Lita was going into her house when the phone started to ring.
“Lita,” Janice was in tears. “Derrick was on the way home in a private plane. It crashed somewhere in the mountains. Everyone on board was killed.”
“Oh, Janice, I’m so sorry. How’s your mother taking it?”
“I haven’t told her. I’m afraid to.”
“I’ll be right there.”
It didn’t take Lita long to walk to Dora’s house. Janice met her at the door. Lita put her arms around the girl. “Oh, Lita, how could I have been so wrong?”
“What do you mean dear?”
“Derrick called me before he left Michigan. He told me he’d hired Cliff Meeker to beat up Mom.”
“How did he know the man?”
“I think he said they met at some fishing tournament or something. You know how Derrick likes to fish. Anyway, he said Cliff was supposed to make me fall in love with him.” She began to cry harder. “I thought I loved him, Lita. He was a horrible man, and I was so foolish.”
“It’s alright, dear.” Lita folded her arms around the trembling girl.
“I don’t know if it will ever be alright, Lita. The man I thought I loved is a murderer, my brother tried to have our mother killed, my daddy is not my real daddy, and my mother is dying. How can anything be right again?” She broke into sobs.
“Let’s go sit in the living room and let you cry it out, Janice. We don’t need to be facing your mother in this condition.”
“I know.” Her big brown eyes turned to Lita. “How could she have done this to you?”
“I don’t know, honey, but as I said before, we’ll work it out.”
“How can you stand the sight of me?”
“Janice, none of this is your fault. Why should I shun you? When this is all over, you and I will only have each other.”
“What about Nicole? I know you’re crazy about her.” Janice sat on the sofa and Lita sat down beside her.
“I’ll always care for Nicole, but she’ll probably be leaving soon. Her heart belongs to Connor now and they belong together.”
“It’s my fault Elsie had Cliff kidnap her. I’m sorry I was so mean to her, but I was afraid she was my lost sister and I was jealous.”
“It doesn’t matter now. Nicole is safe and she’s going to be fine.” Lita smiled at Janice. “Now, we’re going to get ourselves together and go talk with your mother.”
* * * *
It was almost midnight when Nicole woke up again. The room was lit only by a small light over her bed. She looked to the left and Connor was sitting in the lounge chair. He was too far away for her to touch. She smiled as she looked at him. He looked so handsome with his sandy hair mussed up and his tortoise shell glasses hanging on the end of his nose. The newspaper lay across his lap. She knew he must have gone to sleep reading because he never wore his glasses unless he was reading or working on one of the files at the office.
He probably needed to sleep, but she had an overwhelming desire for him to hold her, if only for a minute. She wanted to tell him she remembered now. She knew who she was and where she was from. She wanted him to know she wasn’t married and never had been. There was only one serious relationship in her past and that happened a long time ago. The man had decided he wanted his freedom and after he was gone, Nicole hadn’t found anyone special until Connor. Some day she would explain all of this. For now all she wanted was to feel him near her.
“Connor,” she said softly. He stirred, but didn’t wake up. “Connor,” she said a little louder.
He opened his eyes and looked at her. He saw her pained smile and pulled the chair into a sitting position. “Did you want me?” He asked. He acted as if he wasn’t sure how to react to her.
“Can you pull your chair closer to me so I can see you better?”
He folded his paper and put it on the table beside her bed. He then took off his glasses and laid them on it. Pulling the chair closer to the bed, he still seemed to force a smile as if not knowing what to expect.
She took his hand. “I’m so glad you’re here.”
* * * *
He smiled again, still afraid he’d say the wrong thing. The doctor had told him not to rush Nicole. Let her get her memories back as she could handle them. He’d said they might return all of a sudden or they could slip into her mind one at a time.
“Tell me what happened.” She looked at him.
“What do you remember happening, Nicole?” He knew he had to be cautious.
“I was coming to work.” She smiled. “I wore my yellow outfit and my rainbow sweater because I wanted to look nice for you.”
“You always look nice to me.” His heart began to pound.
“Thank you. You’re sweet.” She grinned bigger though he knew it was painful by the way her face twitched. “I remember you said nobody called you sweet and I told you I’d do it again and again. Remember?”
“I remember.” He grinned back. Dare he hope she was recalling their time together? Would she remember how much they meant to each other? Oh, God, please, he prayed silently. I need her so much. Let her remember she loves me, and that I love her.
She went on with her story. “As I said I was on my way to work and I reached the next block after ours when a car pulled up to the curb. Cliff Meeker got out and told me I had to hurry. Katrina was hurt and needed to see me. I believed him.” She closed her eyes. “I was so foolish. I got in the car with him. It was then he told me he’d hit Katrina so hard when she told him she was going to have a baby she fell off the boat. He said he knew instantly that was the answer to his problem of an unwanted pregnancy.” Her eyes took on a sad look. “He said he let her drown because she wouldn’t agree to an abortion. He pretended her fiancé drowned with her so nobody would suspect him.” Nicole shuddered. “When I told him to let me out of the car, he hit me.”
“I’m sorry this happened to you, darling.”
She held his hand tighter. “Did he really kill Katrina?”
“Yes, he did, honey.” With his other hand, Connor reached over and brushed a tear off her cheek. She began to cry harder and he took a tissue off her night stand to wipe her tears away. “They’ve charged him with her murder so he’ll pay for what he did.”
“I never thought he was the right man for her, but she loved him so much she was willing to overlook his faults. She was my best friend.”
“I’m so sorry you lost your friend.” He leaned over the bed and kissed her forehead. “And I’m sorry he did this to you, but thank God you’re alive.”
“I’m glad you’re here with me, Connor.”
He brushed her lips gently with his. He wanted to grab her and kiss her passionately, but he wasn’t about to hurt her bruised and swollen face, or take a chance on causing more pain to her battered body. “Can you go on, darling?”
She nodded. “Cliff took me to this seedy motel. When we got inside he shoved me on the bed and said he was going to rape me, but he didn’t get a chance. Elsie came in. She said she was going to the bank to get some money to pay him then go by your office and see you. She taunted me and told me you’d forget all about our little affair as soon as she showed you what a real woman could do.”
“You didn’t believe her, did you?”
Nicole grimaced again when she smiled. “Of course not. I know you love me.”
“Yes, I do.” He kissed her neck softly. “You’re the only woman in the world I’m interested in.”
She reached up and put her arm around his neck. “Cliff asked her what she wanted him to do with me and she said she wasn’t sure yet. He told her he’d kill me for more money, but she said to wait. She wanted me to be alive for a while. Cliff said that was fine with him because he planned to have sex with me several times before he got rid of me.” She shuddered.
He moved his fingers over her arm. “Did he rape you, honey?”
“Would you still love me if he did, Connor?”
“Of course, I’d still love you. I’d want to kill him more than I do, but I’d still love you.”
“He didn’t rape me.” She reached for him. “I’ll always love you, Conner.”
Connor moved closer to the side of her bed. He raised the head until she was almost sitting upright. He sat on the side of the bed and reached out his arms to her, careful of her bandaged ribs and her bruised body. She moved gingerly as she snuggled against him. After they were comfortable, he whispered. “I’ll always love you too, Nicole. I want to spend the rest of my life telling you how much.”
“Oh, Connor. I want that, too.”
“You don’t have to talk any more, darling.”
“I need to say these things. It’ll help me accept what happened.”
“Then, go ahead. I’m here to listen.”
“Cliff probably would have raped me if Elsie hadn’t told him he couldn’t. She said she’d make me so unattractive no man would ever want me again, especially you.” She took a deep breath and winced.
“Oh my lord, what did she do?”
“She began hitting me. I was about to pass out when I heard him tell her if she didn’t stop, she was going to kill me herself. I guess she believed him because she did stop and told him to put me somewhere nobody would ever find me.”
“Elsie actually did this to you?” He was surprised, but not shocked.
“Yes. After she left to get his money, he put me in the car and we went to the storage units. When he put me inside he told me he couldn’t help feeling sorry for me, but not sorry enough to let me go. He said Elsie promised him more money when she had you hooked. He shoved me down on the concrete floor. Maybe he did feel a little sorry for me because he took my sweater off me before he tied my hands. He shoved it under my head and said, “Now, you have a pillow.” I told him I didn’t want to get blood on my sweater and he laughed.”
She looked at him. “Where is my sweater, Connor? I don’t want to lose it. It’s special to me because you bought it.”
“Lita took it home to see if she could get the blood out of it. I told her not to bother because I’d buy you another one.”
“But I want this one. It reminds me of the wonderful things we did on our special trip.”
“Oh, sweetheart, we’ll take another trip as soon as you’re able and you want to go. I’ll buy you all the sweaters you want.”
She shivered.
“What’s wrong?”
“I was just thinking about what Cliff said when I asked him when someone would let me out. He laughed and told me not to worry about it. Somebody would know where I was when they smelled my decaying body. He then gave me a couple of hard kicks in the chest and laughed as he closed the door.”
She shivered again and Conner pulled her to him. “I’m sorry you had to go through this darling. If I could get my hands on him...”
“I want him to pay for what he did to Katrina.”
“He’ll not only pay for that, he’s been charged with kidnapping you, attempted murder, the assault on Dora Hildebrand, and a host of other crimes.”
“Does that mean it’s all over now?”
“Just about. I’m sure the police will want to talk with you, now that you remember.”
“Of course I remember. Who could forget a thing like that?”
“I don’t know, Nicole. I really don’t know.” He turned her face toward his and reminded himself to be gentle as he softly kissed her lips. “As long as you remember our love for each other, nothing else matters.”
“Of course I love you, Connor. I’ve loved you from the first moment I saw you come into the front office with your glasses on the end of your nose.”
“And I remember how pretty I thought you looked sitting there in that little checked suit of yours with the skirt a few inches too high on your thigh. You looked so appealing telling me why I needed to give you a job. I couldn’t resist hiring you, or falling in love with you either.” He again kissed her gently.
“I’m sorry. I want to kiss you so bad, but I can’t kiss you properly. My mouth is too sore.”
“Don’t worry, darling. It won’t be long until we’re together forever. We’ll be able to do all the kissing we want to.” He grinned at her. “We may even go to Europe where we’ll be able to do something else too.”
“I’m sure Lita would tell you to be sure and use protection.”
“To heck with protection. I can’t wait to marry you and start making a baby with you.”
“Oh, Connor, Grandma Mildred is going to love you. She’s always wanted to be a great-grandma.”