Disorderly

by Grace, Hazel

  “Isla was drowned.”

  My breath stutters in my chest. “I…I didn’t know.”

  “It’s been hard on the both of them. Isla was everything to them, especially to Wyatt when he got out of prison.”

  “When he did what?”

  It’s official.

  I can’t trust anyone ever again.

  I’ve been sleeping with a fucking convict?

  Noah glances at me. “Shit.”

  “For what?”

  “I can’t."”

  “Noah.”

  He bows his head and exhales. “I have to protect them too. All fingers point at you.”

  “I…this can’t be happening right now. I need to wake up from this nightmare.”

  Noah brings the water bottle back to my lips. “Why don’t you have any records? Nova Parker doesn’t exist.”

  “It’s on my license.”

  “Nova is your birth name?”

  I roll my eyes. “I’ve never been called anything else.”

  “Never Victoria?”

  I start to stand from my chair but plop back down from lack of use in my legs. “I’m not Victoria, for the thousandth fucking time.”

  “Calm down,” he urges. “What’s the password to your phone?”

  “7723”

  “Am I going to find anything on this?”

  “Not that I put there, but it seems like my life has been tampered with.”

  “Apparently. I’ll be back.” He surprises me by kissing me forehead and makes his way back to the stairs.

  “Noah,” I blurt, making him turn around. “If something happens to me, will you make sure I’m buried somewhere?” I choke on a sob, picturing myself in an unmarked grave. “Somewhere nice…please.”

  Noah’s face falls into a frown. “I won’t let anything happen to you like that.”

  I close my eyes, shaking my head and knowing he has no control of anything. Wyatt and his brother are running the show. Seeking revenge for their sister’s death, and I’m the prime suspect in it all. And if Jerry is behind all this, I’m as good as dead. He leaves no stone unturned and nothing to chance.

  “Nova,” Noah whispers, standing in front of me again. He goes down on his hunches, placing a hand on my knee. “If I help you, will you promise to do exactly as I say?” Noah looks down, torn, I can see it in his sagging shoulders.

  “Don’t do anything that is going to jeopardize your life,” I voice. “Please. I don’t want you drawn into this.”

  “I already am,” Noah advises. “I was the day Wyatt and Lev had me start this shit. I’m not perfect, Nov. I’m not the man you met on Tinder. I’m not a businessman, but the one who’ll hack into someone’s records just to get what I need. I can hack into someone’s bank account and transfer funds to an offshore account, drudge into public records, and revise how things look. I’m not an honest citizen, but I do it for the right reasons. Think you can live with that?”

  “I’ve dealt with worse.”

  “I’m going to get you out of here. But not tonight. Just trust me, okay?”

  Trust.

  The word laughs at me. So, all I do is nod. Noah seems content with it and brushes my chin with his fingers before he leaving me alone again.

  I feel great, thanks to the bottle of tequila at my side. Beast tried to send me off to bed like a child, several times, so I left the house and climbed the roof. His pestering is fucking obnoxious, and the fact that he is even trying to talk to me is dangerous on his part. Thoughts of them together emits off jealousy, pure and raw. Rora tells me they were nothing but friends, but I don’t know what words are true and what are bullshit anymore.

  I took her cell phone from Beast, demanding he give me the passcode so I could sift through it. What’s fucked up is the first thing I want to see are their text messages back and forth. Rora has taken every rational fiber of my being and burned it, consuming me within the ashes of the flames. And I’ve been looking at her like she is the one who is going to bring me back to life. Like the fucking Phoenix on my forearm.

  Unlocking the phone, I go straight to her texts. Seeing a girl named Meghan, Paige, then Noah. I immediately click on it, skimming through to find any sort of key word that is going to unlock a lie. And sure shit, it doesn’t take me long to find it.

  Dirty text messages, ones that turn my stomach and have me gasping for air. My heart rapidly trying to beat normally, but it’s off. So off, that I feel like I’m about to have a damn heart attack.

  She fucking lied.

  And God knows, how many more lie beneath the surface.

  I’m an idiot, silently seeking something I never knew I was looking for, and I found it in all the wrong places. Located it within the wrong person, one whom all fingers pointed at for setting her sights on me for her plan.

  Lev's truck appears down Flynn’s driveway, and the closer he gets, I see that he isn’t alone. Climbing down the roof, I watch him park the car and, when he rounds the truck, he pulls out the person in the passenger seat. The woman hits the rumble on her knees, dark long hair cascading around her face.

  “Lev, what are you doing?” I proclaim, jogging over to him. My brother yanks the female up by her arm, and she cusses at him in response.

  “Found the friend,” my brother responds, pulling her with him into the house. She’s tall, lanky, and pissed as she tugs to free her arms.

  “You’re fucking nuts,” she spats and glances at me. “Did you take Nova?” The word ‘yes’ is there, but it won’t escape my mouth. It means that in reality through my drunken state, that I kidnapped the woman I’m in love with and she resides in the basement of a fucking abandoned house.

  Lev doesn’t stop but leads the woman right to the basement. She trips a few times from his hastened pace and grabs the door frame to keep from going down the stairs.

  “I’m not going down there,” she yells, clenching the frame with one hand. Lev only responds by tearing her away and down the stairs.

  “Paige?” I can hear the hope in Rora’s voice from the top of the stairs, and it tears at me. Paige halts in the middle of the stairs until she sees Rora and runs in front of Lev down them.

  “Oh my God, you’re okay,” Paige cries. When Lev and I reach the clearing, Paige is hugging Rora, cupping her face and examining her. Then her head whips in my direction. “You hit her?”

  I shake my head while Lev responds, “Yes.” My head whips to him, standing next to me, and I clutch his T-shirt, jerking him to me.

  “You fucking hit her?!”

  Lev looks at my coolly. “You weren’t going to get any fucking information from her with how pussy whipped you are.” He shrugs me off, and I let him go. He’s right, I’m pretty much fucking worthless at this point, but I can’t completely condemn her, and I can’t trust her either.

  “You sit,” Lev snaps at Paige, pointing at the empty chair across from Rora.

  “Fuck you,” she snaps. “What the fuck are you two doing? Why is she here?”

  “That’s what you’re here for,” Lev responds. “Who is Victoria Yunis?” Paige stares at him, her skin paling under the fluorescent bulbs of the basement.

  “You sound like a damn broken record,” Rora utters, her head bowing into her chest. Her chestnut hair descents around her neck, leaving her creamy skin exposed.

  Footsteps sound behind us, exposing Colt and Flynn. Apparently, I’m way the fuck out of the loop and Lev is calling the show right now. This is going to get bad, I can feel it in my bones.

  Lev nods toward Paige, where Colt and Flynn walk toward her. After minutes of Rora yelling, Paige cussing, and a splitting headache from me, the girls are bound next to each other, and I’m sick to my stomach.

  “You better have a good plan, Lev,” I growl next to him with my arms crossed.

  He slaps my back. “I got this brother.” I’m about to lay into him, but Lev walks deeper in the basement toward Paige.

  “Now that we’re cozy, are you Victoria Yunis?”
<
br />   Paige glowers at him. “Why are you looking for her?”

  “Don’t answer my question with a question or you’re going to regret it.”

  “Just tell him,” Rora mutters.

  Paige glances at her quickly before squaring her shoulders. “Never heard of her.”

  “Then why is your girlfriend’s apartment in her name?” Colt asks behind her.

  “The leasing office possibly fucked up,” Paige suggests.

  Lev shoves his hands into his pants’ pocket. “Nah. Confirmed it was right.” He leans forward to meet Paige’s eyes. “Try again.”

  “You got me,” Paige replies. “How?” Colt grasps Paige’s hair, yanking hard until her chin is in the air and she howls in pain. Flynn stands behind Rora, and I lock eyes with him, if he fucking touches her, I’ll kill him right now. He shakes his head subtly, and I relax a little. Lev glares at me from over his shoulder, and I scowl right back, testing him to try me.

  Thankfully, my little shit of a brother continues his interrogation. “Again, for the last fucking time, or I will be beating the shit out of your friend here for information, who’s Victoria?”

  Paige sits silent until a blade appears at her neck. She fidgets in her seat, and Rora’s eyes meet mine for the first time since I’ve been in here. She looks tired, her eyes puffy and hair tattered. There is a dark mark on her cheek that definitely wasn’t there before. My hands turn into fists, blaming my brother, and soon he’ll have a matching one when we leave this basement.

  “I already told you what I know,” Paige decrees, trying to inch away from the blade. My focus can’t break from Rora’s, she is so beautiful and defiant sitting there tied up and at our mercy that I condemn her bravery. Especially since her and I have unfinished business with her little sex texts with Noah.

  “I don’t like your answer,” Lev quips. “Because one of you knows her and is lying about it.”

  “Listen, we moved here from Cali to get away from her mom’s psycho assistant. We’re not here to hurt anyone.”

  “They think we are,” Rora advises her, haunting me with her eyes.

  “To do what?” Paige rasps.

  “They think we killed their fucking sister.”

  Paige gasps. “Oh geezus fuck, we watch The Blacklist, we’re not involved in any shady ass—”

  “Shut up,” Lev demands.

  “If you think that we—” Lev steps closer to Paige.

  “I do think you had something to do with it. My brother here is too dick deep into your friend to comprehend reality, but I’m not. I’m here to fuck up everyone involved. So again…” Colt digs the knife deeper into Paige’s throat. “Who is Victoria Yunis?”

  “Hey, what is going on?” Beast sounds, coming down the stairs. My gaze doesn’t fall off Rora, who looks relieved that he is now down here. It fucking ticks at my nerves.

  “Welcome,” Lev greets, gesturing to Paige. “You two know each other.”

  Beast steps deeper into the basement. “Yeah.”

  “Noah? What are you doing with these fuckin’—” Colt pulls the knife up to Paige’s skin, breaching blood.

  “Stop it!” Rora screams, pulling at her ties.

  “Just answer the questions,” Beast tells her calmly.

  Paige shakes her head. “I can’t.”

  “You have to, or you’re going to die down here.”

  Paige’s face screws up in fear, and she bows her head. “You don’t know what you’re telling me to do.”

  Lev claps his hands together. “Wonderful. I’m waiting.” Paige brings her head up, tears streaming down her face.

  “I can’t tell you who she is.” Lev backhands Rora in the face, and I’m already moving to murder my brother. Flynn rounds her chair and stops me, pushing me back and away from Lev, but I’m bigger than him and pissed.

  “Stop. Stop.” Flynn tells me. “Lev needs this. He needs to know who killed Isla. Your sister. We’re close.”

  I shove him back, but he doesn’t go far. “Get the fuck away from me, Flynn.”

  “Wy,” Flynn presses. “She doesn’t have a knife up to her neck.”

  I glare at him. “I don’t give a—”

  “Wyatt,” Beast chides next to me.

  “Get the fuck away from me,” I snap. “You’re next on my list, motherfucker.” Noah furrows his brows at me, but I step forward, closer to Lev to keep him from touching her again. Because this time, Flynn is going to get hit if he tries to stop me again.

  “Time’s ticking, Paige,” Lev taunts. “And I got two men on my brother now, so hitting your friend again is going to be no problem."

  I shove at Flynn, I’ve had enough. He's going too far, and I can’t handle it. Anymore marks on Nova and I'm going to tie his ass to my truck and drag him along the countryside.

  “Victoria Yunis is Nova,” Paige proclaims through my thoughts of killing Levin.

  I repeat her words in my head.

  No. That’s not what she said.

  “What?! Paige!”

  Paige clenches her eyes closed and bows her head. “I’m sorry, Nov.”

  “Take it back!” I snap, but she doesn’t respond, so I kick her chair. “Paige!”

  Lev hovers over me, his eyes filled with satisfaction. “Thank you.”

  “What did you do, pay her to say that?” I growl.

  Levin leans down to meet my face. “Didn’t need to. Just needed a knife.”

  I tug at my zip ties, furious, livid, and hostile. “That’s not my name.”

  “Apparently it is.”

  “It’s your name,” Paige sounds. “You just don’t remember it.”

  “My fucking name is Nova Aurora Parker.”

  “No, it’s Victoria Aurora Yunis.”

  “Why the fuck are you lying right now?” I roar. “This isn’t a fucking game.” My heart is thrashing in my chest, and I can’t even bring myself to look at Wyatt. She confirmed their fears, their convictions, and I’m currently on the chopping block about to face the jury. One not picked for me or appointed and that was going to stone me alive for the death of their sister.

  “Your dad called you Nova, after his first car. His last name was Parker. You wouldn’t go by anything else, you were a child, you followed that man everywhere,” Paige spoke, averting her gaze from her friend.

  “I’d remember that,” I retorted.

  “You were four,” Paige countered.

  “How the fuck would you know?”

  “Because I was there.” I gawked at her like she has lost her damn mind. Maybe it’s the fear, but Paige was a hard bitch. “You don’t remember me. Your mom didn’t want me close to you. I’ve had to pretend for years that we met in high school. But I’ve known you for so much longer than that.”

  My scrutiny went to Levin. “How many times did you hit her?”

  “Nova,” Paige asserts. “Listen to me. Let me explain everything.”

  “You don’t know shit,” I unleash. “You just accused me of killing their sister! One I’ve never met or seen before in my damn life.”

  “I didn’t say that. But that is your name.”

  I pull at my restraints. “Get her away from me. She’s obviously on something.” I clench my teeth together to keep my sobs contained. My best friend, the only person that has ever had my back, just threw me to the wolves. And I can’t wrap my head fully around it. This has to be a nightmare, the longest one in history, but I can’t wake up no matter how many times I shut my eyes.

  “When your dad died, your mom let you keep calling yourself Nova. She made it clear to the schools that it was your name that you preferred to go by.”

  “And why do you know all this?”

  “Because she told me.”

  “Awesome, so you’re a know all and, obviously, a tell all.”

  “Stop,” Paige blabs.

  “No, you stop. So now are you going to explain how I allegedly killed someone.”

  Paige expression dulls. “Let me get this out.”
>
  “I seriously don’t want to hear another thing out of your lying mouth.”

  “Continue,” Levin demands. I can feel Wyatt’s heavy gaze on me, and I’m so scared to look. I’ve seen enough, for the time I’ve been here, that all his fears are coming to light. Fears that I never committed but am being faulted for. Paige just turned on me, so fast, that my brain is spinning out of control.

  “Lydia never changed Nova’s name legally because she was baptized with her mother’s name, Victoria. It was to honor her, but she let Nova play along with her father’s new name. Her license does say Nova, Lydia pulled some strings, I don’t know how, but she did. Lydia didn’t want to—”

  “I don’t give a fuck why the bitch didn’t change her name. Why did she kill my sister?”

  Paige turns her face away. “Because your brother killed Lydia’s lover.”

  Everything stopped. Time, space, my heart, my breathing—everything. My eyes fly right to Wyatt, who’s shoulders sag and his face pales. We look at each other, in this moment, and I know that I am never getting out of this basement free.

  “Who was her lover?” Levin pressed, unfolding his folded arms.

  Paige straightened. “Andrew Lanson.”

  My head snaps back to her. “My mother is a fashion designer not a hitman.”

  “That’s a front, Nova. Why do you think you were surrounded by so many beautiful women as a child? Ones that just popped out of nowhere. She runs an escort service and a damn prostitution ring.” My stomach turns into knots, and I lean over my knees because I’m going to get sick.

  “So, you’re telling me,” Levin contends. “That Victoria and her mother killed our sister because Wyatt killed her lover, our father?” Paige nods, and Levin turns his attention to me.

  “That’s what I’ve been told.”

  The light from the room dims in and out while the room starts to spin and tilt. I focus on Levin’s shoes to stay grounded, but it’s not working. My mother, a killer? This was beyond fucking ridiculous.

  “That brunette that we saw with Lydia, outside my sister’s apartment,” Levin continues. “Who was that?”

  I bring my regard back to my ex best friend, who stares me dead in the eye. “It was Nova. She conned Isla to open the door so they could get in.”