Unforeseen Danger (35 page)

Nikki climbed out of the trunk onto a narrow gravel back road.
 
Other than the winding slip of road, there was nothing to see in any direction but trees.
 
A sense of desolation settled in Nikki’s bones and wondered if she was about to die.
 
She thought of the cell phone in her pocket and wished she could hear Jake’s voice just one more time.
 

“Why are you doing this?” she asked.
 
“You at least owe me an explanation.”

“I don’t owe you anything,” Darcy snapped.
 
“That’s your problem, Nikki.
 
You think the world revolves around you.”
 

Darcy looked wild and
disheveled
, pacing in the wind as if she didn’t know how to proceed.

“What did you mean about Zeke?
 
Was he my lover?”
 
Nikki persisted, not so much to buy time, but because she wanted to solve this maddening puzzle before she died.

Darcy
laughed,
a crazy laughter that sent shivers down Nikki’s spine.

“I can’t believe you figured it out, but you really forced my hand this time.
 
All because of your stupid
guess
!”
 
She shook her head in exasperation.
 
“That letter wasn’t written to
you
.
 
It was written to Jake, from Elaine.
 
I dropped by his office one day to pick up your keys – you’d locked your car up at the mall again – and I saw it on his desk.
 
I made a copy of it, but he caught me putting the original back on his desk.
 
He made me promise not to say anything to you.
 
We both knew how you flipped out if he even mentioned Elaine.
 
If you confront Zeke, you implicate me.
 
I really have no choice.”
 

“Are you saying Jake was seeing Elaine?” Nikki asked, unable to make sense out of what Darcy was telling her.

“Don’t be stupid,” Darcy retorted.
 
“Since the day he met you, Jake forgot any other woman existed.
 
Just like Derek.
 
What is it about you, Nikki, that causes men to make such fools of
themselves
over you?”

“Why did you try to kill Jake?” Nikki asked.

“You took the one thing I loved from me and I was going to return the
favor
.”
 
She pointed the gun at Nikki with a shaking hand.
 
“Derek loved you and you didn’t care!”
 
Shoving Nikki off the road, Darcy said, “Walk.”
 

“I’m sorry about Derek—”

“Shut up.
 
It’s too late for apologies now.
 
When he first came to town, I
begged
you to leave him alone.
 
Derek was so vulnerable and naïve.
 
He wasn’t ready for the likes of you.”
 
Nikki stumbled over a log and Darcy seized a handful of her coat to jerk her upright.

“The first time he tried to kill himself was December 16
^th
, two years ago.
 
Ring a bell?
 
He crashed your wedding, and I chased him down.
 
I finally found him at some fleabag motel with an empty bottle of
valium
in his hand.
 
They pumped his stomach and you know what the first thing he asked me was?
 
Why didn’t I let him
die.
 
I told him to hang on, that your marriage to Jake would never last.
 
I never dreamed you’d be happy with him, that you really loved him.
 
I’d tell Derek when the two of you were fighting and at first, he was hopeful, but I could see him sinking deeper into his depression as time went by and I couldn’t do a thing about it.”

“What about Zeke?”
 
Nikki asked.
 
“I don’t understand.”

“Derek was all I had and you were all he wanted, so I decided to do something about it.
 
I thought maybe if I could split up you and Jake, you’d go back to Derek.
 
I decided to work on the one weakness that you and Jake shared…your jealousy.”

Nikki watched the ground in front of her, debating on faking another fall.
 
If she timed it right, maybe she could take Darcy down with her.

“Everything fell into place so perfectly that day…You should’ve seen your face when I showed you the letter that morning.
 
I had to beg you not to confront Jake.
 
As you know, it was pretty vague, and I told you we needed more proof.
 
That same evening, I was driving by Elaine’s apartment, and I saw Jake’s car outside.
 
How perfect was that?”

She chuckled and said, “Of course, good friend that I am, I called you right away and told you to meet me at the
Conoco
station across from Elaine’s apartment building right away.
 
He’d called at lunch to tell you he’d be working late.
 
When you saw Jake’s truck parked outside of her apartment, you wanted to knock down the door and drag them both out of there, but Jake came out before you had a chance.
 
He hugged Elaine and kissed her cheek before he left.
 
I swear
,
you were nearly purple with rage!
 
Looked just like a lover’s tryst.”

Darcy chuckled and said, “You wanted to drive to Jake’s office to confront him, but I talked you into stopping at O’Malley’s
Bar
first, to have a drink and calm down.
 
When you went to the bathroom, I put a
roofie
in your drink.”
 

“A what?”

“It’s this neat little white pill that reduces your inhibitions and increases your alcohol absorption.
 
I mean, even a heavy drinker can get drunk on one drink.
 
Best of all, it kind of KO’s your memory, too.
 
The date rape drug, they call it.
 
Well, it just seemed like destiny when Zeke walked in.
 
I could tell the drug was hitting you.
 
You motioned him over, and told me to go
on,
that you were sure Zeke wouldn’t mind taking you home.
 
He got the hint, and the old pervert nearly broke his neck rushing back to his table to make an excuse to his cronies.
 
I left there thinking,
this is it.
 
I didn’t have to do anything else to destroy your marriage.
 
You were going to do it all by yourself.”

“Zeke,” Nikki repeated weakly.

“Don’t act so surprised,” Darcy said offhandedly.
 
“Zeke is a
lech
.
 
You knew it.
 
I knew it.
 
He was in the right place at the right time.
 
You looked at him and saw the perfect opportunity to get back at both Jake and Elaine, and Catherine to boot.”
 

They had stumbled into a clearing.
 
A cement block foundation was all that remained of some long forgotten structure.
 

Darcy grinned.
 
“Look like a good place to die,
Nik
?
 
I think I know how to work this.
 
I’ll tell them your lover caught me going into Catherine’s,
then
forced us both to leave at gunpoint.
 
He drove us out here in the country and forced us out of the car.
 
Unfortunately, while he was busy murdering you, I made my escape.
 
Jake thinks I have no sense of direction, so he’ll believe me when I tell him I’m not sure where we were.
 
It’ll be weeks before they find you.
 
My only regret is that this will completely clear old Zeke.
 
On your knees, Nikki.
 
Now.”

Nikki knelt in the snow and rotting leaves.

“You’re going to feel what Derek felt when he shot himself that night.”

Tears streaked down Darcy’s cheeks.
 
“I went back home after you left with Zeke, and Derek was waiting there for me.
 
I told him what I’d done and you would’ve thought he’d have been happy, but no…he was furious.
 
He just had to run off and rescue you.
 
Apparently, he scared old Zeke to death.
 
He left in quite a hurry, didn’t he,
Nik
?
 
Didn’t even have time to collect his socks.”

She laughed and said, “Just so you appreciate the whole irony of this, I want you to know that nothing happened between you and Zeke, thanks to Derek.
 
But even before the accident, you didn’t remember that.
 
Derek left you a note at his apartment, but I got it first.
 
You didn’t deserve to read it.
 
In it he told how he busted in there and ran Zeke off before anything happened.
 
How you were doped out of your head, but you still cried for Jake.
 
That was when he realized you’d never be his.
 
After he made sure you were okay, Derek went home and shot himself.”

“And Zeke?”

“Of course, you didn’t believe Zeke when he told you nothing happened.
 
You didn’t remember Derek being there at all, just Zeke taking you home and you waking up naked and hung over in your bed.
 
You accused him of doping your drink, and you couldn’t go to Jake, now could you?
 
Especially after he confessed about Elaine.
 
It was all totally innocent, of course.
 
Her boyfriend had beaten her up and Jake had taken her to the hospital to get her head stitched up.
 
He felt guilty because he’d been talking to her, trying to get her to break away from
Brandon
, without your knowledge.
 
You, of course, felt like a dog because you thought you’d slept with his stepfather.
 
The sock thing was pretty funny.
 
I would’ve tried to kill Jake sooner, but I wanted to see how that played out.”

Darcy pushed her hair out of her face and said, “To be honest, I like Jake.
 
I just wanted him to hate you.
 
I didn’t really want to kill him, but one way or
another,
I wanted you to know what it felt like to lose him.
 
I didn’t know he would ask you for a divorce, and after a couple of weeks, I was getting pretty antsy, so I sabotaged his truck.”

“The phone calls …” Nikki asked, dazed.
 
“What about the man who called me?”

Darcy shrugged.
 
“Carlos, my waiter friend.
 
He thought it was just a prank.”

Nikki’s thoughts flew by in a dizzying blur.
 
There was no lover.
 
There never had been.
 
Darcy had spoon fed them the whole thing.

***

The chopper pilot spotted the car first, but by that time, Matt and Jake were only minutes away.
 
They roared down a narrow twist of road and screeched to a stop behind Darcy’s red BMW.
 

The abandoned car filled Jake with a sense of dread.

He held his breath as Matt pried open the trunk, and exhaled sharply when he saw it was empty.
 

“Come on!” Matt yelled
,
pointing at the tracks left in the snow.
 
Jake ran, with Matt on his heels.
 

They ran until they saw a flash of purple up ahead.

Darcy’s coat, he realized, and plunged on, ignoring the stitch in his side, ignoring Matt’s hissed command for him to stop, to
stop right there,
dammit
!
 

As he approached the edge of the clearing, what he saw stopped him in his tracks.
 
Nikki on her knees on the frozen ground, a pistol pressed to her forehead.

“The passenger.
 
Who was in the truck with me that day?” Nikki asked.

Darcy shook her head.
 
“I have no idea.
 
You and I weren’t really speaking by the time of the accident, so I don’t know who you were hanging out with.”

“Why all these games?
 
Why not just kill me or Jake outright?”

“The amnesia thing was unexpected, but interesting.
 
I figured I could hurt you and not have to kill Jake to do it.
 
I used your amnesia to plant the seeds of doubt even deeper in Jake’s mind.
 
After all, I was the only one who knew the whole story.
 
My only mistake was that I should’ve played it harder, but I wasn’t sure how much you said to Jake that morning.
 
I wanted to rip him away from you the way you’d ripped my brother from me, but Jake proved yet again how gullible he is where you’re concerned.”

Jake slowly circled behind Darcy, into Nikki’s line of sight.
 
Her eyes widened and he saw the almost imperceptible shake of her head.
 
She wanted him to back off, but he couldn’t.
 
If he could draw Darcy’s fire, Matt could take her down and save Nikki.
 
Nearly numb with fear for her, he stepped into the clearing.