Open Your Eyes (9 page)

My biggest gift was seeing him nearly back to his old self; nothing in a box could bring me greater pleasure than that. I pulled at the pretty bow and carefu
lly lifted the edges of the paper. “Just tear it open, Natalie.” He laughed, exasperated by how slowly I unwrapped my gift.

“Nick,” I gasped as I opened the box, staring at the Canon SLR camera. “You spoil me…” I protested, but the pure
delight and excitement in his eyes were enough to stop me.

“Now you can take pictures of our time together,” he said
. “I noticed you never had a camera when we went out. Life is short and special moments are precious. This way you can record those moments to enjoy again a second time when you look at the pictures and revisit those memories. I hope for you it will always be snapshots of a happy life.”

He leaned over a
nd kissed me tenderly, his hand cupping my chin. “I want you to take happy pictures so you will have happy memories, little one.” He rubbed his nose against mine and everyone burst into laughter at my stunned expression.

“I will show you how to use it properly over the next few days,” he promised with a wicked grin.

I was overwhelmed, the gift I brought Nick could never compare to this expensive and thoughtful present. “Thank you so much. You have no idea how special this is to me,” I choked as my eyes misted up.

“It's supposed to make you happy,
Mom,” Olivia chirped, rolling her eyes at me.

“I
am
so very happy,” I said, a smile breaking through to prove it.

Chapter Fifteen

Nick

The fuckers! The phone call I had taken before lunch was from my friend, Tom White, who had been doing some digging into the previous night’s events at the club with Sarah and Olivia.

I was alone in my bedroom. I had gently kissed Natalie goodnight at her door and headed to my room. As much as I wanted to be with Natalie tonight, I needed time to process it all. I needed to think.

I undressed and slipped under the covers in my boxers, staring at the ceiling as the conversation replayed in my mind.

“You are not going to like this, Nicholas,”
Tom had said, his voice grim and tight.

“Tell me,” I barked, not in the mood for games. I wanted answers.

“We rounded up two guys who were hitting on the young ladies. Turns out they wanted to spend the night with them, take them home – you get my drift?”

“Yes. Continue.”

“They were hanging around making pests of themselves but the young ladies shook them off at first by going to another club. Your driver, Hank, was waiting at the curb, so they got away quickly. But – ”

“How did they find them again?” I growled.

“This is the part you are definitely not going to like…”

“Tell me
,” I repeated. Blood came rushing to my ears.

“Your cousin
, Jonathan – ”

“Jonathan!” I exploded. “What the fuck does Jonathan have to do with it?”

“According to witnesses at the club, Jonathan approached the two guys and said he would help them get into the ladies’ pants. He slipped them some pills and explained how to spike their drinks, promising them it would be OK. That they would have the time of their lives fu – er, with the young women,” he quickly corrected himself, knowing Sarah was my niece.

“What the fuck?” I roared, planting my fist into the wall. “I’ll kill the
bastards!”

“Calm down, Nick. We will investigat
e further. I know you want justice for what happened. But if you go after any of them now, you will be obstructing the law. Let the right people deal with it, so these guys can be caught and their sorry asses arrested and thrown into jail,” he pleaded, trying to calm me down.

“Besides, you are far away from New York at the moment,”
Tom reminded me. “Let us do what we know best. Your job is to look after the women, to keep them safe.” He was quiet for a few moments. “Think you can do that? It’s the best way to help the young ladies – and any others who may land in a similar situation. If you let us do our job properly, they will be removed from society, so that there isn’t a repetition of these events in future, compromising other innocent victims.”

He was right.
Given my history with Jonathan, I wanted to rip the motherfucker to pieces with my bare hands. I’d had enough of his low life bullshit. It was time he had his comeuppance. I wouldn’t rest until he did. He was lower than shark shit in my opinion.

But why? Why would he target Sarah and
Olivia? In fact, how did he even know where they would be?
Was the fucker stalking them?
My heart hammered in my chest as my stomach lurched.

“Promise me, Nicholas. Promise me you’ll let us do our job?”

“I don’t know if I can,” I bit out, my tone measured. “The fucker is messing with the wrong man. He's fucked up my life before; that was different. But now – there is no way in hell I will allow him to hurt the women I care for.” I trembled with rage.

“Nick, we need time. You have to trust us.”

“It's not you I don’t trust. Jonathan has been after what is
mine
all his life. It's clear to me now that he won't rest until he destroys me. And if he hurts these women… it will fucking kill me! Nothing can happen to them. You have to stop him. Do you understand me?”

“I understand. I'm sorry it had to happen to you. Justice will be served, my friend,”
Tom tried to assure me.

“I’ll give you till I get back to New York
,” I breathed down the phone.

“That’s only a week from today. Be reasonable,” Tom pleaded. I was being as reasonable as I humanly could.

“This time it's fucking
personal
,” I grunted as I switched my phone off, shaking uncontrollably.

Chapter Sixteen

Natalie

I woke up, stretching my limbs in the large bed. Disappointment washed over me that Nick hadn’t attempted to come to my room during the night. I’d felt his preoccupation with the disturbing phone call all evening, yet I had hoped that once all the lights were out and everyone settled, he would make his way to my bedroom.

Maybe he would tell me today what was bothering him? I didn’t really know a lot about Nick’s life, other than the few bits of information we had exchanged over dinners, so it could be any number of things that upset him. It may have nothing to do with me, yet I wanted to help him.

Could it be related to what happened to Olivia and Sarah on Christmas Eve? But if it was, surely he would share that with me immediately? After all, it affected me directly – my daughter was a possible victim of crime. I wanted to know if Nick had information.

I sighed as I pushed the bedcovers off and
went to shower. The hot stream of water poured over me, relaxing me to my bones.

Dressing quickly,
I slipped into a pair of jeans and a knitted top and made my way downstairs. Raucous laughter met me from the direction of the kitchen and I followed the sounds. The scene that greeted me warmed my heart instantly. Nick had an apron tied around his waist, flipping pancakes into the air and catching them with flare, much to the delight of Sarah and Olivia.

He w
ore a pair of faded jeans with a casual green sweater that was open at the neck, the buttons undone, revealing a smattering of dark chest hairs covering a smooth tanned chest. He had pushed the sleeves up to his elbows and the sight of his strong masculine forearms did funny things to my insides.

Caffeine – I definitely needed caffeine if the sight of a man flipping pancakes could affect me like this.

He padded over toward me, barefoot, and grinned as he placed a huge sloppy kiss on my cheek, still holding the pan in his hands. He was putting on a show for the young ladies, entertaining them with his antics. I looked down as they giggled with delight. Goddamn, even his feet were sexy. Long sinewy toes, perfectly manicured. I never imagined I could be turned on by a man’s feet!

At least he was in a good mood – that was a good sign.

“Sleep well?” He grinned, his eyes sparkling with mirth.

“Oh yes, thanks
.” I smiled back, hiding my disappointment at not having a nocturnal visit.

Olivia
must have read my mind about the caffeine. “Here’s a cup of coffee, Mom. Sit down while we get the rest of breakfast ready.”

I sat at the counter and watched the spectacle.
Olivia poured orange juice while Sarah cooked eggs and bacon. The aromas filled the room, making my stomach rumble.

“Maggie and Stanley have the next two days off to visit their family. So we are left to our own devices for meals,” Nick said casually. Seemed like he was perfectly at home in the kitchen. “Tonight you and I will cook pasta for dinner
.” He wiggled his eyebrows as if cooking together was rather naughty. I smiled; doing
anything
with Nick would be sexy. My toes curled in anticipation.

The rest of the day, we lounged around in front of the fireplace, listening to music and chatting. Nick was relaxed and peaceful
. I didn’t want to raise the topic of what had upset him the day before – I didn’t want to see that anger back on his face – so I ignored the questions turning over in my mind.

Olivia
curled up on a couch with a book and a blanket, while Sarah texted her friends in the Hamptons trying to organize a get-together to introduce them to Olivia.

Her phone pinged an incoming message for what seemed like the hundredth time. But this time Sarah had a different reaction. She bolted upright from where she was slouching on the couch.

“Whoohoo!” she exclaimed, her cheeks brightening, “Josh is coming to the Hampton for New Year! How cool is that?”

Olivia
sat up too. “Josh? Josh, as in your brother?” She beamed. “I’ll finally get to meet him. You talk about him all the time…”

Nick laughed
. “Yeah, Josh called earlier. He was cutting short his European trip with your parents. Seems he’d rather be here, with us. The more the merrier!”

“So why didn’t you tell us sooner?” Sarah asked pointedly.

“Because Josh asked me to keep it quiet till he could organize a flight. Flights aren’t that easy to come by this time of year,” Nick replied patiently.

Sarah immediately texted her brother back. And by the glint in
Olivia’s eyes, it was clear she was equally as excited.

After a while Sarah put away her phone and pulled a Scrabble box from the cupboard. “Come
, Uncle Nick, I am challenging the champion today.”

Olivia
sat up, curious. “Is Nick the Scrabble champion? Not for long. Mom is going to take his title for sure.”

“Ah, so we have a multiple challenge going on
, have we? Let me show you ladies why I am the champion, the king of Scrabble.” He laughed good-heartedly.

Sarah set the game up on the coffee table, and we all sank down to the carpet,
ready to play.

“So, what do I get if I retain my title?” Nick asked
, his eyebrow quirked. “There has to be something at stake to play for…”

“Breakfast in bed tomorrow morning,” Sarah piped up.

Nick rubbed his chin, pretending to consider the offer. “Sounds good. So whoever is today’s winner gets breakfast in bed? Hmm, those are stakes worth playing for.” His eyes burned into mine.
Wonder what kind of breakfast he has in mind?

We played several rounds. Nick won three in a row, causing Sarah to pout. She hated losing, especially since she was an English major in college.
Olivia kept score; she wasn’t that fond of playing Scrabble, so it gave her something else to do besides think up new words.

I had a strategy of my own. I let Nick come home to roost after winning every round, boosting his confidence so he felt invincible. But then I turn
ed the tables, winning the last round.

“I never heard of the word
‘tazza’ – what does that mean? Is it even a word?” Sarah moaned as I placed my three tiles next to her ‘ta’ with the ‘z’ on the triple score square.

“It means cup in Italian, but it's a genuine scrabble word. That’s
a score of 69, thanks to triple score plus ‘zill’ on the way down, which adds another 39 points. That gives me a total of 108 – and all my tiles are finished!” I turned my tile holder over to prove it.

“What?” Nick roared in mock disgust. “You beat me? How is it even possible to make a word with double ‘z’ and on triple scores?”

“Genius, that’s what,” Olivia said, scrunching her nose.

“Anyway, what does ‘zill’ mean? Is it short for windowsill? Never heard of it.” Sarah reached for the dictionary. “Zill:
small metallic cymbals worn on the thumb and middle finger; used in belly dancing in rhythm with the dance,” she read.

Olivia
held her stomach as she laughed out loud. “Oh, Mom, those belly dancing classes paid off after all.”

“You did belly dance classes?” Nick looked at me with admiration, a glint of mischief in his eyes. “You will have to show me some time.”

I grinned sheepishly.
“It was a long time ago. A group of friends and I thought it would be fun. Turned out I was the one who had the ample hips and bosom to be the queen of belly dancing.” I laughed. Trust Olivia to tell them about those silly classes.

“Hmm, sounds like something I’d like to see,” Nick teased
. “You are full of surprises.”

“She even has the full outfit,”
Olivia added. “In red. With those little coins that jingle when she sways her hips.”

I rolled my eyes. “Too much information,
Olivia.”

“I can just imagine you in your belly dancing outfit,” Nick mused, his eyes blazing.

“Well, Dad thought she was very sexy…” Olivia realized what she had just said and clapped her hand over her mouth.

“Did he now?” Nick growled
; his eyebrows knit closer together and a tick jumped at his jaw.

“It was a very long time ago.
Olivia was only ten then. Anyway, let’s get back to the game, shall we?” I tried desperately to avert their attention away from me and belly dancing…and Gabriel. “What’s the final score, Olivia?”

“I need a calculator to check my addition because, believe it or not,
Mom actually won the whole game!”

“What? That’s not possible. Uncle Nick won four rounds and Natalie only one. Let me check your math.” Sarah grabbed the pad from
Olivia and added the scores.

“I do believe we have a new Queen of Scrabble
.” Sarah laughed. “Such a clever strategy, Natalie – congratulations. Letting Uncle Nick win four games in a row but only marginally and then coming in the last round and annihilating everyone with that fantastic big score – way to go!” She held her hand up to high-five me.

“Don’t tell me I've been outsmarted by a beautiful woman?” Nick held his hand over his heart as if he had been wounded. “Well, I’ll take it like a man and be a good loser – your breakfast will be served in bed tomorrow morning, ma’am.”

“Thanks – I look forward to that.” I smiled.

Winning
certainly had its perks.