by Addison Fox
Something cold settled in Nikolas’s bones. He and Nova might have a lot to work out, and he might need more time to prove to her that his business wasn’t an obstacle between them, but he would not let anything happen to her. More than that, he had no idea what he’d do if something happened to her.
Get her settled in your office, lock the doors and you can discuss it all.
Nikolas came around to the passenger side and helped her out, observing the same zombie-like visage in place as she stepped from the car. They moved quickly but she didn’t let go of his hand and he held tight, pushing as much support as he could through touch.
In moments he had them both inside his practice, pushing through the door, then closing it and adding a firm snap of the lock. His office wasn’t big and he could see through to his inner office. Something hovered in the doorway, and his attention was drawn to it immediately.
“What is it?”
“Sit here.” He settled Nova on the sofa. “I want to look in my office. I’ll be right back and then we’ll call for some lunch.”
She took a seat, her eyes downcast and tired, and Nikolas headed for his office. The flashes he’d seen were a line of sticky notes, several attached to his doorframe. He knew they hadn’t been there before and as he moved closer to read the scratch on them he saw that there were several more, making an arrow to his desk.
Following along from the doorway to his guest chair to the top of his desk, Nikolas read the various messages. Words like Information, New York, Investigation and Details were all written, like a path leading him to his computer. And the last one had an arrow and was stuck to his laptop.
He’d followed them all, curious as to who had done this and why. Someone with answers? Someone working with Adler?
His natural determination to get answers had him moving to the chair, dropping into the seat to wake up his computer. It was only as he sat that he heard the click.
Adler stepped out from behind the door, gun in hand.
“Boom.”
Nikolas was nearly up when something registered in the words.
“I wouldn’t move if I were you. Otherwise that fancy leather chair you’re sitting on is going to leave a very large hole.”
Heart pounding, Nikolas dropped his gaze to the seat and saw the edges of something large wrapped beneath his chair.
Adler never even attempted a smile. All Nikolas could see was the steady, cold calculation deep in the man’s eyes. “It’s exactly what you think it is. And so long as you stay in that seat, it’s not going to go off.”
* * *
Nova belatedly heard the conversation, that familiar voice whipping through her with shocking force. The heaviness that had ridden her limbs since they left the lab shifted, uncoiling inside of her and moving her into action. Her immediate thought was Nikolas, followed quickly by running to get help.
But it was Nikolas’s scream that had her moving.
“Run, Nova!”
Despite the heavy, distended weight of her body, she moved. Fumbling with the lock, she felt the dead bolt give way and tugged the door open, slipping through as fast as she could. All she had to do was get someone’s attention. That thought kept her going as she pushed through the door, holding her belly as she ran, screaming for help.
Go.
Run.
Move.
The words were a litany in her mind. Don’t think about what’s behind, just keep moving forward.
Even if her heart was breaking because Nikolas was behind.
And then it didn’t matter any longer as a heavy arm came around her shoulders, pulling her back abruptly.
Nova stumbled but before she could even get out a scream, big hands were over her mouth and the harsh scent of aftershave rose up in her nose.
She would have tried anyway—would have clawed and scratched and kicked to get her and the baby away from him—but it did no good.
The small prick flashed a shot of pain into her upper arm. His next warning was unnecessary as the hallway leading into Nikolas’s office from the outer entrance increasingly swam before her eyes.
“Scream and you’re dead. That means the baby, too.”
Chapter 18
It wasn’t real. It couldn’t be.
Only it was.
Just like that day, so long ago now, when she’d lain on the floor of Ferdy’s office bathroom and listened to the words he spat at his business partner.
Words that had told her how guilty he was. And just what a bad man he really was.
Nova knew this was coming. Hadn’t she expected it each and every mile since leaving New York? The growing child inside of her or the increasing distance hadn’t made a bit of difference. Ferdinand Adler was always out there. Always lurking. Like a monster from her nightmares.
Only there was no waking up from this.
No magic set of words that would change the fact that she carried the child of a madman.
A madman who wanted both of them dead.
Pain swam in her head, the aftereffects of whatever he’d drugged her with. Her mouth was full of cotton, even as her bladder threatened to give way. She already visited the bathroom on what felt like auto-repeat this late in her pregnancy—however long she’d been out had only added to the urgency.
Maybe she could use it to her advantage.
She was tied up in the back of a car, her hands behind her back as she lay on her side.
“Beached whale” filled her mind once more, only instead of the sweet and funny connotation the words had taken on in her lovemaking with Nikolas, this time they did nothing but bring tears to her eyes.
She was helpless. And her child’s life depended on all she could do in whatever time she had left.
She had to reason with him. Had to give him some way of understanding that she’d do anything to keep the baby safe. The rest could come later. Her Colton family would come for her.
Nikolas would come for her.
Assuming he ever got out of the office Ferdy had rigged with a bomb.
Good Lord, what had she wrought? Had she really been that desperate all those months ago that a few dates with this man had somehow had her seeing stars?
And how wrong had she been, to feel as if her relationship with Nikolas was at all the same. To even question that what she felt for him—the power of those feelings and the reality of all they’d shared—was at all the same.
She loved Nikolas.
And whatever she had felt for Ferdy—even before she knew about his behavior—was nowhere close to those feelings.
Some relationships worked out and others didn’t. But going in with the best intention—and the assumption your significant other wasn’t a violent criminal—were the sort of stakes it was worth gambling on.
Nikolas Slater was a good man. He’d shown her nothing but care and concern and bone-deep compassion since the day she’d walked into his office.
Why had she questioned a single second of it?
“Good. You’re up. Took you long enough.” Ferdy spoke through the open front driver’s side window. He looked different than the last time she’d seen him. He’d traded a dark silk suit and black dress shirt for outdoor gear. It was an odd look on him and gave her the same sort of creeps as looking at that billboard of Micheline Anderson.
It didn’t fit.
Just like he didn’t fit here. Nor did he fit into her life.
She had no idea how long she was out but if she went by her bladder it had to be nearly an hour if not longer. “I’m up and I need to pee. Terribly.”
He laughed at that, his eyes dark with menace. “You’re not going to live long enough to care.”
Nova had no idea how to play this. There simply was no charted territory called “negotiation with psycho ex.” So she did her best to breeze through it and keep as much of an upper
hand as she was able to, stuck on her side with her hands tied.
“I assume you want answers?”
“You bet your damn ass I do.”
“Then you’re going to need to let me up to go to the bathroom. Otherwise I’m going to make a mess of your car.”
He seemed unfazed by the ask but shrugged and came around to get her out. He was rough as he dragged her inert form from the back seat but did relent and take the duct tape off her wrists. She breathed through her nose at the immediate sting but said nothing. She was going to do her level best to get out of this, but if for some reason it all went sideways, she’d be damned if she’d come this far in her life to end as a simpering fool.
“There’s a bush over there.” He gestured with his gun. “Stay where I can see you.”
She said nothing, just marched over to the small wooded area he’d pointed to. It wasn’t easy, but she found a way to position herself and hold onto the bush for support and found a way to take care of business. It also gave her time to think. Outrunning him wasn’t an option. On a good day in her top fighting weight she’d have been hard-pressed to outrun him. He had at least eight inches in height and wasn’t wearing the slick shoes he normally wore.
And she wasn’t in top fighting weight. She was a seven-and-a-half-months-pregnant woman with a lower center of gravity and fat ankles.
“So bargaining it is,” she muttered, pulled up her panties beneath her flowy maternity dress, tap-dancing as to what she might use to stall him and get him out of the woods.
She hadn’t covered every inch of Mustang Valley, but based on the position of the mountains she sensed that she was on the east end of town. An area well used by hikers, if some of her local reading was accurate. She was torn between alerting someone for help and hoping no one came anywhere near their path.
She had no doubt Ferdy would shoot to kill anyone who got in his way.
She’d done as he’d asked and remained in his line of sight. As she tromped back toward him, she took in the sight of his large form, broad shoulders and bull-like physique.
Her only chance was to use brains against his brawn.
And hope like hell he fell for it.
* * *
Nikolas screamed on the inside as he did everything he could to move the process along. Nova’s real screams still echoed in his mind and even though it had been less than an hour, all he could think of was the face of the madman who had her in his grip.
How had he been so stupid?
He knew Ferdy was after her. How had he let the man get so close? Close enough to strike at Nova and set a bomb?
“It’s simple but effective.” Marlowe’s twin brother, Callum, lay beside the desk chair on his back, suited up in the same protective gear they’d had Nikolas put on, a flashlight in one hand as he went over the bomb. “Pressure set, so the moment you sat down it activated.”
“And I let him lead me right to it.”
He’d uttered something along similar lines about every thirty seconds for the past twenty minutes as several MVPD team members worked around him. It was Callum, though, whom Spencer had called in to help. The former Navy SEAL turned bodyguard knew basically everything about everything and he’d diagnosed the bomb situation—and what was needed to defuse it—faster than anyone else on the MVPD team. Not that they weren’t good, but Callum was better.
And Nikolas was beyond grateful for the help.
“Can you defuse it? And in the meantime, can you get Spencer out and after Nova.”
“Already on it, Slater!” Spencer hollered as he came back into the office, also clad in the heavy protective gear. “Every officer I have is canvassing the block for any footage. Your cameras lose them as he drags her to the parking lot across the street.”
“Figured.” Nikolas gritted his teeth at the helplessness of it all. Each minute they sat there was wasted time.
Nikolas leaned as far forward as he could, his gaze steady on Spencer Colton. “He’s not going to let her go.”
The no-nonsense cop he’d seen all day faded away. In its place was a compassionate man who understood the stakes. “I know. It also helps that we already had the perimeter set for the APB.”
There wasn’t any more that could be done and Nikolas knew it. Damn it, he knew it.
And still he struggled to sit still and let Callum do his work.
“I’ve got the area cleared and we’ve got everyone here in gear,” Ace and Ainsley’s brother, first responder Grayson Colton, called out as he came into the office to stand beside Spencer. He spent most of his time working with local law enforcement in and around Mustang Valley.
“Everyone out of range?” Spencer asked.
“Yep.” Grayson nodded. “And I’ve got first responders on scene.”
“Good.” Spencer nodded before turning his attention to Callum. “How much more time do you need?”
“You tell me when you’re ready. This bitch is mine.”
Spencer refocused on Nikolas. “You know what to do.”
“Yeah. Callum walked me through it.”
“Step-by-step. You take it one step at a time and let him deal with the bomb.”
Nikolas nodded. “I understand.”
“We found them!” The words echoed through Spencer’s body transmitter and Nikolas nearly moved before Callum slammed a hard hand around his ankle to hold him still.
“Not so fast, Slater.”
Spencer took the call and Nikolas’s heart broke at the words spilling through the body speaker. The woods on the edge of town. A hiker spotted them from a distance and called it in remotely but did not approach.
Spencer barked out the order that the hiker not engage and moved his team into action.
“Let us do our job, Slater,” Spencer shot back at him before aiming a glance toward Callum’s prone form on the ground. “You do as he says. We’re going to go bring her back.”
Nikolas prayed Spencer was right.
He had no idea what he’d do—or who he’d be—if Nova and the baby didn’t come back all right.
* * *
Nova caught the flash of something high in the mountain but kept her gaze firmly on Ferdy as she moved toward him. She put some extra pregnancy moves into the motion, bowing her legs so she waddled more heavily and keeping a hand on her lower back.
What he didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him.
And if it gave her the slightest opportunity to run down an ounce of compassion in the man, she’d take it.
“What is all this?” Ferdy waved at her with the gun, the business end tracing her body from head to toe and back again. Nova felt herself flinch and fought to keep her movements steady and even.
“I’m pregnant, Ferd.”
“Yeah. I got that. Is it mine? Not that guy you’re shacking up with?”
“The baby is yours.”
“Who is he?”
Interesting. No asking about the baby or any details. Just a leap to who Nikolas was.
“Someone I met a few weeks ago. Someone who’s been helping me get on my feet here.”
Ferdy sneered. “Looks like he’s been doing more than that.”
She had no interest in riling him up any further, and the more she downplayed Nikolas the more she hoped Ferdy would believe her that no one knew why she’d run.
“In two weeks’ time?”
A leering grin split his face. “As I recall you and I moved pretty fast.”
She ignored the stab of revulsion at that reminder and continued on. “My mother talked about this place before she died. I thought I’d come check it out as a place to raise the baby.”
“What have you been doing in the meantime?”
“Working and driving my way across the country to get here.”
She could see him chew on that for a minute.
“I
didn’t want to be a burden or place the responsibility for the baby on you.”
“It’s my kid.”
“An unplanned kid.” If babies could hear what their parents said while they were in the womb, Nova prayed that hers would also innately understand her only goal was getting them both to safety. “I thought for a while what to do about it and then realized that I’d just leave. New York’s too expensive and that way we wouldn’t be in your way.”
“And that’s the only reason?”
She mustered up the most wide-eyed look she could manage. “Yeah, why? I didn’t want to burden you with it and I figured just leaving would be the cleanest break.”
“Clean?”
“Yeah, Ferd. No attachments and no responsibilities. Why?”
“Nothing. No reason.”
Nova saw the calculation race across his face, the mix of “what does she know, what doesn’t she know?” hardening his jaw. Digging down deep and praying there was something left inside of him that wasn’t completely evil and twisted, she moved quickly, leaning forward to hold her stomach.
“What’s wrong?”
“The baby. He’s been kicking like a madman and I’m not sure what’s wrong.”
Ferdy came closer, confusion filling his face. However he expected to manage this conversation, the talk of the baby and her reasons for leaving had obviously softened him.
Now she had to play it out.
Although she didn’t want to break eye contact, she bent again, willing him closer so she could get a better look at that glint of light she’d seen up on the mountain.
Twisted over, she added a few more moans for good measure and it was enough to get him closer. As he stepped physically close enough, she latched onto his free hand, squeezing hard. “Oh no!” Moaning harder, she added a little shriek. “I think my water broke.”
“Your wat—”
He stumbled closer, the gun still firmly lodged in his hand, but Nova hung on and wailed, “It’s too early. The baby can’t come this early.”