“Right after he took you. I was gonna follow your ass all theway to the state line, but when I got to your house, you were already gone.”
“The letter was hidden.” I cast a wary glance toward the door, terrified Tank might come storming through. “Did he see it, too?”
Lincoln lays a gentle kiss over my lips. “You told me about your hidey holes, Nova. The box in the garage with spare keys. The one in your bedroom with personal stuff. Cash and ID. Nonemergent items, but things that were special to you. The rest of the house was trashed, but I saw the lines in your ceiling and tried my luck.”
“I knew you’d eventually get it.” I’m so tired, so weak. So I allow my eyes to flutter closed. “It’s really difficult to drop hints for a dude who was there to cross me. I needed to be subtle, but clear enough you’d understand. You needed to find the letter to know where I’d gone. I was kind of hoping you’d come for me.”
“So silly.” He caresses my cheek with trembling strokes of his thumb. “Was your plan to get a concussion and lose the ability to walk? Because so far, you’re doing great.”
“My plan was…” I frown. Blinking, blinking, blinking. “I-I don’t know. I was going to kill him. But the rest…”
“Getting stuck inside a maze of hallways and fingerprint-locked doors,” he growls. “Being held captive inside a house packed with guards on Aster’s payroll.”
“Hallways and guns aren’t nearly as scary as Tank.” My voice trembles as fear trickles through my veins. “He’s not a very nice person.”
“He won’t touch you for as long as I live.” Lincoln grabs my jaw and pulls my focus back to him. “Not while I’m alive.”
“Which scares me, too.” I exhale a shuddering breath. “Because I don’t want you to die. You wanted to trick me, and I kept my secrets to trick you. But all wereallydid was trick our hearts.”
“Starting a war with uncontrolled hormones and poorly regulated impulsivity,” he recites words from Ry’s letter. “I guess that makes you Arabella, and me, Jameson. Ryan said you’d consider it romantic, while he and I agree it’s just plain stupid.”
“The love between a princess and her soldier is romantic,” I whimper. “Conroy’s existence isn’t.”
Heavy fists pound against the door, startling a cry from deep in my throat.
“I don’t hear any negotiations,” Tank snarls. “You’re in there to get the code, Castro. If I find out you’re fucking when you said I couldn’t?—”
“He’s our Conroy.” Trembling, I attempt to sit up, only for Lincoln to push me down again. “He destroyed Arabella. He’s the reason this all began.”
“He won’t hurt you.” He brushes the hair off my face. “I swear on my life, Nova, he won’t touch you.”
“We need a plan.” I try to brush his hands away. To sit up and twist. To set my feet on the floor and… I don’t know. I have no clue what comes after that. “I wanted Aster to die, but all I did was drag you into this, and…” But then a new realization hits me, a pained gasp sprinting along my throat. “You work for him!”
“Nova, I?—”
“He thinks you’re on his side! That means you don’t have to die. This isn’t as bad as it seems.”
“Babe—”
“I memorized the code.” I grab his hands and stare into his eyes. “I memorized it, Lincoln. Before I drilled into the coin.”
His cheeks pale, because the numbers he thought no longer existed suddenly do again.
“I’m the last person on the planet who knows them, right? And Tank plans to hurt me until I admit them. This probably isn’t even about Arabella anymore. It’s about loyalties and business and a whole heap of money hidden away.”
“Nova—”
“Kill me.” I stun him with my words and tighten my grip as he pulls away. “Iamthe key. Me. My memory. If you kill me, it’s gone. Lost to history.”
“Are you fucking crazy?” He throws my hands off and spins away from the bed. “You no longer have decision-making privileges.”
“You could make it painless.” I shakily crawl to the edge of the bed, draping my legs over the side. “Aster will torture me, and Tank will do so much worse. I won’t give up the code, Lincoln. For my brother. My father. My mom. To honor everyone who died for these stupid friggin’ numbers, I refuse to give them up. But that refusal will come with punishment. If I must die either way, then there are less painful ways to go than what Tank has planned.”
“No!” He digs his hand into his hair and tugs at the ends. “No, Nova!”
“I wanted to kill Aster,” I cry. “Maybe take Tank out on the way. I wanted this to end with Richard. But there’s another way for it to stop.”
“I am not killing you.” He stalks back my way and stops with his hand around my throat, his thumb digging in just enough tohold me captive. Towering over me that way I so love, he stares down into my eyes and shocks me to my core when I find tears glistening in his. “I am in love with you, Nova Nichols. Don’t you understand that? I won’t hurt you.”
