Wish You Were Here, page 11
“I’m great,” he said. “Let’s eat.”
***
Ruby didn’t care that Nikkie Cooper was Piper’s mother; the woman was trouble. Nate knew it, Ruby could tell that Freya knew it, and it seemed from Piper’s reserved behavior at dinner that she knew it, too. So why the hell didn’t Nate toss that little bitch out on her ass?
Of course, Ruby knew why. Nikkie was his daughter’s mother, and that was that.
Damn honorable men. Didn’t know what was good for them.
“Well, that was great,” Nikkie said, putting her napkin down on the table and sighing. “Excuse me. I’m just going to use your bathroom.”
Ruby watched as Nikkie slid out from the table, keeping her eye on the woman until she was out of sight.
“She sure goes to the bathroom a lot,” she muttered.
“Yeah. Some women have a lot of sh”—Freya glanced at Piper and course corrected—“stuff to clear out.”
Ruby met eyes with Freya and they shared a small smile. Now, Freya was a woman Ruby could get behind, and based on the looks that had been sparking between him and Freya all evening, Ruby guessed Nate felt the same way.
Freya stood up and started gathering plates, and Nate was right behind her, taking the dishes from her hand.
“Um, hey,” Freya said.
Nate grinned at her like a big goof. “You’re a guest. Guests don’t clean up.”
Freya put one hand on her hip. “Well, you’re the cook. Cooks don’t clean. I trump you. Ha!” And she took the dishes back.
“Fine,” Nate said, gathering up the wineglasses. “We’ll just have to clean up together, then.”
Ruby looked at Piper, and they both smiled. She didn’t know who those two thought they were fooling, but even the kid could tell what was going on.
But that was a secondary concern right now. Ruby stood up and walked over behind Piper, glancing down the hallway where Nikkie had disappeared.
“Help clean up, Piper. I’m gonna be right back.”
“Okay.” Piper rose and gathered her plate, then paused and said, “Hey, Ruby?”
Ruby turned around, trying to hide her impatience. “Mmmm? What, baby?”
“What did you wish for?” she asked. “You know. With the coin?”
Ruby blinked and turned her full focus on Piper. “Why do you want to know?”
Piper shrugged and scuffed a toe on the ground. “I’m just wondering if, you know, if it turned out the way you wanted.”
Well. Isn’t that an interesting question?
“It did.” She watched the girl for a reaction, but Piper’s face was unreadable. “Why do you ask?”
“Nothing,” she said. “Have you ever unwished a wish?”
“No,” Ruby said. “But then, I only used it twice. Like I said, you have to have a special kind of want in order for it to work in the first place.” Ruby glanced down the hallway. Nikkie sure was taking a long time in that bathroom. Ruby turned back to Piper and put one hand on her arm. “Baby, can we talk about this later?”
Piper nodded. “Sure.”
“That’s a girl. I’ll be right back.” Ruby turned and hurried out, just about to pass the stairwell to check on the downstairs bathroom when she heard the click-click of high-heel shoes on the stairs.
Son of a bitch. Ruby took three steps back and looked up, and wasn’t there Nikkie Goddamn Cooper coming down the steps?
“Something wrong with the downstairs bathroom?” Ruby asked, not bothering to mask her tone.
Nikkie paused on the last step and laid cold eyes on Ruby.
“Yeah. I already stole all the fancy soaps out of that one.” Nikkie stepped down on the last step, called out, “Thanks for dinner!” and started toward the front door. Ruby grabbed her by the elbow and Nikkie’s eyes widened.
“I don’t know why you’re here or what you’re after,” Ruby said, “but you’re gonna go say good night to your girl.”
Nikkie wrenched her elbow out of Ruby’s grip and seemed about to bash that elbow into Ruby’s face—oh, how Ruby would have loved for her to try it—when Piper hurried out, the plate she was drying still in her hand.
“You’re going?” she asked.
Nikkie shot a glance at Ruby, then nodded. “Yeah. I’m wiped out. Jet lag. Gonna go get some sleep.”
“Oh. Okay.” Piper seemed about to take a step forward, then didn’t. Ruby began seriously contemplating Nate’s head-on-a-pike idea. “Well, good night, Nikkie.”
“Good night.”
Nikkie was gone two seconds later. Nate poked his head out and gave Ruby a questioning glance. Ruby motioned toward the door, and Nate nodded. He was, from what Ruby understood, fairly experienced at getting a fleeting glimpse of that bitch’s backside. He put a hand on Piper’s shoulder.
“Come on,” he said. “Let’s finish up and we’ll play Monopoly or something.”
Piper nodded and went into the kitchen, and Nate looked at Ruby. “You up for some Monopoly?”
“Yeah.” Ruby glanced up the stairs. “I just need to go check on something first.”
Nate gave her a brief nod and retreated into the kitchen. Ruby headed up the stairs, her eyes scanning every inch she passed for something out of place. There wasn’t anything of real value for Nikkie to steal.
Except...
Ruby’s eyes flew to her own bedroom door; it was slightly ajar. Had she closed it before coming to dinner? Hell, she had no idea. She was too fucking old to waste precious brain space with those kinds of details. She pushed it open, went inside, and slid the rug out. She stepped on the edge of the floorboard to dislodge it, then pulled it up and sighed with relief.
The tackle box was still there. She was just about to reach for it when she heard footsteps on the stairs. She hustled to replace everything and had just scurried to her bedside drawer when Piper poked her head into her bedroom.
“Dad’s gonna take the shoe if you don’t hurry,” Piper said. Now that her mother had left, the tension in her face had ebbed considerably. Poor kid.
“The hell he is.” Ruby pulled a bottle of Tums out of her bedside drawer and popped two into her mouth. “No one takes my shoe without a fight.”
***
“It’s not in the house,” Nikkie’s voice whined through Malcolm’s cell phone. “I looked.”
“It’s in the house,” Malcolm said. “I’ve already looked everywhere else.”
There was a pause on the line. “I thought you said you couldn’t come here.”
Don’t try to look for holes in my story, Nikkie, Malcolm thought. You’re untrained. You could hurt yourself. “Go back and look again. It’s there somewhere.”
“Where are you?” Nikkie said.
Malcolm smiled. He could just picture her glancing over her shoulder in her cabin, wondering if he’d been there.
Which, of course, he had.
“I’m nearby,” he said. “And I’m watching.”
“You know what? Fuck this, Malcolm. You’re just as batshit crazy now as you were when I married Nate, and that’s a lot of batshit. I’m outta here.”
Malcolm sighed and leaned back in his lounge chair, looking up at the stars. “I think you may be underestimating my determination, Nikkie.”
“I think you may be underestimating my ‘fuck you,’ Malcolm.”
He could hear the distinct sound of a suitcase zipper in the background.
“Stop packing,” he said.
The zipping stopped.
“Good. I think it’s important that you understand something. I don’t care about Nate, I don’t care about Piper, and I certainly don’t care about you. What I do care about is that plate. Now, you can get back in that house and find it for me, or you can run the risk that my batshit crazy might get on your daughter. Is that a risk you want to run, Nikkie?”
There was a cold silence. Good. He liked that. It meant that for once in her life, Nikkie Cooper was listening to someone.
“Piper was very pretty in that blue shirt with the little cat on it tonight, wasn’t she? She looked so innocent and sweet. Gosh, I’d hate for anything to happen that might mar that innocence. Wouldn’t you?”
“Where the fuck are you, Malcolm?”
“It won’t matter where I am,” Malcolm said, “if you keep up your end of our deal.”
She sighed heavily. “It’s not there. I don’t know what happened. Maybe Mick had it buried with him, I don’t know. Give it up. It’s done.”
“It’s done when I say it’s done.” Malcolm pressed his fingertips to his temples. The woman was thick as hell. “And just in case my threat was a little too veiled, let me make sure you understand. I don’t want to hurt Piper. It’s just that I will. The good news is, you have total control over that. Find me that plate, and I will pay you, and you can leave secure that your little girl will continue in her life without ever knowing I exist. I’m a man of my word.”
“You’re a deluded asshole,” Nikkie said. “That’s what you are.”
“Fine. I’m a deluded asshole of my word. I’m not going to quibble over semantics. The point is, it’s time someone took me seriously, Nikkie, and I really think that someone should be you.”
There was another long silence, but she didn’t hang up on him, which was a good sign. Malcolm sat forward in his lounge chair, staring out into the blackness of the small lake at night.
He heard Nikkie take a drag on her cigarette. “I can call the police, you know, let them deal with your crazy ass.”
“I’d think twice about that, Nikkie. You’re not the only one who can call the police.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” she said, but there was tension in her voice.
Good.
“Identity theft is a federal offense, Nikkie, whereas my little threat against your daughter is really just your word against mine.”
There was a long silence. Finally. She was taking him seriously.
“Right,” she said. “And how exactly are you going to get your precious plate if I’m in prison, Malcolm?”
Malcolm tightened his grip on his phone, imagining it was her bony little chicken neck. “Is this a game you really want to play, Nikkie?”
“Nate won’t let you get within two feet of Piper,” she said. “And I have three passports and a burning desire to see South America. I’ll be out of here before the authorities so much as have their paperwork filed. So I think I’m standing by my original ‘fuck you.’”
And she hung up.
She hung up.
Malcolm stood up, staring at the phone in his hand, squeezing it tight in his fist.
This was maddening. He’d told Richard Daly he had the plate, and the man had practically laughed. He’d threatened Nikkie’s daughter and her freedom, and she swatted him away like a fly. All those years of being a useless drunk had done his image more damage than he had realized, perhaps.
“Fucking hell,” he said, getting up from his lounge chair. “What does a villain have to do to be taken seriously these days?”
Of course, he knew exactly what he had to do. He had to take action. He patted his pocket for the box of matches; they were still there. Then he walked around to the back of the RV and grabbed the two red plastic gas containers he’d filled the day before.
It was time to send a message to them all.
Way past time.
Ten
Freya took the first step on her cabin porch and turned to face Nate, their eyes level. The full moon cast him in a sexy blue glow that made her want to throw him to the ground and have her way with him on top of the pine needles.
But her condoms were inside the cabin.
“Thanks for walking me home.”
“Thanks for coming to dinner.” He moved a little closer. “It meant a lot to Piper.”
“Yeah,” she said. “Piper.”
He smiled. “Piper. Yeah.”
He put one hand on her hip, sending waves of heat shooting through her, and she raised a brow at him.
“So, it’s like this now, is it?” She moved a little closer to him, to the point where she was close enough to feel his breath on her, but not so close their bodies were actually touching.
Man, this was fun. She’d forgotten how much fun this could be.
“You have an objection?” He slid his hand around her waist and pulled her close, pressing against the small of her back as their bodies finally touched. Whoa.
“No,” she said, her voice barely registering as the blood rushed in her ears. “No objection.”
He angled his face toward her, almost kissed her lips, but then grazed her neck lightly with his, running his tongue in a light little circle over her skin, sending tingles down her back.
“I’m especially not objecting to that,” she breathed.
“Good to know.” He worked his way up her neck to her jawline, placing light, teasing kisses in a path until he got to her lips. Then he pulled her lower lip gently between his teeth and suckled it a bit before letting go.
You’re definitely coming inside, Cap’n.
She put her hand on his chest, slowly unbuttoning the top button. “We’re clear, right? It’s just sex. No commitment. No honorable behavior allowed.”
“Right.” He leaned in and exhaled behind her ear, sending tickling rays of warmth down her neck with his breath. “It means absolutely nothing.”
“Mmmm,” she said, closing her eyes as his hands ran down her lower back. “Good man.”
“Put it back in your pants, Brody, we need to talk.”
Nate stiffened and stepped back and there, of course, was Nikkie, stalking toward them in the moonlight.
“Go to bed, Nikkie,” Nate said. “We’ll talk tomorrow.”
“No,” she said. “We’ll talk now. It’s important.” She took a drag on her cigarette, and Freya caught herself staring at the brightly glowing red ember on the end. She’d forgotten how pretty lit cigarettes were at night.
“Nikkie,” Nate started, but Freya touched him on the shoulder.
“It’s okay,” she said.
He turned to her. “No. It’s really not.”
“If it’s about Piper. You should go.” Freya knew it was the right thing to say, but she hated it all the same. This is what I get for having mommy issues.
He looked at her, an expression of disappointed helplessness crossing his face before he accepted his sexless fate. “All right. Fine.”
Nikkie took another long drag on her cigarette. Freya inhaled deeply, taking in as much of the secondhand smoke as she could.
Hello, old friend.
“Let’s go to the house,” Nikkie said, shooting the world’s least subtle glance at Freya. “I want you to be able to concentrate.”
Nate sighed. “Fine. Let’s go.”
“Hang on,” Freya said, then walked down the steps to Nikkie and held her hand out, palm up. “Gimme.”
Nikkie looked at her like she was crazy, but Freya raised her open palm higher.
“Smoker’s code,” she said. “Unless you’re down to the lucky in that pack, you know you have to.”
Nikkie sighed, pulled the pack out of her purse, and opened it. It was almost full. Freya plucked a cigarette out and placed it between her index and middle finger.
It was like coming home.
“You smoke?” Nate said.
“No. I quit.” She put the cigarette between her lips and raised an eyebrow at Nikkie, who sighed and flicked her lighter. Freya leaned in, touched the tip to the flame, and inhaled.
Ahhhhh.
She pulled the cigarette from her mouth, exhaled blue smoke into the moonlight, and took a few moments before noticing Nate’s expression of severe disapproval.
“I only smoke now when I’m frustrated,” she said, hitting frustrated hard so he didn’t miss her meaning.
He didn’t. “It’s bad for you.”
“I know that.” She took a drag. Ohhhhh, that’s good. She exhaled. “That’s why I quit.”
“Don’t bother explaining,” Nikkie said, taking another drag on her own cigarette. “He’ll never understand.”
“Of course he won’t,” Freya said, giving Nate a wicked smile. “He’s Captain Cleft Chin.”
Nikkie laughed. “That’s good. I’m gonna have to use that.”
Nate put one hand on Nikkie’s elbow. “No, you won’t.”
“Whatever you say, Cap’n,” Freya said, and both she and Nikkie giggled.
“All right, that’s enough,” Nate said, guiding Nikkie away. “The last thing I need is you two bonding. Good night, Freya.”
“’Night,” Freya said, waving with one hand as the man she wanted desperately between her thighs strode off with his ex. She sighed, took another drag off the smoke, and tossed it to the ground, crushing it under her shoe.
It wasn’t helping.
But, she thought, remembering the showerhead in the bath, perhaps something else will.
She headed inside, kicking the door shut and stripping down to her underwear. She picked up her cell phone and turned the power on; there were four messages waiting. She checked the call log quickly—two calls from Flynn’s house; she guessed one was from Flynn worrying about her, the other from Jake with the results of his inquiry. Then there were two from her father, neither of which she cared to hear at the moment. She powered the phone down again, grabbed her MP3 player, turned it on full blast, and stuck the earbuds in her ears, then went into the bathroom, shut the door and locked it.
Who needs a man? she thought, looking at the handheld showerhead as she started the hot water running. She slipped out of her underwear and stepped into the tub, lowering herself in gently. She closed her eyes and imagined Nate settling into the bath with her.
***
Nate placed a mug of black coffee in front of his ex-wife, then sat down across from her at the table.
“You want to talk, let’s talk,” he said. “What is it?”
She sat back, crossing her arms over her stomach like a petulant teenager. “All right, let’s cut to the chase, because I’m out of time. Where’s the plate?”
“What?”
She widened her eyes at him, not even trying to hide her annoyance and frustration. “The plate. I need the plate.”
