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“Stay here, baby-girl. I’m going to shut this down,” his words were at odds with what just happened. The kiss he placed on my forehead before he walked away only added to my state of confusion.
When I heard a lock turn, I knew something was wrong.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
RHETT
I couldn’t wait to get the fuck out of this town. Maybe I’d burn the motherfucker down on my way out. I hadn’t been this off in over a year. Nova had been the only thing keeping me here since Lance was gone, by this time next week we’d be gone.
In the beginning I thought she’d made this too easy.
She let me in.
She let me in, and what I found on the inside was nothing like what I saw on the outside.
I pulled on my blunt and exhaled the smoke in the direction of the lake.
“Last car just left,” Callum announced, walking up to join me.
“Emery?”
“Situated in my room, freaking out over the other one.”
I nodded, taking another puff before I passed him the blunt. “Do you think this is a mistake?” I could tell the question surprised him. I usually had a solid decision days before I made a move.
“Do I think coming here was a mistake? Yeah, kind of. We didn’t get shit but that laptop and a bigger loophole we can’t find.” He took a hit and held it for a few seconds. “Em could never be mistake. And if you’re asking, do I think Nova is? I know why you’re doing it, so, no. I’m curious though. What is it about her? Aside from her looks.”
I’d been asking myself this since I met Nova and the explanation was, there wasn’t one.
Not one that could sum up the beautiful fucking mess I’d attached myself to. She painted her tortured soul onto a canvas and suffered in silence. “She’s not something that can be explained. Beautifully twisted, practically insane. She only lets her demons out when she thinks no is watching.”
“You really like her,” he commented.
“I do.” It was a severe understatement. I couldn’t show her the parts of me that understood all those fucked up pieces of herself she’d been trying to sweep under the rug. I refused to let her become a slave to her demons, we’d tame them together. After I tamed her.
“Could you have put a bullet in her head if she wasn’t…you know?”
I knew that answer before he finished asked.
“I’ve done that before. I would do it again. Death is mercy for someone who wants nothing more than to die.”
“That was oddly philosophical.”
I ignored that and looked back at the cabin, seeing all bedroom lights had been turned on. “Tripp’s in place?”
“Yep.”
“Good.” I looked towards me bedroom window wondering how long it would take for her to find it. “Let’s get this over with.”
He nodded and fell in step beside me.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
NOVA
I think he planned this from the start.
I think he knew me better than I knew myself. And he knew if you lock a wild animal in a cage, it will do whatever it can to get out.
The room looked nothing like it had when he first left me. I wasn’t sure if he expected me to sit around and be docile, but that wasn’t going to happen.
He locked me inside his room.
Hours ago.
The sun was coming up and he had yet to return. I paced, I yelled. No one came to help.
I returned to his closet thinking it might hold something that could remove a door from its hinges or break through it altogether. My big toe caught the corner of something wooden and I hissed, hopping on one foot.
When I could wiggle it again, I crouched down and shoved a pile of pressed T-shirts to the side, revealing an oak colored box with an infinity symbol carved into the top. This looked familiar, but I could place it. I lifted the lid and stared down at my new findings.
There were stacks of cash, fresh and banded. That wasn’t too alarming. The gun gave me a little concern, I lifted it and checked the clip, counting three bullets. I would keep this.
You’d think it’d have been the passports that disturbed me the most. Six in total. All of Rhett. Or, versions of him. Each had a different name, none matching the next. From what I could see, my Rhett didn’t exist. He wasn’t even twenty-four.
I dropped the books as if they’d burned me, and that’s when I saw it. Wedged in a corner of the box. My hand was trembling, making me miss its silver chain a total of three times before I was successful. The bold red butterfly spun in a circle, its wings catching in the light.
Why did he have this?
None of the reasons my mind presented made any sense. Even if there was a feasible explanation what did it matter? He had lied to me, about everything. My father had kept the pendant in his wallet. He was going to fix the clasp and give it back.
