Chapter 29
Although she could feel Alexander’s eyes searing into her, Nina did not look at him.
She was scared, yes, but she also didn’t want to give him any sort of power over her.
She turned around to look for Mav instead and saw him embracing the small blonde woman who had submitted her own victim’s statement.
‘She’s the other victim Aiden told us about. Maverick somehow got her details and went and spoke to her,’ Linda said, seeing the direction of her gaze. ‘Gave her my name and number.’
‘What?’ Nina whispered, completely shocked. ‘Why didn’t you say anything?’
‘I didn’t think she’d show, and I didn’t want to get your hopes up. She’s terrified of the NDA she signed.’
Nina looked at the woman. She was small, maybe only a little taller than Nina herself, with an angel’s face and dimpled smile. She couldn’t have been more than twenty-six or seven now, which begged the question: how old had she been when Alexander Cane had raped her?
Nina’s throat burned because if she, with her unlimited financial resources, fanbase, and thirty-four years, had struggled to come forward and tell the truth, how difficult must it have been for the other woman, who had been so much younger when her choices had been taken from her?
How scared and ashamed and alone must she have felt looking down the barrel at Alexander Cane and his team of lawyers after he had already reduced her by so much.
And, still, through all of that, Nina couldn’t tear her eyes away from Mav as he smiled down at the tiny blonde.
Because in that moment, she finally understood: trust wasn’t built on words, which could be so easily undermined, forgotten, or taken back.
Trust was built on actions, on what you did over and over, on showing up for the people you loved again and again, for the big things and the small things, the good and the bad.
Luigi’s had taught her family, but she had never let any of the crew there get close enough to rely on them completely.
Markus had tried to teach her trust over the years, but she had resisted leaning on him fully.
Looking back now, she thought she might have been too scared that if she did, her only friend would start to see her as a burden. Like her mother had.
And then the assault had happened. And she had been so tired, so broken, that she hadn’t really been able to resist all those small things Mav did that had given her some light and hope back.
Things like six a.m. riding lessons and inviting her to stay in the ranch house and buying her a makeup box for her birthday and holding her while she slept.
She hadn’t lied to him when she’d said he’d met her at her lowest. But instead of steering clear of her, he had shown up for her, again and again, even when she’d been a stranger and, now, even when she’d tried to push him away.
Nina had been on the verge of a full-blown panic attack before her statement, but then she’d thought of him, and in thinking of him, she had sensed him there, behind her.
Only one look back at him had steadied the ground beneath her feet.
Maverick showing up hadn’t taken away her fear; it had just reminded her that whatever happened, she trusted him to stay with her, to wrap her in his arms when she was scared and pick her up when she fell.
The absolution with which she believed in him was astounding.
Nina wanted to touch him.
She needed him to touch her.
Only, when she managed to refocus her attention on where he’d been standing, he was gone.
Her heart, already so unsettled, lurched. Her anxiety reared. ‘Where did he go?’
‘What?’ Markus frowned. ‘Who?’
‘Mav …’
He turned around to search the crowd.
But Nina didn’t hear him. And she didn’t stop when he called for her to wait. She pushed through the crowd, elbowing her way through the people flocking to the doorway so that she could catch him before he left.
In her rush, her mind consumed with reaching him, her heart filled with the irrational panic that she might not, she didn’t notice the people giving her curious looks and whispering about her among themselves.
The moment she was in the hallway, she looked both ways and, not seeing him, started running for the exit, her ballet flats slapping the cold floor with every step.
She burst out the courthouse doors and into the bright LA sunlight like a bird escaping a cage, her chest heaving with every breath, her eyes searching the grey concrete steps wildly.
Photographers swarmed her immediately. Cameras were pushed into her face. Voices rose in a mighty clamour, the questions merging and becoming indecipherable.
Through the crowd, she saw him. He was already across the courtyard, about to turn onto the street. ‘Mav!’ she yelled.
He didn’t hear her over the noise of the press, only kept walking.
Nina ignored all of the questions still being thrown at her. At the top of her lungs, she yelled, ‘Quiet!’
Silence descended, as if the news crews were completely unused to being addressed with the same blatant disrespect they used on others. Nina could have laughed at the unanimous look of shock had she not been so focused on the man walking away from her.
Before she could yell again, a kid, a young man with a patchy beard and a small recorder said, ‘I’ve got you.’ He shoved the tiny device into her hand. The moment his own hands were free, he cupped them around his mouth and whistled.
The whistle was loud. It pierced the beautiful day. People on the sidewalk stopped to look in the direction it had come from. Others glanced over their shoulders.
Nina was watching Maverick walk away, so she saw the exact moment he registered the sound.
He turned.
Even though she was too far to see the look in his eyes, she knew that their gazes met. She could feel that connection, and it was so strong and vital.
Still, she raised one hand, almost tentatively, and waved, and when he turned and started making his way back to the courthouse, she passed the recorder back to the reporter. ‘Thank you.’
The kid beamed.
The others started shouting questions again. And this time Nina answered them as she walked.
‘Miss Keller, what is the nature of your and Maverick Hunt’s relationship?’
‘He’s my boyfriend,’ she replied, her eyes glued on Mav as they got closer and closer.
‘Miss Keller, is it true that Alexander Cane sexually assaulted you?’
‘Yes,’ she rasped.
‘Nina, what do you have to say regarding Alexander Cane’s assault allegations against you?’
‘I’m five-four and one hundred and ten pounds. Do the math.’
A round of chuckles followed that.
‘Miss Keller – what now?’
Maverick had reached the other end of the pile of people so that now they were separated by twenty-odd reporters and cameramen.
The question ‘What now?’ ricocheted in her head. What now? What now? What now?
‘It’s going to be a long, ugly process,’ she replied. ‘But I’m strong. Resilient.’ Her eyes locked with Mav’s, and he smiled. ‘And my support system is infallible,’ she finished.
Nina’s heart didn’t race or lurch or swan dive. It settled, calmed. Found peace. Because he was exactly what she needed – always.
She had expected him to keep his distance.
She had even hoped he would. But her expectations had been grounded, always, in her own experience of the world.
Nina, who had grown up without trust and love and communication, had fully expected Maverick to let her battle her demons alone.
Except here he was. And, she knew, here he would be until this nightmare was over.
He would keep showing up for her, even to his own detriment.
And if he was going to show up anyway, she wanted him at her side, his hand linked with hers in the courtroom imparting all the strength and comfort she couldn’t summon for herself.
The reporters started making space for him to pass through.
Maverick held her gaze until they were standing face-to-face.
Every single person was eerily quiet, as if they had agreed to capture this moment by tacit agreement.
Nina wondered what to say.
But she didn’t have to.
‘I’m so fucking proud of you.’ Mav’s voice was husky with emotion.
Nina nodded though her eyes blurred. ‘I did it.’ Her voice shook, but she said the words proudly and for the world to hear.
Because even though the road ahead would be long and bumpy, she had half dragged her broken body, half been carried, up the biggest hill already.
And it had been the most difficult thing she had ever done – and probably would ever do.
‘Yeah, you did,’ Mav affirmed.
He didn’t try and touch her, didn’t say anything that might give away the relationship he thought they were still hiding.
It was Nina who said, ‘What are you doing here, Mav? You hate the city.’
He looked at her face for a long moment, trying to decide what she wanted, and Nina let him see the answer in her eyes. She nodded, desperate to finally hear the words. She didn’t just want them. She needed them.
Mav exhaled a deep breath of relief. ‘I do hate the city. But I love you.’
Hearing the words from him for the first time was unlike anything Nina had ever known before. It wasn’t joy or relief or excitement, but some strange emotion that contained all three of them in staggering quantities.
Nina grinned. Her heart, so heavy only moments before, flew. She indicated the reporters, said, ‘They want to know: what now?’
All the microphones swung in Maverick’s direction. ‘You know what I want,’ he said. ‘I’m just waiting until you’re ready to trust me with your heart.’
The reporters swung back in her direction, making her laugh.
‘I’m ready,’ she said, and there was no doubt.
There was some fear, but Nina finally accepted that she was allowed to be scared.
Trusting somebody else with your heart was terrifying, but maybe it was supposed to be, maybe that was why it was so special too.
Mav smiled his dimple-popping smile. ‘Yeah?’
‘Yeah.’ Nina had never seen anything more beautiful than the denim-clad cowboy standing in front of her with the city at his back. ‘I love you, Mav. I need you like I need my next breath. I don’t feel safe enough to live free when you’re not with me.’
He put his hands on his hips and exhaled a deep breath of relief. ‘Sounds like we’re on the same page.’
Nina nodded, waiting.
‘I just have one question?’
‘Okay.’
‘Please, for the love of God, could I kiss you in public now?’
Another round of laughter followed.
‘I want the world to know you’re my woman, Nina.’
Nina didn’t reply. She walked straight into his arms and pressed her lips to his.
Everyone cheered. Reporters, spectators who had stopped to watch the unravelling scene, Linda and Markus, who stood on the steps above them, watching.
Mav took her deep. His hands gripped her hips and pulled her close, sealing the last of that space between them.
His tongue swept into her mouth and gave, uncaring of the fact that the world was watching, and when they finally pulled apart, Mav didn’t step back.
He kept her close, his arms wrapped around her, his big body sheltering her even when she hadn’t asked.
Nina closed her eyes and revelled in the safety of his arms. She breathed in his familiar scent and rested for the first time in days.
If either of them had been paying attention, they would have seen Alexander Cane and his attorneys standing on the other side of the courthouse steps, completely forgotten by the media just then. They might have looked at Alexander’s face and seen his outrage and his hate. His madness.