Hard As Ice (Fortis Series 1)

by Raven Scott

  “It’s okay, don’t try to move,” instructed the female voice.

  “Lianne,” she croaked through a dry throat and cracked lips.

  “It’s me, I’m here. Don’t move, okay? I’m going to get the nurse.”

  Nia nodded, closing her eyes again. Why did everything take such an effort?

  “Hi, Ms. James, how are you feeling?” asked a nurse as she approached the bed. This time, Nia was able to see more clearly, getting used to the light.

  “Hmmm,” was all she could manage in response.

  “Have something to drink, Nia,” Lianne offered from the other side of the bed. She had a large cup of water in her hand, a bent straw sticking out of it. Nia sipped the cool liquid as instructed. It was heaven.

  “We’re happy to see you awake,” the nurse added as she looked at the various monitors and inspected the IV drip. “The doctor will be in shortly to have a look at you.”

  Nia turned to look at her friend when they were alone. Every move felt like it was through thick mud.

  “What happened?” she managed to ask.

  “You don’t remember anything?” Lianne questioned back.

  “Nigel. Shot me?”

  Nia’s eyes opened wide with realization.

  “Yes,” replied Lianne. “It was only a graze. But Evan took him down.”

  “Evan? How? I heard the gun go off . . .” Nia mumbled. Evan saved her? “Where is he?”

  “He went to take a shower, change his clothes. Those partners of his almost had to remove him by force,” Lianne explained. “How do you feel? You’ve been in and out for almost twenty-four hours. We were starting to get worried.”

  “What? What time is it?”

  “Almost four o’clock. It’s Wednesday.”

  Nia closed her eyes shocked that she’d lost a whole day of her life.

  “Are you in pain?” continued Lianne. “Does your head hurt?”

  Nia suddenly noticed the numb sensation at the side of her skull. She reached up slowly, feeling the thick bandage that seemed to wrap completely around her head.

  “They repaired the gash from the bullet in surgery,” added Lianne. “I was so worried about you, Nia! Why do you keep getting yourself in these messes?”

  It was meant to be a teasing comment, but Nia could now see the bruising under her friend’s red eyes. She had been crying.

  “I promise it won’t happen again,” Nia replied, doing her best to lighten the mood.

  “Good! Because, it’s just too much drama for me to handle.”

  Nia closed her eyes, just breathing, feeling her body, getting used to being alive and lucid.

  “Do you know what happened to Nigel?” she finally asked.

  “I heard that Evan shot him in the shoulder. He’ll live, apparently, but he’s in police custody. The official charge is armed robbery. It was all over the news.”

  “Oh, no! After everything we did to keep this quiet,” Nia moaned.

  “Well, it sounded like a good news story to me. The reporter said the robbery was foiled by you and the private security firm Worthington had hired in advance of the much anticipated auction in August.”

  “Really? Wow. That’s not so bad, I guess,” conceded Nia.

  “Not bad! It’s publicity gold. They even had a follow-up piece on the Crimson Amazon, showing pictures of Lady Di wearing it with Dodi before her death. If I didn’t know better, I would think you had planned the whole clever thing.”

  “Yeah, well, I’m not that good.”

  They smiled at each other.

  “Drink some more water,” Lianne instructed, and Nia obeyed.

  Evan returned less than an hour later, wearing fresh clothes and smelling like soap and aftershave. Nia drank in the sight of him, including the tired look in his eyes.

  He nodded at Lianne before looking down at Nia.

  “The doctor says you’re progressing well,” he stated in a deep voice, stiff and formal. “That’s good news.”

  Nia smiled tightly, confused by his aloofness. Disappointment gripped her stomach. Had she imagined his words? Was it only a dream? Wishful thinking while under drugs?

  “Yes,” she replied simply, tongue-tied for anything else to say.

  “Good. You gave us all a scare.”

  “That’s what I told her,” Lianne threw in as she collected her things. “I’ll leave you two alone. I’ll check in on you later this evening, Nia.”

  The slim blonde leaned over and gave Nia a kiss on the cheek.

  “Bye, Lianne.”

  Then she was alone with Evan.

  “How are Emma and the security guard, Stan, doing? Are they okay?” she asked first.

  “They’ll be fine. The doctors checked them out last night,” he told her.

  “Lianne told me what happened. That you saved me from Nigel.” Evan clenched his jaw but was otherwise stoic, his expression hard as ice. “How did you know? How did you get there so fast?”

  “We still had admin access to the security system. You triggered an alarm when you and Nigel were still in the warehouse after six o’clock without using an authorization code. And I was already on my way to the gallery. I knew you would never leave me waiting for you without calling, unless there was a problem.”

  Nia blinked. He knew her so well, and she would be dead now if he didn’t.

  “Thank you,” she said simply, sincerely.

  “You don’t have to thank me, Nia. You should never have been in that kind of danger,” he stated through tight lips.

  “Nigel is the broker that you’ve been looking for, isn’t he?” she finally asked. “He was Walsh.”

  “Looks that way. Raymond thinks he styled himself after a Boston mobster named Nigel Walsh back in the seventies.”

  Nia closed her eyes pretending to rest. She didn’t want to talk about Nigel. His betrayal was more than she could bear to think about.

  “You have a few people who want to say hello. Do you feel up to a little company?” Evan asked after a few moments.

  She looked at him with surprise.

  “Who?”

  “Looks like your whole office, really. And my team. Lucas and Sam,” he stated.

  “Your friends? They’re here?”

  “They came in last night.”

  Nia bit the side of her cheek, shocked and a little overwhelmed.

  “Sure, I guess,” she finally conceded.

  “Don’t worry, they all won’t stay for long. I’ll make sure they don’t overtax you.”

  He turned and walked out, only to be replaced by a steady stream of her work colleagues. Adam stayed the longest, telling her about all the news coverage of the attempted robbery and his ideas about how to market the auction even more. Later, Tony, Michael, and Raymond stayed for a short while, telling her a few more things about the case. In order to avoid being charged with murder, one of the robbers had flipped on the others about the murders of Flannigan and Morton, and the attempted hit and run. He also confirmed that Morton had nothing to do with the robbery. They knew he had been friends with Flannigan, so they killed him to take the heat off themselves.

  Lucas and Sam also visited for a little while, politely asking a few supportive questions, then sitting quietly while she fell asleep. When Nia woke again, several hours later, there was only Evan standing by the bed, looking out the window. He turned, hearing her movement.

  “Hey. Did you have a good rest?” he asked with a soft smile.

  “I think so,” Nia replied with a shy smile of her own. “What are you still doing here? It must be late.”

  “I wanted to talk to you.”

  Evan sat on the edge of the mattress, close enough to touch, but still separate. He handed her some water and she willingly sipped it.

  “How are you feeling? Are you hungry? Tony said you hardly ate any of your dinner. We can bring something in for you if you’d prefer.”

  “No, I’m fine, Evan,” she declared.

  “No pain?”

&nb
sp; She couldn’t lie.

  “A little, but I don’t want any more morphine. It makes me groggy.”

  “Maybe they can give you something milder,” he suggested, about to stand up.

  “No.” She stopped him with a hand on his arm. “I’m fine. I’ll take something later, if I need to sleep. Now, what did you want to talk to me about?”

  “I know you must still be in shock about Nigel,” he said carefully. “But there’s more that you need to know.”

  Nia swallowed, wondering how much worse this whole thing could get.

  “We’ve confirmed that Sean Holstein wasn’t the actual buyer of the diamonds.”

  “What do you mean? I thought you guys recovered them from him.”

  Evan nodded, obviously hesitant to tell her what he needed to.

  “We did. But the money used to pay for the job wasn’t his. He was just representing the buyer.”

  “Okay. So do we know who that is?”

  Evan brushed the back of his hand along the line of her cheek.

  “It was Strom. Colby Strom.”

  It took her a full minute to understand what he was saying. And then everything crashed around her. Nia shook her head back and forth repeatedly before being able to articulate words.

  “No,” she whispered. “No!”

  “I’m afraid so, Nia. It looks like Strom went after the Crimson Amazon because he knew it was your deal.”

  “Oh my god!” she gasped, her mind slowing coming to grasp with what exactly that meant.

  “Nigel,” she whispered finally, her eyes wide but unseeing. “Was Nigel working with him?”

  “No,” Evan told her quickly. “No, there is no proof St. Clair knew who the real buyer was. He was just after the money.”

  After a deep, low sob, she covered her mouth. Her eyes burned with tears of anger and frustration. Evan took her hand but she shook it away.

  “Nia, please. It’s okay. We got him,” he explained. “The FBI arrested Strom yesterday. We got them both.”

  “No, no,” she cried. After all the pain and humiliation she had fought so hard to overcome, he was violating her all over again. He was invading her life, taking what he wanted and leaving her broken in the aftermath. It was too much for her to bear. And Nigel!

  “Nia, sweetheart,” Evan repeated, but she couldn’t look at him.

  “Leave me alone,” she croaked.

  “No, Nia. It’s okay. Just let me—”

  “Leave me alone. Please!” she pleaded, her eyes clenched tight as hot tears seeped through and ran down her face and despair took over. She didn’t even know when he had left.

  Chapter 29

  Nia did well in the hospital over the next day and a half, with no signs of injury beyond the deep gash in her skull. She was released on Friday morning and Evan drove her back to her apartment.

  While she seemed to be healing well physically, he was very worried about her emotional state. The news of Colby Strom’s role in the robbery on the heels of Nigel’s attack was more than anyone should be expected to handle. Even a woman as strong as Nia.

  He watched her move around her apartment, getting settled into a comfortable spot on the couch with a blanket and the television remote. On the surface, she seemed fine, but there was a dimness to her eyes that pulled at him. Evan wished more than anything that he didn’t have to tell her about Strom, not so soon. But the news of his arrest was already circulating in the media, and Evan knew he had to be the one to tell her. It was a moment that would haunt him for a long time.

  Now, two days later, there were a few other things that had to be addressed, and he couldn’t put them off any longer. He joined her on the sofa, careful not to disturb her position.

  “Nia, we need to discuss things now that you’re out of the hospital,” he started.

  She looked back at him with a steadfast gaze.

  “Like what?”

  “You’ll be off work for about four weeks, so you’re going to need some help until you’re better. Someone to make sure you don’t experience any serious side effects from the gunshot wound.”

  “I’ll be fine, Evan,” she said simply, turning back to the television.

  “Nia, I’m staying,” he said simply.

  She looked back at him with a puzzled look on her face.

  “I’ve already worked it out with Luc and Sam. I can work from Boston for as long as needed, though I may have to go back to Alexandria for the day, on occasion. But I’ll keep the chopper ready, just in case.”

  “Chopper? Helicopter?” Nia asked, blinking. “You have a helicopter?”

  “Yeah, I flew it here on Tuesday. Fortis has two.”

  She just continued to stare at him.

  “You were serious about flying helicopters,” she repeated, remembering their conversation at his apartment in Virginia. It seemed so long ago. “You fly planes, too, don’t you?”

  “Small ones,” he replied with a shrug and a slightly cocky grin. “I told you I had my pilot’s license. But you’re getting sidetracked, Nia.”

  “Sorry, go on.”

  “I’ll stay for as long as you need me to,” he finished.

  There was a heavy silence as she looked down at her hand.

  “Evan, this isn’t going to work. We’re not going to work.” His heart stopped. “I . . . I just can’t do this.”

  She closed her eyes and lay her head back on the sofa cushion.

  Evan clenched his jaw and did what he knew he had to.

  “Nia, there’s nothing for you to do. I’m not talking about us, or our relationship. I’m just talking about you getting better. I’ll only be here to help you recuperate. Okay? Will you let me do that?”

  When she finally looked back at him, her eyes were so sad that Evan could barely look at them.

  “You’re right, Evan. I need to get better. I need to come to terms with everything that’s happened and move on,” she said softly. “I know I can do that. I will. But I can’t do it with you here. It hurts too much.”

  Evan blinked at her words, and at the painful honesty behind them. He, St. Clair, and Strom had all hurt her in different but unforgivable ways. And the only way for her to heal was to move on from them all, including him.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered.

  He shook his head, unable to respond. Evan wanted to say that he was the one who was sorry, for everything she had been through and his contribution to her pain. But no words could really express how he felt about losing the opportunity to have her in his life.

  They sat silently beside each other until Nia finally fell asleep. Evan took a few more minutes to indulge the simple pleasure of watching her sleep, trying to come to grips with losing the privilege. Then, when he couldn’t put it off any longer, he took action. By that evening, he had arranged for his mother’s housekeeper, Agnes, to fly to Boston and spend the next few weeks with Nia. He stayed in Boston for another couple of days, sleeping on the couch only long enough to ensure the two women had everything they needed. Then he flew back to Virginia to try to move on.

  At first, Nia was so relieved to have Evan gone. Looking at him hurt, like a physical wound that would never heal as long as he was there. Every day after he left, she woke up feeling stronger and stronger, and a little bit more like herself. At first, she had been a little annoyed with Evan for taking control of her life by sending Agnes to stay with her, but Nia quickly came to appreciate the gesture. The older woman was a godsend; easy company, and exactly what Nia needed during her recovery.

  Every day she also spent time thinking about what had happened with Evan, Nigel, and Colby. What they had done to her, and why. How she could learn from the experience and never be in the same situation again. Every day, the pain in her chest lessened until she felt ready to talk. On Friday afternoon, three weeks after being released from the hospital, she called Lianne at her office.

  “Hey, Nia, how are you feeling?” her friend answered.

  “I was wondering if I coul
d see you,” asked Nia. “Today, at your office. I need to talk.”

  “Okay, sure. But why don’t I come see you?” suggested Lianne. “I was planning to stop by for a visit tomorrow anyway.”

  “No, that’s okay. I need to get some fresh air anyway. I’ll bring Agnes with me.”

  “All right, if you’re sure. My last appointment is at four-thirty. How about five-thirty?”

  “That’s good. Thanks, Lee.”

  “Is everything okay? Is it about the robbery?”

  “No, not really. But I’ll tell you more, later.”

  Lianne ran her counseling practice out of a medical center on the other side of downtown Boston. Nia had been several times over the years they had been friends but it felt odd to do so now. She pushed open the door, labeled with a bronze plaque engraved with the title DR. L. BLOOM, PH.D.

  A few minutes early, Agnes took a seat while Nia walked around the waiting room. Lianne opened the office door about five minutes later, looking professional in a white silk blouse over black slacks and black kitten-heeled pumps. Her friend smiled easily, waving her into the private space, and Nia let out a deep breath. It was going to be fine.

  “So, what’s going on,” started Lianne once they were seated on the couch in her office.

  “I needed to talk, about . . . stuff,” Nia explained.

  “Okay. But we can talk anytime, Nia. Why here?”

  “I know. I guess I wanted your opinion as a professional, not a friend.”

  “It would probably be the same,” her friend replied with a teasing smile.

  “Maybe. I think I just need to hear it that way. You know what happened when I was fifteen. So, I spent a lot of time in therapy when I was younger. I thought I knew all the answers, about what happened. Now after Nigel and . . . everything, I feel stuck, like there’s more I need to figure out.”

  Lianne sat back.

  “What do you think has happened to make you feel stuck?”

  Nia sat back also.

  “Evan,” she answered simply.

  “What exactly?”

  “In the hospital, when he told me about Colby funding the robbery, I think I just shut down. Suddenly, they all got confused in my head. Kyle, Colby, Nigel, and then Evan. They all became one big . . . nightmare . . . form,” she tried to explain. “They were inseparable, combined as one large threat. And the only way to protect myself was to run.”