Maybe Tasia was with a friend. She could’ve been put in a car. She could be far away from here by now, and we’re wasting our time, freezing in the dark.
But I take another step toward the fanned open black gate, and the padlock catches my eye.
Who cut that?
Another step.
I’m staring to the left, because there is nothing on the desolate, dark road that curls around Faust’s home.
Myhome, even if it’s only temporary.
Then I hear a voice at my back.
One that makes my throat strangle. My breath stop. My heart race.
I don’t turn around.
But he speaks again. “Neve, please listen to me.”
Nolan.
The chill in my bloodstream isn’t from the cold now.
There’s the crunch of snow. A tangle of breath. My emotions are in knots. I can’t look.
“I didn’t do what they say.” There’s sincerity in his words, but I’ve studied enough to know that it can be faked. “But I think you could be in danger. I think it was one of…them.”
“Where did you take her?” I see Tasia in my head, jerked away from the camera like a victim in a twisted horror movie. “Did you hurt her?”
“What?” Nolan sounds appalled. Upset. “Hurtwho,Neve?” There’s such truth and rawness in his words; it pulls me like gravity.
I turn to face him.
My knees feel weak. He’s in a white puffy coat, white toque, black pants, white boots. He looks like ice himself, but there are shadows beneath his eyes. I can make them out in themoonlight. He has a pinched expression around his face, gaunt, hollow.
He is unwell.
I want to hold him. I want to move toward him. All these years of manipulation and strategic commentsand only ever having him.
Besides, he was good to me in some ways, wasn’t he? The money and the support and never letting me go without. He spoiled me, didn’t he?
“You’ve been here since Thanksgiving.” It’s the only thing I can say. The only words I can gasp out.
He closes his eyes tight, like the accusation stings him. “I wanted to surprise you with an office building. For your coaching?” It sounds as if he swallows hard in the dark. He still doesn’t open his eyes. “I was renovating it. Furnishing it. Nearly done, by the way.” A small laugh leaves him, and he looks at me then.
I feel faint.
Unsteady.
“Then why did you run? Why are yourunning?”
He glances behind me, and for a moment, he looks frozen. Like a deer in headlights. Like he heard something I didn’t. When he stares at me again, he is frantic. “If they see me,” he says lowly, “they will kill me.” He takes a step closer, and I don’t back up. His gloved hands are empty. I will hurt him if I have to. Sylvan has been teaching me how. “I haven’t hurt anyone.” His eyes widen, the whites visible in the dark. “But they have.” He turns away, like he will run.
I reach a hand out, and his breath catches when he sees the gesture.
“Please, Neve.” There’s so much longing in his voice. “Listen to what I have to say, then decide.” He gestures toward a grove of trees right outside of the gate.
The gate.
