Trapped (12 page)

The look in his eyes said
you little bitch.
“Hm. Well, you think that you’re the only one who knows how to hack? Let’s just say that I have somebody who has that same capability, and I got video proof of what he did.”

I put on my poker face and examined him. I didn’t believe him about that. Something told me that he was now the one who was bluffing. If he did have that video, then all of us would be in this shit hole. If he didn’t, then he probably would have a very tough time trying to get the case re-opened. Using an illegal recording of me spouting off my mouth wouldn’t be enough to re-open that case, that was for sure.

My mind whirled. I had a tough time finding the video, and I had gotten pretty good at hacking. At the point when I found it, I probably could have hacked the Department of Defense. Not that there weren’t people in the world who were even better than that, and god knew that Nottingham had the resources to hire someone who could do that.

Nottingham smiled. “You know, it’s all pretty ironic. You’re so brilliant that you were able to hack Nick’s computer and find something that he had erased off his hard drive a long time before that. Yet you had no idea that I bugged your phone. Like I said, you clearly have a blind spot in your intelligence. But maybe it was just a case of clear naiveté.”

At that point, I wanted to lunge at him. Put my hands around his neck and strangle him.

Who was going to blink first?

“Okay,” I finally said. “You go to the prosecutor, and you see what will happen. As I said, if you take us down, you’re going down right along with us. One thing is for sure, though. You will never, and I mean never, get custody of this child. In any way, shape or form.”

At that, I got up from the table and walked out the door.

Chapter

As I walked away from Nottingham in the restaurant, I pulled my coat around me and tried to fight off the biting wind. March was certainly coming in like a lion, just as it was supposed to.

I alighted at Serena’s, and sat down in her chair.

“Dalilah,” she said. “Let me fix you a cup of tea. You look like you need it.”

“Actually, I need a drink,” I said. “A real drink. And, if I weren’t pregnant, that would be exactly what I would have right now.”

“That bad, huh?”

“You don’t know the half of it.” I fought the feeling that I was going to absolutely break down. “I need to make a phone call really quick. I don’t know if I can do it, though. I’m too out of sorts right now.”

“Let me call Luke,” Serena said. “And he’ll make any phone calls you need. I would make the calls, if you like, but I probably don’t know these people, so maybe it wouldn’t be such a great idea.”

“Yes, please, call him,” I said. “I need him. And I need him to call some people for me.” I also needed to talk to him. He might as well know what I caused in this regard by trying to bring this up to Nick after all these years. If it weren’t for me and my big mouth, Nottingham wouldn’t have any kind of ammunition to use against me. I hated myself for giving him that.

At that, Serena called Luke. “He’ll be here in ten minutes,” she said. Then she went to join me on the couch. “So, tell me what’s going on?”

I shook my head. “I can’t right now. I just can’t talk about it. I’m so sorry. I’m just kind of stunned, really. And ashamed of myself. Luke is probably going to hate me when he hears the latest on what’s going on.

“It can’t be as bad as all that,” she said. “Could it?”

“Oh, yes. Yes, it can. But I need to have a meeting with my parents and my Uncle Nick, because they’re going to be directly implicated on what is happening.” I nervously thought about my meeting with Nottingham. Was he going to bring us all under?

Luke appeared at Serena’s within ten minutes.
He saw my face, which must have been white as a sheet, and immediately rushed to my side. “What is it?” he asked. “There’s not something wrong with Olivia, is there?” He put his hand in my hair, and kissed my cheek lightly.

When I saw him, I couldn’t help it. I burst into tears. I had been wanting to cry ever since I had my little meeting with Nottingham, but I had to force it down while I faced him. But I felt that I had permission, finally, to break down, so that was exactly what I did.

Luke looked at Serena desperately. “What’s going on? Is Dalilah okay physically? Is the baby okay? She’s not bleeding again, is she?”

“The baby seems to be fine,” Serena said, while I cried hysterically. “At least, Dalilah said nothing about the baby when she arrived here.”

“What did she say?”

“She said that she had to make some phone calls, but that she wasn’t up to it. I think that she wants you to make the phone calls.”

I just nodded my head. “Call my dad,” I choked out. “And have him call Nick. Have them meet me here as soon as they can. Please.”

“Okay,” he said. At that, he called my father. “Ryan,” he said. “This is Luke….Dalilah asked me to call you….I’m doing okay, how are you?....yes, yes….well, we’re back in the States, I’m surprised Dalilah hasn’t told you….she wants to meet you here at my sister Serena’s…..as soon as you can….and she wants you to call Nick, too, and have him meet us here, too….Serena’s address is------…….today, if possible….I have no idea why she wants to talk to you….see you then….you take care too.”

Luke got off the phone. “Okay, they’ll be here this evening. We can go out to dinner, if you like.”

“I’ll make dinner,” Serena offered.

I was feeling calmer, in that I stopped crying. But I still was at a loss for words.

“Dalilah’s parents are vegans,” Luke said. “Is that okay?”

“Luke,” Serena said. “I’m also a vegan. I guess you aren’t overly observant, but that’s okay.”

Luke’s face turned red. “Come to think of it, you really didn’t eat that turkey at Christmas. I guess I didn’t really think about it.”

Serena put her arm around Luke. “Kid, there’s a lot you don’t know about me. But that’s my fault entirely.” She winked at both of us. “I’m a mean vegan cook, too. Trust me, you won’t miss the animal products.”

“Well, okay, then,” Luke said. “Thanks, Serena, in advance. Can I go to the store or anything for whatever you need?”

Serena shook her head. “I’ll make some eggplant parmesan, without the parmesan, of course – just breaded eggplant, fried in walnut oil, topped with marinara. Serve it was some linguini and bread with olive oil, and my special recipe vegan brownies, and it’s a really great meal. And salad, too. I like to throw all kinds of stuff in my salads – nuts, fruits, avocados, croutons.”

“Sounds awesome,” Luke said. “Well, okay, then, I guess it’s settled. We’ll have dinner here.”

Then he turned to me. “Okay, Dalilah, you need to talk to me. I don’t particularly want to be blindsided when I see what you’re going to say to your parents and Nick.”

Oh, god.
Well, I was going to have to come clean with Luke. I had no idea how he was going to react.

I shook my head. “Well, let’s see. Where do I begin?”

“Wherever you want to begin,” he said.

“Okay. Well. I’ll just start with how I was when I was in 12. I was a frustrated pre-teen. Bored with school, bored with life. I didn’t feel that I had an artistic voice anymore, so I was just a bit numb. I needed a challenge in my life, or else I was just going to scream.”

“Go on,” Luke said. He looked confused, but, for his part, he seemed to be okay.

“Hold on,” I said. I went to the other room, and took out my purse. I had no idea how much of a range that little recording device had.

I went out to the living room, and handed the phone to Serena. “Could you do me a favor? Could you take this phone down to Luke’s new studio? I’ll explain later.”

She nodded. “I’ll be back in about ten minutes or so.”

“Thanks,” I said.

Luke looked more confused than ever.

“I’m so sorry, Luke,” I said. “This will all come together, I promise. But I really want Serena to know everything, too, because she might be able to help out. So, I need to wait until she gets back to tell you the rest of the sorry story.”

Serena was back within 10 minutes, and she sat down.

“Okay,” I said. “I was just talking about how bored I was when I was young, and how I wanted a challenge. Well, I decided to teach myself to hack computers. It was just a puzzle for me, a game. I got all nosy, looked at my dad’s computers and my mom’s. Why, I don’t really know. That’s just how I was. I was not only bored, but I was nosy, too.” I shook my head. “I shouldn’t have done that. It wasn’t right.”

Luke said nothing, just held my hand, and continued to look concerned.

“Anyhow, well, I found something. I was really into it, and I went through his files that he had erased off his hard drive. I was just so thrilled that I could find old files like that. I was giddy. Stupid me. But, you know, when you get that good at hacking, it was a high. You know, I could find things that he was desperate to hide. Things that he took a lot of time and effort to erase. And, well, I found something. Something very serious.”

Serena and Luke both were looking concerned.

I took a deep breath. I had to trust Serena and Luke not to take this information that I was going to tell them, and not use it against me, or, god forbid, Nick and my dad, in the future. I trusted Luke, implicitly.

And something told me that I could also trust Serena. I hoped that my gut wasn’t wrong about that. It could be not such a good thing.

Still, I decided that I couldn’t use my gut, there. Not when it was Nick and my father’s future at stake. “Serena, god, I’m so sorry. But I can’t tell you this. It isn’t my story to tell, really. It’s Nick’s and my dad’s.”

She looked stricken, and I felt bad. Perhaps I could tell her that Nottingham was blackmailing me, and see if she could help out, without telling her exactly what information Nottingham was using against me. 

“I understand,” she said. “I’ll be out on the deck, and, when you want me to come in, I’ll be back.”

“Thanks,” I said. “I’m so sorry, if it was my story, only, I’d tell you. But I can’t, because there are so many others implicated in this.”

She nodded, and, at that, she went to her back balcony and sat down. I felt awful. I just kicked her out of her own home.

“Go on, Dalilah,” Luke said.

“I’m trusting you with this, Luke. The fact that I’m willing to tell you all of this shows just how much I trust you.”

“Sounds really serious,” he said. “But go on.”

“Well,” I said. “I found a video of Nick. He was threatening this guy, Paul Lucas. He was telling this guy that he had to commit suicide, because if this guy didn’t commit suicide, he, Nick, would turn him in for things that he did. Apparently this Paul was a serial rapist, and he had admitted that he was raping young girls for years. Hundreds of them. This guy had raped my Aunt Scotty, too, for years. So, he was a bad, bad man, to say the least.”

Luke’s face was turning white. “Egads,” he said. “Talk about heavy.” He shook his head. “What an awful scenario.” He visibly shuddered. “If anybody raped you, I think that I would be tempted to do the same. Any man would. But, I don’t think that I would have the guts to go through with it.”

I took a deep breath. “Well, Nick, you have to understand him. He’s no shrinking violet, by any means. He’s an awesome guy, but he definitely has the guts to make the heavy choices. Not to mention morally ambiguous ones.”

“Okay,” Luke said. “Well, go on. I’m listening.”

“Well,” I said. “This video ended with this Paul guy putting a gun in his mouth and pulling the trigger.”

I tried to gauge Luke’s reaction, but I couldn’t. He looked like he was proud of Nick for doing it, yet, at the same time, horrified that Nick would do something like that.

Kind of like the way that I felt when I found the video.

“I think that I know where this is going,” Luke said. “But, go on.”

“You’re going to hate me,” I said. “But I have to get it out in the open. When I was going to marry Nottingham, I knew that my dad was going to freak out. I wanted Nick on my side. Nick is my father’s most trusted friend. They’ve gone through everything together. So, I wanted Nick to talk to my dad. Tell him that Nottingham wasn’t a bad guy. After all, Nick has apparently known Nottingham for awhile. That was how I first encountered Nottingham, was at one of Nick’s parties.”

Now, Luke’s face was starting to change. He shook his head. “You didn’t. Please tell me you didn’t.”

Time to rip off the Band-Aid, and let the chips fall where they may.
“I did. Nick wasn’t playing along, so I casually told him that I knew what he did. For a brief moment, I thought that I would use it against him, or at least make him think that I was going to use it against him. But I backed off of that immediately. Almost as soon as I said it, I backtracked, and told him that I would never hold that over his head. I felt bad about bringing that up, immediately.”

Luke was shaking his head. He looked like he was about to blow a gasket. He was also no longer holding my hand. Rather, he was running his hands through his thick hair. Then he got up, and started to pace.

I felt just a little panicky, but I forged on.

“Goddamn it,” he finally said. “Goddamn it. I love you. You’re the smartest woman I know. But how could you be so fucking stupid? I….I don’t even know what to say. Why would go there? You find something out like that about someone you love, and this person that you love hasn’t done anything to you. Yet, you’re going to try to use that against him? Good lord, Dalilah, what the hell were you thinking?”

I fought back tears. “I was desperate, Luke. I wanted my dad to be on board with this Nottingham nonsense, and I thought that Nick would help with that. It was stupid, Luke, and there’s no excuse for it.”

“I see. I see.” Luke continued to pace. “We’re back to this, aren’t we? We’re back to things biting you on your ass, as they’re going to do when you do things that are morally reprehensible. Goddamn it, why can’t you see that? Hasn’t anyone ever told you that if you’re in a hole to stop digging?”

“I know, Luke. But I’ve made the decision not to do things underhanded. Remember? I made that decision when I had my dream about our daughter.”

Luke was nodding his head, obviously not hearing my protestations about how I had changed. “And Nottingham knows about this, doesn’t he? I bet he did something like bug your phone, and he knows it all.”

“How did you know that was what happened?”

“Because he’s as duplicitous as you are, Dalilah. Probably moreso. Which is why it’s so ridiculous that you would ever have gotten involved with him at all. If you couldn’t see that he’s going to out-maneuver you at every turn, just because his mind is more devious than yours, then I don’t know what to tell you.”

I shook my head. “He told me that I have a blind spot in my intelligence, which is why he has been able to out- maneuver me, as you say. Always stay one step ahead. I guess he’s right.”