To My Senses The Nicci Beauvoir Series Book 1 (25 page)

Finally, we arrived at my
house, and he drove his red Porsche up to the garage. I had not
even realized the engine was turned off when he appeared at my car
door, rousing me from my stupor.

“
I’ll come in and wait for
your father to get back,” he maintained, after opening the
door.

With a little difficulty, I
stood from the car. “No, that won’t be necessary. I can
manage.”

“
You shouldn’t be alone. Or
are you expecting someone else?” His blue eyes casually browsed my
face. “I only ask because you father gave me the impression someone
else was coming. I could wait until they arrive.”

My lips were icy and it was
hard to talk. “No, there’s no one else coming.”

He offered me his arm, and
I gratefully took it. We slowly made our way to the door, climbing
the porch steps one at a time. I caught sight of Michael’s face as
we made our way up the steps. His concern was obvious. Reaching the
door, I fumbled in my purse for my keys. The purse fell from my
hands and Michael bent over to pick it up for me.

“
I’m going to stay with you
until your father gets back.” He found my keys and opened the front
door.

“
Really, Dr.
Fagles.”

“
Michael,” he
insisted.

“
Really, Michael, I’m fine.
I just had too much champagne.”

“
I wouldn’t be a very good
psychiatrist if I didn’t know the difference between champagne and
what you’re exhibiting.”

Michael closed the door, as
I stepped into the entrance hall. Being back safely inside my home,
made the events of the entire evening seem surreal. I was debating
what to do next, when I felt Michael’s arm slip around my
shoulders.

I don’t remember anything
after that. The world went black.

Chapter 14

I came out of my darkness
to discover I was laid out on the living room sofa. There was a
cool hand towel over my eyes, blessedly blocking out any light. My
father’s voice rumbled somewhere in the distance, and then an
unfamiliar voice answered.

“
It’s some kind of mild
shock. Whatever happened at that wedding hit her pretty hard. Just
let her rest for a few days. Physically, she’s fine. It’s the
emotional repercussions you have to watch out for.”

“
Thank you, Dr. Fagles, for
everything. If you hadn’t been here…I should have never left her
alone.” I could hear my father pacing in the entrance hall as he
spoke.

“
Don’t worry. She’s a
strong woman.” There was a moment of silence and I heard the front
door open. “Call me if you need anything. I’m only a few minutes
away.”

My father mumbled some
response then closed the door. I could hear the oak floors moan
under his weight, as he came over to the sofa and sat down next to
me.

“
I’m not having a breakdown
or anything like that,” I announced, my eyes still closed. “It must
have been a combination of champagne and all the rest.” I removed
the hand towel and sat up.

My father took my hand. “I
was worried. Thank God, that young man was here. I came home about
ten minutes after you passed out.” He shook his head. “Been one
hell of a night, huh?”

“
That is an
understatement.” I rubbed my face. Every nerve in my body felt raw
and exposed. “I thought you were going to the office with
Ned.”

“
Hattie had other plans.
She dragged Ned to the emergency room to check on Colleen.” He
moved closer to me on the sofa.

“
Everyone okay?” I
questioned.

“
They’re fine. Eddie has a
broken nose and a wrenched shoulder. Sammy and Colleen were sent
home. They’re going to keep Eddie overnight for observation,
something about a concussion. So much for his wedding night.” My
father put his arm around me.

“
David didn’t hit
him.”

“
I know. There were several
people around who saw Eddie take a dive down the steps.” My father
sat very still for a moment, and then he uttered a very loud sigh.
“I need to know what David told you.”

My body sagged into the
sofa and I took a deep breath, trying to clear my head. “I
overheard David and Sammy arguing about a deal. The plan apparently
was to have David use me to build a relationship with you and gain
your trust. Then when Sammy gave the word, David was to encourage
you to buy up her stock. The information on the oil leases was
false. They wanted you to spend everything you had on the stocks
and when the real information came out in three days, you would be
ruined.”

“
Go on,” he
encouraged.

“
David said he wanted out
of the deal because he thought we were good people…or something
like that, and then Sammy threatened to expose him.”

He arched an eyebrow.
“That’s it?”

“
Yes, that’s all.” I could
tell he didn’t believe me, but he didn’t press the
issue.

“
Okay. I spoke with Ned
briefly and he says no real damage has been done to our company. We
hadn’t bought up any of the stock, yet. I was waiting for payment
on a big shipment we delivered a month ago. The money was to be
wired into our accounts tomorrow.” The phone in the entrance hall
started ringing. “It’s probably Ned. He said he was going to call
me on the house line.” My father got up from the sofa and went to
the phone.

I heard his muffled voice
in the background, as I rearranged myself on the sofa. It wasn’t
until Dad started yelling that I realized it wasn’t Ned on the
phone. I got up from the sofa and went to the doorway to
eavesdrop.

“
You’ve got some nerve
calling me at home, after all the shit you put my daughter through.
I don’t give a damn what has happened between us, Sammy, but if you
ever get Nicci involved in any of this again, I’ll destroy you.”
There was a moment of silence and then I heard him laugh. “I’ve got
enough to put you away for a long time. What would be the fun in
that? Then my only adversary would be gone and business would get
boring. Just watch your step from now on.” There was more silence.
“No, I don’t know where your spy boy went.” He slammed down the
phone.

I ran back to the sofa and
got comfortable. A few minutes later, Dad came back into the room
and took a seat next to me.

“
That wasn’t Ned, I take
it.”

“
No. It was Sammy calling
to apologize for the confusion. She claims she never had any such
plans concocted for the collapse of Beauvoir Scrap.”

“
You don’t actually believe
her?”

“
Hell, no. Unfortunately,
without David to prove anything I’ll have to let it go. Just chalk
it up to another of her failed plots against me. I will keep my
eyes open in the future, though. If anything, this whole episode
has shown me how vulnerable the company is. We need to make
changes, big changes.”

“
What about David? What
will happen to him?”

“
I think he has probably
skipped town by now. Men in David’s profession don’t hang around at
the scene of the crime to find out what happened. They know how to
disappear quickly. I’m sure he made plans for his departure long
before he began this little caper. However, there’s one thing he
didn’t count on.”

“
What could that possibly
be?” I whispered.

“
You,” he disclosed.
“Whatever his reasons were for getting involved with you, things
didn’t turn out the way he planned.”

“
I was just a diversion for
him. Nothing more.” I got up from the sofa and trudged across the
room to the mantle. My legs were like wet noodles.

“
No, Nicci. You were more
than that. I think his conscience got to him in the end. That’s why
he didn’t go through with his plans.”

I held on to the mantle
trying to keep from falling over. “Do you hate him now?”

“
Yes and no. I’m more
disappointed than angry. I really liked the man. He had integrity,
or so I thought until tonight.” He came up to me and put his hand
on my shoulder.

I shrugged it off. “I
cannot believe that after everything he has done, you don’t want to
kill him. I hope I never see him again.” I turned and slowly made
my way to the stairs.

“
I know he hurt you. In
that sense, yes, I could kill him. That wouldn’t solve anything,
sweetheart,” Dad admitted.

“
Perhaps not, but it would
make me feel a hell of a lot better.”

***

The next morning I awoke in
the chair by my bedroom window. My face felt pasty with dried
tears, and my body was stiff. Outside, the sun was just coming up
over the trees in the garden. Everything around me looked strange,
almost foreign. The furniture and bookshelves in my bedroom were
unchanged, but the ambience of the room was different. It was no
longer the haven of my childhood. The pangs of panic gripped my gut
and began twisting in an uncontrolled frenzy. I had to get out. I
had to find some answers. The dullness of shock had given way to
anger. I had to find David.

***

I parked my car in front of
the small blue cottage, but there was no sign of his red Jeep
Wrangler. The twisting inside of me wound tighter as I approached
his door. I knocked gently, at first, then louder. I was banging my
fists on the door, when the front door to the other half of the
double flew open.

Cora came out dressed in a
light blue cotton jumper with a bright blue bow in her hair. She
had a concerned frown on her lips.

“
Hey there! What ya bangin’
so hard for?”

“
Cora,” I said
breathlessly, “where’s David? I have to find him.”

Cora held up her hands.
“He’s gone, honey. I thought ya knew.”

“
Gone? Gone
where?”

“
I don’t know. He came over
last night and told me he was leavin’ and gave me the key. I asked,
but he wouldn’ tell me where he was goin’. Said he would write and
let me know where I could reach him.”

“
Goddamn him!” I
shouted.

“
He said he left ya
somethin’.” She ducked inside of her door.

I stood there for few
moments, lost in my heartache.

Cora returned, huffing and
puffing as if she had been running. “He said he left it in his
place for ya. Told me that you’d be by to collect it. He made it
sound like this was somethin’ ya knew about.” She opened David’s
screen door and put the key in the lock.

As we walked inside his
half of the double, Cora turned on the lights. The furniture was
still there; only his laptop and some books he used to have lying
around were gone.

“
His furniture is still
here,” I remarked, sifting through some of the unopened mail on his
coffee table.

“
Furniture’s mine, honey.
That poor boy didn’t have nothin’. All he had with him was that
computer of his, and some clothes.”

I hurried into the studio,
where the bright sun had started to filter through the skylights,
and my heart sank. The room was completely bare except for a single
easel standing resolutely in the middle of the room. There was a
portrait sitting atop of it. It was the first painting he had ever
done of me.

David had captured my face,
my smile, and my eyes. I was looking out into the world with a
happy enthusiasm. There was passion in my features. A fire for the
world around me, or the painter in front of me, I wasn’t sure. It
was the face of a woman who loved life. As I stared into the
lifeless canvas, I could feel the numbing sensation of loss
creeping up through my bones.

Cora came alongside me and
admired the portrait. “He must love ya a lot. I can see that in the
picture.”

The numbness had crept
higher, and I could feel it approaching the walls of my heart. I
fought back the urge to cry. “But it wasn’t enough, was
it?”

“
Girl, look at that
picture. A man don’t paint like that unless he feels somethin’ for
the subject. It was obvious to me from the first moment I met ya.
Don’t give up on him jus yet.” She took the portrait off the easel
and handed it to me.

“
He gave up on us,” I
sighed, gazing around the studio.

There was no note. No
explanation. The cold in my limbs had started enveloping my heart.
I motioned to the painting. “So I guess this is all that’s
left.”

“
No, dawlin’.” She placed
my hand on the edge of the canvas. “This is his promise to come
back.”

I took the portrait from
her, feeling the weight of it in my hands.

We walked out together and
stepped on to the porch. I breathed in the cool November air, while
trying to fight back my emotions.

“
Thank you, Cora,” I told
her, as she locked the door behind us. “Thank you for keeping this
for me.”

“
Ya gonna be all right? We
could jus set here on the porch and talk ‘bout it.” She put her arm
around me like a mother hen. “Ya know, I’m gonna miss him, too. He
was a special fella.”

A lump was forming in the
back of my throat. I bit down on my quivering lower lip. “I’m fine.
I’ll be fine. Thank you, Cora.”