Page 35 of Dust to Dust

Dash's eyes looked to the chair Nova sat in, "Don't you think it's odd that she turned up in our lives and everything goes to shit at the same time?" He crossed his arms and raised a brow, pleading with me to see reason.

"Dash—"

"Oh, Dashy, ever the stick up your ass." Nova uncrossed her long legs and planted her combat boots firmly on the wood floor. She stood, like the queen she was. Her glossy lips pulled up in a cheshire grin that I knew all too well, "You're right. I came here to tear apart the Kings. But poison isn't my style. If I wanted you dead, there would be a bullet," She cocked the gun in her hand. A weapon I allowed her to keep hold of because I trusted her. She kissed the gun barrel as she slipped into the role she needed to be at the moment.

Nova was back to being Nova, but the girl who sat in my father's chair that gazed into the flames of the fireplace was Elsa. Elsa looked into the past, but Nova looked at their future. I'd never be able to separate them. I married a woman who slipped into roles to survive.

Dash stepped forward, "What did you just say?"

"Dasher, do you have a problem translating bitch?" She spun the gun in her hand, "I said there's a bullet with your name on it if you continue to piss me off." Nova grinned a soulless smile.

Dash rushed forward to grab her, but I intercepted. His eyes flicked to mine, "It was her! She killed my father!" Dash growled. His body shook, and I struggled to hold him back from Nova. It didn't help that she continued to taunt him, "Please, Dashy, you didn't like your daddy anyway." She chuckled.

Dash had a point. Nova's words were too connected to the actual bullet that had my father's name etched in it. A shot that hit my uncle Marcus, Dash's father, instead of my own. Could it have been Nova? Our security team found where the sniper was perched. In his dying breath, the restaurant owner confessed that he was paid extra to sit us at that specific table—a table with a perfect view and shot for the sniper to take. We never found who paid him off, and it didn't matter now. If you get stuck chasing dead ends, all you'll get is death. If one end stops, you take another angle until you find your mole.

Nova was trained by Anton, who Leo, part of the brotherhood, heard liked to train assassins. Dolls, as Anton wanted to refer to them. Was that another role Nova played?

Fuck!

I released Dash and turned my back to him, shielding Nova from him and him from Nova. I thought I was getting through to her. I wasn't a fool to drop my guard, but I had to give a little to get along with her. My hand reached out and grabbed her by the neck. Her skin was smooth under my heated touch. A small scar that was now pink in color marked where Anton had cut her with his knife coated in poison. Poison seemed to be Anton's style. Dots were starting to connect. But why would Nova allow Anton to kill my father when she fought to claim that particular kill herself?

"Did you kill my uncle?" My voice was cold and emotionless. Nova sensed it, and I saw apprehension in her eyes for a second.

She masked it quickly, "Which one?" She grinned, but it lacked the cockiness it usually held.

"Don't play games, babygirl."

"And what if I did?" She asked me, "Would that be the straw that broke the camel's back? Seriously, Titan, you need to pick a side. You promised to kill for me, to protect me, but then one word from Dashy here, and you're flapping around like a fish out of water." She was hurt. Her words masked the pain she felt inside. When was she going to understand that no matter what she had done in the past, I wouldn't let her go?

Punish her? Yes.

Freedom from me? Never.

Thankfully Dash remained quiet behind my back. Nova's attitude towards Dash wasn't out of hate. Nova was jealous, and Dash had just figured that out. My babygirl didn't like sharing, and she didn't like that I cared so much for my cousins. Nova would have to learn to accept them. We stood solid as a family, or we all crumbled to dust and ash.

My hand slipped from her neck and up to her jawline, where I tugged on her bottom lip. Her lipgloss was slightly sticky, but I loved how it made her lips look ripe and pouty. I looked her in the eyes, but my words were for Dash. "She didn't do it."

Dash swallowed the pill he didn't want to, as he trusted my words and nodded. Long ago, we made a promise to trust one another entirely. Dash stepped from around my body to face Nova. Dash was my height at around six foot three, Nova was tall, but we still cast a shadow over her sleek frame. My wife didn't shrink in the dark; she grew in the darkness, and it was fucking beautiful.

"I don't like you. And it will take hell freezing over for me to trust you," Dash admitted.

Nova grinned, "Sometimes the cold can be so bitter that it burns. I've been to hell, Dash King; trust me, nothing you can say or do would make the burn hurt more than hell's frozen flames."

My fist balled as a pang in my chest struck. Nova had started to let slip some of her pain. After the dust here settled and we were safe from this new threat, I would scour the earth for anyone left alive who hurt her. I couldn't erase the past, but I could write the future. Nova's future would be free from the demons that haunted her mind.

"Let's be real for once, Dashy. Did I want to destroy your family? Yes, Titan in particular, but if the fallout spread to you, then I didn't care. Did I kill your father? No. I wish I did. He seemed like just as big as a prick as Lucas." Nova slipped the gun in her hands behind her back and then crossed her arms. In doing so, she waved her invisible white flag to Dash.

He nodded, "If you hurt my cousin, I will take great pleasure in killing you." He grinned.

"Well, you will have to fight for that honor because Damian already stated that same warning," Nova said. "Now," She turned to me and stepped into my side. "I don't know about you boys, but I've got a load of questions I want to be answered, but first, I'm going to need some lipgloss."

Chapter 28

Did you know the devil was good at negotiating peace?

Don't believe me? Well, she is. Satan can make peace treaties just as good as God can. Some would argue even better than God. You see, the devil has better incentives. That's why so many people sell their souls to her. The problem was keeping the devil from provoking that peace. War doesn't tempt the devil because there are fewer opportunities. The devil already took what she wanted. Peace and love were the devil's playground because they allowed her more souls to swindle with her lies.

The minute I laid eyes on Mila, I knew she had changed. She had sold her soul, but it wasn't to my devil, but another. The problem was that I just settled my issues with Dash; If Mila were about to take my advice, Dash and I's peace would soon be the next world war.

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