Diana might be right about that. Nita considered, and decided it didn’t matter. “I still want him dead. He deserves to die for what he’s done. Besides, if I don’t kill him, he’ll keep coming after me.”
“You said you saved him. Do you really want to kill him?”
“Yes.”
Diana pursed her mouth. “Murder isn’t the answer.”
“Some people in the world only understand violence. If I want to communicate with them, I need to speak their language.”
“That’s not—”
Nita sighed and rose. “Look. I get it. You want me to understand that murder is bad. That all of this mess is happening because I tried to kill someone and failed. But the thing is, murder will solve this. And it’s a little late to be preaching morals at me. I’d say around a few hundred dead bodies too late to tell me murder is wrong.”
And with that, Nita turned around and walked back upstairs, leaving Diana alone in the dark shop.
Thirty
NITA WOKE UP when the morning sun spilled across her eyes and burned into her dreams. She cracked open her eyes, then immediately closed them. The light was too strong.
When she opened them again, she rolled over to the other side of the bed. She found Kovit sitting up, typing on his phone. He turned to her, and the morning light brushed his cheeks and dappled his skin with soft light. It spread through the gaps in his eyelashes so she could see each individual one, and softened the line of his jaw.
“What are you doing?” she asked sleepily.
He hesitated, then looked away. “Chatting.”
“With?”
“Internet friends.”
Nita blinked. She’d forgotten he had them. People he’d been friends with for years. People who had no idea what kind of person he was, but still cared for him.
She looked away. “What are you talking about?”
“Henry.”
Nita’s head jerked up. “What?”
Kovit swallowed. “Somehow Henry knows I’m alive. Only you, me, and this group knew I was alive. I know you wouldn’t tell him. You didn’t even know who Henry was before this.”
Nita closed her eyes. “So you want to know—”
“If it’s my friends.” He shrugged. “I want to know if somehow one of them accidentally outed me, or Henry somehow hacked our chatroom.”
She closed her eyes. “How can you possibly find that out?”
“By asking.” Nita tilted her head to the side, and he elaborated. “They know I wasn’t raised in great circumstances. I think they all think I had an abusive family. I guess it’s close enough. Anyway, I said that I’d run away when I met up with Anna and the others in Detroit. But now I’m telling them he found me, and asking if anyone approached them or if anyone had anything suspicious happen to them lately.”
“And?”
He shook his head. “No. If they gave me away by accident, they don’t seem to know it.”
She closed her eyes. “That was always unlikely.”
“I know.” He looked away. “But it was the best option.”
Nita nodded. “I’m sorry.”
He sighed softly. “I was stupid for not being more careful. I mean, Henry liked to micromanage everything else in my life, why not this too? He probably hacked the chatroom years ago and has been eavesdropping ever since.”
Nita shivered. When Kovit had first mentioned online friends, she wondered why she’d never considered that. But now she understood—somewhere inside, she knew her mother would’ve found out and ruined it.
No, friends were liabilities.
Kovit tucked his phone away. “Never mind. There are more important things to deal with.”
Nita sighed. “You’re right. It doesn’t matter how Henry found out, I suppose. We have to handle it now.”
He laughed, light and free. “Actually, I meant breakfast.”
She stared at him. That was a joke, right?
He nodded to the table. “I ducked out to the Tim Hortons across the street.”
It wasn’t a joke?
Nita walked over to the table, and the moment she pried open the paper bags, her nose was assaulted with the smell of fresh bacon and eggs. Her stomach rumbled, and she dove in.
While she was eating, Kovit sat across from her and tapped his fingers on the table. “Though we really do need to deal with this.”
“What exactly did the email from Henry say?” Nita asked through a bite of sandwich. “Did it give a timeline or anything for responding?”
Kovit blinked. “I didn’t actually look. I think my mind sort of shut down partway through.”
He pulled out his phone and checked the email. “He says if I don’t respond within twenty-four hours, he’ll release the video.”
It had already been at least twelve since he sent it, probably more. Kovit would need to respond soon.
“Anything else?”
“It says he’s in Toronto and wants me to join him. He’ll buy me a plane ticket from wherever I am to come here.”
Nita tapped her fingers on the desk. “We could ask him to get you a ticket from somewhere far away. Singapore or something. Buy some time.”
Kovit shook his head. “Henry wouldn’t believe it. Besides, why would I be in Singapore anyway?”
“I don’t know. Maybe you’re practicing your . . . whatever language they speak there.”
“English.”
“Oh.”
Kovit sighed and leaned back. “Delaying things won’t change anything.”
“You’re right.” Nita’s voice was firm. “We need to kill him.”
“Kill him?” Kovit’s voice was soft.
“Kill him,” she confirmed.
He looked away. “Look, Nita . . .”
A stone sank in her stomach at his tone of voice. That meant nothing good. “Yes?”
“I don’t think I can do that.”
Right. He had his rules. She wished he were a little more flexible on them, given that his life was in danger. But fine, she could get around them.
“Okay.” Her voice was cautious, each word walking a tightrope. “What if I kill him for you?”
He flinched and looked away. “No. I just . . .”
“You don’t want him to die.” Her voice was flat.
“I don’t.”
She stared at him. Her brain was encased in cement, and she was trying to crack it out so it could stretch over to whatever his line of thinking was. “He wanted to torture you. He wanted you dead. He’s the reason you were sent to South America.”
“Yes.”
“And now he’s trying to blackmail you into being his slave again.”
“Yes.”
Nita kept staring at him. “How can you not want to kill him?”
“He raised me.” Kovit met her eyes, his gaze calm and implacable. “He may not have loved me, he may have thought of me as nothing more than a tool. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t care about him.”
She sighed, suddenly tired. This was not the time for his morals to surface.
Nita gritted her teeth. “Kovit. Do you want to live?”