Love on the Malecon (21 page)

He cracked his neck to each side again and
walked back into the bedroom before Sylvia could get suspicious. He
thought if he could distract her enough he could pull the gun and
shoot her before she’d have a chance to hurt Nicole. He wasn’t
ready to kill her; he figured her shoulder was a good spot. He saw
her fondling Nicole’s breast with the gun and Nicole smacking it
away. The whole thing just made him sick to his stomach, but he was
so impressed with how Nicole was handling it all.

“Okay, I’m back.
Don’t touch her
!” he
growled,
“
Let her go.”

“No, I think I want her to do a strip tease
for me. Wouldn’t you like to see that too?” Sylvia sneered
again.

“She’s not doing anything. Silvia, you’re not
going to shoot anyone. You know how many hotel guests would hear
the shot? There’s no way you’d get away,” he said. What the hell
was she thinking? He needed to figure out how to distract her and
get the gun faced away from Nicole,
“
If you want either of
us to do anything, you’re going to have to put the gun down.”

Sylvia didn’t answer. She looked like she was
trying to decide what to do next. At least she didn’t refuse
immediately. That had to be a good thing.

“Come on, Silvia, put it down. We’ll figure
this out together,” he said in a quiet tone. Maybe referring to
them together would have an effect. Sylvia slowly started to
waiver, lowering the gun a little. She was thinking about her
options.
“
That’s my girl,” he said, remembering that he had
called her that sometimes when they dated because she was so
tiny.

She smiled at him and he knew she remembered
as well. He watched her movements closely. As recognition hit her
face, she must have forgotten about holding the gun because her arm
dropped from the weight of it so that the barrel pointed to the
floor.

Before she had time to react, Derek pulled
the gun and shot Sylvia in the shoulder. She screamed from the
shock of the pain and the gun fell out of her hand. Her other hand
came up to cover the wound. Nicole jumped off the bed. Derek kicked
the gun toward her, keeping his weapon pointed at Silvia.

He had done it. Nicole was safe and Silvia
was disarmed. Silvia was screaming at him in Spanish, but Derek
stayed cold-faced, aiming right at her head. He freed Nicole
without killing Silvia, but if she tried to hurt Nicole again, he
wouldn’t hesitate.

“How are you holding up, love?” he asked
Nicole without looking at her.
“
The police will be here
soon. Just hang in there. You can get dressed now.”

Nicole walked up behind him to stay out of
his aim, whispering that she loved him. She kissed his shoulder and
set the gun on the dresser behind them. She quickly dressed and
stood beside him. They waited like that, stuck in time, until the
police arrived.

When the police did show up, it was a chaotic
scene. They kicked the door in, guns drawn, screaming
“Policía
!” Everything started happened at once and with lots
of screaming. Two officers went over and secured Silvia. There was
no official reading of rights or anything like that in Mexico. They
just pushed her over and slapped cuffs on her wrists. They were not
gentle with her wound and Derek couldn’t have cared less. A female
officer went to Nicole.

Derek realized he was still facing the gun at
Silvia when a man yelled at him to drop it. He looked up and saw a
gun pointed at him in precaution. He raised his free arm in
surrender and slowly bent down to put his weapon on the floor. When
he did, he put the other hand up and backed away. As soon as he was
out of reach of it, the officer lowered his gun and took the one
from the floor. Derek apologized to the officer. The man didn’t
seem to hold a grudge.

He walked over to check on Nicole. The woman
was taking her story. He sat down next to her, but tried not to
interrupt anything. He looked up and saw Gael walk in. Telling
Nicole that he’d be right back, he ran over, asking,
“
Did
Gabriel call you?”

“Yes. Sorry I couldn’t get her in time,
amigo
. She went off the grid.” He seemed worried Derek was
going to yell at him.
“
She looks like shit as a blonde,” he
added.

“Just make sure wherever they take her, she
doesn’t come back,” Derek told him and put a hand on his arm to
show there were no hard feelings. This wasn’t Gael’s fault.
Together, they watched Silvia get taken away in hand cuffs. Both
officers acknowledged Gael as they passed him.

“I still have connections with the agency.
I’ll make sure I get to interrogate her and have a say in what
happens,” Gael told him.

“We’re in Mexico,
amigo
. I don’t
really want to know what happens to her. Just make sure she doesn’t
come back,” Derek informed him.

“I will make certain she doesn’t.”

Derek looked back toward Nicole. Watching her
talk about the incident, she seemed very disconnected from
everything. He hoped she wasn’t going to disconnect herself from
him as well. This was a lot for anyone to take. Attacked by a crazy
man, then held and practically molested at gunpoint by a crazy
bitch. He hoped she wasn’t ready to leave Puerto Vallarta and him
behind and run as fast as she could back to Chicago. He couldn’t
blame her for wanting to go back to a normal life. Andrew was most
likely still across the street. Would he blame her if she went
running back into his arms?

It looked like the officer was finished
asking her questions. Nicole saw him coming over to her and gave
him a sweet smile. He sat down next to her on the bed.
“
I’m
so sorry this happened. She’s in custody and Gael assured me she
isn’t coming back.”

She leaned her head on his shoulder.
“
That’s good.”

They sat there quietly while the officers
finished their work. Gael handled everything with them so that
Derek could focus Nicole and he was grateful for that. He wanted
everyone to leave. There had never been this many people in his
apartment and he didn’t like it. His apartments were his fortress
of solitude and he was only ready to share them with Nicole. He
wanted to curl up with her in the bed with all of the windows
opened. They could listen to the ocean and the sounds of people on
the beach. He wanted Nicole to be okay. He couldn’t tell what was
going through her mind and he hoped that she would tell him.

Finally, it was quiet, just the two of them
still sitting on the bed.

“Do you want to talk about it?” he asked
her.

She looked apprehensive at first. But next
thing he knew, she was crying and telling him everything that had
happened. He figured that she must have been holding everything in
and now she could fall apart. It was very hard to listen to, but he
knew that it was no comparison to Nicole living through it. He
wanted to kick himself. He thought he was protecting her by talking
to Andrew and she was left to deal with Silvia on her own.

He had no idea that Silvia was into women,
either. She joked a few times about having a threesome, but always
made it sound like it would be to please him. He wasn’t into that
kind of thing. He usually would never wish bad things on people,
but he couldn’t help think that she’d be getting all kinds of
female attention if she ended up in a Mexican prison. He honestly
didn’t care. She needed to pay for what she did and had threatened
to do.

When Nicole caught him up on what happened
before he got there, she took a deep breath. She had needed to get
it out, but now all the tears seemed to be gone. She asked,
“
How did you manage to save the day this time? Where did you
get the gun? And the police?”

“When you called Andrew ‘John’ and mentioned
exes, I knew you were trying to warn me. I sent a text the manager,
Gabriel, for help while I was getting water out of the fridge.”

“Thank God you caught on. This could have
ended badly. I hated hearing you call her ‘your girl’, but I know
why you did it.”

“It was hard to say, but it seemed like the
only thing that would work. You’re my only love now.” He kissed her
head.
“
Does it feel like a stay-in-bed-all-day kind of day?”
he asked her,
“
I can open up all of the windows to the
patio.”

“Yes, I would love that. I’d like to take a
shower first,” she replied. He kissed her and she stood up.
“
Would you tell me what happened with Andrew when I get
back?”

“I’ll tell you everything.”

He wasn’t sure how she would take Andrew
saying he wouldn’t leave. She didn’t need any more drama. That he
knew for sure.

Nicole stayed in the shower for a long time, the
events of the day tumbling through her head. She tried to stay
positive. Derek had talked to Andrew and Silvia was in custody.
There shouldn’t be any more road blocks for them, other than the
fact that she lived in Chicago and he lived in hotels around the
world. After everything that happened with Silvia, that problem
seemed easy enough to figure out.

When she got out of the shower, she wrapped
herself in the big white robe that Derek had set out for her. She
went back into the bedroom, where all of the windows were open.
Derek had made them a pot of coffee and had set extra pillows out
on the oversized chaise, the spot where they made love for the
first time in this apartment. He walked up to her with a steaming
cup of coffee,
“
I thought I’d have all of this bedding
replaced today. For now, would you like to sit out on the balcony
for a while?”

“That sounds wonderful,” she replied,
“
Come tell me what happened with Andrew.”

They snuggled up on the chaise. Nicole was
worried that she might spill coffee on the stark white cushion. But
Derek said,
“
It can be replaced. Enjoy yourself.” So she
settled in. He continued,
“
Andrew wasn’t very receptive to
the idea of discussing anything with me.”

“That doesn’t surprise me.” She burrowed
herself into Derek’s shoulder as far as she could.

“He thinks that I used your situation to my
advantage. He’s here to get you back and he knows that he wants
you. I explained that I didn’t take advantage of you during your
grieving. I also explained to him that he should have found out
where you would be traveling for safety’s sake and that he should
have come with you. I told him that I was there with you while you
remembered your father.”

“How did he take that?” she said, in between
sips of coffee.

“He wasn’t happy, but I did finally get him
to explain why he didn’t come.”

“Really?” she was interested to hear what
Andrew had to say for himself.

“He said that he didn’t travel often and he
thought you were too hasty in your plans. That was it.”

“Seems like a perfectly good reason to lose a
girlfriend,” she tried to joke.

“There’s another thing.” Derek hesitated and
she wasn’t sure why.
“
He said he’s not leaving. He’s waiting
to see you in person.”

Nicole just closed her eyes, wondering what
to do. Part of her wanted to walk down there right now in her
fluffy bathrobe and slippers and explain that she was perfectly
fine without him. Part of her wanted to let him wait here until he
died.
“
Hmmmm,” was the only audible sound she could
muster.

“Want to think about it later?”

“Yes, I do. I want to enjoy the quiet with
you for now.”

He set both of their coffee cups down. The
sun was higher over them in the sky and Nicole started to feel hot
in the robe.
“
No one can see us, right?” she asked.

“Not a soul, love.”

She took off her robe and laid back to let
the sun hit her whole body.
“
I could get used to this!” She
peeked up at him and he laughed. With the sun overhead, she could
only see his silhouette.

“I took a look at your list again,” he said,
“
What do you think about hiding away inside today and
spending the whole day tomorrow checking things off of it? We’ve
had a few distractions, but now we can get back to it.”

She still couldn’t see his face from the
brightness of the sun, so she sat up to be at eye level with him
again,
“
Yes, even with all of the shit that has happened, I
still want to explore Vallarta for my dad.”

“Then we will.” He leaned over and kissed her
deeply. Although she was naked, his hands did very little
exploring. He grabbed onto the side of her hip, but it stayed there
firmly. She knew he wasn’t going to make love to her after what had
just happened and appreciated him for it. Even though the man would
always excite her, she also knew that this wasn’t the time. She
loved that their connection was more than physical.

When he slowed and ended the kiss, he looked
at her.
“
Any way I could get you to stay a little longer?
One more week is not long enough.”

She nestled back into him again and soaked up
the moment.
“
I have to get back to work,” she said.

“Do you miss it?” he asked her.

“Yes I do,” she replied, realizing that it
wasn’t the job she missed, but rather the writing itself. She had
caught herself over the last few days thinking of how she’d
describe things and how she’d set a scene. All of her writing over
the past few years had been about other people’s weddings. She
enjoyed it, but she did miss getting to use her imagination the way
she did in college. There was a time when she saw herself as an
author more than a columnist. Nicole hadn’t thought about that in a
long time. She wanted to clarify her answer, so she added,
“
Well, I miss writing more than the job.”

“You know, you could write anywhere.” He
kissed the top of her head.
“
If there was a place that
inspired you, I would take you there.”