Jenna Black - Replica

“Wait a minute,” she said, thinking out loud. “If Bishop is so through with you that he had Angel and her friends beat you up last night, then why did he send me the note and tracker?”

Nate made a growling sound in the back of his throat. “I just told you I’m not going to marry you. Did you hear me?”

There was plenty of pain and dread still roiling around in Nadia’s stomach, but now that her mind had latched onto the thought, she couldn’t seem to let it go. “I heard you.” She met his eyes briefly before her courage failed and she looked away. “It’s not like I didn’t expect it. But what Bishop did doesn’t make sense. Why would he need me to stop you from looking for him after last night?”

Nate leaned back heavily in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest in what she suspected was a protective gesture. “Maybe he wanted to make doubly sure I knew he was behind what happened.”

She shook her head. “If that’s what he wanted, he would have sent the note to you, not to me.”

“Maybe he just thinks I’m a stubborn ass and you have influence on me,” Nate snapped, too angry to look at the logic of his own words.

Nadia stared at him, willing him to think it through. There were even more facts that didn’t add up, now that she thought about it. “You were sure he’d taken enough dollars to secure transport out of Paxco. But if he’s fled Paxco, then how did he get his hands on the tracker and send me a handwritten note in so little time?” Digital information might travel at the speed of light, but not so handwritten notes and crushed circuitry.

For the first time, she saw a hint of uncertainty in Nate’s eyes. Anger and hurt still reigned supreme, but he was thinking again, rather than just acting on knee-jerk emotions. He frowned.

“It doesn’t make sense,” he muttered, more to himself than to her. “With the dollars he took, he could be on another continent by now.”

“And yet he’s close enough to get that note to me in a matter of hours. If he’s so through with you, and so desperate to get you to stop looking for him, why is he delivering the message through Angel and trying to blackmail me into helping? Why didn’t he just do the deed himself last night and tell you to your face he never wanted to see you again?”

Nate gave her a look that was equal parts cold and stubborn. “Maybe he was worried someone had planted a tracker on me and I’d lead Mosely right to him.”

“Or maybe he knew that if he tried to deliver the message personally, he wouldn’t be able to hide what he really felt,” she countered, warming up to her own argument. Maybe she was the world’s worst judge of character, but she couldn’t see Bishop betraying Nate the way he supposedly had. No, there was something else behind his actions, and Nadia realized she had a good guess as to what.

“He loves you, Nate,” she said. “He just doesn’t trust you to be careful enough.”

“What?”

“I didn’t tell you about Mosely because I thought you would fly off the handle the way you do and that I and my family would suffer for it. And Bishop doesn’t want you getting anywhere near him because he’s afraid you’re going to be careless and lead Mosely to him.”

Nate looked at her as if she were crazy. “That’s ridiculous!” Color warmed his cheeks, and she wasn’t sure if it was from anger or embarrassment. “I’ll admit I’m a bit … impetuous sometimes. But I’ve been very careful about everything. Paranoid, even.”

“Mosely knew you visited the Basement on Tuesday night,” she countered. “That’s why he had me plant a tracker on you last night. Which you wore into the Basement while looking for Bishop.”

“So it’s my fault that you planted a tracker on me?”

Nadia held on to her patience, though it took a concerted effort with the way her emotions were rioting. “All I’m saying is that as careful as you were trying to be, you were still taking risks. Risks that could have led Mosely to Bishop. As it is, you can be sure Mosely is going to question Angel, since he must know you talked to her.”

Nate shuddered. “Mosely probably had someone spying on me. They wouldn’t have seen what actually happened—we were in a closed room—but they’d know I left the place in bad shape.”

“Hopefully, they’ll just think you got mugged for asking too many questions,” Nadia said, though she didn’t have high hopes. “If she’s brought in for questioning, do you think she’ll talk?”

Nate’s scornful expression was answer enough, and, in truth, Nadia had known it was a dumb question. She doubted even the noblest of human beings could stand up to the kind of pressure Mosely could apply, and a Basement power player like Angel was not going to be the noblest of human beings. If she knew where Bishop was hiding, she’d tell Mosely and it would all be over.

“Let’s hope that when Bishop found the tracker, he realized what it meant for him and took appropriate precautions,” Nadia said, though she wasn’t honestly sure what precautions Bishop could take if Mosely was close on his tail. Why on earth was he still in Paxco if he had enough money to get out? There had to be a damn good reason.

Nate rubbed at his eyes like he had a headache. “I really want to believe you’re right.” He gave a grunt of frustration. “But why won’t Kurt talk to me, damn it!” The frustration propelled him to his feet, and his sudden wince of pain proved that sudden movement wasn’t a good idea.

“How could he have had me attacked and beaten instead of just telling me to back off?” he said more softly, rubbing a hand over his apparently sore ribs.

Nadia had to fight the urge to reach out to him. Nate was in more than just physical pain, and she was responsible for some of it. “He hurt you because he thought making you think he was the bad guy was the only way to keep you away,” she said as gently as she could. “We both know you’d have ignored him if he’d just asked you to quit.”

Nate hunched in on himself. “They beat the crap out of me,” he said in a voice so subdued it hardly sounded like him. “You really think Kurt could have them do that and still … care about me?”

“He’s from a different world, Nate. A much harder world. He did what he thought he needed to do to protect himself. And I’m sure he feels bad about it.”

“Not as bad as I feel.” But she could tell she’d gotten through to him by the renewed life in his eyes. He wasn’t going to wallow in his misery for long. Which might or might not turn out to be a good thing.

“Nothing’s changed,” she reminded him. “Bishop is obviously very, very serious about not wanting you to look for him.”

“And you’re still spying for Mosely.” The cold was back in his voice. “You’re going to repeat this conversation for him as soon as you have a chance, aren’t you?”

Nadia hadn’t even thought of that, so absorbed in her own guilt she hadn’t considered the full implications of what she’d figured out. She’d come to Nate to unburden herself, but the fact remained that Mosely had ordered her to find out what had happened last night, and she just had. He would no doubt be in contact before the day was out, demanding to know what she’d learned.

“I don’t know how much he’ll know about what happened last night, how much the tracker would have told him. But he will question me, and if he’s anywhere near as good at knowing when people are lying as he’s supposed to be, it could get ugly.”

Suddenly, the weight of it all was too much, and Nadia bowed her head as her chest tightened with another stirring of panic. There was no way she could repeat everything she and Nate had discussed this morning to Mosely. Nate had gotten too close to finding Bishop last night, and while the information they’d shared wasn’t enough to conveniently lead Nate straight to Bishop’s doorstep, it could very well be everything Mosely needed. So she couldn’t tell him. And yet she couldn’t face the consequences of not telling him.