For the first time in a long while, Jackson wished he had someone to talk to about it all. Jonathan had left before he had a chance to bark up that tree and Nikki had kept Kelli busy enough that he’d never been able to catch her to ask. Jackson wondered if Nikki was doing it deliberately. If he hadn’t been afraid that she’d terminate him on the spot, he would have asked her and not moved until she answered.
It was Thursday night when Jackson wondered if the second shoe was figuratively ever going to drop at all. He was reclined back in his passenger’s seat with a bottle of beer he’d figured was okay to have in his hand. It was nearly nine at night and he fully expected to stay for a few more hours before heading home. The one perk to Nikki not really wanting him around was being told his services weren’t needed yet but he could come into Orion after lunch and work out until everything went back to normal. Again, Jackson wondered if this was a normal way to treat a recruit. He’d have to ask when an agent showed up. All active ones were currently spread out across the country working contracts.
Jackson was taking a pull from the bottle when he caught sight of a man on the sidewalk across the road. It wasn’t unusual for passersby at this time. Nestled closer to downtown, the apartment complex was two blocks from a bar and some restaurants. Others had walked to, from and past the apartments with no red flags flying up for Jackson.
But the way the man in the Rangers baseball cap tilted his head just enough so that his face was hard to make out and quickened his stride as he neared the front doors put Jackson on edge. A bad feeling began to expand in his gut as the man went into the apartment building. Jackson opened his door, dumped out the beer and tossed the bottle in the back.
Maybe the other shoe was about to drop.
* * *
THE WINE FILLED the glass effortlessly.
Nikki appreciated the lack of hassle. She spied her laptop and took a long, long drink of the pinot noir and decided work could, for once, spend the night alone.
She had a date with a bubble bath.
Switching out her phone for her iPod, Nikki let down her hair and trailed into the one bathroom in her small yet cozy apartment. She turned her iPod on shuffle and set it down on the counter next to the sink, turning up the volume so she could get lost in the sound. She didn’t often partake in relaxing in this way, but since she’d seen Andrew she couldn’t deny that her mind and body were on the tense side. Nikki might be hardheaded when it came to her workload, but even she realized she needed a break from time to time.
The claw-foot tub was old, needed to be painted all over again and was largely underused, but as Nikki undid her robe, put her wine glass down on the wooden table that hooked on each side and slid into the warmth, she couldn’t help thinking it was a gift from the gods. Her senses filled with the rosy aroma of expensive bath salts, a gift from her sister, and Nikki let out a small sigh of contentment.
It didn’t last long.
Her thoughts went from a mantra of just relax to the three addresses on the letter meant for her to Andrew’s rage at the speed dating event to the collective upset of her friends. Then to the new recruit whom she’d been avoiding. From there, her mind recalled his beautiful eyes as he had tried to glean the truth behind what was happening. The truth about Orion’s past and hers.
Nikki leaned her head back against the lip of the tub. She closed her eyes, her wine glass forgotten.
Telling Jackson about Andrew and the Averys wouldn’t be a bad thing to do. Oliver, Mark and Jonathan had in their own times come clean about what had happened to outsiders. For them it had drawn sympathy, empathy and understanding. They were men trying to move on. Men trying to redeem themselves. And in Nikki’s opinion, they had done that ten times over.
However, she wasn’t like the men.
Just as Morgan Avery could never grow old, Nikki could never forgive herself. She didn’t want redemption because she didn’t believe she deserved it. If she’d only spoken up. If she’d only stood up against Andrew.
If only.
Nikki kept her eyes closed and slid down until the water engulfed her. The song currently playing outside distorted. The noise of her worries dampened. Andrew was just ruffling her feathers, she reasoned. He was being dramatic. She nodded beneath the water, as if to doubly reassure herself, and came up for air. Water streamed down her face. She wiped at her eyes and felt the sting of leftover makeup seeping beneath the closed lids. Balling her hands, she began to knead at the pain, wiping away as much residual mess as she could. Nikki became so focused on clearing off her mascara that she realized a few moments too late that she’d heard something that didn’t fit with the apartment.
Her eyelids flew open, forgetting the sting of pain of soap and makeup. She didn’t even have time to scream.
One moment there was a man standing in the bathroom’s doorway holding a bat at his side. The next he was crossing the room toward her with startling speed. Nikki barely had time to duck out of the way, let alone time to scream, as he swung low. Water sloshed out of the tub and she felt the air off the bat as it passed an inch or so above her head.
The man let his momentum get the better of him. He stumbled when the bat didn’t connect.
Nikki reached out for her wine glass, no longer forgotten, and twisted around just as the intruder was getting his balance back. She held the stem of the glass like the handle of a hammer and aimed for the side of his head. The glass shattered and red wine exploded between them.
“What the hell?” roared the man as he clutched at the side of his face. The hat he’d been wearing dropped to the floor seconds before the bat clattered against the tile.
Nikki gripped the edges of the tub and tried to scramble out of the side opposite him. Soap and water made everything too slick. She lost her footing as she threw one leg over the edge. Her other leg shot out from under her and just as quickly she became a tangle of limbs against the tile floor.
Pain exploded along her chin and elbow on impact, but Nikki knew enough about the kind of men who would assault a woman at home alone to know that they probably didn’t like when their prey fought back. Adrenaline spiked through her, coursing in parallel to the horrible realization that she was caught vulnerable, as she scrambled back to her feet. She slung herself around to face her attacker, putting the tub between them and her even farther from the only exit.
“Who are you?” she questioned, voice cracking despite her resolve to try to grab some control. The man was slightly hunched in pain, holding the side of his face now covered in red wine. Or blood, she couldn’t tell which. She searched the rest of his face for any flare of recognition, but nothing about him seemed familiar. Around the same age as her thirty-four, the man looked gruff with his goatee and slightly wild dark hair. His clothes, however, were as normal as if he was going to the park to play ball. Yet he’d taken a pit stop by her place to—to what? Use her for batting practice? Either way, she didn’t recognize the man in the least. Certainly not the blood-curdling snarl he let out before lunging for her again. Never mind the tub between them.
Nikki used his misjudgment against him. She grabbed the wooden tray from across the tub and swung out at him with it. Another roar tore from his lips as the plank hit his outstretched fist hard. The two of them recoiled from each other, one in pain, one in fear. She might have been thwarting his attempts to hurt her, but she was also making him angrier. Once he decided to pick up his bat again, how long could she really hold him off?
Nikki pictured her handgun in the top drawer of her bedside table, two rooms away. If she could manage to put some distance between them, she’d have enough time to grab it and turn on him. Judging by the almost tangible rage building around him, it was her best option. Without waiting any longer, Nikki threw the wooden plank with everything she had at the man’s head. It forced him to shrink back in defense, throwing up his arms and cutting off his eye contact with her momentarily. She used the small window of opportunity and rounded the tub.