out that bed over there, then I’ll tell you everything I know. By that time I don’t know how interested you’ll be. You’ll want seconds, I promise.”
“You’re insane. You need to get out of my house before I call security and have you removed.” I let go of her wrist.
She smiled even broader and shrugged, “If that’s the way you want this to play out, but it’s definitely your loss.” Before I could say anything else she literally jumped on me. She threw her arms around my neck and pulled herself up and pressed her lips to mine. Just before I saw Vicki’s face in the doorway behind us I thought, this is what I get for bragging about how good life was going . Damn it!
Vicki turned around and left. I unhooked Tracy’s arms from around my neck and pushed her back a little too hard. Her back hit the wall on the other side of the room. “You’re fired,” I said. “You have exactly two minutes to get off my property before I call security and the police.” I followed Vicki then. She was fast. By the time I got up the basement stairs she was gone. I ran into Karen on the ground floor and said, “Did you see Vicki?”
“Yeah, I was holding Michael and she took him from me and went out the front door.”
Damn! I took off through the front door after them just in time to see Vicki climbing in the driver’s seat of the SUV I’d bought for her. “Vicki stop!” She ignored me and closed the door. As she turned the ignition I made it to the window, I could see Michael in the back in his car seat, sleeping peacefully. “Turn the car off.”
“No Alex, get out of my way.”
“Vicki! Turn it off!”
“No!”
I reached in through the window and turned it off and took the keys. She looked scared and like she was about to cry. It wasn’t my intention to scare her but she needed to hear me out before she took off half-cocked with our baby. “Listen to me, okay?”
“What is there to say, Alex? I’m so stupid. This is why you pushed to hire her… Oh God! That’s where you take them all, isn’t it? There was nothing special about me, just another eager staff girl that you can take down to the basement and…”
“Don’t say it! That never happened with Tracy and it was never going to. She threw herself on me.” She rolled her eyes. “Vicki, listen to me! Have I given you any reason not to trust me up to this point?” I could see the wheels turning in her head. “I promise you, baby. I love you. You are the only woman that I want to be with. I didn’t plan anything that happened between us but I wouldn’t change it either. I didn’t invite that girl to the basement… you were right about her and I should have listened but nothing happened!”
“I just… when I saw her kissing you…”
“Vicki, think about it again, okay? Picture it in your head… was I touching her? Were my arms around her? Was I even really facing her? The answer is no! She trapped me against the pool table and I took a step to get away from her… that’s why I was standing sideways when you walked in.”
She started crying harder then and suddenly said, “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions! Now I feel like an idiot!”
I opened the door and pulled her out into my arms. Petting her pretty blonde hair I said, “Shh! Don’t ever feel like an idiot, baby. You're so far from that. You were right; she was bad news. I’m the idiot for not listening to you. She’s working for Cassandra, she says Cassie has a tape of us that day in the basement.”
She pulled her head up and looked at me. The poor thing… her eyes were all swollen and red. “A video?”
“No, at least I don’t think so. She just said “tape” and she quoted something I said, so I think it’s true.”
“What’s she going to do with it? I mean, Michael is already proof that we were together.”
“I don’t know. Tracy said something about
Jerry B. Jenkins, Chris Fabry