in front of the bank of windows, feeling like one of those cutout human targets you see at a shooting range.

"I swear I saw a man, medium height, medium build, with dark hair and a blue starter cap." Nina’s skin was crawling. When Joseph opened the slider to go outside, she grabbed his arm. "Don’t go out there! Let’s go upstairs."

"It’s okay, Nina! I’ll go out and see." He went through the slider and walked along the bushes while Nina watched anxiously.

He came back inside and put his arm around her. "You’re alright! It was probably one of the gardeners taking a shortcut through the property. He’s gone now."

He locked the slider and went along all the windows to make sure that they were locked, then he ushered her up the stairs. Nina followed close behind while he checked the rest of the windows and doors in the house.

"See? You’re safe!" He hugged her for a moment. "I won’t let anything happen to you."

Nina, still clutching her phone, was not convinced. The man was creepy. He wasn’t casually strolling through the yard. She was certain that he’d been hiding in the bushes. She couldn’t shake the feeling she was being spied upon. She left Joseph and went into the kitchen, where the number for the security firm that patrolled the housing community was clipped onto the refrigerator. She wondered if it would do any good to report it. What if Karen had already gotten to them?

Joseph’s phone was sitting on the counter and it rang as she entered the kitchen. Nina snatched it up, grateful for any contact with someone from the outside.

"Hello?" Nina said into the phone. Joseph came into the kitchen, eyebrows raised in question.

A woman's voice said, "May I speak to Joseph?"

"Yeah, hang on." Nina handed the phone over to Joseph, a little embarrassed that she had answered his phone. Obviously, it was something to do with work.

"Yes?" Joseph listened for a moment and then, "How did you get this number?" He began moving away from Nina, but she moved with him, hoping to hear the conversation. Was it Karen?

"No, I’m not interested. Please don’t call here again," Joseph said angrily. He hung up and avoided meeting Nina’s eyes.

"Who was that? Was it Karen?"

Joseph was silent.

"Who was it?" Nina said again.

Joseph still didn’t respond. He looked at the kitchen floor as if searching for an answer in the beige tiles.

While Nina waited, her intuition sparked an answer in her mind.

"Was it somebody you slept with?"

Joseph finally met her eyes. "It was." Then he looked away.

Nina’s heart began to thud and she grasped at possibilities, hoping that he might have done it before they met. "And when was this?"

"Las Vegas."

Well he’s not lying to me, Nina thought crazily, as the impact of what he was saying hit her with full force. With an involuntary cry she clamped her hand over her mouth and started away from him. When he reached for her, she slipped by him and walked into the living room. She sank down onto the couch.

Tentatively, Joseph said her name but she barely heard it. He knelt on the floor in front of her. Eventually, she gave him a look of pure disgust. "You know, silly me, I just assumed you wouldn’t sleep with other women," she paused. "So tell me, is this how it is? Do you want to sleep with other women?"

"No! I honestly don’t. It just happened. It was a stupid mistake."

"How did it happen?" Nina said.

Confused, he looked at her askance. "What do you mean? You want details?"

"Yes, I have to know what happened so I can get a grip on this. If you don’t tell me I'll be imagining all kinds of things. God," she moaned. "There's a picture in my head right now! You shouldn’t have told me in the first place." She felt sick. Surges of pain radiated out from her center, tightening up her chest. How could he do it? Well, she asked herself, isn't he a man? What do you expect? A monkey to be anything other than a monkey? Can I get out of here? She wanted to take off. She thought of her Jeep parked in the garage. Yes! Pack your bag and get out of here. Drive back home to Seattle. Oh God, what should I do? She desperately wished she could turn back the clock to ten minutes ago.