Weekend Warriors (Sisterhood #1)(29)

“Your key?” Jack hedged.

“Yeah, you know, the key to my apartment. I want it back and I want it back now.”

“I don’t think I have it with me. Can I drop it off or mail it?”

“I don’t think so, Jack. Let me see your key ring.”

“No.”

“What do you mean, no?”

“If I give you back the key that means it’s over. I don’t want it to be over. Give me a break here.”

“Get the damn key, Nik.”

“I want my key. If you don’t give it to me, I’m going home and calling a locksmith. I know one that’s open 24/7.”

Jack licked at his lips. “Okay, okay.” He fished in his pants for the keys and removed her key. He tossed it on the desk.

“Do you want a copy of both envelopes?”

“Yes.”

“No problem.”

“How about a beer?”

“Sorry, I’m on my way out. Perhaps another time. Thanks for coming by to pick this up. I knew you’d want to see it right away. I don’t want you to accuse me later on of obstructing justice. By the way, the university fired me today.”

To his credit, he looked shocked. “Jeez, I’m sorry, Nik. I really mean that.”

Nikki bent down to put on her shoes. “I’ll walk down with you.” She was careful to lock the door.

Outside in the cool evening air, they parted company. Nikki walked one way and Jack walked the other way.





Chapter Seven


Two days after Nikki’s late night, tearful return to McLean, Myra Rutledge woke from a sound sleep and knew immediately something was wrong. Her motherly instinct was kicking in. She lay quietly a moment, listening. Moonlight filtered through the crack in the drawn draperies. That meant the weather was okay. She couldn’t smell smoke. She swung her legs over the side of the bed and slipped into her robe.

She looked down at the overlarge digital numbers on the bedside clock: 4:20. The house was quiet. Charles, night owl that he was, was probably in what they were now calling the War Room. She tiptoed down the back staircase to see Nikki sitting at the table, her head in her hands, a coffee cup in front of her. And she was smoking, something she rarely if ever did these days.

“Nikki, what’s wrong?” she whispered as she padded into the kitchen.

“Everything and nothing. Want a cigarette?”

The last thing Myra wanted was a cigarette. She reached for it, stuck it in her mouth and puffed as Nikki held the lighter to the tip. She coughed and sputtered but kept on puffing. “Talk to me, baby, tell me what’s wrong. Just start anywhere,” she said, the cigarette dangling from the corner of her mouth.

Nikki laughed. Myra was game for anything. “Let me get you some coffee. Maybe I’d better make some more. I’ve been sitting here since two o’clock just thinking.”

Her eyes watering from the cigarette smoke, Myra transferred the cigarette to the opposite side of her mouth. Smoke spiraled upward. “I’m a good listener, dear. Are you having second thoughts about what we’re doing?”

Nikki hitched the belt of her bathrobe higher and then yanked it tight. “In a way, but it’s not what you think. It bothers me that Jack came out here and saw the truck and all the cars. That’s for starters. At the moment he doesn’t have a clue, an inkling of any kind as to what we’re doing. He’s sharp, though. He’s a thinker. No grass grows under his feet. We had this…discussion. It wasn’t a fight. I wish it had been a fight. I made him give me back the key to my apartment. I had this crazy feeling he might try to bug it. Don’t ask me where that thought came from, Myra. I had the locks changed in case he had a duplicate key made.” She plucked at a yellowing leaf on the African violet sitting on the windowsill. Her index finger worked the soil to see if it was dry. It was. She held it under the faucet, wiped off the bottom and set it back on the windowsill.

“I think I was blind where he was concerned. He’s not who I thought he was, who I wanted him to be. He’s power hungry, Myra. He loves being on the tube and in the papers. He is so pissed that Marie split. And rightly so. He won’t give up where she’s concerned. He’s convinced I had something to do with it. Knowing him like I do, I know he has a tail on me. I know he’s going to bug my office, my apartment and probably my car. I know this, Myra, because he used to tell me about all the times he’s done it before. Just because we slept together and were planning on getting engaged won’t make one bit of difference. Can you just see the headlines? D.A. arrests lover and he has tears dripping down his cheeks. Yeah, he’d do that.” She reached for a cup in the cabinet. The minute the coffee stopped perking, she poured a cup for Myra.

“By the way, then the dean fired me. He didn’t say, ‘you’re fired’ but that’s what it meant. He wanted me to resign so I obliged him and the board.”

“Well, I fixed his wagon. I called him and told him the endowment was now null and void. Let him scurry around somewhere else for his money. He shouldn’t have done that to you. I won’t tolerate anyone taking advantage of my girl.”

Myra puffed furiously on the cigarette, clouds of smoke circling the kitchen. “What do you get out of these things?” she demanded

“All kinds of health problems. Look, I’m throwing them away,” Nikki said, tossing the cigarettes in the trash container under the sink.