Chapter 20 Nova #2
Pacing again, he scratches his head and talks to himself. “He won’t believe me when I tell him the code is gone. He’ll say it’s a lie, and then he’ll send someone else. The code was both your safety and your danger.”
“Lincoln!”
“You have to go.” He spins back. “I didn’t know your brother, Nova. I never served with him. That time you mentioned the motor pool? Almost caught me out, because the intel I have is clearly not the fucking same as the stories he told you.”
“What are…” My jaw quivers. “What?”
“Your brother was special ops, Nova. The motor pool? It was a fucking lie. One he told you to protect you, probably. That coin?” He stabs a finger in my direction. “That was a code he’s been carrying since…” He throws his hand up again. “Since he inherited it, I guess! I don’t fucking know.”
“Lincoln…” My voice trembles. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“He possessed a code! A really fucking important code. That car accident you were in? It wasn’t a drunk driver, it was an assassination.
There’s a guy out there who wanted the numbers on your coin, and the man he sent to retrieve it failed.
The driver you think stumbled away? Was eliminated by his own boss—my boss—because he fucked up and killed his mark. ”
“A-an assassination?” I swallow the choking lump at the base of my throat and take a step forward. Wary, as my survival instincts urge me to stay back. “What’s the code for?”
“I don’t know! But this guy wants it—”
“Wait.” My stomach jumps as nausea and nerves and a heavy, black sludge fill my veins. “This person killed my brother? And you work for them, too?”
“Yes! Exactly.” He grabs my wrist. “Nova—”
I yank myself free again. “You work for the man who had my brother killed?”
“Under duress,” he snarls. “But yeah. I work for him. I came here in search of a fucking code, and all along, you’ve worn it against your skin. I’ve searched your home. Your shed. Your fucking truck, all for nothing. Because all along, you’ve worn the damn thing around your neck.”
“You searched my home?” I take a step back, but he steps closer. I take another, but he follows again. “You searched my things?” I slip out from between him and the dresser. “You took me to bed to see the coin?”
“No! You took me to bed—because you wanted me just as much as I wanted you. I told you to leave town. I told you to follow your brother’s instructions and visit the lake house—”
“River—”
“No! Don’t tell me where! Don’t tell me what fucking state. What town. Don’t tell me anything. That’s your safety, and me not knowing is how you’ll live. But I—”
“You work for the person who hurt my brother.” My knees knock with anxiety. Fear. Horror. “You’re a bad person.”
“Yeah. I’m a bad person. And you’re not.
Your brother is dead because of the secret he kept, and now you have it.
So, get in your truck and drive. Right now.
” He stalks across the room and snatches up my panties, shoving them in my hands and standing over me.
Towering. Terrifying. “Get dressed and go, Nova. Because my deadline ends tomorrow, and you’ve deleted the fucking code anyway. ”
“What’s the code for?” Run, Nova! Leave while he’s giving you the chance. “What does it open?”
“I don’t know!” He scoops up my shoes. “All I know is that there are five codes, and as of two weeks ago, all five protectors are dead. This dude has four of them, and you have the last. He wants your numbers, Nova, and he won’t believe me when I tell him they’ve been destroyed.
You’re not safe, and you won’t be until you hide. ”
“Why are you telling me?” My lips quiver, and my toes curl as an icy shiver sprints down my spine. “You’re working for him. F-for my… enemy?” I try out the word, frowning because of how ludicrous it feels on my tongue. “They killed Ryan. And now you’re gonna kill me?”
“No.” He presses my shoes to my belly, forcing me to grab them or let them fall to the floor.
“I never agreed to hurt you. I won’t hurt you.
But he will. He’ll send someone to eliminate you if it means getting what he wants, and he won’t believe the ‘Oops, I accidentally destroyed the code’ story.
Which means you have a target on your head and a house somewhere else, in some other state, where you need to go. Right now.”
“Lincoln—”
“Now!” He wraps his arm around my back and herds me toward the door. “Get in your truck and go. Once you’ve placed a state or two between here and wherever you’re going, dump your truck and get another.”
“Lincoln. Stop.” I twist in his grip and crash against the hallway wall. “Stop!” I drop my things and search his eyes. “Who?”
“Once you get a new truck, drive another couple of states and do it again. Dump. Replace. Drive. Dump. Replace. Drive.”
“Who, Lincoln? Who hurt my brother?”
“He’ll hurt you too, if you stay.” He bends, sweeping my shoes.
“Dump. Replace. Drive.” He bundles me up and forces me forward.
“He’s an extremely powerful, limitlessly wealthy, and connected man.
And you’re the only person standing between him and what he wants.
The fact you’re still alive is a fucking miracle. ”
“Because you didn’t kill me?”
“I was not sent here to end your life, Nova. But the next guy will be. Let’s go.” He practically lifts me off my feet, carrying me through his home and bursting into the living room. “The next guy you’ll meet… he’s known only by the name Tank.”
My heart gallops with fear. “Tank?”
“Yeah, because he’s big, he’s dangerous, he’ll roll right on through your defenses, and at the end of this war, he’ll still be standing while everyone else is lying dead in the dirt, soaked in blood and clueless at how they got there.
” He grabs the door handle but doesn’t yank it open yet.
“Go home, pack a bag, and be gone tonight while it’s still dark. ”
“No, I—”
“Listen!” He shakes me until my teeth rattle.
“I’m your fucking enemy, Nova. I’m one of the bad guys.
But there are worse men out there, and they already know your name.
They know your face. They know where you live and work and who your friends are.
Luckily for you, you have no family left for them to hurt.
Unluckily for you, that means they’re gonna come straight for you. Get your shit and go.”
“B-but my home. My job. My—”
“You don’t work there anymore. You don’t live in that house anymore. Tomorrow is my deadline, and he’s not the patient kind.”
“W-what about you?” Stop shaking! Stop stuttering. Stop being afraid, dammit. “If you don’t give him the numbers—”
“I’ll take care of me. You need to take care of you.”
“He’ll kill you.” A squeezing pain strangles my heart and empties my lungs. “You’re warning me away. But if you don’t deliver, he’ll do to you what he did to that other guy.”
“And if you stay, you’re as good as buried.
” He drags me to my toes and slams his lips to mine.
It’s rough and needy. Feral and mean. But it’s tender and caring, desperate and devastated, too.
He’s my enemy… but not. My brother’s killer…
but not. My heart aches for him, but it aches because of his existence, too.
He breaks our kiss with a noisy exhale, staring down into my eyes.
Then he swallows and tilts his head toward the door.
“You can hate me, Nova. You can scream and hit and lose your fucking mind because I’ve broken your trust. I’ve searched your home while you were at work.
I’ve taken your calls while inside your house.
I intended to seduce you. Trick you into trusting me.
I messed with your power box, hoping you’d call me to come and fix it. ”
Treacherous tears fill my eyes and swell over.
“I don’t need a home loan. I already have a home. I have a job. I have a life elsewhere.”
“W-what about Scarlett?”
Surprised, his hand twitches and crushes my arm. “What?”
“Your sister? Is she real? Or was that a lie?”
“She’s real.” His eyes soften. “She’s everything I said she was.
She’s amazing and smart and way too fucking special to get caught up in this world.
I’ll take care of her. But I need you to take care of you.
All that other stuff I said about the military?
The stuff about Ryan telling me stories about you? ”
“Lies…” I tremble, angrily swiping tears from the edge of my jaw. “It was all fake.”
“I never met him. I never knew him, except through all the stories you’ve told.
But I got to know you,” he groans, sliding his tongue along his bottom lip.
“And him through you. I know without a doubt, he’d have killed me on sight—on that first day, if we’d met while he was alive.
He’ll probably still come find me in the afterlife to punish me for what I’ve done to his sister.
But if all else was equal,” he studies my eyes, “if he were here, and I could have met you some other way, I’m certain I would’ve liked him. And I know I would’ve fallen for you.”
“Lincoln…”
“You’re so pure. So perfect and kind and silly and na?ve. You’re a good person, and you deserve so much better than all this. But now you need to go. Once the sun rises tomorrow, this is gonna get so much worse.”
“Worse than my brother being dead?” I whimper. “Worse than you being a liar? A traitor.”
He nods, his lashes coming down to kiss his cheeks.
“Even worse than that. Because tomorrow, Tank might come looking. And once he’s here, it’s kill or be killed.
Once he’s in town, it’s war. And while I’ll fight for you, I need you to not make it so fucking easy for them.
Hide, Nova.” He lifts me to my toes and takes my lips with his. “Don’t come back.”
He yanks the door open and glances out into the darkness, scouring what is merely pitch black to my eyes.
Frowning, he scans the shadows, ensuring we’re alone.
Finally, he pushes me out the door, past our untouched dinner, and down the porch steps.
With his hand wrapped tightly around my wrist, he tosses my shoes through my truck window, then he jerks the door open and places my keys in my palm.
“You have a right to hate me.” He towers over me, bringing his hand up to stroke my neck.
“If I’m lucky, you might spend the next few years sitting on the porch of that house you absolutely will not tell me about.
You’ll rock on your chair and cuss me out every single night as you stare up at the stars.
You can loathe the very thought of me. Remember the lying prick you met that one time, and vow revenge.
When you meet someone else, someone better and more deserving, your hatred will make him jealous.
Because hatred is still an emotion, which means I crawled into your heart, too. ”
Tears stream onto my cheeks. “Lincoln—”
“Hate me for the rest of your life. Make your new man hate me, too.”
“Stop it.” I step toward him. “I don’t want to leave.”
“You have to.”
“But he’ll kill you next,” I choke out. “You didn’t deliver what he asked for, which means he’ll hurt you.”
“He’ll hurt you first. You wanted me to want you so much that I can’t breathe?
” He drags his thumb up and strokes my flesh, swiping an errant tear where it spills from my eye.
“Nova Nichols. You took my breath away the first time I saw you. I promise, from now until my dying breath, I’ll stand between you and Richard Aster. ”
He leans in and lays one last kiss on my lips, my tears mingling on our tongues and his choppy exhale filling my lungs. Then he pulls back with a violent, jerky movement and shoves me into the driver’s seat, slamming the door so hard the sound echoes into the night.
“Now leave. I’ll be standing right here.” He points toward my house. “I’ll be watching. I expect to see your headlights in your driveway one minute from now, and pulling out again in ten. Drive until you’re afraid you’ll fall asleep, then stop for coffee and drive even further after that.”
“Lincoln—”
“I love you.” He reaches through the window and takes my keys, stabbing one into the ignition barrel and starting the engine with a roar.
Pulling back, he cups my cheek, his eyes glittering with a bone-deep ache.
“I know it might not feel like it, and I know I’ve lied, but I love you, Nova.
It would bring me great joy to know you’re out there somewhere, living in safety and hating me. ”
“I don’t hate you.” Adrenaline floods my veins and leaves my hands shaking. “Even though I should, I don’t.”
“I hope you learn to.” Stepping back, he releases me and folds his arms across his still-bare chest. “Love and hate matter to me. Indifference will break my heart.”
“I’m not indifferent either.” A desperate sob tears along my throat. “It’s not hate, and it’s not indifference.”
His eyes soften, his lips parting as he receives my words and processes them.
Translates. Then smiles. “Good. Now go.” He turns his back, dismissing me as I shift the truck into reverse and clamp my lips shut.
My lungs seize, and the pain leaves me gasping for air.
Torrents of tears fall from my eyes while Ry’s chain hangs heavily, ominously, around my neck.
But another name rings in the back of my mind.
Finally, the identity of the man who hurt my family.
Richard Aster.
I pull out of Lincoln’s driveway, the truck bouncing and grating over the potholes and poorly kept road.
Less than a minute later, I turn into my yard and kill the engine.
Opening the door, I step down onto loose gravel in my bare feet.
I grab my keys but leave my purse in the cab.
Blinded by tears, I dash onto my porch and unlock the front door, then step into darkness and flick the light on.
But instead of my warm, cozy home, I’m met with chaos. My couch is flipped on its back, and my television lies tossed on the floor. Drawers hang open, and books splay across the shelves.
Adrenaline spikes in my blood like nitrous oxide in a car’s souped-up engine, my brain processing the scene in front of me legions faster than it did when an SUV barreled straight for us.
I turn to flee, knowing Aster has already sent his reinforcements, but a beefy hand wraps around and claps over my mouth, containing my scream.
“Shhh…” A dark, dangerous voice vibrates beside my ear. “We don’t want to alert the neighbors, do we?”