Unforeseen Danger (2 page)

The vending machine down the hall spat out a cup and Jake winced as he took the first gulp.
 
As the bitter brew scalded his throat, Jake remembered his promise to call his mother and glanced at his watch.
 
11:15
she would be in bed.
 
He decided to wait until morning.
 

He caught the elevator to the lobby and stepped outside.
 
A cool breeze ruffled his hair as he dug out his cell phone and punched in the number to Nikki’s mother’s hotel room.
 
It rang seven times before the desk picked up and he left another message for Sara.
 

Jake fished fifty cents out of his pocket and bought a newspaper from the machine.
 
Reluctantly, he stepped back inside and took the elevator to Nikki’s floor.
 
Scanning the headlines, Jake didn’t notice the two men standing in front of her door until they spoke.

“Mr. Hawthorne?”

Gold flashed under the lights as they flipped open their badges.
 
Jake shoved the paper under his arm and said, “Yes, I’m Jake Hawthorne.”

The oldest of the pair stepped forward.
 
“I’m Detective Green and this is Detective
Janney
.
 
We’d like to ask you and your wife a few questions about the accident.”

“Nikki’s asleep,” Jake said.
 
“And she doesn’t seem to remember much right now.”

The officers looked at each other and Green gestured to the waiting room across the hall.
 
“Then we’d like to talk to you for a moment, if you don’t mind.”

Jake cast another glance at Nikki’s door, and then stepped inside the waiting room.
 
He took a seat in one of the mauve chairs and Green sat across from him.
 
Janney
stood in the doorway, as if he expected Jake to flee.

“Tell us what you remember about this morning.
 
Where was your wife going?”

Jake rubbed his chin.
 
“I’m not sure.
 
She left early, before I got up.
 
I fell asleep on the couch in my study.
 
The phone rang, then a few minutes later I heard my truck pull out of the driveway.”

“She didn’t mention any plans?
 
Shopping with a friend, something like that?”

Jake shook his head.
 
Nikki had been too mad to speak to him that morning, but he knew she hadn’t been in the mood to go shopping.
 
“Sorry, she didn’t say anything.”

“Who does the Dodge belong to?”

“It’s mine.”

“Does Mrs. Hawthorne drive it often?”

Jake almost laughed.
 
Nikki was a princess with a white BMW.
 
She hated his work truck, could barely stand to see it in the driveway.
 
“Hardly ever.
 
The car had a flat, so I guess she took whatever was available.”

“Mr. Hawthorne, do you know anyone who would want to harm you or Mrs. Hawthorne?”

The question caught Jake off-guard.
 
Surely they didn’t think—

“There were no skid marks or anything.
 
Looks like the brakes failed completely,” Green added, scratching his white beard.
 
“Unusual.”

“No,” Jake said finally.
 
“No, I don’t know why anyone would want to harm either of us.”

The beeper on Janney’s belt sounded and he looked at his partner.
 
“
Gotta
go,” he said.
 

Green frowned and stood to his feet.
 
“We’ll be back in the morning, Mr. Hawthorne.
 
We have more questions for you and Mrs. Hawthorne.”

“We’ll be here,” Jake forced a smile and rose to his feet.
 
He watched the policemen leave, and then eased open the door to Nikki’s room.
 

She was still sleeping.
 
He gulped down his now cool coffee and tossed the cup in the wastebasket.
 
Jake stood over Nikki for a moment before climbing into the bed next to hers.
 
The evening shift nurse had told him to use it and he was grateful.
 
Jake’s eyes felt grainy and raw and he closed them, willing himself to get some sleep.

Where were you going, Nikki? He wondered, but in his heart, he was afraid he already knew.

He was awakened a couple of hours later by the sound of Nikki’s sobs.

***

She hadn’t meant to wake him, but his eyes flew open and he bounded over to her, hovering over her bedrail like a worried mother hen.

“Hey!” he said.
 
“Are you hurting,
Nik
?
 
Do you want me to call the nurse?”

“No,” she whispered, unable to look at him.
 
“I can’t remember your name!” she blurted out, embarrassed.
 
“I know you’re my husband and I know you told me your name, but I can’t remember it.”

“Is that all?” he asked lightly, but she could tell he was shaken.
 
She wondered if her memory would always be like this, filled with holes like a colander, her new information slipping away every time she slept.

“My name is Jake.
 
You’ve been through a lot, so try not to push yourself so hard.”
 
He squeezed her hand.
 
“You’ll remember.”

He spied a magic marker lying on the chart where the nurses monitored her vital signs and said, “Look, I’ll write it on my hand, so if you forget again, you won’t even have to ask me.
 
It’ll be right here.”

Despite her frustration, she smiled as he wrote JAKE in big block letters on the top of his right hand with the marker.
 
He gave her a relieved grin and she was touched by the concern on his face.
 

How on earth had she forgotten a man like this?

His shocking blue eyes blazed against a backdrop of tan skin and lush black lashes.
 
Jake’s unruly black hair was tousled from sleep and she suspected he would look rugged even without the faint shadows of stubble darkening his jaw.
 
The hand that had squeezed hers was rough and calloused.
 
This was a man who worked with his hands, probably outdoors.

“What do you do, Jake?” she asked.

“I own a construction company.”

“How long have we known each other?”

He smiled.
 
“Three years, two days and—” He paused to glance at his watch.
 
“—about three hours.”

“Wow, I’m impressed.”
 
She smiled.
 
“I bet you’re some kind of husband.”

A flicker of pain crossed his face and he stepped back.
 
Jake sat in the chair beside her bed and his face disappeared into the shadows.

“Where is my family?” she asked, and heard him sigh.

“Your parents are in
Germany
.
 
Your mom, Sara, is mayor of Dunlap, the next town over.
 
Your father, Doug, is a plastic surgeon.
 
Her family lives in
Wisconsin
, and I’ve never met any of his.
 
You’re an only child, like me.”
 
He paused and said, “Well, I have a stepbrother and sister, but I was already in college when Mom remarried.”

“How did we meet?”

Jake coughed and said, “
Nik
, I think we’d better get some sleep.
 
You need to rest.
 
We’ll have plenty of time to talk tomorrow.”

“Okay,” she said softly.
 
She heard the scrape of his chair, then the creak of the other bed as he lay down.
 
She could just discern the outline of his broad shoulders in the dark.
 
It didn’t take a genius to figure out she’d been dismissed.
 
She just didn’t know why.

***

Jake lay awake, thinking of her smile.
 
It had been the first smile he’d gotten from Nikki in weeks, fleeting as it was, and he had to force himself to return it.
 
He felt helpless at the rage bubbling in his chest.
 

This was crazy.

He had to get out of here, had to think of something, but his thoughts were an incoherent jumble as he finally drifted off to sleep.

The chirp of Nikki’s I.V. jarred him awake the next morning.
 
She looked much better, even managing an apologetic smile as he sat up and rubbed his eyes.
 
That smile caused his chest to tighten.
 
Frankly, he wished for a moment that the Nikki he’d grown accustomed to – the snarling, hostile Nikki – was here.
 
At least he knew how to respond to her.
 
This innocent, smiling caricature of her cut him to the core.

“Good morning,” she said.

“Morning,
Nik
.
 
You feel okay?”

“Sore,” she replied.
 

The door opened and a couple of nurses in blue scrubs came in.
 
“Good morning, Nikki,” one of them said.
 
“We’re here to take you for an EEG.”

Nikki gave Jake an anxious look and he squeezed her hand.
 
“Don’t worry,” he said.
 
“I’ll be waiting right here when you get through.”

Nikki nodded and they wheeled her from the room.
 
He followed them out and watched them load her onto the elevator before he went in search of coffee.
 
Jake wolfed down a couple of candy bars and drank two cups of coffee before he started back down the hall to Nikki’s room.
 

“Jake.”

He turned at the sound of his mother’s voice.
 
She hurried toward him with his stepfather, Zeke, in tow.

“Hey, guys.”
 
Jake gave them a tired smile.
 
His mother took one look at him and wrapped him in her arms.
 
He allowed her to hold him for a moment, comforted by the familiar scent of her.

“Well, how is she today?” Catherine Simms asked, unable to repress the frown that appeared whenever she spoke of her daughter-in-law.

Jake told them about her amnesia, trying to relay everything Luke had said about her condition.

“Are you sure that this isn’t just one of her games, dear?
 
Maybe this is Nikki’s way of postponing the divorce.
 
No judge would grant a divorce in this situation.”

“No, Mom,” Jake replied, recalling her wild panic attack.
 
“I’ve never seen anyone as terrified or lost in my life as Nikki was when she woke up.”

“Well, I’m sorry to hear that.”
 
Catherine crossed her arms over her chest.
 
“As you know, Nikki and I haven’t always been able to see eye-to-eye, but I don’t want to see her hurt.”

Zeke patted her shoulder and asked, “Nicole remembers nothing?
 
Nothing at all?”

Jake shook his head at the kindly judge who had been his stepfather for the last ten years.

“I cannot imagine how frightened she must be,” Catherine murmured, and then exhaled softly as she met Jake’s gaze.
 
“Can we see her?”

“She’s gone for tests.”
 
Before he could get the words out, the elevator doors slid open and they rolled Nikki back into her room.

“Guess she’s through.”
 
Jake forced a smile and waited on the nurses to leave before he opened the door for his mother.

They walked in and Nikki stared at them, a tentative smile on her face.
 
It hurt Jake to see her looking so vulnerable.
 

“Nikki, this is my mother, Catherine, and my step-dad, Zeke,” Jake said awkwardly, introducing her to the people who had been her in-laws for the past two years.

“Hello,” Nikki said timidly and Jake could tell that they were taken aback by her
demeanor
.
 
Deliberately, Catherine crossed the room, sat on the edge of Nikki’s bed, and took her hand.
 
Jake knew that she was searching for some sign of deception, some hint of dislike.
 
The pre-Nikki, as Jake had begun to think of her, would’ve shrunk from contact with someone she disliked.
 
This post-Nikki never blinked, gazing innocently at Catherine with her sea-green eyes.
 
She even looked grateful for the contact.

“You poor thing!”
Catherine murmured as she stroked a lank lock of Nikki’s dark hair from her forehead.
 
“Are you in much pain?”

“No,” she whispered, and tears welled up in her eyes.
 
“I’m just so…scared.”

Jake could see from his mother’s face that she was genuinely affected by Nikki’s plight.