by Aja Cole
26
Nova
My parents have never liked staying in hotels.
I’m not surprised when we pull up at the mini McMansion. I knew my parents had a place in Atlanta, but I’ve never been here.
They bought it after we stopped speaking, and I only knew because it was right before Letty moved to be closer to her grandchildren in Colorado, so she mentioned it when we spoke.
Seeing it just reminds me that there’s something else funding their lifestyle, and now it’s spilled over to my life.
It’s tearing me apart inside every second that I don’t know where Asher is and what’s happening to him.
My parents are going to give up whatever the hell they have to to get him back. I won’t accept anything else.
I jump out of the car at the gate before it even stops, talking to Elias, who’s waiting at the closed wrought-iron.
“I would have expected you to be in there already.”
His face is filled with regret. “I wanted to talk to you first. I’m so—”
“Don’t,” I say quietly, shaking my head. “It was inevitable. They’re the real problem, and it ends today.” Stabbing the intercom button, I wait for someone to answer.
“Yes?” Accented, rough.
“Sasha,” I croak, and there’s a long silence.
“Zvyozdochka.” His voice is thick. “Is that you?”
“Yes, Sasha. And I need to speak to my parents. Right now.”
He doesn’t reply, but the gates start to swing open and I get back into the car, just wanting to get this over with.
When Hayes pulls up in the circular gravel driveway in front of the house, I rush to the front doors and they swing open.
Sasha’s large frame, clean-shaven head, and dark brown beard fill my vision and he opens his arms. I fly into them, even though I know that whatever’s going on, he’s known about it and has a large hand in it too. Hot tears clog my throat, but there’s no time for that.
He was always more present with me than my parents, and that still means something.
“I know about everything, Sasha.” I pull back, smoothing my hands down my pants and pulling myself together. I feel Elias and the guys step up at my back, and I feel a little stronger knowing they’re here for answers too. “Where are my parents?”
Instead of trying to deny it or put me off, he gives a deep sigh and inclines his head down the hallway. “Come. Follow me.”
I steel myself and follow, stepping in when he opens the double doors of the room and gestures me inside.
My mom is behind a desk, small glasses perched on her nose and paperwork in front of her. My dad is sitting on the couch, a book in hand.
This is their real dynamic. My mom is the power player, and there’s no denying it. Why she always pretended that she was just the little wife, I don’t know.
She looks up when we enter, sliding the glasses off her face and leaning on the wood. “Darling, I thought we were talking tomorrow?”
“We would be, if the love of my life wasn’t being fucked up right now because of your fucked up life.” Anger strangles my voice and I stalk to the desk, meeting my mom’s eyes and praying she realizes how serious this is. “Fix it, or you’re dead to me, and I mean that with every bone in my body.”
“Don’t talk to your mother that way.”
I swing to my father, incredulous. “Yeah, be the supporting cast that you are, Dad. I would talk to you, but we both know that you don’t have a say in any damn thing.” I turn to my mom again. “What did you steal? What are you involved in? And what the hell really happened to my sister?”
She raises her eyes behind me, I’m assuming to Elias and his guys.
“And who are these men?”
Elias steps forward, mockery in his eyes. “Agent Elias Carter, and these are my guys. Normally we’d meet when I arrest you, but this is an extenuating circumstance.”
“Arrest me?” She laughs with no humor. “What on earth for?”
“Play your innocent role with someone who believes you.” I slam my hand down on the desk, and she doesn’t flinch. Stone cold. “Right now, Asher is God knows where with someone who has it out for you, and if you don’t give them what they’re asking for.” My voice hitches, but I push on. “I know they’ll kill him. And I will never,” my lips tremble, “I will never forgive you if you let that happen just to cover your own ass.”
“Kota.” My father speaks, but I know that he always takes my mother’s position, so I’m not expecting anything from him. “Tell her.”
“James—”
“Kota!” His raised voice surprises me, and I swing my eyes to him. He’s standing, a firm look on his face. “It’s time. We can’t do this anymore, it’s gone on long enough.”
Pigs might as well be flying, because my mom comes from behind the desk and walks to my father, taking his hand.
“Okay,” she says softly. “Okay.”
She turns to me, swallowing. “Let’s go into the great room.” Her heels clack on the floor and we all leave the room, moving to the living room area. “Would anyone like any refreshments?”
“Answers. That’s what I want.” I’m hesitant because I’m thrown for a loop now. I don’t know what’s going to come out of their mouths.
But every second that passes is another that Asher isn’t safe, and I can’t bear that.
My mother and father sit down next to each other on the couch, and my mom motions us to take seats.
“There’s no sense standing, there’s a lot to say.”
“Give them the condensed version.” The husky voice doesn’t come from one of us, and in seconds, I hear guns click and safeties come off.
Everything in my body stills, because even though it’s been years, I recognize it.
I raise my eyes to the stairs, watching the woman with light caramel skin and long, dark hair walk lightly down the stairs in a dark leather jacket and skintight black jeans.
Is everyone else not aware that it’s hot as hell in Atlanta?
She makes it to the bottom of the stairs, amusement lighting her amber brown eyes. “Put your gun down, Elias, and call off your men.”
I look at Elias and his face is hard, but he doesn’t lower his weapon, and neither do his men. It doesn’t escape my notice that neither Sasha nor my parents seem as shocked as they should be, as expected.
“Naja Quentin.” Elias’ voice is accusatory. “You’ve been in my damned investigation.”
“Is that what you’re calling it, Agent?” Her tone is taunting, and his face looks even more forbidding. “Lower your weapons, or I’ll give you a reason to aim.”
My eyes fly to her and the look she’s giving him is one that’s unmistakable.
My sister is dangerous, now.
Elias hesitates for half a second, but holsters his gun.
Naja walks to me and I’m almost scared to touch her, in case she disappears. I know that’s stupid, but tonight doesn’t feel like a night where anything makes sense.
“Hey, lil’ sis,” she says softly, and my eyes prick. “Sorry I was gone so long, it was a wild party.”
I choke out a laugh and wrap my arms around her, and she embraces me, holding me tight against her.
“I can’t believe you left me,” I whisper, happy to see her, but still hurt and a lot confused.
She pulls back, holding my face in her hands, her eyes bright and remorseful.
“One day, I’ll try to make up for all the lost time. But not yet, there’s still stuff for me to do.” She glances at my parents, then back at me. “People counting on me.”
I don’t know what that means, but I trust her. Even after all this time, I still trust her deeply.
“Okay.” Even though it pains me to let her go, I do, stepping back. “Do what you need to, but you better come back to me.”
“I will.” She squeezes my hand, then lets go too, her face taking on a hard quality so quickly that it’s jarring. “But right now, we have to s
ave your man and they’re the only ones who can do it. I could do it my way, but I’m over my blood shed quota for the year.”
Well damn.
“Where are the drives?” She directs the question to my parents.
“Naja, we ca—”
“You can,” she snaps.
“It’s the only leverage we have.” My father’s voice is weary.
Leverage?
“Right now, it’s the only thing that can get Nova and Asher out of this. I can help you, but you have to trust me. They have to be free of this. It has nothing to do with them and everything to do with the choices you made.” Her voice is fierce.
That’s my big sister. Always my biggest advocate and my fiercest ally. It’s surreal seeing her here, and my happiness dulls the sharp edges of pain in my heart.
“What did you do, Naja?” My mom’s voice is as worried as I’ve ever heard it. “What deal did you make?”
Naja straightens, relaxed. “The one I needed to. Now, the drives. It’s the only option.”
It seems like everyone in the room is holding their breath waiting to see what my parents will decide, what they’ll do.
I almost collapse in relief when my mom stands and kneels to the large carpet. My dad and Sasha kneel beside her, and together they roll back the rug and pull up floorboards. Sasha removes a large safe and puts it on the desk, typing in a code.
“This is what you want.” He removes three portable hard drives. “It’s everything we’ve gathered over the years, that we’ve stolen.” He looks to me. “I am sorry about your boy. I remember him, he is a good man.”
“Thank you, Sasha.” I take the drives and give them to Naja.
“Now wait a minute, those need to be logged into official custody.” Elias steps forward, frustration on his face.
“Do they?” Naja raises a brow, eyeing him with a look I can’t decipher. “Well, I’ll be sure to write that down in my rule book that I follow so religiously.”
She comes to me, stroking my hair behind my ear. “I can’t wait to meet him officially, and he better treat you well.”
“Like a queen,” I promise, pressing a kiss to her cheek. “Please keep yourself safe. I don’t want to lose you for good. We have a lot to catch up on.”
“I will.” She takes a deep breath, moving away towards the door.
“Naja.” Elias’ voice holds a warning as he moves in front of her, and they exchange a long look, communicating without words. Cursing, he clenches his jaw and steps back from the door. “If there’s any blood shed, you’ll answer to me.”
“Yes, sir.” She tosses her hair behind her, and his face changes so fast that I almost miss it.
Holy shit, Elias wants my sister.
27
Nova
After Naja has left to do whatever it is that she does, and Elias and his men have left with my phone to trail her and make sure that the exchange goes smoothly—my parents sit me down, saying they want to tell me everything that’s been going on. Sasha is arranging for dinner.
I’m anxious to hear updates about Asher, but I’m trying to have faith that between Elias and Naja, they’ll bring him home to me.
For now, I want to understand why my parents have lied to me for so long and find out what else they’re hiding.
“Where do we even start?” For the first time, my mom seems more like a mom, and less like this polished automaton.
“Maybe start at the part where you decided to get involved in numerous criminal activities.”
My mom draws in a long breath and takes my dad’s hand again, putting her other on top of it. It’s weird, I’m not used to seeing them be affectionate.
“It’s not what you think. Before we had you girls, your father and I worked for a large shipping company.” Her eyes take on a faraway look. “That’s when we met. I don’t know if I ever told you that.”
“You didn’t talk a lot about that kind of thing.”
She smiles a little, nodding. “And for that, I’m sorry. By the time you were old enough for that kind of stuff, I was a little harder, a little bit more in survival mode.”
“What changed?”
“Your dad had just started working in accounting, and I was interning in trade and marketing. We met and we just clicked. He knew he wanted to start his own firm, and we would spend hours talking and planning over dinner. Talking about our dreams, wanting kids. We were inseparable.”
“I never got the impression that you liked Dad all that much, honestly. To me, it seems like he’s just around to be your yes man.”
“Wow, tell me how you really feel about me, Nova.” Instead of angry, my dad’s voice is amused. “Do you remember when you were about 15, I was in the hospital for a little bit?”
“Yeah, everyone told me that you just had pneumonia but you got better quickly.”
“Well, I had a heart attack. And I did get better quickly, but only because of medication, and I started changing my lifestyle a bit. That meant taking on a little less at the firm—”
“And delegating to Mom,” I finish, understanding dawning. “That’s why it was like you switched roles. You kind of did.”
“Your mom is a very talented woman, and I started teaching her everything I knew about accounting when we met. I wanted a partner, and she caught on quick even though she hadn’t gone to school for it.”
“You two keep too many damn secrets,” I scowl. It’s crazy that I didn’t know my own father could’ve died.
“We’re trying to get out of that habit now.” Mom takes over again. “So, the company. It is owned by the Delano family.”
“The family you tried to sell me into, I remember them.”
For the first time in discussing that, she looks chagrined.
“It was a desperate move, and Frances was and still is a good young man. He’s nothing like other members of his family, and I still believe he could’ve made you happy…” She hesitates. “And the bonus to your happiness would’ve been our debt being paid.”
“What debt?” I could still be angry about it, but it won’t do me any good now. This is the most I’ve talked to my parents since then, and even if I want to deny it, it feels good.
“Your father needed money to start his firm, and the Delanos said that he’d been an incredible asset to them and they’d love to support him.” She looks at my father. “We didn’t know at the time that it came with strings. We both left the company, but kept Delano on as a client. As your father got more established, the accounts got bigger. More diverse. They were different from the normal shipping accounts we usually dealt with.”
“Instead of just taking a surface look at things, doing the same thing I’d done at the company for years, I started digging deeper. What they didn’t know is that my mentor dabbled in forensic accounting. It didn’t take me long to realize that there was a lot more going on than just shipping goods.” I look at my dad with new eyes, sucked into the story they’re telling me. The real truth.
“By the time we started following the money trail, Naja was 10 and you were 5, turning 6 soon. We didn’t tell the Delanos that we knew anything, we didn’t want to muddy the waters just yet,” Mom explains. “Then your birthday came. Do you remember it?”
“Was that the year that I wanted you find real unicorns for us to ride?”
A fond smile spreads on her face. “It was.” Then her smile drops and her expression darkens. My mouth drops and my eyes widen at her next words. “And Mariam Delano brought Frances and her older son, Vince. She also brought a gun and held it pressed to my back while we sang happy birthday to you.”
“She promised me that if I loved you girls and didn’t want to attend your funerals, we would keep running numbers for them and we would keep our mouths shut.”
“Why did she still trust you? Why didn’t she find other accountants that were dirty and wouldn’t care?”
“Because fear for you two meant that we would be loyal and do what they wanted us to, even if it went aga
inst who we were, what we valued.”
I shake my head, standing and pacing. “I feel like I don’t know you at all. Why did Naja leave? She obviously wasn’t taken, she seems a little too familiar with all of this.”
“Naja ran away, or rather, she chose to distance herself. She overheard us meeting with Mariam, who proposed her marrying Vincent.”
“What the hell is up with marriage being the solution for these people? You were just going to marry one of us into a dangerous family?”
“It’s an unbreakable tie, on paper, at least. It means that we’d both have more to lose and we would be somewhat even, our families intertwined and unable to turn on each other. It was supposed to be a show of good faith. I didn’t know what else to do. We were desperate, and in hindsight, it would’ve been the worst thing we could’ve done for you girls.”
“That’s why you cut me off when I ran off with Asher, I messed things up.”
“We distanced ourselves because we knew the only option to get out from under them was to turn on them. With Naja gone, and you starting your own life away from us, we could breathe a little easier. If it looked like you hated us, which I’m sure you did, then your father and I only had to worry about ourselves.”
“You’ve been a bitch all this time for my protection?”
“Believe it or not Nova, I am so proud of you and the woman you are. But you needed to stay away from us for your own safety, and I did what I thought I needed to do to ensure that.”
“But you came to Atlanta. You’re here now.”
“Because we thought things were a little safer, now. Mariam Delano was the matriarch, the head of the serpent, and she died. Frances has been trying to take the family in a clean direction, and Vincent, while not completely happy about it, was on board. That’s why we were so surprised when you showed up here, because it was supposed to be ending. We’ve been giving up information for years, and anyone not complying with Frances’ edict to cut ties with the darker side of their dealings is being given up for everyone else’s immunity.”