AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“For the past five months I’ve been running from the father of my baby. He doesn’t know I’m pregnant. As far as I know, he doesn’t know where I’ve gone. It has to stay that way, on both counts.”
“Why are you running?”
“Because the man I trusted, the man I created a new life with, he’s not a good guy. In fact, I think he may be a very bad man.”
Chapter 10
Nikolas had dreamed up more than a few scenarios in his head about Nova’s situation. Between his job and his generally curious nature, he’d done quite a bit of thinking on who this Ferdy guy might be that Nova had mentioned at dinner.
Never, in any of his imaginings, had he suspected the guy was a criminal. And a big one, by the sounds of it.
But as Nova spoke, telling him of her relationship with this Ferdy, the way they’d met and fallen for each other, Nikolas evaluated each piece. The way the man’s behavior had changed after that great first date to becoming verbally abusive. The subtle and not-so-subtle signs she could recall now, after the fact. And then the big reveal, the day she’d gone to tell him she was pregnant and he’d been upset and angry about a drug shipment he was trying to shepherd into the Port of New York.
“Have you told anyone else about this? About your suspicions?”
“No. No one. I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because Ferdy can’t know about the baby. He may not care about the baby specifically, but there’s no way he’d want me and his kid out there on our own, out from under his thumb. Especially now that I ran. He’ll figure out that I know about him.”
“You can go to the police.”
“No!” Nova’s hand gripped his forearm across the cupholders between their seats. “No. That’s exactly what I didn’t want to have happen. He’s hidden his deeds this long. Hell, I didn’t even know about them. I can’t go to the police. What if he has some cops in his pocket and that’s how he’s getting away with things?”
“Okay, okay. No police.”
Nikolas knew she was afraid, and he knew he needed to manage this carefully. But that depth of fear was something even he hadn’t anticipated. She’d obviously had a lot of alone time these past five months. To fear that going to the cops would make things worse didn’t speak well of her ex—and he already thought pretty poorly of Ferdy.
“You promise?” Her eyes were still wild, the hurried tones of her voice a match to the terror he could see in their depths.
“Yes. I promise.”
“I thought—” She broke off, a look of misery paring deep lines into her forehead. Even as youthful as she was, Nikolas could see the way the emotional pain mapped itself on her. The hunch of her shoulders, the stiffness in her back as if she might be ready to break. “I thought if I came here and changed my name and became a Colton, I could make it all go away. It seems silly now to think that. But they’re a powerful family and I guess... I guess I thought I could hide inside of all that.”
“You’re not entirely wrong. But you’ve been determined to go off the grid, and in order to change your name and start a new life, you’re going to have to go back on it.”
“I know. I’ve known that, regardless of meeting the Coltons. I’m going to have my baby in a hospital. I won’t risk him or her to any other environment.” She blew out a breath, the few wisps of hair around her cheeks blowing in that soft breeze. “I have money. That’s the weird part. I have money that my mother left me, and I also have some that I’ve saved from my own job. I’m not destitute. But—”
“But to touch any of it would mean an electronic record.”
“Yes, it does.”
Grit. Determination. Uncommon strength.
Nova had all of those things and so much more. Once again, Nikolas thought of his own behavior earlier when they were at Marlowe’s. “I am truly sorry. About before. You didn’t deserve my judgment.”
“I think we can put that behind us.”
“Can we?”
“Yes, we can. I can.”
“If you can be so open-minded as to put that behind you, can I ask you to be open-minded about something else?”
She shifted again in her seat, seemingly to find a more comfortable position, and Nikolas realized how unfair it was to keep a seven-months-pregnant woman stuck in the front seat of a car any longer than necessary.
“But before I ask you anything, can we please go to your office and finish this conversation there?”
