20. Take Her to Paris
CHAPTER 20
Take Her to Paris
Henry
I woke up with Nikki’s long leg wrapped around my thighs, her head resting on my shoulder, and my arm tucked in the dip of her waist. A smile pulled at my lips. I wanted this peace, this happiness. Was Nikki right in thinking the only way to get what we wanted was to risk it all, to use ourselves as bait? Her idea was, at best, a really long shot. But it was all we had.
“I keep waking up, expecting you to be gone.” Nikki stirred next to me.
“I told you. I’m not going anywhere.” Squeezing her tight, I kissed the top of her head. I still couldn’t believe that after all this time, we were finally together. Nikki was everything I’d thought she’d be and then some.
She rubbed her hip against me, her cheek sliding across my chest. “I’m never going to stop wanting you.”
“Me neither.” I dug my head into the pillow and let my desire for her work its way down to my toes. My heart drummed in my throat as she adjusted her weight to get on top of me. Yeah. I wanted this too .
“What are we doing today?” I kneaded her breast.
“Don’t you have to go to work?” She pressed her mouth to my stomach and continued down until she found my cock.
“Hmmm.” My breath hitched.
“I’ll take that as a no.” She let out a sexy laugh.
I brushed her hair out of the way to see her face. Meeting my gaze, she flashed me a smile, before she pressed her lips to the tip of my erection and let it slip inside her mouth slowly.
“Christ, I want you.” I sat up and drew her up for a kiss.
“Won’t they fire you?” She straddled my legs with an innocent look on her face.
“I’m okay with that.” I grabbed a condom from the bedside table and rolled it on.
Her hot skin felt so good against mine. I lifted her butt and set her right on top of my shaft. She smiled at the ceiling, and I was treated to a spectacular view of her breasts and the dimples between the muscles around her stomach. She rocked her hips slowly against mine for several beats before she leaned forward to kiss my cheek and neck.
I wrapped my arms around her waist, wishing we could stay like this all day. Maybe one day soon, being with Nikki would make me feel like she was here to stay. Maybe one day we’d get to be who we wanted to be. She squeezed her legs just as her hot and silky walls tightened around my erection, dragging me to the edge of my orgasm.
“Henry.”
“I’m right here.” I took over, maintaining the pace she had set for us.
Heat grew between us every time my hips rose up to meet hers. She met my thrusts one for one. I kept at it until we both climaxed. The pressure in my chest let up. No other woman would do for me. No other place or other life. I wanted this with Nikki. She was worth every risk .
“I love you,” she whispered on my lips. She took another minute to catch her breath and then jumped out of bed.
“Me too. But you can’t just have your way with me and scoot out. Where are you going?”
“I got a pass to see Lisa. I gotta go.” She stood in the middle of the room, gloriously naked.
“Let me come with you. I owe Lisa an apology.”
“She would love to see you. Meet me downstairs in thirty minutes.” She beamed at me.
“Is that thirty minutes for real or an hour like before?” I asked, but she left the room without answering.
I went to the bathroom and discarded the condom. Because of Nikki, I had these things stashed everywhere—in the back pocket of my jeans, in the car, behind the bar, and even in the shower.
An hour later, I sat at the bar and watched as she descended the stairs wearing skinny jeans and a top that matched the sapphire necklace we’d found in mom’s security box. She looked absolutely stunning.
“We don’t have time for that.” She laughed.
“Time for what?”
“Whatever you’re thinking.” She ran her hand down my abs and kissed me. “We gotta go. And you’re making us late.”
“Me?” I followed her out of the hotel.
“Yeah, you.” She climbed into the passenger seat of her Tesla. “You’re driving.”
“As you wish.” I shook my head, smiling.
I took Main Street out of town and got on the 303 toward Goodyear. This early in the day, I managed to get us through the city at a decent speed. We reached the women’s prison in a little over an hour. When I pulled into the visitor parking, I turned to look at Nikki. Her eyes watered as she eyed the gray building in front of us. It was a terrible place for an innocent woman to spend any amount of time, let alone fifteen years.
“We’re going to get her out of here.” I reached for her hand.
“I know. I just wished I had better news for her today.” She unbuckled her seat belt and climbed out of the car.
At the front desk, we went through the process of signing in. On Nikki’s request, Dom had also put me on the visitors’ list. The ward quickly went through the visitation rules then asked us to wait in the designated area.
“I was hoping you’d come.” She wrapped her fingers around mine as we took our seats.
“I’m here, Nikki. For whatever you need.”
“Thank you.” She leaned in and kissed me.
Almost immediately, an officer came into the waiting room and called our names. She flinched and sat back before she realized she hadn’t done anything wrong.
“Cops make you jumpy?” I teased.
“Shut up.” She smiled and stood to face the officer.
I couldn’t imagine how hard this was for her. It pissed me off to see her like this, dealing with the guilt of not being able to save her sister. A guilt I was very familiar with. Both Mom and Lisa had been in prison for fifteen long years. We had to end this now.
Nikki sat facing the glass, rubbing the inside of her wrist. When Lisa came out, my stomach sank. This woman could not be the Lisa I remembered. At eighteen, Lisa had been given charge of her ten-year-old sister. She had no choice but to grow up fast. But this, this was someone else. She looked much older and defeated.
Lisa hesitated for a moment before she took her seat. Her gaze darted from Nikki to me. I’d bet she had a million questions running through her head. Like what the hell was Nikki doing with the guy whose family put her in jail and ruined both their lives?
Nikki picked up the speaker phone, and Lisa did the same. Her lips moved, but I couldn’t hear what she was saying.
“Yeah.” Nikki slanted a glance at me. “That’s Henry.”
Lisa spoke again, and Nikki blushed. “Yeah.” She offered me the phone, and I took it.
What was I supposed to say to the woman who had been imprisoned for Dad’s murder? Especially now that I knew she was innocent. Even if we hadn’t found any evidence of it, it was clear to me that Lisa had just been at the wrong place, at the wrong time. She was a victim in all this, just like the rest of us.
“Lisa, I’m so sorry,” I whispered into the speaker.
She shook her head, a sad smile on her face. “Come on, Henry. You were just a kid. Just like Nikki, there was nothing you could’ve done.”
“We’ll make it right. We have a plan.”
Her lip trembled, and she shook her head again. “Do you love her?”
“What?”
“My sister. Are you in love with her?” she asked.
“Lisa. I’ve been in love with her since we were in grade school.” I glanced over my shoulder.
Nikki ducked her gaze and smiled.
“I know. I just wanted to be sure that was still the case. I’d hoped the two of you would find your way back to each other somehow.” She placed a hand over her chest, tears brimming her eyes. “Take her away from this place, Henry. Take her to Paris. Leave before you lose her again.”
Behind me, Nikki paced the small room.
“We can’t leave you or Mom here. We both ran away once, and it almost killed us. At least for my part, I can tell you I spent the last ten years consumed by regret and loneliness, barely breathing, barely living. I can’t go through that again.”
Tears spilled onto her cheeks, and she wiped her hand across her face. “I was selfish for dragging Nikki into this. I should not have done that. It’s over, Henry. I’m stuck here.”
“No, Lisa. I’m not doing that to Nikki. I’m not leaving. Mom isn’t sick anymore. We’re going to find her and get her to testify for you.”
She breathed into the speaker. “Henry?—”
“Don’t do this, Lisa. Don’t push her away. As long as you’re in here, Nikki won’t find peace or any kind of happiness. With me or anyone. Do you understand that?”
She met my gaze, trying to get a read on me. I relaxed my face. Lisa didn’t need to know how terrified I was, how much I doubted my own words. Our plan was a half-baked one, and it might not work, but she had to at least let us try. We were ready to try over and over until she was given the justice she deserved.
“Her happiness and your freedom are worth the risk,” I said.
She conceded with a nod. “Promise me you’ll take care of her.”
“I promise I will protect her with my life.” I smiled.
“Thank you.” She glanced over her shoulder. “That day, when I found your dad, there were streaks of blood on the floor, like he was dragged out of the tunnel under the stairs. I told my lawyer what I’d seen, but he said they hadn’t found any blood that far away from the body.” The words flowed out of her, as if she’d played this conversation many times in her head, probably knowing she’d never be able to tell it to anyone, not even Nikki. “They thought I was lying.”
“I believe you. Nikki and I were playing in the tunnels that day. We…we think we saw Jonathan. There’s also evidence that sh ows Dad was moved postmortem.” As fucked up as it all sounded, it felt good to finally be able to speak up about what happened. When Dad died, in one way or another, we’d all gotten buried along with him. “We think he killed Dad. Why else would he be in the tunnels if not to move the body?”
“But he came out of the study when he found me.”
“Maybe he heard you coming and hid in the study. I don’t know, Lisa. It was so long ago. I don’t really trust my memory of it.” I glanced up at Nikki, who’d come to stand next to me and brace her hand on my shoulder.
“What is it?” Lisa asked.
“Something I remembered led to a document I’d been looking for, which I think means my memories are not all that fucked up. It had to be him. My uncle killed his own brother.”
Lisa pursed her lips. “That son of a bitch. He was the one who turned me in, along with his wife, Francesca. She was horrible to me, yelling at me, saying I was going to rot in jail for what I did. And all that time, her husband was the real killer.” She stood, slamming her hands on the glass. The guard by the door stood at attention, sliding his hand to his gun while he kept his gaze on Lisa. “I’m sorry,” she said to him.
He gave her a sharp nod and relaxed his stance. I wanted to kill Jonathan. I wanted to see his lifeless face spread across a dozen pictures, like the ones Nikki had in her room. I wanted to see his body covered in bleeding wounds like Dad’s. He didn’t deserve to have it all after what he did. How dare he take Dad’s job as mayor? Stroll about town as if he owned it, as if he cared about our family?
And Francesca had gone along with it, covering his heinous crime? I’d be willing to bet she’d known about it too. Why else would she spend so much time and energy to make the entire town hate Lisa and Nikki? She had to have known. If she had, she was as guilty as him, and she deserved to rot in jail too .
“Now you understand why we can’t drop this? Why we can’t run away like we did before.” I leaned forward and touched the glass dividing us.
“Yeah, that son of a bitch has to pay for what he did to your dad and me,” Lisa said through gritted teeth. She met Nikki’s gaze, and all the color left her face. “Let me talk to my sister.”
“What is it?” I asked.
“Please. We don’t have much time.” She peeked at the guard. “And Henry, be careful. Someone who can kill the way Jonathan killed your dad and then blame it on someone else with such conviction isn’t right. Your uncle is a sociopath. There’s no telling what he’ll do if he finds out you know that truth.”
I nodded. Of course she was right. Even if she only knew half the story. I couldn’t tell her about Mom. Knowing Mom knew the truth and hadn’t come forward would kill Lisa. Maybe Lisa hadn’t bonded with Mom the way Nikki had, but Lisa loved Mom too. In that short summer they spent at Cavalier Manor, both Lisa and Nikki had found a home with us.
“I know. We’ll be careful.” I stood, and Nikki took my place.
“What did she say?” Nikki asked.
“That we better not screw up.” I laughed.
Nikki narrowed her eyes at me, not buying the nonchalant act for a second. She gripped the phone as Lisa spoke. I leaned on the wall, feeling a few pounds lighter, and exhaled. After everything that happened, Lisa didn’t hate me or blame me for any of it. She was happy to see Nikki and I were finally together.
My chest tightened. She’d been in this place, knowing she was innocent, knowing there was no way out for her. What had made Lisa, after fifteen years of resignation, contact Nikki? What had given her hope again? Had it been the parole hearing? Or something else entirely?