Nikolas stood up and gestured to his seat, giving her room to maneuver at his laptop. She sat down and placed her hands on the keyboard, surprised to realize how easily it all came back. Her password was one of her easier ones and she logged in. Several hundred notifications waited for her in the upper corner of the screen.
“Wow. You can tell I’ve been away for a while.” Nova glanced at the notifications but ignored them. She’d look through them another day.
“You’ve had reason to be.”
“Okay. Here goes.” She tapped Ferdy’s name into the search bar, pleased when a small check confirmed they were still “friends.”
She immediately went to his photos section, scanning for anything she might recognize as a function or a group of people.
Nikolas gave her room to work, setting a pen and notepad beside her, and she quickly became lost in the exercise. He’d done a lot over the past few months. Images of him in a tux filled several thumbnail photos and she clicked into several, curious to see if anyone else was tagged in the image.
Most of the pictures were of him or him and a date. Shocked that the photos didn’t upset her more, she kept on clicking, searching for something she could use.
And then hit the motherlode.
“Here. Look here.” Nikolas was already off the love seat and leaning over her shoulder. “These people. I don’t know them but I recognize them from being around. The first time Ferdy and I met, he was talking to these people before he introduced himself to me. And this one.” She tapped a man with white-blond hair and vivid blue eyes. “He’s been at functions. He’s distinctive and hard to forget. He also has an accent. It’s charming—” She broke off, memories of a long-forgotten evening springing to mind. “Only it’s not. It’s sort of harsh underneath, as if he’s sizing up everyo
ne and everything around him.”
“Is it tagged?” Nikolas leaned over her shoulder and hovered the mouse over the photo. No name popped up but he took a screen grab of the image. “We’ll see what we can do with that.”
The warmth of his body enveloped her as he tapped a few commands to save the photo. Even though Nova knew she was tempting fate, looking up Ferdy and somehow putting her intentions into the ether, she couldn’t deny that it felt good to act.
To find some way to put the nightmare behind her.
It didn’t seem so bad with Nikolas at her back, his large body shielding her from harm.
* * *
The call came at 3:10 a.m. Ferdy rolled off the slut he’d picked up at a club the previous night and read the name on the screen.
Wally.
The bitch was so blitzed out on pills and booze she’d never hear him, so he didn’t bother closing the door as he walked naked into the living room. “This is Adler. It better be good.”
“Oh, it’s good.” Wally launched right in. “I found her. She logged into a new device to check her social media. Who’d have thought the one password you knew would actually pay off. It pinged me as soon as she logged in, confirming the IP address and making sure she was legit on a new device.”
Yeah, Ferdy thought. Who knew? He might not know much about the tech mumbo jumbo, but he understood what an IP address was. And he very much understood how you could use it to find a real one.
“Where is she?”
“Arizona.”
“Where?” he asked, already envisioning their reunion.
“Mustang Valley, Arizona.”
Chapter 14
Nova and Nikolas got into a rhythm over the next week. She’d found a part time job with a small boutique on the main drag of Mustang Valley and spent her days there while Nikolas went to his office. The time in the shop was so affirming, connecting her with her old skills and helping her feel productive again.
All within a few storefronts from Nikolas’s office.
She’d also begun a tentative relationship with Marlowe. The new mother had invited her over for a late lunch at the end of Nova’s first week in the shop. Marlowe had talked about Reed and her pregnancy. Nova had been able to ask questions and chat with Marlowe as if they were friends, which meant more to her than she could have ever imagined. It also made her realize just how alone she’d been these past months, experiencing her pregnancy almost in a vacuum.
“You sure you don’t want to move into the Triple R?” Marlowe asked. Her kindness was evident in her smile, even as her head was bent as she stared down at her nursing son.
“It feels wrong, somehow. Especially since the test results aren’t back yet.”