“I already told you what’s going on. We pack our shit and erase all evidence we were ever here. Then we go home, and we start on plan B.”
“Nova’s coming too, right?” Angel asked.
“She’s alive, isn’t she?”
I turned away from them and went back to the closet, letting my question be the answer.
We gathered all our belongings in the living room. We’d packed light, per usual when we were sent to a new place to live.
The lodge had been pre-staged before our arrival. All the trivial things that weren’t going back with us would be burned in the fire-pit before we took off.
“Everything’s been wiped down,” Angel announced with a sigh, dragging one small duffel bag behind her.
I nodded and checked my watch. We had a few hours until sunset. That left plenty of time to light some shit aflame.
“Something’s up with those two,” Callum stated abruptly.
“Em’s texting me like her friend didn’t just drive out of here with a gun aimed at us.”
I looked over at Tripp. “Find out where they are.”
He gave me a two-finger salute and crouched down, digging his laptop back out of its bag.
“Evie, pull your car to the front. We can load it up first.”
“What do you need me to do?” Angel asked, bouncing on the balls of her feet.
“See the tan duffel over there.”
She looked to where I was pointing and nodded.
“I need you to make me some special cocktails.”
CHAPTER FOUR
NOVA
I kept my attention trained on the side and rearview mirrors the entire drive across town. My body was wound so tight, I was more like a mannequin than a young woman made of flesh and bone.
He didn’t come after us, no one did. But just as I knew the sky was blue, I knew that eventually someone would. Maybe it wouldn’t even be Rhett or one of his friends. It could be one of the many people my father had pissed off before getting himself killed. Perhaps the person responsible for taking out the Parkers and Pamela.
Emery drove through our neighborhood as silent as a church mouse, her grip iron-clad on the steering wheel.
When we arrived at the house, she pulled into our driveway, still not having uttered a single word, stiffly putting the car in park. The look on her face told me a lecture was coming, followed by a million questions. I wasn’t ready to deal with that. I reached for the door with every intention of putting space between us, but before I could so much as grip the handle, Em promptly hit the lock button.
I shifted in my seat to look at her. “What are you doing?”
Her lower lip detached from the top in a show of disbelief. “You’re shitting me, right? You just tried to shoot Rhett, and then spent the whole drive checking behind us like you expected him to chase you down. What is going on Nova?”
“It’s--.”
“Don’t give me that ‘it’s complicated’ or it’s ‘nothing bullshit’,” she snapped. “I was locked in a room so I couldn’t get to you. And you’re holding the butterfly necklace your dad had with him, the very one we thought was gone for good. Where did you get it?”
I swallowed down the exact words she demanded I didn’t say. Honestly, there wasn’t much I wanted to tell her. She was already involved far more than I ever wanted her to be. I’d been managing to keep her in the dark just fine until Rhett showed up. Funny how his arrival seemed to of triggered this avalanche of turmoil.
The truth was a double-edged sword. It would cut us both deeply. I couldn’t tell her what I’d done. Emery knew I had some underlying issues, but I didn’t believe for one second she thought me capable of murder. She wouldn’t understand how I wasn’t sorry or remorseful.
She wouldn’t be able to fathom the reality of me taking the life of another human being.
“Rhett had it,” I answered quietly.
She lurched forward as if she’d been shoved, placing both hands on the dash.
“And I don’t know why,” I added before the questions could begin. It was another lie. The hollow feeling in the pit of my stomach told me exactly why he would have had this necklace.
He was there the night my parents died. I wasn’t ready to say that out loud, though. The moment I did I’d be acknowledging it. Facing the music so to speak. I couldn’t work it all out yet, anyway. The scenario playing out in my mind didn’t make any sense.
“So, where did you find it?” Emery questioned; shock still evident in her tone.
“It was in a box.”
“A hidden box?”
“Not…exactly.”
She leaned back, brows furrowing in thought. “Then he wanted you to find it.”
I side eyed her. That was a perfectly logical explanation. I would’ve come up with that myself if my head wasn’t all over the place. Rhett didn’t strike me as the type to slip in such a major way. That asshole did everything with confidence and purpose.
But why? Why did he have it and why did he want me to know he did?
“I have no idea what’s going on,” I breathed, rubbing my brow.
“Maybe Annika knows something about it?” she wondered out loud.
What? “Why would Annika know more than either of us?”
She winced as if the question physically pained her. Then she did that thing again, the one that let me know she was hiding something. Taking advantage of her guilty conscious, I popped the lock and got out of the car.
“Nova!”
I ignored her, storming up the stairs to the front porch.
I reached for the door handle, only to realize I didn’t have my damn house keys. A growl of frustration bubbled in the back of my throat.
“Nova, calm down.” Emery’s hand landed on my shoulder.
I whirled, a snappy retort on the tip of my tongue, but the fear that washed over her face stopped me from saying anything. Her dark blue eyes had gone so round, I would have laughed if my situation wasn’t so absolutely screwed.
“It’s not my place to tell you her secrets. Please, put the gun down,” she pleaded.
The gun? I glanced down at my hand. I’d forgotten I’d taken it with me. This and the necklace had become extra appendages ever since picking them up.
“God, Emery. Relax. I’d never hurt you.” I rolled my eyes and turned back to the door, keeping the gun by my side.
“Can you let us in now?”
Still moving as if I were going to start firing away at any second, she took a ridiculously long time unlocking both locks, her movements stiff. I made sure I went in first. Few steps over the threshold, however, it dawned on me I had no clue what came next. What I wanted to do, and what I needed to do, were two very different things.
I’d have liked to of climbed in bed and slept all this away. I was exhausted—mentally. That was so much worse to me than being worn down physically. The thoughts in my head whirled around with a violent intensity.
I took a deep breath and surveyed the lower level of my house. I hated admitting Annika had been right, but she had.
This place was a tomb. A miserable crypt haunted by my parent’s presence. It wasn’t safe here. I’m not sure it ever had been. It was these slowly dawning facts are what helped me decide what I would do next, knowing it wouldn’t be easy.
Leave.
I’d leave here, and if I never got the chance to come back, I couldn’t say for sure how that would affect me. At the very least I was giving myself a fighting chance. I turned to face Emery, who had yet to move away from the front door, making sure I kept the gun lowered.
What was I supposed to say to her? What could I say to her? I didn’t want to regurgitate another lie no matter how easy that was to do, but I couldn’t explain the situation either. Had this been a mere few days ago, maybe I would’ve.
Emery was my best friend. Friendship was another version of a relationship. A commitment between two people.
While not romantic, it still required a certain
amount of effort to make it last. It also required honesty and trust. With each of us keeping secrets from the other, telling her anything wasn’t a viable option anymore. No matter what, though, I would do everything in my power to keep her safe from the chaos slowly devouring my life.
“I’m leaving town for a while.”
“Then I’m coming with you.”
I was shaking my head before she could finish that absurd sentence. “No. I’ll put you somewhere safe, but you’re--.”
“Didn’t you just hear me? I said I’m coming with you. You’ll keep me safe. Haven’t you been doing that for months now?”
I blinked in surprise. She responded with a spiteful smirk.
“I’m not so naïve that I don’t pay attention to what’s happened around me I know somethings been going on with you for a while now.”
I gnawed my lower lip, and crossed my arms—slowly, cognizant of the gun still within my grasp. She seemed pretty determined about this. Maybe I needed a more direct approach.
“After everything that just happened, don’t you think you’d be better off staying away from me?”
“Well, I don’t exactly know what just happened Nova. You won’t tell me.”
“Its better for you not to know.”
she crossed her arms, mimicking my posture. “Look, whatever the hell is going on, something tells me I’d be much better off sticking by your side. For your sake as well as mine.”
“What if I told you I can’t keep you safe? You were convinced I was going to shoot you five minutes ago.”
“All the more reason for me to come along.”
“That’s insane. You know that, right?”
She dropped her hands back down to her sides, offering up a casual shrug.
“If you want to leave before Rhett and his band of merry men show up here, you need to go pack our bags.”
“What makes you so sure he’s coming?”
She gave me a flat look as if to say, I know you’re not being serious? “Come on, Nova. It’s Rhett. I see the way he looks at you. Everyone does. I’m surprised he didn’t massacre Mickey for speaking to you the other night.”
Had I missed something? When he looked at me, he made me feel as if I were the only woman on the planet, sure. I thought that was a normal occurrence.
Rhett had the most intense gaze I’d ever had the pleasure of being the center of. How was I supposed to know it was reserved specifically for me?
Emery shook her head at me. “I can’t believe you never noticed. We can talk about that later. You need to go pack our things. Him coming here doesn’t seem like it would be good for anyone since you just tried to shoot him.”
I didn’t try, I purposely missed. “Em, I never said you were coming with me.”
“I’m going to go to work and get my credit card tips like I usually do, and then once I get back, we’ll find somewhere to go and recoup.” She continued as if I hadn’t spoken, nodding a few times, clearly agreeing with her own verdict. “Everything is gonna be fine.”
I wondered if that last part was to reassure me, or herself.
Had to be the latter.
She claimed not to be naïve, but that statement proved otherwise. Nothing was going to be ‘fine’. Not for me at least.
“Getting a quick shower,” she muttered, finally moving away from the front door.
I watched until she disappeared at the top of the steps. I was amazed I’d managed to hold a semblance of a conversation. My mind was still churning a mile a minute. Everything was getting more and more confusing, questions I never had before coming to light with no obvious answers.
Annika was hiding something that somehow let her have intimate details about my father and Rhett. Something Emery knew about too. Since neither of them felt compelled to tell me what the big secret was, I could only assume Nika had done her usual and slept with Rhett.
Ugh. A sleuth of disturbing images flooded my brain.
The two of them together, in that way, had a tightness taking hold of my chest. A voice in the back of my head was quick to deny it. Pointing out the obvious, that explanation didn’t fit with the facts. But I refused to entertain the alternative. Fucking. Refused. Or at least, I was going to do my very best to ignore the possibility of what may have been going down behind my back.
Closing my eyes, I counted to three to bring some clarity to my thought process.
Dealing with Rhett and Nika would have to wait. I needed to focus on getting my ass out of Legacy Falls.
Preferably alive.
I shoved the necklace into my back pocket and got to work.
I grabbed things at random, shoving them into the suitcase I’d purchased two years ago for an impromptu vacation. I knew it would come in handy one day.
The essentials were placed on top of my randomized bundle of clothes—toothpaste, deodorant, tampons. Whatever I forgot I could buy. My father had left me some unmarked cash in case of an emergency.
I’d say the murders of his business associates, and karma breathing down the back of my neck counted as one. I’d have to be cautious with what I spent and how, though.
There was no way I could start dipping into the money in the accounts he’d left to me. There were still things that had to be maintained amid this clusterfuck of a situation. The electric company wouldn’t care that life was trying to screw me up the ass, they just wanted their money.
I pulled open the top drawer of my nightstand just as the doorbell rang. Freezing for a second, I rose slowly to my feet. Two sharp knocks followed the chimes now echoing through the empty foyer.
I crept over to the upper window and peered out. A blue sedan sat in the driveway. I didn’t recognize it, and I couldn’t see whoever was at the door. Taking a step backward, I ran my fingers through my hair and headed for the hall, snagging the gun off my bed.
I wouldn’t use it unless necessary. I only had two bullets now that I’d wasted one on Rhett’s wall. Each one would have to count if things got bad. Halfway down the stairs, I was able to make out a man’s silhouette through the stained-glass window.
“Who is it?” I called.
“Legacy Realty.”
Why would they be at my house? Mr. Parker was dead. I paused on the last step.
“Who from Legacy Realty?”
“Names’ Gabe Parker,” the man responded with a hint of laughter.
Like the blue sedan, his name wasn’t familiar to me. The surname was, of course, but I’d never heard of any Gabe’s before. I could bet my left tit he’d just made that up.
“I have a file addressed to a Nova Morkav,” the man tacked on.
Okay, now he had my attention. With everything else that had happened I’d forgotten all about the file Mr. Parker had left for me. And that his daughter was missing. I hid the gun behind my back and edged towards the front door, making sure the top chain was latched before cracking it open.
“Hey, there.” A man who could have been a Ken doll come to life, leather skin and all, smiled through the slit at me. “This is for you.” He attempted to shove the manila envelope inside, but it wouldn’t fit.
“Why have I never seen you before?” I questioned, letting suspicion carry in my tone.
“I prefer the big city over a small town. I’m here to help take care of the funerals for my family. And to take Melody with me, when she’s found.”
He said that so matter-of-factly. “When she’s found.” Did he expect her to be alive? I for one was certain she was no longer amongst the living. From what I’d been able to find out thus far, her entire family had been slaughtered. The town was reeling, people were scared. Things like this just didn’t happen here.
No matter, I wanted that file. Needed that file. I couldn’t believe I’d forgotten about it. My father had left almost nothing to go on. I was desperate for any kind of lead. Letting a stranger into my home went against every rationale thought inside my brain.
I didn’t really have the time for this delay, but I needed to
know who he was as much as I needed the damn envelope.
“One second.” I shut the door and backtracked to the foyer’s closet. I stashed the gun inside, just behind the bloody shoes I’d meant to burn. There was nowhere to hide it on my person. Whether this man was another player in a never-ending game of charades, or an innocent party, me answering the door with a stolen handgun would raise all sorts of suspicions.
I returned to the door and pulled it open, cordially stepping to the side. “Would you like to come in?”
“Thank you.”
‘Gabe’ moved right on past me without a hint of hesitation. That was good. It meant he didn’t think of me as a threat. From my peripheral, I could see him taking in the front part of the house.
I took a determined breath, settling back into the role I played so well before I turned to face him, flashing a friendly smile. Whatever happened next would determine if he was friend or foe. I could pull off harmless damsel for a few minutes, long enough to get what I wanted.
“Would you like something to drink. Water? Lemonade?”
“Waters fine.”
“Kitchens right this way.” I gestured in its general direction, walking as quickly as I could while attempting not to look suspicious. I didn’t want this guy behind me a second longer than necessary.
The moment we entered the kitchen, I veered around the island to put space between us, keeping an eye on him in the reflection of my cabinets. I noticed his suit was slightly wrinkled, and the black wasn’t as vibrant as it would’ve been if it were new.
“You live here all alone?” he asked, sounding way too curious.
“Sometimes I have a roommate.” That was as honest of an answer as he was getting, and I only divulged that much in case he knew more than he was letting on.
“Boyfriend?”
I immediately thought of Rhett, a vivid memory of the two of us rushing to the forefront of my mind. We’d never put a label on what we had. It wasn’t necessary. I was undeniably his, and he was irrefutably mine. Less than twenty-four hours ago we’d been tangled together. The things he’d coerced me to say, what we did in his bed…
Sick Remedies (Pretty Lies, Ugly Truths Duet Book 2) Page 2