Blue-Eyed Devil (Travis Family #2)(90)

"The passive-aggressive jerk," I said. "If he wants to break up with me, he'll have to do it face-to-face."

Jack grinned. "I almost pity the bastard. Okay — you handle Cates, and I'll set Dad straight on a few things."

"No," I said automatically, "don't do anything about Dad. You can't fix my relationship with him."

"I can block or run interference."

"Thanks, Jack, but I don't need blocking, and I really don't need any more interference."

He looked annoyed. "Well, why did you waste all that time complaining to me if you didn't want me to do something about it?"

"I don't want you to fix my problems. I just wanted you to listen."

"Hang it all, Haven, talk to a girlfriend if all you want is a pair of ears. Guys hate it when you give us a problem and then don't let us do something about it. It makes us feel bad. And then the only way to make ourselves feel better is to rip a phone book in two or blow something up. So let's get this straight — I'm not a good listener. I'm a guy."

"Yes you are." I stood and smiled. "Want to buy me a drink at an after work bar?"

"Now you're talking," my brother said, and we left the office.

It was early evening when I returned to my apartment. I felt better after a drink and a couple of hours in Jack's easygoing presence. The thing that surprised me was his lack of condemnation for Hardy, especially given his earlier stance on the subject.

"I'm not for or against him," Jack had informed me, tilting back a long-necked beer. "Here's how I'm looking at this deal with T.J.: Hardy's either done the wrong thing for the wrong reason . . . " Another big swallow. "Or the wrong thing for the right reason."

"How could there possibly be a right reason for what he did?"

"Hell, I don't know. Give him a chance to explain himself, is all I'm saying."

"Todd thinks Hardy is conniving and twisted," I'd said morosely.

For some reason that had made Jack laugh. "Well, you oughta be used to that, coming from the Travis family. There's not a one of us — with the exception of Gage — who isn't as twisted as a duck's dick. And the same goes for Todd."

"You're scaring me," I said, but I hadn't been able to restrain a rueful smile.

I continued to smile as I went into my apartment, but I was nervous, thinking about seeing Hardy. As I saw the continuous blinking of the answering machine, my heart gave a little jolt. I went to the machine and pressed a button to hear the message.

Hardy's voice. "I need to see you. Please call me when you get in tonight."

"Okay," I whispered, closing my eyes briefly. But I opened them right away, because something had caught my attention. A glitter and gleam next to the phone base. Perplexed, I reached out for the object, and was astonished to discover it was a charm bracelet. Aunt Gretchen's. But how had it gotten there? It had been in Nick's possession. Nick —

Before I could make a sound, someone came up behind me, and a hand clamped on my neck. The barrel of a handgun pressed cold and hard against the side of my head. I knew who it was even before I heard his gloating voice.

"Got you now, Marie."

CHAPTER TWENTY

When you suddenly find yourself in a dangerous situation, your brain splits into two parts, the part that's actually going through the situation, and the part that stands back and tries to understand what's happening. And those parts are not necessarily sharing information with each other. So it took a few moments for me to focus on what Nick was saying." . . . can't ignore me, you bitch. You can't keep me away if I want to see you."

He wanted me to know he was all-powerful. He wanted to prove I couldn't beat him.

My mouth had gone so dry I could barely talk, while sweat broke out on my face. "Yeah," I said in a suffocated voice. "You definitely found a way to see me. How'd you do it? You couldn't have figured out the combination."

"I used an override key."

Each apartment in the building had two override keys, in case of emergency, or in case someone forgot his or her touch-pad number. One set of all the residential keys was kept in a room behind the concierge desk. The other set was locked away in the management office.

"Vanessa gave it to you," I said in disbelief. That was illegal. It could get her prosecuted. Did she hate me so much that she would risk going to jail just to stick it to me after she'd been fired?

Apparently so.

"I told her I needed to drop some things off."

"Well, you did," I said faintly. "Thanks for the bracelet. But you didn't need to bring the gun, Nick."

"You've been ignoring me — " I m sorry.

" — treating me like I mean nothing to you." The gun jabbed my temple hard enough to leave a bruise. I stayed still, my eyes watering. "I sure as hell mean something now, don't I?"

"Yeah," I whispered. Maybe he had come here with the sole intention of scaring me. But he was working himself up as he always had, letting his temper build. Once he started getting angry, it was an avalanche. You couldn't hold it back.

"You f**king ripped me off in the divorce, and left me in Dallas, with everyone asking about what happened, where you were . . . What do you think that did to me, Marie? Did you give a shit about what I was going through?"