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The thoughts he had that morning, the ones that made him wonder if she was withholding things from him, came back once again.
Was she on the run from someone? Or maybe there was some nameless, faceless threat after her. Whatever it was, it was tangible and real and he wanted to know what she was up against.
What they were up against together.
Moving back into the outer office, he considered the petite form nearly swallowed by the large leather couch. Although he hadn’t quite considered her vulnerable, in that moment he saw it all very clearly.
Yes, Nova Ellis was searching for her father’s family. And yes, she was also anticipating the birth of her first child, with all the excitement and anxiety that came at that time of life in equal measure.
But he also saw something else.
He’d already instinctively suspected she was in danger, but now he’d bet his business he was right. It was just a coincidence she’d walked into his office that morning. Nothing other than some odd sort of chance that had put them in one another’s paths. Serendipity, his mother would have called it, with a twinkle in her eye.
He might not understand it, but he trusted it.
And as he handed over the water, her eyes wide with all the things she still hadn’t told him, Nikolas made a vow to himself.
He would protect her.
N
o matter what.
* * *
She was overreacting.
In some rational, aware part of herself, Nova knew that.
But she’d felt decidedly irrational since meeting that woman in the parking lot. The one from the AAG. The Affirmation Alliance Group.
Which sounded more and more made up, the longer she thought about it.
Nikolas twisted off the cap and handed over a cold bottle of water. She drank it down, the liquid washing away the dust that had settled in her throat.
“Now. Tell me what has you so upset.”
“It’s dumb.”
“I’m sure it’s not.”
Although she knew he was only reacting to the way she’d rushed into his office, she now felt ridiculous, having to explain what had her upset.
First she’d showed up out of the blue. Then she’d eaten his food. And now she was about to tell him how a poorly stylized billboard had freaked her out.
Only it hadn’t just been the billboard or the strange dissonance of the woman facing out from it. It was that weird, zoned-out person she’d spoken to. She was...well, she seemed like a follower. Like someone blindly trapped in another person’s web.
“Yeah, it sort of is.”
“Nova. I’ve been doing this for a while. And I can tell you, when someone walks into my office with wide eyes and an expression that’s a cross between haunted Halloween hayride and ‘I just got a note from the IRS,’ I pay attention.”
“I looked that bad?”
“You looked freaked.” His large hand wrapped around both of hers where they still held the water. “Tell me what happened.”
“What do you know about the Affirmation Alliance Group?”
“Those people out at the edge of town?” He shrugged. “You hear some things from time to time. They have a reputation for being sort of cultish, but more in the ‘don’t people have anything better to do with their time?’ sort of way.”
