CHAPTER NINE
NIKI WAS AIRLIFTED out of the area by helicopter. She didn’t remember much of the trip. She was given an injection and oxygen, and the nurse on the hike who’d called 911, Nancy, went with them, helping the EMT with the saline drip.
“Of all the stupid men I’ve ever seen in my life,” the nurse was raging. “The fool wanted to wait and make her hike the rest of the way!”
The EMT shook his head. “I’ve seen people die like this. It doesn’t take long, either. Good thing you were there and knew what to do.”
“Good thing I always carry strong black coffee in a thermos wherever I go,” the nurse said with a smile. She’d fed coffee to Niki while they waited for the helicopter. “How are you doing, sweetheart?” she asked Niki, touching her hand lightly.
Niki managed to nod and gave the woman a weary smile. Her own stupid idea had led to all this trouble, and she couldn’t admit to these kind people that she’d been hoping not to be saved in time. Looking back, it was a terrible way to die. She could still hardly get her breath.
“Not a lot of people know about strong coffee stopping asthma attacks,” the EMT chuckled. “I used it on a coworker who didn’t even know he was asthmatic until he started coughing around a flower bed and couldn’t stop. Some people cough instead of wheeze. He went to a doctor and was diagnosed.”
“How did you know about it?” the nurse asked, curious.
He smiled. “I’m asthmatic myself.”
She smiled back. “I’ll bet you don’t go on hiking trails with brain-dead idiots.”
“Not like the one leading your group, and that’s a fact,” he said flatly. “He went on to the end with the rest of them, I gather?”
“Oh, yes, couldn’t be bothered to make sure Niki was all right.” She leaned forward. “He thought she was faking it for attention!”
Niki blocked out the conversation around her and closed her eyes. The coffee had tasted nice, and it had helped the spasms. She’d have to remember to do something nice for the kind lady who’d helped her. But she was still left with the terror ahead, and didn’t know how she was going to cope. It would be horrible for her father, who’d already gone through it once.
But he didn’t know yet, and she’d made Doctor Fred promise not to tell him. It was her burden. It was her decision. When she finally decided what she was going to do, she’d tell him then.
* * *
DOCTOR FRED CHECKED her out in the emergency room, where he was on duty that morning. He gave her a very angry glare when he discovered that she didn’t have a rescue inhaler with her.
“Dan says I’m pampering myself too much,” she said hoarsely. “He says I don’t need inhalers or preventatives, I just need—” she paused for breath “—herbs and vitamins and fresh...air.”
“The fresh air damned near killed you. You tell him that!” he said irritably. “I can’t believe your father lets you date such a fool!”
“I just turned...twenty-three,” she pointed out.
“Age and maturity are two separate things,” he said curtly. He finished his examination. “You’re better, but I’m keeping you overnight.”
“I won’t have the test, so don’t start,” she told him.
He ground his teeth together. “It could be nothing,” he pointed out. “It could be a lot of things besides what you’re afraid of.”
She lay back down and winced. “My chest hurts.”
“You’ve got bad bronchitis. We’ll treat that while you’re here. Antibiotics and rest. And no more damned hiking expeditions!”
She shrugged. “He said it would help me.”
He didn’t reply. He wanted to slug the man who’d taken her on that hike. When her father found out, it was going to take some muscle to save Dan Brady. And if Blair Coleman found out, the young man had better be on his way out of the country.
“Did you call your father?” Doctor Fred asked.
She winced.
“You don’t have your cell phone with you, either, do you?” He glowered at her.
“No.”
“I guess Dan thought that would be bad for you, too,” he muttered as he left her to the nurse. “Get her into a room, please,” he called over his shoulder. “I’ll call her father.”
“Yes, Doctor,” the nurse replied, smiling at Niki.
* * *
THEY GAVE HER something for the discomfort, along with antibiotics and the ever-present IV. She fell asleep, exhausted from the day’s trauma.
Hours later she felt a hand on her hair.
She opened her eyes and looked up and smiled wearily. “Hi, Daddy.”
“Gave us a scare, Tidbit,” he said, trying to hide the terror he’d felt when Doctor Fred called and told him what had happened. “Left your phone and your inhaler at home. Bad girl.”
“I was excited about the trip,” she lied. “I remembered it when we got to the hiking trail.”
“Some help it was, then.”
“I guess.”
“I owe that nurse a dinner,” he added. “The EMT told Fred Morris about her. She had strong coffee in a thermos and fed it to you while they waited for the rescue chopper. Saved your life, most likely.”
“She did. She was so kind.” She grimaced. “She gave Dan the devil.”
“I’m waiting for him to show up so I can give him a little evidence of my displeasure,” he said, his blue eyes flashing like ice crystals. “He actually finished the hike without you!”
“He thought I was pretending,” she said.
“My God.”
She studied him. “You haven’t...talked to Blair?” she asked quickly.
He frowned. “I should call him...”
“No!”
He scowled. “Niki, I know you two had an argument, but...”
“No!”
“Honey, he cares about you,” he began.
“He cares about Janet,” she said harshly. “Didn’t you see the magazine? She told me she was going to get him.” She closed her eyes, blind to his shocked expression. “He told me that Janet was worth a dozen of Elise and he wished he’d never broken it off. So no, don’t call him. This isn’t his business. It’s ours.”
He bit his lower lip almost through. “Niki...”
“I mean it.”
He gave in, as he always did when she was insistent. “If that’s what you really want.”
She closed her eyes. “It is. He’d come out of misplaced loyalty to you, but that’s the only reason he’d come. He told me how it was. I’m infatuated with him. It’s demeaning, is how he put it.”
Todd’s face contorted. Blair had dug himself a very deep hole there, and it was going to take a lot more than words to fill it back up again. He knew the man was conflicted, and he knew how he felt about Niki. But he’d apparently done some major damage to her pride and she was running.
Better a man years her senior than a stupid young man who’d almost killed her.
“You’re not leaving the house with Dan Brady ever again,” Todd said curtly. “I mean that. If you push me, I’ll have Blair fire him, and I’ll tell him exactly why he needs to fire him.”
“Daddy!”
His face was as hard as she’d ever seen it. “He needs to go back to where he came from and start a health-food store. Then he can spend all his time advising people with illnesses how to overcome them with methods every researcher on earth never knew!”
Niki had to smother a grin. Her father was eloquent when he got going.
He shrugged. “Hey. You’re my daughter. I love you.”
She did smile then. “I love you, too, Dad.” She drew in a breath, amazed that she could. “Thanks.”
He smoothed back her disheveled blond hair. “For what?”
“For being my dad.”
He fought tears. “Go to sleep, honey. I’ll be right here.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You don’t have a thing to be sorry about.”
* * *
SHE FELT EVEN more guilt when she saw how upset her father had been about her misadventure on the hiking trail. It had been a selfish act, what she’d done. She’d thought only of herself, not of her father.
He didn’t know, and she couldn’t tell him, about the stupid decision she’d made out of panic. But she was afraid. She couldn’t share that fear, not after what he’d endured when her mother had gone through the treatment. If he was upset now, he’d be ten times more upset to know what was really going on. She just couldn’t tell him.
She tormented herself with the fear. If it was more than just a spot in her lung, and they did radiation, she could never get pregnant. She’d researched it on the internet. She knew that people had tried to get pregnant afterward, but most attempts ended in miscarriage. If she’d been barren, perhaps it wouldn’t matter so much. But she was certain that she wasn’t.
She couldn’t bear the thought. Her mind went back to the Yellowstone trip with Blair, back in the days when they were happy together. When he smiled at her and liked her and spoiled her. It hurt to recall the last time they’d spoken. It hurt too much for her to want to see him again. He had Janet now. He’d marry her and be happy. It was what she should want for him, if she truly loved him—for him to be happy. It was selfish to want him for herself, especially under the circumstances. She might not even have a future. She turned her head on the pillow, so that her father wouldn’t see the tears.
* * *
DAN BRADY SHOWED up at the hospital that night. Her father had gone downstairs to the cafeteria to get a bite to eat.
Niki stared at Dan with pure fury. She didn’t dare get upset. It would only bring the spasms back, despite the medicine they were giving her. She just glared.
He came into the room and looked around. His hands were in his pockets and he looked oddly hesitant.
“I guess you weren’t faking it after all,” he said slowly.
Niki glared even more.
He moved a step closer. “The others said to tell you they hope you’ll be better soon.”
She didn’t speak.
“Oh, come on, Niki,” he muttered. “This is what happens when you’re overprotected! You can’t even cope with the outdoors at all! If you’d spent more time outside, and if you’d been eating right and boosting your immune system, you wouldn’t even have a breathing issue!”
Niki stared at him and wondered if she could get up just long enough to push him out the window.
* * *
BLAIR HAD JUST made it home from his trip to Frankfurt. He was bone tired and still irritated at Janet’s persistence. He’d cut one of his meetings short mainly to get her off his back. She’d have no reason to trail him back to Montana. If she did, he’d have her arrested for stalking, he promised himself.
He couldn’t stop thinking about Niki. It had hurt her, the things he’d said in the heat of the moment. He’d been doing it for her own good, but that didn’t make it any easier. She was such a gentle soul, so kind and compassionate. A woman like that came along once in a man’s lifetime.
Janet had tried to convince him that Niki had plotted to seduce him, but that had been a lie. He knew better. Niki was no seductress. She hadn’t even known how to kiss properly until he taught her.
He groaned inwardly, remembering all the things he’d taught her, first in Mexico, and then in the forest near the Ashton home outside Catelow. She’d never even tried to resist him. She wanted him as badly as he wanted her. But he’d made her ashamed. He’d told her that what they’d shared was demeaning. He closed his eyes on an inward shudder of guilt. To make a tender, kind woman like that ashamed of passion, oh, that was the mark of a man, all right. He felt the guilt right down to his feet.
Well, he needed to see the Ashtons and find a way to apologize. She might never forgive him, but he had to try. He thought of her new boyfriend, the health-food fanatic, and worried that it might already be too late to make amends. If only he hadn’t been so stupid!
He picked up his cell phone and dialed Todd’s number, but it was cut off. He tried the house phone instead. It rang three times. He was about to hang up when a tired voice came on the line.
“Ashton residence.”
“Edna?”
“Oh. Hello, Mr. Coleman.”
“Is Todd there? I can’t get him on his cell phone.”
She hesitated. She swallowed, hard. She wasn’t supposed to say anything about Niki. “He’s not here right now.”
“Is Niki there, then?” he persisted.
“No...” Her voice broke.
He felt his stomach clench as if he’d been struck. “Edna, what’s going on?” he asked curtly.
“I’m not supposed to tell you,” she said, but her voice was so wobbly that he could barely understand her.
“My God,” he whispered, terrified. “Something’s happened to Niki! Tell me! God, Edna, please tell me!”
The desperation in his tone melted her resolve. “Mr. Ashton’s at the hospital, Mr. Coleman,” she said, swallowing tears. “They had to airlift her. That stupid man took her hiking, and she didn’t have her inhaler...”
“Is she all right?” he asked, and his voice sounded as tormented as Edna was certain her own did.
“They stabilized her, but her lungs are messed up again, so they’ve kept her. Mr. Ashton is there, hoping that stupid man shows up so he can beat the living hell out of him. Sorry, sir,” she faltered.
“I’m coming down. Don’t tell them.”
“Yes, sir.” Ten minutes later, Blair was on his way to Catelow in his executive jet. He prayed every step of the way. If he hadn’t behaved like a fool, Niki would never have let that maniac take her hiking. She’d have been at home, or at work, or with him. He closed his eyes on a wave of guilt. He’d been running. Somehow, he was going to make amends. It was time to stand and fight. For the woman he loved.
* * *
“I KNOW YOU don’t think exercise is the answer,” Dan was droning on, “but it makes your body strong. It’s good for your lungs, too. You have to stop babying yourself and letting your father be overprotective...”
Niki’s eyes had grown wide while he was speaking. But he didn’t realize why until he was snapped around and his jaw connected with a big, angry fist.
He ended up out in the hall on his butt, and a man the size of a steamroller went after him, his black eyes glittering like a poisonous snake, his big fists clenched at his sides.
“Get up,” the man said in a voice like thunder.
Dan was on the floor gaping at Blair when Todd Ashton rounded the corner and took in the scene.
“Well, hell, couldn’t you have saved a piece of him for me?” he asked with pure malice.
Blair didn’t answer. He was consumed with rage. He pulled out his cell phone and dialed. “Ed? I want this California maniac out of the office and on a plane back to San Francisco first thing in the morning. That’s right. He can have a shot at saving his job by accepting. If he refuses—” he looked right at Dan Brady “—terminate him!” He hung up, gave Brady one last flaming glare and went into Niki’s room.
“He can’t fire me. Who does he think he is?” Dan asked as he dragged himself to his feet and touched his aching jaw.
“That’s Blair Coleman,” Todd told him. “And your job isn’t all you’re likely to lose if you don’t take that offer.”
“Blair Coleman?” Brady faltered, red-faced. “The Blair Coleman?”
“There’s only one.” He jerked his head toward the stairs. “If I were you, I’d think carefully about giving him any reason to come back out here.”
“I was only trying to help,” Dan said irritably.
“You almost helped my daughter into the morgue,” Todd said flatly. “Out.”
Dan didn’t hesitate. Todd Ashton looked almost as formidable as Coleman had. He moved toward the stairs. “Niki’s never going to get better unless you all stop pampering her,” he began.
Todd took an angry step toward him. Dan ran for the staircase.
A nurse at the desk gave him an amused glance and went back to her computer.
* * *
NIKI WATCHED BLAIR knock Dan Brady out of her room and into the hallway with total shock. She hadn’t known he was back in Montana. She’d never really seen Blair lose his temper that badly, not even when she was assaulted by the football player and he rescued her three years ago.
He talked to someone on the phone, then came back into the room, right about the time her father showed up in the hall and talked to Dan.
Blair’s eyes were still glittering with anger when he paused by her bed. “How are you?” he asked.
She averted her eyes to the blanket. “I’ve been better.” She was still hoarse. “Nobody was supposed...to tell you.”
“Nobody did,” he lied convincingly. “I stopped by to see your father. He wasn’t there and Edna was almost in hysterics. It didn’t take much guesswork to know why.”
“Oh.”
He stuck his hands in his pockets and did his best to get his temper back under control. He felt as if he were still vibrating. “I told Ed Jacobs to get Brady on the next flight to San Francisco.”
She bit her lip. “He didn’t make me go on the hike,” she said weakly.
“No. I did that, didn’t I?” he asked. “I pushed you right into his arms.”
She couldn’t meet his eyes. “It was my decision. My fault. All of it.” She closed her eyes and tried to get a deep breath. It was still difficult.
“He means well. He really does,” she added weakly.
He felt as breathless as Niki sounded, but he was still choking on rage. He turned his eyes toward the window. The sun was just going down.
Her father came back in the room, breaking the awkward silence. “I told Brady to get out or else,” he said. His face was as hard as Blair’s was. “Did she tell you what he did?” he raged.
“Dad, don’t...” she began.
“He left her! She went almost into shock. If there hadn’t been a nurse on the hike who knew what to do and called 911, she’d be dead!”
“Dad, you’re shouting,” Niki protested weakly.
Blair’s face had gone pale. “What?”
“He thought she was faking,” Todd said icily. “The nurse gave her coffee from her thermos to help with her breathing and called for an airlift to get Niki to the hospital. Brady thought she was faking and took off with the other hikers to get to the end of the trail! The nurse stayed with the paramedics and flew in with Niki so that she could tell the emergency room physician what had happened.”
Blair didn’t speak. He couldn’t. He’d never felt such rage in his entire life. If Brady had been close by, he’d have killed him.
“I know,” her father said gently, patting the other man’s shoulder as they both stared at Niki. “I was thinking the same thing. But Niki would have to come and visit us in prison if we kill Brady. Besides, we both look bad in orange.”
Blair took deep breaths. So this was what he’d condemned Niki to, with his coldness, his fear. But for the grace of God, she would have been dead today. He’d thought because of the age difference she’d be stuck with an older man and have to watch him die. How naive and stupid he’d been. Her health was so uncertain that keeping her alive would be the challenge. She needed someone to take care of her, to nurture her. To love her. That idiot health-food fanatic had almost killed her by telling her she was pampering herself, that her father was overprotective! The longer he thought about it, the more the rage grew inside him.
“Blair, if you don’t relax, your muscles are going to atrophy in that position. How about some coffee?” Todd said after a minute.
Blair swallowed. “I could use a cup.”
“So could I. I’ll be back in a minute.” He smiled at Niki and left them alone again.
Niki was left with Blair’s guilt and her own. She picked at the coverlet. “I did a stupid thing. Several stupid things. I won’t do them ever again.” She glanced up at his set features and back down again. “You probably should come back another day, when things are less hectic for Dad so that you can talk business.”
“I didn’t come to talk to your father.”
He moved closer to the bed, his hands still in his slacks pockets. “Can’t you look at me?” he asked quietly.
She tried to smile. “Not really.” She swallowed. “I’m tired, Blair.” She closed her eyes. “I don’t want to talk, okay?”
He stared down at her wan, drawn face. He was remembering a happy woman with the sun shining out of her face, teasing and smiling and always upbeat. What a contrast it was now.
“I’ve made so damned many mistakes with you,” he said solemnly. “I don’t know how to begin to apologize for any of them.”
“It doesn’t matter. Not anymore.”
His teeth ground together. “Niki...”
She turned her head away, trying to hide the tears that were seeping out of the corners of her eyes. But she wasn’t quick enough.
She heard the quick intake of his breath, smelled the cologne he wore, the faint clean scent of his cotton shirt. Then she felt his mouth moving over her closed eyelids, sipping away the tears. One big hand rested on the pillow at her head.
“Don’t,” he whispered roughly. “I already want to put a gun to my temple.”
“Not...your fault.”
“Everything is my fault,” he said gruffly. His mouth moved to her cheeks, her temples, and back to her drenched eyes. “I’m sorry, honey. I’m so sorry!”
Which did nothing to stop the tears.
He drew her face into his throat and smoothed her disheveled hair. His face was drawn into such torment that the nurse who’d come in to check on Niki walked right out again.
He held her while she wept. When she calmed, he drew out a spotless handkerchief and mopped up her face.
“I’ll buy you a deer antler necklace to match your bracelet if you’ll stop crying, Niki,” he said softly.
She looked up into sad eyes in a drawn, but smiling broad face. She dragged her gaze back down to his chest before he could see the loving anguish in her face. It was too late. And just as well. He didn’t need to be involved in her life, in what was coming. He was carrying enough guilt already, and it was unnecessary. It wasn’t his fault that he couldn’t love her back.
She lay back on the pillows. “Sorry,” she managed. “It all caught up with me.”
He stood up, wincing as he saw the result of the tears and pain and fear on her face. Odd, though, how the fear was still there. She was safe now. Why would she be afraid now? And of what?
* * *
HE DROPPED INTO a chair beside the bed.
“You should go...” she began again.
“I’m not leaving Catelow until your bean sprout–eating friend is on that plane and gone,” he said flatly, the residue of the rage he still felt in his black eyes as they met hers.
“I’m okay,” she said.
He drew in a long, steadying breath and locked her fingers into his on the edge of the bed. “No, baby, you’re not okay. Something’s wrong. Something more than this.”
Her head turned on the pillow. Her eyes were huge and frightened.
He was right. There was more. His fingers became caressing around hers. “Niki, I didn’t get where I am by missing details,” he said softly. His black eyes moved over her face like an artist’s brush, sketching every soft line. “You didn’t take your rescue inhaler or a cell phone with you, did you? I might buy that you could forget one at home. But not both.”
Her face flushed. She tried to draw her fingers back, but he held them tight.
“You’re afraid of something. You won’t tell your father.” His eyes narrowed. “Come on. What is it?”
She swallowed. “Not your business, Blair,” she said, and managed a wan smile.
“Not my business.” He looked at her small hand in his, at the nails only colored by a transparent layer of polish, short and pretty. He smoothed his fingers over them. “It used to be. We were friends.”
“Yes, until Cancun...
He drew her palm to his lips and pressed it hungrily there. “Dear God, of all the mistakes I’ve ever made in my whole damned life, that was absolutely the worst!” he ground out.
“We were friends until then,” she said huskily. “I’m so sorry!”
“Baby, don’t,” he pleaded, and his voice was tormented. His heavy brows drew together as his mouth ground into her soft palm. “You didn’t do anything wrong. The fault was mine. I lost my head and I was so ashamed that I just walked away, without a word.”
“You said it was demeaning...”
“God!” He bent his head over her hand, gripping it so tightly that it was almost painful.
She couldn’t understand his behavior. She drew in a breath. “It’s okay, Blair,” she said gently. “Really. I know it was just...infatuation.” She smiled, but her face was almost white.
He lifted his head and looked into her pale, wounded eyes. “I said that, didn’t I? That, and a lot more.” His broad face was sad, still. His chest rose and fell heavily, and his black eyes fell back to her hand. “I thought I was doing what was best for you,” he said in a soft, husky tone. He brought her fingers to his mouth and kissed them tenderly. “I wanted you to be happy, Niki.”
“That’s what I wanted for you, too,” she said. Her eyes searched over him like seeking hands, loving hands. She averted her gaze when his eyes lifted. “Janet is kind, and you’ve known her for a very long time.” She swallowed. “She’ll take care of you.”
His black eyes narrowed on her face. “You never told her that you were planning to seduce me, did you?” he asked pointedly.
She wouldn’t meet his eyes.
His fingers wrapped around hers. “She’s followed me all around the world for the past several weeks,” he said. “I haven’t encouraged her. I left Frankfurt a day early to avoid her. She’s persistent. Just as she used to be.” He stood up, so that she had to look up to see him. “Didn’t it occur to you that if I’d wanted to marry her, I’d have done it when we were dating?”
She bit her lower lip. “Sometimes people don’t see what’s right under their noses,” she said noncommittally.
“And sometimes they do, just in time,” he replied gently. “I’ve still got your bathing suit,” he said in a casual tone.
“What?”
“Your bathing suit. I brought it home in my suitcase. I put it in my closet.”
Her face was flaming. “What? Why?” she stammered. “You said—”
“Baby, I said a lot of things,” he interrupted. “I’d do anything to take them back, but it’s too late. Now we have to go forward.”
She was confused, and it was evident.
He smiled tenderly. “First things first.” His eyes narrowed. “What’s wrong, Niki? What sent you out into the wilds with Brady without an inhaler or your cell phone?”
She was scrambling for a lie that would cover the situation when the door swung open and her father walked in with two cups of coffee.
“Latte for me, cappuccino for you,” he said, handing a cup to Blair. “Sorry, honey, but they’ll string me up if I share it.”
“Let them string me up.” Blair raised the head of the bed, uncapped his coffee and held it to Niki’s lips. “You always order cappuccino everywhere we go,” he said simply.
She took a sip, her eyes locked on to his, her heart pounding like a wild thing in her chest. He only smiled.
Her father pursed his lips and tried not to notice the interaction between them.
“Thanks,” Niki whispered unsteadily.
His eyes were on her mouth so intently that she knew exactly what he was thinking. She flushed a little as he stood back up, with that smug, wicked smile on his lips.
He sipped from the cup exactly where Niki’s lips had touched it, and he did it deliberately and let her see before he turned away.
“I’ll be right back,” Blair said. “I want to talk to Ed Jacobs.”
“He doesn’t know any hit men,” her father pointed out.
“Damn our luck.” Blair grinned, glanced at Niki and walked out.
“Your erstwhile hiking companion is going to have one hell of a black eye tomorrow,” her father said smugly as he dropped into the chair beside Niki’s bed.
“Blair is scary when he loses his temper,” Niki said.
“He never loses it. Not like that. If I hadn’t shown up, it might have ended in a homicide charge. Edna’s sorry, by the way,” he added. “She was so upset that Blair knew something was wrong and wormed it out of her.”
“It’s all right,” Niki said quietly. She stared toward the doorway with her heart in her eyes. “But it will make things harder.”
“What things?” her father asked grimly.
She searched for an answer. “Janet.”
“Oh. Her.” He shook his head. “Blair’s been trying to get rid of her for two weeks. Hopefully, she’ll get the idea now.”
“He’s rich and she wants to be. But they were close when his mother was still alive.”
He leaned forward. “Because his mother wanted them to be, and he did everything he could to make her happy.” He sat up straight. “If Bernice had still been alive, however, Elise would have been out on her ear before she could have gotten her claws into him.” His face hardened. “She’s after him again, too.” He shook his head. “Life is hard.”
“Then you die,” she said, and laughed. It was a tag line from Dempsey and Makepeace, an old television show that her father had loved. They watched episodes of it together on YouTube.
“Can I tell you something?” he asked.
“Sure. What?”
“Men don’t get that angry at men like Brady without some violent emotions being present.”
“He’s my friend,” Niki began.
“No, Niki. Blair’s not just your friend,” Todd said softly. “And you know it.”
Blair came back into the room just in time to save her from responding.
“You’re smiling,” Todd said. “Did Ed know a hit man?”
“He just saw Brady off at the airport.” He pursed his lips as he looked at Niki. “Apparently, he felt he was going to be safer a few states away from me.”