Chapter 10 Houdini
It took a couple of days for Nicki to work up the courage to ask Tyler about the brothers’ summer in Montana, and if he remembered where their mother’s aunt’s ranch was or if it even still existed.
His usual dismissal of Tommy’s whereabouts and denial of his own growing worry for him was frustrating, but Nicki chose to try just one more time with the new information she had.
“Tyler?” Nicki said, leaning against the doorway of his office.
He looked up from his computer. “Yes, my love.”
“Do you know where that ranch is? The one you and Tommy were sent to for the summer in Montana?”
“How do you know about that ranch in Montana?”
“Tommy mentioned it. When we were in the Bahamas. He said you two spent the summer there, chasing wild horses before you were placed in the group home.”
“Honey, if this is another attempt to find Tommy, you can forget it.”
Nicki walked over and sat on Tyler’s lap, putting her arms around him.
“I think he is there. Can we please go and get him?”
“Baby, he was just a kid when we were there last. He wouldn’t be able to find it if you gave him a map and a brand-new strip club. He’s not there. And even if he was, I don’t care. I’m not going to get him; he obviously doesn’t want to be home. So fuck him.”
“Tyler, you can’t mean that! It’s been too long! He’s obviously hurting, he needs his brother, please! Please let’s go and get him! Together!” Nicki pleaded.
“No, baby, you don’t get it. He is being a brat! He has nothing to be hurt over. He’s so spoiled.” Tyler kept his eyes stubbornly on the computer screen.
“I think you’re wrong. I think he is hurting and he just can’t say it.
Remember how he was acting in the Bahamas?
I think there’s a part of him that feels jilted…
Like, ever since you and I got together…
it’s like he’s afraid that I will replace him in your life or that he would like to find something like what you and I have but he hasn’t with his random girls.
I think he feels lost. We’ve gotten closer these past few weeks, him and I, and I think he is just a little…
confused. Plus, with this whole war with the Leemans, it’s a lot for him, you know?
He needs his brother to tell him that he belongs here and that he is loved. ”
“No!” Tyler quipped in a growing temper tantrum.
“Tyler… has he ever had a real girlfriend? Has he ever been in love?” Nicki asked delicately.
“I think he is struggling with some new feelings, and I don’t mean to talk about him as if he is a child, but I think part of him leaving is realizing that you have something that he wants…
” Nicki trailed off, not knowing how to explain it further without giving it away.
“That’s because he always gets what he wants, and he doesn’t know how to handle it when he doesn’t. He’s jealous I finally have you. He’s jealous that after all this time of him telling me to leave you alone I didn’t listen and he’s mad. Even more of a reason to let him be.”
“Tyler, I think he’s in a lot of pain. You saved him from that bullet. He saw you hurting because of him and it’s a lot for him to handle. We should help him.”
Tyler looked at her sternly. “How are you so compassionate? Tommy doesn’t deserve it,” he quipped.
Nicki rolled her eyes.
“So, you won’t help me go get him? Do you know the address of that ranch? I want to bring him back. The crew, you, me, we all need him back!”
“How are you so sure he is out there in Montana anyway? Vinnie can’t track him since California. He’s not going to that old ranch; he has no reason to be there.”
“The horses! He loves horses. I think he’s there, wanting to get back to a childhood memory, to, I don’t know, remind him of something… like you when you took me to the group home—”
Tyler stood up and placed Nicki down gently. Her words struck a chord and it was a delicate one.
“I don’t care if he’s in Montana or Mongolia, Nicki.
Fuck him for leaving and for dropping off the face of the earth.
And you know what? He’s been gone so long because he knows that when he comes back, he’s going to get his ass beat by me.
I’m not discussing this anymore!” Tyler shouted and stormed off.
Nicki shook her head at her failure in getting through to Tyler. The brothers had even more things in common than they thought; both stubborn, both pouty.
You leave me no choice Tyler… I’m going to have to go get your brother and bring him back myself.
The next day was test day.
At noon, Nicki strutted over to the front gate of the Compound nonchalantly with Sasha and Cliff preoccupied in the security pod.
She reached for the handle of the metal side door by the gate, only to have a man’s large hand slam the door shut, right in front of her face.
Nicki gasped and turned around.
“Hi, honey, where do you think you’re going?” Vinnie asked with his hand still on the door.
“Oh, hey, Vinnie, I’m just, uh, going out to go for a little walk. It’s such a nice day outside!”
“In those shoes?”
Nicki looked down at her four-inch patent leather stilettoes, digging into the tiny gravel stones.
She narrowed her eyes at him.
He reciprocated with a sly look.
“Fine,” she said.
Vinnie walked her back to the house, giving Sasha a little wave.
Sasha responded with a light laugh and a wave with a radio in his hand.
Test failed.
A couple days later, Nicki was ready to put her escape plan into place. She went over the key points again, to ensure her execution would be successful.
She printed off the coordinates of the cell towers, which concentrated into a middle of nowhere field in between two small towns of southeastern Montana, near the South Dakota border. She printed off the Google map satellite image of the area as well.
Nicki packed a bigger tote bag with a change of clothes, a toiletry bag, and some extra cash hoping the bulk of it wouldn’t cause suspicion on her way to the office with Tyler.
The morning sex ritual clearly made him unable to think about anything else—telling by the smile plastered on his face as he drove—and she quickly confirmed her bigger bag today was the last thing Tyler would care about or even notice.
The early June weather was warm and allowed for less layers. A light sweater over her more casual lavender dress would have to do. No high heels.
Later at the Compound, Nicki went down to the basement to say her goodbye to Tyler, without him knowing it. He was busy passing boxes over to Jake and Trevor when Nicki approached him from the back, putting her hands around his torso and hugging him tightly.
Tyler smiled, grabbed her hands, and turned around to face her. He leaned down and kissed her lips passionately, to the oooh’s from the guys.
Nicki kissed him back slowly and smiled when she did. Tyler forgot about the boxes.
“Should we leave or…” Jake teased.
The rest of the guys laughed.
They enjoyed it when Nicki was around, as it ensured Tyler was in a good mood. They relied on her to regulate him. It was an unspoken, undeniable truth that the longer Tommy was away, the colder Tyler became without him, and only Nicki was able to melt his ice.
“I’ll leave!” Nicki playfully offered, enjoying the hidden irony of her little joke.
She jumped up and kissed Tyler on the cheek one more time before directing him back to the boxes.
Her guilt brewed lightly but she knew that finding Tommy was going to be worth it. Or so she hoped.
It was time.
Nicki peeked out to the security portable. Cliff and Sasha were dutifully inside of it. She headed there with an unusually wide smile, and cheerful prance, exuding the inauthentic care-free confidence she hoped would come off.
“Hey guys, any mail today?” she asked, leaning halfway into the portable with her leg out to the side of it.
She casually released a chewy dog treat from her hand, letting it slide down her leg. It hit her foot and bounced onto the ground.
“Nothing but some flyers today,” Cliff answered.
“Great,” Nicki replied, giving Sasha a wink and headed back to the house.
Alibi time stamped.
With the guys occupied in the basement and Tico in the garage, Nicki grabbed her bag and casually walked out of the sliding back door. She delicately dropped another chewy dog treat for Boon on the grass as she walked and headed toward the dog pen.
Boon greeted her happily through the chain-link fence. He barked twice, excitedly.
“Shhhhh, Boony, keep quiet!” Nicki said, glancing back once at the house.
She passed the Rottweiler a treat through the fence so he could get a taste. He crunched on it happily.
“Now, Boony, I’m going to open the gate for you. Go find the treats, OK? You be a good boy and I’m going to bring your dad back. Deal?” Nicki let him lick her hand through the fence.
She delicately unhooked the lock and let Boon push the gate open himself, running straight to the bone she dropped, closer to the house.
Too easy.
With Boon preoccupied with the treat and soon to be a distraction for Sasha and Cliff on the cameras, Nicki headed to the lake.
Boon didn’t waste time and devoured the treat, then quickly sniffed his way around the house to the bait treat at the security portable.
“Hey, is that Boon out here?” Cliff asked, looking at the surveillance monitor covering the front lot.
Both men exited the security portable to find Boon happily chowing down and drooling right at the entrance way.
“Haha! Hey, boy! How did you get out? Let’s get you back in your pen, buddy!” Cliff said, shooing the dog along.
Don’t look back, just keep walking straight to the water, Nicki thought to herself, as she adjusted the tote bag strap tighter around her shoulder.
The grassy stretch of the backyard seemed longer than normal but she made it to the lake.
There, now out of sight from the cameras, Nicki grabbed Tommy’s green kayak from behind his wooden lake cabin and dragged it onto the shore and into the water.
Delicately, with her heart pounding faster, she climbed into the kayak as it wobbled along the tiny pebbles in the shallow water. Her breath quickened.