THIRTY-SEVEN - Alana

THIRTY-SEVEN

Alana

"You have a hidden elevator in your penthouse?" I lean back against the seat, acutely aware that he's tied my hands and put the seatbelt over me. I can't move, and I'm still in shock that my cousin, my wonderful older cousin, has a gun pointed at me as he drives us rapidly away from safety.

"Of course I have a hidden elevator. Don't you?"

"No," I burst out. "I live a normal life." Well, except for the secret computer room in the basement. Turns out Nico has one in his basement as well with a door to a private garage. We're out in the street before anybody knows what's happening. Okay, I want to throw up, so I draw in several deep breaths and look over at the man I thought I knew. The last nightmare finally opened the cracks in my memory. "I remember you."

He glances at me. "I was worried about that when you said you were having nightmares again."

"Why?" I cry out, struggling against the restraints. I can see his face and his hands in my memory now. He's only fifteen years old, but he's tall, and he's gangly, and he's fighting with my mother.

"I didn't mean to throw her through the window." He grips the steering wheel tightly. "I told her I loved her and that age didn't matter. I tried to kiss her and she said no, and I don't know what happened. I saw red."

"You killed her." Pain lances through me. "Nico, she loved you. She took care of you."

He slams his hand against the steering wheel. "I loved her, too. She was the perfect woman—if she could have just seen me as an adult."

"You were fifteen years old." I try to remember the rest of it. "I ran, didn't I?"

His shoulders slump. "Yes. She yelled at you to run, right before she went through the window."

"Before you threw her through the window!" I shout, tears streaming down my face. I feel sick again and I'm not sure if it's from the mimosa or the shock of what's happening or both. "Nico, how could you?"

"It was an accident!" he shrieks.

I press back against my seat. No man should make that sound ever. I wish fleetingly for my phone, but he threw it out the window. I had pressed text, to hopefully contact my father, but maybe I'd gotten hold of Thorn. I look out the window at the rapidly gathering clouds that are already plopping fat raindrops onto Nico's windshield. There have to be cameras on this street.

He glances at me. "I took care of the cameras."

"Of course you did." I feel both ridiculous and vulnerable, wearing his shirt, with my feet bare.

"I have a jammer. I am the computer expert at Aquarius, even if I can't charge the crystals." Now he sounds bitter.

I try to think back, and I see him throwing my mother through that window inlaid with the horrible argyle design. I ran. "Where were we that day? I've never been able to figure it out."

"We were in an apartment that I bought myself."

"At fifteen?" I ask.

He jerks the wheel to the left, narrowly avoiding a downed tree. We're in the middle of nowhere already, headed up a mountain. "I have a trust fund. I told her it could be our special spot where we could sneak away together. When she met me that day, I didn't know you were going to be there."

"She probably had no idea why you wanted to meet."

"She didn't, but she loved me. I know she did."

He's crazy. There's no other explanation. How did I miss this? "She loved you like a son or a nephew," I blurt out.

"No, more than that." He almost casually reaches out and backhands me.

My head smacks the headrest, and tears well in my eyes. At least he hit the unbruised side of my face. I chuckle, the sound slightly hysterical.

"And then there's you."

"Me?" I ask.

He pounds the wheel now with both hands. "You're just like her. I've been trying to get your attention for years but you see me as . . ."

"My cousin?" I mutter.

"Several times removed. I told your father that you and I should marry. Any child we create will have an affinity with the aquamarines."

It's almost unthinkable. I gag. I can't help it. "I remember falling down a set of stairs after you killed her." I try to capture the rest of the day, but there are just blank spots and darkness and rain.

"You did. You ran out the front before I could stop you, right into traffic."

The scar on my belly is real. "So I did get hit by a car."

"Of course you got hit by a car." Tree branches scrape his window. "The driver hit you, then swerved, smashing into a light post and dying. It was all so easy to fix from there."

I try to gauge how far we are from his home. We're heading up into the mountains. "What's your plan here, Nico?"

"I have a place," he says. "You like to be kidnapped, right?"

Only by Thorn. "What, you think you're going to take me away and I'm going to fall in love with you?"

"It worked for Beathach," Nico growls. "I just need to think. I have a cabin. It's not registered in my name, but it's a place we can hide out for a while."

I have to get away from him. "What does my father think happened to my mom?"

"That there was a car accident." Nico turns up what appears to be a long, winding dirt road. Trees loom on either side of us and I shiver. "Because there was," he says. "I put both of you out in the road near the smashed car. It was a quiet, exclusive street back then. It was pretty simple. I'm surprised you survived, to be honest."

I look at him agape. "Why did you stay with me in the hospital?"

"I had to make sure you didn't wake up and tell them what happened, but you didn't remember anything. Man, Greg was beside himself." Nico chuckles. "He was really a good guy, but clueless."

I can't breathe. For the briefest of seconds, it's like a hand encloses both of my lungs and squeezes. "Did you kill Greg?"

Nico shifts. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Too bad!" I shriek. "Why would you kill him?"

Nico casts me a look and then concentrates on the muddy road. "When your dad decided to merge with the Sokolovs, I told Greg I had a better idea, that you and I should get married."

Bile rises up my throat and I ruthlessly swallow it down. "I take it Greg said no?"

"Not only that, he told me it was crazy. And then he looked at me, actually looked at me, and asked me how I felt about you. I told him how perfect you are and how much you remind me of your mother and how I would protect you." He rambles on. "That I want to protect you like I failed to do for your mom."

I swallow. "He guessed what happened."

Nico hunches his shoulders. "Yeah, he did."

"So you killed him," I explode.

"I hit him in the temple. We fought. I didn't mean to kill him."

I fight the restraints. Not for freedom but so I can attack him. Hurt him. "You pushed him over a cliff."

"I don't want to talk about it anymore," Nico says. "Don't make me hit you again."

He's too far gone. Has he always been a psychopathic bastard? He mimics emotions well. I think back through everything I know about him. "Did you kill Cal?"

"No, I didn't kill Cal."

Oh yeah, that's right. The fingers were gone. Thorn killed Cal. "What about the girl under the rosebush?"

Nico's chest puffs out. "Yeah, that was me." He sounds proud of himself.

I shake my head. "Why?"

"Every once in a while I need a release," he says, turning once again between thick trees on a barely there road. The potholes get worse and we hump and bump as he drives even higher up the mountain. "She was just a local woman—another stuck-up bitch. They all look like you."

"I noticed that," I say. "You gave her a necklace like the one I always wear?"

His smile is gruesome. "I like them to wear the crystal while I kill them."

This is unbelievable. "How many women have you killed?"

"I don't know. The only one that really matters is your mother."

He's a serial killer and I had no idea. "Why did you put that dead woman at Cal's house earlier today?"

"I wanted to frame him," Nico says easily. "I can't let you marry him. Not that I'm worried about it now." His smile is sly. "Who do you think killed him? Do you really think it was Thorn?"

I wish Thorn had seen Nico at their mutual crime scene. "Yes," I say. "I know it was Thorn."

"Huh, we probably just missed each other." Nico smiles brightly as if amazed by the wonders of the universe. "What a coincidence."

"I guess." I hope there's some way for Thorn to track me. Without my phone, it doesn't look good. My face aches, my hands hurt, and I really need to throw up again. The last few weeks spin through my head. "Wait a minute. Did you send that kill squad after me in the bar?"

He snorts. "Kill squad. Their orders were to kidnap you and bring you to me. But Thorn interfered."

Thank goodness. "What's your plan for me, Nico?"

He sighs. "Well, either you fall in love with me or I'm going to kill you."

I'm a dead woman.

He parks at a ramshackle cabin with a rotting front porch. "I meant to get it ready for you. For a rustic honeymoon." He tucks his gun at his waist and releases my seatbelt before hauling me over the center console. I land with my bare feet on the ground and cry out as a stick cuts into my heel. Pain rips up to my knee as the rain mercilessly pounds us.

"Sorry." He picks me up, and I feel his chest muscles play against my shoulder. Though he's not nearly as strong as Thorn, I'm still surprised by his strength.

The interior of the cabin is worse than the exterior, and he places me on a wooden chair, looking around. "It's not that bad. Be good, and soon we'll control all four of the social media companies. I have a plan, and it's coming to fruition."

Something scurries into the corner and out of sight. The place is one room with a bed, kitchenette, and living area with fireplace. It's the absolute last place in the world anybody will look for either of us. My wrists are securely bound together, but my feet are free.

"I'll start a fire." He strides across the uneven boards and starts stacking firewood.

I gauge the distance between my body and the door.

"You won't make it, and I have the car keys," he says congenially.

I look toward the kitchen and see red splotches on the floor. My stomach revolts. "Is that blood?"

He glances at the planks. "Yeah. Sorry. I haven't cleaned up after my last guest."

Oh God. He really is going to kill me.

"Nico," I say. "This is a bad idea. Let's go back home and talk to my father and see if we can work something out."

He looks at me as if I've lost my mind. "It's way too late for that and you know it. Our only way out of this is if we get married."

I'm not entirely sure that's a way out of anything. "Alrighty," I say brightly. "But I want a big society wedding."

He laughs, the sound strained. "Don't play me for a fool. I'm not stupid. It's going to take a while for you to fall in love with me."

Like never.

The fire starts to crackle and warm the chilly cabin. Rain continues to pummel the earth outside, giving the entire place a musty smell that's nearly overwhelming. I idly wonder what Nico's words taste like.

Where is Thorn right now? No doubt cleaning up after his murder, or maybe he's at Malice Media trying to save his life. I hope so. Even if I depart this world, I hope he survives the illness. I know we don't make sense to most people, but I feel him where it counts, and I want the best for him.

Love hurts. It's like a constant slicing of a blade through my insides when I'm not with him. Maybe we'll meet in death. The macabre thought cheers me, which is all sorts of fucked up.

Nico dusts his hands together. "Tell you what, I've got the place stocked with food. I'm going to make you a nice meal, because you didn't eat much earlier, and then we're going to talk and figure this out."

So long as I can keep him talking, at least I'm not being shot or stabbed. "All right." Curiosity gets the better of me. "Why did you smash those women's faces in?"

"Because they weren't you," he says, tossing me what could be considered a charming smile if he wasn't a psychopathic bastard.

"Oh," I say lamely. I'm going to have to run for it, but I really need my hands free in case I have to fight. "Nico, will you untie me?"

"Not quite yet. Let me cook for you first." Surprisingly, he grabs the back of my wooden chair and drags me closer to the kitchen. "Just in case you decide to run."

I'm not bound to the chair, but it's unlikely I can reach the door before he tackles me onto the blood-covered wooden floor. "What are you making?" I ask lamely. "More pizza?"

He shakes his head. "No, I can do better than that. Let me look through the fridge."

There's a small avocado green fridge at the end of a torn Formica counter that probably was orange at some point. He starts humming as he brings out fruit and berries, before reaching in a cupboard for pancake mix. "How about hotcakes? I'm pretty good at making those."

"Sounds great," I say, searching the kitchen. There have to be knives somewhere.

"Good." He's oddly cheerful. Maybe killing does that for him.

My feet are going numb, it's so chilly. "Why did you set up the whole murder board and have us play detectives?"

Pride fills his face. "I needed you to find out what your dad knew. Plus, it was fun."

What an ass. I look for a way to reach him. "Nico, I have to get back to charge the crystals. You know that."

"Oh yeah." He starts whipping the batter in a bowl. "You're right, but that's not going to happen for a while. Mathias should be able to handle things."

"He's not as good as I am."

"Nobody is," Nico says and winks.

Oh man, I might throw up again. I watch him carefully, looking for a way to get that gun from him. It's my only chance. Perhaps if we eat together, he'll relax and then I can go for it.

He dishes up two plates and moves me closer to the two-person table at the far end of the other counter. "Isn't this cozy?"

"Sure is," I say, looking down at my hands. "You're going to have to untie me. I can't eat like this." I'm trying really hard to ignore the bloodstains on the floor.

He sighs. "I'll feed you."

I gag. I can't help it. My legs are freezing and my cheek aches from where he hit me. "Nico," I start.

Just then the door bursts open and Thorn barrels inside with Justice on his heels. He lunges for me. Nico wails and backs away, grabbing his gun. Thorn jumps at him and Nico fires. Pain explodes in my shoulder and I fly back, my head thunking on the floor.

Then darkness takes me under, and I feel nothing.