Less than two hours later, Kate was watching TV alone in the house. Her mother had called Jared and reiterated the entire vision to him. Kate had drawn a sketch of the kidnapper and her mother had agreed to drop it off to him. She hadn't stayed in the room to hear their phone conversation. The anxiety was coming off of her mother in waves when she retrieved Kate from her room after the phone call.
Chewing on her lower lip, her mom shifted uncomfortably. "He kept insisting on talking to you directly..."
"And what did you tell him?" she asked narrowing her eyes.
"I said you were no longer comfortable with the situation and preferred I'd act as a liaison. Katie, maybe you should be the one to bring your sketch down to the police station. He mentioned maybe meeting with one of their people to do a professional rendering."
"No way. If anyone recognizes me and calls in a tip, I'm moving away and changing my name. It took months for me to go anywhere without some loon coming up to me and harassing me about Matt Spencer. I only want to have a normal life again."
"He could come over here and pick up the drawing," her mother suggested. "Then, if he has any other questions, you could answer them. I'll insist he only talk to you about things pertaining to the case if you want. However, I know he wants to apologize to you and it would be good for you to hear what he has to say when you're sober. You know how much drinking can heighten emotions."
"Listen, Mom, I can't be in his presence at all right now. Yes, it's selfish, but I don't want to have to sit and pretend I'm fine when I feel completely heartbroken. I told you every single detail about the vision and the sketch is pretty damn good if I do say so myself." She held up the piece of paper and knew it was a good representation of the man she saw in the vision. Almond shaped eyes with a large wide nose centered on his face. His bushy eyebrows and full lips were very distinctive. He had a closely shorn haircut and a rounded shape head. He appeared to be of mixed descent; possibly Hispanic or Italian.
Her mother finally hedged. "I don't exactly feel right about this, Katie, but I'll do what you say. But I still think you should give him a call."
Kate sighed. "Look, I'll do anything to find Cori. I guess you could have him send me a text with any questions and we'll go from there."
Her mother relented and dropped the subject to head off to the police station. Kate assumed if Jared really wanted to question her, there was probably nothing she could do about it. He could probably lock her up on obstruction of justice or something like that. Conversely, Kate had a feeling he would let her be. She was confident he felt as uncomfortable around her as she did. He would probably worry she would jump on top of him at any given moment and attack him with her tongue.
While waiting for her mom to return home, she was vegging on the couch. The phone rang and Kate cringed looking at the call display. Knowing she was in for an earful, she whispered a meek hello.
Julie's voice was rich with venom. "Oh good, you are alive. Now I can come over and kill you myself."
"I know I'm a horrible person, you should totally ditch me for someone who's not completely inept at being a good friend."
"Would it have killed you to return a call or a text?"
"I'm sorry, sort of recovering from an emotional breakdown. Honestly, I've been sleeping all day. I was trying to see if I could force my mind into a state of amnesia about last night."
"What did happen last night? Sebastian called Gage at like two in the morning to say you disappeared. You went to the bathroom and never came back apparently..."
"Sebastian wanted to do an exploration of my bodily cavities and I didn't know how to politely decline. Completely immature of me, but I slipped out instead of telling him I was unenthusiastic about him seeing my control top underwear just yet."
She got at least a chuckle out of Julie. "Well, next time, call me! I could care less if you hook up with Sebastian—he's a complete man-whore. I figured if you were looking for something casual, you'd be interested. Don't make me worry that something happened to you!"
"You're right. I should've at least sent you a text. He was plastered and I was worried he'd wrap his car around a tree with me in it. I knew you were sick and didn't want you and Gage to have to come out and get me. I called for a ride and slept like twelve hours and swore a sacred vow that I was never drinking again."
"No prob, I'm already over it. Did you call your mom? Did she freak?"
She was tempted to tell Julie the entire story, but wasn't sure where to begin. Kate never even told her she still had visions after the coma. She didn't know how to get into the whole Jared saga without coming clean. As she mulled these things over, the doorbell rang.
Kate was slightly relieved. Despite this, she decided to talk to Julie soon. Julie was her best friend and it wasn't fair she kept such a big part of her life concealed from her. "Let me call you back, someone's at the door."
"Another handsome stranger?"
"God, I hope not," she muttered and disconnected.
Swinging open the door, she almost had the temptation to slam it shut. Nikki stood on her doorstep and by her expression, she wasn't there to thank Kate for the new lead on Cori.
"Can I come in?" It definitely didn't sound like a request. She simply nodded and Nikki strode past her into the foyer.
Situating her hands on her hips, Nikki turned and faced her. "I'm going to make this short and sweet for you. You're going to stay away from Jared and my family."
Kate had a feeling if she refused Nikki would go all gangster on her and beat her up—even if she appeared all sweetness and light in a yellow sundress. Kate measured her up. She had at least five inches and twenty pounds on her—Kate was pretty sure she could take her. However, Nikki did have much longer fingernails; she might end up gouging her eyes out.
"Fine," she said shortly.
Nikki eyed her up skeptically. "Fine? You're not going to argue or tell me to get the hell out of your house?"
Kate shook her head. "I know you're going to find this hard to believe, but I do care about Cori and want to bring her back to your family. I don't need to be around Jared in order to help with the case."
"Don't you want to know the reasons why I don't want you near Jared?"
"I have a pretty good idea why and don't need it spelled out. I'm guessing Jared told you about last night..." Leaving the sentence hang, Kate silently vented. Jared was turning into a major pain in her ass. Why did he have to run home and tell Nikki about her blundering seduction? Talk about pouring salt on the wound.
"How dare you! My sister has been abducted and you're so warped that you try and pinch my boyfriend! You've been acting wildly inappropriate since the day you met him. I tried to warn Jared about you. Instead, he has to go and feel sorry for you and takes it upon himself to be your friend."
"Are you looking for a battle, Nikki? We can go outside and throw down if you want. It's really unnecessary, though, since I don't want anything to do with Jared. He's spelled it out to me and you're the clear winner. He loves you," she said and couldn't conceal the defeat in her tone.
It was hard not to feel a sense of loss over what could have been. Albeit, she reasoned that maybe things wouldn't have worked out anyway if this was the type of girl Jared was attracted to. The two women couldn't be any more dissimilar. Kate was more of a beer and chips girl while Nikki was more of the fine wine and foie gras type.
Nikki looked far from satisfied. "Good, take care to remember that. I've been with him for three years and he would never leave me for a freak like you."
"If I'm not a threat, then what are you doing here?" Kate knew she should have let her depart and have the last word, but her words stung. Skank? Home wrecker? Gold digger with a crazy figure? All these she could see, but freak? Ouch.
"I'm here to tell you whatever you think was happening between you and Jared means nothing. You know what you are? His quarter-life crisis. He's like every guy in the world that goes berserk over the idea of marriage. So, they go out and look for some young girl with stars in her eyes who strokes their egos. At the end of the day, though, that girl doesn't get the guy." Nikki edged her way closer to Kate and practically spat the words in her face.
It took everything in Kate to keep her composure and not sucker punch her. "Nikki, leave me alone and go home to Jared. If I never see both of you again, it'll be too soon."
Kate anticipated Nikki had a few more digs in her, but Nikki simply gave her a pitiful stare and marched out of the house. Slamming the door shut, Kate tried to wrap her head around what had just transpired. She knew she should only blame herself for this mess. Nikki had every right to be pissed at Kate, but holy hell; did she have to be so mean? She had waved the white flag—couldn't Nikki merely accept her victory with grace? At the very least, cut her some slack for helping out on her sister's abduction.
Her mother returned about ten minutes later. She decided to stay mum on the impromptu visit from Nikki. If she piled any more problems on her, she might end up checking herself into the nearest psych ward to get away from Kate. She looked tense enough when she returned and Kate felt guilt nag at her for sending her to the police station. "How'd it go?"
"It went good, sweetheart. Jared was very excited that they finally have a physical description of the guy. He complimented your drawing and said he'd be able to use it to distribute to police personnel."
Following her into the kitchen, her mother began taking food out of the refrigerator and setting it on the counter. Her mom still cooked for them both almost every night. For the most part, she also did the meal planning. Kate was grateful; she lacked the culinary skills to make anything that did not have a ton of fat in it. With her high level of stress, her eating habits lately would prove disastrous to her figure. Alternatively, her mom could whip up the most delicious meals and still keep them healthy.
"Did he have any questions you couldn't answer?" She really wanted to inquire if he had asked about her, but she definitely wasn't going there.
"No, he was relieved to hear at that point he hadn't physically...or sexually abused her and he had given her food. He guessed the guy was trying to figure out how to get a ransom from the Prestons without getting caught." Her mother explained and began to chop vegetables without meeting her eyes.
"Ok, and...thanks for going there for me," Kate said awkwardly. She stood silently and began to pull apart a split end she'd just noticed.
Glancing up, she saw her mother watching her closely. "He asked about you, about how you were. He tried to apologize for leading you on. He looked horrible, if that's any consolation."
Kate doubted that was possible. Jared was a heartbreaker; even if he rolled around in a pile of horse shit, he'd still look better than the average Joe. It was nice he apologized, but he never had done anything wrong. She was the one who had to cross a line and ruined an amazing new friendship. Something she knew she'd be kicking herself over for a long time. "How did you tell him I was?"
"I said it wasn't my place to discuss it, but I would be in touch if you had anything else to offer up about the case," she explained.
Kate nodded and decided to drop theconversation. Even conversing about Jared was making the pain raw again and shewondered how long it would take for her to get over him. Right now, she onlyfelt anguished as she comprehended that the only guy who ever understood hercompletely would never be the one to fall in love with her.