by Addison Fox
He’d been a freshman in high school when Marlowe was a senior and he’d known her to say hi at school. After college they’d ended up with some friends in common and he’d see her from time to time at various parties.
As for Ainsley, their relationship had been all business. Her position as one of Arizona’s top attorneys and lead counsel for Colton Oil had come with her own sizable work ethic, and there had been any number of cases that he’d helped her on. A surprising number of people looked to a large entity like Colton Oil as a prime fraud target and he’d done work on everything from finding deadbeat dads to helping uncover a well-hidden money launderer working double duty out of one of Colton Oil’s refineries.
They had a good working relationship and he trusted that, just like Marlowe, she’d give Nova a shot to tell her story.
If he had to guess, both would also quickly welcome their unknown niece into the fold.
With both numbers handy, he opted to call Marlowe first. Their vague personal connection, as well as the fact that Marlowe had recently had a baby of her own, just felt like the right place to start.
What he was amazed to see was how Nova seemed to calm now that she’d made her decision.
Although he’d feigned busyness, he’d watched her as she paced his office, one side to the other. Every so often she’d rub her baby bump, whether in reassurance or protection, he hadn’t quite figured out.
Maybe both.
But he’d observed it all as she’d mentally gone over the ins and outs of her decision.
He hadn’t been putting her on before, either. For all his usual reticence to get involved in his clients’ personal lives, there was something about her that made him want to help her out. Assuming her story was true—and based on her resemblance to Ace Colton, Nikolas couldn’t see how it wasn’t—Marlowe, Ainsley and the rest of the Colton siblings were going to want to know her.
To know the truth of what had come of Ace’s failed relationship so many years ago.
Nikolas pointed to the image still looking out from his computer screen. “Marlowe just had a baby. She’s still on maternity leave from Colton Oil, which means she’ll likely be easier to reach.”
“She had a baby?”
“Yep. A little boy named Reed.”
“Oh.” Nova’s puzzlement shifted quickly, her pretty eyes brightening. “My father was young when he met my mother. I guess it does make sense his family is having babies at the same time I am.”
“Marlowe’s his half sister and she’s also about eight years younger.”
“Which means she’s just starting her family, too.” Nova stared down at her stomach. “Her son will be a bit older than my child. Maybe they can grow up together.”
Nikolas knew his adult extracurricular relationships had been just that. Fully adult with little beyond the extra. But something about sitting there with Nova, watching the sheer awe at what was happening to her, got to him in a place he’d believed long buried.
“The Coltons protect their family.”
“Assuming Marlowe and Ainsley and the rest of the Coltons are willing to welcome me. Based on the gossip about Ace, he’s not a Colton. Which means I’m not, either.”
“Let’s take it step-by-step first.”
Nikolas dialed Marlowe’s number, the call going to voice mail after four rings. He left a quick message and considered if he should reach out to Ainsley next when a text came winging back from her younger sister.
Sorry I didn’t pick up. Colicky baby and sleepless mama. Talk tomorrow?
Nikolas shot back a quick note of agreement. While he was hesitant to show up at a new mother’s front door with the emotional news of Nova’s paternity, he was even less willing to drop any whispers of family drama via text message.
Hope the little guy’s doing okay. Tomorrow works. I’ll call in the morning to confirm a time.
“The baby’s a little out of sorts,” he said after he hit Send on the message.
Nova sat forward, her attention on the phone Nikolas had already laid back on top of his desk. “Is he okay?”
“Colic sounds like it’s having its way with little Reed.”
“Poor baby.” Nova stood to pace once more. “Maybe we shouldn’t bother her with this now.”
“I think it’ll be fine.”
“Yeah, but she’s obviously occupied. And the baby needs to get better. I can get settled in and we can try this again in a few weeks.”
Nikolas stood and crossed the room, intercepting her on her next path back across the carpet. Settling his hands on her shoulders, he stared directly into her eyes, keeping his voice calm and even. “Nova. It’s fine. She and the baby are having a day. She already said we’d talk tomorrow and she’ll probably be calling first thing tomorrow before I even have a chance to.”
“Okay. I know I’m being flighty about this. I just didn’t realize until now how badly I wanted it all to work out.” Her voice quieted. “Because the reality of it is suddenly so close and within reach.”
Nikolas knew much of his success as a private investigator came from his ability to get people to talk to him. It was a gift he’d had since he was a small child but it wasn’t something he’d really given much thought to. Beyond recognizing that he used the skill to garner a nice paycheck, he’d never considered it as a way to get others to open up.
But now, looking at Nova, he wanted to comfort her.
To say the things that would put her at ease.
“Marlowe and Ainsley have had their challenges too, you know.”
“How is that possible? They come from such a prominent family. They know they’re Coltons.”
“That knowledge doesn’t always bring security or well-being, nor does it guarantee a smooth life. Things have turned out well for Marlowe now, especially with the baby’s arrival, but she went through a very difficult time earlier this year.”
“What happened to her?”
Just as she had at the news baby Reed was having a tough day, compassion threaded through Nova’s tone and sparked even more deeply within her green gaze.
“In addition to watching her father languish in the hospital in and out of a coma, with no understanding of who shot him, she also went through some personal trauma back in January.”
“That’s horrible.”
Again, Nikolas didn’t miss Nova’s sincere concern, but he did question what other secrets she carried.
Just like how she hadn’t once mentioned a boyfriend or a husband all day. No reference at all to who her baby’s father might be. It was a mystery, for sure, and one Nikolas wanted to get to the bottom of.
Setting it aside, in spite of the clanging undercurrents that kept telling him she was facing some sort of personal danger, Nikolas pressed on with the details about Marlowe’s close encounter with danger at the start of the year. “It was. She found out she was pregnant, and then suddenly had to deal with a stalker. I haven’t talked to her about it directly, but it was common news around town, and Ainsley did share a few things with me. It was a really terrible time for her and her fiancé, Bowie.”
“I’m so glad she and the baby are okay.”
“We all are.” Nikolas waited a moment before pressing on. “The Coltons aren’t immune to challenges, Nova. I hope you understand that. I believe they will accept you. Truly, I believe that. Several of them have privately vowed that the gossip about him and the news he’s not a Colton by birth hasn’t changed how they feel about him. But you need to understand that being part of their world can come with some unexpected attention.”
“I guess I do understand that.” She glanced down toward the ground before her gaze came back up to land on him. “I am ready for it. I realize prominent families receive more than their fair share of attention. What I don’t want is for them to think that their social status is why I’ve come to find them.”
“If you’re handling a separate case about Ace Colton, you probably shouldn’t be helping me at all.”
“Don’t worry about that. I can handle myself. And I’d rather be the one taking care of an investigation, because I know I’ll do it the right way. I’m not on some witch hunt to find some cheap shot of evidence that could get Ace Colton convicted. I’m going to look into things the right way. And I won’t allow an innocent man to pay for the crime of another.”
It was only as he said those words, conviction coming from a place so deeply inside he wasn’t entirely aware it was there, that Nikolas finally understood what had compelled him to take Selina’s case. For the past few days, each time he considered her desperate need to find any evidence of Ace’s guilt, Nikolas had warred within himself. But now he understood. Now he knew why it had to be him.
He would do what was right.
And he would make sure that those in Ace Colton’s orbit would be required to do the same.
* * *
Nova wasn’t sure how Nikolas Slater had landed into her life—or more aptly, how she’d landed in his—but she was beyond grateful she’d found him.
The prospect of depending on him too much still bothered her, but she was doing her best to ignore the small voice that kept telling her she shouldn’t take too much. The help he was offering. The home he was willing to open up to her. Even his connections with the Coltons and with him going out of his way to see that she found answers.
Who did that? And what was in it for him?
Even as she asked herself the question, she knew she wasn’t entirely being fair. He had a case of his own to work on, and had been more than up-front about what he was tasked to do. Which added yet another thought. Maybe the situation with her was a little like Sun Tzu’s famous maxim: “Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.”
Even if that didn’t really fit, either.
Only one glance into those hazel eyes and Nova was forced to reconsider. What sort of enemy made sure that she had food? More than that, who but a good person would have seen through her ruse and brazen lie that a package of crackers was more than enough to hold her over?
Goodness, it was all such a jumble in her head. After so many months of depending solely on herself, was it possible she’d lost the ability to recognize simple human kindness when it was offered?
“Those are some awfully serious thoughts I can see flitting through your mind.”
Nova glanced around the room, her gaze alighting on a few of the framed articles she saw on the walls. “I didn’t see reading minds listed as one of your professional capabilities.”
“It’s not mind reading when it’s as plain as the crinkles on your forehead.”
She deliberately opened her lips into a mock O.
“I thought I was too young for wrinkles.”
“I believe I said crinkles,” he said with a smile. “And while you may be young, you seem to have a lifetime of worry piled on your shoulders.”
“I’m okay. Really, I am.”
“We’re going to make sure that you stay that way.”
“I do thank you for that. More than I can say. But since part of that is making sure I’m capable of taking care of myself, I’m going to get out of your hair and go look for a job.”
“I said I’d go with you.”
“I know, but you look busy and, besides—” she let out a small sigh, not sure how to say what she meant without hurting his feelings “—you don’t have to.”
“Okay. Fair enough.” A few crinkles of his own rode Nikolas’s forehead as he obviously realized something. “What is it that you do?”
“I used to be a stylist when I lived in New York.”
The words were out before she could stop them, the admission opening up any number of avenues for him to press and probe on her former life.
“Why give that up?”
She made a production of pointing toward her stomach. “Let’s just say my priorities shifted.”
While it was the truth, Nova was curious to see if he continued to press the issue. She hadn’t lied. She did once work as a stylist. A rather good one, by the number of individuals whom she’d styled and their corresponding press coverage at events. She’d also contributed to several fashion blogs, her articles and suggested recommendations getting a large number of likes and comments.
A strange laugh strangled in her throat.
Likes and comments. Why did it all feel so frivolous now? There had been a time when that attention and confirmation of her professional reputation was all-consuming.
Only now, it all seemed so far away. Like another woman’s life.
And in a big way, it was.
A life that she didn’t necessarily want to go back to, either.
It was her work as a stylist that had brought her into Ferdy’s orbit. She’d hovered in the background at an event for a senior Wall Street executive, keeping watch over the man to make sure he knew how to maintain the air of sophistication and panache demanded by the three-thousand-dollar suit and thousand-dollar Italian loafers she’d dressed him in. Ferdy had attended the same one. She’d been so excited when he’d noticed her, and their ten-year age difference had gone a long way toward adding to the air of worldliness and charm Ferdy seemed to wield.
It had been that same worldliness that she’d excused when he’d appeared to grow bored with a conversation or be a bit too curt with a response. This was the price you paid for dating an older man. One who had business interests and important friends.
How wrong she’d been.
It was only in all the time since that she’d realized how many signs she’d missed. Or flat out ignored. The calls he’d take in another room. The times he’d asked her to make herself scarce when he needed to talk to an associate. Even his vague comments about what he did all day.
For as awful as the past five months had been, there was another part of her that was beyond grateful she’d found out the truth when she did. At least now Ferdy didn’t know about the baby. He could chalk her up to being one more young girlfriend in what had to be a long line of them, and she could go on about her business more than two thousand miles away.
Or so she kept telling herself.
Nikolas picked up on her point and if he was curious what had dominated her old life, he didn’t say. “I think it’s a good thing your priorities shifted. It’s brought you here and put you close to your family. There’s not much that’s more important in life.”
“No, there isn’t.”
She stood then and decided to make her exit when she could. Before she chickened out entirely and took what he offered, sleeping off the tension of the past few months for, oh, about a week in Nikolas’s spare room.
And also before he could figure out she’d left more than a few things unsaid and call her on them.
“I’ll come back here then? After I’ve done a bit of exploring around town looking for work.”
“You do that.”
She picked up her purse and had nearly reached the door when his voice stopped her.
“You’re safe here, Nova. I hope you know that.”
She only nodded before turning to walk out the door.
* * *
Micheline Anderson reclined at her desk at the AAG and considered all she’d built. The Affirmation Alliance Group was the biggest spiritual group west of the Rockies and there had been a time when she had people waiting by the truckload to visit her spiritual center of enlightenment and inner peace.
What bs.
She’d always been rather good at peddling it and had made a damn fine life off it.
Or had, until the past year.
She’d turned the center’s motto—“Be Your Best You!”—into a rallying cry for all that was wrong and depraved about the world today and people ate it up. She’d even managed to snag a few B-list celebrities along the way, their ringing endorsements for the AAG skyrocketing her website traffic and the subsequent donations that poured in.
It had all been so easy.
Until it wasn’t.
Oh, sure, people were still willing to listen to someone who puffed them up and made them feel good. It was the day she finally realized that little tidbit that she’d been able to unlock the real secret to her success.
She’d spent so many years as a nurse, taking care of other people and cleaning up after them, living a life of drudgery. A noble calling, her mother had told her, when she’d pushed her into the profession at eighteen, determined her daughter would follow in her footsteps.
Noble?
From her youngest days, Micheline had always believed she was destined for so much more, but it had been hard to remember that while cleaning up bedpans and mopping up a floor someone had thrown up on. It was only when she had her son that she’d seen an opportunity that she could seize, in the wee hours of the morning at the hospital.
All because she’d had the courage to switch her own baby with another one born on the same night. That choice had changed her life.
And ensured her child would be a Colton.
She’d bided her time, knowing the choice would pay off some day.
And now that day was here.
Forty years later, that secret was trying to resurface once again. The email to Colton Oil all those months ago had been her brainchild. And it was the start of something so much bigger.
First, cast doubt.
Second, use that doubt to create chaos.
Third...
Well, she was in the process of implementing the third pillar now. Because once you created chaos, there really wasn’t anything to do except sit back and watch everything burn.
Chapter 5