Don't Mess With Texas (48 page)

Walking into her office, she picked up the bust that Dallas had said he wanted, to take it her car. The dang thing weighed at least twenty pounds. She was also going to give him the painting of the two boys fishing, the one that brought to mind Dallas and Tony. Even if she had to say so herself, it was one of her better works.

She was only a few feet out of her office when someone stepped into the hall from the gallery. Someone wearing a ski mask. Nikki’s breath caught. When she saw the knife in the person’s hand, she let out a scream worthy of a horror film. Too bad no one was around to hear it.

“Bitch.” The attacker, obviously female from her voice, lunged forward. Nikki jumped to the left. The knife scrapped across the plaster-of-paris bust, carving a small chunk out of the right breast.

The attacker muttered a curse, obviously angry that she’d missed her target. Nikki, fear short-circuiting rational thought, was furious about her bust. “This doesn’t belong to me anymore.”

“Neither did Jack, but you took him anyway.” The words seethed from beneath the mask, and the intruder lifted her knife. “I’m sick and tired of men leaving me for someone prettier. First my husband, then Jack. You bitches are all the same, taking whatever you want.”

Nikki backed away. “I didn’t want Jack back.”

“What is it that you have that I don’t?”

A sound mind
, Nikki thought, but didn’t say it.

“I tried to just forget about it. But then, even the PI… He was interested in me and then you came along. Why?”

“Dallas?” Nikki asked, now confused.

The woman lunged again. Nikki screamed and used the bust to ward off the knife. The weapon took a chunk out of the bust’s left breast. This time Nikki didn’t care about the artwork, what infuriated her was that this was the person who’d hurt Ellen and killed Jack.

“You’re sick!” Nikki screamed, courage rising unexpectedly from deep inside her.

The woman lunged again. Nikki faked a move to the right then darted left. The knife missed the plaster of paris, and came within millimeters of Nikki’s real bust. Way too close for comfort.

“You wanna piece of me?” Nikki leaped back. “Take this piece.” With all her anger, all her fear, she threw the bust at her attacker.

Everything seemed to happen in slow motion.

The bust slammed into the attacker’s upper chest and head. A loud thunk sounded.

The attacker slammed against the wall. Another loud thunk sounded.

The artwork shattered on the tile floor, one breast went rolling down the hall.

Nikki followed it.

Imagining the knife-wielding woman behind her, Nikki ran with everything she had. She screamed like there was no tomorrow, because frankly she didn’t know if there would be one.

She cut the corner, bolted past the checkout counter, and ran smack-dab into another wall.

A wall of hard, warm muscle. Dallas grabbed her by her shoulders and she saw his gun in one hand.

“You hurt?” His gaze flickered over her and then back to the hall door.

“No.” Her whole body shook.

He pushed her to the side, pointed his gun down the hall and started moving.

“She’s got a knife!”

“I’ve got a gun.” He took another step. Nikki grabbed his arm to stop him.

“Let go.” His dead serious tone brought reason and reality to her mind. Her hands started shaking again, and her knees wobbled.

Dallas, moved past the cashier’s desk, gun held tight. He stopped at the hall door.

“She’s down. Call 911,” he told Nikki.

Forcing herself to move, she bolted for the phone as Dallas moved into the hall. Not wanting to lose sight of him, she snagged the phone and darted to the doorway.

The ski-masked woman lay crumpled on the floor. Dallas kicked the knife away from her hand, knelt and put two fingers to her neck.

“Oh, God. Did I kill her?” Tears filled her eyes and she couldn’t catch her breath.

“No.” Dallas looked up. “But call 911. Do it, Nikki.”

An hour later, Nikki sat on the sofa in her office, staring at the wall and focused on breathing. She couldn’t stop shaking. Every few minutes Dallas would look inside to check on her. He smiled, nodded, then left again. The
police had arrived. Tony had arrived. The paramedics had arrived. One of them took her blood pressure, made sure she hadn’t been cut then insisted she sit down and focus on breathing. Hence, her being in the office… breathing.

Earlier, Nikki had prayed her attacker would wake up, then when she did, Nikki realized she should be more careful what she prayed for. The woman started fighting. They had to put her in handcuffs. Dallas had already explained who the woman was, and what had motivated her to do this. Rachel confirmed her motivation and even more when she screamed the whole time about her husband cheating on her, leaving her for another woman. Nikki knew how much it hurt to be cheated on, but not once had she considered going on a murdering rampage.

Tony came in and talked to Nikki. He was really nice and when she thanked him for it, he grinned, and asked her to make sure to tell his wife he hadn’t been rude.

Nikki hesitated to ask, but then went for it. “Why did she put Jack’s body in my trunk?”

“The only thing she said was that Jack was in your car trying to find a piece of paper to leave you a note when she found him. I assume Jack had the keys in his hand and your trunk just seemed to be the best place to hide the body.”

When Tony left, Dallas came back in. “Everyone’s gone.” He sat beside her, put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her against him.

Immediately, Nikki forgot about breathing and started crying. She cried because someone had almost killed her. She cried because she could have killed someone. She cried because the piece of artwork Dallas wanted was shattered all over her hall.

After a while, she stopped crying, but she didn’t pull away. Sitting beside Dallas, his arm around her, her head partially buried on his shoulder, felt good. Right. Safe.

He pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “Will you please listen to me?”

She nodded.

“I’ve spent the last five days kicking myself for things I said, for things I didn’t say, and for some things I let happen out of sheer stupidity. I made so many mistakes, Nikki. But I didn’t sleep with anyone since I met you. I did not know Suzan was coming over. Not that it excuses the other things I did.”

Nikki heard his heart racing.

He took a deep breath. “I was scared, Nikki. And after really giving this some thought, I realized, I’m not the only one who’s scared. We were both hurt by people we cared about and that’s hard to move past.”

She pulled back and looked at him. “I was looking for potholes.”

“Potholes?” he asked.

“In the relationship. Nana says I do that. Look for problems until I find one.”

“She probably has a point,” he said. “And I made it easy for you to find one. It’s the hole that I had my head buried in.” He touched her cheek and shook his head. “You were looking for problems, and I was creating them by not admitting to myself how I felt, not wanting to see that I was screwing up the best thing that ever happened to me.”

“So we’re both to blame,” Nikki said.

“Yeah. Though, I’m big enough to admit that I probably contributed more than you. I’m surprised you didn’t
get my gun and shoot me when Suzan showed up. But yeah, refusing to talk to me, calling my brother on my ass—that might have been a tad much. Not that I didn’t deserve it. But you have no idea how miserable I’ve been these last few days. Forgive me, Nikki. Please.”

Her heart swelled with hope. “We should start all over, try dating, and just see—”

He put a finger over her lips. “No.”

Her chest grew tight.

“I don’t want to start over. I want you back at my place. Bud hasn’t been the same. He’s not eating right. I carried him to the vet and he said he’s depressed. He’s farting like crazy and there’s no one there to laugh with me about it. It’s pathetic.”

She chuckled. “This is supposed to make me want to go back?”

He smiled. “You love Bud. Don’t deny that.”

She took a deep breath and decided to be honest. “He’s not the only thing I love, Dallas. And that scares me because if you don’t feel the same way—”

“For God’s sake, Nikki, what the hell do you think I just said?”

She considered his question. “Saying you want me to share your dog’s farts is not saying you love me.” She laughed.

He dropped his head back on the sofa and laughed with her. Seconds later, he looked at her. “Then let me say it. I love you.” He kissed her nose. “I love all of you. There’s nothing I don’t love about you. The way you talk to yourself. The way you care about your crazy grandmother and her friends. The way you accept people and make everyone happy. Including me. You make me happy, Nikki. Do
you know how long it’s been since I’ve been happy? Oh, and I love your body. I really love your body.”

She smiled. “I love you, too.”

“And my body?” he asked, his blue eyes twinkling with sexy humor.

She laughed again. “I love your body, too.” She pressed a quick kiss on his lips. “No more one-day-at-a-time crap?”

“Oh, hell no.” He pulled her close again. “We’re going for the long haul.”

“S
PIDERS
. D
EFINITELY SPIDERS
.”

“Don’t forget snakes.”

“Trust me, it’s clowns.” Zoe Adams removed her waitress apron and added her two cents to the conversation the other waitresses of Cookie’s Café were having on their biggest fears. She plopped down on one of the stools lining the breakfast counter, and pulled out her tips to count them. She hoped she had enough to pay the rent. Looking up at the other diner employees, she added, “And considering my regular gig is that of kindergarten teacher, I’ve had to face that fear more times than I care to admit.”

“I’d take a clown over a spider any day of the week,” said Jamie. Like Zoe, she was in her mid-twenties.

“I can step on a spider,” Zoe said looking from Jamie to Beth and Melinda. “Clowns are too big for my size sixes.” She held up her foot. “I don’t know what it is, but I see one and it’s like I hear scary music and my mind starts flashing
Friday the 13th
images.” In truth, clowns weren’t her biggest fear. Small, dark places scared Zoe more than anything. Not that she’d ever share that with the ladies at
Cookie’s, or anyone else for that matter. Some things Zoe didn’t talk about. Especially the things she didn’t understand. And lately her life was filled with a lot of those things. Crazy how watching an episode of the TV series
Unsolved Mystery Hunters
had turned her life upside down, and sent her from Alabama to Texas in search of… the truth.

“Roaches. The kind that fly. I hate ’em,” Dixie Talbot said, joining in on the conversation. In her early sixties, Dixie was the matriarchal cook, waitress, and part-owner of Cookie’s Café. “Years ago, I was standing right over there by booth two and one of those nasty creatures flew into my shirt.”

Zoe stopped counting her money and laughed. “Yeah, Fred told me about the little striptease you pulled, too.”

“Honey, he’d better be glad that roach flew off my right boob once the top came off or I swear to everything holy I’d have been standing there naked as a jaybird.”

“Was that the day he proposed to you?” Zoe asked.

They all laughed. It was the laughter, the camaraderie of Dixie and the other diner employees that kept Zoe from looking for a higher-paying gig while in Texas. God knew she could use the money. Kindergarten teachers in Alabama didn’t rake in the big bucks.

Oh, it was enough to get by, but not enough to fund this research trip to Miller, Texas, when she now had to pay for two apartments. Not to mention the entire month off from work—a month she only got because the principal had been friends with her mom. But truthfully, more than money, she needed companionship. Since her mama died two years ago, and especially for the last year since, Chris, her live-in boyfriend had decided he’d rather date
a stripper than a kindergarten teacher, Zoe had spent way too much time alone.

And lonely.

Hey, maybe she should get Dixie to teach her a few moves. Not that Zoe wanted Chris back. Nope. For four years, she’d given her heart and soul to that man. She’d already had names picked out for the two kids she was sure they’d give life to, thinking any day he’d pop the big question. And he had popped a big one. It just wasn’t the question she’d expected.
Do you mind if I bring home my stripper girlfriend to live here until you can find another place?

Okay, he hadn’t actually worded it like that, but he might as well have. He’d taken Zoe’s heart, and returned it, along with her self-esteem, in a big mangled mess. Not so much of a mess that she hadn’t reminded him that she’d been the one to rent the apartment, and he could just grab his stuff and get the hell out. Nor had he been so shocked at her suddenly found backbone that he hadn’t called her a bitch for not being understanding. Didn’t she understand it wasn’t his fault he’d fallen in love with someone else?