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“Fine, but only because you ruined my favorite sweater andlied.” She slapped me again, and then once more on the other cheek. Tears welled up in my eyes as my face started to burn. “OK, now me.” She stood with her hands on her hips, eyes closed. “I know you might not want to do—” She stopped mid-sentence as I slapped her as hard as I could, then once more on the other side. She gasped, her eyes watering. “Wow, why do I get the feeling you have been waiting to do that?”
I chuckled and pulled her tight against me. Of course I didn’t want to slap her. She was my ride-or-die, my best friend in the whole world. I would do anything for her, and I knew she would do anything for me. But it had to be done, and better to do it quickly and get it over with. “It’s all going to be OK, Jules.”
She gripped me back with the same fierceness, her nails digging into my back. “I know, Nova. I’m not going to let anything happen to you either, OK?” She pulled back, tears freely falling now. “I still carry this enormous guilt inside of me for that fight we had and how I let Riddick put thoughts in my head. I can never say sorry enough times.”
I sniffled and shook my head. “Jules, forget that. Nobody is perfect, OK? I’m not, you’re not, nobody is. We all make mistakes. Life would be boring if we were perfect all the time. Don’t feel guilty. It’s in the past. Over. I love you.”
“I love you too, marshmallow thief.” She gripped my hands in hers and squeezed.
“Let’s do this.”
We ran as fast as we could up the hill and through the bushes. By the time we got to the front door of the emergency room, we were out of breath and sweating. I pushed the door open and ran inside, coming face to face with the blonde-haired woman with the butterfly tattoo.
“Help us!” I breathed deep, my chest rising and falling as I tried to catch my breath. “Please, help us.” I gripped Juliet’s arm as she slid down to the floor, crying.
Oh, shit. She was better at this than I’d thought. I grabbed onto her shoulders and hoisted her back up. “My friend and I were kidnapped.”
The nurse’s eyes widened as she took us in, then a spark of recognition flashed across her face. “Lock the doors, Marsha,” the blonde yelled to the other nurse on duty, and then came around the desk. “It’s OK, you’re safe.” She held her hands out to us and hurried us down the hall.
It was a small hospital that gave you an ominous feeling. It was mostly dark with very few staff walking around—five I had been able to count, plus a janitor walking around mopping the floors. Marsha herded us into a room, then walked into the hallway, pulling out her phone. The blonde glanced between me and Juliet, then turned her back to us. She must have been talking to Ryzen, just like they had said she would.
The next hour went by in a blink of an eye. Two police officers showed up and started taking our statements. They were young, polished, and definitely not from around this part of town. I told them exactly as I had rehearsed so many times.
“We were at my wedding and I was about to walk down the aisle. But then there was a commotion outside and we saw men wearing masks with guns.” My voice quivered. “We tried to run, but they grabbed us before we could get away. They put something over our heads, and we couldn’t see anything.”
The officer nodded, encouraging me to continue. I reached up and touched the cut on my forehead. “They threw us in a van, and we drove for a long time. They dumped us in a room with no windows. No light.” Juliet clenched my hand and squeezed. “They had us face a wall when they brought us food, so we never saw any faces.” A tear spilled down my cheek as I remembered how terrified I had been when that man had tried to drag me into the van, how I’d thought I was going to die.
Juliet wrapped her arm over my shoulder. “We couldn’t hear or see anything,” she continued for me. “They left the door unlocked after bringing us food, so we ran as fast as we could.”
“Anything else you can remember? Any names or what the surroundings looked like?” he asked, his pen poised over his notepad.
She shook her head. “No names. Nothing. I don’t know how long we were running, but it was daylight when we left. We were in the woods, but it was just… trees. Normal trees.”
The police officer listened intently, nodding and taking notes, but I had a feeling that they were going to go straight in the trash. The nurse with the butterfly tattoo, Erin, came by some time later and took our clothes and collected blood and urine samples. The police stood behind her watching as she scraped dirt from underneath my fingernails and put it in an evidence baggy. It all looked and felt legitimate, and if I hadn’t known better, I would have said they were doing their job one hundred percent correctly. But I did know better, and based on the looks they kept giving each other, that so-called evidence would never leave this hospital.
I sat on the edge of the gurney, swinging my legs after Marsha patched my cut up and attended to Juliet in the other room. It was definitely going to leave a scar now. I sighed and Erin came over with a bottle of water. “It’s OK, hon, your fiancé is on his way now.”
I stopped mid-swig, my back tensing. This was it. I was about to face Ryzen. I rubbed my head as everything seemed to go out of focus for a moment.
Get a grip.
I jammed my hands into my armpits and counted to twenty. Deep breath in. And out. In and out until my breathing evened out.
I snapped my head towards the door as it swung open, Ryzen standing there, his eyes wild. “Nova!” He rushed towards me, and I froze.
I hadn’t thought I was going to feel anything when I saw him. I had convinced myself that my heart was a blank canvas, but now that he was standing in front of me, it was a completely different story. Heat rushed through me, and something else. Not fear. Anger.Rage. I opened my mouth, but no words would come out. I was face to face with the man who was trying to ruin my life. The one who was framing me for blowing up my warehouse. The one who had tricked me into believing the man I was falling in love with was deceiving me. And now I was supposed to pretend to be in love with him.
“Oh, my God, Nova. I was so scared.” He gripped me to him, and I sat there, unable to move. He leaned back and grimaced at the cut on my forehead. “When I find out who did this, they will pay.”
But he already knew who it was. And that was why I was here, in this room.Time to step the fuck up, La Roux.
“Ryzen,” I breathed and gripped his jacket. “You’re really here?” Tears welled in my eyes. Not tears of sadness or joy like he probably believed. Tears of absolute anger.
“Shh, I’m here, Nova. Don’t worry, I’m here.” He pressed my head against his chest and rubbed my back.
This son of a bitch was laying it on thick, I had to hand it to him. Which meant I needed to lay it on thicker.
“I was so scared, Ryzen. Those men. They took us!” I sniffled and wiped my nose on his jacket. “I thought I was going to die. I thought they were going to kill us,” I whimpered.
