Recap
CREW
The night was almost quiet as Nova laid in my arms, the baby shifting inside her. She was four months pregnant now, and we just found out we were having a baby boy. I still hadn’t let her go back to work. She needed to be as stress free as possible while carrying our baby. So, she promoted her ADON Kim to the director of nursing position and made Tyra the ADON in her absence. Timberly had finally insisted on sleeping in her own bed, declaring she was "brave enough now."
Nova cried when she shut her bedroom door behind her, the pregnancy hormones were definitely getting to her. I just pulled her close and held her until she settled. Once we were in bed Nova was curled into me, her head tucked beneath my chin, my hand resting on the bump that was getting harder to ignore these days. Four months in, and she was glowing in a way that made my chest tight every time I looked at her. Our baby was growing, and for the first time in a long time, the house felt like a home again. Timberly was laughing more, and the security alerts had gone quiet. Even the damn air felt lighter. But peace wasn’t forever, it could crumble like someone waiting for you to breathe deep so they could punch you in the gut.
I pressed a kiss to her temple, whispering something soft just for her. She hummed, eyes half-lidded, fingers trailing lazy patterns on my chest. We didn’t say much tonight. We didn’t need to. It was one of those rare nights where the world didn’t demand anything from us. Just skin against skin, heartbeat to heartbeat, her belly rising and falling with our child between us. If I could freeze time, this would be the moment I’d pick.
But my instincts wouldn’t sleep. Not fully anyway. I’d been in the game too long, seen too many nights like this turn into blood-soaked nightmares. So, while Nova rested, I stayed half-alert, listening. For what, I didn’t know. A whisper of tires on gravel, fuck a bird that didn't chirp right. My gun was always within reach, even under these soft blankets. Nova thought I didn’t sleep well because of nightmares. Nah, I didn’t sleep because peace never stayed too long, and when it broke, it broke hard against the head of the man who thought he could bottle it.
And just like that, it broke.
The window in the hallway shattered first with a quiet pop, then the sound of feet on tile came loud and heavy. The front door blew open an instant later, with no knocks, no warning. Timberly screamed and Nova jerked up, wide-eyed, her protective instinct kicking in before fear could land. I was already moving, grabbing my Glock from the nightstand and tossing her my phone. “Get to Timberly!” I ordered, my voice a low snarl. She didn’t argue, she never did when it came to protecting our girl. I was already heading toward the chaos, blood boiling, and heart cold. Because I knew that scent of copper in the air, covered by the soft scent of flowers.
It was Sabrina.
She was in my home, and she didn't come alone. I caught a glimpse of her just as I rounded the corner, flanked by two big niggas the size of the twins. That bitch had brought war to my home, to my family. And now, I wasn’t just fighting to protectNova and Timberly. I was fighting to end it for good. I took the corner; gun raised, ready to spill blood and there she was. Standing in the middle of the hallway like a ghost conjured from my worst nightmares. Her face hadn’t changed much, but the light in her eyes had. Gone was the woman I once loved, the one I would’ve crumbled cities for. In her place stood a weapon, cold and polished, aimed straight at the life I’d built. Her lips curled when she saw me, like she’d been waiting for this moment.
“Hello, baby,” she said, voice like smoke and venom. “Miss me?”
I didn’t answer. I couldn’t. Too many things slammed into me at once, memories, betrayal, the war waging behind her eyes. My finger twitched on the trigger, but something in me hesitated. She stepped forward slow, her eyes raking over me like she still knew my every weakness.
“You didn’t come for me,” she whispered. “So, I brought the storm to you.”
Gunfire cracked from another room and Nova let out a blood curdling scream, as Timberly’s cries grew louder. My heart ripped in two as I moved to push past Sabrina, but a flash of metal in her hand stopped me.
“You should’ve let me die,” she hissed, and then there was fire.
Pain exploded through my side as a bullet tore into me. My knees buckled, and I dropped hard, blood already soaking my shirt. Around me, chaos erupted with shouts, more gunshots, and screams. I couldn’t move, my vision blurred as I saw men storming toward the bedrooms, Kyle’s father’s soldiers more than likely dragging something or someone through the hallway. Nova’s voice echoed, raw and defiant. Timberly was calling my name. I tried to get up, but my body wouldn’t obey.
Then came the thundering of Black’s voice barking orders. Blue’s team swarmed the halls like shadows with teeth. Gunfireturned deafening. Sabrina’s snarl cut through it all, and I heard her retreating, shouting orders as her men fell back under the weight of their counterattack. I couldn’t see Nova. I couldn’t see Timberly. Just red, pain and then… nothing. Darkness swallowed me whole, the sounds of war fading into a whisper, leaving me cold and empty with one thought repeating like a drumbeat in my head.
They took my family.
Chapter 1
Crew
Nova.
I woke up in a cold sweat feeling like my entire body had been submerged in ice cold water. My hand snapped to the Glock 19 that rested on my nightstand before my eyes even opened. My fingers clutched the cold steel as my heart beat so hard it shook my ribs. The room was dark and still, blanketed in the kind of quiet that would have soothed me before all of this started. But now it did everything but erase the panic and real fear that still clung to my senses from the left-over fragments of my nightmare.
A strangled sound caught in my throat as air finally filled my lungs and sweat clung to my back. My side still burned where a bullet had ripped through my flesh in the dream, and for half a second my body refused to process the difference between dream and reality. But then I heard something over the roaring sound of blood rushing in my ears. Nova’s breathing was soft and even, grounding me in the chaos that my mind had caused. Her plush body was wrapped around the pregnancy pillow I got her for the times she couldn’t get comfortable in the bed.
I wasn’t lying in a pool of my own blood at the feet of my enemies, and my family hadn’t been taken from me. Relaxing myfingers, I released the gun and pressed my palm flat over Nova’s round belly. Our son shifted inside her, slow and steady, like he needed to remind me of what I had to lose if I let my nightmare become our reality. The smell of gun smoke and blood dispersed as I watched my wife sleeping peacefully beside me. I untangled her from her pillow and pulled her body into mine, trying to rid myself of the last remnants of fear that had tried to drag me down.
Nova’s body was warm against my skin; the weight of her firm belly pressed lightly into me. I sighed in relief as the tightness in my chest relaxed. This was my reality. My pregnant wife was safe in my arms as our daughter slept peacefully down the hall. The nightmare wasn’t real, no matter how real it had sounded or even felt. I ran my fingers across her bare skin and breathed in the sweet scent of vanilla on her skin, before pressing a kiss on her forehead. Nova stirred in my arms, her lashes fluttering as she lifted her face toward mine.
“What time is it?” she whispered, her voice raspy with sleep.
“It’s still early. Go back to sleep, Princess.” I said, pulling her closer.
“Are you alright? You seem tense.”
I must not have answered quick enough, because she reached for me, placing her soft hand on my face before sighing. I leaned into her loving caress, knowing she could tell something was wrong. Nova had learned to read my silence the way a scientist could read a storm by how the air changed right before the lightning struck.
“I’m fine, Princess.” I said lying, because lying was easier than confessing that I had died at the hands of my ex only moments before in my head.
