8. Did You Make It to Paris?
CHAPTER 8
Did You Make It to Paris?
Henry
“Okay. Now you’re doing this on purpose.” I leaned toward her.
Keeping my hands off Nikki was going to be hell. But I’d promised her we’d take it slow, and I planned to stick to that, though this little display was just cruel and unusual. That suit of hers hugged every inch of her shapely legs and small waist. Dressed like this, she looked like a real-life superhero.
“Everything I do is on purpose. I thought you knew that.” She winked and zipped up the rest of her black leotard suit.
“Is all this really necessary?” I tore my gaze away from her to pick up a set of night-vision goggles off the bed.
“Yes.” She came to stand next to me. The faint scent of her perfume took me back to a time when our lives had been much simpler. In her heart, Nikki was still the same girl I’d met fifteen years ago.
“Stop touching. This is expensive stuff, and it’s not mine.” She snatched the goggles from my hand.
This was the worst time to be penniless. Nikki had every right to be angry at me, maybe even disappointed. I’d never cared about the family’s fortune because I never had to be without it. When my lawyer told me my college fund had run out and I had nothing left, I’d been pissed at my uncle. But I was the one to blame. I was the biggest idiot for letting him con me out of my own money.
When I put in a bid on Paradise Creek’s request for proposal to renovate their downtown, all I’d seen was an opportunity to come back and satisfy this urge I had for revenge against my uncle. Nothing more. But now that I’d found Nikki again, so taken by the family money, I wanted more than revenge. I wanted it all back: my family, my life, and the Cavalier fortune. Most of all, I wanted to give Nikki everything she’d ever dreamed of. I wanted to be the one to lend her these goddamn expensive night-vision goggles. I wanted to be the one she came to for help.
Her shoulder brushed my chest. The small touch drew me to her like a magnet. I placed a hand on her waist and rubbed the underside of her ribs.
“We need to stay focused.” She slapped my fingers away and continued her inspection of her high-tech gear.
“God, you haven’t changed a bit.” I chuckled. “So bossy.”
“Hey, Kettle.” She flashed me a smile before she stuffed the equipment in her backpack, along with a flashlight and other stuff I seriously didn’t think we’d need. She swung the bag over her shoulder and turned to face me. “Ready?”
“You’ve done this before?”
“New York is full of interesting trinkets.” She put her hair up into a ponytail on her way out the door. I followed her as she ran her hand over the sheets dividing the lobby and the staircase in half. At some point, this stupid wall had to come down. We were partners now.
“There used to be a tunnel access in the coat closet, but it’s closed off. It’s all brick, and who knows how far it goes?” She pointed toward the makeshift butler’s pantry on her side.
“So that’s why you chose this side? Because you knew the tunnel was there?” I’d been so distracted by the idea of having her here I hadn’t seen through the “you can have the side of the lobby with the bar since you already spent all that time cleaning it” bullshit.
“Yeah.” She nodded. “Where are we going?”
I opened the front door and pointed toward the street. The determined look on her face filled me with hope and excitement. Mom was coming home tonight. Outside, the starless night greeted us with a warm and musty spray. The monsoon had finally taken pity on us. Rain pelted my shoulders as I bent down to remove the manhole cover.
“I’ll go first.” I glanced at her.
Nikki rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. Water scurried down the asphalt, between her black-leather boots, and dripped down the steel, and now-slippery, ladder.
“Let me guess, because you know what you’re doing.”
“Good. I’m glad you remember that.” A split second after I dropped to the ground, Nikki fell next to me. She pressed her body to mine and clutched my bicep tight. I didn’t like the dark either. It always made me think of Dad. “Did you replace the cover?”
“What do you think?” She rolled her eyes again.
“Sorry. Didn’t mean to be a jerk. I’m nervous.”
“I know.” She smiled.
“Come on. Right through there.” I walked to the end of the small room and flipped the switch.
She stared at the dimly lit corridor, her gaze dark with resolve. I kept my eyes on Nikki’s silhouette as she picked her way down the passageway like a shadow, moving fast, every step silent and fluid. A quarter of a mile in, the electrical conduit ended, leaving us at the entrance of a pitch-black tunnel. I gripped Nikki’s hand and couldn’t help but smile. Only Nikki could understand what these tunnels meant to me.
“We’re almost there.” She aimed her flashlight ahead of us.
Nikki could handle herself. I’d gotten a taste of that her first day back when I ran into her at the construction site. But Cavalier Manor was full of nightmares and old memories that neither one of us wanted to recall. Had I made a mistake getting her involved?
“You really should’ve worn the suit I got for you,” she said. “You stick out like a cold sore.”
“A sore thumb.”
“You know what I mean.” She shrugged and spun in place to take in the space around us.
“I’m fine. We’re going to Cavalier Manor, not Langley.” Had Nikki ever done something as big and as dangerous as breaking into a government building? Ten years was a long time. I knew next to nothing about her. So much lost time, and so much I wanted to know about her. “Did you make it to Paris?”
She stopped in her tracks and turned to face me. What was going through her mind right now? “No. Made it as far as New York.”
“Why? What stopped you?”
“I ran out of money. Well, most of it, anyway. I guess I freaked out when I realized five thousand dollars wouldn’t last forever.” She winced.
I brushed her cheek. Her soft skin felt cool against my fingers. “Tell me about your time in New York. Tell me about your first con.”
She let out a laugh and continued walking down the dark tunnel. “It was by accident really. I met a guy at the bar where I worked. I was eighteen. ”
“And you worked at a bar?”
“I had a fake ID. I needed one to work. But that’s a different story.” She waved a hand in dismissal. “Anyway, I met this guy, and he seemed very into me. By then, I knew I’d never make it to Paris, and I was just trying to survive somehow. That night, I was so tired and fed up with my reality…I made up some sob story about me, and he bought it. I think I just wanted someone to feel sorry for me. I told him I was going to NYU and that my parents had cut me off. I acted like a spoiled brat, and he ate it up. Then he did something that surprised me and changed my life forever.”
I stuffed my hands in my jean pockets. Nikki had gone through so much on her own. What had this prick done to her?
She chuckled, placing her hand on my chest. “Relax. Nothing like that. He offered to pay for my tuition. ‘Stick it to them. Your parents are assholes.’ I believe those were his exact words. The guy was clueless, but I accepted his offer. Then quickly realized how much I could get done if I set my mind to it. In one summer, I got my GED and got accepted into NYU. Granted, not everything was entirely legal.”
“I wish I’d been there with you.” I shook my head. “Did you finish school?”
“I did. Went through three rich boyfriends, but I got it done.” She stopped to flash her light at the pile of rubble Russ and I had left behind. “Looks like someone
tried to close off this tunnel in a rush.”
“Yeah.” I nodded.
My heart raced as we climbed over the debris. The last time I came here, Mom had refused to leave with me, but I was sure she’d change her mind once she saw me with Nikki. Once she realized it wasn’t too late to be a family again.
The rest of the way, Nikki didn’t offer any more details on her life in New York, and I didn’t press her on it. At the end of the tunnel, we found the steel ladder that led to another manhole and my childhood home. Being here, hiding like a criminal, still hurt. But having Nikki by my side made everything less painful.
“This is it. We’re on the north side of Mom’s Garden.”
Nikki placed a hand over her mouth, her gaze fixed on the heavy cast iron cover with the Cavalier seal embossed on it. Was she thinking the same thing I was? Through that opening at the top, beyond the brick wall surrounding the property, was the mesquite tree where we’d agreed to meet the day I lost her. Why was she being so stubborn about us? We obviously had a lot of unfinished business, but that didn’t matter. She wanted me as much as I wanted her. This thing between us was far from over.
“Kill that.” She pointed at my flashlight before hers went out. I followed her lead and plunged us into darkness. The water trickled down through the opening and puddled at our feet. With a sigh, Nikki stepped closer to me and slipped her hand into mine. “I never thought I’d be back here.”
“Me neither. Are you ready?” I squeezed her fingers.
“No. But let’s do it anyway.”
I climbed up the ladder first. Cold and slimy under my touch, it rattled every time my foot landed on a rung. When I reached the top, I shouldered the manhole cover and moved it out of the way. A layer of mud avalanched down the opening and onto my clothes. Great. I bet Nikki was dry and comfortable in her high-tech suit. On the bright side, the cloudy, dark sky and rain turned everything, including us, to the same pale gray color. If we couldn’t see the guards, there was little chance they could see us.
“Don’t move,” Nikki whispered, pressing her warm body against mine. I snaked my arm around her waist to keep her steady on the narrow rung while she adjusted her night-vision goggles on her face. “There’s a guy in uniform walking along the wall. What’s with the double security? Is your uncle nervous about something?”
“He should be. I’m back in town, and he’s keeping my mom prisoner in her own home.” How lonely she must’ve been all these years, doped up on God knows what kind of meds for a condition doctors couldn’t diagnose. “Can we go now?”
“Yeah.” Nikki rushed through the last steps as the ladder squeaked under our weight. She headed straight for the hidden door behind the bushes, dropped her backpack on the ground, and crouched next to it. “Gosh, I don’t remember this door being this small.”
“I know. You think you can work this lock?”
She snorted and glanced up at me. “There’s nothing even fancy about it. Now stop talking. I need to concentrate.”
While Nikki worked her magic, I sat against the wall, wiping mud off my pants, wishing I’d worn the suit she gave me. “You remember when we used to sneak out in the middle of the night?”
“Yeah, I remember. Can you imagine what your mom would’ve said if she’d found out you were sneaking around with the help?” She forced a laugh.
“You were never the help. And Mom knew. She knew about the hot chocolate and the tunnels.” I reached for her hand.
“What? How come you didn’t tell me? All that time, I thought we were drinking stolen hot chocolate.” She shook her head, smiling.
“It made you happy. I didn’t want to kill the thrill for you.” I touched her cheek.
She covered my hand with hers and met my gaze.
“Nikki—”
“We’re in.” She pushed the door, and it creaked open .
A musty and cool breeze rushed in our direction, as if the tunnel had been holding its breath all this time. With a tight grip on my flashlight, I snuck in behind Nikki and let the door shut behind me.
“Straight ahead, I think?” I took a deep breath to ease the pounding in my chest.
“I just kicked something.” She bumped into me, and her beam of light danced around the walls.
“Don’t think about it, just keep going.”
When we were kids, this place hadn’t seemed so gloomy. We’d sit here and listen for the steps overhead while dust settled on us like snow as people rushed back and forth. Maybe that was the difference. The house felt deserted now and eerily quiet.
I picked up the pace and hung a left at the end of the hallway. The way I’d done countless times when Cavalier Manor was home to me.
“Is this the right spot?” I leaned on the wall and pushed. Shuffling sounds came from the other side, but the door didn’t spring open like it was supposed to.
“I think so. There’s something blocking the way.”
“Yeah.” I pushed my body up against it again, and the door gave way just enough for Nikki to squeeze through the gap.
“It’s a settee. Hang on.”
Nikki was like a ghost, soundless and quick as she moved the furniture around before she came back to let me in. This was the worst time for it, but all I wanted to do was kiss her again.
“There’s no one home, Henry,” she whispered.
“Let’s check Mom’s room first.” I dashed upstairs.
Had my uncle taken Mom somewhere else? Had we waited too long to come back? I barged into Mom’s bedroom, and my stomach sank. Clothes were spread on the bed and on the chaise near the bay window, while a bunch of hangers lay on the floor.
“Does it look to you like they left in a rush?” I asked.
“For sure.” She pointed her light around the room. “Did your uncle know you were coming? You think your mom told him about your visit?”
“Fuck.” I rubbed my face with both hands. “Why would she do that? Does she really not want to see me?” I swallowed and plopped myself on the mattress.
Had I made it all up? Had I imagined the fear in Mom’s eyes? I’d been so quick to believe she’d been kept here against her will. Anything was better than accepting the fact that Mom didn’t want me. Obviously, I was wrong. Why else would she flee a couple of days after she saw me?
“Let’s not jump to conclusions.” Nikki brushed her fingers along my jaw and then slipped them into my hair.
I pressed my cheek to her chest and hugged her. The scent of her fancy body wash kept me from spiraling into a dark place of self-pity and giving in to this anger I’d felt toward Mom all these years.
“If she’s as sick as you said, maybe she doesn’t want to impose on you. Maybe she wants you to remember her the way she used to be, before she got sick.” She kissed the top of my head and peeled my arms from around her. “We’re already here. How about we take a look around and see what we can find? This is our chance to riffle through your uncle’s study. Not that he’d leave your dad’s real will just lying around, but you never know.”
Nikki was right. We had to keep moving. It would’ve been nice to have Mom back, but if she didn’t want that, I had to respect her wishes. Even if I felt like a new hole had been punched through my chest .
“Hey, take a look at these.” Nikki stood by Mom’s vanity table, a bouquet of roses in her hand. “These look fairly fresh.”
“Mom had a bunch of roses on her lap when I saw her. Let’s take them.”
“Okay. But check out what she used to tie them together.” She showed me the stems, wrapped with an empty packet of hot chocolate, neatly folded in three. “I think she left this here for you.”
I removed the pack and smiled at it. After all this time, Mom had finally thought of me and left me a message. The note was barely legible, but it was definitely her writing.
I don’t know where they’re taking me. Or when I’ll be back.
I love you, Henry. Always .
Mom
“She didn’t leave you.” Nikki braced her arms around my waist.
Her voice was a small whisper full of meaning. Nikki hadn’t left me either. I was just the biggest idiot for believing in someone like my uncle. He never cared about me. Everything he ever did was for his own benefit.
“I didn’t imagine it. She was scared that day. Nikki…we need to find her.”
“We will.” She cupped my cheek and pressed her lips against mine.
Her kiss was like breathing pure oxygen.