Chapter 29 Nova #2
Lifting his head, he met my gaze, his eyes dark and serious.
“When Gemma was sitting on my lap—that was purposeful. Volkov keeps watching me. He’s too suspicious.
I think he’s waiting for me to slip up, and I knew I needed to try and divert his attention away from you.
Fuck…I know it was a stupid plan, but it was the only one I had.
Gemma was happy to go along with the charade, but we both knew it meant nothing.
Less than nothing. She’s into Priya’s friend’s younger brother, and that’s the only reason I asked her to sit with me.
I got them an intro, and she was returning the favour.
I’d never have asked anyone else. I wouldn’t risk it.
Fuck, Nova. If you saw Volkov last night—”
“You don’t need to explain anything to me.”
“I do. You’re the only one I want, Nova. No one else compares.”
My heart stuttered, but I couldn’t let myself be swayed. “I knew about last night. Vesper told me. Today—whatever your reasons were, it’s not my place to care. It wasn’t my place to care about last night, either. You can do what you want.”
How I managed to get the words out, I wasn’t sure. My lip trembled, and Jay swore softly before angling his head to brush a kiss over my lips.
His mouth against mine was both the best and the worst feeling. It was over far too quickly, with Jay stepping away from me, rubbing his hand over his mouth as if he could chase away my taste.
“I shouldn’t have done that,” he rasped. “Fuck.”
“Time’s up,” a voice called from behind me. “King’s asking where you both are, and unless you want him to find out what’s been going on with you two, you’d better not keep him waiting.”
“There’s nothing going on.” Jay shouldered past Daniel, a hard look on his face.
“Yeah.” Daniel immediately looked contrite. “I know.”
Somehow, I managed to get my legs to work and even dredged up a smile for Daniel when he turned to me in concern.
“Everything okay?” he murmured when I reached him.
“It will be,” I said, and I hoped my words would prove to be true. My fingertips pressed against my lips. They still tingled from Jay’s kiss.
We ended up at a small table in a dusty corner of the library, where my twin was indeed waiting.
He gave me a tight smile as I pulled out the seat opposite him.
“Fuck what our parents say about keeping you out of the loop. I wanted to give you a heads-up on our current situation. Someone tried to sabotage another one of our supply lines. This time, it was one of the lorries we use to transport our goods. I still can’t work out if it’s anything to do with Operation Foxglove, but this wasn’t a sting operation, so it seems unlikely.
” His jaw clenched. “Jay found some discrepancies in the clinic’s accounts.
It’s possible that none of this is connected, but if it is… ”
“Be careful. Keep your eyes open. Trust no one outside of this room, especially not your fiancé,” Daniel finished.
My mind was reeling. It took me a moment to process the information, but when I had, I stared at my brother, wide-eyed. “What? You think the Volkovs had something to do with the sabotage? Wasn’t it their shipment at the port? That makes no sense.”
Ryker’s fists clenched and unclenched on the table.
“You’re right—it makes zero fucking sense, especially since they’ve worked so hard to put this deal in place to use our supply chain.
But we can’t rule anything out. The Volkov Syndicate bankrolled the clinic when it started out, so they’re in a prime position to fuck with the accounts.
Whether that’s connected with the sabotage, who knows, but like I said, we can’t rule anything out. ”
“Okay. I don’t know, it seems too obvious to me. The clinic, that is. Surely, they’d know the fingers would point straight to them?”
Jay shook his head. “I don’t trust them. I overheard Volkov on the phone at the party last night, and…I don’t know. There was nothing specific, but it rang alarm bells.”
While I knew that distrust mostly stemmed from his dislike of Anton, I didn’t know Anton well enough to make any real judgements. We were barely even acquaintances, despite our pending wedding. I sat back in my seat, studying the three of them in turn. “So…what can I do to help?”
“Don’t put yourself in danger.” My brother gave me a hard look. “I mean it. I wanted to tell you what was going on so you weren’t left in the dark, but a big part of my decision was because I thought you needed to know the facts in order to keep yourself safe.”
“Ry, you have to trust me to take care of myself,” I said softly. “Tell me what I can do to help. Please.”
He sighed heavily. “Just…keep an ear out, I guess. Talk to Mum about people who have been visiting the clinic—you know how much she loves to gossip about whoever the fuck is the latest person to have needles jabbed in their face or whatever other shit they do for no fucking reason. Spend time with Anton if you can, but make sure there are other people around you both. I hate asking that of you, but it’s for your safety.
I don’t want to believe that he’s involved, but like I said, we can’t rule anything out.
Make sure he doesn’t see you as a threat.
The last thing we want is him getting suspicious and messing up the deal while everything’s so fragile, thanks to this sabotage. ”
I gasped, a sudden thought hitting me. “The maze!”
Three sets of eyes arrowed to mine. “The maze…” Daniel repeated slowly, giving Ryker a wary glance.
Ryker. Who didn’t know anything about me and Jay.
Oh, fuck.
“Um…” I took a deep breath. “Ry. Long story short. At the engagement party, I ended up in the maze. I wanted to, um, talk to Jay.”
“I sent her in there after him because he was having a bit of a hard time,” Daniel interjected. “She’s better with words than me.”
“Yes, so…we were talking, and we heard footsteps. I didn’t want anyone to see me in the maze with him, because…because…it was my engagement party, and if anyone saw me alone with another man…”
There was a flush high on Jay’s cheekbones, but he held my brother’s sceptical gaze without faltering as he picked up my story. “I asked her to hide. It would be easier to explain if someone found me in the maze rather than Nova.”
“Yes, and it was lucky, because it was Anton. Anyway, they left to go back to the party, and I heard footsteps coming from a different direction. I don’t know who it was, but it’s possible that someone followed me or Jay out there.
Or Anton, I suppose. Someone who was as invested in staying hidden as I was. ”
Jay’s eyes widened as he turned to look at me. I hadn’t mentioned this to him before—it had honestly slipped my mind with everything else that had been happening, but now my brother had explained everything to me, the whole interaction had taken on a new, sinister light.
Rising from his seat, Daniel began pacing up and down. “It was probably Volkov security or something. But like King said, we can’t rule anything out at this point.”
They were right, and I needed to do something about the unsettled feeling inside of me that had been growing for a while now, if I were honest with myself.
Now, that feeling was impossible to ignore.
I couldn’t articulate it to my brother, and it was unwise to confide in Jay when we were supposed to be keeping our distance.
That left Dan.
I eyed him carefully. Maybe he could help me work things out. If he had any ideas that could help ease my restlessness…
It was worth talking to him, at least.