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Which was both silly and oddly profound, she thought as she worked her way out of the car.
Nikolas had pulled them up to the building’s portico to drop her off, the parking lot nearly full at that hour. Over the past week he’d taken to coming around and opening the door for her, and while she really wanted to stand her independent ground, her stomach was getting too big to argue the point.
She held his hand as she got out and was oddly buoyed when he clung an extra few seconds before dropping hers.
Maybe the morning hadn’t been totally unsalvageable.
Maybe.
“I’ll just go park and be right back.”
She didn’t say anything, just watched him walk back around the car and climb in.
Those black curls that captivated her so much picked up the slightest breeze and Nova thought about the night before. She’d spent the night in his arms. She’d touched every inch of him, as he had her. He hadn’t seemed put off by her pregnancy. In fact, he’d told her how beautiful she was and how lucky the baby was to have her as its mother.
It had been tender and sweet and had brought a light sheen of tears to her eyes that
he saw her wholly as a woman, yet appreciated and understood and even celebrated the life that grew within her.
“Damn hormones,” she muttered as she dug out a tissue from her purse. Between the coursing hormones and the wild swings of emotion over the past week, she’d taken to shoving tissues in her purse each day, and now tugged at one of her stack. She’d inadvertently tossed her wallet on top of them and had to juggle her heavy purse to pull out the small scrap.
Her focus caught on the tissue, she wasn’t paying much attention to the broader parking lot.
It was only as she pulled the tissue free that she glanced up, the sudden sound of a car engine and squealing tires registering somewhere in her mind. A large black SUV swerved madly through the parking lot. And as she watched in disbelief, seemingly safe on the sidewalk, she realized one other fact.
Despite the narrow confines of the portico, the SUV was headed straight for her.
Chapter 17
Nikolas found one of the last spots in the parking lot and had jumped at it, lost in thought and the rote mechanics of parking the car. He’d gone over and over his discussion with Nova in his mind, replaying the words.
And the angry frustration that had characterized them.
He didn’t want to apologize. Moreover, he didn’t have anything to apologize for. He couldn’t change who he was, nor was he going to offer excuses for his job. He was good at what he did, damn it.
Why should he justify his work choices?
All good questions but ones that had very little validity in the face of a frustrated partner who was scared and scarred by recent events.
Something he’d do well to remember.
Like a deflating balloon, his selfish anger faded. Yes, they’d still need to work through this. He was still a PI and there were still going to be cases she didn’t like.
But...those cases weren’t going to be the investigation of her father. Perhaps he could give a bit more credence to that aspect of the situation.
Focused on making it right, he continued walking toward the lab, oblivious to what was around him until he heard the simultaneous squeal of tires and Nova’s scream.
Registering them both at the same time, he took off at a run. As he moved, the building seemed to get farther away instead of closer, and he took in the image of a large SUV bearing down on her small frame, the whole scene like a tableau.
One that was about to become grisly as she stood all alone on the portico sidewalk.
* * *
Nova’s scream echoed in her head but as she stared at the SUV, nothing else but the noise seemed to register in her mind. A mixed sort of confusion gripped her, a mental cry between “what was happening?” and “move!”
Self-preservation finally won out as it became evident the SUV wasn’t just out of control, but purposely bearing down on her.
And Nova ran.
