by Addison Fox
Nova picked at the fresh fruit cup Nikolas had snuck into her take-home bag and considered her options. The clever man had both managed to bargain her into staying at his place for the night all while getting antioxidants into her by the shovelful.
And she was too tired and hungry to argue with him.
A fact she resented as she popped another blueberry into her mouth, the kind words of the last diner manager she’d met with still ringing in her ears.
I’m sorry I can’t help you. The rush is over and I’m full up on waitresses. I’m happy to give you a shot if I need subs, but right now I can’t offer you full-time work.
She’d kept her tone grateful and her attitude respectful, even as the urge to plop onto a stool and bawl her eyes out reared its head.
What else was she going to do? The manager at the diner had been incredibly nice, but Nova figured the woman was a by-the-book stickler. Which meant employment paperwork and a social security number.
Which meant going back on the grid.
Something she knew she had to do eventually. The money and tips she’d picked up on her drive out west had all been managed around places she wouldn’t stay long and where minimal questions were asked. But Mustang Valley didn’t offer the under-the-table lifestyle she so desperately wanted to maintain.
Tell Nikolas.
That voice nagged at Nova, over and over, only growing strong after an afternoon spent wandering around Mustang Valley. Although the time hadn’t paid professional dividends, she considered it a few hours well spent as she was absolutely captivated by the town, which managed to be both quaint and cutting-edge, all at the same time. The Mustang Valley Mountains that gave the town its name seemed like a protective fortress around the perimeter of the city.
She hadn’t known what to expect coming here, the majority of her life having been dominated by skyscrapers and concrete, but Nova was finding it increasingly easy to appreciate the arid land that stretched out everywhere she looked.
When she wasn’t looking at that distant horizon where mountains met the desert floor, she was taking in a different sight. One that offered a prominent reminder of why she’d come.
Colton Oil.
Her gaze had been drawn repeatedly to the edge of town, where the large Colton Oil headquarters loomed over the landscape. That was where Ace had worked, along with the rest of the people he’d believed were his family. It was part of his life, which meant it was part of her heritage.
And it was as foreign to her as all that dry land the building sat on.
Had she made the right decision in coming?
Even as she asked herself that, Nova knew the truth. There was nothing left for her in New York. And a nomadic life driving around the country, picking up waitressing jobs, wasn’t a life for her child.
Which meant she had to figure out how to survive here.
Her talk earlier with Nikolas about her work continued to fight for space in her thoughts. Was it possible she could find styling work here, in southeastern Arizona? Would someone actually pay her for that? Yet even if they did and she attempted to build a business off a few initial jobs, the baby would be here in a couple of months. She would need to factor in taking some time off, all in the midst of trying to establish herself.
None of it was easy.
And the answers she so desperately sought seemed to hover just out of reach.
Tell Nikolas.
They’d only met that morning. Did she dare risk opening up about Ferdy? Even if she could get past her own personal embarrassment about taking up unknowingly with a criminal, exposing his crimes could put her child in a position of danger.
Do you think you can run away from me?
That had been the text that had finally done it all those months ago. The one that had convinced her she needed to stay on the run all while keeping a watchful eye. Two of them, really.
She’d spent the ensuing months staring at shadows, convinced every one held her ex-boyfriend. And so far it had worked. There was no way she could risk alerting Ferdy now.
Would Nikolas really be able to keep the knowledge of such crimes to himself? Wouldn’t he be honor bound to call the cops with her suspicions about Ferdinand Adler?
From a distance, it all seemed well worth doing and she chastised herself for not being brave. For not doing what needed to be done to get a bad man off the streets and unable to hurt others.
But she also had no idea how deep Ferdy’s influence ran. Did he have people inside the NYPD? Inside the city government? Would she put her new family at risk, not to mention the fear she already carried for the baby, if she pursued this?
It all roiled around, over and over, and she struggled to make any sense of it.
Midbite on another blueberry, her gaze caught on a small billboard on the opposite side of the parking lot. Although the town appeared focused on maintaining a quaint air and uncluttered landscape, there were local advertisements throughout town, the ads wrapped in tasteful wood frames.
A woman stared back from the image in a professional suit, looking worldly and successful. It seemed like the right match for the headline—“Be Your Best You!”—yet something was off.
Curious, Nova thought, leaning toward the window to get a closer look.
Her gaze drifted over the words and the flowing script at the bottom of the billboard.
Affirmation Alliance Group, Micheline Anderson, founder.
What was that all about?
Nova cursed the burner phone that made searching for anything about as easy as scratching her own back, so she opted for getting her information the old-fashioned way. She climbed out of the car and walked over to the young woman standing under the billboard handing out fliers. She wore a pressed suit like the woman in the ad, leaving a first impression of competence and success.
Until she spoke.
“Hello.” The woman nodded, a beatific smile filling her face. The smile didn’t stop there but continued on up, shading her eyes with a spacey sort of look that made Nova think of someone coming off a three-day bender.
Minus the bloodshot eyes.
Despite the smile that suggested inner peace and harmony, the woman looked lost.
“I’m so glad you’re here today,” the woman said, her smile still bright, her eyes still vague and unfocused.
“Well, thank you. I noticed you over here and thought I would come say hello. Stretch my legs for a bit.”
She wasn’t sure why, but something in her stylist’s eye was still bothered by the incongruity of the woman in the ad above her head. She supposed the messaging of being your best self worked well with Micheline’s image, but the flowy script and the syrupy message seemed so false and fake.
A point that was only reinforced by a spaced-out, sharply dressed follower.
The woman gestured widely, coming close but not actually laying hands on Nova’s belly. “And I see you are beautiful with the bounty of new life.”
Although touching her belly had become something of an unconscious habit, there was something about standing before the wide-armed woman that made Nova want to lay both hands over the front of her stomach for protection. Which was silly. Good heavens, it was broad daylight. Yet that urge was there all the same.
Ever since the day she’d run from Ferdy’s office, she hadn’t questioned that small itch when it came at the back of her neck.
And it was itching now.
Nova might have teased Nikolas earlier about remarking on her pregnancy, but ever since she had “popped,” she’d gotten used to the attention her pregnancy drew. She’d gritted her teeth at some of the people who were too forward, but never had she felt so ill at ease.
All the same, she was the one who’d walked over. So playing along, she said, “I am the luckiest of women.”
“Yes, you are. Being your best self.” The woman
dreamily selected a flier off a stack she had nearby and handed it over. “Living our best lives is our eternal goal.”
The sign above the woman talked about that best-self nonsense, too, and Nova wondered what it was all about. Some sort of motto? Or maybe an outward focus to describe what the organization did.
She glanced down at the flier, several New Age words popping out at her as she quickly scanned the page. The words “best self” was on the page at least four times. So were terms like “inner harmony,” “personal affirmation” and “life-giving joy.”
“Well, thank you for taking the time. I should probably be going now.”
“You should come up and visit us,” the woman said, gesturing broadly once again, this time vaguely in the direction behind her. “We keep our home at the edge of town, near the beauteous bounty of the mountains.”
Oh, goodness, there she was, going on about bounties again. First the baby, now the mountains. Was everything bounteous and beautiful? One last glance into those vague eyes and Nova figured yes, to this woman it probably was.
Life in all its glory.
“I’ll definitely think about it.”
“Please do. And have a good day!”
Nova was already backing away, keeping a bright smile on her face and offering up a small wave. She hoped she’d looked friendly. It was only when she was seated back in her car that she took her first easy breath.
First the weirdness of that ad, with the woman who didn’t seem to quite match. And now the goofy follower, embracing life in all its bounty.
Something was off about those people.
It was only once she drove away, Nikolas’s office coming back into sight, that she finally felt the tension ease out of her shoulders.
* * *
Nikolas spent the afternoon making phone calls, the lifeblood of a PI’s day. He’d spoken to several nurses at Mustang Valley General and had questioned the phone company over a few records. He’d even managed to get a hold of Michael Seaver, Ace Colton’s new defense attorney since Ainsley’s fiancé, Santiago, had recused himself from the case.
He’d pick up tomorrow with a few face-to-face interviews at the hospital, but for now, he was getting ready to call it a day.
An oddly productive one, even if it hadn’t gone in a direction he could have possibly imagined.
What were the odds Ace Colton’s daughter would walk into his office? Even more intriguing, Ace’s long-lost daughter. In what world did that even happen?
Obviously, in his.
He still hadn’t figured out his reaction to Nova. While he wasn’t one to leave a person in need in the lurch, he also never considered himself particularly protective. He helped out where he was needed, but he’d never taken such a personal interest in another person.
Why now?
Was it because of the pregnancy? Nova was in a vulnerable state, and while she might try to act tough, no amount of bravado could change the fact the woman was seven months pregnant.
In some way, it was easier to excuse this concern for her by placing it squarely on the pregnancy. It felt detached in some way, like the baby was the only reason he was helping her.
Even if it really wasn’t.
Why was he anxious to take care of her?
Pretty women were a dime a dozen. Yes, she was beautiful and he felt some base attraction to her, but that wasn’t the reason. And yes, he admired her strength and personal fortitude that had gotten her all the way to Arizona. But that didn’t explain why he felt the way he did, either.
No, there was something indefinable that he couldn’t quite put his finger on.
Something that had kept him highly aware of her while he was in her presence and continuously curious about what she might be doing now that she’d gone out on her own.
Something that also made him wonder when she’d be back.
He was already anticipating seeing her again.
On a confused sigh he shut down his computer, vowing to keep up the search for clues to Ace’s actions and current whereabouts tomorrow. Tucking his computer into the slim leather attaché case he carried each day, he thought about heading out to look for Nova.
It was only in that moment that he realized he didn’t have a way to contact her. No cell phone number.
How had he missed that?
Because she hasn’t given you one.
That thought struck loud and clear, yet another example of the interesting way she seemed to float around personal details.
Who didn’t have a phone?
Only even as he considered it, Nikolas realized he had never seen her pull one out, in all the time they’d spent together that day. Not in his office. Not at lunch. Not even while he’d told her about Marlowe and Ainsley, a search program open on his screen.
Based on the timing of Ace and her mother’s affair, he’d calculated Nova must be about twenty-three. No one in their age range lived without a phone in reaching distance. A sort of perpetual appendage to the world around them.
And even if you dismissed needing to be so attached for everyday life, she’d spoken of being a stylist before heading west to Arizona. Wouldn’t a mobile phone be core to her success in the field?
Nikolas was nearly out the door when Nova came bustling in. Tension he hadn’t been aware of faded away as he took in that petite frame and sweet baby bump. Although he’d watched her run through a variety of emotions today, there was something almost scared in the way she held herself. She wasn’t shaking, but it seemed as if she could blow away in a strong wind.
“Nikolas,” she exhaled heavily. “You’re still here.”
“Of course. I said I would wait for you.”
She shook her head. “Yes. Yes, you did.”
“Are you okay?”
“I was. I mean, I thought I was.”
“Did something happen while you were looking for work?”
“No, not really. But I guess it sort of did.”
Something had obviously shaken her, so he pulled her over to the large couch that sat in his outer office. “Come over here and sit down. Let me get you some water and then you can tell me.”
He ran back into his office to get a bottle of water out of his fridge and couldn’t easily dismiss the protective feelings that had sprung to life once again in her presence.
Had someone hurt her?
Although she looked well and whole, it had to have been something. And if not physically hurt, had someone threatened her?
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.”
“I guess they’re on the edge of town. I don’t quite know my way around yet but yes, I think that’s it.”
“The AAG has a center out there. They’re full of spiritual enlightenment and all that crap.”
