The Twelve Tables Ch. 12

"Is she okay?" Peri whispered needing to close her eyes again but wanting to make sure Josh was okay, and she knew that Nik being okay was a large part of that. She didn't know how this was Nik's fault, but she guessed that a bookcase had fallen on them, and she had blacked out. No one had explained what had happened exactly, and it was the only thing she could think of to hurt her so badly.

"The guard was a man," Josh frowned in confusion and avoided telling her that he had died in last night's events.

"No," she tried to laugh but coughed softly. "Nik. Is Nik okay?"

"She left," he said gently. "She should be the last person you are worried about after doing this to you." Peri lifted her hand to her face and winced. The shock of his words hit her like the bookshelf she thought had fallen on her. He took her hand from her cheek and lowered it softly back to the bed. "Rest now, everyone is fine but you, just worry about getting better."

"Tired," she nodded. She was having trouble believing Nik could have done this to her. Was she trying to kill her? The horrible truth of her thoughts making her look at Josh with wide eyes.

"Rest," he urged her again. "I need you to get better quickly so I can take you home." She smiled crookedly up at him from her bruised and swollen face and closed her eyes. She loved him, but she couldn't look at him right now. She suddenly felt afraid, and she fought against the darkness of sleep that threatened to overwhelm her again.

He sat watching her for long minutes seeing her breathing deepen and lengthen. Once he was sure she was asleep he stood and stretched turning toward the door. He wasn't surprised to see Dante standing there.

"Did you hear her?" Josh asked and watched his brother shake his head slightly. "She asked if Nik was okay," he said his voice cracking. "I need some fresh air." He walked from the room and out into the front garden. The afternoon was darkening, and he knew if he had gone in the other direction when leaving the hospital, he would have seen the beginning of the sunset. He was glad he hadn't.

"Nik's been seen back at home. She assaulted a bank manager. Jules and Romey are liaising with the police," Dante said from behind him.

"Good," Josh said. "D. How?" the question was there in his voice without him having to ask it.

"We all missed it, not just you. We missed all of it. Maybe because we didn't want to see it, but the more likely reason is that she hid it so well. We only saw what she wanted us to see. We all forgave her for her vanity and temper because that was always there. We got mad, we fought with her, but we always accepted her back into our lives without question because she's one of us." Dante tried to wrap his head around how things had gotten so out of hand. He felt for Josh he didn't know that he could be so calm if it were Lio that had become psychotic.

"How did I not see it? Me?" Josh asked again.

"There was nothing to see," Dante shrugged. "She was a self-absorbed, bad tempered bitch, but she wasn't dangerous. It could have been the drugs, the rehab, Papa finally punishing her by sending her here or just being imprisoned here that pushed her over the edge." He refrained from saying that Josh choosing Peri over her might have been a factor. Without him as her anchor to reality and the family, she could have felt she had nothing left to lose by turning her back on them all. She wasn't close to any of them except Josh and Dante felt his own guilt about that.

"Tell that to Nik's maid who was scared for her life," Josh said shaking his head. "I can't bear to hear Peri apologise again. Why isn't she angry at me, angry at Nik, angry at the people who should have been protecting her? She should hate us all right now, and I wouldn't blame her for it."

"She's in pain and barely conscious, give her time to recover and understand what happened, then she'll be angry. You'll be lucky if she doesn't throw that ring at you and call the whole thing off," Dante teased. "Then I can swoop in and be the knight in shining armour."

"Yeah, thanks for being so chivalrous," Josh groaned.

"I do what I can," he moved forward to stand beside Josh. "Could be worse, Carlo could have the same idea and let's face it I'm the better option."

"Jesus," Josh groaned again. "If this is your way of making me feel better, it leaves a bit to be desired."

"Oh, you wanted to feel better? Hang on I'll get Lio, he's the nice one remember," Dante said seriously.

"Don't you ever get tired of saying that?" Josh asked.

"Can't fight the truth. Tell me did you ever get tired of being the nice one when Nik was being a bitch?" Dante asked not expecting an answer. "I imagine Lio gets tired of it, but he too nice to say so," he chuckled.

"So who's the nice one out of the Valentine brothers?" Josh smiled feeling better for the fresh air and his brother's company.

"Jules," Dante said without hesitation surprising Josh, who turned to look at him. "Come on you have to admit that Romey enjoys wrecking everyone's fun a little too much. You saw what he did to the girls on Christmas Eve. He could have just let them believe they got their revenge on Ang, but no he had to tell them they fell for what was an ingenious little set up by Rosanna. He gets too wrapped up in his own cleverness."

"Hey," Lio called walking toward them. "Papa is about to send out a search party for you as well. Andie's on her way from the airport with Pete. Charles stayed behind to coordinate the search up there with Ben.

Josh felt relief and dread flood through him equally. How could he possibly explain this to Andie?

*****

Nik felt like her old self again. She'd spent the remainder of the afternoon shopping before heading back to the airport. She was enjoying the anonymity the short blonde bob gave her and she had purposely walked passed an acquaintance to see if there was a glimmer of recognition. There hadn't been, and she felt empowered by the event. Even the presence of airport security at the check-in counters didn't faze her, and she moved through confidently.

It amused her that her blonde hair suited her new persona far better than the longer lustrous dark tresses she had always been so proud of, and she found adding a slight accent to her voice only highlighted the distinction between her old self and the new version she had created.

"Have a lovely flight, Miss Mariskov," The girl smiled brightly handing her back her passport and boarding pass.

"Tank you, Darlink," Nik returned her smile and took the offered pass picking up her hand luggage and walking toward the first class lounge. Ordering a glass of champagne, she took out the two phones she had bought earlier in the day. Feeling safe that she was on her way to a new life she turned on Peri's phone and listened to the messages. She couldn't help but laugh at the number of stunned silences that were recorded followed by clicks. She had expected that Josh would have ranted and raved at her. His temper was dreadful, but he always came around to her way of thinking eventually. He would realise that she had done him a favour by getting rid of the fat cow.

Disappointed that Joshua had not left a message on the phone she was tempted to call him just to make him thank her for saving him from a life a misery. Perhaps it was too soon, and she could do that tomorrow once she had landed in Fiji. Once again she felt her irritation that she couldn't get a flight to Bali, but Fiji would have to do, at least as a stopover. She turned the phone off again and picked up her own phone.

She stared at her phone for some time considering if there was anyone she cared to say goodbye to. While she wanted to know that Josh was suffering for his betrayal, she had already decided he wasn't ready to thank her yet, and she hated her other brothers equally for not coming to her rescue. She had never got along with Lucy and her holiday a few years ago before she got married just made the distance between then worse. Maryanne was the most annoying person in the world, and Nik would rather hand herself back over to the Battaglia than talk to Maryanne.

"Her friends wouldn't care, they only cared about the next party, the next fix, the next big thing," she thought to herself. She wouldn't miss any of them and doubted they would miss her. She knew there was only one person who loved her unconditionally, and would care that she was leaving the country for an extended amount of time. She wondered briefly if it was wise to call to say goodbye to her mother.

She looked around the lounge at the people gathered there and was not surprised to find none of her family there to take her back to the facility. They must know by now that she had escaped in all the kerfuffle. Her carefully planned alibi about one of the other rehab patients going mad and killing her guard being the reason she ran away seemed unnecessary now. There was one way to find out if they knew she had left yet. She picked up her phone and called her mother.

"Hello?" Antonia answered her phone warily, not recognising the number that flashed up on her screen.

"Hello Mama," Nik said easily as if nothing was out of the ordinary.

"Veronica where are you? We have all been worried sick," Antonia said anxiously. "Come home so we can work all this nonsense out."

"Don't be silly, Mama," Nik laughed. "I'm not going back to that facility again." Well, at least, that answered her question.

"If you don't come home I can't help you. Please, Veronica what you have done is serious, come home and I will do everything I can to protect you," Antonia begged her daughter.

"I haven't done anything wrong," Nik said easily.

"What you did was very wrong, you hurt people Veronica," Antonia began to cry into the phone, "Please come home, come home to me."

"Stop crying Mama," Nik said angrily. "I will come home when I am ready. I just wanted to let you know I was fine and that I was leaving until everyone calms down and lets me lead my life the way I want."

"Where are you going, you know that your father will just find you again, come home Veronica it is the only way," she begged.

"Mama, I have already said no, stop begging like a child." A boarding call went out, but it wasn't for her plane, so she focused again on her mother. "I will call you when I am settled and let you know I am happy and healthy," she said with finality. "Goodbye Mama," she said softly hearing her mother launch into a fresh bout of sobbing and ended the call.

"Well that's the end of that phone," she said out loud and placed it on the bar fully intending on leaving it there when she caught her flight. "Get me another," she commanded the bartender tapping a fingernail on her glass at him as if he should have known she needed another without making her bother to ask. Checking her watch, she hoped that her plane would not be delayed, the call to her mother had unsettled her, and she looked around the large lounge again for anyone she might recognise.

She made eye contact with a handsome young man who seemed to be studying his phone. He smiled at her, and she considered that he might be a reasonable diversion to while away the time before her flight. Taking the glass of champagne, the bartender put in front of her she moved to the comfortable couches where the handsome young man sat studying his phone.

"Do you come here often," she laughed easily and eyed him in a predatory way.

"Seems like I am in the air more than I am on the ground," he laughed with her.

"Nikita," She held out her hand.

"Gordon," he took her hand in his briefly before sitting back in his chair. "Holiday?" He asked.

"Something like that," Nik responded. "Business?" she asked.

"Something like that," he said with a chuckle.

"Excuse me, Miss, your phone has been ringing," a waitress said from her shoulder proffering the phone she had left on the bar.

"That's not mine," Nik replied nonchalantly.

"The bartender insisted, Miss," the waitress placed the phone on the small table beside Nik and walked away.

"Stupid girl," Nik mumbled in irritation. She looked over her shoulder and saw two men in dark suits talking with the Bartender and narrowed her eyes. They were thickset and clean shaven and the type of men who she very much wanted to avoid right now. She became slightly worried when the bartender kept glancing in her direction.

"I'm sure she was just following protocol. Airport staff don't like finding random phones or luggage lying around with no owners with all the terrorist activity in recent years," Gordon reassured her. The phone started to ring again, and he looked at it. "Answer it and tell them the phone is lost. Ask who it belongs to and return it to the bar with the name," he suggested.

"Sounds like a good plan, you answer it," she tossed the phone at him.

"Hello?" Gordon answered the phone. "No, I'm sorry I don't know who that is I just found the phone in the Qantas first class lounge maybe they already caught their flight." Nik listened to his end of the conversation only. "Gordon Sumner," she watched him carefully as he paused and looked around. "No one matching that description here, the only tall, beautiful lady I see is blonde, not brunette." He sat back into his seat again and winked at Nik. "Yeah, good luck tracking her down." He tossed the phone back to her. "Your mother sounded pretty upset," he said softly gauging her reaction.

"She's and emotional woman," Nik tossed her head and picked up the phone glaring at it. She hadn't even realised she had just admitted that the phone was hers for a moment and then looked at him with narrowed eyes. "Clever," she said. "Why did you lie for me then?"

"I didn't lie she asked if I could see a beautiful tall brunette. Do you see one?" he asked. She shook her head, and he smiled. "It's your life, none of my business," he shrugged. "But as my flights just been delayed," he indicated the monitor showing the departures schedule, "You can tell me all about it if you like."

"Seems we're on the same flight," Nik looked up at the screen and sighed. She craned her neck around further to see the dark-suited men still standing at the bar. For the first time that day she wondered if her luck was about to run out.

*****

"This is fine, this is good, your alive and you'll recover," Andie said in a voice stilted by the shock of seeing her badly injured daughter.

"Andie," Peri croaked one eye fluttering open in confusion.

"Even better you can't talk and tell me off for wanting to do something with your hair," she said searching in her handbag for a comb and hiding her tear-stained face. "Oh Peri," Andie gave up the fight of trying to be brave and let her tears flow again, dabbing at her eyes with a tissue. "What would I do if something happened to you," she cried gripping her daughter's hand.

"Andie," Peri croaked again a crooked half smile appeared on her swollen face. "Happy to see you," she whispered hoarsely. "Take me home please."

"Aww baby, where else would I be right now," she cried and gently leant over Peri hugging her softly. "Let the doctors look after you, and as soon as I can manage it I will get you out of here and back home where you belong."

"Want to go home please, Mummy, home," Peri mumbled, and a tear slipped from the one eye she could still see out of. "Please Mummy," she cried painfully.

"You got it," Andie sniffed and immediately straightened up. Hearing Peri call her Mummy like a little girl pulled at every maternal instinct in her body. "We're going home," she said holding Peri's hand firmly. She looked at Pete, who had escorted her on the plane and then here from the airport. "You make this happen or so help me I will call the police and tell them she is being held against her will by the very people who did this to her. You get us home to tonight! Call Charles tell him to make it happen."

"Thank you," Peri croaked, and her mother sank back down into the chair beside her.

"Excuse me, Andie. May I call you Andie?" Nero asked politely stepping forward.

"Yes, fine," Andie said absently to the doctor who had filled them in on Peri's condition out in the hall before she and Pete had entered the room.

"Your daughter was unconscious when we found her and has a head injury. Flying anywhere is out of the question for at least a week. It would be best if she stayed here where she can be looked after properly while she recovers," he said softly. Andie looked at the daughters swollen and bruised face again and turned a steely gaze on the man who spoke considering him quietly. "I am sure Dr Lee would agree with my prognosis," he added stepping back again from her look.

"You don't know Peri very well and you sure as shit don't know me," Andie said her voice as steely as her gaze. "Let me tell you one thing that you need to know right at this moment. My daughter has not called me Mummy since she was ten years old, the fact that she has done that tells me just how distressed and upset she is here in this place with you people. My daughter has just begged me to get her out of here and take her home and if I have to call in help to do that I will, but I am not leaving her a minute longer than I absolutely have to." She looked around the room spying Josh hovering near the door as the two doctors stood with Andie.

"If you love her at all," she said firmly to Josh, "You will help me do this, you know I am right. Being here is only upsetting her further, so you make this happen. I don't care how you make this happen, but do it, or I will start making calls and screaming at people until it does." There was a determination in her voice that Josh had never heard from her before.

"Let's give them a moment," Pete said before Josh could answer Andie. "I'll call Charles, Andie. We'll see what we can do. We need a nurse to stay in the room and keep an eye on her, is that okay?" he asked carefully. She nodded and turned back to her daughter drawing another tissue from her handbag and dabbing at the tears that rolled down one side of Peri's face.

The men who had been standing in the room moved out into the hallway and walked down to the conference room. Josh was devastated, she had barely said anything to him, only apologising to him over and over again. He had hated how upset and distressed she had sounded when she begged Andie to take her home. It hurt that she hadn't asked him to take her home and the idea that she didn't want to go anywhere with him right now hit him like a punch to the gut. He felt sick that the very thing that was supposed to ensure their future together was now the thing that would drive them apart.

"How long twenty-four hours? Forty-eight?" Pete asked Nero taking Andie's threat seriously.

"Three days," Nero said flatly.

"What you have to understand is that Andie and Peri are not family and they won't just do whatever you say like a meek and mild little woman. Andie will follow through on her threat and at this point if she doesn't I will," Pete said. "If it must be longer than twenty-four hours, then you need to transfer to the Canberra Hospital, being here is not helping her recovery or her state of mind."

"Call a meeting," Josh said. "She wants to go home, and I owe her that much for putting her through all of this."

"The police will want to question her as soon as we release her," Nero warned.

"Maybe it's better for her to face that and see that we are not covering up Nik's crimes anymore," Dante had followed them into the room. "Has anyone even told her Nik is gone?"

"So the head injury is the major cause of concern?" Pete asked.

"Yes, but she also has multiple fractures of her right forearm and ribs, a dislocated collarbone and a fractured cheekbone all of which will take time to heal," Nero said. "Not to mention the bruising to her throat torso and legs."