Holdin' On for a Hero (100 page)

“How?”

“Your eyes.”

Nikki had no reply. Was it that obvious? She looked away and Ben gave her hands a tug.

“Come on, you don’t have to hide. I’m not judging and I’m not telling you it’s wrong, I’m just concerned. In all the years I’ve known you—what is it now—five years? Anyway, in all that time I’ve never seen this look in your eyes. You don’t fall easy. You always hold something back and you always have your door locked. You’ve never let anyone get inside that room, no matter how much they care. I’ve never asked the reason and I don’t expect you to tell me—we all have our demons. But there’s no closed door this time. It’s like you’ve opened—no, you’ve knocked down the door. Is this guy really that special?”

Until that moment Nikki hadn’t faced the truth about herself and her feelings for Max. Now she realized that Ben was right. There was something in Max that made her want to let someone inside. She wanted to trust Max, to let him be what she believed in. But why? Why Max and why, if it was true, could she not admit it to herself? Was she that afraid or just that unsure?

“I guess so,” she finally answered, then laughed in a self-deprecating way. “Wouldn’t you know? I finally find someone I think could be Mr. Right only there’s a good chance he’d be a better fit as a kid than a…”

“Lover?”

She nodded and pulled her hands away to lower her face down into them. “What am I doing?”

Ben smiled and pulled one hand away. “Taking a chance, maybe?”

She groaned and lay her head down on her arms on the table. “What am I going to do, Ben? What if I’m wrong about Max?”

Ben laughed and she looked up at him with a hint of irritation. He grinned and rounded the booth to engulf her in a hug. “Don’t worry, if it blows up in your face, you always have me.”

Nikki nestled up against him, taking solace in the feel of his arms around her. She prayed what she was about to do wouldn’t blow up in her face. It wasn’t just for herself. There was someone else involved who stood to be hurt.

“I need your help, Ben.”

Ben pulled away. “Why’s my stomach suddenly in a knot?”

Nikki shrugged with mock innocence.

“Okay, what do you need?”

“A copy of the college entrance exam.”

“What?”

“Look, I got a sample IQ test and I’ve modified it, but I need more.”

“Why?”

“Because I need to know just where his strengths and weaknesses are. Ben, I’ve been doing some experimenting. For example, I took a dictionary and picked words at random—simple words at first. I’d read the definition then give Max words to choose from to match the definition. He had no problem, so I increased the difficulty. Still no problems. You wouldn’t have believed it. I gave him definitions of words I don’t even know and he never missed. Not once! We did that for over an hour.”

“How’d he get such a big vocabulary if he can’t communicate?”

“He can read, remember? I told you. And it isn’t like he always had this problem. I didn’t realize until last night was that he apparently has a photographic memory. He remembers everything he ever saw or heard. Complete recall. It’s kind of spooky. I mean, imagine having all these memories and experiences and not being able to communicate your feelings about them.”

Ben nodded. “I see what you mean. Not a place I’d wanna be.”

“Me either. So, will you get me a copy of the exam?”

“Shit, Nik, why don’t you just have me break into NASA and schedule the shuttle for the weekend. Yeah, that’d be phat. Stock up on champagne and strawberries, some CD’s—kick back, watch the stars, and maybe catch a comet. You could come along.” Ben grinned wickedly.

Nikki rolled her eyes at him. “Does that mean you’ll do it?”

Ben ignored the question. “Or maybe not. Maybe I’ll ask someone else. Someone more…affectionate.”

“Ben!”

“Okay, okay,” he laughed. “I’ll do it. Just remember, if I get busted, it’s on your head.”

“You won’t get caught. You never do.”

Ben grinned again. “You mean so far.”

Nikki pushed him from the booth. “Up, up. Let’s go.”

“Go? Where?”

“To your place.”

“You mean you want it now?”

“Yeah.”

Ben looked down at the bill on the table then at Nikki. “And I guess I’m paying, too?”

She took it away from him and hurried to the cash register. Less than a minute later they were on their way to his place.

Bill, the soon-to-be lawyer, was in the living room reading when they walked in.

“Nik, hi.” He got up to give her a hug. “I’ve missed you.”

“Same here.”

“What’re you guys up to?”

“Nik wants me to hack into the university system and—”

“No! No!” Bill held up his hands. “Don’t tell me. Keep your illegal activities to yourself.”

Nikki laughed at his antics. Ben just shook his head, muttered “paranoid conservative” and headed for the computer.

Nikki took a seat on the couch and talked to Bill while Ben performed his magic. Less than half an hour later he walked in the room with a disk and a stack of printed pages.

“Exam, answers. Printed and on disk, Your Majesty.”

Nikki grinned and jumped up to throw her arms around him. “Thank you, thank you, thank you. You’re a genius.”

Ben grinned over her head at Bill who muttered “and soon to be an imprisoned genius if he doesn’t straighten up.”

Nikki released Ben to look at Bill. “Well, at least he’ll have excellent representation.”

Bill gave her a mock growl and tossed a pillow at her. She caught it and dropped it on the couch. “Seriously, thanks, Ben. I owe you.”

“Indeed you do, my pretty.” He wagged his eyebrows comically. “Oh, and I added a little something extra. Look at the last page.”

Nikki flipped to the last page of the printed papers. “What’s this?”

“A formula. If he’s the hot-shot brain you suspect, then ask him to tackle that.”

“Looks like Greek to me. What’ll it mean if he can do it?”

“Let me see.” Bill held out his hand.

Nikki handed him the page. He looked at it then up at Ben. They both laughed.

“What?” Nikki did not get the joke.

Bill gave her back the page and Ben solved the mystery. “Let’s just say that if he can solve it, he’s one of about a dozen people in the world.”

“Oh.” She shrugged. Leave it to Ben to come up with something that was impossible. “Listen, I really do appreciate it. I better get going.”

Bill stood to give her a hug. Ben walked her outside to her car.

“Thanks again.” She gave him a kiss.

“Just do me a favor and don’t let this…” he put the tips of his fingers over her heart, “get the best of this.” He then touched her forehead.

“When do I ever?”

Ben rolled his eyes and kissed her on the forehead. “Point taken. Go on, get outta here.”

Nikki got in the car and rolled down the window. “See ya.”

“Yeah, later. Hey, let me know how the tests turn out.”

“Will do. Love ya. Bye!”

Driving back to the estate, Nikki wondered what the tests would reveal. It never occurred to her that she was only taking Max’s intellectual capacity into account. The question of his emotional maturity never crossed her mind.

* * * * *

Nikki waited for the oncoming car to pass before she turned in to the entrance of the Weston estate.

“What the—” A jab of adrenaline caused her to jump when the oncoming car suddenly stopped, blocking her way. Newspaper, radio, and television warnings to women about being alone at night suddenly popped in her head.

The relief she felt when Gaspar de Troyes rolled down the window was like the first breath of air after swimming underwater too long. He motioned for her to back up.

Once she was parked alongside the road, he pulled up in front of her and got out of his car.

“What are you doing here?” she asked as he slid into the passenger seat beside her.

“Nikki, you must stop in the course of action you’ve chosen.”

“What? Have you been following me?”

“No.” He looked directly into her eyes as he answered. “But you are being watched.”

The drop in anger she’d momentarily felt vanished in an instant. “What gives you the right to have me watched? Just who the hell do you think you are, anyway? Unless I’m mistaken, I don’t work for you so just where do you get off—?”

“It’s for your own protection!”

“Protection? Oh yeah, right. Against what?”

“Richard Weston for starters.”

Nikki’s heart seemed to skip a beat. Did Gaspar know about the overtures Mr. Weston had made and if so how? Could he know what Mark Robinson had told her? And could Robinson be right about Gaspar? She didn’t think so, but what if he was fooling her?

“What makes you think I need protection from him? In case you’ve forgotten he’s out of the country.”

“But his eyes aren’t.” Gaspar reached over and turned the key to kill the engine. “Nikki, listen to me. You may think this is a game, but be assured that it is not. Richard Weston wouldn’t hesitate to give the order to have you terminated. It would be neither the first nor the last time.”

“What’re you saying? That’d he’d have me killed just because I turned him down?”

Gaspar shook his head. “No, he’ll continue to pursue you until you surrender to him. It’s his nature. Never has he been rejected. But that’s a fight meant for you alone. However, don’t think that if he suspects your motives for taking the position are anything less than what you told him, he’d hesitate to discover the truth. And should that truth be discovered, I fear that your demise would shortly follow.”

“You son of a bitch!” She lashed out and punched him in the face. “You sorry sack of shit!” Her voice rose as she pelted him with blows. “You know why Christian died, don’t you? You got him involved in something that ended up with him dead and me in some…some mess where everyone’s saying the other guy’s the bad guy and a murderer and I don’t know who the hell to trust and…and…you rotten bastard!”

Gaspar dodged and deflected her blows until finally he managed to capture her wrists. “Enough!”

Nikki glared at him hatefully, her chest heaving with exertion. “Let go of me right now.”

“Only if you give me your word you’ll listen to what I have to say.”

She jerked, trying to break his grip but could not. “Fine.”

“Your word?”

“Yes.”

He released her and pulled out a handkerchief to dab at his face. “I understand your anger and you have my word that I’ll do everything in my power to make sure no one suspects your real motivation for taking the position. However, it hardly makes my job easier if you insist on drawing attention to yourself in this quest you’ve set upon.”

Nikki’s first inclination was to light into him about nosing into her business, but something else demanded her immediate attention.

“How about you tell me exactly how you plan on protecting me, Gaspar? Are we suddenly going to become joined at the hip, or how is it you’re going to protect me while I’m in there and you’re out here?”

Gaspar sighed. “I must ask something of you.”

She gave him an incredulous look. “You can’t be serious.”

“Yes, very.”

“What?”

“When you return to the estate, make sure you are not being observed and go to the third floor of the west wing.”

“How about I just jump off the damn roof? The stairs to the third floor end at a locked landing and guess what? I pawned my secret-agent lock-pick set to buy lunch.”

Gaspar seemed to take no notice of her dark humor or sarcasm. “The door will be unlocked.”

“Oh really? And just how are you going to accomplish that, Houdini?”

“Please, just do as I ask. I promise you that if you do this, your faith in me will be restored.”

At that moment Nikki thought she had managed to get mixed up with a real kook. But despite her efforts, she couldn’t suppress her curiosity.

“Okay, fine.”

Gaspar smiled. “In fifteen minutes, be on the landing.”

He got out of her car. She watched as he returned to his own vehicle. After he had pulled around her and headed away from the estate, she started her car. It seemed that she’d done nothing but deal with nut cases since she’d lost her last job. What kind of weird plan did fate have in store for her? If she had any sense, she’d return to the estate, pack her things and get the hell out.

Instead, fifteen minutes later she found herself at the top of the stairs on the third floor of the west wing, feeling foolish as she lightly tapped on the door.

A metallic click preceded the door swinging open. Light spilled out onto the dark landing. Hesitantly, she stepped inside the door.

Gaspar smiled at her. “Thank you.”

In astonishment she turned a half circle, staring at him as he closed the door behind her.