Unforeseen Danger (23 page)

What was taking Darcy so long?

Nikki thought about calling Jake, but she had no idea what the number to his office was.
 
She tried to find it in the phone book, but the numbers danced before her in such a frenzied blur that she couldn’t distinguish them.
 
Clutching at her head, Nikki felt crazy when she couldn’t think of the word for that thing, that thing lying there in the floor with all the numbers that she wanted to call Jake with.
 
It was simple and on the tip of her tongue, but it wouldn’t come to her.

Hot tears of pain and frustration rolled down her face as she wondered if she’d ever be normal again.
 
Why would Jake want her when she was so crazy
—

Hey, MP!

The voice in her mind was so clear.
 
She could almost remember who called her
that,
could almost put a face to his voice.
 
She sank to her knees in the floor, willing her mind to open the door just a little further.

Hey, MP!
 
Where’d you put my keys?
 
I’m late already.

She could almost say his name, could see herself as she tossed the keys to him, but his face was hidden from her.
 
He was someone that she loved; she was sure of it.

Abruptly, the door in her mind slammed shut, hiding her secrets from her and leaving her with the knowledge of only one thing:

It hadn’t been Jake’s voice.

The voice that seemed so heartbreakingly familiar, that voice she’d known she loved, had not belonged to her husband.

***

Had Darcy left already?

Jake was alarmed when he couldn’t find Nikki downstairs and she didn’t respond when he called out to her.
 
Although he was still a little weak in the knees from the accident, he raced up the stairs and found her lying in the floor in her room.
 
She was so still, a cold ball of fear knotted in the pit of Jake’s stomach as he rushed to her.
 
He seized her in his arms and a cool wave of relief washed over him when he felt her stir.
   

She was asleep.

His fear evaporated, and he nearly laughed until he saw her face.
 
Her eyes were red and swollen, as if she’d been crying.

“Baby, what’s wrong?” he whispered.
 

She mumbled his name and then wrapped her arms around his neck.
 
He cradled her as if she were a child, struggling to his feet and laying her on the bed.

“Oh, Jake!” she said, her eyes filling with tears.
 
“My head.
 
It hurt so
bad
and I couldn’t find my purse—” she broke off and began to sob in earnest.

“It’s okay, honey,” Jake soothed, shaken by her tears.
 
He tried to joke, wanting her to feel safe now that he was here.
 
“You always lose your
purse,
and your keys…”

“I wanted to call you, but I couldn’t find the number, and then I couldn’t think of what you even call that stupid thing.”

“What – the phone?”
 
Jake asked, taken aback.
 
This, too, was one of the effects of her head injury.
 
Sometimes, she had to struggle to find everyday words, though she hadn’t done it often since those first days in the hospital.
 
It never failed to chill Jake.

“How’s your head now?” he asked, stroking her hair.

“It’s not hurting, but it feels sore.”
 

Immediately, Jake stilled the hand in her hair and Nikki laid her head on his lap.
 

“I should go call Luke.”
  

“No, I’m okay now,” she protested.
 
“Besides, I told him last visit about my headaches, and he seemed to think it was strange that I
hadn’t
been having many.
 
He gave me a prescription—”

“I‘d still like to call him.”

“Really, I’m okay.”
 
She managed a faint smile as she squinted up at him.
 
“I probably just overdid myself today.”

“So I noticed,” Jake teased, deciding not to mention his close call at work.
 
“Thought I’d walked into the wrong house for a minute.”

“It wasn’t
that
bad before.”
 
She wrinkled up her nose in a way that he found adorable.

“No, but I don’t think our floors were that shiny when they were brand new.
 
And did I smell a roast?
 
Where did you and Darcy order it from?
 
I know she’s a worse cook than you are.”
   

“Hey!
 
I cooked it, thank you very much.
 
I can follow a recipe.”

“Where
is
Darcy, anyway?”

Nikki blinked at the clock.
 
“She went to the pharmacy for me, but she should’ve been back by now.”

Jake frowned.
 
“I’ll call the pharmacy and see if she’s left there yet.”

He dug the phonebook out of the bedside drawer and was reaching for the phone when it rang.
 

“That’s probably her now.”
 
He reached to answer it, cradling it with his shoulder as he flipped through the yellow pages.

“Hello.”

Nothing.

He was about to hang up when he heard the whir of a tape recorder, then Nikki’s voice filled his ear; the pre-Nikki, with her sultry voice preserved on tape.

“Sure I’m sure!” the voice said impatiently, and Jake knew without a doubt it was Nikki.
 
“Do you think you can get away?
 
Jake’s had to go to
Bridgeport
today and he won’t be back until tomorrow.
 
I’m all by myself, and I wish that you’d come over and keep me company.
 
I hate being alone.”

Jake stood frozen.
 
Squeezing his eyes shut, he could almost imagine her pretty pout as she invited her lover over to his house, to his bed.
 

He listened for more, but the line suddenly went dead.
 
Still he stood there, hurt by this new evidence of her betrayal.
 
She hadn’t sounded nervous or unsure of her decision.
 
In fact, it was her casualness that hurt him so deeply.
 
She sounded comfortable with this guy, as much as if she’d been speaking to him.
 
He felt her eyes on him now, watching as he clutched the phone and said nothing.

“Who is it?” she asked.

Your boyfriend,
he almost snapped, before he got his raging emotions under control.
 
He felt an irrational anger that wasn’t so much directed at her, but at the woman she was a few weeks ago.
 

Before he met Nikki, he never considered himself the jealous type, but it had come, every time he saw another man staring at her, every time she noticed and enjoyed another man’s attention.
 
Now it threatened to destroy him.

All he could think of was another man in this room, touching her, kissing her, the woman he had loved more than his own life.
 
A man who had seduced his wife in his own bed, while Jake himself had been in blissful ignorance of what his marriage had become.
  

“Jake, are you okay?” she asked softly.

Jake forced himself to look at her, and then felt sorry for his burst of temper.
 
She looked so pale and tired that all his anger melted away.
 
Staring into her anxious green eyes, he made a decision.
 

No matter what this guy did or what kind of mind games he played, Jake wasn’t going to let him destroy them, which was exactly what he was trying to do.
 
So many things had changed between him and Nikki since the accident, and all the change was for the better.
 
He could see her love for him shining in her eyes, could feel it in her touch.
 
They were growing closer than they’d ever been before, and he couldn’t let her slip away from him again.
 

“That was him,” Jake admitted and watched Nikki’s eyes widen.

“What did he say?”
 
Her voice was little more than a whisper.

“He didn’t say anything.
 
He played a tape recording of you inviting him over.”

“What a horrible man he must be!” she cried.
 
“Why does he keep trying to hurt us?
 
He’s crazy!”

Jake feared she might be right.

He replaced the phone in the cradle, a little surprised to see that he was still holding it, and crossed quickly back to her.
 

She flung herself in his arms, and sobbed, “Please don’t let him tear us apart.
 
I love you and I can’t lose you!”

“I’m not going anywhere,” Jake said.
 
“I love you, too, and as long as we hold on to that, this bastard can’t touch us.”
 

“Nikki, I’m back!” Darcy called from downstairs.
 
“Where’d you go?”

“Up here,” Jake yelled.

Jake heard her footsteps on the stairs and then walked through the door.
 

She handed Nikki the bag and said, “Whew!
 
Sorry it took so long.
 
I had to wait in line forever, and then they had some problem with the prescription.
 
They had to call Dr. Carver to straighten it out.”

Opening the bottle, Jake shook out two of the pills in
to
his palm.
 

“I’m fine now, really,” Nikki protested.
 
“I’m just tired.
 
I think I’ll try to take a nap.”

Jake kissed her forehead and put the pills back in the bottle.
 
“Okay, but you take them if you need them.”

Darcy accompanied him downstairs.
 

“I guess I’d better call Matt,” he said.
 
“I feel like I’m running him to death, just saw him at dinner time, but he told me to call whenever something happened.”

“What?
 
Has something else happened?”
 
Darcy demanded.

Jake told her about the phone call and her eyebrows lifted.

“Wow, he’s getting pretty bold, huh?
 
Calling twice in the same day.”

His head snapped around.
 
“He’s called here before?”

Darcy dropped her eyes.
 
“Nikki didn’t tell you?”

“Tell me what?” Jake demanded.
 

Darcy recoiled from the anger in his voice, and he made an attempt to keep his voice calm.
 
“She was sick when I came in.
 
What happened today?”

He watched Darcy swallow.
 
“We have to talk, and you’re not going to like what I have to say.
 
I feel like I’m betraying Nikki, but I won’t stand by and watch you get hurt.
 
I answered the phone.
 
He thought I was Nikki and begged her not to give up on him, that he was going to take care of you soon.
 
And Nikki told me he called her at the hospital, too.”

“He did what?” Jake asked, stunned.

“Both times he implied that she knew he was planning to kill you.
 
Both times, he acted like she would know what he was talking about, even though everyone knows she has amnesia.
 
I hate to say this, but what if Nikki
was
trying to kill you?”
 
She paused.
 
“What if she still is?”

“Now wait a minute—”

Darcy held up her hands in surrender.
 
“Just hear me out.
 
I don’t want to believe it either, but what if Elaine is right?
 
Nikki’s so different now.
 
Too different.”

“I
don’t
believe it,” Jake said stiffly, though he thought about the penicillin.
 
Who besides Nikki and his family knew he was allergic?

“Then why didn’t she tell you?
 
If she’s so innocent, why wouldn’t she tell you, or the sheriff?
 
Say they’d planned to kill you and Nikki got cold feet, or maybe she wanted to end the relationship with the other man and was afraid.
 
This amnesia thing would be the perfect cover.
 
It’s a win-win situation.
 
She gets to keep you and Nikki doesn’t have to confess anything she doesn’t want to confess.”

Jake flinched.
 
“Do you, her best friend, someone who’s known her most of her life, really think she’s capable of that?”

Darcy looked at him squarely.
 
“I guess it depends on what she stood to lose.”