Talk Nerdy to Me (Nerds, #5)(39)
Author: Vicki Lewis Thompson

As she started to close the canopy over her, he grabbed it and climbed in.

"No, Charlie! Get out! Run!"

"No way." He latched the canopy. "Go."

The engine didn’t catch. Charlie stopped breathing. Then it did catch. It was rough, but it was running. The hovercraft lifted off the cement. In spite of the fear pumping through him, Charlie felt the wonder of that. "Punch it!" he yelled.

Eve pulled back on the throttle and the hovercraft shot out of the garage so fast Charlie’s head snapped back.

She miraculously sailed over his bike, but they were headed straight for the house across the street. "Pull up, pull up!"

She brought up the front of the disk so sharply he saw nothing but the starry sky. "Level it out!" When this was over, he was so giving her flying lessons.

"Charlie, it works." She was laughing as they skimmed over the top of the house. "It—"

Her garage exploded, rocking the hovercraft so that it tipped sideways.

"Use your rudder!" Charlie cried out as the hovercraft began to veer toward a leafless oak tree. "We’re going to hit that—"

With a snap, crackle, and pop, they flew into the tree. Eve killed the motor and the hovercraft balanced there, cradled by the branches like some futuristic tree house.

Charlie took a deep breath. "I think it might be time to call 911."

Chapter Twenty-eight

No, wait." Eve pointed down the street. "Here comes the Subaru."

"That son of a bitch. Returning to the scene of the crime."

Eve had to admit the evidence was damning, but she hated to think Charlie’s cousin, who was also Myrtle’s son, would do such a thing. "Are you sure?"

"I’m sure. That bomb was exactly like one he talked about building when we were kids." Charlie unlatched the canopy. "And he almost got us both killed. I don’t want him getting away."

"Me, either, but I’d rather you didn’t fall out of the tree and bash those valuable brains of yours. We need a fire truck."

"Yeah, and that will scare him off." Charlie eased out of the cockpit. "You wedged us in here pretty good. I should be able to climb out without dumping you."

"That would be nice." Eve was already assessing the branches on her side of the hovercraft. If Charlie could climb out, so could she.

"Just sit tight." He gripped a limb of the tree. "If you see him drive away, call 911. Otherwise, assume I’ve got him under control."

"Okay." She said it as convincingly as possible, so he wouldn’t get suspicious that she was following him down this tree.

"I mean it. Don’t try getting out of this tree."

"Okay."

He gave her one last glance. "Seriously."

"Right."

He swung down, suspended from the branch. Eve leaned over to watch. With his long arms and legs, he wasn’t more than three or four feet above a snowbank. Once he dropped with a soft thud, she pushed herself out of the cockpit onto the smooth surface of the hovercraft.

As she did that, she noticed that the rubber bumper had been a huge factor in keeping the hovercraft snugly tucked into the tree. Without that, the hovercraft might have tilted and fallen to the ground below. Denise, far from being the villain of the piece, might have helped save the day.

On Eve’s side of the hovercraft the branches formed more of a ladder effect, so she didn’t have much trouble dropping down to the snowy ground. Once she was on the ground she glanced toward her house and gasped. The blast had destroyed the garage, blowing off the roof and sending debris everywhere. Little tongues of flame consumed whatever flammable things were left in the garage.

But that wasn’t the only casualty. The blast had lifted Charlie’s bike and tossed it on top of her car, where it had crashed through the roof. Both car and bike seemed totaled.

Rick stood looking at the destruction, his body completely still. He was probably in shock. Eve had to believe he hadn’t known that she and Charlie would be anywhere near the blast, and for all Rick knew they were both dead as a result of his actions.

Charlie took advantage of that moment when Rick was riveted by the horror of what he’d done. Creeping up behind him, he had him in a choke hold before Rick knew what was happening. The funny thing was, Charlie apparently had wasted all that force, because once Rick realized who had grabbed him, he dropped to his knees, sobbing.

Charlie released him and walked around to face his cousin. He flexed his fingers as if he’d love to pound on Rick for a while, except Rick wasn’t giving him a good opportunity to do it.

"You’re alive." Tears streaming down his face, Rick gazed up at Charlie. "Is Eve … ?"

"She’s fine." Charlie’s tone was clipped, his expression filled with rage. "No thanks to you, a**hole." Unzipping his jacket, he pulled out his cell phone and punched in 911.

"Where… where is she?"

"Sitting in her hovercraft across the street. That’s in fine shape, too, by the way." Then he spoke into the phone. "Yes, we have an explosion." Charlie gave Eve’s address and hung up.

"Actually, I’m not across the street." Eve walked over to stand beside Charlie. "I’m right here."

Charlie glanced at her and sighed. "I knew you wouldn’t stay there. I knew it."

‘Then why did you tell me to?"

"It’s what guys do."

Rick looked from one to the other. "You’re both alive. Thank God! I was so afraid you were both…"

"So what’s your story, Rick?" Charlie stood there tapping his cell phone against his palm. "You’ll have to give it to the cops in a minute, but I want to hear it now. You owe us that much."

"Good Lord!" Manny came loping up the street, followed closely by Kyle. "What happened here?"

"Your boss blew up Eve’s garage," Charlie said. "He’s been trying to steal the hovercraft project for some unknown reason. In any case, he’ll soon be going to jail, so you may need a new job."

"The hell he’s going to jail." Manny came striding forward. "He owes too much money."

Rick let out a wail. "Peterson. Dear God, Peterson. I’m a dead man."

"What?" Eve glanced quickly at Manny. "What’s he talking about?"

Manny cleared his throat. "We only have time for the short version. Ricky likes to bet on the ponies, but he’s not all that lucky. He’s into our boss Peterson for a sizable chunk of money. He either pays up by next week or… let’s just say that Peterson isn’t a forgiving kind of guy."

Charlie looked from his cousin to Manny. "So you two work for this Peterson?"

"Yep."

"I can get the money!" Rick staggered to his feet. "The hovercraft didn’t work out, but I can get it from my mom. She didn’t want to give it to me before, because she didn’t know I was in trouble. But if she knows that I’m history if I don’t get the cash, she’ll come up with it. She can use the bakery as collateral."

"That’s nuts," Eve said. "You’re not going to put the bakery at risk."

"Damn straight," Manny said. "The bakery is my future. I’ve been wanting to get out of this business for the past year, anyway. Denise and me, we’ve got plans."

Sirens sounded in the distance. Eve wasn’t sure she had all the particulars, but she needed to have a strategy in place before the police and the fire trucks arrived. She faced Rick. "I can get you out of this. I can say that I left a welding torch on and it was too close to the hydrogen tank."

Rick stared at her. "Why would you?"

"Yeah," Charlie said. "Why? This idiot almost blew us to kingdom come."

"I know that, but he didn’t mean to." Eve gazed at Rick. "And you’re Charlie’s cousin and Myrtle’s son. I happen to be very fond of both people and hate to bring them pain."

"It won’t bring me pain," Charlie said. "I’d love to see him wearing stripes, or orange, or whatever they put on them these days."

Kyle edged his way into the conversation. "I hate to say this, but he wouldn’t last long in jail. Peterson has connections. But if Manny and me let him get picked up by the cops, we’ll get whacked for losing him."

Eve began to wonder who her sister had hooked up with. "Are you two hired killers?"

"Nah," Kyle said. "We’re glorified babysitters. Our job is to make sure nobody has to be killed."

"Oh." Eve still didn’t like the connection, but Manny had said he was quitting. And she was running out of time. She turned back to Rick. "Here’s my offer. I won’t press charges and I will help you get the money out of my hovercraft project, which is obviously what you need to do."

"Eve." Charlie sounded beyond upset. "This clown deserves nothing!"

She glanced at him. "Are you prepared to have him killed? And Manny and Kyle along with him?"

"No, but there has to be another answer."

A squad car pulled up at the curb, followed by a fire truck, lights flashing.

Eve grabbed Rick by the lapels of his coat. "If I let you off, you have to promise that you’ll move back to Middlesex and watch out for your mother and aunt. And you have to do a good job, or I’ll expose what you did here. I might not be able to prosecute by then, but I can ruin your photography career."

Charlie groaned. "I hate this."

"Promise me!" She looked into Rick’s eyes.

"I promise." Rick heaved a sigh. "Thanks, Eve."

Eve looked over at Charlie. He was gazing at her and shaking his head. But the way she looked at it, she had no choice. And as long as she was giving away her hovercraft, she might as well get something back, something that might help the man she loved.

Two hours later Charlie joined the crowd that had gathered in Eunice’s living room. Eunice had arrived home from the bachelorette party to discover the catastrophe next door. She’d immediately invited Rick, Eve, Charlie, Manny, and Kyle to hang out at her house. Manny had called Denise and told her where he was, so she’d joined the group soon afterward.

Charlie was determined to stop Eve from giving away her invention. He’d found out exactly how much Rick owed and figured if he cashed out his retirement account, sold all his electronic equipment, and floated a loan, he might be able to scrape together most of it. He wasn’t planning to let Eve do this thing, especially when he’d decided to stay in Middlesex to be with her.

It might have been the moment they’d lifted off the garage floor that had brought him to that decision. He wanted to be with somebody who generated that kind of excitement. He wanted to be with her forever. If that meant staying here and working for the ML&P, he’d do that.

So it was settled. He’d pay Rick’s debt and Eve could get the money she deserved from the hovercraft. Rick could go wherever the hell he wanted. Charlie didn’t think he’d ever be able to trust the guy again.

But he needed to talk to Eve alone, and that didn’t seem likely right now. She was huddled with her sister, Denise, having some deep sisterly discussion. At least one good thing had come out of this. Eve had already thanked Denise profusely for suggesting the rubber bumper, which even now was keeping the hovercraft stable up in the tree. In the morning they’d get a crane to haul it out.

Between Eve’s gratitude and Manny’s admiration, Denise was blossoming. Even the sharp angles of her face seemed softer. Charlie thought he might be able to tolerate her as a sister-in-law, after all, assuming Eve said yes.

In another corner of the room, Rick was pouring out his heart to Eunice. Her initial shock at hearing what he’d done had apparently turned to sympathy. Better Eunice than him, Charlie thought. Once he’d heard the whole story—how Rick had broken down the back door while Eve was gone and then swiped Eunice’s key and made a copy so he had access after that—Charlie had been ready to land into his cousin.

Rick swore he hadn’t watched while Charlie and Eve had sex, but Charlie wouldn’t take bets on it. And the moron had mixed up the wires by accident. He’d set up his camera on a tripod so he could take pictures of himself "working" on the hovercraft, and in his rash, he’d reattached them to the wrong terminals.

Charlie’s cousin was a big screwup who had almost gotten two people killed. For Aunt Myrtle’s sake Charlie was glad Rick wouldn’t end up in prison or worse. Someday Charlie might even find it in his heart to forgive the guy, but not tonight, not when Eve had almost died because of what his cousin had done.

"Okay, everybody." Eve stood. "Denise and I nave come up with a game plan for Monday morning. She and I will go into the city with Rick to market the hovercraft concept. I’m going to be billed as the talent, Rick will be identified as my manager, and Denise will be our deal negotiator. I—"

A cell phone rang. Rick turned pale. As everyone stopped talking, he reluctantly reached for the phone clipped to his pants pocket.

"That would be Peterson," Manny said in a low voice.

Charlie left his chair and moved toward Rick. In spite of his anger, he didn’t want his cousin to die at the hands of a mobster.

Rick’s hand shook as he flipped open the phone. "H-hello?"

Eunice wrapped her arm around his shoulder and held on tight as the room went completely quiet. No one even seemed to be breathing.

Rick listened for a moment. "Uh, thank you. Yeah, it was a little bomb I made." He ticked his lips as he held the phone to his ear. "Well, thanks. Thanks so much. Okay. Have a good flight." Then he closed the phone and looked around the room in dazed wonder.

Eunice shook Mm gently. "What did he say?"

"I can’t believe it." Rick swallowed. "He congratulated me. He thinks I blew up the hovercraft. He drove by the garage and thought—"

"What do you mean, he drove by the garage?" Charlie grew rigid. "He’s here?"

"I’m afraid so," Manny said. "Flew in Wednesday night. Had some business in New York so he decided to come up here and check on his investment."

Charlie thought about Rick’s statement that he hadn’t stayed to watch Eve and Charlie make love. Maybe it was Peterson. He hoped Eve wouldn’t think of that, but one glance at her face told him she had. Shit.