The Girl and the Genie (28 page)

Emily filled up an ice bucket and brought it back to the bedroom. She filled a small plastic bag she had found with ice cubes. “This should work better than a towel,” she said. Jack gratefully took the bag from her. He had unbuttoned and unzipped his pants, and he gently pushed the bag inside his boxer shorts, making a loud ‘ahhh’ noise as he did so. Emily sat on the bed next to him and caressed his cheek. “You need to tell me what that was about,” she said.

“Yes, I suppose I must,” Derek agreed. “It’s all pretty stupid. Those men, if we can call them that, work for a very dangerous man—”

“Mr. Stone,” Emily said.

“That’s right. But it would be better if you forgot that name. Anyway, Stone believes he has done me favors in the past. It’s debatable whether that’s true, but he’s unstable and a psychopath so it doesn’t much matter since he believes it’s the case. As payback, he wanted his daughter to have a part in my last movie. Not just any part, which I might’ve been able to work out, but a leading role. The girl has no talent, and there was no way I could swing it. So I guess he’s been fuming about it and had decided without letting me know that I needed to stay in New York so I could explain to him why his progeny didn’t get into my movie.”

“That’s nuts.”

“Yeah I know.” Derek shifted his body, making him grimace. “This whole Hollywood star business can be nuts.”

“What’s going to happen next?”

Derek’s grimace tightened. “It’s all worked out. I agreed to star in a movie with his untalented daughter that he’ll be financing. What the hell. It will never find a distributor, but at least it will satisfy that nut job and I’ll be free of him.”

Emily squeezed herself onto the bed next to Derek, resting her head on his chest and wrapping his arm around her shoulder. “I was so worried about you,” she said.

Derek chuckled painfully at that. “I can imagine,” he said. “And I’m so sorry you had to witness it, but it’s all over now. Tomorrow we’ll be heading off to Colorado. And then Tahiti.”

 Emily reached up and kissed Derek on the cheek, then settled back next to him. She held his arm tightly against her to help keep her from shivering any further.

Chapter 29

Later that evening Derek insisted Emily go shopping. “You’re going to need a bunch of stuff for Aspen. A warmer jacket, hiking boots, sweaters, heavier duty gloves, and of course lingerie and anything else you want,” he told her, insisting that she take one of his credit cards and arrange for a limousine service to take her around Las Vegas. Emily didn’t put up too much of a fight. The idea of buying a new wardrobe sounded fun and would be a good distraction from what had happened earlier. Also Derek needed some stuff. Still, though, Emily wasn’t sure she wanted to leave him given the shape he was in, but he insisted that she go, claiming that Winston would protect him. The Bulldog lay on the bed next to Derek, and on hearing his name he opened his eyes and let out a sneeze, then stretched his legs and closed his eyes again.

“Seriously, Emily, I’m going to be useless tonight. You should go out and have some fun. And most gals I know always have fun buying new clothes.”

That was about all the arm twisting Emily needed, and when she came back several hours later she had a dozen bags that the bellman helped her bring up to the suite.

The next day they left after brunch for Aspen. Derek was still hobbling, although moving better, and with a sly wink he promised Emily that they’d have their wedding night later that day, or worst case, the next day. Instead of flying a commercial flight, Derek rented a private jet, and arranged for his Mercedes 550SL Roadster, which he kept garaged nearby, to be delivered to the airport and waiting for them. Since the car was a two-seater, Winston had to lay in Emily’s lap and they were just barely able to fit the three of them in the car with all the packages Emily had bought in Las Vegas.

“Maybe not the most practical car given that we got that ugly bastard to contend with, but I love the way it drives.”

With a grin, Derek tapped the gas pedal and sent the car hurtling past a hundred miles per hour.

“Let me know if you get nervous,” he told Emily.

“I’m nervous,” Emily said.

With a thin smile, he let up on the gas and brought the car down to a speed of eighty miles per hour.

The drive to Derek’s lodge was spectacular. They took a steep and winding private road up Aspen Mountain that normally would’ve scared Emily to death, but she felt safe with Derek, and of course, the Mercedes handled like a dream.

After almost a half hour drive up the mountain they reached Derek’s lodge. From the outside it looked like a large wood cabin, and it turned out to be much bigger inside than Emily would’ve imagined. It had a very manly, rustic feel to it, but Derek was right, it did have everything. A movie theatre, gym, spa, game room complete with a ten-foot pool table, state-of-the-art chef’s kitchen, master bedroom suite, greenhouse, and more. It was when Derek took Emily to the den that Emily just stood in awe muttering ‘wow’. Like the rest of the lodge, the room had a very manly feel with its bearskin rug, dark leather furniture, stone mantel and fireplace and a seventy-inch flat-panel television mounted on one of the walls, but what held Emily’s attention was the view from the large picture window.

“If you think that’s something, wait until you see this,” Derek said, smiling thinly.

He led her and Winston through the lodge to a deck in back. The deck was amazing in its own right—built of teak wood and complete with two hot tubs and a professional chef’s grill, but it was the mountain view from there that left Emily murmuring ‘wow’ for a second time. After the two of them stood there soaking in the view for several minutes, Derek pointed out a hiking trail that led off the deck.

“It’s a pretty easy trail,” Derek said, “and I have it cleared all winter long.” He gazed up at the sky for a moment, then added, “We should have another hour of sunlight. I’m sure our little ugly bastard could use the walk. You should take him. You’ll see some amazing sights from that trail.”

Emily stood on her toes and gave Derek a quick peck on the mouth. She was already wearing her new hiking boots and heavier winter jacket. “Why don’t you come?” she asked.

“I’d like to but I’m still hurting too much from yesterday,” Derek said with a weak smile. “Also I got some things I need to take care of. But you go. I’ll be waiting for you.”

Emily stood on her toes once more to give Derek another quick kiss, then headed down the staircase that led to the trail below, with Winston waddling behind.

##

Emily returned back to the lodge as dusk was beginning to settle in. Derek had been right. The hike had been amazing and the mountain air invigorating. All she wanted to do was find Derek and make love to him. She found him sitting in his kitchen, a half-empty bottle of bourbon next to him. He stank of it. He’d also opened a bottle of champagne and had a glass poured and waiting for her. Sitting there with his bourbon, it was almost like he was a different person. Almost like the veneer had been stripped clean and what was left behind was no longer handsome and rugged, but seedy. When he looked up at Emily it was with dead eyes.

“My wife has returned,” he said, his voice also different. Colder. The way he looked at Emily was the way a rattlesnake might look at a rabbit it was about to pounce on. “I poured you some champagne. Let’s toast to us being married.”

He handed Emily the champagne glass and lifted his own glass filled with bourbon and drained it. With all the alcohol he’d been drinking he didn’t seem drunk at all. Emily put her own glass down untouched.

“I don’t feel like drinking now,” Emily said.

“Come on. Be a sport. Drink the champagne.”

“No. I’m not drinking it. What’s going on?”

Derek made a face as if he had coughed up something nasty that he needed to spit out. His cell phone ringing interrupted him. He answered it. It was a short call with Derek simply saying that everything was ready. After he hung up the call, he shook his head sadly at Emily and told her it was a shame she didn’t drink the champagne.

“If you had, you’d be unconscious now and wouldn’t ever have to know what was going to be happening. You really should just drink it. It would be better for you.”

Emily felt a coldness filling up her head. She took a step away from the table. “What are you talking about?” she demanded.

Derek gave Emily a guilty smile and told her that he’d been lying to her. “My problem with Stone isn’t that bullshit story I told you yesterday.” He refilled his glass with bourbon and stared at the amber liquid for a moment before looking back at Emily with those same dead eyes he had shown earlier. “I owe him a lot of money. I owe a lot of money to others also. But Stone is the one that matters because he’s the one who’ll put a bullet in my head if I don’t pay him the millions that I owe him. You see, I spend a lot of money, and to make matters worse, I have a bit of a gambling problem, with my problem being that I usually lose.”

He laughed sourly at his joke and took another long drink of bourbon. “Of course, the money I borrowed from him was a lot less than what I owe him now, but at five points a week, it adds up quickly,” he said with a disgusted smirk.

“How do I fit into this?”

Derek gave Emily a sad, wistful look. “When you die I’ll be collecting twenty-five million dollars, which will be enough to get Stone off my back.”

Emily gaped at him. “You already have a life insurance policy on me?”

“Of course I do. My business manager had one waiting so if I ever got married all I’d have to do is give him my wife’s name and it would be taken care of. In my business it’s pretty common. With my earning potential it makes sense to protect whatever future wife I end up with, but it also provides mutual protection. If I died, you’d collect twenty-five million dollars. Unfortunately for you, you’ll be going first.”

Incredulously, Emily asked, “You’re going to kill me?”

“No, not me. Come on, I’m not a murderer. But those two thugs you met yesterday are, and they were the ones calling a few minutes ago. They’re going to be here in about fifteen minutes. You really should just drink that champagne. It will make things so much easier for you.”

Emily hated him right then. Hated him more than she ever believed she could hate anyone.

“You won’t get away with it,” she said. “You can’t marry someone and kill them the next day for a twenty-five million dollar life insurance policy. The police will never believe you didn’t kill me.”

Derek made a face at that prospect. “I’m sure they’ll have their suspicions, but they won’t be able to prove anything. I’ll be collecting my money. And given your situation, there will be no one fighting it other than maybe your mom, and what the hell can she do?”

Involuntarily, Emily’s hands clenched into small fists. Her voice, though, remained calm as she asked Derek when he decided to do this to her.

“Do you really need me to tell you this?”

“Yes!”

“Fine. I’ll tell you if it will make you happy. It was that first day when I went back to your apartment for coffee. Don’t get me wrong, that wasn’t why I went back with you, at least not at first. I did that because you were cute as hell, and I thought you’d be fun to fuck. But when we were drinking coffee, I realized what a loner you were, and how you only had a mom and nobody else to raise a stink if you were to die tragically. And with your mom being some low paid waitress in the middle of Iowa, you seemed perfect for what I needed. Now don’t think badly of me. You have to remember, I had Stone and his thugs breathing down my neck, so I was a bit desperate.”

Emily couldn’t keep from smirking. “What was with all that talk about protecting my virtue?”

Derek opened his eyes wide as if he couldn’t believe Emily was asking him that. “I’m not a monster,” he uttered. “Once I knew I needed to have you die, I certainly wasn’t going to fuck you first. Gawd, how rotten do you think I am?”

“And who said chivalry was dead?”

“Come on, don’t be bitter like this. I had no choice. If I met you under different circumstances, maybe I even would’ve fallen in love with you. Or at least enjoyed you in bed.”

“It’s not going to work out the way you think it is,” Emily said, her eyes narrowing to thin slits. “Jack, I need you now.”

Nothing. No genie appearing within an explosion of blue smoke. Absolutely nothing, except Derek staring at her as if she had lost her mind. Emily tried again to summon Jack.

“I’m not Jack,” Derek said, shaking his head sadly at her. Emily ignored him. A cold, unnerving panic had seized her and she tried yelling out again for the genie. “Please, Jack, I need you badly!”

“For God sakes, get a grip,” Derek said, his mouth twisting to show his disgust with her behavior. “Just drink the champagne already! That way you can just let go and not worry about anything. It will all be painless then.”

Emily bit her lip to fight back the tears. She couldn’t believe Jack had abandoned her like this. Or maybe it was because Colorado was too far away for her to summon him? Whatever it was, she was on her own. She nodded to Derek and stepped forward so she could pick up the champagne glass. Instead of drinking it, she threw the champagne in his face, then followed that up by hitting him smack in the nose with the champagne glass. Startled, his face reddening with anger, Derek tried to get out of his chair, but Emily pushed the table as hard as she could into him sending both him and his chair clattering hard to the terracotta tiled floor. While Derek lay entangled with his chair, Winston, who had started growling at the actor once Emily began panicking, clamped down hard on Derek’s ankle causing the actor to howl in pain. At the same time Emily threw the champagne and bourbon bottles at Derek. The champagne bottle missed, but the bourbon bottle bounced off his forehead.

Earlier she had spotted the car keys for the Mercedes hanging on a hook. She pulled Winston away from Derek, then grabbed the car keys and fled the house. Winston scampered after her. Her heart pounded wildly in her chest as she raced for the car. She tried screaming again for Jack, but still no appearance by the genie. As she opened the car door, tears streamed down her face. Winston bounded into the car, settling into the passenger seat. Emily felt as if she were going to pass out as she fell into the driver’s seat and started the car up. Derek stumbled out of the house looking disheveled, his right pant leg torn and bloody, a thick welt already showing on his forehead. When he staggered towards the car, Emily gunned the engine.