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She could contact him. He’d given her his number. A number she’d tossed in the trash almost the same moment he gave it to her.
Now, she wanted nothing more than to pull that moment back to her. Rewind it. Play it out a different way.
Maybe Ozzy would still be alive.
Maybe she and Mathias would be together.
Maybe she was a fool, losing her heart to someone she’d known only a handful of days.
As Eddie’s soft snores drifted up from his pillow, Nova carefully eased herself up off the bed.
It was early, just past sundown. She was restless, twitchy, even though she hadn’t slept more than a few minutes last night.
She glanced around at the dozens of other similar cots, occupied by men and women and children, a community of all ages and descriptions. She was homeless again. Faced with the decision to either run some more or hide.
She needed space to think. Time to heal after Ozzy’s death and all of the awful things that had surrounded it.
And she needed to feel Mathias’s arms around her, with a desperation she could hardly reconcile.
She’d fallen in love with him.
She didn’t know how, didn’t care why.
She only knew that she needed him.
And right now, all she wanted to do was walk out into the night air and scream Mathias’s name.
Quietly, she left the basement shelter and walked up the stairs to the door leading to the cathedral grounds. She found a wooden bench and sank down onto it. It was a place she’d sat many times before, her private meditation nook in the middle of the bustling city.
Tipping her head back, she looked up, beyond the cathedral towers at the stars and the waning crescent moon. She closed her eyes and remembered the terrified, brutalized little girl who’d come here the first time.
She was back again, scared and hurting, but she was different now. She had a new strength, thanks to Ozzy and the home he had opened to her. Now he was gone, but she was still standing. And he would want her to stand. He wouldn’t want her to run.
She didn’t want to run, not anymore.
Not from anyone, ever again.
Not even from Mathias, and the feelings he had awakened in her.
“Is this seat taken?”
She dropped her chin, her eyes flying open. “You found me.”
“I found you,” Mathias said. He sat down next to her on the bench. “Ozzy’s killer is dead. You’re safe now. I wanted you to know that.”
“You...?” she asked, unsure what she needed to know in that moment. The fact that he was there with her was the only thing that really mattered.
“We got him, Nova. And from what we’ve gathered, it doesn’t appear that anyone else knows you’re in London. Doyle and the others weren’t looking for you. You and Eddie aren’t in any danger now.”
“Thank you,” she murmured. “You came here just to tell me that?”
He nodded. “Are you...all right?”
“I miss Oz,” she admitted. “I’ll always miss Oz.”
“I know. I’m sorry.” He frowned, gave a mild shake of his head. “If there’s anything I can do...”
“I’ll be fine,” she assured him. “Eddie and I will be fine. We’ll figure things out.”
