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And he’d do everything in his power to keep Nova safe.
* * *
Marlowe had taken charge the moment she walked in, sitting with Nova in the director’s office and calling for support from Colton Oil security.
“I’m just mad I didn’t think of doing this before.”
She’d berated herself since coming in, every comment some variation on that same theme.
“Marlowe. You couldn’t know. How could any of us know?”
The truth was that they couldn’t know. Couldn’t know Ferdy would find her and come for her.
But how?
She thought about her credit cards, untouched in her wallet. The cell phone that was still dark and unused in her purse. She’d been so careful. She hadn’t done anything that would have tipped him off or given him a way to find her. And find her so easily.
Yet he had.
Had Nikolas done something? One of his searches or requests for information.
Something dark settled in her chest as she ran that one through her mind. How easy it had been to leap to that conclusion. To assume it was him and the tools he used in his work.
And with that, their fight that morning came rushing back to her.
“What’s the matter, Nova?” Marlowe asked.
“Me. Nikolas.” She struggled to put it into words. She’d had a lot of time to herself these past months and had learned to keep her own counsel on absolutely everything. Did she dare let someone else in?
Ask for an opinion that wasn’t her own?
“Nikolas and I had a fight this morning.” Nova corrected herself. “An argument, really.”
“I can see things have progressed for you two.”
“They did. And I wanted them to. And then this morning, I messed it all up.”
“I find that hard to believe but why don’t you tell me.”
She described the brief note about Ferdy. The concern that Nikolas had betrayed her and, more to the point, the concern that his job had those frustrating dark places.
“Look, I don’t claim to be an expert on love. I am so grateful I found Bowie, but who knows what would have happened to me if he hadn’t come along?”
“You’d have found some other person who was right for you.”
A funny look came into Marlowe’s dark brown eyes. “I’m not so sure about that. Bowie Robertson was hardly ‘right’ for me in just about every way possible.”
“That’s hard to see when you’re together.”
Marlowe shrugged. “Maybe so, but it doesn’t change it. We were enemies from competing companies. We had different backgrounds and different paths in our careers. Moreover, we both saw the world through vastly singular lenses.”
“Yet you found a way to come together.” Although Nova more than appreciated the listening ear and the reality that no one’s relationships were as easy as they appeared on the surface, she couldn’t help but press Marlowe. “And you both make it work.”
“All I’m saying is that sometimes there are other forces greater than us that bring us together. If I hadn’t gotten pregnant with Reed... If that hadn’t put Bowie and me together...maybe we wouldn’t have found our way.”
Although it didn’t change her conviction that Marlowe and Bowie belonged together, her aunt’s comments did give her some food for thought.
The forces of the world acted on you in a variety of ways. That didn’t mean that they didn’t or couldn’t lead you to a wonderful outcome. In fact, sometimes it was the challenges in those forces that brought you where you needed to go.
