“She left you,” he sneers. “She isn’t coming back.”
“What would you trade her for?” Aster brings his weapon down and presses the muzzle to Nova’s ribs. “All this time, I was searching for her killer. But she’s… she’s alive?”
Nova’s breath whistles along her throat, her lungs struggling and ineffectual as Aster’s grip tightens with every inhale. Panicked, she lays her palm over her heart, her glistening, frightened eyes burning into mine.
“We tradenothing.” Tank inches two feet to the left, splitting the old man’s attention. “Not even the girl you’ve got now. Kill her. I don’t give a fuck. In the time it takes for you to squeeze the trigger, I’ll end this bullshit. Doesn’t matter to me if she dies with you.”
“I didn’t agree to that.” I have no plan. No fucking clue what we should do next, so I bring my gun up and surprise us all when I point it at Tank.
If we die, it’ll be gloriously fucking ironic, andalwaysin pursuit of Nova’s safety. “I’d trade Arabella for Nova. I know where she is, and I know who she’s with.”
Tank’s furiously hot glare swings my way. “I’ll kill you too, Castro. I made no promises for your life, and Nichols’ ghost ain’t shit if my options are his sister or my mother.”
Aster’s cheeks pale. “Y-your mother?”
“I feel sick.” Nova slumps forward. “I’m gonna puke.”
“My daughter’s alive?Andshe has a son?” Aster shakes Novauntil her hand drops and her fingers curl into a fist. “You’re willing to trade?”
“What do we get?” I cast a wary gaze toward Tank, his muscular shoulders swollen with adrenaline. Then to Nova, weak and green as she tilts forward. Bringing my eyes up to Aster, I squeeze the gun in my palm and wait for my moment. “She’s already hurt, Richard. You fucked her up, even before my seven days were finished. I want your assurance that we get to leave. No guards between us and freedom. Not a single firearm in sight, threatening us on the way out.”
“You can leave.” Eagerly nodding, the old man’s beady eyes burn into mine and leave him oblivious to the glint of steel in Nova’s fisted grip. “Take me to my daughter, and I’ll reward you with anything you could ask for.”
Tank swings his weapon my way. “If you take him to her, I’ll gut you like a pig. I’ll fuck your corpse and bury you with the old man. Won’t even give you separate holes in the earth. You can talk business then.”
“Buryingme?” Aster chuckles, too arrogant for his own good. “You thought you would betrayme? Takemycodes? You just lost your only ally!”
“And you’ve lost your shield.” Nova frees the blade from my knife and brings her arm up with a powerful roar. Stumbling on her tangled feet and spinning with a dizzy cry, she plunges the glinting steel into the old prick’s ribs in the same moment Tank lets off a round.
“No!” I jump forward as the bullet zings along the barrel and out the other end, racing through the air and brushing by Nova’s jaw close enough to send her hair flying. Aster slams against the wall at his back, and Nova falls the other way,collapsing to the floor and rapping her head against the concrete with a sickening thud. “Nova!”
Tank squeezes off a second round, the sizzling heat of his bullet passing through the meaty part of my shoulder as I kick the knife away and scoop Nova’s battered body into my arms. “Oh God. Oh God. Oh God. Nova?” I spin, even as a third boom echoes throughout the room, then I sprint toward the back wall. “Nova!” I lay her on a stainless-steel countertop and brush her dress down. I frantically shove bloodied locks of hair off her face and search for a bullet hole. Maybe two. “Are you hit?” I roll her one way, then the other, desperately scanning for an exit wound and praying I find none. “Baby, speak.”
“Sick—” The green tint to her skin fades to a sickly gray, then she lurches upright on the table, stomach convulsing. A sharp squeal escapes as she overbalances and pitches forward, but even as I catch her, her body jolts again—her chest spasming violently—as vomit surges up her throat and splatters onto the concrete.
Chunks and bile soak into the legs of my jeans, mixing with the warm slick of blood until I can’t differentiate between the two.
“Ew.” Tank towers over Aster and stares this way, his lips curling into a grimace. “I’m not cleaning that up.”
Nova groans and sways, retching into her lap while her eyes roll into the back of her head.
“What the fuck, man?” I wipe blood off her neck with shaking hands. From her cheek. Her chest. “Grow the fuck up and make sure Aster’s staying down. Do your fuckin’ job.”
“It’s done. Bullet in the brain says he ain’t getting up again. I only ever heard of one other dude who survived that.” Hecrosses the room, circling the vomit.God forbid he messes up his boots. “That guy’s a little loopy these days, but legend has it his aim remains twenty-twenty.” He holsters his gun and stops on my right, his furious glare burning the side of my face. “Now let’s discuss the trading Arabella for Nova thing.”
“I don’t even know where she is, stupid. Calm down.” I need to get Nova out of here and into a fucking hospital, so I scoop her up, careful not to hurt her already tender side, and turn toward the door, still void of Aster’s guards. “Get us out of here before shit gets worse. I’m done with this place.”
EPILOGUE
MY PET ROCK
NOVA
September turns to October, and October turns to November. With the seasonal changes comes just a memory of summer’s heat, and in its place, the chill of fall. Leaves turn brown and tumble from the trees, while the garden that overflowed with color and life not so long ago now wilts.
I’ve never truly stared out at the thick line of boundary trees between my house and Mr. Carnagy’s and noticed how, in the winter, it becomes less of a buffer and more of a thin veil. In the summer, they become impenetrable, kind of like the blinds Lincoln wanted installed in my front window. But in the colder months, they’re no more protective than the sheer curtains I had instead.
But I suppose it’s nice to be able to see your neighbors sometimes. Safety is important, and privacy matters, butcommunity does, too. And to be reminded I’m not alone in this big, lonely world is just as valuable.
