Free Unforeseen Danger by Michelle Perry Page B

creepier than Tommy Miller,” he teased, and was rewarded with a cuff to the back of his head.
    “ Ow !   Okay, okay, I’ll go!”   He glanced at his wife.   “Be right back, Nikki.”
    They got in the elevator and Jake pushed the basement level, where the garage was situated.  
    “How are you doing, Jake?   Really?”
    Jake sighed and leaned back against the elevator wall.   “I have no idea.   One minute I’m mad, the next I’m hopeful.   I don’t know what to do, other than wish that I was the one with amnesia.   It’s so hard to hang on, when every time I close my eyes, I picture her in the arms of some guy.”
    “What made her finally tell you?”
    “I told her I wanted a divorce.   I served her with papers the day before the accident.   That made her so furious that she finally confessed, but she said she couldn’t tell me who he was.”
    Darcy gasped.
    “I didn’t feel that I had a choice,” Jake said defensively.   “First, Nikki kept lying to me about it.   Then, she wouldn’t say anything at all.   I thought that serving papers on her would make her realize that I wasn’t going to just let this go.”
    “Jake, don’t take this the wrong way—” Darcy hesitated.   “It’s really hard for me to say this, because Nikki’s like a sister to me, but please think twice before you rush back into things with her.   I know her better than anyone does, even you.   Nikki looks out for number one.   I don’t know what she’s told you about her relationship with Derek, but she did him the same way.   I begged him to stay away from her, but he couldn’t.   Nikki knows how to get what she wants, and she doesn’t realize the people she hurts to get it.   That’s just the way she is, and it’s not really her fault.   She learned from the best.”
    Jake nodded, thinking about the selfish, callous woman who was his mother-in-law.
    “She knew how Derek felt about her and she used it to her advantage.   Frankly, I was relieved when she stopped dating him and met you, but then you and I became friends.   You’re a good guy, Jake, and I hate to see you hurt.   I told Nikki a few weeks ago that you didn’t deserve to be treated so shabbily.”
    “So it hadn’t been going on for too long?” Jake asked, wondering why it mattered.
    Because it’s one thing to know that she slept with this guy.   It’s another to think she loved him.
    “Maybe a couple of months.”
    “You don’t have a guess as to who he might’ve been?” Jake asked, then realized he was thinking of the guy in the past tense.   
    “No, but…” she hesitated again and he could see her cringe.   “It’s somebody that you know, Jake.   She was mad when he first started coming on to her, but he kind of wore her down with his attention and gifts.   You know how Nikki always needed to be the center of attention.”
    Jake nodded.   He glanced at Darcy again and noticed how pale she was.
    “Hey, are you okay?” he asked.   “You look a little under the weather.”
    A  tear glinted in the corner of Darcy’s eye, and she impatiently brushed it away.   “Ah, it’s just all this.”   She gestured with her hands.   “And I’ve been thinking about Derek today.   It’s been two months now.”   Her voice cracked and Jake wrapped his arms around her.
    “I’m sorry,” he said.
    Darcy pulled back, looking a little embarrassed.   Jake knew she wasn’t the type to cry easily.
    “You know, you’re a real keeper, Jake.”   She brushed a kiss on his cheek and said lightly, “ Nik used to always steal my best boyfriends, but if I’d met you first, I would’ve fought her for you.”
    Jake took the keys from her hand and unlocked the car door.  
    She grabbed his hands and said, “Hey, Blue Eyes, I just want you to be careful.   I don’t know if Nikki really meant all that stuff about wanting to leave, but – just take it slow, okay?”
    Jake’s heart nearly stopped in his chest, and he