HH02 - A Reclusive Heart (34 page)

the pool keycard. Then they went back two more hours on the employee hall surveillance camera and found her sneaking in the

back door of the pool area and slipping into one of the dressing rooms. We weren't sure until we zoomed in on that spot

because the fitting room area was nearly pitch black while you were using the pool, but we spotted slight movement when you

entered the pool area and spotted her running into the employee hall minutes after you and Miss. Harris left. Unfortunately there

are no cameras in the guest elevator or the halls so we can't prove that she was the one who recorded the audio CD, but we did

manage to lift a partial print from the CD. I just need you to confirm that you didn't speak with her the next morning and that as

far as you know she didn't handle the CD."

Nick shook his head. "She was supposed to leave that day. I don't think she was around the next morning."

Detective Michaels pulled a small notebook out of his pocket and flipped through several pages before he found what he

was looking for. "She caught the ten a.m. flight to Los Angeles, California the next morning."

"Of course she did," he said, rubbing his hands down his face and feeling like an idiot. "She had to be there the next

morning to drop the envelope off at our room."

"Do you know where Miss. Harris is at the moment? I need to speak to her while my men look for Miss. Johnson."

"She's probably looking for a fix," Nick said.

"She has an addiction problem?" the detective asked, looking less than pleased with the announcement.

"Yeah, she's a sugar addict and if we don't find her soon she'll probably be too wired to answer your questions," he said,

sighing as he gestured for the man to follow him.

********

the hot liquid seeping over her scalp.

Holly slammed her against the wall, again. This time Jamie gave up her useless struggles to push the woman off since it

was clear that the woman was clearly stronger than her and focused all of her attention on kicking the woman. She got in one

good kick and was instantly rewarded with another shove into the hard wall behind her before she moved her legs out of

kicking distance, leaving Jamie with no way to protect herself. How in the heck did the woman get so freakishly strong?

"To get to the top. What else?" Holly asked with a mocking smile. "It shouldn't have been too hard. The man seemed to

fuck anything and everything. When I first came here I waited for him to make his move and when he didn't I had to initiate it,

but apparently the male whore has a rule about fucking co-workers. My initial plan was to let him fuck me and then manipulate

him into putting a good word in for me and if that didn't work I was going to threaten to sue for sexual harassment, but I couldn't

get the bastard to ignore his rules and fuck me."

"Well, he's not desperate," Jamie found herself saying and was of course rewarded with another slam against the wall, but

it had been worth it.

"When you signed on I knew you were going to be my big break. All the senior editors were busy and I'd been kissing ass

for months. I should have been placed as your editor. Never in a million years would I have suspected that Nick wanted you.

He didn't need you, not the way I needed you. I tried to talk Rick into placing me with you, but the bastard wouldn't listen."

"So, you sent me death threats?" Jamie guessed.

The woman looked insulated. "No! I didn't send you death threats, but I will admit that when I found out about them I

thought they would be enough to send Nick running. He doesn't like drama or complications and having some psycho after you

should have scared him off, but it didn't."

"Let me go," Jamie bit out as she tried to shove the woman's arms away, but it was like pushing against steel. The woman

would not budge so much as an inch.

"I thought to push the whole stalker angle when I first found out about it when Rick told me that I was going to be tagging

along as an assistant." Her expression turned cruel as she spat out, "I'm too good to be anybody's assistant. Rick should have

handed you over to me, but instead he insisted that I tag along and play gofer to the bastard.

She gave Jamie another shove against the wall that caused black spots to dance around her vision. She sucked in a breath

as she fought against the urge to vomit. Her head was killing her and she was pretty sure that a few more well placed slams

would knock her out and she was truly afraid of what this crazy woman would do to her then.

"As you can imagine I was not happy at all about the situation, but then I walked in on the two of you kissing in the break

room and I was sure that I found my key to getting Nick to step aside and let me take over. When we got to the hotel I planned

on blackmailing the bastard, but he gave me the brush off and decided to openly spend the night with you and taking away my

hope to blackmail him. If he didn't care enough to hide it I knew he wouldn't care if Rick found out so I tried to convince you

that he was only using you, but instead that bastard called Rick and had me sent home."

Her hands tightened around Jamie's shoulders, moving slightly closer to Jamie's neck when she gave her another forceful

shake. "I knew Rick was going to fire me or worse, demote me to handle nobodies that wouldn't get me anywhere so when I

heard Nick make his little pool plans I took a chance and it worked," she said smugly. "Granted, I thought he'd quit to save his

own ass, but him getting fired worked in my favor." Her expression turned murderous once again as her eyes zeroed in on her.

"That is until I discovered that you fulfilled your contract and weren't going to sign again. I couldn't have that. Not after all my

hard work."

Jamie tried to shove the woman away when her hands came around her neck and gave a warning squeeze. "Now listen to

me, you bitch. I haven't worked my ass off all these years for you to wreck me. You're going to sign the contract if you know

what's good for you and you're going to
beg
Rick to assign me to you."

"And if I don't?" Jamie asked as she desperately tried to remove the hands tightening around her neck.

"There's no ifs about this, bitch," Holly said, tightening her hands around Jamie's neck until it became a struggle just to

breathe. "Do you understand? From now on you will do exactly what I tell you to do."

Jamie shook her head as she struggled desperately for air and freedom. "No, I won't!" she said on a choked whisper.

Not only did she not want to be within a hundred miles of this psychotic woman or her nauseating perfume, but her

pushover days were long gone. She would never let anyone boss her around again or belittle her in anyway. Thanks to Nick she

knew she deserved better than that.

Holly released a screech as her hands tightened impossibly further, cutting off the rest of Jamie's air. As her vision

flickered in and out she slapped, pushed, yanked, and even dug her nails into the woman's arm to get away, but her efforts only

seemed to infuriate the woman. She just resigned herself to this being the end when she realized that Holly had moved closer to

her in order to keep her hold on Jamie. It gave her an idea that she wasn't sure would work, but she needed to try anyway.

Gathering her last reserve of energy as her lungs burned and her world began to fade around her, Jamie brought her knee

up hard between the much taller woman's legs and nearly jumped for joy when the woman let out a surprised gasp and a groan

of pain. Her hands loosened somewhat around her neck. It wasn't much, but it was enough to allow her to suck in a lungful of

air.

Jamie didn't waste any time in shoving the surprised woman away. She stumbled to the side, giving Jamie a chance to run

for it. Unfortunately the crazed woman was blocking the only exit in the room so Jamie settled for running to the other side of

the small office and putting the desk between them.

"You've ruined everything!" Holly screeched as she slammed her fists against the desk. "Everything!" When Jamie saw the

woman's glare drop down to the sharp letter opener lying in its case near the computer she decided that it was past time to

make a run for it. She took off running, thankfully taking the woman by surprise and managed to run past her.

Her hand fumbled with the door as adrenaline surged through her body. She couldn't stop shaking as she tried desperately

not to think about the insane woman coming after her. After a few failed attempts she managed to grip the doorknob and open

the door with a loud bang. She ran into the hallway, not sure where to go or what to do when she heard him.

"Jamie!"

She turned around and spotted Nick running her way with Rick hot on his heels and what appeared to be several officers.

A sob broke lose as she ran towards him, happy to have this nightmare finally over. She couldn't wait to hold him, to kiss him

and tell him how much she loved him. She realized with dismay that she'd never told him that. It was silly and stupid and she

should have told him the second that she realized what he meant to her, but she'd been too-

Something slammed into her, knocking her into the wall. She barely had time to register the thought when she found the

heavy weight yanked away and Nick pulling her into his arms.

"Baby, are you okay?" he asked, cupping her face with shaky hands.

"Fine," she lied in a hoarse whisper with a wobbly smile. Her head was killing her. Her neck ached and her throat burned

with every breath she took. As Nick pulled her to her feet she idly wondered if she could use this as an excuse to drown her

sorrows in ice cream.

"Jamie, you're bleeding," Nick said with an edge of panic laced in his voice.

She reached up and carefully touched the back of her head and winced at the slight sting. "It's fine. Just a little cut." She

hoped at least. He'd probably think that she was a big baby, but she really didn't want any stitches. The idea of a needle sliding

through her skin was enough apparently to make her stomach hurt. Not that she was surprised considering the one and only time

she had stitches she'd passed out on the doctor when he pulled the needle out of the sanitized package.

"Oh shit," Nick muttered, drawing her attention.

Frowning, she followed his glance down to her stomach. It took a moment for all the blood to register in her mind. When

it did the pain decided to make its presence known. She looked up in time to see the officers wrestle the bloodied letter opener

from the still screeching Holly as she was slammed to the ground.

"Oh, that can't be good," she heard herself say hollowly as her legs gave out and everything went black.

Chapter 31

"Chocolate," Jamie whispered and Nick couldn't remember ever hearing a more beautiful word in his life. He chuckled in

relief as he left his chair, ignoring the aches and pains that came along with sitting in the chair for three days straight and went

to his little recluse's side.

He cupped her face in one hand, careful of her oxygen tube, as he leaned in and pressed a kiss to her dry lips. "Welcome

back, sweetheart," he said softly.

"Did I go somewhere?" she asked sleepily, giving him a soft smile.

"It's not important right now," he said, unable to stop smiling. The last couple of days had been the worst days of his life.

A few times it had been touch and go, but she pulled through. His little recluse was a fighter.

"I'm tired," Jamie muttered around a yawn even as her eyes closed.

"That's fine, baby. Go to sleep and I'll be right here waiting when you wake up," he whispered, pressing another kiss to

her lips.

"Okay," she mumbled. "With chocolate," she added barely with it thanks to the pain killers in her system, he assumed.

Chuckling, he pressed a kiss to her forehead. "A huge basket of chocolate, Jamie."

*******

face.

"The doctor hasn't cleared you for solids yet, but the second she does I'll have a truck full of chocolate delivered," he

said, hoping to appease his grumpy little recluse.

Five days without sugar and she looked close to killing someone. Maybe he should sneak her in a chocolate milkshake or

a Coke or something before she tried to escape from her bed, again. Her doctor thought he was kidding when he suggested she

pump pure sugar into her body. He hadn't been. In fact, he was pretty sure that she'd be a very pleasant patient once she got

sugar into her system.

She looked up at him, pouting as she allowed her little chin to quiver as she said, "But I love you, doesn't that mean

anything?"

Grinning like a fool, he leaned over and kissed the tip of her nose. "It means everything, but until your doctor clears it

you're not getting any chocolate." When she opened her mouth, probably to argue, he added, "Or sugar."

"Big jerk," she mumbled under her breath as she dropped back against the pillows.

"Yeah, but you love me," he said, sitting next to her on the bed so that he was facing her. He carefully took her hand in his,

nervous that he'd hurt her if he accidentally touched the IV's in her hand.

She sighed heavily. "I suppose I do."

"Does your stomach hurt, sweetheart?" he asked, raising her hand to his lips to press a soft kiss to her thankfully now