Page 76 of Filthy Few

Nova

This is my last night before I need to get back to Nexus and save my mom. The thought of being around him again has a sickening feeling stirring in my gut. Just thinking about him has my skin crawling, he is the epitome of revulsion.

“Nova?” I roll my eyes at the sound of Nikoa’s voice and ignore him. I refuse to go inside. I’m quite happy sitting out here on the back porch, staring out at the creek that is illuminated by the soft glow of the moon and thinking about the memories I shared with my best friend. I hear the back door open behind me, but don’t bother to look. I hear him come closer and drop down onto the step beside me. I peer out of the corner of my eye and the sight has me turning fully and staring with an open mouth.

“Hey, girl,” Vivian says quietly with a sad smile on her face.

“What are you doing here?” I breathe out.

She shrugs. “I’m here to help, Nova.”

My anger surges and I narrow my eyes before turning back to the creek and ignoring her. “I don’t need your help,” I snap.

I hear her exhale beside me. “I know you think that?—”

“I don’t need or want your fucking help, Vivian. You and your family have done enough.” She flinches but doesn’t say anything. “Just go home.”

“We can’t.”

I turn my head and study her for a moment, she doesn’t cower or recoil from the pressure of my gaze. “Why?”

“The night that everything… happened. We all had to flee. The Saints are hunting us. I’m here to help you and help my family at the same time.”

I scoff. “What? Your brother too much of a bitch to fight his own battles?” I sneer with hatred dripping from my words.

I expect her to defend Vox and have a go at me but what I didn’t expect was for her to laugh. “No one and I mean no one has ever accused Vox of being a bitch before.”

I shrug. “Guess they don’t know him well enough then because he is for sure a bitch.” Vivian shoots me a wink and I can’t help the smile that stretches across my face. When I realize what I’m doing, I snuff the smile out and face the creek again.

“Nova—”

“Don’t, Vivian, I don’t want to hear it.” I rest my arms across the tops of my thighs and drop my gaze to my lap.

“Tough, because I need to say it.” I grind my teeth and interlock my fingers, digging my nails into the tops of my hands to use the pain as a distraction.

“Say whatever the fuck it is you need to, then go.”

“Nova, I’m not going anywhere and I plan to be by your side when you return to Hollow Hills.”

“Why the fuck would you do that?” I ask.

“Because they can’t touch me until I’m twenty-four. Unlike my brother and the others, I am not a member of the Saints, therefore there is nothing they can do to me until I am inducted into their bullshit secret society.”

“How the fuck can you be so sure?”

She smiles and waggles her brows. “I have a backup plan. If they try to make a move against me, I will turn their world upside down in a heartbeat.” I scrunch my face in confusion, she waves me off and continues on. “Look, I know you have to return back to your house tomorrow and I am here today to help you.”

“How exactly are you going to do that?” I push.

“I’m going back to school with you and I am going to help you get your mom out of that house and taken to safety with my mom and the others.” I instantly stiffen.

“I won’t send my mom to the same place Ezekiel’s mother is.”

Vivian reaches out and places her hand on mine but I pull away from her touch. A flicker of anguish shines in her eyes before she masks it. “I can only imagine how you must be feeling right now. I can’t understand it because I have never been through something like this but I need you to know something.”

“What?”

“That the safest place for Kelly to be is on the island with the rest of our moms. She will be used against you. With us all fleeing, we have painted a target on our families backs and they will be the first people they use to ambush us like they did with…” She lets her sentence trail off and I appreciate her not saying his name. If she did, I would have lost my shit because right now isn’t the time or place for her to say his name, not with how my anger is stewing inside me over his death.

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