Chapter 27
TWENTY-SEVEN
Nova
One second, I’m in the moment.
The next, I’m staring at a man I never wanted to see again.
And he’s gripping my arms far too tight.
“What the fuck, Nova?” George shouts over the storm. “What are you doing?”
He starts dragging me forward, dragging me away from the peace I found, away from the sliver of happiness I regained, dragging me backward when I only want to move into the future.
“Let me go,” I snap, my camera jerking painfully on my neck as he yanks me toward him. I clutch at it, knowing that I barely managed to reattach the strap, that it could break again, my camera could fall and—
George’s eyes flash and he shakes me roughly. “No fucking way.”
A tendril of fear curls through me.
Because I’ve never seen him like this.
Because this is scary.
“Do you know how much of a pain in the ass it was to find you?” he snaps. “Do you have any fucking idea? One day you’re staying with Ella and the next, I come home and all your shit is gone.”
“Why would you want to find me?” I ask, trying again to slip out of his hold, trying to inch away so I can get away from him, get back to the house. To…Lake.
His hands tighten. “You’re my girlfriend.”
I laugh. I can’t help it. I see that my reaction pisses him off more, know that it’s the wrong move, but…I can’t stop it. Because, “I saw you and Ashley.”
His face changes then, colder, harder, scarier than before. “You didn’t see what you think you did.”
“I didn’t see your penis thrusting into my sister’s vagina? Really? I just imagined it?”
“I knew you would be back here,” he says instead of answering me. “I just fucking knew that you wouldn’t be in the house like a sane person. You’d be out here with that damn camera and taking pictures instead of doing what you should be doing.”
“And what am I supposed to be doing?”
“Taking care of me and Ashley,” he snaps. “Instead, you just…flit off, living your own life, too fucking obstinate and headstrong for your own good.”
Was this man my boyfriend—ex—or my parent, or my child?
Because those words were a mishmash of them all…and yet none of them.
“You’re both adults,” I say. “And, not that it matters anymore, but I think I showed you plenty of care the last time you were sick. I think I showed it when I did your laundry and cleaned the apartment and made your doctor’s and dentist appointments.
I think I showed it when I learned how to make your favorite meals even though I can’t stand meatloaf or stew.
” I tug against him again but can’t slip free of his hold.
“And not that it’s any of your business, but I also think I showed Ashley plenty of care growing up and throughout the years since, and she repaid that energy by fucking my boyfriend. ”
He sniffs.
“So,” I ask. “Why are you really here?”
And really, how is he here? Had the roads been plowed?
“I was worried and…”
My brows shoot up. “And what?”
“And when I saw your car on the side of the road, I hiked up here.”
To Lake’s house. Specifically to his back yard?
I frown.
Speaking of that, where is Lake?
Still sleeping?
Or did he sic this asshole on me?
Probably the second one.
Although, the man who carried me to nap in his bed, who tucked blankets around me, wouldn’t—
George shakes me again, hard enough that my teeth rattle together, that my head wobbles on my neck, that pain shoots down my spine.
“Stop,” I say, squirming against him, trying to get out of his hold.
But all that succeeds in doing is making him tighten his grip on my arms. “You stop,” he snaps, shaking me again, this time so hard that my eyes start watering.
“You’re going to walk your ass down the hill and get in my fucking car and you’re going to apologize to your sister and make things right with both of us. ”
“Fuck that,” I say. “I’m not going to—”
He talks over me. “And then we’re going home, and things will go back to nor—”
All of a sudden, I’m thrown forward, nearly colliding with a tree, but I don’t hit it because there’s an arm wrapping around my middle, drawing me back against a strong chest.
But that arm isn’t rough.
It holds me gently for a beat before I’m behind Lake’s broad body.
“Woof!” Steve barks, a couple steps ahead of us, and I lean around to watch, wide-eyed, as my tiny pup launches himself at George, getting some serious air as he leaps up and latches onto my ex’s hand.
“Ow! Fuck,” George says, trying to shake him off.
But my dog has demon blood.
He’s not easy to dislodge.
Only then George rears back and—
“Don’t!” Lake snaps.
Too late.
Steve squeals as George’s fist connects with his side and lets go, landing in the snow in a heap.
“Steve!” I gasp, lurching forward.
George lifts his leg, preparing to kick, but before I can get to him, Lake is there, shoving George back into a tree, his elbow pressed into George’s throat. A glance over his shoulder. “Check on Steve, butterfly.”
I inhale, broken from my stasis with that order, dropping to my knees in front of my baby, who stares up at me with pain in his eyes. He tries to get up, tongue out, panting heavily despite the cold air whipping around us, but collapses with a pained sound.
“Shit,” I whisper, eyes tearing up.
That’s the worst sound I’ve ever heard.
I carefully scoop him up.
“Let’s get him inside the house,” Lake says, whipping George around, taking my ex’s arm and bending it behind his back, frog-marching him forward.
We move slowly up the snow-filled stairs, having to proceed carefully because of the accumulating snow, because some of that snow is turning to ice.
Steve whimpers a few times, but doesn’t otherwise make a sound, doesn’t try to launch himself out of my arms in order to chase an errant snowflake, to pee on a deck post.
He just lays limply in my hold.
Worry digs its claws in deeper.
“Breathe, butterfly,” Lake murmurs as he draws George to the side at the top of the stairs. “And walk carefully, yeah?”
I inhale.
Exhale.
“Yeah,” I whisper with a nod and start moving forward again, rounding the corner of the house, moving around to the front of the house, to the front door—
Then skid to a halt so quickly I nearly fall.
Focused on getting away from him, I hadn’t really heard the final words that George said in the woods, hadn’t really processed them.
But turning the corner and seeing who’s standing on the porch has them whipping back through my mind, slamming home, nearly sending me to my knees.
Steve stiffens in my arms, growls softly.
“Shh,” I whisper, kissing the top of his furry head. “It’s okay.”
Footsteps behind me.
A scuffle.
The woman in front of me straightens from where she was bending toward the green pot on the porch and cries out, starting toward us. “What are you doing to him?”
“Don’t fucking move,” Lake snaps. He comes close, bends forward over my shoulder and I glance up at him. “Your sister?” he asks softly.
“Yeah.”
“Jesus Christ,” he mutters.
“It’s fine,” I say. “I can handle—”
A hand on my hip. “Right by me, butterfly.”
Then he nudges me forward and we walk side by side to the door.
She opens her mouth. “Nova—”
“Shut up,” Lake growls, cutting off my sister.
George starts in. “Don’t—”
“You shut up too,” Lake says, still growling, still holding George tightly by the arm. Then he moves to the door, punches a few buttons on the automatic lock near the knob, and pushes the wooden panel wide, standing to the side.
A glance down at me.
A nod to go in before him.
I carry Steve to the pile of blankets, carefully maneuver him onto them.
He whimpers again but immediately tries to stand up.
Only, he’s not bearing weight on all of his legs, his back right one hangs limply.
“Stay there, honey,” I whisper, coaxing him back down, knowing that I’ll have to get him seen by a vet somehow.
Knowing that if George and Ashley made it to Lake’s house, there has to be a way out for us.
My stomach convulses at that thought, but I ignore it, resume carefully tucking the blankets around my poor pup.
“I know it’s shit timing”—my head flies up, eyes going to Lake, seeing George on the floor by the door, Ashley pale-skinned and standing next to him—“but I need you to come out to my place.” A pause.
“I know the roads are shit and ours hasn’t been plowed yet, but you have the snowmobile, Mack, and I need you to pick up Jer on the way.
” Another pause before he curses softly.
“Yeah, man, you know there are tickets in it for you.”
Tickets?
I frown, start to stand up.
“They’ll even be on the glass if you can be here within the hour.”