A Matter of Trust Read online

  Nikki and Max buckled in for takeoff. True to his word, Simon’s representative had shown up less than an hour after Nikki placed the call to Simon. She and Max were both surprised that the man turned out to be the doctor on record at the hospital. He had Max get in a wheelchair and left notations on his chart that he was scheduled for an MRI.

  Then he wheeled Max right out of the hospital where a car was waiting. The driver took Max and Nikki to a private airport where a private jet was waiting. Now they were about to take off.

  Once they were in the air, Max unbuckled and stood to check out the plane. He opened a door behind the seating area and motioned for Nikki with a sexy grin on his face.

  She got up and went to him. Inside the next cabin was a well-appointed bedroom. She cut her eyes up at him. “Are you suggesting…?”

  No suggestion. A demand. I want you, he signed.

  The look on his face sent a thrill of need spiraling through her.

  “Tell me what you want.”

  He took her by the shoulders and backed her into the bedroom, kicking the door closed behind him.

  Naked and on your hands and knees on the bed.

  Something akin to a current of electricity sizzled through her. His eyes seemed to gleam with an inner fire and there was a look of such sexual dominance on his face that she felt her sex grow wet just looking at him.

  Nikki couldn't deny his desires or her own and a hour later, was replete and limp when hhe pilot’s voice came over the intercom.”Sir? We’re preparing for descent. If you’re not currently seated, please do so and fasten your belts.”

  Nikki rose up and looked down at Max. “Does this count as seated?”

  He grinned and signed I wish.

  She chuckled and climbed off him to go to the bathroom and clean up. Five minutes later they were back in the main cabin, buckled in and ready for landing.

  Max pulled out his phone and turned it on. His eyebrows rose and he handed the phone to Nikki. She read the message. “This can’t be good,” she said as she gave the phone back to him. “He has to have a spy on the estate to get possession of your laptop. And for him to take it means he suspects or knows that you’re not incompetent…but…” she trailed off with a perplexed expression.

  “But why steal your computer?”

  Max shrugged and keyed a message on his phone for her. Not enough information. Maybe grandfather can help fill in the blanks. Don’t worry. We’ll figure it out, and I won’t let anything happen to you.

  Nikki smiled at him. “Funny, isn’t it? I’m supposed to be protecting you and yet you’re protecting me.”

  Isn’t that the way it’s supposed to be. Protect one another?

  She nodded and took his hand to give it a squeeze. “It sure is.”

  A second Scotch did little to ease the hammering in Mark’s head. He’d finally located the hospital where Maxwell had been taken, but Maxwell was no longer there and no one at the hospital knew why or when he’d been released.

  If that wasn’t bad enough, there’d been no sign of Maxwell or Nikki. Mark had checked the flight logs of every Weston jet, and all passenger manifests of every commercial flight and charter service in the area of the hospital, and could not find any record of a man and woman matching Maxwell and Nikki’s descriptions having taken a flight.

  Richard had gone ballistic when he’d heard the news, particularly when Mark subtly suggested that perhaps Nikki had spirited Maxwell away in some kind of kidnapping ploy. Richard was on the verge of contacting the authorities when he was contacted by his father who told him in no uncertain terms that he was to take no action in the matter.

  Mark and Richard both would have preferred to deal with kidnappers, terrorists or hostile corporate raids than Simon. Neither of them could afford to make a move against the old man. If he said to let it go, they had little choice but to accede to his wishes.

  But it did not sit well with either of them. Mark had mobilized the weight of the entire Weston empire to locate Maxwell. Thus far, they’d made no progress.

  Which left him and Richard in a sweat. What was Simon up to?

  At present Simon sat in front of a large bay window in the library, waiting for Maxwell and Nikki to get up and meet him. They’d arrived late the previous night and had gone immediately to bed. He’d not argued when Maxwell communicated to him via the iPhone that he and Nikki would be sharing a room at the end of the wing.

  There was something different about Maxwell, something that gave Simon hope. Gone was the beaten man, afraid and uncertain. Now Maxwell seemed strong and self-assured, and if Simon’s mind had not suddenly failed him, confident in his manhood.

  Simon saw the way Nikki and Maxwell looked at one another and recognized the chemistry between them. Just as he noticed the way she deferred to Maxwell. A woman did not behave in such a fashion unless a man had earned a position of dominance.

  Hope that had long lain dormant had begun to blossom inside Simon. Perhaps this long dark night that had claimed all of them was about to draw to an end. He prayed it was so.

  Nikki smiled when Max opened his eyes and sat straight up. He saw Nikki watching and flopped back onto the bed. I was afraid it was all just a dream.

  “It’s no dream, Max.” She snuggled over and kissed his chest, whispering against his skin. “But we can pretend it is.”

  What?

  “Pretend,” she said and nipped her way down his body. “Make believe that we’re in a dream. And you know the beauty of dreams. There you can do anything you’ve ever fantasized about.”

  My fantasies might surprise you.

  “Hmmm, I love surprisesTell me. No, better yet, show me.”

  And what if you can’t take it?

  “Never know until we try, will we?”

  Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

  “Consider me fully warned. Now tell me what you want, Max. Let me be your fantasy.”

  Two hours later, they collapsed in a heap on the bed. Max rolled off her, and spooned his body around hers. Within minutes they were both asleep.

  But even in sleep his mind did not rest. All at once the pieces fell into place. Max sat up and fumbled around on the nightstand for his iPhone. Nikki groaned and sat up. “It’s the middle of the night. What’re you doing?”

  Max signaled for her to wait. When he finished he handed the phone to her.

  I have a plan, but we’ll need Ben’s help. At present we have too many factions to fight at once. Clearly Abernathy is up to something he’s not making Robinson or my parents’ privy to. And I suspect Robinson has his own agenda as well. Which means we’re faced with a war that has to be fought on three fronts simultaneously. That’s not advantageous for us. So far we’ve been playing defense. We need to switch tactics and go on the offensive. Force the three factions to war among themselves, leaving us to fight whoever proves to be the victor.

  Nikki looked up at him. “And you know how we can do that?”

  Max nodded and held out his hand for the phone. Nikki gave it to him and he started typing furiously. She lay back and watched. His face was lit by the light of the phone’s display. His brows were drawn slightly together, his eyes a bit narrowed as he was wont to do when concentrating. But what was most remarkable was that his face held the look of a warrior, a man strong, determined and confident.

  She’d noticed more and more of that in him of late. The real Max was emerging more each day, and that man was every bit the man of her dreams, if not more. The only thing that concerned her was a selfish fear. What if Max won his war and secured his freedom and then decided he no longer needed or wanted her?

  He stopped abruptly and looked at her. Not in a million years, he signed.

  “Not in a million years what?”

  Would I ever stop wanting or needing you.

  Nikki gawked at him in shock. “What made you say that?”

  He saved whatever he was working on and opened a new window. You said if I won and was free then I wouldn’t need yo
u.

  “Max, I didn’t say anything. I thought that.”

  His eyes widened. Let’s see if we can do it again. Think of something.

  She nodded and tried to focus on a single thought, but all that would come to mind was a question. Did he know how she felt about him? Was Max aware that she was in love with him?

  He quickly keyed in something and handed her the phone. I’d hoped.

  “This is incredible!” she exclaimed and smiled up at him. “Do you think it’s the sphere? Does it possess the power to make us able to communicate mentally? Oh Max, this is amazing.” She stopped and took his hand “I do love you, Max. More than I thought I could love someone.”

  He grabbed the phone and started typing but she stopped him. “Wait. Try and think the words to me.”

  He nodded and she watched his face. Nothing came to mind. She opened her mouth to tell him it wasn’t working when she heard a voice in her mind. A male voice, low timbered but rich and sensual.

  “I wish I could talk so I could hold you and say this to you. I love you, Nikki. You are my angel, my dream, the only woman I will ever love and I want to spend every moment of the rest of my life with you.”

  Nikki’s eyes welled with tears. “Oh, Max,” she sighed in joy. “There’s nothing I want more.” She smiled through her tears. “And the only way that’s going to happen is if we win this war. So devise your plan, map your strategy and let loose the dogs of war. Time for us to kick some ass.”

  You got it, babe, he thought and grinned as he took her into his arms. But first, there’s a few things I’ve been meaning to tell you…

  “Like what?”

  Like how I want to tie you up and make you beg.

  “Hmmmm,” she smiled at him. “Tell me more.”

  I’d rather show you. He rolled off the bed and went to the closet. When he returned he had a handful of men’s neckties.

  Hours later, Nikki’s last thought before drifting off to sleep was that if what was happening was nothing more than a dream, she hoped she’d never waken.

  Simon had not moved from his spot in front of the window. His mind was busy considering possibilities and plans. A sound from behind him had him turning his wheelchair to face the room. Maxwell and Nikki stood there, hand-in-hand.

  “I trust you slept well?” Simon commented.

  “Yes, thank you.” Nikki released Maxwell’s hand to cross the room and lean down to kiss Simon on the cheek. She straightened and reached up to pull the chains holding the pendants over her head and hand them to Simon.

  “I believe this is what you wanted to see.”

  Simon’s hand shook as he beheld what lay on his palm. His hand closed into a fist for a moment and he closed his eyes, willing the quickened hammering of his heart to slow.

  “Simon?” Nikki dropped down to kneel beside him. “Are you okay?”

  “Fine, my dear.” He opened his eyes and smiled at her, then opened his fist. “Do you have any idea what you have here?”

  “Not a clue really,” she replied and cut a look at Maxwell. “But we do know that the sphere has an…unusual effect on us.”

  “What type of effect?”

  Nikki looked over at Maxwell again. “Max?”

  He immediately crossed the room to her, pulling her to her feet and wrapped one arm securely around her waist. He gave her a nod and she smiled and turned her attention to Simon.

  “It’s kind of unbelievable,” she said.

  “Please, sit,” Simon replied and rolled his chair closer to the sofa.

  Nikki and Max took a seat, their thighs pressed firmly against one another. “Well, it all started—” Nikki said then paused and stood. “Wait, I need to get Max’s phone so he can help me.”

  Max grabbed her hand and stopped her. We can be honest with Grandfather.

  She smiled and dropped back down onto the sofa beside him, then looked at Simon. “Christian Bernard gave me the sphere as a gift when we were…involved. All he told me about it was that it was very old. I tried to research it but the markings were contradictory—some in Sumerian and others in the ancient dialect of the Irish. None of it made sense and I thought it was just an old pendant with no meaning.

  “But almost as soon as I started wearing it I started having very lucid dreams. And…” She looked down, a slight flush rising on her face, at which Max smiled and put one arm around her to hug her to his side.

  She looked up at him and Simon could see the love each of them held for the other shining clear in their eyes. Max nodded and signed something to her and she smiled.

  “Like I said,” she turned her attention again to Simon, “I started having dreams, very sensual dreams. And it was always the same man in the dreams. Somewhere along the way I became convinced that the sphere was showing me the man I was destined for.

  “Then the dreams started coming in the form of waking visions. I never knew when one would take me and I had no control over them. But they were so real that every smell, taste, touch or sensation was as real as anything I’d ever experienced.

  “When I came here to be interviewed for the job, Mr. and Mrs. Weston left the room to go look for Max. I was waiting and a man came into the room. I swear I almost fainted. It was the same man in my dreams.” She looked at Max. “It was Max.”

  “Interesting,” Simon commented and looked at Maxwell.

  “And as it turns out, Max was having similar visions,” she added.

  Simon looked at Max who nodded and looked at Nikki. She held up her hand and turned to face Simon. “This is going to be just as unbelievable, but the effects of the sphere seem to be increasing. Max and I can communicate—without words.”

  “Telepathy?” Simon asked, leaning forward slightly.

  “I guess,” she replied. “But let Max tell you about his visions. Max?” She faced Max again and after a moment she heard him speaking in her mind and respoke them for Simon “I’ve had visions and dreams about Nikki since I woke from my long nap after being returned home from Iraq. But I don’t understand why. I don’t have a sphere so either our connection is based upon something else or the sphere has a far vaster range of influence than we imagine.”

  She and Max looked at Simon when she finished speaking. He was staring at the pendants in his hand. “I believe that you do not know what you are dealing with. Maxwell, could you look in the armoire in the sitting room, in the bottom left-hand drawer? There is a small wooden chest. Bring it to me, please.”

  Max left the room and Nikki focused on Simon. “You know what it is, don’t you?”

  “I believe I do, yes.”

  “Well what?”

  “Patience, my dear,” he replied. “The truth will be revealed shortly.”

  Max returned a few moments later carrying a small wooden chest with metal hinges.

  “Could you open it please?” Simon asked.

  Max complied and Simon extracted several small metal tools. “Now, Maxwell, your hands are stronger and more adept than mine. I want you to break the seam that encircles the sphere.”

  Max took the tool Simon offered and the sphere. “Wait!” Nikki jumped up. “You’ll destroy it.”

  “Hardly,” Simon said and directed Max. “Maxwell, do as I ask, please.”

  Max sat down and went to work. It took several minutes but in time he’d cut through the seam. He peeled it back and Nikki gasped. Inside was a small blue stone, one that seemed lit from within.

  “Oh my god!” she whispered and looked at Simon. “Is that…”

  “One of the Blue Stones of Atlantis,” Simon said with a nod.

  “Oh my god,” Nikki whispered again. “Are you sure?”

  “Positive,” Simon replied then frowned. “Maxwell?”

  Nikki’s gaze moved to Max. He was staring at the stone in his hand like he was in shock. “Max?” She put her hand on his arm. “Max! Are you okay?”

  Max grabbed her hand and put the stone in it. She started to repeat his words for Simon as they rang in her
mind. “Now I know why I was having visions. This stone matches one I have. After I woke and my memory was damaged, I spent some time going through things in my suite. One evening I was lying on the bed staring at the ceiling and noticed that the light fixture in the ceiling seemed to be pulled loose on one side. I pulled my desk beneath it, put a chair on the desk and climbed up to look at it. It was loose. I got a screwdriver from the tool cabinet in Osgood’s office to fix it but the screw wouldn’t tighten. So, I took the rest of the screws out and discovered that the hole was being blocked by part of a small leather pouch hidden in the cavity in the ceiling. I fixed the light, replaced the furniture and opened the pouch. Inside it were marbles. They were all ordinary except for one. One small blue stone that glowed.

  “It seemed to draw me to it. I held it and felt a warm energy run through me. I didn’t know what it was, but I did know that I felt I had to keep it a secret and keep it close to me. I’ve carried the pouch in my pocket or kept it close to me since that time.”

  “And thus the truth is revealed,” Simon remarked. “Each of you unknowingly possessed one of the Stones, and in calling to each other, the Stones linked the two of you.”

  “The Blue Stones of Atlantis,” Nikki whispered. “They’re not just myth.” She looked at Max. “Where is the marble bag?”

  The nightstand, Max spoke in her mind.

  “We have to get to Max’s suite and get the stone from the nightstand.”

  “It is not safe,” Simon cautioned. “No one knows you are here. Best we keep it that way.”

  “We can be careful,” she argued.

  “No, we cannot afford to take chances.”

  “But we need to get that stone!”

  “I agree.” Simon reached for the phone.

  “What are you doing?” Nikki exclaimed.

  “Enlisting help.” He paused, not yet having dialed an extension.

  “From?” she asked.

  Simon cradled the receiver. “This is not common knowledge and I’ll ask you both to respect my privacy and not repeat what I am about to tell you.”

  Max nodded and Nikki immediately agreed. “Absolutely.”