Airhead: Being Nikki Part 21

Mrs. Howard, however, came over to me and put an arm around my shoulders and said, Im so sorry, honey. Honey. Just like shed called Steven. Her arm felt soft and comforting. When she looked down at me, I saw that there wasnt any flicker in her gaze, unlike my own mothers. The look Mrs. Howard gave me was strong and steady and compa.s.sionate. This has been really hard on her. But I want to thank you. Thank youfor bringing me my son.

And then shed kissed me on the cheek Nikki had slapped.

And I knew it was just Nikkis body reacting. But I felt comforted in a way I hadnt really felt with my own mom in ages.

Which was weird, I know.

Now Nikkis mother turned an outraged look on her daughter and said, Nikki, what are you doing, e-mailing people? I told you, you can surf the Web, but no e-mailing!

Sitting on the couch where Steven had pinned her, scowling at all of us, Nikki pouted. Well, what else am I supposed to do all day? You can only watch so many episodes of The Hills. Im so bored!

Of course you are, sweetie, Lulu said, going to sit on the couch beside her and stroking her arm. She was trying to calm her old friend down"not that it seemed to be doing much good. Nikki didnt look any more thrilled to see Lulu than she did to see me. I cant believe theyve been keeping you cooped up in here. But Im sure theyll let you out soon.

To do what? Nikki demanded churlishly. Work at the Gap? Look at me. Im ugly and my hair is stupid. What are you wearing, anyway? You look weird.

Lulu touched her chauffeurs cap. I think its cute, she said defensively. I think you look cute. Red hair suits you. And theres lots of things you can do. This man saved you from being dead. Arent you glad about not being dead?

No, Nikki said. She turned her attention to Cosabella. Cosy. She snapped her fingers at the dog, who was still wrestling with the other dogs. Cosy! She leaned back, frustrated. G.o.d, this sucks. Even my own dog likes this one better. She sneered at me. I was apparently this one.

Hon, I told you. Well get you a new dog, Mrs. Howard said. She looked tired, and not just because it was the crack of dawn. It seemed as if this was a conversation theyd had numerous times before. The important thing is that we dont let Stark find out youre still alive. You have to stop e-mailing people. Dr. Fong has gone to so much trouble for you.

Yeah, I said. I looked from Nikki to Dr. Fong. How come I didnt see you in the recovery ward at the inst.i.tute when I was there?

Dr. Fong seemed even more tired than Mrs. Howard. In order to save Nikkis life, he explained, I was forced to employ subterfuge. While you were having your surgery, I used her brain in one of our demonstration surgeries for some foreign surgeons, with the a.s.sistance of some of my colleagues. They didnt, of course, know where the healthy brain we were using had come from. The donor body we used"the one Nikki has now"belonged to a young woman who had gone into a vegetative state due to a vehicular accident caused by a drunk driver. The donor, unfortunately, was the driver in question.

Nikki rolled her eyes. Right, she said, when I glanced at her. You get the supermodels body. I get the drunk drivers body.

At least youre alive, Nikki, her big brother said.

Nikki made a face. Oh, stay out of it, Steven.

Once the surgery was successfully completed, Dr. Fong went on, in order to keep Nikki from asking any questions that might arouse suspicion when she woke, it was necessary to have her transferred immediately, while she was still in her coma, from the inst.i.tute"I forged doc.u.ments stating she was being transferred to another hospital closer to the brain transplants home. But really, I had her transported here, and bribed the ambulance attendants to keep quiet about it. Her mother was the one who did most of her nursing.

But I dont get why Stark tried to kill her in the first place, Christopher said.

Yeah, Nikki said, looking at Christopher appraisingly. She evidently liked what she saw since she flipped some of her red hair back flirtatiously. Well, what girl wouldnt like Christopher? Especially one whod been cooped up in the house as long as she had. Although if she made a move toward him, Id be forced to break her nose. Why would Stark want to kill me after everything Ive done for them? I mean, just because I overheard them talking about that stupid game"

Christophers interest sharpened. What game?

That computer game, Nikki said. The new one. Travelquest or whatever.

Journeyquest, I corrected her. You mean the new version, Realms?

Right, Nikki said. She dropped the flirtatiousness for a look of mystery. I mean, I might have overheard something about thatSomething Robert Stark wouldnt want getting out. At least, thats what he said when I brought it up.

Christopher and I exchanged glances. Uh-oh.

Even Lulu knew enough to know this was bad. She took her hand away from Nikkis arm.

Nikki, she said, with a gasp. Did you tell Mr. Stark you knew this secret?

Sure, Nikki said, shrugging. I wanted to see how much it would be worth to him for me to keep quiet about it. And it turned out, it was worth quite a bit. She laughed delightedly at the memory of it. Then her face darkened as she stared at me. Except youre the one enjoying the money now, arent you? What have you been spending it on? It better be good.

What money? I asked, genuinely bewildered. I dont know what youre talking about"

But I had a very bad feeling about ita feeling that, I could tell, was shared by the rest of the room, if the uneasy expressions everyone was wearing were any indication.

The money, Nikki went on, that Stark promised to pay me to keep my mouth shut about Stark Quark! I never got to see a dime of it. I had the accident right after that.

Dr. Fong, who clearly hadnt heard any of this before, sank his head into his hands and groaned.

I glanced at Christopher, who said, with a knowing smile, Told you. There are no accidents.

I swallowed. Hard. He had said that. But he didnt have to look so smug about it. This was a girls life we were talking about. A girl who used to walk around in the body I was currently inhabiting, living in the loft I currently lived ina girl whose dog no longer recognized her.

It was so sad. I wanted to cry just looking at her, sitting there on the couch, so proud of herself for something that had, in the end, ruined her life.

No, ended that life.

Oh, Nikki, Mrs. Howard said, with a groan, covering her mouth with both her hands.

Her son, however, had a lot more to say about it than just his sisters name.

Has it occurred to you, Nikki, Steven demanded sharply, that Stark might just have tried to have you killed instead of paying you? What you did was blackmail.

Nikki rolled her eyes. G.o.d, Steven, you were always so dramatic. Its just a stupid video game.

Its a billion-dollar line of software, Christopher corrected her. And even if you were the Face of Stark, you were replaceable. He nodded at me. See? They replaced you. With her.

Nikki stared at me. As she did so, her lower lip started to tremble, just a tiny bit. It was all starting to sink in. Finally.

They chose the software over you, Christopher went on brutally. So brutally, I wanted to shout at him to stop. Just stop. This was all too much. I was so tired. I wanted to crawl into bed and go to sleep and make it go away. Except that I couldnt, of course. Or at least they meant to. Dr. Fong saved your life.

For the first time, Nikki began to look scared. She glanced at me, and then at Christopher. Finally, she looked at Lulu.

You guys found me, she said, because of an e-mail? An e-mail I sent to Justin?

Yes, sweetie, Lulu said gently, taking her hand. Your mom is right. You have to be more careful.

Yeah, Christopher said. And what we need to know ishave you sent any more e-mails to anyone else? Because"in case you havent already guessed"your location can be traced that way.

Nikki chewed her lower lip. Just a couple, she said in a meek voice. She seemed really frightened now. But not to anyone who matters.

Who, Nikki? Mrs. Howard asked. She sounded as frightened as her daughter. Just tell us who.

Just totoBrandon Stark, Nikki said.

My heart sank. Brandon. Of course. Of course shed e-mail Brandon. Theyd been a couple before the accident. Why, oh why, had we brought Brandon along? It had seemed so innocent at the time. He had been pa.s.sed out"Brandon was almost always pa.s.sed out.

Except when he woke up and wandered around, begging me to get back together with him.

When I remembered this, my heart, which had been sinking, suddenly sped up. No wonder Brandon seemed to have such mixed-up ideas about me. He was getting e-mails from someone named NikkiH telling him how much she missed him. Then he was seeing me, in the fleshand it didnt help that sometimes I did flirt with him, a little Okay, a lot.

Great. And he was outside, in the limo. The last thing we needed was Brandon bursting in here, realizing Nikki Howard"the real Nikki Howard, the one his father thought he had had killed"was still alive.

Ill go check on him, I said in a tight voice, since I knew I wasnt the only one freaking out over the fact that wed led the son of the man responsible for this entire mess to the very door.

I leapt up from the chair Id been sitting in and hurried out of the room and stepped into the foyer. I was just reaching for the handle of the front door when something hard and rough wrapped around my throat, and suddenly I found myself pressed against the wall, all the breath knocked out of me from the impact.

And looming in front of me was Brandon Stark, five oclock shadow standing out sharply all along his jaw. With his right arm, he was pus.h.i.+ng me by the throat against one of Dr. Fongs duck portraits.

Dont say a word, Brandon hissed. If you scream or make any noise at all, I swear Ill tell my dad exactly where he can find the real Nikki Howard.

TWENTY-THREE.

I CLAMPED MY MOUTH SHUT. THE TRUTH was, Id been about to let out a shriek to wake the dead.

Brandons warning caused me to think twice about that, though. Also the fact that he was pressing so hard on my throat, I couldnt have made a sound if Id tried. Besides, I wasnt sure he actually wanted a reply.

So, he went on. Brain transplant? Thats what happened to you? Not this amnesia bull youve been feeding me and everyone else?

I remembered how, back in St. John, his fingers had strayed toward the scar on the back of my head. That must have been the first clue that all was not as I kept a.s.suring him it was.

I nodded mutely, wondering how I was going to get out of this. Christopher, I knew, could have no idea anything was wrong. None of them would. Not until I didnt come back for a while. Would I be back? I wondered. This was a side of Brandon Id never seen before. It was a side that scared me witless.

Yeah. That actually explains a lot, he said. He moved one thumb down my jawline. Creepy was not a strong enough word to describe how it felt. Id always thought Brandon was dumb. But it turned out Id been wrong, and that this whole time hed been scheming but it had never entered my mind.

Until now.

You changed, he went on. But I could never put my finger on how, exactly. Until today. I mean, obviously, there was the Stark is evil c.r.a.p. But the old Nikki"The old Nikki. I wondered how shed feel about being called that"had been spewing c.r.a.p about how she knew something about Stark Quark for ages. I just never listened. Now I know I should have.

My heart thumped. Oh, G.o.d. We were so dead. Brandon was going to tell. He was going to tell his dad everything. There had to be a way out of this, there just had to be. What did Brandon want? What could I give him, to shut him up about this?

The problem is, she was an amateur, Brandon went on. You all are. You dont know my dad. He doesnt care about anyone or anythingexcept Stark. The only way to hurt him is through his company. Whatever she knows about Stark Quark, if its worth killing Nikki Howard for"and then giving her a brain transplant to keep her image alive"its worth knowing. Believe me. And I want in.

I opened my mouth. I was in such shock, I didnt remember to be quiet, like hed asked. This was the last thing Id expected him to say"that he wanted in.

But" I croaked.

No, Brandon said, and laid a hand over my lips. Shhh. I know thats what she was doing"blackmailing him. But obviously, she wasnt going about it the right way. She didnt know just how powerful the information she had was. Im going to do it right. Im going to get her to tell me what she knows"and she will, because shes obviously still got the hots for me, since she keeps e-mailing me. And then youre going to get your personal geek squad back there to tell me what the h.e.l.l shes talking about. And then theyll figure out what we can do with that information to hurt my dad. And then Im going to blackmail him myself.

I looked up at him like he was crazy. Only the thing was, I didnt really believe for a minute he was. Crazy, I mean. Not at all.

And that was the scary part.

Why should I help you? I demanded.

Because, he said very simply, if you dont, Ill tell my dad where the real Nikki Howard is. And Ill tell him about the doctor, too. He ran a strand of my long blond hair through his fingers, as if testing its silkiness. Okay? Now, youre going to go in there and tell them that you found me awake and that youve told me the whole story, because Im such a great guy, and that Im on your side.

My jaw dropped. He smiled as he tugged on the curl of hair he held.

And if you tell them that Im making you do it, Ill tell my father about the girl. And one last thing, he said, moving his arm so it was no longer pressing against my neck but wrapped around my shoulders. No more messing around with that guy in there, that one I found you with in your bedroom. You and I are together now. Understand?

I felt myself turning bright red. So he had seen me with Christopher Im tired of this little cat and mouse game of yours, e-mailing me and then avoiding me, he went on.

That wasnt me e-mailing you, I said, feeling sick to my stomach. Because it had been me kissing him in St. Johnoh, how I wished now I never had listened to Lulu. It was Nikki. The real Nikki.

Right, Brandon said, looking bored with the conversation. Whats your name again? Your real name?

Em, I said. My voice was rough from where hed been pressing against my larynx with his arm. Emerson.

Okay, Brandon said. Emerson. Then he laughed. The truth is, I dont really care what your name is. You can be sweet when you want to. Unlike the old Nikki. Only youre not stupid, like she was. So remember what I said. Youre mine now. He squeezed my shoulders, hard. No more of that other guy, the one in the leather jacket, who seems so into you. Just me. Understand?

I nodded. What choice did I have?

He lifted his arm, so I could move again, but kept one hand firmly wrapped around my arm.

But even though I could move physically, I felt paralyzed mentally and emotionally. What had just happened? Was this really Brandon, the guy who had jumped into the water in St. John to save me from drowning? Hed put his arm around my neck there, too, but to tow me to the boat to save me, not to press me to a wall and threaten me. How could he be so drastically different than Id remembered him? Was the Brandon whod complained to me so often about his distant father really the same one who was now preparing to partic.i.p.ate in blackmail"not to mention forcing me to become his girlfriend against my will?

I had thought Christopher had turned into a supervillain, but it turned out I didnt even know what a supervillain was. Brandon was the supervillain of all supervillains. He had embraced evil in a way Christopher, I was quite certain, couldnt even begin to contemplate.

Numb, I moved away from him, leaving the foyer and turning back toward the living room, just as Christopher was turning to Mrs. Howard to say, his voice so even and measured it sent chills up my spine, and not just because Id basically been dealing with a human snake seconds ago, The fact is, its just not safe for you here anymore. You and Nikki have to go.

Not without me, they dont, Steven said.

Mrs. Howard sounded nervous. Oh, StevenBut do you really think"are we really in that much danger of being found out?

I wanted to shout, You already have been! But I kept my mouth shut.

If we could trace those e-mails, its pretty likely someone from Stark could, if they found out about them, Christopher said. Its safer that all of you get out of here.

But where will you go? It was Lulu who spoke up. You cant hide from Stark forever. Theyre everywhere.

Yeah. She had no idea.

It was at that moment Brandon propelled me forward by the grip he was keeping on my arm. I stepped into the living room without glancing behind me to show I was being followed.

Was Brandon still sleeping like a baby? Lulu wanted to know.

Um I said. Not exactly.