Chapter 53
WES
Itook another step, hating that I’d had to let go of Nova’s hand. But the gun was in reach now; I could see it out of the corner of my eye, resting on the table under my father’s left hand.
Roman’s attention wasn’t on me, even as he spoke to me. It was on Nova’s head.
“My angel has lost all value.”
I tore the gun from my father’s grasp with a decisive yank.
Nova let out a frustrated cry as she writhed. Roman pulled the trigger.
I shot him in the chest. He stumbled back. When his back hit the wine shelves, several bottles were knocked loose and exploded on the floor. He slumped into a pool of glass and wine.
My father rushed to his side, and my eyes snapped to Nova, her eyes closed, head falling limp.
“Nova,” I whispered, a desperate, tortured sound.
She’d shifted her body and turned her head just in time. The bullet had hit her shoulder, grazing her deltoid muscle. I yanked off my shirt to apply pressure to the oozing wound.
She’d lost consciousness from the shock and pain, but Nova, my Nova, was okay.
“Just like I promised. You’re going to be okay,” I told her as I pressed my shirt against her shoulder. “And I will never break another promise to you again.”
Her eyes moved rapidly behind her eyelids before she gasped, her eyes flying open. They found mine immediately as they filled with tears. She grit her teeth, the pain breaking through her momentary confusion.
“It’s just a graze,” I told her.
The door flew open again. Nova feebly lifted her head.
“Lay back down, baby. Don’t move,” I whispered.
As soon as I saw the tall blonde at the bottom of the steps, I knew it was Nova’s friend Lorelei, trailed by Jayne.
“One of you hold this while I untie her,” I said to the women, nodding to my shirt pressed against Nova’s wound.
Lorelei broke into sobs, her gaze moving rapidly between Roman and Nova. Jayne rubbed her shoulder before gracefully stepping around her toward us, her posture straight, even as her eyes flashed trepidation. She took over applying pressure.
“Lor,” Nova said, her eyes wide with shock. “How…?”
Nova stopped speaking the moment she noticed that instead of untying her, I’d halted, gun in hand. She angled her head to look at me.
“Wes,” she said, her voice stronger now.
I stared at my father, his back to me as he held Roman, searching for a pulse that wasn’t there.
I thought of everything my father had done.
I thought of the way he abandoned my mom, the woman who worked tirelessly to raise me while he chased his soulless ambitions, the woman he traded for a nineteen-year-old model—the fucking cliché of it all.
I thought of how I’d watched my mom die as he made his first millions.
I remembered everything I’d seen him do or overheard him say while I pretended to be his golden boy.
The people whose lives he’d ruined, both personally and en masse.
He knew exactly what his platforms did to people, to children, and he encouraged their cancerous, all-consuming growth with reckless abandon to maximize profit.
He appointed corrupt politicians and pulled their strings to serve his interests no matter the consequences.
He’d created a system of mass surveillance to add omnipresence to his omnipotence.
Max Graves had no higher power. He was his own higher power. He was the spiritually empty demon who had spawned Roman, the harbinger of a new world order of control, manipulation, and illusion.
The Circle had earned his golden stamp of approval. Because of course it had.
It would never be enough. He would always need more.
Roman was right. My father was like him.
I lifted the gun.
“Please, Wes,” Nova croaked, breaking my concentration. She shook her head.
My father hadn’t turned. It would be so easy.
“Don’t,” Nova said. “That’s not who you are. It’s not your side of the street, remember?” She borrowed AA language in her attempt to break through to me.
I hesitated, slowly moving my gaze to hers. Jayne watched me warily, not uttering a word. Lorelei continued sobbing at the front of the room.
I saw the man I was reflected in Nova’s beautiful, dark irises. The man she loved. The man I’d built back up from the wreckage, piece by piece. The man my mom would be proud of.
Nova was protecting me even as she bled from a gunshot wound. She knew what would happen if I shot my father. I would destroy myself. I would destroy us.
A shudder rolled through me, and I let my resentment crest and then crash back down. Hatred was no longer the high I wanted to chase, the virtue I wanted to be consumed by. My compass pointed somewhere else now.
I had to trust my father and people like him would get what they deserved another way.
I lowered the gun and placed it in my back pocket. Nova relaxed, releasing a breath. It was a sacrifice I would make over and over again.
I wasn’t one of them, and I didn’t want to be.
A petrified security guard entered the space in the next blink. “I’m sorry, sir. They were threatening to post a video of the cellar footage to PicWave unless we let them down here, and we didn’t know what—”
Max wasn’t remotely paying attention to his henchman as he clutched his lifeless son. The guard went silent.
I made quick work of untying Nova’s wrists. “I’m sorry. I—”
“It’s okay,” Nova said. “I understand, Wes. I do. It wouldn’t have been worth it. I’m glad you chose you.”
“You’re not allowed to be so fucking sweet and wise at a time like this,” I said gruffly, moving to her ankles next. “Fuck, I’m so—”
“Are you okay?” the tall blonde in a blue gown asked Nova, cutting me off. Snot ran down to her mouth, tears streaking her cheeks. “She’s going to be okay, right?” she asked me, her gaze locking on the iron brand on the floor immediately. “We couldn’t see clearly, but the iron didn’t—”
“It didn’t make contact,” I said. “And she’s going to be okay.”
Nova winced. Jayne had torn my shirt and tied it around the wound in a makeshift bandage.
I nodded to her gratefully as I took Nova’s hand in mine. “We need to get her to a hospital.”
My father finally let go of Roman, stood, and turned to us. He smoothed his blood-soaked button-down, his face devoid of a single discernable emotion.
“My driver will take you to our concierge practice. She will receive the best care in the city.” He paused. “Do we have a shared understanding, Wesley?”
The room went silent. I gritted my teeth. Nova squeezed my hand.
Don’t fuck with me, and I won’t fuck with you.
That was the understanding in question.
I nodded, meeting my father with a cold glare.
“Good luck covering all of this up. But you’re well-practiced in the art by now, right?
Just look at how far you’ve come.” I moved to the other side of the table and gently lifted Nova into my arms, an inch of my tension melting now that she was this close to me again.
She winced, another tear rolling down her cheek.
My heart clenched at the sight of her in so much pain.
I barely glanced over my shoulder as I spoke my next words. “Goodbye, Max.”
His features remained unreadable, concealed behind his carefully-crafted mask of power. “Until we meet again.” His eyes met Jayne’s and Lorelei’s, his unspoken threat clear.
Both women immediately nodded, even as Lorelei sniffled and Jayne’s chin lifted an inch. I respected Jayne’s strength in this moment.
Max stared at the phone in Lorelei’s hand.
“Understood,” Lorelei confirmed, her skin pale. She unlocked her phone and handed it to the guard, who glared at her as he deleted the videos and then dramatically crushed her phone under his boot.
Lorelei clearly knew what was good for her.
“The Circle?” Jayne asked carefully.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Max bit out.
Jayne nodded and handed over her phone next. “Understood.”
“Tell the driver,” Max barked at the stupefied guard. “Everyone out of this room now.”
We all took the steps out of the accursed wine cellar, brushing past the guard, who was rapidly making a call to the driver outside.
Nova reached out to touch Jayne’s shoulder. “You came. Why? And how did you find me?” Nova’s jaw clenched from the pain as her chest rose and fell rapidly. Her friend was likely in some kind of shock, but she never left our side as we headed toward the service entrance.
“You said red,” Jayne said. She seemed to be choosing her words carefully. “And I… I knew something was wrong. I’d been dreaming about it for a while.”
“Did you tell Archer?” Nova asked, dark, spiteful humor in her tone.
Jayne pressed her lips together, hesitating. “There wasn’t time,” she said cryptically, and I could smell the dishonesty from a mile away.
Luckily for us, The Circle was no longer our damn puzzle to solve.
“When Jayne told me that men took you,” Lorelei said, swallowing a hiccup, “I didn’t want to believe it was him. I had to see for myself. But we couldn’t find Nova without…”
“Telling Max,” I finished for her.
We walked to my father’s SUV, his driver already standing outside.
I glanced at Lorelei. “Thank you. You saved her life.”
“I saved mine, too,” she said with a weak, wobbly smile. Another sob broke through.
Tears streamed down Nova’s face as she stared at her friend. “You told Max?”
“I broke one of my most sacred vows,” she murmured.
“I went through His—Roman’s—things, a while back…
I saved his father’s number in my phone, just in case.
I don’t even know why.” Her face crumpled.
“I demanded Max let us come by bluffing about information I had on Roman. We had to look at the security footage to find you because no one would tell us what was happening, and Max told us to stay put, but I saw it. I saw everything, so I took out my phone and I hit record and—” She sucked snot back into her nose.
“I’m sorry, Nova. You were right. I’m ready to get help. I—”
“Not right now,” I said sternly, shaking my head. Nova needed everyone to stay calm as she bled through my shirt and shivered in my arms. “We’re going to focus on getting Nova help now.”
Lorelei closed her mouth. She nodded, lowering her head. Nova’s face softened.
“I love you, Lor.” Her teeth chattered, and I held her tighter.
Lorelei gulped down another hiccup. “I love you too, Nova.”
Nova looked up at me as I ducked into the SUV, still holding her as the door closed behind us. Lorelei and Jayne both took seats in the back.
“He made you drink,” she said, her voice cracking. “Are you all right? Is there anything—”
I gently shushed her. “What did I just say, baby? We’re taking care of you right now.
” I brushed my lips against her forehead.
“I’m fine. I’ll call my sponsor and keep going to meetings.
It’s the same as an alcoholic accidentally having a drink, albeit more traumatic of a slip.
I still have five years. If anything, it only reinforced how much I value my sobriety. ”
Her features were slow to relax, but she nodded, accepting my explanation. It was the truth. Just thinking about drinking made my stomach turn inside out. I knew how to take care of myself, though I appreciated Nova’s sweet concern.
Her gaze fell to my chest. “What does Memento Mori mean, Wes?”
She referenced the small, blocky script tattoo on my upper chest, the two snakes—one dead and one alive—framing the words on either side.
“Remember: You will die,” I said softly. “Life is fleeting. Fragile.”
I stroked her cheek. I relished the way her eyes were trained on mine, wide with relief as she relaxed against me, breathing through her pain. She knew she was safe.
“Death is our best reminder to live.”
As the car headed toward the private medical facility, I finally allowed myself to feel a drop of the emotions threatening to burst from my chest. A single tear fell from my right eye, and Nova caught it with her good hand, her thumb gentle.
She winced.
“Stop moving, please, baby,” I whispered.
She lowered her hand back down as her brows furrowed. “You would cry for me?” The slightest curve graced her lips.
I shook my head with a dry laugh.
“Nova, I would do anything for you.”