She began dragging Adair with difficulty to the washroom and cold water. He stumbled, leaning heavily against her, gasping for air, until they were in the washroom. The sound of the shower running drowned out his whimpers.
Nita swallowed, unmoving as the bathroom door closed behind them. She could still hear Diana’s voice, faint and soothing, through the wood.
Finally, Nita turned away sharply and left the room, closing the apartment door softly behind her.
Forty-Nine
KOVIT HAD TEXTED HER the location of Henry’s apartment, so Nita took the subway north. She washed her hands in the washroom of the pawnshop before she left and picked out an old jacket to cover the blood stains on her shirt. It looked like something Queen Victoria might have worn and she got more looks than if she actually was riding the subway covered in blood.
While she sat on the train, she flipped through the conversations in Henry’s phone, looking for something specific.
There.
Fabricio.
Henry had texted him when he caught Nita, and Fabricio had responded. She looks pretty alive. I said contact me when she’s dead. Is she dead yet?
Soon.
That was over an hour ago. There was no response. Henry had been talking to Nita and Kovit. Then he’d died.
The phone buzzed as another message from Fabricio came in. I found your online sale, and she looks pretty alive there too. Our deal is off if she’s not dead.
Nita tapped her finger on the side of the phone and finally responded, She’s dead now. Do you need to see the body to confirm?
She got off the subway at Yonge and Eglinton, the same stop that she’d gotten off when she’d murdered those black market dealers. It turned out Henry was staying a ten-minute walk away from there. Nita went into a tall chrome building, taking the elevator to the third floor. She checked her phone to see if Fabricio had responded. He had.
Yes, I want to confirm she’s dead. Do you have the body?
A wicked smile crossed Nita’s face. Fabricio was still in the city. He hadn’t fled. He should have run while he had the chance.
I do. You know where I’m staying?
Of course. I’ll be there in an hour.
See you soon.
Nita clicked off the phone as the elevator dinged on her floor.
Her eyes searched the long beige hallway until they lit upon the sign: Heavy Hitting Recording Studios.
She walked over to the fire-engine-red door and knocked.
The door opened quickly, and she was facing Kovit.
He blinked and looked away. There were shadows in his eyes she didn’t think he’d ever escape, and there was a softness to his movements. A slowness. Like a piece of well-oiled machinery slowly winding down before it stopped for good.
Nita swallowed. She didn’t like that idea.
She stepped into the studio and closed the door behind her. They were in a reception room with black couches and a small black coffee table. Magazines were stacked all over the end tables, and two heavy doors led to what Nita assumed were the recording rooms.
Of course Henry would rent a music studio while he was here. Given what she knew of him, he would want a place to indulge in his sick tastes without other people interrupting. So, soundproofing.
Nita turned her mind away from that thought. “Where’s Gold?”
“In music room A. She said she wanted to sleep, but I think she just wanted to be away from me for a bit.”
Nita resisted the urge to flinch. There was something deeply fatalistic in the way he spoke. She’d brought Kovit back from the brink, but he still stood near the edge, and she didn’t know how to lead him away from it.
“Is she okay?” Nita asked.
He held up his arm, which had a long cut on it. “I used some of my blood to numb her pain, and we picked up some slings and crutches at the drugstore.”
“That’s good,” Nita said.
They stood there for a long moment, neither speaking. Nita desperately wanted to fill the silence, because it was strangely awkward. She didn’t know where she stood anymore.
“Is Adair dead?” Kovit finally asked.
Nita slumped. “No.”
He raised an eyebrow. “He got away?”
Nita couldn’t meet his eyes. “I let him go.”
There was a long silence before Kovit whispered softly, “I’m glad.”
Her head jerked up. “Pardon?”
“I’m glad you let him go.” Kovit met her eyes. “I’ve lost enough today.”
“He betrayed us.”
“Well, that’s Adair.” Kovit shrugged. “We knew going in that he might. I don’t feel like blaming him for something we both suspected he’d do.”
“So you just wanted to let him get away with it?”
“Yeah.” Kovit brushed a hair from his face. “I did.”
Nita was silent for a long time. Finally she asked, “Why didn’t you tell me you felt that way?”
Kovit shrugged and turned his face away, his messy hair tumbling over his eyes. “I don’t know. I didn’t think it mattered.”
“Why wouldn’t it matter?”
Kovit snorted. “Nita, when you want to do something, you do it. You never listen to my cautions.”
“You’ve never told me not to do something,” she protested.
“I’ve been telling you since we met. I asked if you were sure about luring those black market traders to their death, about kidnapping Fabricio—”
“You asked if I was sure, you didn’t tell me not to do it.”
He looked away. “It’s your decision.”
Nita closed her eyes, replaying all the times he’d asked her to think something over twice. All the times he’d hesitated.
Nita had never really had much interaction outside her mother. And when her mother didn’t want to do something, she was extremely clear, and Nita crawled in a corner and obeyed.
Kovit wasn’t her mother. They weren’t playing power games with each other. They’d been trying to be partners, and Nita simply hadn’t thought about what that would mean in terms of objecting to things.
She looked down. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you were uncomfortable with so much. All this time.”
He shook his head. “I should have spoken up more. I should have been more blunt. I’ve never had a relationship like this, and I didn’t really know how to tell you to stop without making you angry. And I didn’t want to lose you.”
Nita’s throat tightened. “I don’t want to lose you either.”
He hesitated, then stepped a little closer, and Nita swallowed, feeling the heat of his body next to hers. But he didn’t touch her, didn’t move.
He took a deep breath. “I’m sorry about the INHUP agent. I knew you didn’t want me to hurt him, I know you don’t like to . . . You don’t like that. I was angry and hurting, and I felt like you were ignoring my warnings and just using me like Henry did, and I wanted to hurt you like you hurt me.”
Nita tried to get the memory of the man’s screams out of her mind. “I’m sorry too. It was my stupid plan that went wrong. You never wanted any part of it, and I didn’t see that.”
He nodded once, tightly, and sat down on the couch. Nita hesitated, then sat beside him. He shifted so that their legs were touching, and she didn’t move away.