DANIEL'S GIRL: ROMANCING AN OLDER MAN (17 page)

Luke’s already large eyes began to widen
too, not from concern over Daniel’s stare, but from recognition.
 
He knew this man.
 
Or, at least, he knew of him.
 
He remembered that arrogant face, those big,
bright hazel eyes, that style about him that one female reporter said could
charm a wino out of his wine.
 
Daniel
Crane.
 
That was his name.
 
The asshole big corporate boy with Dreeson, a
company with one of the worse environmental records in the country.
 
The enemy.
 

“Luke, this is Daniel Crane,” Nikki
said, introducing the men and breaking both men’s stare.
 
“He’s my boyfriend.”

Daniel glanced at Nikki.
 
He never liked that term, and Nikki knew
it.
 
But he suspected that was exactly
why she used it.
 

But Luke was still thrown.
 
Daniel Crane was the
boyfriend that he had suspected Nikki had?
 
Daniel Crane of all people?
 
Damn, he thought.
 
He hadn’t expected this level of competition.

“You aren’t the same Daniel Crane who
happens to be senior VP over at Dreeson,” he asked, being coy.
 
“Are you?”

Daniel placed his hands in his pants
pockets and continued to stare at Luke.
 
Luke knew he was one in the same, and Daniel knew he knew.
 
Why he wanted to play some game only
heightened Daniel’s suspicions of the man.
 
“Yes, that’s right,” he said.

“Yeah, you’re the VP at Dreeson.
 
I remember you.
 
You guys are major polluters, man, don’t you
realize that?
 
You’re killing our
babies.”

“Daniel isn’t like that, Luke,” Nikki
said, but Daniel cut her a look that disquieted her.

“Don’t you apologize for me,” he said
harshly.

“I wasn’t apologizing for you.
 
I was just telling him the truth.
 
But forget it, okay?”
 
Nikki frowned and looked away from
Daniel.
 

Daniel regretted immediately that he
had spoken to her in such a tone, especially when he knew she meant well.
 
But the idea of her trying to appease some
self-righteous, closed-brain punk like Luke Finley was more than he was willing
to stomach.
 

“You all right, Nick?” Luke asked,
capitalizing on the breach, and Nikki nodded her head.
 
She wanted to fight back but she wasn’t about
to give Daniel that satisfaction.
 

“Yeah, I’m good.
 
Thanks.”

“And I’m not trying to down your
boyfriend, I’m not about that and you know it.
 
But Dreeson is messed up, man.
 
They don’t care what they’re doing to this environment.”

“Luke, let’s just move on, okay?
 
I’m kind of tired.”

“You’re right.
 
You’ve been through hell and I’m standing up
here preaching like some idiot.
 
Forgive
me?”

Nikki smiled.
 
“There’s nothing to forgive,” she said, and
Daniel looked at her.

“I’m just glad you made it out of
there in one piece,” Luke said.
 
“Lynn
called and told me what happened.
 
She
said her own people trampled you.”

“They did,” Nikki said, still
smiling.
 
“I was knocked down by
absconding activists.”

Luke laughed.
 
“That’s a damn shame.”

“I’m sayin’.
 
But all of them were okay, right?
 
They all got away?”

Luke glanced at Daniel.
 
He loved the fact that Crane, not him, seemed
to be the odd man out.
 
“Yeah,” he
said.
 
“They’re all good.
 
It’s ironic, but nobody got hurt but you,
Nikki.”

“Ain’t no irony in it,” she said to Luke’s
laughter.
 
“Don’t even trick that.
 
It’s the story of my life.”

Daniel did feel like a third wheel as
Nikki and Luke shared their moment of gaiety.
 
He was still traumatized by that phone call from the hospital saying
that Nikki was in an accident to make light of it.
 
Which, he knew, didn’t endear him to Nikki at
this very moment.
 
She needed him to be
understanding, not critical.
 
And it was
a weakness Daniel knew he had.
 
While
being understanding was a strength, Daniel was slowly realizing to his own
dismay, Luke Finley seemed to have in spades.

Luke and Nikki continued laughing as a
uniformed police officer, fortyish, white, tall, peered into the room.
 
“Nikki Graham?” he asked at the door.

Everybody looked in the officer’s
direction.
 
“Yes,” Nikki said, and then
the officer walked further into the room.
 

“I’m Deputy Morgan with the Fergus
Falls P.D., ma’am.”
 
He said this and
nodded in Luke’s direction.
 
“Sir,” he
said to Daniel.

“What can I do for you deputy?” Nikki
asked, already knowing full well what.

“I need to ask you a few questions
about tonight.”

Nikki hesitated, as she and Luke
exchanged a glance.
 
“Okay,” she said
cautiously.

“I’m going to get to the point, Miss
Graham.
 
I need some names, ma’am.
 
I need the names of the violators.”

“What violators?” Luke asked, and both
the officer and Daniel looked at him.

“And you are, sir?”

“I’m a newspaper editor.
 
I’m her boss.
 
Now what violators are you referring to?”

“The ones who were attempting to
vandalize property at Oxidare, sir.
 
Miss
Graham knows what I’m talking about.”

“I don’t think I do know, Deputy.”
Nikki said this and Daniel, surprised, looked at her.

The deputy hesitated.
 
He knew it wasn’t going to be easy.
 
“What organization was out there tonight,
Miss Graham?
 
Who spearheaded the event?”

“Organization?
 
Event?”

“Yes.”

“What are you talking about?”

“It was FAN, wasn’t it?” the deputy
asked.

“FAN?” Nikki replied.

Daniel unbuttoned the coat of his
tuxedo and placed his hand on his waist.
 
He knew better than this.

“Yes, FAN,” the deputy said to
Nikki.
 
“The Fresh Air Now organization,
ma’am.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking
about.
 
I was hanging out on a public
street, then the police came, and I was trampled.
 
That’s all I know, that’s all I’m going to
say.”

The deputy sighed and looked to
Daniel.
 
Daniel, however, was staring at
Nikki.
 
The policeman therefore closed
his writing pad and shook his head.
 

“You’re tired, ma’am.
 
Perhaps we can revisit this tomorrow.”

“Okay, but I’m not going to have
anything further to say tomorrow or any other day.”

“That’s right,” Luke said, and the
deputy glared at him.

“Look,” he said to Nikki, “I know
you’re a journalist trying to do your job.
 
But when they cut through that barbed wire and penetrated that property,
a crime was committed.
 
You’re more than
a journalist now.
 
You’re a witness,
ma’am.
 
A witness to a crime.
 
And you’re interfering with a police
investigation when you withhold information.”

“She said she doesn’t have any
information,” Luke said, knowing full well how far the police department was
willing to go when a journalist was involved.

But Nikki could defend herself.
 
“I have a first amendment right not to reveal
the source of any story I may or may not write, deputy.
 
And I’m not about to say anything more than
that.”

Nikki knew the drill too.
 
And the deputy knew she knew it.
 
That was why he looked at Daniel one more
time, hoping for some support from the older man there, but finding a man consumed
by his own rage.
 
The deputy left.
    

As soon as he did, Daniel fumed.
 
“What do you think you’re doing?” he asked.

Nikki expected his fury.
 
“I’m doing my job, Daniel.”

“Why didn’t you answer his questions,
Nikki?”

“I’m a journalist.
 
I don’t have to answer those kinds of
questions.”

“Like hell you don’t!
 
Laws were broken tonight.”

“I didn’t break any laws.
 
The people who were at that location tonight
were my source for a story.
 
And I’m not
about to reveal my source.”

“And you’re exactly right,” Luke said,
more than happy to take sides.

“And why don’t you shut the fuck up,”
Daniel responded so harshly to Luke that Luke felt the sting on his face.
 

And he wanted to lash back.
 
He desperately wanted to.
 
But he decided against it.
 
He was no fighter and wasn’t going to pretend
to be.
 
Besides, Daniel Crane would
probably knock him into next week, and Luke knew it.
 
So he didn’t lash back.
 
His ability to manipulate situations to his
advantage always carried him through the fires of life, and he was relying on
that attribute now.
 
He therefore decided
to behave as if he was hurt by Crane’s outburst, because he knew Nikki would
like that.
 
Crane would be the bad guy,
not him.

But Nikki, to Luke’s surprise, didn’t
come to his defense.
 
She, instead,
seemed more concerned about Crane.
 
She
seemed more worried about the fact that Crane had gotten upset, than the fact
that Crane had just word-slapped her boss.

“Settle down, Daniel,” she said.
 
“You don’t need to be getting all bent out of
shape like this.”

“This is serious,” Daniel said.
 
“They committed a crime, Nikki.
 
You heard that officer.
 
A crime.
 
They aren’t sources anymore.
 
They’re criminals.”

“I have a first amendment right not to
reveal my source.
 
And you, the police,
and nobody else can force me to reveal my source.
 
I don’t care what y’all say.”

Daniel exhaled so harshly that he
could instantly feel his stomach knotting up.
 
To him the rule of law was sacrosanct, a necessity in all civilized
societies, and what Nikki was doing was just flat wrong.
 
He was up to here with her inability to think
her actions through.
 
He was up to here
with her inability to count up the costs.
 
Everything was a cause that she jumped on without reflection.
 
And he’d had it.
 

He was so frustrated, in fact, that he
felt he had to get away from her; that his anger was rising to heights he
wasn’t sure he could control.
 
He walked
away, to pace the room again, but instead of pacing he left the room, and then
the hospital, altogether.

They released Nikki hours later, a few
minutes before one a.m., and Luke agreed to drive her back to Oxidare so she
could retrieve her car.
 
But only on one
condition.

“What condition?” Nikki asked as they
walked out of the ER.

“I want you to have one, just one
drink with me before calling it a night.”

“I can’t, Luke.”

“Just one?”

“No, I can’t.
 
I just want to go home.”

Luke didn’t like it, but he
understood.
 
“You’re right.
 
Sorry again.
 
Forgive me?”

“You’re forgiven,” she said with a weak
smile as they walked along the long hospital corridor that led to the parking
lot.
 
She kept looking around, for
Daniel, as if she still couldn’t believe he would have left her like this.
 
But he had.
 
He was no-where to be seen.

“Why him?” Luke asked.

Nikki looked at him.
 
“What do you mean?”

“You two are so different,” he
said.
 
“And I mean in every way.
 
You’re young and beautiful and understanding
of people.
 
He’s an old conservative
tight-ass who just doesn’t get it.
 
I
mean come on, Nikki.
 
Of all these guys
out here dying to get your attention, and I mean dying, why on earth would you
end up with a guy like Daniel Crane?”

Nikki closed her eyes.
 
A million reasons.
 
A zillion.
 
“Because he’s good,” she said.

“Good?”