Chapter 18 Nova
NOVA
When I opened my eyes, I blinked slowly through the curtain of limp, sweaty hair covering half my face..
It was hot as hell in here, airless, suffocating.
Dark.
A handful of candles were scattered around the space, all of them in different stages of burning.
Some sat in pools of wax that had hardened as it cooled, while others looked almost new.
The flames bounced and flickered, casting shadows in which anything could hide.
Something skittered nearby, and I flinched, but it didn’t do much good, thanks to my hands being tied behind me and around the back of a wooden chair.
They were numb, held in place by what was probably duct tape clinging to my skin.
Looking down, craning my neck, I saw the same treatment had been given to my ankles, taped to the legs of the chair. He didn’t want to take chances, did he?
I was going to throw up. Nausea bloomed in my stomach, sending bile rushing up into my throat.
He did this. He killed Max in front of me and brought me here to wherever I was.
It had gotten mostly dark since then. How much of that time had been spent getting me here, and how much had I spent in this chair?
He was going to kill me.
But why not do it at my apartment? Why not get it over with? Because that was the end of this. That was where the story was headed. Nobody needed to say it out loud. I felt it.
Vaughn. He thought we were going to dinner tonight.
The idea of him waiting for me, expectant, took what was left of my already broken heart and crushed it to dust. I would never see him again.
There was no way he’d find me here, even with all his connections and resources. I didn’t even know where here was.
Where was I? Blinking through my hair did no good.
I turned my head, trying to swing it back over my shoulder so I could see a little better.
Clearly, this place had been abandoned for a long time—bits of garbage littered the floor, empty bottles, broken glass.
Someone had been using it as a refuge. Maybe more than one person, along with animals whose feces were strewn here and there.
My nose wrinkled at the stench, which was increasingly evident with every breath I took.
Why did it look familiar? Memories stirred in the back of my aching, wounded head. Where the hell was I?
“Recognize the place?”
I yelped in shock at the sudden voice behind me. Footsteps rang out sharply against the wooden floor.
“You should,” he said. Nico. Fear skittered down my spine, mixing with the nausea and certainty this would be the last voice I ever heard. Why go to all this trouble? Why not do it and get it over with? He needed to punish me as if that would change anything.
“Why are you doing all of this?” I asked, my dry throat and the screaming I’d done earlier turning my voice to a dry rasp.
Because even though I knew, instinct told me to stall and fight for every last second of my increasingly short life.
I didn’t want to die. I didn’t want it to be over yet.
There was still so much I hadn’t done, so much I hadn’t seen.
My goals, my dreams, all of it was about to come to an end in this sad, dank place.
“Maybe I have what they call a flare for the dramatic.” He rounded the chair, taking one slow, measured step after another in a pair of heavily-soled black boots.
He walked with his hands clasped behind his back, his chin high.
There was something almost easy-going about him.
If I knew I was about to kill somebody after already committing murder hours ago, would I be so casual about it?
Maybe I would if it wasn’t my first murder.
“What does that mean?” I whispered. Somebody was bound to find Max unless they moved the body, but even then, the mess would take time to clean up.
Something had to go wrong, whatever plan he put in place.
Somebody had to figure this out. There would be other guards, right?
They worked in shifts. Somebody would eventually clue into the fact that they hadn’t been in touch with Max for much too long.
And they would tell Vaughn, and he would rescue me. He always did. Even back when I didn’t want him to, when I tried to convince myself I could handle everything on my own. He had insisted.
Now, I might never get to tell him how grateful I was. How much I needed him.
“You don’t recognize where you are?” He looked around, tipping his head back to stare at the ceiling, gazing at the walls. His shoulders rose and fell. “It’s been a long time since you were here. You were a little kid. He never did sell the house. It’s come in handy.”
No. It couldn’t be. At the same time, it made all the sense in the world. No wonder I recognized it, if only vaguely. Without the furniture, it could have been literally any other building.
But now I was starting to pull it all together.
I knew this room because I had spent hours here as a kid, during countless long weekends we had taken as a family.
The road trips, with Mom’s off-key warbling the whole way to our vacation house in Primm.
I had believed Dad when he said he’d sold it. I used to believe so many things.
“The whole development is abandoned now,” Nico explained, though I hadn’t asked.
“When the bottom dropped out of the real estate market, fewer and fewer people were able to afford these monstrosities. Finally, the whole development shuttered, but nobody ever got around to tearing them down. Not that I’m complaining,” he added in a light tone.
He could have been talking about the weather. “It’s been a good resource.”
How many hours had I spent in this room, cuddling on the couch with Mom while we watched old movies together? Hitchcock. He was her favorite, which, of course, meant he became mine.
This wasn’t an old Hitchcock thriller. This was real, immediate, and the last night of my life unless something happened.
Somebody had to come.
Somebody had to find me.
Nico came to a stop in front of me, slowly dropping into a crouch that brought us nearly to eye level—those empty eyes. Instinct wanted me to look away in revulsion, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I couldn’t show weakness.
“Now, Miss Nova,” he muttered, drawing out the sound of my name.
“I’m going to ask you this, and I want an honest answer.
Tell me what I need to know, and I’ll make it quick.
Just as quick as I made it for your friend back in your apartment.
He didn’t feel a thing, I promise you. He’s already in a better place. ”
“Fuck you,” I spat. Max. Poor Max. It was all my fault.
If I weren’t so determined to go back there, he would be alive.
He hadn’t wanted to go. I had forced him into it.
Like this was all a game, though I had always known it wasn’t.
I had fooled myself into thinking I had a measure of control over any of this and had been smacked down hard. I would never forgive myself.
If Nico had his way, I wouldn’t hate myself for long.
A sly grin touched the corners of his mouth before he murmured, “That’s fine.
Get it out of your system now. I promise, if you make me wait for the information I need, you will regret it.
You will regret it with every breath you take.
I’ll see to it. And trust me…” he added, his smile widening, “… you will end up begging me to put an end to it. I’ve forced men a hell of a lot stronger than you to beg me to stop and kill them.
Right here in this very room, in fact,” he added, spreading his arms as he stood.
They dropped to his sides, and his face fell along with them. “Plus one woman. Only one. An old friend of yours.”
Why? Why did he have to do this? Wouldn’t it be enough to kill me? “Mom,” I whispered. “You fucking bastard. Why did you do that? Why did you kill my mom? What did she ever do to you?”
“Much like you, you meddling little bitch, she couldn’t leave well enough alone!
” His voice echoed in the abandoned space, doubling and tripping on itself until he became a chorus of hate.
“Oh, it was fine to enjoy the spoils, wasn’t it?
The money, the vacation house, and the cars.
She had everything anyone could ever ask for, and that wasn’t enough!
She had to dig. Ask questions. Demand. She didn’t have the first fucking clue what was going on,” he barked.
He fell silent except for his harsh, ragged breathing. “So she fled here. Thinking she’d take a little time to think things over. I couldn’t let that happen.”
“So you killed her? That was your solution?”
“She was talking about going to the police!” he screamed. The flames danced, light moving over his face. “Do you know what that would’ve done? Guess what, kid? You’d be dead now, too, if I let that happen. I did it to protect the casino and your father and you!”
“And yourself,” I spat. “Don’t forget about yourself. I guess you think you’re a hero. It’s probably the only way you’re able to sleep at night.”