Page 60 of Gideon

“You said he has a few.”

“Yeah.” Her voice faltered, and she grunted. “I wish I could stop getting so emotional about everything.”

“You’ve been through a lot, and it’s clear this is bothering you.”

“I shouldn’t have brought it up.”

“Yes, you should have. How’d you meet her?”

Nikki wiped her face. “I met her at the markets a little over a year ago. She was missing her family, and somehow, we started up a conversation and then a friendship. I didn’t know until recently that she was…in a relationship with him.”

“Fairfax?”

“Yeah.”

“You think he’s taking advantage of her?”

“I didn’t want to. I wanted to think the best for her sake, but she’s my age, so he’s old enough to be her dad.”

“If they’re both adults, that’s not against the law.”

“I know.”

“And he may be a bad guy, but that doesn’t mean he’s not as susceptible to love as the rest of us.”

“And I took all of that into consideration. Especially because she said she was in love. She said she thought they’d get married, and she could become a proper citizen. He made her a lot of promises.”

“Promises you don’t think he’ll keep?”

“I don’t care about that anymore. Not after what’s happened.”

“Which is?”

“She got pregnant. She was so excited because no matter what happened to her, her baby would be an American citizen. And she was so sure Fairfax would be over the moon. She thought it might be the thing to really settle him down and make him set a date for the wedding.”

“I take it he wasn’t impressed? Did he tell her to get rid of it?”

Nikki took a deep breath and held it for a moment before she said, “I didn’t hear from her for a couple of weeks, which wasn’t unusual, but she came to see me today.” She pressed her hand against her mouth before she continued. “When he found out, he beat her so badly that she lost the baby.”

Gideon closed his eyes. “That’s terrible.”

“Since then, he’s been really rough with her. She had a black eye when she turned up at the church.”

“That’s why she hid her face.”

“Yeah.”

The monitor beside Gideon was beeping faster.

“I shouldn’t have told you,” she said when her eyes diverted to the sound.

He ignored her concern. “Where is she now?”

“I don’t know. I got a text from Ty about the fire, and Isabel and I rushed over, but Fairfax was there. When he saw her, he dragged her away. I didn’t want her to go, but there was nothing I could do.”

“You don’t think he suspects your involvement with the totem poles?”

“I don’t know. It’s hard to tell. He already doesn’t like me much. He knows I don’t like him.”

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