But instead of laughing as she’d wanted him to, Maverick’s eyes dampened. ‘No. Not because you refused to ask for help. That’s not stubborn, that’s proud. Which is a good trait to have until it starts stealing your sleep.’
He nudged her gently with his shoulder. The gesture was friendly, comforting, intended, she knew, to take the sting out of his words. But Nina liked the familiar way he touched her.
‘I know you’re stubborn because even though you’re scared and sleeping in the bathtub, you get up every day, you come down here, and you work like I’m paying you overtime instead of relaxing like the Hollywood star everyone keeps telling me you are.’
‘I like the horses.’
‘I know it. But you also refuse to wallow and be self-pitying. And working with the horses has given you a reason to get up in the morning even when you’d rather not. You refuse to let him win even though I can see you’re still terrified. That’s stubborn. In damn spades.’
His words, though kindly intended, eviscerated her. They were as true as they were the greatest lie she’d ever heard. And as much as she wished things were different, and as stubborn as she admittedly was, she had let her attacker win. She had let him take everything from her.
‘I ran,’ she admitted quietly, saying more than she had to anyone else. ‘I lied to the police. And I ran.’
She saw the moment that Maverick put the pieces together. His eyes narrowed. His jaw clenched. But instead of pushing for more, he replied, ‘You ran to the right place, Nina.’
Seeing Benji and Riley coming back from lunch, she turned to walk away. Nina would later wonder why she’d done it, what had possessed her to be so sure of herself when she’d angled her face over her shoulder and said, ‘I don’t come here every day because I’m stubborn. Or, not only because I’m stubborn. I come here because I feel better – safer with myself – when you’re in shouting distance.’
PART TWO: REST
Chapter 9
Los Angeles, California – June 2, 2025
‘Neens?’ She heard the frown in Markus’s voice. ‘I didn’t quite get that.’
How could he not have heard her when her voice had been so loud? ‘Someone is in my house,’ she whispered again, becoming frantic now.
‘What?’
She caught the faintest sound, coming from her lounge maybe. Or the attached conservatory. Wherever it was coming from, it was all the confirmation she needed.
She gripped her phone to her ear, trying to hold it in place as her hand began to shake uncontrollably.
‘Nina, hang up.’ On the phone, Markus began to panic. ‘Call 911. Go wait outside. I’m on my way.’
His fear drove hers. ‘Don’t hang up,’ she begged hoarsely.
But she took one step away from the glass window, one step toward the front door.
It was a straight shot. Fifty feet to the door, maybe eighty to the narrow, winding street that passed through the hills.
She heard Markus’s car start over the line. ‘Shit.’ He was panting for breath. ‘I think I should hang up. I have to call 911.’
‘Please don’t leave me,’ she beggedso quietlyas she crept to the kitchen island. ‘Please.’
‘Fuck. Okay.’ A horn blared. ‘Stop talking. Is there a weapon you can grab? Somewhere you can hide?’
A weapon? Stupid. She should have thought of that. She looked around her kitchen, saw the knife block to her left by the stove and hurried to it. She chose the smallest knife, something she could wield easily, and lifted it from its resting place. Though she wasn’t aware of it, she kept the phone in her right hand, choosing the person who made her feel safest over the option of violence.
Footsteps sounded in the next room.
Nina stopped moving.
She didn’t dare breathe.
Her heart pounded in her ears, screaming for her to inhale. But she couldn’t.
Her legs shook, but she locked her knees, refusing to curl up into a ball and hide behind the cabinets until help arrived.
