The rhythm and flow of those beautiful, foreign words were attached to the warm feeling of coming home, and Jules needed it desperately.
Thinking she’d see Romeo, she found herself frowning at Nova instead.
He hadn’t noticed she was awake. He was resting against her bed, having a hushed, private conversation, and she wasn’t sure she should interrupt. Then he leaned his head against the railing, looking broken, and something made her reach out to him.
Nova jerked up when she touched his hair. His eyes were bloodshot and watery, and he rubbed them, blinking rapidly. “I’m sorry.”
“Why?” she asked, her voice still raw from crying the night before.
“I didn’t mean to wake you up.” He looked away, clearly embarrassed. “I know I’m the last person you wanna wake up and see.”
“Nova.” Jules grabbed his hand when he tried to pull away and leave. She knew so much more about him than she had before. There was a side of her that wanted to soothe away the haunted look in his dark eyes. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah.” He nodded, looking thrown off by her concern but not pushing it away like she expected him to. “I was just, you know, introducing myself.” He pointed to her stomach and swallowed hard before lowering his gaze. “Even if they never meet me, I wanted them to know they matter to me.”
“They’ll meet you.” Jules stroked his hair once more, like she would have done for Wyatt if he were this obviously distressed. “You could move to Garnet. Get away from all of it.”
“God, no.” Nova shook his head in horror. “Things are too fucked-up right now.
Running wouldn’t fix the war. It’d just follow me.”
353
“Are you in danger?” Jules asked, feeling her heart rate pick up as her entire body pulsed with pain, reminding her how ruthless the mafia could be. “Do you think they’re gonna—”
“No.” He shook his head, but the grimness in his tone was less than convincing.
“I’ll survive. I always survive, but I dunno how much time I can spend with my brothers.”
Jules couldn’t argue when she understood what he was saying. Nova was making sure Romeo and Tino were safe by cutting ties with them. She wanted Romeo away from the old life he hated so much, even if that meant losing Nova.
“I can’t believe there’s no way out,” Jules argued, wishing there was a way to save Nova too. “There has to be a solution. Maybe if we all sat down and thought about it.”
“I’ve thought about it,” Nova assured her with the grim assurance of someone who was a very competent thinker. “Things are tense back home. I did some things others don’t approve of. You do not want me in Garnet.”
“Are you sure they ain’t coming after you?”
Nova grew more confident as he stood, as if slowly building his walls back up.
“Things may be a little challenging right now, but it’s not anything I can’t overcome.”
“How do you know that?”
Nova leaned down and gave her a cocky grin as he admitted in a hushed voice,
“’Cause I’m smarter than them.”
Jules just gaped when he turned to leave. The vulnerability that had been so potent and raw when she woke up evaporated like a misty dream, making her question if she’d really witnessed it to begin with.
“Nova!” she called when he got to the door. “Can I see Romeo?”
“Hell yes, you can,” Nova surprised her by saying. “It’s because of you both my brothers are finally getting out. You ever need a favor, Jules, I’m your guy.”
“The only favor I need is to see my husband.”
354
“I already said that was done.” Nova tilted his head and contemplated Jules. “And as soon as you get better, we’re gonna have to talk about all those shitty mutual funds you’re investing in.”
Jules frowned at the off-topic statement. “How’d you know what I invest in?”
“Lucky guess. I know you and your brother are cut from the same cloth, but we gotta start being more aggressive about your financial future.”
“We?” Jules laughed. “I hadn’t realized it was a team effort.”
“I’ll take care of it.” Nova waved his hand dismissively as if the decision was already made. “I’ll just pull money out of Romeo’s account and start working on it.” Jules wanted to snap at him for his audacity, but a memory about Nova nagged at the back of her mind. Romeo’s story of a young, eleven-year-old boy muscling into card games just to win enough money to help his dying mother. Money was a powerful form of expression for Nova. It was his way of trying to fix things, and she saw the olive branch for what it was.