Chapter 28
“ N ick,” Jane exclaimed.
He seemed equally as dumbfounded to see her. “Janie. You cut your hair. I love it.”
Jane’s shock wore off, quickly replaced by anger. She leapt over the table, grabbed his shirt, and dragged him closer. “What are you doing here, you exponential moron?”
“Maybe you want to take this outside,” Nuthatch suggested. “If we get kicked out of here, it’s going to take more than we’re worth to work our way back in.”
“Fine,” Jane said. She scooted from the booth, grabbed Nick by the arm, and frog marched him outside.
“Ouch, what is your problem?” Nick asked, shaking free from her as soon as they were outside.
“What is my problem? What are you doing here?” Jane asked.
“Are you still mad about the other day?” Nick asked.
Jane grabbed both his biceps and shook him. “Answer the question. What are you doing here?”
“Some guys said you wanted to have a conversation,” Nick said.
Jane’s hands went slack. She stared at him. “Do you have any idea what you’ve stumbled into?”
“What?” Nick asked, smiling. His hand slipped up, reaching for her hair.
“Don’t touch her,” Blue said, stepping forward, his hand reaching for the gun inside his jacket.
“Or what?” Nick asked. “You going to arrest me?”
“Not me,” Blue said as Ridge rounded the corner, a pair of police officers in his wake. Technically they had the power to arrest people, but it tended to cut through a few layers of inter-agency bureaucracy if they involved the police and let them do it instead.
“Hands where I can see them,” Ridge said. He grabbed Nick’s wrist and tossed him against the wall.
“What?” Nick said, confused. “Is this some kind of joke?”
“No, it’s not a joke,” Jane said. “They think you’re a forger, a terrorist. You are in big trouble here, Nick. Huge.”
“Is this for real?” Nick said, his smile beginning to slip.
“Nick, what did you do?” Jane pressed as the two officers frisked him, cuffed him, and read him his rights.
“A guy paid me to paint some artifacts for him,” Nick said. “Why is that bad?”
“Did you do a canopic jar?” Jane asked.
“Among other things.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Jane asked.
“Because I thought you’d be mad, and rightly so, apparently. You’ve always had a hair trigger when it came to this kind of stuff, Jane, you know you have.”
“Who was the guy?” Ridge asked.
“No idea. He found me on the internet. I had an ad out to do freelance artwork,” Nick said.
“How much did he pay you?” Ridge asked.
“Five thousand dollars,” Nick said.
“Five thousand dollars?” Jane echoed. “What were you thinking?”
“That I needed the money. Where else am I going to get that kind of cash, parking cars?” he asked. “I had the talent to do what he wanted, and I knew a bunch of stuff from listening to you talk all these years. So, really, it was kind of an homage to you and how much I listened and absorbed.”
“Wait a minute, is that how you were able to afford my engagement ring?” she asked.
He shrugged. “I used some of it for that, and for some other stuff. It was good money, Jane. Come on, it wasn’t that big of a deal.”
“Not that big of a deal? You know how I feel about forgeries, that they’re a scourge on my profession, and you knowingly did it anyway,” Jane said. She was yelling now, but she didn’t care. Nick still didn’t realize how much trouble he was in, how wrong he’d been. And he’d used forgery money to buy the engagement ring he presented to her. She had never been more furious with him; she had never been more furious with anyone.
“So a few fakes slip in now and then. You’re the only one who knows the difference,” he said, and it was the complete wrong thing to say to her. She lunged for him, arms outstretched. Blue caught her around the waist, holding her off the ground as she struggled against him.
“Let me go, I need to hit him,” Jane yelled, still reaching for Nick even as the officers led him away.
“Maybe take her somewhere, help her cool off,” Ridge suggested, and he sounded amused.
“Right,” Blue said, tossing Jane over his shoulder as he headed down the block.
After Nick was out of sight and they’d gone about a hundred feet, she began to calm down. “Of all the idiotic things he’s ever done, that’s the most idiotic. I think that hurt more than when he cheated on me. To think he purposely faked my life’s work.”
“You’re more upset about that than the engagement ring?” Blue asked.
“Yes.”
“So I guess this means the wedding’s off,” he said with repressed glee.
“There never was a wedding,” she replied, sighing. “You can put me down now, I’m fine.”
“Nope,” he said. He continued to carry her like a flour sack until they reached his car. Then he set her down, pressed her against the car, and mashed his body to hers. “I hope I never make you that angry.”
“You already did,” she told him, though it was hard to remember when he was full on pressed against her, his face mere centimeters from hers.
“When?” he asked.
“When you walked away from me six months ago and never looked back,” she said.
“I had some things I needed to work on.”
“Did you work on them?” she asked.
“I’m here, aren’t I?” he said.
“I thought you were here for work,” she reminded him.
“Who do you think brought you on this project? I made a convincing argument that we couldn’t do it without you,” he said. “Are you really not getting married in two weeks?”
She shook her head. “Emily is getting married in two weeks. That was her dress you saw me wearing.”
“Why didn’t you correct my assumption?” he asked. He took her hands, pressing their palms together and winding his fingers through hers.
“How could you believe I was marrying Nick when you…” she trailed off.
“When I what?” he prompted.
“Exist,” she said. They stared at each other, their breathing labored, their heartbeats synced and thumping out of control. Blue’s phone buzzed with a text.
“I have to get that. It could be a work crisis,” he whispered, pulling the phone from his pocket. He read the text and puffed a laugh.
“What?” Jane asked.
He turned the phone to show her a text from Maggie.
FYI, Mic’s still hot.
“Who’s Mick?” Jane asked.
“Not Mick, microphone. You’re still wired, it’s still on, and they’re still listening.”
She squeezed her eyes closed. “How do we turn it off?”
“There is no off. It has to be contained,” Blue said.
She reached into the bodice, ripped off the microphone, and handed it to him. He tossed it in the back seat of the car. “Can you hear us now?” Blue asked, and there was no answering text from Maggie.
“Safe,” Jane said.
“Safe,” Blue agreed. “Now where were we? Oh, I remember.” He cupped her face in his hands. “Missed you, Jane. So much.”
Her hands rested on his chest, and she stood on her toes, bringing her lips closer to his. “I think maybe we need to go somewhere and have a long, thorough discussion.”
“I’m a huge fan of that plan,” Blue agreed when someone stepped behind him and spoke.
“Let’s all go somewhere,” the newcomer said as he jabbed a gun in the back of Blue’s head.