Unforeseen Danger (26 page)

“How does this keep happening, Matt?” Catherine demanded.
 
She dangled her keys in front of his face.
 
“It was a locked car.
 
My car.”

“One more time,
Cat
.
 
Are you absolutely sure the door was locked?”

“Yes, I’m sure.
 
I always lock my car doors.
 
Are you going to tell me he’s been in my house, too?
 
Maybe gotten to my spare set of keys?
 
I
have
an alarm system.”

Catherine sounded slightly hysterical and Matt wrapped his arms around her.
 

“Professional thieves have electronic picks.
 
He could’ve used one of those.”
 
Matt released her and looked at Nikki.
 
“I talked to your mother today.
 
She asked me who I’d recommend as a security guard.
 
I gave her the name of a guy I know in Dunlap.
 
He’s top of the line, but he’s out of town this week.
 
I told her I’d have my men make regular patrols until he gets back.
 
I apologize to you, and to Jake.
 
I’m doing everything I can, but this guy isn’t leaving me much to go on.
 
The security guard is a good idea.”

Matt frowned and jerked his head upward.
 
“Security cameras!” he barked.
 
“
Janney
, did you ask the manager for the security tapes of the parking lot?”

Janney’s eyes lit up.
 
“No, sir!
 
I’ll do it right now.”

He emerged a few minutes later with a dejected look on his face.
 
“Security cameras are down.
 
Some kids shot them out on Halloween and they’re still waiting for the insurance company to replace them.”

Matt cursed under his breath and Nikki hugged herself.

When was this nightmare going to end?

***

Jake was just finishing up his surprise when he heard Catherine’s car pull up in the drive.
 
He hurried out to help Nikki with her bags and was brought up short when she stepped out of the car.
 
She was so beautiful that, for a moment, all he could do was
stare
.

“I love the hair,” he said.
 

She smiled, but as he got closer, he noticed how pale she was.
 
Before he could ask what was wrong, she kissed him.
 
Jake wrapped his arms around her.
 

“Umm, you smell good, too,” he murmured, nearly forgetting that they weren’t alone.
 
It was getting harder and harder for him to hold to his decision to take things slow.
 

When she pulled back, he was shocked to see tears in her eyes.

“Jake, he’s been in our house again.”

Matt
Garrettson’s
Blazer swung into the driveway behind them.

***

The tense look on Nikki’s face clenched Jake’s gut.
 
He had no idea how to keep his own wife safe in his own house.
 
Who was this man who
traveled
in and out of their lives like a ghost?
 
For a moment, Jake thought of Derek, and then impatiently pushed the idea from his mind.
 
This man was alive, flesh and blood, and Jake was going to find him.

“We’re going to get him, Jake.”

“When, Matt?
 
After he kills me or Nikki?”
Jake asked.

He regretted his words when he glanced at Nikki’s pale face.
 
Darcy perched on the chair arm beside her, also looking shaken.
 
He saw Matt gesture surreptitiously at Catherine and she nodded.

“Come on, girls.
 
Help me unload our things.”
 

Jake was a little surprised when Nikki allowed them to lead her from the room, but maybe she didn’t want to hear any more.

“Matt, he’s following her.
 
Whoever this psycho is, he’s following my wife.”

“I know.”
 
Matt frowned at the empty doorway and started pacing.
 
He stared at the ceiling and mumbled, “Something’s wrong, with all of this.
 
I feel like we’re being force-fed all this stalker crap.
 
The MO’s not right.
 
All the notes, the trinkets, and the poison – that’s what the penicillin was to you – it doesn’t fit.”

“What are you trying to say, Matt?” Jake asked.
 
“Because
I’m not understanding
any of this.”

“I don’t know.
 
I just don’t know, but I swear to you, I’m going to find out.”

***

After everyone left, Nikki turned to Jake, who surprised her with a crooked smile and an announcement that he had a surprise for her.

“Don’t worry, nothing traumatic,” he joked.
 
“Just an early anniversary present.”
 

He retrieved a videotape from the bookshelf and popped it in the VCR.
 
“Eliot’s pretty good with all this camera stuff and he helped me splice together some moments from our past.”
 

Jake pushed the tape in and sat beside her on the sofa.
 
Nikki felt his gaze on her as the first scene began.

It was a group of people at a roller skating rink.
 
Nikki scanned the crowd, picking out
herself
and then Jake.

“This was our first date,” Jake commented as he sank onto the couch beside her.
 
“We met the day before.
 
“One of your friend’s was having a birthday party and you invited me along.
 
In a minute, you’ll see our first kiss.
 
Someone actually caught it on tape.”

The on-screen Jake took Nikki in his arms and kissed her in the middle of the floor as the skaters whizzed around them.
 
She wished with all her heart that she could remember that moment, not just watch it like a spectator.
 
She felt an eerie sense of disassociation, watching herself on the screen and remembering none of it.
 
It was hard to believe that she had ever been that confident, bold girl and even harder to believe the girl on that tape had even noticed another man.
 

There were several clips: she and Jake dancing, talking about each other, even parasailing together.
 
They seemed so passionate, so in love.
 
She watched her happy tears as she presented the engagement ring to her friends and saw the adoration in Jake’s eyes.
 

The next scenes were from their wedding: Jake, so handsome in his tuxedo, and a beaming Doug walking her down the aisle.
 
Nikki’s eyes misted as the couple on the screen exchanged their vows.
 
Jake held her a little tighter and she could tell he was affected, too.

The tape flickered as Jake repeated his vows and Nikki frowned.

Something had been cut away.
 

The camera zoomed in to her face, which was now tear-streaked where it hadn’t been moments before.
 
She smiled at Jake, but her eyes were puffy and red.

“What happened, Jake?
 
What did Eliot cut out?”

Jake gave her a wan smile.
 
“He cut out our surprise guest.
 
Derek crashed the party.
 
He was messed up on something, crying and pleading with you to leave with him.
 
We
paused
the service and you tried to calm him down, to talk to him, but he ran out.
 
Elaine and Darcy chased after him.”

Nikki shook her head.
 
“Why did you ever love me, Jake?
 
When all I’ve done is cause you trouble?”

She wished she could edit their pasts as carefully as Eliot had edited the videotape.
 

Jake stroked her arm.
 
“None of that with Derek was your fault.”
 

“Did he really kill himself over me?”
 
She thought of the man in the photo.
 
So handsome, apparently wealthy.
 
And so alone.

“No.
 
He had a problem with drugs before you ever met him.
 
He let them take control.
 
You tried to help him, but he couldn’t help himself.
 
I remember several times after we were married, he’d call in the middle of the night and you’d try to talk to him, to convince him to get help, but he didn’t realize he had a problem.
 
In some ways, I think he and Darcy had a worse childhood than you did.
 
They had different fathers and their mother had a drug problem of her own.”
 
He smiled and said, “Hey, what are we doing talking about the bad stuff?
 
I didn’t make this to depress you.”

“Jake, I’m sorry!”
 
Nikki said, horrified.
 

He’d gone out of his way to show her something special about their past and here she was, questioning him about her ex-lover.

The tape closed with a few moments of Jake and Nikki dancing at last year’s Winter Ball.
 

Nikki laid her hand on top of his.
 
“That was wonderful.”
 

“But it didn’t bring back any memories?”

She shook her head.

“Well, we’ll just have to make new ones, then.”

***

So many emotions swirled inside Jake.
 
The tape brought back other memories, the first time they’d made love, the look on her face when he slipped the engagement ring on her hand.
 
He wanted to touch her, taste her,
reclaim
the passion they once shared.
 
At night, he’d lie awake in the bed down the hall and think about her.
 
Her kisses were so sweet now, so tender.
 
Kisses that promised forever.
 
All of it was still surreal to Jake.
 
And scary.
  

He already knew this new Nikki posed even more of a threat to his heart than the old one did.
 

Things were so different now.
 
Lines of communications were open now.
 
They could say the things they always needed to say.
 
Slowly, his fear of what Nikki would do when she got her memory back was dissipating.
 
He had come to the place where his faith in her was stronger than his fear.
 
They were building something here – something good, something solid.
 
Maybe his mother had been right.
 
This accident might have been the only thing that could’ve saved them.
 
It had taken almost losing her for him to realize what he had.

He couldn’t lose her again.

“Come on.”
 
Jake stood and reached out his hand.
 
“Let’s go upstairs.”

Nikki took his hand and they climbed the stairs.
 
She stopped as they reached her bedroom door and turned to him.

“Someday, somehow, I’m going to make things right with you,” she said and reached to rub a cool hand across the back of his neck.

Jake bent to kiss her, but it wasn’t the chaste goodnight kiss he knew she was expecting.
 
He pressed her against the door with his body and she melded into him, taking as much as he gave.
 
She gasped when one of his hands slipped underneath her sweater to cup the fullness of her breast.

“What do you want, Nikki?” he whispered in her ear,
then
kissed the throbbing pulse in her throat.

“I want you.”
 

He lifted his eyes to meet her green ones and saw a desire that mirrored his own.

“I want my husband back.
 
Make love to me, Jake.
 
Give me back the life I’ve lost.”

Jake carried her to the bed and gently removed her clothes. His heart beat a crazy rhythm in his chest as he yanked his shirt over his head.
 
The sight of her lying beneath him—naked and glorious and looking at him with such anticipation—was almost more than he could bear.

He made love to her as if it were the first and last time he’d ever know her.
 
It was an experience so powerful he knew somehow he would never be the same, that his relationship with Nikki would never be the same.
 

The first time they made love, they had been so young and idealistic that they thought nothing could ever hurt them.
 
This time they knew differently, but they also knew their love was strong enough to survive in spite of the fact.
 
That first time, Nikki had claimed his heart.