Chapter 19 Lincoln
LINCOLN
SHE’S A THIEF
Ihave a new mission: force Nova to leave Mount Gaines, and don’t let her tell me where she’s going.
It’s what her brother wanted, and call me an optimist, but that letter read like a warning to me. In black and white and with zero fucking subtlety, Ryan Nichols wanted his sister out of town and away from what he knew was coming in the event of his death.
He knew!
If Aster doesn’t know where she is, she’s safe. And if she doesn’t tell me where the house is, then he can’t torture the information from me.
I might die in the process. Fuck knows, Aster seems desperate enough, and connected enough, to get damn near anything he wants. But Ryan was smart, and he made sure she had somewhere to go where she’d be safe.
She just doesn’t know it yet.
Sending her away might be the killing blow to my heart, and watching her leave may be the hardest thing I’ll ever do, but he had a plan for her. One I intend to help him carry out.
Even if doing so leaves a filthy lump of dread in the pit of my stomach.
I pull into my driveway and bring the car to a slow stop just ten feet from a porch not too different from Nova’s.
Seems both houses were built around the same time, using similar sets of plans and styles.
Very eighteen-nineties of them. I watch the RAM pull in behind me through the rearview mirror.
The rumbling engine cuts out, leaving only the sounds of clicking from our warm motors and the screech of cicadas as they congregate in the massive trees above.
Collecting my keys and phone from the center console, I unsnap my seatbelt and push my door open, while, fifteen feet away, Nova does the same, slipping down from her high seat and dropping to the gravel driveway with a thud of her shoes.
She’s so small, her shoulders are barely high enough to be seen through the side window.
“How hungry are you?” Staring down at her phone, she blindly turns and shuts her door, juggling keys off her pinkie finger and nibbling on her bottom lip. Her long, almost blonde hair dangles forward, obscuring portions of her face. “Did you like the burritos the other night? Want the same again?”
“Sure, they were good.” I push away from my car and wrap my hand around her arm, leading her toward the house before she stumbles and falls. “I’ll pay for it, though. You got us last time.”
She smirks, her cheeks moving higher, though all that does is emphasize how swollen her crying has left her. “Don’t forget you paid for the wildly overpriced pasta neither of us ate. And delicious ice cream that may or may not compare to the real thing in Italy.”
“It compared.”
With her focus still on her phone, she trips on the first step and catches her toe. I hold her tighter and shake my head when she snorts like a pig and rights herself.
“You could do that inside, ya know? You’re exposed out here, Nova. The sun is heading toward the horizon, which means visibility is off. Not to mention the trees surrounding this property. A sniper would have a field day hiding in those. Where’s your situational awareness?”
“It’s right here,” she mumbles, trusting me to lead her across the porch.
She taps ‘buy’ and lowers her phone, then glancing up, she nails me with a grin.
“You are my situational awareness. You’re clearly obsessed with the trees, the position of the sun, and whether someone is out here to ruin my day.
You’re lecturing me about my observational skills, which means you, yourself, are observant enough for the both of us.
” She slides her tongue along the front of her teeth.
“You’re already doing such a good job of it, I figure I’d only be in the way. ”
“So, you’re gonna be that chick? Fantastic.” I drag my wire door open and slip the key into the lock, but when she moves to barrel inside and make herself at home, I hold her back, my ears perked for noise and my eyes scouring my living room the way I always do when I come home.
Walking into an ambush is no fun for anyone.
Allowing Nova to walk in ahead of me is not happening.
“You’re getting awfully handsy.” She shakes herself free and steps across the threshold a single beat behind me. “At what point did we move from ‘just met at a funeral’ to ‘you get to shove me around at your whim’?”
“Probably about the time you mentioned fucking, and I was forced to be the more mature, controlled party of our two.” I stalk through my living room and peek into the kitchen, ensuring it’s empty and the back door is still secure.
Turning back, I smile and look her up and down.
“You enjoy sundresses and obliviousness. I only like one of those things.”
Grinning, she grabs the hem of her dress and swishes it around her thighs.
“It has pockets and air conditioning in the summer, and oblivion leaves me with less stress. If I’m constantly worrying about what’s around the corner, or who’s hiding amongst the trees with a sniper rifle, then I’d be old and gray and a sufferer of chronic insomnia by now. ”
“So, I get to be the worrier,” I grumble. “Since it’s clear someone has to be.”
“Which makes you sound more like my brother than you even realize.” Her jaw quivers with a potent mix of sadness and affection. “He was always on me about those trees. Isn’t it exhausting, always being on?”
“Yep.” I wander her way and stop only when our chests touch, and her head tilts back exposing her throat and the constant, comforting pulse barely hidden beneath delicate skin.
“It’s exhausting as hell. More so when I have to watch out for someone else, too.
” I bring my hand up and brush loose locks of hair off her shoulder.
Searching her eyes, I become brutally aware that tonight, if I get my way, might be the last time I get to see her.
“But being on is better than being dead. And being aware of our surroundings is how our ancestors stayed alive. Those who weren’t paying attention didn’t survive evolution. ”
“And despite that,” she teases, nibbling on her bottom lip and setting her hands on my hips, “I still ended up here, talking to a guy who can’t decide if he wants to take me to bed or lecture me on at-home safety.”
“You should visit the house Ryan mentioned.” I cup her cheek, close enough and observant enough to notice the change in her eyes. The way they darken, and how her jaw tightens at the mere mention of her brother. “Take some time off and get away for a while.”
“And miss your sparkling wit? It bothers me how hard you’re trying not to want me.”
“But I do,” I growl, staring down at her succulent lips. “More than I want my next breath. But if we were meant to be together, I like to think we’d have met under different circumstances. The fact we didn’t—”
“Says the universe is cruel and mean.”
She presses a kiss to my wrist, the gentle brush of her lips the most electric sensation I’ve ever known.
Her lashes on my skin, surely, how it feels to be touched by angels.
She could undo me so easily. Destroy my will with a single request. She could be the reason we both die, because she doesn’t realize the danger she’s in, and I can’t tell her without admitting painful truths.
She wants to believe in the universe. But in our case, it wasn’t divine intervention that brought us together.
“In my personal experience,” she murmurs, licking her lips and bathing my flesh with her soft exhale, “I’ve found it constantly errs on the side of cruelty.
But there’s no one left to hurt me with, Lincoln.
I have nothing else to lose, so I figure I can do whatever I want.
” She nips at my wrist and smirks when my cock springs to life.
I feel it. She feels it. “What’s the worst that could happen? ”
“You could die.” Fuck my heart, and fuck the way it aches for her. “You still matter, Nova. And you have to understand, they died for you.”
Slowly, she brings glittering eyes back to mine.
“If you believe nothing else, because you can’t or won’t or simply hurt too much to try, believe that your family only ever wanted you to be safe. They loved you. You’re worth so much more than cheap thrills with a guy you just met.”
She’s so beautiful even when she’s sad. So magnetic, even when she cries. Her lips curl into a shaky, devious grin as she drags her arms up and drapes them over my shoulders. Put her in a car, Lincoln! Send her away!
“I don’t know that I’d call these cheap thrills.” She stands on her toes and brushes a gentle kiss over my jaw. Then another to my chin. “I’ve paid for burritos twice, and you donated all that pasta back to the Italians.”
“You insist on fucking with me.” Don’t do it, Linc.
Don’t do it. Don’t you fucking do it. But I slide my hand to her clavicle.
I swear to God, I don’t mean to touch. To savor.
I don’t mean to cross the boundaries I’ve put up for us both.
And yet, I trail my fingers over her breasts and down to her hips. “Nova—”
“You can have me,” she whispers, nipping at my jaw. “For tonight, at least. You can take what you want, and nothing bad will happen.”
“You’re playing with fire.” I’m your enemy! Those three words are like a siren blasting in the back of my head. I work for the guy who killed your brother. “Nova. I think sexual attraction is normal and healthy and a—”
“We’re having the talk?” She pulls herself nearer and uses me to climb higher.
Closer. “Chemistry is a normal human function, and boosted hormones are a completely natural side effect after adrenaline. I, of course, have been in a constant state of heightened adrenaline for weeks, so it makes sense—” She bites my lip just fucking hard enough to make it hurt “—that I’m a little needy right now. ”