Her husband reached out and touched her, only casually, on the elbow, but it was enough to bolster Amanda. She smiled. ‘We’re going to send him away this time, aren’t we?’
All Mav could say as she started to walk away was, ‘Fuck yeah, we are.’
He gave her one last wave and then turned to leave without looking back at Nina. Because as much as he hated to go, he knew that the line between showing up for her and not respecting her wishes was blurrier than he would have liked.
Chapter 29
Although she could feel Alexander’s eyes searing into her, Nina did not look at him. She was scared, yes, but she also didn’t want to give him any sort of power over her. She turned around to look for Mav instead and saw him embracing the small blonde woman who had submitted her own victim’s statement.
‘She’s the other victim Aiden told us about. Maverick somehow got her details and went and spoke to her,’ Linda said, seeing the direction of her gaze. ‘Gave her my name and number.’
‘What?’ Nina whispered, completely shocked. ‘Why didn’t you say anything?’
‘I didn’t think she’d show, and I didn’t want to get your hopes up. She’s terrified of the NDA she signed.’
Nina looked at the woman. She was small, maybe only a little taller than Nina herself, with an angel’s face and dimpled smile. She couldn’t have been more than twenty-six or seven now, which begged the question: how old had she been when Alexander Cane had raped her?
Nina’s throat burned because if she, with her unlimited financial resources, fanbase, and thirty-four years, had struggled to come forward and tell the truth, how difficult must it have been for the other woman, who had been so much younger when her choices had been taken from her? How scared and ashamed and alone must she have felt looking down the barrel at Alexander Cane and his team of lawyersafterhe had already reduced her by so much.
And, still, through all of that, Nina couldn’t tear her eyes away from Mav as he smiled down at the tiny blonde. Because in that moment, she finally understood: trust wasn’t built on words, which could be so easily undermined, forgotten, or taken back. Trust was built on actions, on what youdidover and over, on showing up for the people you loved again and again, for the big things and the small things, the good and the bad.
Luigi’s had taught her family, but she had never let any of the crew there get close enough to rely on them completely. Markus had tried to teach her trust over the years, but she had resisted leaning on him fully. Looking back now, she thought she might have been too scared that if she did, her only friend would start to see her as a burden. Like her mother had.
And then the assault had happened. And she had been so tired, so broken, that she hadn’t really been able to resist all those small things Mav did that had given her some light and hope back. Things like six a.m. riding lessons and inviting her to stay in the ranch house and buying her a makeup box for her birthday and holding her while she slept.
She hadn’t lied to him when she’d said he’d met her at her lowest. But instead of steering clear of her, he had shown up for her, again and again, even when she’d been a stranger and, now, even when she’d tried to push him away.
Nina had been on the verge of a full-blown panic attack before her statement, but then she’d thought of him, and in thinking of him, she had sensed him there, behind her. Only one look back at him had steadied the ground beneath her feet. Maverick showing up hadn’t taken away her fear; it had just reminded her that whatever happened, she trusted him to stay with her, to wrap her in his arms when she was scared and pick her up when she fell. The absolution with which she believed in him was astounding.
Nina wanted to touch him.
She neededhimto touchher.
Only, when she managed to refocus her attention on where he’d been standing, he was gone.
Her heart, already so unsettled, lurched. Her anxiety reared. ‘Where did he go?’
‘What?’ Markus frowned. ‘Who?’
‘Mav …’
He turned around to search the crowd.
But Nina didn’t hear him. And she didn’t stop when he called for her to wait. She pushed through the crowd, elbowing her way through the people flocking to the doorway so that she could catch him before he left.
In her rush, her mind consumed with reaching him, her heart filled with the irrational panic that she might not, she didn’t notice the people giving her curious looks and whispering about her among themselves.
The moment she was in the hallway, she looked both ways and, not seeing him, started running for the exit, her ballet flats slapping the cold floor with every step.
She burst out the courthouse doors and into the bright LA sunlight like a bird escaping a cage, her chest heaving with every breath, her eyes searching the grey concrete steps wildly.
Photographers swarmed her immediately. Cameras were pushed into her face. Voices rose in a mighty clamour, the questions merging and becoming indecipherable.
Through the crowd, she saw him. He was already across the courtyard, about to turn onto the street. ‘Mav!’ she yelled.
He didn’t hear her over the noise of the press, only kept walking.
Nina ignored all of the questions still being thrown at her. At the top of her lungs, she yelled, ‘Quiet!’
