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“She’s alive,” Brit said. “She was overwhelmed, it seems, and needed a breather. For all we know, she may be back in a week.”
A knot formed in Nikki’s stomach. She rubbed her forehead, willing away the nauseating sensation rising in her body. Was she such a bad friend? Maybe Violet confiding in her had been a cry for help and she should have shared the secret with the other girls, or hell, maybe even talked to Damian about it. Instead, she’d been too caught up with her own problems and forgot about her friend.
What if Violet hurt herself? “Guys… I don’t think she’ll be back in a week,” Nikki said, then cleared her throat. Her friends must have sensed her uneasiness for they looked at her quizzically. “Violet told me she was having relationship problems that night when we all went over her house for drinks.”
“Whoa. Really?” Lara widened her eyes. “She’d never mentioned anything. I always thought she had the perfect marriage.”
“Why wouldn’t she tell us? We tell each other everything.” Brit said, a pang of sadness in her voice. “Maybe we could have helped.”
Nikki reached across the table and touched Brit’s hand. “Honey, it’s not personal. She didn’t make a point to tell me. I think it slipped out after some wine.”
“What did she say exactly?” Lara asked before she took a bite of her veggie sandwich.
“She wanted to divorce Damian, and he agreed to it. She didn’t go deep into why, just said she’d been thinking about leaving him and they were working the details,” she said. Hopefully if Violet turned up days later, she wouldn’t be mad at her for sharing. I think she’ll have other worries when she’s back.
“She comes from a rich family. What if she has some amazing life insurance?” Brit narrowed her eyes.
“Hello, her husband is a successful surgeon. It’s not like he needs her money,” Lara said.
“And if I’m not mistaken, he comes from money too,” Nikki added, remembering the expensive family heirlooms Violet had showed her that his family had given him when they got hitched.
“She’s such a good mom though. Why would she leave her two children without a set time to return? Doesn’t make sense,” Brit said.
Nikki took an apple slice from her plate and played with the edges. She hadn’t been hungry ever since she found out what happened. Violet’s disappearance reminded her of Noelle’s death, and sad emotions surfaced again. Was she making the most out of her life? She loved her boys, and she… god, she almost had blurted out she loved Cole when she’d been with him. Apprehension clawed at her heart, making it skip a beat then thrum nervously like a scared animal in the forest, running from a predator. “I guess everyone loses their mind someday. Maybe we’re making too much of it.”
“Yeah, let’s hope she’ll find her way back soon.”
“Until then, let’s go over this list,” Brit said, picking up the iPad.
12
“My assistant said you wanted to see me,” Cole said as he walked into his father’s office. He’d spent the entire morning working on several moving parts of the new location for Great Escape. He’d even managed to Facetime with Nikki for a few minutes, undoubtedly the best part of his day so far.
His father glanced at the document he’d sighed, then set it to the side and gestured for him to sit in front of him. A tumbler filled with amber liquid and a couple cubes of ice already sat on the polished desk surface. Eleven in the morning and his father was drinking? He must have gotten either good news or bad ones. “Yes.”
“Cool. What’s up?”
“Well, I know you’ve been busy with the Great Escape relocation, particularly after we changed the site.”
“Yes. Good busy, though. I’m in touch with human resources, and we’ll send out a preliminary letter about it to the residents next week.”
“Interesting.” His father drummed his fingers on the side of the tumbler, tapping the glass with intent. “What’s the name of the human resources director?”
Cole squared his shoulders. His blood froze into an old-fashioned milkshake—the type good fathers took their kids to enjoy on Sunday afternoons. He swallowed, feeling his pulse throbbing hotly in his throat. He looked at his father, recognizing the challenge in his slanted eyes. His father was no fool, and lying would get him nowhere. Why would he lie anyway? “Nikki Brady.”
His father took his tumbler to his mouth and said over the rim, “Interesting. Tell me, where have I heard that name again?”
“What’s your point?” he asked, unwilling to indulge his father any longer. He didn’t expect his father to look into who worked under him, as he didn’t have time for these ground operations. “Most importantly, why do you care?” the words escaped his lips, but he didn’t regret them. He surged to his feet, marching to the wet bar to grab his own drink.
“That day I suggested you take out Aubrey’s daughter. You said no, and I was curious to find out why.”
“Meeting my date wasn’t enough?”
“Not when I didn’t know who she was.”
How the hell did he know who she was after a one-minute conversation? Realization dawned on him, suffocating him like a collar two sizes too small. His father had probably asked a corporate investigator to look into her. He had her name, and that’s all he needed—hell, a quick search on her Facebook profile would give him her place of work. Connecting the dots wouldn’t be hard.
Cole opened the bottle and carelessly let the cap slide down the tray, as if it were a penny and not the stopper for an expensive bottle of whisky. He poured the liquid into a tumbler and didn’t hesitate. Within two seconds, he gulped a generous amount. His face and muscles contracted for a moment, to only a few beats later relax as the drink rolled down his throat.
