Chapter Seven

 

“Why can’t we wake up like a normal couple with an alarm clock?” She asked drowsily, her hand up and brushing stray hair from her face before rubbing at her eyes tiredly.

“Shhh…maybe they’ll go away,” Nico liked the warm softness wrapped against him and wasn’t in any hurry to give it up.

Charity sighed and listened to Nico mumbling against her shoulder.

“Don’t move. I will be right back,” he ordered, shoving his legs over the side and grabbing up his jeans, still mumbling.

“You said that yesterday…” She said, trying to look compliant when he turned an arched eyebrow at her. “Good grief…I got clothes all over the room…”

“Yeah…I noticed,” he said, his expression softening and his sigh contented. He grabbed the cane and headed toward the noise coming from the front door, his voice hard. “I’m coming, damn it!”

“Detective Carlton,” the man said when the door was pulled wide. He held the badge up until the man blinking behind a pair of lenses looked up expectantly. “I’m looking for Amelia St. James. Can I ask who you are?”

“Can I ask how the hell you got inside the locked employees and residents only gate?” Nico returned, leaning heavily on the cane, he sighed and dropped his head when he felt the small palms on his waist. “Charity…”

“A detective?” Came the small voice, her head against his arm.

Nico looked to the side, the red hair was in a feathery mass of disarray. He did remember his hands caught in the thick hair numerous times during the night, so he figured part of the disarray was his fault. Her lips were pressed against his bicep, pale lashes tickling a bit when she blinked.

“Am I in trouble?”

“What do you want, detective?” Nico asked, sighing thickly and deciding he might as well just give up.

“I’d like to talk to you, Miss St. James. If you have a few minutes?”

“My name is Charity Colton,” she said firmly, wishing the sleep would leave her eyes and they would focus.

The detective felt his jaw set a little tighter.

Nico saw the frustration in his face. He didn’t want to be here anymore than they wanted him here, he realized, his own frown curious.

“Give us twenty minutes, detective. We’ll meet you in the resort restaurant for breakfast,” Nico told him, accepting the man’s nod and closing the door when he turned to leave.

“Why do the police want to talk to me?” Charity frowned up at the shadow that filled his cheeks.

Nico looked from the bare toes, painted a bright orange and crossing over one another; the long, bare legs that topped out and disappeared into his shirt, the edges barely held together by the single button she’d latched.

“I guess we’ll know in twenty minutes,” he told her, shrugging and taking her palm, leading them back to the bedroom. He looked around at the collection of clothing on the floor. He groaned when she began gathering things, bending over and sending the male in him into fast alert. The shirt could only cover so much.

“I suppose…” She began getting dressed, handing him his shirt and watching him walk into the bathroom shaking his head. She looked at the surface of the nightstand, the three empty packets reminding her of the muscles that protested now and then. But the other parts of her remembered the really nice feelings that he brought to life in her body.

Charity sat on the edge of the bed, pulling her boots into place when he came out of the bathroom.

“You’re angry at me,” she said quietly.

“I…” Nico met the wide blue eyes and shook his head. “No…I’m pissed at the people throwing themselves into our mornings.”

“Which they wouldn’t be doing if I hadn’t been beaned with a rock,” she said quietly. “You probably had a nice, normal life until then. You don’t have to go talk to him, you know. I can deal with it.”

“Charity…I have a nice normal life and it has you in it,” Nico pulled her to her feet and lifted her hands to his shoulders. “You can’t remember. So we deal with it together. I’d been working on my nerve to ask you to have dinner with me before you were beaned in the head,” he told her, laughing at the surprise on her face.

“Really?” Childish delight filled the single word.

“Hmm…we usually leave the apartment at the same time,” he told her, stepping back and finished dressing, tucking his shirt in and looking for shoes. He tossed the shoes he wanted to the living room, found socks and walked with her to the other room. She had cleaned up the empty packets on the night stand but he needed to remember to resupply before they returned. “Every morning, you come running down the stairs, you never take the elevator. I’m usually in the cart, ready to pull out when you flash that sexy smile at me and take off across the parking lot toward the employee entrance. I wasn’t sure how to slow you down…”

Charity laughed, fingers raking the red feathery hair into a semi neat place. “Guess you never thought of a rock,” she quipped, sighing and straightening her shoulders, her lashes down for a quiet minute. “My stomach hurts.”

“I wondered when that was going to hit,” he said softly, taking her palm and walking with her to the door. “Let’s get it over with. Then we deal with whatever it is, okay? Once step at a time.”

She nodded but didn’t say anything. She also knew she was giving herself a headache trying to force memories. Charity let her gaze sweep the man standing near the entrance to the restaurant. He wasn’t as tall as Nico, and held a little more weight on his frame. He looked older, but that could be his life style wearing on him, she thought, meeting the dark, empty eyes that watched her.

“You aren’t a detective,” she said quietly when the waitress had led them to a table and left them with the breakfast menu.

“I’m with the police, just a little higher than your basic street level detective,” the man admitted after staring into her eyes for a long, silent minute.

“They pressured you to come speak to me,” Charity continued, not breaking eye contact. “I think it bothered you that I wasn’t alone for this meeting.”

Nico felt the tension in him tighten another notch when the man actually appeared guilty at her accusation. He saw the man’s dark lashes narrow slightly as he continued to appraise Charity.

“Why are you here, Mr. Carlton?” Nico asked flatly, tossing the menu to the side and leaning back in his chair.

“To issue a personal request that she return to San Francisco,” he said simply.

“Someone sent you…” Charity repeated her thought slowly.

“You have very influential parents,” he returned with a tip of his head.

Charity was silent, placing her order and waiting until they were alone again. He didn’t place an order.

“I don’t have parents, Mr. Carlton,” Charity said flatly. “I have a father and a step-mother and two uncles, all of which gave my grand-parents a royal pain in the ass.”

“You were sent here…because her parents have money?” Nico stared in disbelief.

“Her family has influence,” Carlton corrected simply. “They contacted the San Francisco commissioner who, in turn, contacted the commissioner here. I’m delivering the request.”

“Did you see the news story?” Charity asked abruptly, watching his reaction. He shrugged.

“It’s on the national news, Miss St. James. I read the missing persons report this morning before I came to see you,” he told her.

“But I’m not missing. I’m not a wayward child and I’m not going back there,” she said with a sweet smile. “But thank you for visiting the resort. Come again when you can stay longer.”

“It’s in your best interests…” The man ground between his teeth, annoyed at the flippant response.

“Are you threatening me?”

“I’m making a strong suggestion, Miss St. James.” He stood up and looked from one to the other. “Convince her to go home, doctor. It’ll be best for you both,” he turned and left the restaurant.

“I keep waiting to wake up,” Charity said quietly, eyeing the omelet and toast being set out before her. She heard her stomach growl and decided being awake for breakfast wasn’t a bad thing. “Do you think he came here to kidnap and take me back there?”

Nico stared at her and sliced into the steak on his plate. “This is something out of a really bad movie, Charity. I don’t know. I don’t know how to gather enough information to even make a guess. It’s locked up inside your head.”

Charity worked her way silently through the ham and cheese omelet, looking up when her name was called as they were finishing breakfast. She watched the dark haired woman her age wave and come running through the restaurant.

“Charity!” Danielle Greystone O’Conner came to a skidding stop, breathless and leaning on the table. “I got the key and code for you,” she declared, rummaging in the bag on her hip. “Somewhere…”

Charity looked from her to Nico, hoping for some kind of clue.

“Nico Setopoulis,” he extended his palm.

“Oh, sorry…Danielle,” she looked from one to the other, shaking his hand briefly. “What’s wrong? Brady went to let them know we were leaving…it was a wonderful…oh, you don’t know! He hijacked me and had a wedding set up in one of the penthouse suites! It was so romantic!” She whispered excitedly, wiggling her fingers to show off the new rings. “Oh, and Abby and Cassidy were part of the ambush! It was a triple wedding! You should have seen their faces when Cade and Mac…” She came to a slow stop, aware of Brady coming up behind her. Her head shook slowly. “What’s wrong?”

“Did you give her the key, Danielle?” Brady looked at the three people, one brow arching at the silence.

“You haven’t seen the news,” Nico said carefully.

“No…haven’t read a paper or bothered…what’s happened?”

“Congratulations on the wedding,” Charity said with a smile, standing up and hugging a person she guessed was a friend. “You look very happy, Dani.” Her head cocked to the side. “The key and code…I…the condo…I leased the condo from you. Gave you a check for the years lease fee…”

“What’s wrong?” Dani repeated firmly, looking expectantly at Nico.

“Charity was assaulted on Friday morning outside the dorms,” Nico said quietly. “They struck her with a large rock, according to Cassidy. The video footage shows what looks like a male dressed in black sweats. They spoke and she shook her head and turned to leave. He hit her with a one of the granite border pieces on the edge. She’s got some stitches and can’t remember a lot of things…”

“That’s why my things are in boxes. I’m moving,” Charity said as if to herself.

“I…are you alright? Really?” Danielle pulled a chair over and plopped down. “Why didn’t you…well, you couldn’t because you don’t know who to call…can I help? I don’t know how to…”

“Breathe, Dani…” Brady put his hands on her shoulders. “Any idea who it was?”

“Nothing,” Nico answered, shoving his plate back and nodding to the waitress, handing her money and telling her to keep the change.

“Here’s the key,” Danielle took a ring with three keys on it from her little bag, along with a small note pad. She found a pen and wrote across the surface. “This is the address. It’s been cleaned and all the furniture is there. Jasper has tons of furniture and Brady didn’t want anything from there. Oh…hah…this is Brady O’Conner…Dr…”

“Setopoulis…just call me Nico,” he said with a smile, shaking hands with the man behind her. “And congratulations to you both.”

“I have a condo,” Charity said, her smile a little crooked.

“I don’t…is there anything I can do to help?” Dani felt the little pain inside her at the lost look in her friend’s eyes.

“Just time,” Charity said, forcing a bright smile into place. “It’s okay…it’ll be back…” she said confidently. “It’s just taking its sweet time getting here is all. I guess I’ll go visit my new place…if I can figure out what my car looks like…” She sighed, drawing in a long, shaky breath.

“We’ll find it, Charity,” Nico told her, lifting the keys and code from the table and dropping them into his jacket pocket when he stood up. “Thanks, Danielle…Brady, nice meeting you both.”

Charity stood up and hugged Danielle. “It really is okay…bits are flying back into my memory every day.”

Nico had his arm around her, his palm on her waist as they walked back to the dorms, his gaze sweeping the area as they walked. Old habits, he thought, mixed with new instincts. And an amazing new reason for those instincts to be honed to a fine edge.

“Your place or mine, Charity?”

“Yours…I feel safer there,” she answered, immediately wishing she had sounded tougher. “I’m sorry, Nico…I should go home. I need to…to think…I have to remember.”

“Charity, you can’t force this,” Nico said firmly, refusing to release her hand. “Until we have all the facts, we just continue with our lives the way we want them to be.”

“I suppose I could call…” She pulled the phone from her bag on her hip and stared at the front, taping through a collection of buttons until she found the address book. “Surprise…the numbers are in here…” She stepped into his apartment and laid the phone on the counter, dropping her coat to the sofa and staring at the phone.

“Mental dialing?”

“I was thinking more stare of death,” she replied. “Not sure what to say to them…guess I could let the fireflies loose and see what happens…”

Nico laughed, deep and low. The humor came to a slow halt when he watched her press the speaker button and tap the call number. A deep, male voice answered the call.