Heartless Savage (Angels Halo MC Next Gen Book 6) Page 5

  It only rang once before her face appeared on my phone’s screen. She was on the floor of her room, had probably been playing one of her games on the iPad I’d given her. I could picture her on her stomach, doing some math game or reading one of the books I’d downloaded the last time I’d been at her house.

  “Hi!” she greeted with a big smile on her face.

  For the first time, seeing her on my phone didn’t ease the tightness in my chest. If anything, it only made it worse. I swallowed hard a few times before I could tell her “Hi” in return.

  Her smile dropped, and her green eyes began to glitter. “What’s wrong? Are you sad? You look sad. Do you need a hug? Where is Ciana? She needs to hug you right now!”

  I definitely needed a hug, but only hers would help me. “Nova…my mom is sick.”

  “Oh no, is she going to be okay? Does she have a tummy ache?”

  “Yeah, kind of,” I told her, swallowing roughly again. The lump in my throat only got worse and worse, and my nose was burning. “She’s pregnant, and she’s been really sick. We won’t… I can’t come to your party this weekend.”

  The glittery look in her eyes only got brighter. “Wh-what?” she whispered, her chin already trembling. “But…but you promised.”

  “I know.” I closed my eyes. The way her voice was shaking told me she was about to cry, and I didn’t know if I could keep my own emotions in check if I looked at her right then. “I’m sorry, Nova.”

  “You promised,” she repeated, a little bit of anger bleeding into her tone. I hated her being mad just as much as I did her crying. But her anger had never been directed at me before. It was usually reserved for Garret. “You’re breaking your promise.”

  “I wish I didn’t have to. But Mom is sick, Nova. Please try to understand. I want to see you, but I can’t.” I pressed the palm of my free hand into one of my eyes when they started to sting.

  “I’m sorry your mommy is sick, but can’t…can’t your daddy bring you?”

  “He’s not home. He’s on a work trip,” I tried to explain. “I promise, I’ll make it up to you. I’ll come for Christmas next month. We can stay for a few extra days. I just can’t right now.”

  “No,” she cried, her anger only increasing. “I want you to come now. You promised you would come to my party. That’s all I wanted. I didn’t ask my mommy and daddy for any presents because all I want is to see and play with you.”

  “I know and I’m sorry. I promise I’ll bring you more presents for your birthday. I’ll—”

  “I don’t want presents!” she shouted. My eyes were still closed, but I could picture her stomping her foot. She was so cute when she did that. “I want to see you. I want to hug you. And you promised. You promised, and now you’re breaking it.”

  “Nova—”

  “You’re a liar.”

  “Nova, please just listen.”

  “No. I’m never talking to you ever, ever, ever, ever again.”

  My eyes snapped open, and I looked at the screen, trying to will her with my eyes not to threaten something like that. Anything else, I could take, but I couldn’t handle it if she stopped talking to me. I lived for the sound of her voice, the way she smiled at me. When things got bad or I got scared, I just imagined her, and I could breathe easier again. “Nova, I—”

  But the screen had already gone blank.

  She had hung up on me.

  Fingers shaking, I tried to call her back, but it wouldn’t even ring. She’d turned off the iPad. She never did that. It was always on, so in case I called her earlier than expected, she could answer.

  “No, no, no.” I tried again and again, but it didn’t ring once.

  She couldn’t stop talking to me. She couldn’t be sad.

  She couldn’t be mad at me.

  I wouldn’t allow it.

  I had to fix this. Now.

  8

  Ryan

  Desperation had me thinking fast. I needed a plan, a way to fix this so Nova wouldn’t be upset anymore.

  My gaze landed on the bathroom window, and I didn’t even consider the repercussions of my decision. I climbed up to the windowsill and used my shoulder to push the window open. The school grounds were pretty secure, but Ciana and I had spent hours examining all the holes in the security. It was something Mom had taught us to do from the time we’d started school. Always look for the holes, so that no matter what happened, we could have a plan to escape if we needed to.

  Back then, neither of us had really understood what she was talking about, but over the years, we’d started to realize just what it meant to be part of the Vitucci family. We’d noticed that not everyone had guards shadowing their every move outside of their houses like we did. It was a dangerous world outside our compound walls, something the two of us had come to understand all too clearly in recent years.

  Once I was off school property, I took off running in the direction of home. This time of day, with Papa in Chicago and all of us kids supposed to be in school, only one guard was on duty in front of the compound gate, and he was so into his phone that he didn’t notice when I climbed the fence.

  As my feet landed on the other side, the growl of two dogs greeted me. I gave them the German command I’d been taught, and the dogs instantly came to attention. I whispered another command, and they took off running in the opposite direction. Inside the house, I went straight up to Mom’s room, hoping that she was sleeping if she was still feeling unwell.

  Instead, I found the bedroom empty, but her shower was running. Hurriedly, I sent a few texts from her phone, requesting for the pilot to get the second jet ready since Papa was using the other one. Then I texted a car service we used sometimes before arranging for one to meet me when I landed.

  I was out of my parents’ room before the shower even turned off. After stopping in my room to grab the present I’d already wrapped for Nova’s birthday, I rushed back out and left the compound the same way I’d snuck in.

  The car service met me a few blocks from the house and drove me straight to the airport, where the jet was already waiting on the tarmac. The flight attendant greeted me with a bow of his head as I boarded.

  “Mr. Vitucci,” he said as I took a seat. “Would you like a snack?”

  “No, thank you.” I took my seat and waited for the pilot to get us in the air. No one questioned that it was just me, even though I never flew anywhere without Mom or at least three guards with me. The text I’d sent the pilot had simply told him it was an emergency and to get me to Northern California as quickly as possible. No one ever second-guessed Mom, which was why I’d made all the arrangements from her cell instead of my own.

  I knew, without a doubt, that I was going to get into trouble for what I’d done, and I was prepared to deal with that.

  What I couldn’t handle was Nova hating me for thinking I’d lied to her. For breaking a promise.

  Promises were special. I knew people had to break them sometimes, but I wouldn’t do that to Nova unless there were no other options. Whatever punishment I got for making another option this time would be worth it.

  The jet had Wi-Fi so I tried to call Nova a few more times on the flight, but she still had her iPad turned off. The longer I spent unable to speak to her, the more the pressure around my heart increased.

  Once we were on the ground and I was only a short distance from Nova’s home, the pressure started to ease, but only a little. With each mile closer to her, it eased a little more. It was dinnertime for the Hannigan family by the time the driver pulled up outside of Nova’s house in Creswell Springs. I signed the receipt the driver gave me and told him he didn’t have to wait for me before getting out.

  Making sure her gift was in my pocket, I walked up the driveway and climbed the steps to her front porch. Heart pounding, I rang the doorbell and tried to wait patiently.

  It was a few minutes before the door opened, and Felicity stood on the other side. I wasn’t as nervous around her these days as I had been the first summer I’d met her, but I wasn’t exactly happy to see her either. Still, I smiled up at her, knowing she was just one more barrier I had to get past before I could see Nova.

  “Hi, Mrs. Hannigan,” I greeted when she just stood there with a bewildered look on her face. “Can I speak to Nova, please?”

  “I… Umm…” When she shook her head, my stomach dropped. She couldn’t keep me from seeing her daughter. I had to make Nova understand that I didn’t mean to make her cry. “Ryan, what are you doing here? Where are your parents?”

  I shrugged, my shoulders aching from the tension they had held all day. “Mom wasn’t feeling well because she’s having bad morning sickness, and Papa is in Chicago on business.”

  “Then how did you get here?” she demanded in her soft, kind voice.

  “We have two private planes,” I explained, trying to be patient. “I used Mom’s phone to have the pilot get the one Papa wasn’t using ready by text, and then called a private car company to take me to the airport. A second car service was waiting when I landed.”

  “Does your mom know you’re here?” Her voice lost the softness, becoming strained and a little strangled.

  “I didn’t want to worry Mom.” She would have felt bad if I told her everything, and I didn’t want her to feel guilty. It wasn’t her fault she didn’t feel well. My little brother or sister was growing inside her, making her sick. She needed the rest, and I needed to learn to handle things on my own.

  “Oh my God,” Nova’s mom whispered and grabbed my shoulder, pulling me into the house. I tried not to flinch at her touch, but I still wasn’t completely comfortable around her. She’d proven to me that she wouldn’t hurt either of her children, and I wasn’t nearly as scared of her as I once had been, but that didn’t mean I could turn off my body’s natural reaction to the possibility of an adult woman hurting me.

  As she ushered me inside, she lifted her phone to her ear, and moments later, I faintly heard Zio Ciro’s deep voice. “I don’t have time to chat, Felicity. I have a problem here and—”

  “Ryan,” she interrupted.

  “Yeah…” he answered, surprise thick in his voice. “How did you know?”

  She shook her head, causing her dark hair to swish back and forth. “Just a guess. Oh, and by the way, I have a new houseguest. Ryan just showed up at my front door.”

  “Thank God,” I heard him groan. “Anya is going ballistic. We thought someone kidnapped him. Cristiano is in Chicago, and he was about to blow up the world.”

  “What should I do with him?”

  “Just keep him there,” Zio instructed. “I’ll let Cristiano know, and he can fly over to pick him up instead of coming home.” There was a pause, and I just stood there, waiting. “Can I speak to him?”

  I took the phone as soon as she offered it, knowing what to expect. The harshness of my uncle’s voice, the worry and stress and actual fear I heard in it, made me feel bad, but not enough to make me regret what I did.

  “Your mom is beside herself!” Zio roared. “She practically collapsed when you weren’t there to be picked up from school! Your teachers nearly got a bullet between the eyes.”

  “I’m sorry Mom was upset,” I told him honestly. “I didn’t mean to make her worry. That’s not what I wanted. I just didn’t want Nova to be sad.”

  That didn’t calm him down at all, but I stood there and listened, knowing it was just one more thing I had to get through before I could see Nova.

  “I’m calling Cristiano now, boy. If I were you, I wouldn’t expect to leave this house again for a long-ass time once you get back.”

  “Yes, sir,” I said in acceptance.

  “You listen to Felicity and the Hannigans until your papa gets there,” he growled before hanging up.

  I offered Felicity her phone back. “Can I see Nova now, Mrs. Hannigan?”

  She touched her hand to my hair, mussing it up. “Sure, buddy.”

  I followed her through the house and into the kitchen, but she stopped just inside the door, blocking me from seeing the only reason I was there.

  “Who was it?” Jet Hannigan asked curiously.

  “Well…” She stepped aside, and my eyes zeroed in on Nova. She was sitting at the table with her fork in one hand, staring down at the food on her plate with the saddest look in her pretty eyes, which made it hard to breathe for a second.

  Then I shifted, and her head shot up. “Ryan!” The way she screamed my name, like it was the best moment of her life, made my knees weak, but I locked them as she launched herself out of her seat and across the room.

  Her slight weight hit me with force and we both went down, but I cupped the back of her head and held on tight, making sure that I took the full impact of the fall. She was already laughing, making all the tightness in my chest disappear as she smiled down at me.

  “You said you couldn’t come. Did you lie to me?” Before I could answer, she was already speaking again. “I don’t care. I’m just happy you’re here.”

  “I didn’t lie. I didn’t want you to be sad, so I came without telling anyone. I think I’m in trouble, but I don’t care. It was worth it to get to see you smiling at me like that.”

  I knew I was in trouble, but I didn’t want to put that burden on her. I would do it all over again a hundred more times if it meant I wasn’t the reason for her tears.

  9

  Nova

  Ryan Age 15 : Nova Age 10

  Christmas music played softly in the background as Ryan and Anya sat on the couch sipping their cups of hot chocolate that Mom had made for everyone. It was late and I hadn’t expected either of them to drop in out of the blue, but I wouldn’t say that I was disappointed. If anything, this was the best present I could have been given.

  I saw Ryan every summer and he made sure he came for my birthday each year, but it usually wasn’t until New Year’s Eve that he came for another visit. Then I wouldn’t see him again in person until spring break. I’d already mailed him his Christmas present, and he’d called me when he’d received it, making sure to show me that he’d placed his and his little sister’s gifts under the huge tree at the Vitucci mansion.

  When he hadn’t called me that morning to let me know if he liked his present or not, I’d just assumed he was too busy with his family. I knew without a doubt he would have called me before either of us went to bed that night, so I hadn’t given it much thought.

  Then the doorbell had rung, and I’d started to believe in Santa all over again, even though I’d found out the truth about that when I was seven and Garret had broken my heart by forcing my eyes open to the fact that magical beings like Santa and the tooth fairy weren’t real. But I’d been given the only gift I could ever possibly want or need with the appearance of my best friend on our front porch, and I’d almost looked to the sky to see if Santa and his reindeer were in the vicinity.

  Instead, I’d been too busy throwing myself at Ryan, and like he always did, he caught me and twirled me around, making me laugh even more.

  “How was your flight?” Mom asked Anya from where she was sitting beside Dad on the couch. “I heard there was a huge snowstorm over the Midwest.”

  “We flew around it,” Anya told her with a smile. “It put an extra two hours on the trip, but it was an uneventful flight.”

  “Great. I was worried you wouldn’t be able to make it.”

  That caught my attention, and I turned my head to look at my mom. “You knew they were coming?”

  She and Dad both nodded, but Mom was the one to speak. “Well, Anya asked us if she could give you a special gift and needed our permission to make it happen. Plus, you needed a bag packed, sweetheart.”

  I frowned at her. “I don’t understand. I opened the gifts they sent this morning.” The pillow that had one of my favorite pictures of Ryan and me on it was already on my bed, ready for me to snuggle up to it that night. Then there were the books Anya had sent. All the travel books she knew I loved and collected from St. Petersburg and all the cities I wanted to visit in Italy one day with Ryan.

  “This is something different,” Anya answered. “With you getting older and becoming more…” Her blue eyes traveled over me, taking in the boobs I was starting to develop and my long blond hair. I was still the shortest person in my grade, possibly even shorter than the smallest kid in the grade below me, but there was no denying that I’d been growing in other areas. “Of a woman.”

  Mom and Aunt Raven said I would be a pocket Venus one day, small but curvy. Dad had only grunted when they’d been talking about it over dinner one night, saying he needed to buy more guns. I was the mirror image of Aunt Raven in all those pictures of her from when she was the same age, but I felt…lacking. My height sucked because I was always having to look up at people.

  “Mom wants to take you to Paris. Get you a full wardrobe for this spring and summer,” Ryan told me when I just sat there frowning at Anya.

  I jumped to my feet, already bouncing from one foot to the other in excitement. “We’re going shopping in Paris?” I whisper-shouted the question.

  He laughed, his dark eyes alight with happiness just as they always were when I couldn’t contain my emotions. “You and Mom are. We’ll stop on the way and drop me off since I have to work.”

  Some of my excitement evaporated. I still wanted to go, because no one in their right mind would ever turn down the chance to go to Paris, whether they were shopping or not. But it wouldn’t be nearly as fun without Ryan there to enjoy it with me. And then there was the whole thing about Ryan working. He was only fifteen, but he’d been shadowing his dad for the last year, learning the ropes of their businesses so he could take over for him one day.