Nika snorted, remembering the look on his face that morning. I usually get off just fine. “I’m pretty sure he didn’t lie, Eva.”
“He did.”
She changed the subject. “We should go. Who’s driving?” She squinted in an attempt to see through the tint on the Escalade’s windows but couldn’t.
“Gabriel. And there’s no rush,” Eva offered. “If we want to sit out here all afternoon, we can. I can tell him to come back later.”
“I love you.”
Eva hugged her. “I love you, too,” she whispered in an unsteady voice.
Nika looked at her closely when they drew apart. “You’re very emotional lately. Not as committable as I am, but still.”
“I’m worried for you.”
Nika tried to smile as Eva got to her feet and pulled her up by the hand. They walked to the Escalade and both climbed into the back.
“Hi, Gabriel,” she greeted their patiently waiting chauffeur.
“Hey, honey. You okay?”
She nodded and looked out the window as he did a U-turn and headed for the house.
“Vincente and Caleb are waiting for us,” he let her know.
“I kinda figured they would be.”
And they were, both of them wearing identical frowns as they watched the three of them climb from the SUV a few minutes later. Nika hugged her brother, trying to draw strength from him. She looked at Vincente once she extracted herself and took the high road.
“I apologize for walking out on you, and for anything hurtful I might have said. I was upset, but that’s no excuse.” She’d implied he was capable of slapping her around the same way Kevin had. The two men couldn’t be more different. She went over and offered him the same type of hug she would have given Vex. Even though she felt more, she ignored it quite easily in her mentally and emotionally drained state. “I’m sorry, Vincente,” she whispered as exhaustion ate at her. “I was cruel and unnecessarily harsh. That’s not who I am.”
His touch was almost tender as he returned the embrace. “Red—”
She pulled back with a shake of her head, not expecting a response. Not wanting one. “So everyone knows about the note?” she asked as Eva and Gabriel led the way into the house.
They ended up around the table in the kitchen, with Samnang placing steaming mugs of coffee before them.
“Does Kevin have any friends in New York, Nik?” Caleb asked quietly. “None of us thought to ask, or we assumed someone else did.”
She shook her head. “I don’t know. He has a cousin, but he never mentioned his name.”
Vincente withdrew his phone from his pocket when a buzzing noise sounded. He cursed when he read the text. “Finally.”
“What?” Gabriel and Caleb said in unison.
“Alesio and Vito got a hit with Nollan’s pic.”
Fear bit into her as Nika looked around the massive granite and stainless-steel kitchen; her gaze settled on the housekeeper at the counter chopping vegetables. He scraped a cutting board full of celery pieces into a large stockpot. Making soup? She used to love to cook.
As she turned and looked out the bay window at the swimming pool in the back, she distantly heard Vincente say a variety store owner had recognized Kevin’s photo. Her chest constricted as she stared at the surface of the nearly still water. No troubles to be had under there. Just peace and quiet.
Peace.
Quiet.
“I love you. Please be careful.”
Eva’s voice and the sound of a kiss forced Nika’s attention to what was happening around her. She balked at what she saw.
She was the only one left sitting at the table. Caleb, Gabriel, and Vincente were leaving. Rapid little clicks had her looking to see Eva off to the side, nails tapping together a mile a minute. Something she’d always done when she was really nervous or scared.
“Wait. What’s—Where are you going?” Nika demanded.
Vincente was the one to answer. “We’re going to go see if we can end this for you, Red.” He was looking at her with concern. They all were. Shouldn’t that be the other way around? They were the ones heading into God only knew what.
“Please be careful,” she said, her vision warping oddly. “I don’t want anyone getting hurt.” Or worse.
Without warning, a deluge of panic crashed over her. She grasped at her throat and shoved at her chair with the backs of her knees. After stumbling to her feet, she stepped away from everyone’s surprised expressions and squeezed her eyes shut as she tried to breathe through the horrors screaming through her mind. Her lungs seized up, burning as she tried to inflate them.
What if something happens to Gabriel because of me? What would Eva do without him? What if Kevin does something to my brother?
“F-forget it,” she rasped through the full-blown panic attack. “N-never mind. I—I’ll t-take care of th-this myself. Someplace else.” Her voice shook so badly she barely understood her own words. “I’ll go b-back to S-Seattle. He can’t hurt you g-guys there. You should f-forget about this and let me go—”
Strong, supporting arms enveloped her, and a big hand cupped the back of her head to press her cheek gently into a soft-leather-covered chest. “Shh, shh, shh. It’s okay, babe,” Vincente murmured.
But it wasn’t okay. It wasn’t ever going to be okay, she realized as the suffocation level in her chest rose until she was nothing more than a raw, terror-filled shell.
What if Kevin does something to Vincente?
What would she do if she didn’t even have the comfort of knowing he was somewhere in the world, even if it wasn’t with her? She tried to breathe around her fading vision and weakening limbs. “He’s coming, Vincente,” she wheezed. “He won’t stop. He’s coming . . . for . . . me.”
Her final words were soundless as darkness took her.
Cursing, Vincente swung Nika into his arms and swept out of the kitchen, ignoring a frowning Quan, who was just coming through the front door. He hit the stairs, taking them two at a time, and steamrolled down the hallway to his room, the fear and certainty that had been in Nika’s voice all he could hear. She was expecting death. At the hands of her abuser. No matter that it seemed she was handling things—until today, at least—she was fearing for her life. She thought Nollan getting to her was an indisputable conclusion to her story.
She was wrong. There was no possible way that guy could get within miles of this house without them knowing about it. No. Possible. Way.
After striding over to his bed, he pulled the duvet back and gently laid Nika down in the very place he slept every night. Her flaming hair was a brilliant contrast to the white of his pillowcase. His chest felt tight in helpless sympathy for what she was going through, his treatment of her notwithstanding. If he included that, he might as well just eat a bullet and get it over with.
He pulled the cover over her as Eva rushed in. Caleb stood just inside the door, head bowed, face like a rock.
“You should have brought her to our room, Vincente.” Eva went over to the other side of the bed and crawled over to sit on her knees. He didn’t bother responding. He watched one shaking hand wipe at the tears on her cheeks while the other ran lovingly over the top of her friend’s head. “She can’t take much more.” The anger and quiet alarm in her voice was apparent as she stated the obvious. “Fucking men,” she cursed under her breath.
He was taken aback by that, didn’t expect it from Eva—especially the plural. He shook it off and asked, “Do you know where Tegan is? She working?”
“She’s on her way,” she said shortly as she bent forward. “Nika? Come on, hon,” she whispered. “Wake up. Please.” She rolled onto her hip and then sat cross-legged, Nika’s hand firmly clasped between hers. “Have you ever seen her faint before, Caleb? I haven’t.” The biker didn’t even look up, instead keeping his gaze on his sister. “I’ve never seen her
like this. Not even when your dad died, but then, it was like she’d kind of expected that to happen. She breezed through it without seeming to take in what it meant. Remember? She fell apart two years after the fact. We were watching a movie where the guy’s parents were killed, and she lost it. Said she knew your dad was going to leave her even before we knew he had cancer.”
“Like Mom,” Caleb offered tightly. His cell went off, and he went out to the hall to answer it.
First her mother had left her, Vincente thought—something devastating to a young girl. Then her father. Then Eva, when she’d left Seattle to come to Columbia. And, last, Caleb, when he’d moved to New York just this past year, right when she’d needed him most. They’d all left her.
He cursed and stomped over to the mini-fridge in the corner of the sitting area and came back with a bottle of water. He didn’t like how it felt having Eva’s accusing eyes on him. Not that he met them. He ignored her and sat, his hip touching Nika’s as he cracked the lid and put the bottle on the nightstand for when she woke.
He reached out and brushed a wisp of hair off Nika’s high cheekbone. “Rest well, babe,” he murmured to her without thinking. “I’m gonna try to fix this up for you tonight. Put an end to it once and for all.” He cupped her cheek, which had only a shadow of a bruise left. “This will end, and you’re going to move on.” He wished that he could move on with her. “Trust me on that, okay?”
“Why are you being nice to her now?”
Vincente frowned and looked over at Eva. Then he got it. Nika had spilled about what had gone down this morning. Shit. “I try always to be nice to her.”
More emotion, if that were possible, entered a pair of blue eyes identical to Vasily’s. Eva’s were still glittering with moisture. “Is that so? From what I heard, you weren’t very nice earlier today. Why would you lead her on that way, Vincente?” she asked coldly, gaze darting to the door. “After what she’s been through, I think what you did was cruel.”
She was pissed. Yet she was keeping this between the three of them. He appreciated that.
“I didn’t mean to lead her on,” he grumbled. He could hear the resentment in his tone but couldn’t curb it. He just didn’t talk about shit like this. With anyone, let alone his best friend’s fucking wife. “What happened between us was—” Incredible. Beautiful. Amazing. “Well, it shouldn’t have happened. We’re—”
“Why?”
“Pardon?”
Eva glanced at the door again and then back to him. “Why shouldn’t it have happened?”
His answer was honest. “Because she deserves better than anything I can give her.”
The aggression went out of Eva as if a dam had broken, and her brow wrinkled in that way that showed someone was awwwing in her head. “Oh, Vincente. I don’t believe that. We actually think you’re pretty wonderful.” She smiled. “Sorry. I know you guys don’t like to hear that sort of thing, but it’s true. Nika likes you.”
He ground his molars and wished he was anywhere but here. “No, she doesn’t. She’s just grateful that I’m giving her a hand dealing with Nollan. Or trying to.”
“Oh, so she’s going to go off and make out with Alek next? And then Quan and Gabriel? Oh, and let’s not forget Maksim. She might even go so far as to have sex with him so he understands the gratitude she feels for taking so much time out of his busy schedule to tap some keys on a computer.”
“Are you trying to piss me off here, squirt?” he ground out, wanting to rage at the images she’d put into his head.
“No,” Eva replied patiently. “I’m trying to show you how silly you’re being. She didn’t do whatever it was you guys did together this morning because she’s grateful to you. She did it because she’s attracted to you. And for someone who has been through what she’s been through, you should be damn flattered that she’s able to feel that way about you at all.”
Vincente had to struggle not to let that blow up his chest. Nika was attracted to him. She’d wanted him this morning. She’d responded to him—
He shook the thoughts out of his head. “She still deserves better.”
“So, you don’t like her?” Eva pressed.
And he’d had it. He leaned in with a jerk, Nika’s prone body between them, and looked Vasily’s kid right in the eye. “What I feel for this woman is my personal business, and I’m going to keep it that way no matter what you ask me. Are we clear?”
A slow, lovely smile lit Eva’s face. “Yes, Vincente. You’ve made what you feel for my friend very clear.”
Fuck. She was so her father’s daughter.
Gabriel finally showed up—too late in Vincente’s estimation—Tegan right on his heels. The boss came around the bed to sit behind his wife, wrapping a comforting arm around her and pulling her back against him.
“Make some room, Vin,” Tegan ordered, shooing him away with her hands.
He stood but didn’t move away, watching as she did a basic ABCs. She yanked a stethoscope out of her NYU hoodie pocket and plugged the ends into her ears.
“You carry that everywhere you go?” he muttered.
“Sure. It gets me laid,” Tegan replied cattily. “Now shush.” She put the bell to Nika’s chest and listened for a tense twenty seconds.
Pulling the plugs out of her ears, she sat back with a sigh. “Stress is such a beotch. This poor little thing. You guys don’t know what she’s been through until you see her X-rays.” She shook her head angrily, her hand resting where Nika’s ribs would be under the blanket.
Vincente spun on his heel and headed for the door without a word. Caleb followed as he went down the hall. If Gabriel made it downstairs by the time they reached his truck, he could come with; if not, they’d leave anyway.
He had someone to kill.
A tickle on her arm brought Nika back. Opening her eyes, she blinked a few times until she was able to focus on Eva’s black hair hanging like a glossy curtain, hiding her face from view.
“Eva?” she croaked.
Her best friend’s head whipped up and she smiled. “Hey.” The smile disappeared as she shouted, “Tegan!” before looking back, smile reappearing. A nice, bright fake one.
Nika went to sit up but was held down by Eva’s hand on her shoulder.
“Just wait.”
“Why? I’m fine,” she lied as the blonde doctor appeared from a doorway on the right. “What happened?”
“Good morning,” Tegan trilled in a singsong voice, smiling a toothpaste-commercial smile as she sat practically in Nika’s lap on the massive bed she just now noticed she was lying in.
“Morning . . . ?” She watched Eva get to her feet and stand there looking nervous, which made her nervous. How could it be morning when she didn’t even remember going to bed?
“You remember Tegan?” Eva said. “And you’ve only been out about five minutes.”
Out? “Oh. Uh, yes. Hi, Tegan.” Nika looked at the familiar blonde and tried to smile. She managed, only because she remembered Vincente saying Tegan wasn’t his girlfriend. “Sorry, I—”
“Fainted. We know, sweetie,” the doctor interrupted. “Does anything hurt? Bright light,” she added just as a beam nailed Nika in the eyes, first one and then the other.
“No. Nothing.” Except everything.
“Hmm.” The doctor put two fingers over Nika’s wrist and kept time with her watch. “What’s the last thing you remember?”
Nika waded through the swamp that was her mind and tried to think around the pounding in her temples. She’d taken a taxi . . . she and Eva had talked . . . they’d all ended up in the kitchen—
She sat up so fast that Tegan squeaked in surprise. “Where are they, Eva? Did they go out?”
Eva came back and sat on the pillow like a lithe monkey, knees tucked up under her chin. “Yes, of course they did. They’ll be fine, Nika,” she soothed in a calming vo
ice as she petted her hair.
But what if they weren’t fine? What if Kevin was waiting in the shadows or something? What if he had a gun? Nika put her head into her hands, hating how helpless she felt. “Eva. If anything happens—”
“Nothing is going to happen. Okay? Now, please, just shut up and relax. You’re starting to freak me out.” She got up off the bed and started pacing, hand rubbing her stomach as if she felt sick. The little liar is shitting her pants, Nika realized. Great. “Come on—both of you. We’re going downstairs. I want some olives.” Eva stalked from the room.
“What a little Miss Bossy Pants,” Tegan muttered, holding her hand out for Nika. “No wonder Gabriel is so goo-goo over her. Can you image her in bed? Touch there. Not there. There. Harder. Faster. Blah, blah, blah, boom.”
Nika couldn’t help but smile as she took the doctor’s hand. “I think I like your bedside manner.”
“I know, right?” Tegan winked as she led her out of the room.
Before they reached the door, Nika spotted a familiar leather duster lying across the corner of the sofa and faltered. “Whose bedroom is this?”
“Vincente’s.”
Her pulse jumped, and she turned back to the bed she’d just been in. Vincente slept there every night, she thought, her body reacting. She looked around at the rest of the room. It reminded her of a self-contained hotel suite for some reason. A rather depressing grayscale winter landscape hung on one wall. Sheesh, she thought with a frown; the atmosphere in here was cold. Expensive furnishings but lifeless. Until she leaned over to peek in the closet. Now there was the warmth she’d been searching for, in the form of worn jeans on hangers, a few distressed leather dusters, an array of Vincente-style T-shirts, and a load of boots like the ones Caleb wore lining the wall on the floor. Maybe she just liked it better in there because it reflected who Vincente was to her.
Her rising temperature cooled substantially when she remembered his humiliating rejection that morning, and she finally turned and followed Tegan out. Why had she been brought to his room? Had he brought her there, or had someone else?
The Salvation of Vengeance (Wanted Men #2) Page 23
