Cassie

 

Nikolai pulled me into the living room while Eli finished his pancakes. “I need you to stay here with him.”

“What’s happened?” I asked worriedly.

He lowered his voice, “Mike didn’t come down when it was time for Jones to take him to the airport. Jones had the hotel ring his room, no answer. Finally made someone go in there and they found his body.”

“Oh my God,” I gasped. “Did someone . . . I mean, was he murdered?”

“I don’t know anything right now. The way he was yesterday, well it wouldn’t surprise me if he did it himself, but I have to go down there. Spencer is already there, but the cops want to talk to me. I have no idea how long this could take, but will you be alright with Eli? I don’t want to tell him yet, not until I know more.”

“Yes. Go. We’ll be fine.” He kissed me on the forehead and then ducked back into the kitchen to kiss Eli similarly and tell him he had to go to work. Eli took it well when he learned he got to spend the day with me.

“What should we do first?” I asked once it was just us.

“I got a new game for the Xbox. Want to play? It’s the new Lego Batman.” He bounced on his feet eagerly.

Who could say no to that face?

For the next hour, I let him humiliate my little spandex wearing Lego figure as I tried to get the hang of the game.

Eli giggled for the thousandth time, “You gotta get up here. Just do what I did.”

“I’m trying,” I huffed. “How did you do it?”

He reached over and grabbed the controller from my hand. “You gotta press this button when you jump. See?” He executed the move perfectly and my guy swung himself up and launched into a little flippy thingy that landed him on the second level.

“Maybe we should try a board game, one that doesn’t require any complicated button pressing.”

His eyes flared. “Aunt Nora and Uncle Spencer got me a game called, Pie Face. We could play that.”

“What is it?”

The way his lips curled into a grin worried me. “You’ll see.” He closed out the game and turned off the console and then I found out what Pie Face was.

Eli smiled sheepishly and bit back another giggle as I wiped the shaving cream—they didn’t have any whipped cream in the fridge—from my face after our second round. “One more time,” I told him, “but this time, I’m going to get you.” After taking two handfuls of shaving cream in the face, I wasn’t feeling very magnanimous.

It was very satisfying when he got a face full of the shaving cream. He was a good sport about it and we were both sticky messes by the time we put the game away, but Eli wasn’t done with me yet. He kept me going nonstop. From one thing to the next. We spent a couple hours putting together the Lego sets he’d received for his birthday. I beamed with pride when he told me that the set I’d picked out was his favorite. Some of that turned to frustration when it turned out to be the most complicated one to put together. My fingers were sore, and my back and neck were stiff from hunching over by the time we snapped on the last piece.

“No. More. Legos,” I groaned, falling backward and laying spread eagle on his bedroom floor. I actually dozed off briefly while he played with the Legos.

After lunch he dragged me out back to see the fort his dad and the guys had built up in the big, old oak tree that bordered their yard, complete with a rope ladder I had to climb. Our afternoon was spent defending the fortress from would-be invaders. I kept checking my phone, hoping for updates from Nikolai, but the only one I got said it was going to be a while longer. The police had a lot of questions. I hoped Nikolai wasn’t in any trouble.

I was relieved from battle when a boy, about nine or ten, poked his head over the fence that separated their yard from the neighbor on the left. “Hey Eli!” he called.

I was introduced to his friend Nolan and Nolan’s mother who stood at the back of their house. The house was two lots over, but both their house and Nikolai’s had large back yards. She waved and gave Nolan permission to play, and the next thing I knew, he was climbing over the fence. Suddenly, I was the odd girl out. I was grateful for the reprieve, though. I didn’t know how many more invisible zombies and ninjas I could slay.

Nolan stayed and entertained Eli until dinner time when his mom called him home over the fence. I threw together a meal with what I could find in the freezer and cupboards and then I talked Eli into watching a movie with the promise that there would be popcorn.

There still hadn’t been any word from Nikolai and I’d resorted to texting Nora while the movie started, to see if she knew anything more. She hadn’t heard from Spencer either. We were both in the dark about what was going on.

Let me know if you hear anything, I typed out and pressed send.

You too, she replied.

Eli was snuggled close to my side as I introduced him to the world of Jurassic Park. He was loving everything up to the moment the t-rex got loose and started wreaking havoc.

“Is it time to make the popcorn yet?” he paused it as the kids were hiding in the Jeep, looking like they were about to become dinosaur food.

“If you think you’ve got room in your tummy, already.” I started to stand, but Eli jumped up.

“I can do it. I know how.”

“Okay, you make the popcorn.”

He ran through the house, flipping on every light as he went.

“If you’re scared, we can watch a different movie,” I hollered.

“I’m not scared,” he shouted from the kitchen.

I was going to ask him if he was sure, but just then someone knocked at the door. I thought nothing of walking over and pulling it open. It only occurred to me that I should’ve checked to see who it was after I was faced with Marissa standing on the other side.

My spine tensed, and I froze for a second before I managed to pull it together. “Umm, Nikolai isn’t home right now.” What I really wanted to say was, What the hell are you doing here?”

“I know,” she chirped. “He called me, said it was an emergency. He asked me to come right over so you could go down to the police station and tell them he was with you last night or something. I’m not really sure what’s going on, he just asked me to watch Eli.”

Unease churned in my stomach. “He never called me.”

“Are you sure you didn’t just miss his call?” Her brow pinched together.

“I’m sure.” My phone hadn’t been out of earshot all day.

She shrugged. “I don’t know, but it sounded like he might be in trouble. Maybe he only got to make one phone call.”

“Then I’m pretty sure he would have called me,” I said.

Something ticked in her jaw and anger flashed in her eyes for just a second before it was gone, and she’d blanked her face again. “Well, why don’t you try to call him now?”

“Good idea. Wait there,” I told her and walked back over to the couch to grab my phone. I could hear the popcorn beginning to pop in the microwave. I hoped Eli would stay in the kitchen, because I had a feeling this might get ugly when I told her to leave. She was clearly fucking crazy if she thought I was going to leave Eli with her without hearing it from Nikolai first.

When I spun back around, phone in hand, she had stepped inside. Nervous prickles ran down my spine. “Look, I think maybe you should just leave. If I need to go down to the police station, I’ll take Eli to Nora’s.”

“But I’m his nanny,” she said a little too forcefully.

“Not anymore, you’re not. Nikolai let you go, Marissa.”

She took a step further inside. “That was a misunderstanding. He realized he made a mistake. He told me so when he called.”

I shook my head. “He didn’t call you, Marissa.” I was sure of it now.

“Yes, he did,” she grated. I saw her hands clenching at her sides.

“You need to leave. Right now,” I demanded.

“I’m not leaving,” she laughed shrilly. “You’re the one who needs to go. You don’t belong here.”

“Cassie?” Eli stood in the doorway of the kitchen, popcorn bowl cradled against his chest, eyeing the two of us warily.

“Can you wait in the kitchen for a minute, bud? Marissa and I are just having a conversation.” Her eyes had gone wide with a creepy sort of delight when she saw him. I didn’t like it at all. Eli scurried back into the kitchen and Marissa turned a nasty glare on me.

“He needs me. Not you,” she sneered.

I subtly took a step away from her. “You can discuss that with Nikolai later, but right now, you need to respect his wishes and leave. That’s what he would want you to do.” I hoped to appeal to some desire to please him, but it was the wrong thing to say.

“He doesn’t know what he wants.” She advanced on me. “He’s confused. It’s your fault. You’re a distraction. He can’t see how good I am for him and Eli with you in the way.”

“Okay, you need to go. Right now. Or I’m calling the police.” I held up my phone in threat. A cruel smile spread across her face.

“She tried to keep me away from him, too, you know. Wouldn’t give me the job. Didn’t trust her husband around me.” She laughed again and I shuddered. What was she talking about?

“As if I’d let him touch me. I would never betray Nikolai. Not like she did. She cheated on him and tried to take his son away, but I took care of her. I got him his son back.”

Oh God.

“For us. Because I love him. I would do anything for him, but he can’t see that because of you,” she snarled. “You’re nothing but a dumb slut. I know. I watched you with Eli in the beginning. You were even dumb enough to leave the door unlocked when you went out.”

Holy shit, she was cuckoo. And I was starting to be afraid.

“And then you would stay late. I know what you were doing. Trying to seduce him. Ensnare him with your whore body. I knew I had to get rid of you, but no matter what I did, you just wouldn’t go away on your own. Have you figured out yet that it was me outside that night? I saw you with him. You saw me too. But he couldn’t see what a nasty little slut you are. He kept coming to your rescue. That’s what he does. He saved me once, and now I have to save him from you. I’ll make you go away for good this time. The same way I made Michael Lawrence go away.”

“You?” I gasped.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

“It really was unfortunate that he had to show up here. I knew he recognized me at the birthday party, and as soon as he figured it out, he would have ruined everything. He would have told Nikolai. It wasn’t time yet for him to know. But he’ll see soon enough. He’ll realize how much I love him and that no one will take care of them like I will. They’re mine.”

“You’re fucking insane,” I shouted and brought up the dial pad on my phone.

“You bitch,” she shrieked and leapt at me, smacking the phone out of my hand. Her body slammed into mine and we both went down. I crashed into the coffee table and it collapsed beneath our weight. I cried out in pain and struggled to push her off of me. She fought to hold me down.

“Cassie!” I heard Eli’s terrified voice cry. Marissa’s head snapped up and her hold loosened. I was able to get one wrist free and dug my fingers into her hair, yanking her head back hard. She yelled out in pain and I shoved her off.

“Eli, get out of here. Go get help!” I shouted and pushed myself up to my knees. I glimpsed him running for the back door just before something big and hard cracked against the back of my skull. Everything went black and I crumpled in a heap.

I don’t know how long it was before I came to, groaning. I felt the back of my head, wincing when I touched the tenderest spot. My hand came away bloody, and when I tried to sit up, my head spun and there were spots in front of my eyes. But I had to get up.

Eli!

That was enough to get me to my feet. I stumbled, and grabbed onto the back of the couch for support as my stomach turned over. There was a length of broken wood from the coffee table at my feet, presumably what she’d whacked me over the head with. Right next to it was my cell phone. It looked like it had been stomped on. I staggered into the kitchen, wanting to call out for Eli, but I didn’t want to alert Marissa if she was still lurking around. The back door was wide open. I hoped Eli had made it out and to one of the neighbor’s, but then I heard her.

“Eli, honey, you need to come down right now. You have to come with me. I’m going to take you to your dad.”

I didn’t hear anything and then she shrilled, “Eli, come down here right this instant!”

The sun had gone down hours ago and the lights over the deck were off. The light from the kitchen was barely enough for me to make out a shape at the base of the oak tree. Eli must have run for his fort and made it up there. I knew he was smart enough to pull the rope ladder up with him, because he’d done it earlier to keep the zombies from being able to climb up after us.

Good boy, I thought as I crept forward, hoping against hope as I came to the refrigerator. I reached on top and felt around. I hadn’t seen him take it with him this morning. He’d been in a hurry. My heart cried out when I felt it. I wrapped my fingers around it and pulled it down, flicking the safety off just the way Nikolai had showed me, and then slipped quietly out the back door.

She didn’t hear me until I was just a few feet behind her. Something crunched under my foot and she spun around.

I raised the gun. “Don’t move, bitch. I will shoot you.”

“Cassie?” Eli cried.

“It’s okay, buddy,” I called out, not taking my eyes off of Marissa for a second.  I wasn’t making that mistake a second time. “I’m here, but I want you to stay up there until I tell you to come down.”

“Okay,” he whimpered.

All of the sudden a light flipped on at the back of the house next door. “What’s going on out there?” It was Nolan’s parents.

“Call 911,” I shouted over the fence. Then I heard Nolan’s father telling his wife to run back inside and call them.

“You,” I barked at Marissa, who’s angry glare I could now see with the light spilling over the fence. “You’re going to walk slowly back inside the house.”

She remained where she was, looking murderous and deranged.

“Now, or I’ll make it so you can’t walk.”

Her jaw clenched, but she took a step and then another. “You can’t have him,” she growled as she neared. “They belong with me.”

I didn’t respond. I stepped to the side and waited for her to pass me, never once taking my eyes or the gun off her. I followed closely behind her as she made her way toward the deck.

“You’re nothing but a whore. He’ll see that,” she continued. “You’re nothing.”

“Oh, shut up already,” I spat and then I cracked the gun over the back of her head and watched her knees buckle and her body hit the ground in front of the deck steps. “See how you like it, bitch,” I mumbled. I’d always wanted to do that. It worked just like it did in the movies. I toed her not so gently for good measure. She was out. For now. Hopefully she’d stay that way until the police arrived, but I wasn’t going to chance it. I stood over her, and waited.

She started moaning right around the time I heard the sirens.

As soon as I heard them at the front of the house, I shouted, “Back here!”

When four officers finally appeared, guns and flashlights in hand, relief like I’d never felt before spread through me. I lowered the gun before they shouted at me to drop it. The gun hit the ground where I tossed it a few feet away, and I took a step back from Marissa. I was ordered to stay where I was, but Eli was still up in the treehouse. With my hands raised in front of me, I looked up at the tree over my shoulder. Eli’s face was visible over the rail that ran around the fort.

“There’s a boy, up in the tree,” I told the two officers who were approaching me, I’m sure to secure me the same way another officer was securing Marissa as she came to. “He’s scared.” Their heads turned to the tree house. The fourth officer made his way to the base of the tree.

“You can come down now, son. It’s alright. We’re the police. The good guys.”

“It’s alright, Eli” I reassured him. “Listen to them.”

When Eli climbed down, the officer took his hand and then we were all escorted out front. Eli was taken to one of police cruisers where the officer sat him down in the seat and spoke with him. The neighbors started appearing in the street and two more cop cars arrived. My statement was taken and eventually my hands were unbound. Marissa, who had refused to speak a single word since she came to, was carted to the back of another car.

That was right around the time two trucks came racing around the corner and pulled to a stop in front of the house in the middle of the street. Nikolai and Spencer jumped out a moment later. Two officers rushed out to meet them as they darted toward us. It was only after Nikolai informed them he lived here, that they allowed him through. His eyes found me first. “Where’s Eli?”

“He’s okay,” I said and then one of the officers steered him toward Eli, who was still sitting with the other cop. He catapulted himself into his dad’s arms. Nikolai scooped him up and held him tightly to his chest. I walked over to them.

Nikolai’s worried eyes searched mine. “Are you okay?”

I nodded and walked into the arm he held out to me. He tucked me into his side and pressed his mouth on top of my head. “What happened?”

“Nanny Marissa went crazy, Dad. But Cassie knocked her out. And then Nolan’s parents called the police. Cassie saved me.”

“Did she now?”

Nikolai had Eli go with Spencer back into the house so that I could recount everything that happened. I did from the moment I opened the door and found Marissa standing there. “She killed Lisa, and Michael,” I told him, and then repeated everything she’d said to me, the same way I had to the police.

“I was still at the station dealing with Mike when I overheard chatter about the call that came in. When they said this address, I’ve never been so terrified in my entire life.”

“It’s okay,” I buried my face in his chest and he wrapped his arms tightly around me.

“Who the hell is she?” he muttered. I tipped my chin up and followed his gaze to the back of the police car where Marissa was detained. She was staring at the two of us. Her face blank.

“I don’t know, but she obviously knew you before you hired her. She said you saved her once. She orchestrated everything to get to you and Eli.”

“How is that even possible?” he muttered. “How could I have no clue who she is?”

It was almost another hour before all the cops cleared out and Marissa was taken away. The officers suggested I go have my head looked at, but once everyone was gone and it was just Nikolai, Eli, and me, I didn’t want to go anywhere. My head was throbbing, but it was nothing a few Advil and a cold press couldn’t handle. As attentive as Nikolai was being, I couldn’t have received better care even if I had gone to the emergency room.

Eli and I curled up on the sofa while Nikolai cleaned up the mess from the coffee table, and then inserted himself between us. He dragged Eli onto his lap and the three us stayed that way for a while. When we finally did make it up the stairs, we tucked Eli into bed with us. We didn’t want him waking up alone in the middle of the night. Nightmares were to be expected after everything.

Nikolai still had to find a way to tell him about Mike. I just wished he could make sense of everything. Psychotic stalkers didn’t just come out of nowhere, did they? And how had she managed to keep the crazy under wraps long enough to fool Nikolai?

That’s around the time it really hit me. I could have died. She could have killed me like she did Lisa and Mike. My body was shaking and tears were pouring down my face before I even realized I was crying. Eli had passed out almost immediately, but Nikolai was awake, and he pulled me against him. I buried my face in his chest and sobbed.

“It’s okay,” he murmured soothingly, rubbing his hand up and down my back. “It’s the shock wearing off, but you’re okay. I’ve got you.”

“Please don’t ever let go.” My voice caught in my throat and broke against his skin.

“I won’t.” He smoothed his hand over my hair and down my back. “I promise.”

“When are all the nightmares going to stop?” I breathed. “I thought last time . . . I thought it was over when they caught Aaron and rescued Nora and Emily, but then it wasn’t over. Even after he was sentenced, I couldn’t escape it. Then he was killed, and I thought for sure then it was finally over. I’d be able to move on and life would be okay, but it didn’t feel okay . . . until you. It just seems like every time I think things are going good and I finally get to be happy, something happens, or someone tries to take it away.”

“But they didn’t take it away. We’re here. The three of us, and that’s everything that matters.”

My breaths evened out and slowed eventually. My eyes dried and my lids grew heavy as Nikolai’s slow strokes up and down my spine lulled me to sleep.

He woke me with gentle kisses several times throughout the night because of my concussion, and each time he soothed me back to sleep with sweet, whispered words and light caresses.

I’d hoped that when morning came, I would wake up in his arms and find out I’d dreamed the Marissa incident. That it’d never happened, but the pounding headache and sharp pain I felt when I touched the back of my head were proof it wasn’t all just a product of my overactive imagination. I groaned and stretched out in the soft, warm bed. I was alone. I huffed out a disappointed sigh and stared at the ceiling for several moments before I dragged my butt out of bed, and padded my way downstairs in Nikolai’s much too big sweatpants and sweatshirt.

The boys were stretched out together on the sofa watching cartoons.

I tilted my head to the side and smiled. “No school today?”

Nikolai tipped his head back over the arm of the couch to look at me. “We decided to play hooky. No school. No work. In fact, we decided that no one is leaving the house today. We’re all going to stay in our pajamas and have a lazy day in.”

“Mmmm,” I bounced over to the couch. “Sounds perfect.” I plopped down on Nikolai’s feet. He wrenched them out from under my butt and then dropped them in my lap with a smirk.

Around lunchtime, Nikolai got a phone call. He took it in the other room and was gone several minutes. I couldn’t hear the conversation over the TV no matter how hard I strained my ears. “I’ll be right back,” I told Eli and then hopped up and joined Nikolai in the kitchen. He was just ending the call.

He looked over at me and said, “Sarah Waters,” but it sounded more like he was saying it to himself.

“Who’s Sarah Waters?”

“Marissa. She’s Sarah Waters.”

“And what does that name mean?” Because it was clear it meant more to him than Marissa Nichols did, the name she’d gone by. He fiddled with his phone a second and then held it out for me to see. I got closer and peered at the screen. On it was a picture of a young woman with long, stringy blonde hair, pale eyes rimmed with dark circles, and sunken in cheeks. She was unfamiliar until I looked harder and tried to imagine her with short, dark brown hair, glasses, and more filled out. It was her. Marissa.

“Who is she?”

“She used to live in my apartment complex in Houston. Three years ago. She lived with her piece of shit boyfriend in the apartment below me. The guy was a small time mechanic and drug dealer. The cops were always being called. They’d get into screaming matches, break things, and he’d throw her around, but she’d never press charges. I’d pass her coming and going sometimes; she was always bruised and banged up. Made me sick that she stayed with him. I’d try to talk to her, even offered to help her get away one time. She was just a kid, but something wasn’t quite right with her, like something in her was broken. She wouldn’t leave, but it didn’t stop me from trying to help.

“Her boyfriend was unstable and insanely jealous. He got it into his head that she was cheating on him. That we were messing around behind his back. They had another fight, but it wasn’t like the other nights. I could hear everything he was screaming at her, and I knew he was going to kill her. By the time I busted down the door, he had a knife on her. I shot and killed him.”

“Oh my gosh,” I put a hand to my chest, unable to believe what he was saying. “What happened to her?”

“She had a mental breakdown right in front of me. She picked up the knife he’d dropped and started stabbing his body. I had to pull her off of him, and then it was like she went catatonic. Crawled into the corner and sat there, hugging her knees and rocking back and forth until the police and paramedics arrived. I wasn’t arrested or charged with anything, and I tried to check up on her a few days later, but couldn’t find her. I never heard from her again, but I guess she was institutionalized for a couple of years. She was released ten months ago.”

“Holy shit, and she went looking for you.”

“I guess so. The cops are trying to get in touch with her doctors back in Texas now. I just can’t believe I didn’t recognize her.”

“How could you? She looks completely different now.”

“Maybe,” he shook his head, “but I still feel like this is all my fault somehow. She killed Lisa and Mike, could have killed you and Eli. For what? Because she thought she was in love with me. It’s so twisted.”

“But she didn’t. Like you said last night, we’re here and that’s what matters. She’s clearly damaged, and for whatever reason, she fixated on you saving her. She probably never should have been released from the hospital, but she was obviously a good actress. Any idea how she got on with the nanny agency? Don’t they run background checks?”

“That’s just it. When contacted, they denied even having her in their system, but the email I got with her info was just like the others I got from that agency. It doesn’t make sense.”

I frowned, and then thought about something else Marissa, or Sarah—God, all these creeps and their fake names—had said. I looked at Nikolai’s laptop sitting on the counter.

“Crap,” I mumbled.

“What?”

“I think I know how she did it. Before you got the spare key made, Eli and I would leave the backdoor unlocked when we left. She said something about it last night, said I was dumb for doing it, and I think she was right, because I think she came in. What if she got on your computer and got into your email? She could have faked the email.”

“Shit, that’s probably exactly what she did. Fuck, this is all just so crazy.”

“Well, hopefully now they’ll get her the help she needs, and at the very least, put her away where she can’t hurt anyone else.”

“You’re right,” he blew out a heavy breath. “All we can do is move past it, and focus on the three of us. I think I’ll wait until tomorrow to tell Eli about Mike. I just want him to have one day. He’s been through so much.”

“And we’ll get him through this too.” I grabbed his hand and led him back to the living room.

Eli tipped his head back. “Come on, you almost missed the best parts. Kevin is setting all the traps for Marv and Harry.” We’d left him watching Home Alone.

“Then we’re just in time,” Nikolai said. We rounded the couch and plopped back down. For the rest of the day, it was just us. Nikolai silenced his phone, and since I’d already checked in with Grandmama and my parents, I did the same. The outside world could wait one day. We just needed this one day.