Page 66 of Secrets & Desires
Nox half-smiled at her attempt to cheer him up. “Our family will be ahappyone.”
“Certainly will.” Livia said firmly. “All this crap we’re dealing with right now will be behind us, and we’ll have a bunch of kids and we’ll be happy. Summer vacations in Italy, Christmases inVienna.”
“I can’t wait.” He splayed his fingers out over her belly. “Is it wrong that I kind of want you to be pregnantrightnow?”
“Ha,” she said. “Let’s wait until psychopaths aren’t threatening to kill me,shallwe?”
His smile faded and she nudged him. “Sorry,badjoke.”
“I won’t let anything happentoyou.”
“Right back at ya,” she said. “Come on. Let’s go see DetectiveJones.”
He watchedthem from the farthest end of the cemetery. They had no idea that whatever they were doing was only going to make his plan to kill Livia better. He had almost brought them to their knees…but what he would do next would destroy Nox Renaud forever. There was just that one loose end to tie up, and he would do that in spectacularstyle.
Amber.
Amber was pale,but sober when Nox met her in a small café in the city. To her credit, she didn’t attempt to speak before Nox sat down and said simply. “He was only supposed toscareher.”
Amber lifted her head from where she had been staring at her coffee and nodded. “It was supposed to be a prank. I knew she would go outside for a smoke before you picked her up. He was supposed to take her for a ride around the block and then bring her back immediately. I knew something was wrong after a while when he didn’t call me like he wassupposedto.”
“Who is he,Amber?”
She shook her head. “Please, let me finish the story. He had agreed to do it because…he was mad at you. Something to do with your family, I don’t know exactly. When he didn’t bring her back, I knew. I’d always suspected he was a little off, but nothing like this. When I saw what he did to my sister…” She covered her mouth and choked back a sob. “He told me if I ever told anyone, he would let them all know that I planned it, that I wanted her dead. Ineverwanted her dead, Nox, you have tobelieveme.”
Nox, a vortex of emotions swirling inside him, stared at her coldly. “The sad thing is I loved you. You and your shiny cap of red hair and your thousand-watt smile. And you loved me too—as long as I stayed in the box you made for me. Lonely, bereaved—less. While I still grieved for Ariel, you knew you controlled me. I scared you, I know. Once I crept out from the box and began to stretch and crack my limbs out to their full extent, once I stopped letting myself tamp down this fire—this life. This love. This love for Livia. I didn’t want to think you were one of those women, those women who only see other women as a threat. One of those friends who kept me around just to make them look better—I’ve had a lifetime of those. Leeches. I never thought you would turn out to be one of them. But you were the worst of them because I loved you like a sister,Amber.”
He fell silent then, swirling his glass, watching the ice melt in the green liquor. Melon. The door blew open, and a cackle of noise rushed in with the rain. Rain on wooden floorboards. Two elderly women, huddled in woolen coats, trying to warm up fromthecold.
Tears dropped silently down Amber’s face. Nox shook his head. “You killed her. Your ownsister.Why?”
Amber looked at him, her eyes not angry, just sad. “I loved you. Iloveyou.”
Nox tried not to lose his temper but his voice shook as he asked her the questions he need to. “Did you have anything to do with the attacks on Livia? On me? Did you murder Pia?Moriko?”
“No, no, I swear,” Amber seemed almost desperate. “It wasn’t me. Look, I really like Livia, and I can see she is perfect for you. God…no. I swear. But…I did do one thing and I can’t believe Ididit.”
Nox wasn’tconvinced. “What?”
“Roan would… He would leave his used condoms tied up in mytrashcan.”
Nox made a disgusted noise. “What the hell does that have to do with anything?” He leaned forward to make her look at him. “Who did you hire to kill Ariel,Amber?”
She closed her eyes. “Ididn’thire…”
There was a sharp crack and, for a second, everybody in the café froze. Amber’s eyes widened, then a thin stream of blood began to stream from hertemple.
In utter shock, Nox saw the bullet hole in the window in the seconds before it smashed. And then Amber slumped forward, her eyes open and staring but very,verydead.
Bedlam. People screaming. Nox was up and running, out into the street to see where the gunman was—whothe gunman was. But, of course, the killer was in the wind. Nox slumped to the ground, deeply shocked, and waited for the police toarrive.
Livia ranstraight into his arms. “God, Nox, thank god you’re alright.” She held him tightly as he buried his face inherhair.
“Enough,” he said, his voice muffled, “enoughpeople have died. We need to find him,rightnow.”
“Who, darling?” Livia stared up at him with scaredeyes. “Who?”
Nox looked shattered beyond belief as he said the words. “Roan. We need tofindRoan.”
