Page 44 of Goodnight
‘Goodie, come over here,’ Nick said, keeping his voice low and even, and trying not to let his frustration show.
She took a few steps into the room and then stopped, crossing her arms over her chest. Nick had sent his family home an hour ago. With his family here he hadn’t been able to make the fuss he needed to get her into the room, and he knew that damage control must start urgently.
‘I’m fine,’ he told her. ‘My arm’s in a sling but only so I keep it still for a few days and don’t do anything stupid. You don’t need to worry, okay?’
‘You were shot.’ Her words were said in weird, flat tone that instantly made Nick’s stomach turn over with panic. ‘You are not fine. Not even close.’
‘Listen we’ll go home tonight; I don’t even have to stay in here. We can order a takeaway, talk it out. It was nothing.’
That got a reaction. Her face twisted in anger, a white rim forming around her tight mouth. ‘It wasnotnothing,’ she said, her voice shaking slightly.
‘Baby, come here,’ he pleaded.
‘You arenotfine,’ she shouted this time, her eyes flashing with fury. ‘This,’ she pointed between the two of them, then let her arm drop to curl her hand back into a fist, ‘this is not okay. You werehurt. You could have beenkilled.’
Nick opened his mouth to speak, then shut it when he saw them: Goodie’s eyes had filled with tears and two had escaped to fall down her cheeks. She blinked and touched her face, bringing her hand away to stare at it as though she couldn’t quite believe what she was seeing. Her eyes flashed back to his and he almost flinched from the pain and fear he saw in them.
‘You were hurt,’ she repeated, this time in a whisper, taking a step back. ‘I’m not doing this anymore. I can’t protect you, not like this.’ With that she turned and left the room, but not before he saw two more tears escape.
*Lyobov moya– my love
Chapter23
Life is pain
‘Nick,darling, are you sure about this?’ Lila asked. She was leaning against his kitchen island looking perfect in a deep blue gown that reminded him painfully of the one Goodie had worn to his parents’ party.
‘I’m sure,’ he said gruffly, fiddling with his cufflink and swearing under his breath when it slipped his grip and clattered onto the granite counter top. Lila clicked her tongue, slapped her hand down on the cufflink before it could roll onto the floor, and then started to thread it through Nick’s sleeve. She sighed.
‘Do you really think this is going to make a difference?’
Nick snatched his sleeve away from her once she was done, and moved to the other side of the island to down the shot of brandy he had waiting for him. ‘I’ve tried everything. I’m losing patience. Maybe this will shake her up a bit. God knows nothing else I do seems to make a blind bit of difference.’
It was a month since the shooting. Nick had healed quickly; he’d had to. Even the slightest flinch of discomfort would cause Goodie to visibly wince and that pain in her eyes to intensify. Security had been stepped up significantly. He now had Sam as an additional close protection officer, and two far guards. But things were about to change. All the deals were nearly done; soon they could get cold fusion off the ground and then the threat to his life would be negligible. Once they weren’t needed any more to provide the momentum to the project, he and Ed would be safe.
In truth the idea and the interest had become bigger than anyone had ever anticipated. Even if their opponents did somehow manage to hurt Nick or Ed, the project itself would now be unstoppable; there was too much investment, too much confidence in it for it to fold now. Once the final deal was completed in the next few days, Nick doubted he would even need protection; it would likely just continue as a precaution. He had thought that closing this deal would be the pinnacle of his life so far. He should be ecstatic, but he found he couldn’t be. Not without her.
He had thought he could talk Goodie around and break through her cold formality once he came out of hospital; after all, he was adept at getting his own way, he’d been charming and manipulating the women in his life since he was five years old. But he was coming to realize that with Goodie this was not going to be the case. She kept her distance from him, avoided direct eye contact unless it was strictly necessary, and had even changed the locks on her flat by the time he was home from the hospital. She refused to talk to him about the shooting.
After a couple of weeks when he was feeling stronger, he’d cornered her in the office to try and talk some sense into her. She’d stared down at his hands on her arms like they were diseased, then cut off whatever he’d been trying to say with: ‘Let me go or I will kick you in the groin so hard you’ll be tasting your own balls for breakfast.’ The look in her eye told him she would do it, too. When he hadn’t immediately released her, she had wrenched so violently away from him that he had been worried she’d dislocate her shoulders.
So yes, Nick thought that this was the only play he had left to make. He wanted to shake things up, and patience was not one of his virtues.
‘Look, Nick-Nack, lying is never a great idea,’ Lila warned him, ‘God knows I’m not this chick’s biggest fan, what with her occupying the slightly scary area between normal and cold-blooded psychopath, but shedidsave my life. I feel I owe her something at least. This could hurt her.’
Nick shook off the sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach when he thought about hurting Goodie. This was for her own good. She needed to snap out of it. ‘I’m not trying to hurt her. I just want to make her think, that’s all. She’ll come around.’
Lila shook her head but slipped her arm through his regardless.
‘Okay, gorgeous,’ she muttered, pasting a wide smile on her face, ‘if you’re sure. But I’d better get a decent amount of press out of this; you owe me.’
* * *
Goodie rapped twiceon the dividing glass in the limo and it slid down.
‘Keep the partition down,’ she told Matt the driver, who nodded in response, not taking his eyes off the road ahead. ‘Did you go over the plans of the building last night? You know we’re using the back service entrance?’
‘Goodie,’ Sam said in a low voice as Matt nodded again, ‘he knows. You know he knows. We went over itfivetimes yesterday. You made him do a drive-by in the early hours of this morning. It’s sorted.’
