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Her body hadn’t shown up, either, killed as an example to him of his mistakes. No one had told him she was dead, or showed him pictures, or produced a body.
So he was now back to door number one, with his questions. He hated loose ends and Nova Ellis was a big, honking loose end.
Why had she run?
What did she know?
And how in the ever-loving hell was he going to find her?
* * *
Nova tried to still her tapping fingers, but no matter where she put them, she couldn’t get them to hold still. On her lap, on the arms of Nikolas’s really uncomfortable office chair or even on her hips, when she’d stood to pace after getting sick of said uncomfortable office chair.
Was this really happening?
From the time her mother had told her about her father, Nova had imagined what it would be like. She’d spent her entire life up to that conversation believing she was the daughter of Paul Ellis. And it was only after that she was forced to reevaluate everything.
Like did Paul know she wasn’t biologically his?
Would he have cared if he did?
Unfortunately, her mother had been in the last stages of her life and getting straight answers out of her had been a challenge. But best as she could tell, Paul had died believing she was biologically his.
Was that why her mother had kept it a secret for so long? To spare his feelings?
Or to hide her deception?
Allegra had told Nova that she’d rushed into a relationship with Paul—an older, handsome family friend who lived in Europe and had been groomed as a suitable love interest from an early age—as soon as the pregnancy from her summer love affair had been discovered.
Even now, Nova wondered how it had all come about. How could she have simply leaped into a marriage with one man to hide from an affair with another? Yet her mother had done it, obviously burying her feelings. By all accounts she had been relatively happy with the decision. She’d grieved terribly five years earlier, when Paul had died in a car accident. And she’d always spoken of Paul Ellis as the love of her life. And Paul had always loved Nova as his own.
Had it all been an act?
Or a way to rewrite history and the pain of a failed teen romance?
As they often did when she thought of her mother’s doomed romance, thoughts of her time with Ferdy filled Nova’s mind. The past five months had given her a good amount of distance—both physically and emotionally—from the man, and she’d come to understand more about what had made him so appealing.
And why she’d leaped with little understanding of who he really was.
It wasn’t something she was proud of, but she wouldn’t lie about it to her child. Nor would she hide her baby’s paternity from the man she would eventually share her life with. She still had hope she’d find love in her life. Her child would be a part of that family they created, and Nova would tell him or her the truth of their paternity.
She’d accepted that she would never really know whether Paul Ellis was aware she was not his daughter. She wouldn’t go through life doing that to a man who came into her life. The situation with Ferdy might be scary and even embarrassing, thanks to her poor judgment, but if she was lucky enough to find love, she wouldn’t hide any of it.
She continued pacing, the movement needed after the heavy lunch and equally heavy thoughts, but her gaze surreptitiously shifted to Nikolas.
Goodness, he really was attractive. Her mother had always thought swarthy men were the most gorgeous of the movie stars, and while Nova hadn’t thought she was wrong, per se, she honestly hadn’t ever paid much attention. But oh, wow, did she ever now. The dark curls, the olive-colored skin and the five o’clock shadow all did things somewhere low in her belly that had nothing to do with a growing baby or a large lunch of fish and chips.
No, this was a different sort of heaviness. The sort that made her remember, despite all the changes currently happening inside of her, that she was a woman.
Which pulled her up short because—hello!—she’d just met Nikolas Slater that morning. And she was having another man’s baby. And she was on the run from that same man who was likely a gangster of the first order, even if Nikolas didn’t know that part of the story.
But still, she kept sneaking glances at him. And even if she shouldn’t feel attracted, she did feel attracted and there wasn’t much she could say to herself to feel differently. Because whatever appealing qualities Nikolas Slater carried in the looks department, he’d proven himself an even better man.
The kindness with which he’d listened to her story about Ace. The confidentiality he’d still maintained with his existing client. Even the sweet gesture of lunch when he figured out how hungry she really was. Even the maneuver he’d just pulled on the sidewalk, negotiating her into a safe place to stay for the night.
All of it had combined to demonstrate that he was a good man.
Nikolas’s voice broke into her thoughts. “You ready to make the call, Nova?”
