Chapter 62 My Real Name Is Elizabeth Voss
I can feel everyone’s eyes switching between David and me, the air completely still as they wait with bated breath to see what their boss will do. I can see David’s mind spinning, figuring out how to react, what impression his next action will give. His eyes are narrowed, staring at me as if daring me to speak to him in front of his people like that again. Marcus’s hand has also dropped off my back, and now my skin feels cold.
It feels like hours pass before David speaks, but I know it has only been mere seconds.
“Fine.” He says. But in that one word I can tell he is seething that I argued back in front of his people. That I am interrupting.
His shoulders are tense as he storms past me to his bedroom, and I rush to follow him, ignoring the slow build of mutters I am starting to hear from behind me.
David holds the door open, staring at the floor as I walk in, stopping just before his bed and taking a deep breath in.
Then the door slams shut and I flinch.
“David–” I start to say, turning around to face him. His face is thunderous as he walks towards me.
“You will not speak to me like that ever again.” He orders.
“I have before.”
“Not in front of them.”
“It’s important.” I plead.
Something must change. He must notice the look in my eyes, because suddenly his expression relaxes, his shoulders drop, and he puts his hands on my arms.
“Nora, what’s going on?”
I lick my dry bottom lip and take another breath. It is like the words are right there at the front of my mind, but something is stopping them from forming in my mouth.
Suddenly David pulls me to his chest and hugs me.
“Hey, it’s okay.” He comforts, and I feel his lips kiss the top of my head. “I know it’s scary. But I’m taking care of it. I promise.”
“It’s not… I mean yes I know, but that’s not what I…” I reply, pushing him away and walking around him, as though pacing the room will help me think of how to ease him into my confession.
“Was it last night?” he asks, making me spin round to face him. “When we got back?”
“No! No, god no.” I rush to say. Honestly, after everything that has happened today, I have completely forgotten about last night. “No, that was… great. Really.”
He doesn’t seem convinced, and I understand why. I can see from his side, without all the information, why my being antsy would make him think it is sex-related. After all, that was the last time we were alone together. So he has nothing else to correlate to my weird behaviour.
“I need to know what’s going on.” I decide to say.
“Nora, I really don’t have time–”
“I thought you went to see the guy? A meeting, you said?” I interrupt, his arms crossing over his chest when he realises I am not going to let this go. “You said I could be involved.”
“In my day-to-day. Not this. This is too dangerous.”
“I disagree.”
He sighs and rubs his chin with one hand.
“I did see him. And he… proposed something. I guess since the meeting he had a change of heart.”
Or a realisation that his daughter is sleeping with the enemy.
“What does he want?” I decide to ask, swallowing my thoughts for the moment.
“Territory, mostly.” David answers, sitting down on the bed and resting his elbows on his knees. “He’s been trying to gain our organisation, our land for years. Usually he’s less aggressive. Some kind of proposal, we challenge it, and it goes quiet for a while. We’ve managed to keep him at bay, out of the state, until Trent helped him steal those weapons.”
“What do you mean ‘gain the organisation’?”
“He made an attempt when I first took over. Thought he could attack while we were weak, try and convince us to merge. We didn’t back down and he lost. Maybe now he thought he had enough behind him to overpower us into agreeing. I didn’t really ask, because I told him no.”
“He wants you to join him?”
“Yes.”
“But you won’t.”
“No,” David smiles slightly. “Not a chance. We don’t exactly abide by the law, I get that. But this guy, what he does? He’s on the wrong side more often than not. He’s dangerous. He takes things to another level, no matter the cost, no matter who gets hurt. And we can’t let that kind of organisation run the city. So we’ve always pushed them back.”
I gulp as the memories flood back to me. I am certainly aware of how ‘on the wrong side’ he is. It is one of the reasons I left. My father always seemed to enjoy gaining power for the sake of power, and gaining respect through fear and control.
And after my mother died, it just got worse.
“I don’t… is everything he did normal? Kidnapping me to try and get the territory? He just seems to hate you. Surely that’s not all because you killed Trent?”
David takes a few seconds before answering my questions.
“I took over the organisation from a family friend. My dad was too old to be involved at the time. These guys and the person I took over from… they had a history. A personal history, with a lot of disagreements outside of the business that I learned about too late. Now those disagreements are my responsibility.”
“What disagreements?”
“Like I said, it’s personal.”
I rack my brain. Trying my hardest to think who the hell my dad would have personal business with in this world that would span years of hatred with David’s organisation five states away from where I grew up.
It suddenly hits me like a ton of bricks.
I feel myself starting to shake. From adrenaline, from panic, from something. It can’t be. Surely. If it is who I think it is… then this entire thing is now even more delicate and complicated.
David clearly notices my demeanour change, because he stands up and rushes over to me, his hands coming back to my jaw, looking all over my face.
“Nora, what’s wrong? Are you feeling sick again?”
“Who’s your family friend?” I whisper.
“What?”
“Who’s the family friend that you took over from?” I reiterate, finally looking up into his eyes.
“Why does it matter?” He frowns.
“Please… just tell me. Who was it?”
David breathes a few times before he replies.
“Nicholas Hale.”
The next thing I know, my body gives out, and David is grabbing me by the waist to hold me upright.
“Hey, hey, I’ve got you. What’s going on?”
I can hear David’s question. I know I need to answer it. But it feels like something has hit me over the head, making my brain thump and dizzy, and all my limbs feel numb as I try to hold onto his shoulders to stand on my own.
When the tingles in my fingers and toes start to hurt, the feeling starting to come back. I have the sense to push David away, stumbling a bit as I walk backwards to lean against the door, breathing heavily to try and get the blood pumping normally through my veins.
David is staring at me weirdly, confused by the whole encounter. But I need him to not be near me when I tell him.
I take a second to just look at him, knowing that what I am about to say is going to change everything between us. He won’t look at me the way he is now. Concerned.
I am pretty sure he won’t bother being concerned by me after this.
“Nora you’re worrying me. Why are you crying? Did you know Nick?” he asks. I feel my cheeks, and sure enough there are tears rolling down them.
I nod, and David lets out an exhale.
“Did you know him well?”
“No.” I reply, breathing in shakily before continuing. “But my parents did. And I was always told that Nicholas was the reason that my mom died.”
“Nick would never…” David shakes his head. “Who told you that?”
“My father.”
“I’m sorry that you lost your mother, but I can assure you that Nick wasn’t the kind of guy to… he wouldn’t have done that to anyone without reason.”
“I don’t think my father was lying.” I counter, and David takes a sharp breath in.
“Maybe I need to talk to your dad, get this straightened out and–”
“The guy trying to take over your organisation. His name is Malcolm Voss, isn’t it?”
David frowns at me.
“How do you know that?” he asks.
“When I tell you this, David, I just… please just listen to me, okay?”
“Nora, you’re scaring me.”
“Do you remember when I told you that… I had to start over. At The Red Room?”
“Yes.” His reply is as blunt as it is short. I can sense his mind starting to put the pieces together. “But what’s that got to do with anything?”
“Part of starting over was that I changed my name.” I say softly, blinking and feeling more tears fall from my eyes.
It’s now or never.
I watch his body start to tense, getting defensive, ready for me to continue, to tell him that hopefully what he is thinking isn’t true.
“My real name,” I breathe. “Is Elizabeth Voss.”