Unforeseen Danger (5 page)

“Okay,” she said.
 
There was a long, uncomfortable pause and Nikki said, “This is embarrassing, but did anyone tell you about my amnesia?
 
I can’t remember anything yet.”

“Yes,” he said, and then his
gray
eyes widened.
 
“Oh!
Right.
 
I guess that includes me.
 
I’m sorry.
 
This is just so weird.”

“Tell me about it.”
 
Nikki smiled.

“I’m Eliot.
 
Jake’s stepbrother.
 
Best friend.
 
However you want to think about it.
 
We went to school together and were friends for years before Dad and Catherine married.”
 

“Nice to meet you, Eliot.
 
Again.”
 
Nikki gestured at the chair by her bed and said, “Have a seat.
 
I’m sure Jake will be back in a minute.”

He gave her that nervous look she’d seen on Jake’s face, like he wanted to bolt, but he sat beside her.
 
To make conversation, Nikki said, “So I’ve known you for – what, three years?”

“Actually, I’ve known you a little longer.
 
Our parents ran in the same circles when we were teenagers.”
 
Eliot grinned at her.
 
“Jake used to gripe that I could’ve fixed you two up instead of making him find you on his own.
 
I told him if I’d known you weren’t dating Derek anymore, I’d have asked you out myself.”

“
You flirting
with my wife again?”
 
Jake asked from the doorway, and they both jumped.
 
Neither had heard him open the door.

A stunning redhead stood beside Jake, her arm linked through his.
 
She shot Nikki a look of pure venom.
 
Nikki blinked, and it was gone.
 
The redhead gave her a cool smile.

“Yeah, you know, I’ve got a clean slate now.
 
Nik
doesn’t remember the time I threw her in the lake at the summer cabin—
”
 
Eliot
winked at Nikki and she laughed.

“Or the time you backed over her car,” Jake added.

“
Shhhh
!”
Eliot said.
 
“Don’t remind her of that.
 
She chewed me up one side and down the other over that.
 
I’ve never been called so many names in the space of five minutes.”

Jake ushered the redhead forward.
 
“
Nik
, this is Elaine.
 
Sister to his idiot here.
 
She brought those flowers.”

“Thank you,” Nikki said.
 
“They’re lovely.”

“You’re welcome.”
 

Jake pulled out the other chair for Elaine and then sat on the edge of Nikki’s bed.
 
“So, Eliot, how did Kelly like her birthday present?”

Eliot’s face flushed red.
 
“Shut up, man.”

Elaine shot Jake a puzzled look and Jake said, “Can’t you just see me walking around with this guy in
Frederick
’s of
Hollywood
?”

Elaine rolled her eyes.

“Hey, it fit.
 
End of discussion.”
 
Eliot laughed and glanced at his watch.
 
“Hey, guys, I really
gotta
go.
 
Lunch with a Very Important Client.”
 
He waggled his fingers in emphasis.
 
He stood to his feet and patted Nikki’s hand.
 
“My wife, Kelly, is out of town, but she sends her love.
 
We’re glad you’re okay,
Nik
.
 
The rest of this will work out.”

“Thanks for coming by,” Nikki said.
 

Eliot ruffled his sister’s hair as he went by, earning himself a glare.
 
Eliot stuck out his tongue at her, and then asked Jake, “Hey, are you going to see Catherine today?”

“Yeah, she said she was coming back.”

“I’ve got those papers she needed in my car.
 
Do you mind giving them to her?”

“No, I’ll follow you down.”
 
Jake hesitated in the doorway and turned to look back at them.

Elaine smiled prettily at Jake and shooed him off with an impatient wave of her hand.
 
“Oh, go on.
 
We’ll be fine.”

As soon as the door shut behind him, her smile vanished.
 
Elaine leaned back in the chair and stared.
 
“You manipulative bitch,” she said quietly.
 
“You’re crazy if you think I’ll allow you to destroy Jake like you did Derek.”

Stunned, Nikki said, “Elaine, I don’t know what—”

“Save it!” Elaine snapped.
 
She picked an imaginary piece of lint off her skirt and smiled.
 
“You really did it this time.
 
Jake will never forgive you.
 
He’s only here because he feels sorry for you.”

The words stung, but Nikki said nothing, hoping Elaine would supply her with a few more pieces of the puzzle.

“Jake finally sees you for what you are and this little amnesia act won’t postpone things forever.”
 
She stood to her feet.
 
“Watch your back, Nikki.
 
When you slip up, I’ll be there.
 
I’ve waited a long time to see you go down.”
 
Elaine walked to the window and stared outside.
 
She glanced over her shoulder at Nikki and said, “Oh, by the way – don’t try to force Jake to stay away from me.
 
It never worked before and it won’t work now.”

Silently, Nikki watched her, wondering what caused this attack and how to defend
herself
when she had no idea what Elaine was talking about.
 
What had happened in her marriage?

Jake walked back in.
 
He glanced at her, then at Elaine.
 
“Is everything okay?” he asked.

“Yes.”
 
Nikki pasted on a smile.
 
“But Elaine was just saying she has to go.”

For a moment, Elaine looked undecided, but then she smiled and said, “Yes, I really have to get going, but I’ll be back soon.”
 
She brushed a kiss across Jake’s cheek and waggled her fingers at Nikki.
 
“Later.”

Jake looked troubled.
 
As soon as the door shut behind Elaine he said, “What did you two talk about?”

Nikki hesitated, but she wasn’t sure she should tell him, not until she knew where she stood with Jake.
 
Besides, he looked so tired and tense she hated to burden him with anything else.

“Oh, you know.
 
This and that.
 
Nothing important.”

***

A nurse came in and announced it was time to get Nikki out of bed.
 
She unhooked the monitors and Jake watched Nikki tug at the flimsy hospital gown.
 
He wished he’d thought to tell his mother to bring some of her gowns from home.

“Come here, hon.” The nurse motioned for Jake.
 
“Let her hold on to you for support and she can walk down the hall.”

Jake hesitated for a moment.
 
He didn’t want to be that close to her.
 
This post-Nikki was causing too many protective urges to swell within him, when he wanted to cling to his rage at her.
 
The nurse gave him an impatient look, and he went over to help her.

Her hand on his wrist burned him, but he gritted his teeth and didn’t say anything.
 
Jake placed a hand at the small of her back, shocked by her thinness.
 
She had always been slender, but now he could see her shoulder blades jutting through the thin material of her gown.
 
It seemed that the tension of the last few weeks had stolen her appetite, as well.
 
Her bed had been just down the hall and he wondered if she had lain there, crying the same tears he had as their marriage died.

Nikki walked with the measured steps of an invalid.
 
Pulling her I.V. beside them, Jake frowned as he noticed she was
favoring
her right side.
 
She showed some of that old pre-Nikki spunk by completing an entire lap around the floor, even though he could tell it was
grueling
for her.
 
As they neared her room, her knees buckled and Jake had to grab her.
 
He scooped her up in his arms, stunned by how light she was.
 

It feels like I’m carrying a scarecrow,
he thought.
 

Jake winced as she snuggled closer to him and rested her head on his chest.
 
He gently laid her in her bed, and she smiled at him.

Damned if he wasn’t starting to get used to that smile.

The nurse came back in and reattached some of the monitors.
 
After she left, Jake turned to ask Nikki if she wanted a drink of water and was surprised to find she was asleep.
 
She was so still, and had dropped off so suddenly that it frightened him.
 
Jake walked over to the bed and stood over her, inexplicably unable to trust the monitors hooked to her, needing to see for himself that she was breathing.
 
He reached to brush a stray lock of hair from her forehead.
 
Finally, reassured by the soft rise and fall of her chest, he sank into the chair beside her bed and raked his hand down his
stubbled
face.

Suddenly, he realized how close he had come to losing her.
 
The thought of not having her in his life filled Jake with a nameless dread.
 
She looked so fragile lying there, so innocent.

When had things between them gone so wrong?
 

In an effort to change the direction of his thoughts, Jake tried to recall the last time he had his truck serviced.
 
Three, four weeks?
 
Had they changed the brake pads then?
 
He couldn’t remember.
 
He used to do all that stuff himself, before work had gotten so busy.
 

Jake leaned his head back and closed his eyes.
 
Faces flashed in his mind, faces of friends and acquaintances.
 
Nikki’s lover was someone he knew, she had alluded to as much, but who?
 
Like a thief in the night, someone had slipped in and stolen her from him.
 
Jake had never seen it coming.

***

The trees whizzed by so fast that they were nothing more than green blurs outside the windshield.
 
Nikki watched helplessly from somewhere outside her body as she pumped the brakes and wrestled with the steering wheel.

“It’s not working!” she screamed and jerked savagely at the emergency brake.

Nothing.

“We have to jump!”

As she reached for the door handle, the wheel wrenched from her hand.
 

“Jake!” she screamed.

 
Suddenly, everything exploded into a cacophony of shrieking metal and brilliant white light
.

“Jake!” she screamed.
 
“Jake!”

Trapped in the terror of her dream, Nikki fought against the arms that closed around her.

“
Nik
, it’s me!
 
Baby, wake up.
 
It’s me, Jake.”
 

His voice stilled her.
 
Disoriented, she tried to focus on his face.

“Jake?” she whispered.

“Yeah, honey, it’s Jake.
 
I’m right here.
 
It’s okay.”
  

He was in the hospital bed with her.
 
She sagged against him, her only lifeline in this frightening world she was trapped in.
 

Nikki couldn’t stop crying and Jake’s arms tightened around her.
 
When someone opened the door, he said, “
It’s
okay.
 
I’ve got her.”

He gently pulled her back down in the bed and stretched out beside her.
 
As he cradled her against his chest, the horror of the nightmare began to fade.
 

“I thought I was going to die,” she gasped.
 
“Everything kept going faster and faster and there was nothing we could do.
 
I was going to jump, but I didn’t have time.”
 

“Nikki, did you see who was riding with you?”
 
Jake’s voice was quiet, but Nikki sensed the tension in his words.

“No.
 
I could see myself, but I never saw anyone else.”