“I don’t know,” she whimpers weakly. Lisping. Dizzy. “I don’t have a code.”
Aster flicks a blade free of his knife, the steel fin a glittering threat under bright overhead lights, then he stalks closer and settles the tip at her jugular. “You’ll tell me, young lady, or I’ll?—”
“Richard?” I surprise the old man until his blade jerks and a bead of crimson bursts from the tiny cut he pokes into Nova’s skin. Straightening his back, he turns and faces me.
Behind him, Nova’s eyes whip open, stunning me with how focused they become. How determined she is. Her perfect rainbow gaze has been wrecked by swelling tears, whites that are pink, and pupils too large tonotindicate a concussion.
And yet…
“I’m here.” I harden my expression as Aster slips his knife back into his pocket, and the small sliver of hope in Nova’s eyes turns to desolation. “You said you’d wait for me. You promised not to hurt her until I arrived.”
Desolation gives way to suspicion, and suspicion turns to anger.
There it is, pretty girl. Hate me.
Loving me is how you got here in the first place.
“She woke,” Aster answers casually, as if we’re discussing nothing more important than the weather. “Claiming ignorance for now. But everyone crumbles eventually. It’s a matter of finding the right pressure point.”
“You killed my pressure point,” she garbles, her voice nosurer than that of an inebriated man stumbling home after a long night. “For no reason. My brother is dead, and I don’t know what you’re asking for. So I…” She slumps again, noisily exhaling. “I don’t know what you want. But it doesn’t hurt anymore. Doesn’t matter what you do.”
“There are different kinds of hurt.” Aster turns again with fresh energy for a woman who finally speaks. “I can kill those you love, Nichols, and that’s one kind of pain. I can slice you up and break your bones, and that’s another.”
“You already did that,” she mutters. “It’s done.”
“But there’s a third. A special kind few survive.” He snaps his fingers. “Tank.”
“No!” I slam my hand to Tank’s broad chest, only to rearrange my expression as Aster turns. “I mean…” I swallow and calm my face. Calm my whole fucking soul. Dropping my hand, I start forward instead. “Let me try. Let me speak to her.”
“You can go to hell, too,” Nova mumbles, dribbling blood onto the dress she wore last night. The one she peeled off before climbing onto my bed. “You’re a traitorous bastard. You lied to me.”
You know I did! I admitted it. And even before then, your brother wrote you a fucking letter.
“You wormed your way into my home.” She groans, dropping her gaze and allowing her head to loll. “You took me to dinner and visited my work. Romanced me, and for what? I don’t even…” She sighs. “I don’t even know.” Lazily, she looks to Aster. “I don’t know what code you mean.”
“It’s on her coin.” I play one of the…zerocards I possess. I have no fucking clue what I’m doing. But I know I can’t get herout yet. So,time. I buy us time. “The code is on her coin. I found it last night.”
Delighted, Aster spins and slips his hand into her dress, yanking the chain free until her head jerks forward and a cry of pain follows.
“You didn’t say anything!” Elated, he presses the coin to his palm and desperately searches for numbers on one side before flipping it over and scanning the other. “I spoke to you last night. You didn’t say?—”
“Because the code’s incomplete.” I lock in on a vague—shitty, but it’s the best I’ve got—plan. She has the code in her head. She memorized it—maybe. I don’t even know!But if her brain is the only remaining record of those missing numbers, then shemustlive. “She was unaware of the coin’s significance when she received it with her brother’s belongings. He sheltered her from whatever he knew, so when she got his things, all she knew was that it was special toher. To the family. She didn’t know it was special to you.”
“It’s incomplete?” Enraged, Aster grabs Nova’s hair and tears her head back until the click of her neck becomes audible, bouncing from wall to wall. “You destroyed it!”
“She didn’t know.” I take another step forward, controlling every fucking muscle in my body. Every bone. Every instinct to swoop in and snap his neck before he breaks hers. “She wasn’t told what it meant, Richard. She just knew her brother was dead, and, in her grief, she punched a hole through the steel and hung it around her neck.”
“The code’s gone,” she mutters, her head turning limp and her eyes falling shut.
She’s unconscious. Too scared. Or too hurt.
I refuse to consider that she might’ve fucking died.
“Let me try.” I carefully extract her hair from between his fingers, gently laying her head forward until her chin rests on her chest. If I’m not fast, she’ll die from that, too. “Give me time with her. She was falling in love, Aster. She was putty in my hands.”
“Doesn’t count anymore,” Tank rumbles. “She knows you’re her enemy.”
“She’s hurt and scared. Desperate.” I speak only to Aster. He’s who I need to convince. “She’s dizzy. Low blood pressure. She had no clue this war even existed twenty-four hours ago. She just knows that, yesterday, she was in my bed. And she fucking liked it. Leave me with her, and I’ll continue what I started last night. I’ll get the code and end this for you.”
