Aries

Chapter 14

Nova

"What d-do you mean shot?" I stammered.

Mick sighed and shook his head. "I don't know. We're in the middle of our hook-up when her phone rings. I guess someone broke into his place, shot him, and stole his wallet and some watches. Break-in gone wrong or something is what the cops said. I thought you went home with him last night."

"No. I changed my mind last minute and he dropped me off." I lied.

"That's scary, Nova. You could have been attacked by this psycho-thief too if you did decide to go home with him. You said you changed your mind?"

I swallowed and nodded my head. "Yeah, I just...I was suddenly not in the mood anymore." I murmured.

That and Aries's fingers were so deep in my throat that I couldn't see or think straight at all.

"The world is a scary place. You really never know when something like that will happen to you." He reached over and squeezed my hand. "I'm just glad you're alive and safe. I was going to head to his funeral after work, but I don't think Sasha wants me there.

She broke up with me last night. Said she didn't need someone hovering over her while she grieves her brother. I mean we were friends in college, but I don't know if I feel the same pain and grief she's feeling.

I guess...I guess I understand her perspective." He shrugged his shoulders and reached for the stack of paperwork he had on his desk.

"I'm sorry about Brayden," I said, feeling the words like toxic and sharp knives as they rolled out of my mouth.

I was lying. Harboring a killer and I did it without a second thought. I still couldn't wrap my brain around what happened. I thought if I had obeyed him, begged, did crude things for him that he'd let Brayden walk out free, alive. I thought wrong.

I didn't know Aries as well as I thought he had. I could only blame myself for going out on that date, for provoking Aries, knowing very well that he did warn me, and threaten me almost, but I ignored it. I thought I was smarter than him, that he wouldn't find out, and if he did, he wouldn't do anything about it.

I was wrong. I still remember the sound of the gun going off, the sound his body made when it hit the ground, and how smug and insensitive Aries looked as he took me home without a second thought.

I guess I didn't know Aries anymore and whatever I thought I knew was gone. I didn't think of telling anyone what happened, and it wasn't because of the fear of what Aries would do if I did, but because I had a very strong feeling the cops wouldn't care.

They had written it down and dismissed it as a mugging and it was evident the Graysons had a resilient impact on the community and the police. There was this small, very tiny, nagging part of me that screamed out that I didn't want Aries to even be caught or to get in trouble.

Like I was protecting him. He didn't need it. That much was obvious, and it was sickening that I even had that thought.

"Thank you." He smiled warmly at me. "Let's just get back to work."

Work, Nova, not Aries or his fingers or how wet you were when you got home. Work. Focus. Spreadsheets. Files. Not his fingers in your throat or how degrading he was when he spoke to you.

This man was a killer, sick, what he made me do was degrading, yet I couldn't find it in me to care. My body reacted the only way it could when it came to Aries. Hoping my flamed cheeks or the dark, dreamy look in my eyes didn't give me away, I forced my brain to abandon all Aries-related thoughts.

Mick and I were buried in the paperwork that piled up over the weekend. Alex and Aden, our other two bosses stopped by an hour ago and were in the office with Aries discussing work. Mick has been heading in and out of the office, as he aided them with all the paperwork and files.