The Impostor, A Love Story (37 page)

I gazed up at him, his tousled black hair and
his blue, blue eyes looking down into mine. I took his hand and
pulled his arm around me, interlocking our fingers.

“You saved my life, Bradley.” I paused for a
moment. “I will never forget what you did for me tonight.” I gently
kissed his hand. “You are a good friend. Dylan is going to be so
grateful to you for what you did.”

“I didn’t do it for Dylan,” he confessed. He
pulled my chin gently so I was looking into his eyes again. “You
are a friend, and you needed my help.”

“Are you warm?” I let go of his hand and
touched his face. “That feels better.” I smiled. He wasn’t
trembling anymore.

Brad stared into my eyes. My heartbeat rose
even faster. “How about you?” He gently touched my face. “Good,
you’re warming up too. We gotta buy you a new coat.” He
grinned.

I rested my hand on his chest and began
playing with the zipper of his sweat suit. I unconsciously unzipped
it even further, and my hand traveled inside. I was fascinated by
the beat of his heart. He sat silently as I gently traced his chest
with my fingertips. I became overwhelmed by a sense of gratitude. I
was alive because he risked his body, his life, for me.

“Bradley, you could have died.” I became lost
in his eyes.

“I don’t know about that.” He grinned, trying
to make light of what we had just been through.

“I’m sorry for being an idiot.”

“It was just as much my fault. I agreed to go
back in. I’m sorry we didn’t get your purse back.”

“How could I have been so stupid? I brought
my daughter into that house.” Tears began to pour out of my
eyes.

Brad put his arms around me, combing his
fingers through my hair.

“You didn’t know, Nicole. You are so
innocent. You are so trusting.” He held me till I finally calmed
down. My head lay on his shoulder for security. “It’s gonna be
alright.”

“Don’t leave me, Bradley. I don’t want to be
alone.”

“I’m right here. It will all be okay.”

Rubbing my eyes, I realized I had fallen
asleep. “I’m so sorry. I know you have better things to do than
stay here with me.”

“Nicole, you have been through a lot. What
kind of friend would I be if I left you here alone? You should get
some rest, though. You only slept for about twenty minutes.”

I stood up to walk to the room, but
staggered, half asleep. Brad lifted me, cradling me in his arms,
and walked toward the guest bedroom and laid me on the bed.

“You sleep tight.” Brad covered me with a
blanket. I grabbed his hand as he was leaving, and he sat on the
bed beside me.

“You told me not to get in cars with killers,
but you forgot to warn me about moving in with one!” We laughed as
I sat up in the bed. “Thank you for everything, Bradley.”

He let out another little chuckle, “I have to
admit that it was so worth it.” He grinned.

I tilted my head in confusion.

“That was a really hot bra you were
wearing.”

I smacked him playfully, but decided to play
along. “And I must say that is a pretty sexy chest you’ve been
hiding.” I blushed. “You saved my life . . . I guess I kinda owe
you one.” I leaned over, looking at his lips. I owed him my life.
But Dylan . . . I am in love with Dylan
. I gave him a peck
on the cheek.

“You owe me about a million, but I’m not
keeping track or anything.” He smiled. We tried to forget about
what could have happened. Being with him, laughing with him,
comforted me. He was so easy to talk to. My eyes unconsciously
drifted to his lips again.

I am in love with Dylan
, I reminded
myself. I ran my fingertips over the blankets, flashing back to the
night Dylan and I were in this room together. Without thinking, I
blurted out, “I almost made love to Dylan here.”

“Excuse me?” He lifted an eyebrow.

“It would have been our first time.”

“And you are telling me this why?”

“I’m sorry, I was just thinking out
loud.”

“Wait a minute. You haven’t had sex with
Dylan, yet? What’s up with that? I think that is a first.”

“I just wasn’t ready. I haven’t been with
anyone since Jessica’s father. I guess I’m kind of scared to get
hurt again.”

“You’ve only been with Jessica’s father?”

“I don’t know, maybe I’m stupid. I know it’s
different for guys, but to me it’s kind of sacred. When you make
love to someone, you give yourself to them.”

“I can’t believe you haven’t been with anyone
since your ex. You are hit on almost every night, and you’ve been
dating Dylan for months. I don’t think he has ever had a girl say
no to him.”

“He jokes about me being the only girl who
makes him keep his clothes on.”

“So my naked chest against your almost naked
chest . . .?”

“Yeah, he might kill you for that.” I
smiled.

“I’ll have to tell him I got some skin.”

“You are such a jerk.” I playfully smacked
him.

“Hey, don’t forget I saved your life.”

“What am I going to do with you?” I hit him
again. “I better get to bed. Dylan will be upset if he found out I
stayed up all night with you.”

“Goodnight, Nicole. If you need anything I’ll
be right down the hall.” He kissed my forehead.

“Thank you again for everything, Bradley.
Sweet dreams.” As he walked out the room, he turned out the light.
I lay there in the darkness.

I slowly slid my hands back and forth over
the comforter. My mind relived the night Dylan held me in this very
room. I longed for him.
“It will be worth waiting for. I
promise
.” Thinking of him helped keep me from reliving the
horror I just went through. The image of him holding me made me
feel safe. I couldn’t wait to be in his arms again. Comforted by
his image, I soon drifted to sleep.

When Brad called the police department, they
couldn’t confirm that Steve had been picked up. We wondered if they
took the phone call seriously. Steve was good at manipulating
people.

“You need to go to the police, Nicole,” Brad
tried to convince me. He’d been reading the newspaper article about
Alan’s body being identified from his tattoo.

“I’m scared, Brad. What if it makes him even
madder? Hopefully, he thinks I went back to the Lower 48 with
Emily. Hopefully, his wife’s detective finally locked him up. We
called the police, isn’t that enough?” I wanted to confirm it, but
I had lost the business card.

“Nicole, Steve is wanted. He’s a murderer,
obsessed with you. You have to go to the police to make sure he
doesn’t get out. We have the hunting knife with blood on it. It
could be human blood. Both of the mechanics have disappeared. Steve
owed them a lot of money, right?”

“He did. He owed them for a few months’
work.”

“That is motive. And the detective, he never
showed. He told you he was going to arrest him. He never showed up.
You have to go to the police. That blood in the sink, I’m pretty
sure that was human blood.”

We entered the police department to speak to
an officer about my suspicion that Steve was the one who had
murdered the mechanic that was in the paper and about everything in
person.

When we walked in however, I gasped. I heard
the man with the fiery-red hair’s annoying boisterous laugh. I
grabbed Bradley’s hand and stopped him from going any further. A
knot tightened in my stomach, and I brought him outside.

“He’s the cop, the friend of Steve’s—the one
who showed up two hours late and shook his hand when he was
supposed to be rescuing us! He is not going to help us.”

“He is
the
police officer?”

I nodded, pulling his hand to guide him
toward the door.

“We need to do this. You’ve got to get Steve
locked up forever. We’re in a police station. Nicole, he can’t do
anything to you here.”

“Let’s come back. I’m scared. Let’s come back
when he’s not here.”

Bradley convinced me it was okay to talk to
another officer there. I told the officer everything. We handed
them the knife, hoping that Bradley’s fingerprints and the snow
hadn’t compromised all of the evidence. I explained how the
mechanic, who worked for Steve, had turned up stabbed to death.

“There is another mechanic missing as well.
He didn’t show up for work. I’m worried something may have happened
to him too. And the private detective, he never showed up.
Detective Jackson, that is his name. We don’t know whose blood we
saw.” I tried to remember everything. “And there is a stack of fake
IDs under his bed. Look under his mattress upstairs.”

The man behind the desk wrote down
everything. “I wish we’d had time to get the stack of IDs. It had
all his different identities. His real name is Dennis something.
He’s wanted in Florida.” The officer wasn’t able to confirm that he
was picked up since he could have been using one of the other
aliases.”

Bradley made me stay home for a few days,
just to be safe, since Steve knew where I worked, and we had no
idea where he was. I couldn’t fly home because I didn’t have my ID
and couldn’t use my airline ticket without one.

Dylan still hadn’t called. He had no clue of
the danger I was in. It had been almost a month since I’d heard
from him. I had no way to contact him and missed him so much. Brad
said Dylan had left a few messages for him on his old cell number,
but he hadn’t actually talked to him, and Dylan never left a number
to call him back. Brad had dropped his cell in the snow, when we
trying to get away from Steve, and no one had his new number.

“If Dylan thinks about it, he has my home
number, I hardly ever use this phone but he has the number. Or the
bar, maybe he will call the bar.” Brad tried to comfort me.

But truth was, I secretly wondered if Dylan
didn’t care anymore.

Emily did call the club and left a message,
so I knew they arrived home safely. But she didn’t leave a number
to call back. My insides were churning. I had lost control of
everything. Even though Bradley was wonderful, I felt like I was in
limbo. And I missed my little girl. I wanted to go home. I wanted
to hear Jessica’s voice, but I had no idea how to get in touch with
them. All my numbers were trapped inside that stupid house, and the
thought that he had all my contacts haunted me. My mind kept
drifting to the worst images. My only comfort was that almost four
thousand miles separated that monster from my family. I needed to
find a way to get their phone number. I needed to hear my angel’s
voice.

I wanted to somehow raise the five thousand
dollars that Dylan loaned me before I went home. But it wasn’t
possible. Bradley said Dylan would understand.

Sitting on the couch, I tried to figure out
how I could get home for Christmas. Brad said he’d loan me the
money, but I had no ID!

Alone in the house, I began feeling sorry for
myself, so I grabbed the phone hoping it would help me forget
everything that had gone wrong.

I called Bradley. “So how was work tonight?
Did he show up?”

“No, luckily he didn’t. Hopefully the police
arrested him already.”

“So, did you miss me?”

“Of course we did.” He paused for a moment.
“Listen, Nikki, if you’re okay, I’m going to drop Katie and her
friend off at her place on my way home. She’s is really messed up.
I hate to send her home in a cab. She’s babbling on about how Steve
killed her boyfriend. She actually got up in the face of that red
haired cop and said his friend was a murderer. I don’t think he’ll
be coming back in. Are you okay? Can I drive her home first?”

“I’m fine. Get her home safe.”

“You can probably come in tomorrow. I think
if he was going to come in, he would have done it by now.”

“I don’t like the fact that cop was there.
Why didn’t he arrest Steve if he isn’t a dirty cop.”

“You told the cops you suspected Steve? Maybe
they thought you were calling about someone else. He’s a cop,
Nikki. I don’t think he would let someone get away with murder if
he knew about it.”

“I really need to work. I’m going crazy here
by myself. I guess I’ll start a movie. Drop her off and hurry back,
okay?”

I struggled to keep my eyes open and watch
the show but quickly surrendered to my sleepiness. When Brad got
home, he sat down next to me on the couch. Leaning over, he kissed
my forehead.

“Such an angel when she’s sleeping.” I could
hear his words break through my dreams.

Lifting my body from the couch, he carried me
to the bedroom, laying me gently on the bed. I could feel him
taking off my shoes. He gently wrapped the cover over me.

“Sweet dreams, Nicole.” He turned off the
light as he left the room.

Oh, it felt so good to be back at work. It
was Saturday, so a steady flow of people came in throughout the day
and night. I loved the tips. It’s always nice when you come back
and people missed you.

The band was good—not as good as my Dylan’s
band, but they brought in a crowd, which made my night wonderful.
So many people wanted to buy me shots to celebrate my return, but I
was not in a mood to drink. I figured as long as I was staying at
Bradley’s, I should stay sober. Even though nothing would happen,
there was some kind of attraction there, and I didn’t want to do
anything that might heighten my desire and upset Dylan, even though
it was probably already over.

Suddenly through the crowd, Steve’s face
appeared in the distance.
Was I was being tormented by
flashbacks
? I pivoted to get a better view of the man, and then
ran to the bar in horror.

“Bradley, it’s him. He’s here.”

Brad turned his head toward the monster and
realized, “It’s your car. He must have seen your car parked here.
That must be why he hasn’t come in before.”

“What do I do?” My heart started beating
faster.