30. Elliot
CHAPTER 30
ELLIOT
N ova is here.
I sprint up the steps and burst into my parent’s house, all of my brothers and Gibson on my heels. My first sight of Nova, sitting on the couch, covered in blood, brings a wave of red into my vision.
But then she looks at me, an expression of relief crossing her face, and all that anger drains away. She’s alive. Here. With me. I rush over toward her and take a seat on the coffee table, directly in front of her. My mom hands me the first aid kit she’d been using to clean the injuries on Nova’s face then squeezes my shoulder and leaves the living room.
I don’t have to look back to know that everyone else went into the kitchen, leaving the two of us alone.
“I’m sorry,” she chokes out. “I’m so sorry for what I said.”
“Don’t worry about that now.” I dab the cleaning pad on her split brow, wiping crusted blood from it before using a butterfly strip to secure it. “How did you get away?”
“I made him angry,” she replies with a half-smile. A cut on her lip has her wincing, though, and the smile falls. “He flung the chair I was tied to, and it broke. I was able to knock him out and get free.”
“You made him angry so he’d break the chair?”
She nods. “I had to get free. He’s coming for all of you, Elliot. He said he’s going to kill you guys if I don’t give him the evidence I apparently stole.” Tears fill her eyes, spilling down her bruised cheeks.
I reach down and take her hands, trying not to lose my mind at the sight of red bands where zip ties were bound or the fact that there’s still one around her right wrist. “He’s not going to get to us,” I tell her then reach into my pocket to withdraw my knife so I can cut it away.
She shakes her head. “Ivan is alive. There weren’t any guards at the place I escaped from, but he’ll have an army behind him.”
“We’ve fended off worse,” I tell her. “Right now, the only thing that matters is that you’re here. You’re alive.” My own eyes fill, and I lean forward, resting my forehead against hers. “Thank God you’re alive.”
We sit like this for a few moments with just the sound of muted voices coming out of the kitchen.
Then, I pull away. “We’re going to get you cleaned up, and then we’ll figure everything out, okay?”
She nods. “I was so stupid. How could I not see?”
“None of us did,” I tell her truthfully. “Not until Lani called.”
Her brow furrows. “What?”
“You were on the phone with Lani when Brett showed up at the apartment. She heard the whole thing and called me.”
“I was?” Her gaze goes distant as she thinks back over the course of the last forty-eight hours. I can see the moment it hits her. “I was. She was listening to the whole thing.”
“Yes,” he replies. “Brett didn’t notice the phone was on. The call didn’t end until she hung up to call me.”
“And you came for me.” It seems to surprise her that I did. Which makes absolutely zero sense.
“Why would you think I wouldn’t?”
“After what I did. After what I said?—”
“You were doing what you thought was right. I may not like it, but it would never have prevented me from coming for you, Nova. Nothing could have.”
* * *
Freshly showered, Nova is no longer covered in blood. She also seems to have come down from the adrenaline rush, so her body is no longer shaking. But looking at her, all I can think about is tearing Brett apart. All I can see is the cut over her forehead, the bruises on the right side of her face, her split lip, and the red rings around her wrists.
I want to rip him to pieces for ever putting his hands on her.
She sits at the dining room table between my mother and Kennedy while Bradyn, Riley, Tucker, and our father take up all but one of the other chairs. I considered sitting, but with the fury pumping through my veins, sitting just isn’t an option.
So I remain where I am, leaning back against the countertop. No one between me and that door.
“Tell us what happened,” Bradyn says.
Tucker sits with his laptop, prepared to type up notes just as he is during every case we take.
“I was talking to Lani on the phone, telling her how ridiculous I felt being in that apartment. How there was no personality, nothing that even felt remotely like me, aside from the Bible with my name on it.” A Bible she holds in her lap now since I brought it back with me. “She’d made a joke suggesting I look for a diary, so that’s what I did. I was surveying the room when I had a memory of placing something beneath the nightstand. When I looked beneath it, I found a false bottom that popped off and a file tucked away.”
“What was in the file? In as much detail as you can give me,” Tucker says.
“Mostly notes. There was one that said, “Has he gone dirty?” Another that noted how his behavior had changed. And another about money popping up from nowhere. The last note that I read said that he’d met with Ivan.” She closes her eyes, likely trying to recall more information. “September twenty-seventh, I think. 7:00 p.m.” She sighs. “He came in before I could go through the rest of them. He asked me what I’d found, and I tried to play it off, but it was like he was a different person all of a sudden. The facade he’d been putting on was gone. Anyway, he attacked me, and I tried to get to the door. I felt him grip my hair—” She reaches up and touches the back of her head, and another burst of anger surges through me. “Then everything went black.”
My mom reaches over and covers Nova’s hand with hers. “You’re safe now, honey,” she says.
“I made a mistake.” She looks at me now, her emerald gaze shimmering with tears. And I know, right now, she’s speaking directly to me. “I shouldn’t have gone. I should have trusted my gut instead of doing what I felt obligated to do.”
“You’re back now. And we’re going to nail this guy,” Riley tells her.
She looks away from me.
“I hate to do this, but I need to know what happened afterward,” Gibson says. He’s been silent through most of this, taking his own notes as she talked.
“I understand.” She smiles, but it’s hollow. “I woke up tied to a chair. He told me that I’d stolen evidence and he needed me to tell him where it was. Said that, if I could, then he would plead for my life with Ivan so we could start all over again.”
“He thought you were still going to move forward with the engagement? Even after the kidnapping and assault?” My dad shakes his head. “Unbelievable.”
“He’s also got some twisted impression that Ivan isn’t going to kill him the second he gets his hands on the evidence.”
“I should note that we spoke to your captain,” Gibson says. “He hasn’t spoken to Brett in weeks, and he wasn’t the one you talked to.”
“I figured as much.” She takes a deep breath. “Ivan told me he always favored me and didn’t want to hurt me but that he was determined to make me remember. Said that he found certain circumstances could make people open up.”
“So Brett was working for Ivan.”
“Not at first. According to Brett, I gave him back the engagement ring before I went undercover with my partner, Sam. He said he was worried Sam would get me killed, so he went rogue and initiated contact with Ivan outside of the PD. According to him, I was furious when I saw him there, but at that point, he was already in good favor with Ivan.”
More anger. This time more subdued, but it’s still there. They’d been separated, and Brett convinced her otherwise, trying to use the fact that she couldn’t remember ending things to restart a relationship she didn’t want to be in. No wonder she had no feelings for him. Her heart knew what her head couldn’t remember.
“How did he get in good with Ivan?” Bradyn questions.
“I’m not sure. But he was the first person Ivan suspected of selling him out to a rival. Which, as it turns out, Brett did. And Rosalie was also working for that same rival. Whether she was contacted after I recruited her or not, I’m not sure.” She closes her eyes a moment and shakes her head. “I was his head of security. He trusted me, but when he discovered Brett was the mole and went to kill him, Brett offered up Sam and me in exchange for his life.”
I push off the counter and clench my hands into fists. “Coward.”
“Yes,” she says. “Exactly. He’s the one who shot me. They thought they didn’t need me. That Brett could find the evidence I’d stolen.”
“Did they?” Tucker asks.
“No. They still don’t know where it is. Ivan wants it bad though. And Brett believes finding it will land him a partnership with Ivan.”
“It sounds like Brett owes Ivan a debt,” Riley comments. “Let’s just find and withhold the evidence, let that problem work itself out.”
“Except that won’t work,” Bradyn says. “Ivan believes Nova has it. Unless we can find it and put him away, he’ll keep coming after her.”
“Do we have enough that we can get him for kidnapping?” I ask Gibson.
“We should have enough that I can get a warrant and search Ivan’s Texas residence. But this isn’t the first time he’s dealt with the law. They’ve suspected his illegal dealings for years but haven’t been able to pin anything on him. Chances are he has someone in his pocket that will alert him to the search.”
“Then we don’t give him a reason to believe one is coming,” Dylan replies.
“Exactly,” I add.
“And this is my cue,” Gibson says as he heads for the door. “Just speaking in hypotheticals here, but if you were to go in without a warrant, what you find won’t be admissible. You’ll need that original evidence and Nova’s testimony to put them both away.”
“Noted.”
“Let me know what you need from me. I’m going to do what I can to track Brett down—quietly.” Gibson smiles kindly at Nova. “I’m glad you’re okay.”
“Thanks.”
“Stick close to Lani until this blows over, okay?” Bradyn asks. “I doubt she’ll go for another temporary relocation here, so if you don’t mind?—”
“I’ll keep her safe,” Gibson promises. “Call me if you find anything.”
“We will,” I tell him. With one final smile, he turns and leaves the room.
“Any idea where this evidence is?” Tucker asks.
Nova shakes her head. “Not a clue. I found that file under my nightstand, but there was nothing else. It’s possible Brett missed it at my apartment; we could go back there and look.”
“Tomorrow,” I tell her. “You need rest.”
“I’m not going to be able to rest until I know all of you are safe,” she insists. “He said he’s coming. That no one will see him coming until it’s too late. He threatened your mother.” She looks at my mom, who smiles tightly at her.
“I’m not as fragile as I look,” she assures with a pat on Nova’s hand.
“No one is getting to any of us,” my father growls. “We’ll make sure of it.”
“We’re safe,” I assure her. “We’ve got security cameras around the residences, and one of us will be posted up here at all times monitoring them. Plus, the dogs will alert us if anyone gets close to the house. Nova and I will stay here in your guest rooms,” I tell my parents. “Just in case.”
“Elliot—” Nova starts.
“Sleep, Nova. Resting isn’t weakness, it’s storing up your strength. Get rest while you can. There’s no telling when this is going to hit the fan.” I leave the room, desperately needing some air.
A few seconds after I’ve stepped out onto the porch, my dad follows me out. “How are you doing, son?”
“She’s alive.”
“She is.”
I let out a breath, feeling the fear of losing her lessen just slightly. “I’m struggling with what I want to do and what I know I should do.”
“Then talk to me.”
My dad has always been someone who understood the darkest parts of my brothers and me. The pieces that were shaded in by our time overseas. Which makes sharing with him easy. Maybe too easy.
“I don’t want to wait for the police to find something. I want to hunt both Brett and Ivan down and put them in the ground so they can’t hurt anyone ever again.”
“That’s understandable.”
“It’s murder. Regardless of whether or not I think they deserve it.”
“I said it was understandable,” he replies. “Not that it’s the right thing to do.”
“He could have killed her. You saw the bruises on her face. The cuts. They beat her, Dad.” My throat constricts as my mind paints a horrific picture of what that could have looked like.
“But he didn’t kill her. She’s alive. God brought her back to us so you could do what’s right.”
“Which is where my dilemma is. I’m finding it hard to want to do the right thing. I could track him down. Him and Ivan. And they’d be out of this world forever. No justice system to make mistakes. I’m good at making problems disappear.” It’s the closest I’ve come to telling him what I did when I was in the service.
They’d been monsters—the men I’d dealt with. But they were human lives all the same.
“But at what cost?” he asks. “I know you’ve struggled with your faith since Renee, but you know what payment a darkness like that will require.”
“I’ve pulled a trigger before.”
“In life-or-death situations. When it was you or them. And we both know you’re haunted by even those moments. How do you think it’s going to feel when you’re hunting them down and striking out of vengeance?”
“It doesn’t matter. Because Nova will be safe.”
He gently touches my left hand where it grips the porch railing. “Son. Nova’s safety isn’t all that matters to her.”
I close my eyes, trying to breathe through the anger.
“She cares about you. And if you don’t do this right, she’s going to lose you.”
“They don’t play by the rules.”
“No,” he agrees. “But we’re supposed to because vengeance isn’t ours. It’s God’s. And the moment you take that from Him is the moment they’ve won. Regardless of what the outcome is.”
“Then what do you suggest I do?” I turn toward him. “Just sit around and wait for them to strike? For them to come onto this ranch and take everything that matters to me?”
“You let Gibson get that warrant. You let the police go in, and you do what you do best.” He grips my shoulders. “Find the truth. Even if he is tipped off that someone is coming, it won’t matter once you have that evidence in hand.”