Page 79 of When You Stayed
Nova smiled brightly. “I always thought you two made more sense than you and Connor. No offense.”
“None taken. Connor was a great boyfriend, but I had a crush on Ford long before your brother ever asked me out.”
Taryn was busy staring at her phone, completely disengaged from the conversation.
“Anyway, so I started asking around about the video thing. I know a guy who has connections, and while everyone was busy hacking and looking at where this originated from, I looked at which club was responsible.”
Holy shit. No wonder they wanted to talk to me in private, she’d just dropped a bomb.
Taryn crossed one leg over another, leaning back. “How do you know it’s a club?”
“Because she’s Killian Quinn’s daughter.” Nova deadpanned like it was obvious.
She had a point. “Okay, so which club was responsible?”
Nova tucked her hair behind her ear. She seemed nervous, even more so when she wet her lips and cleared her throat. “So this is the part where I really can’t have this information leave this room because you’re going to be upset, and rightly so, but my contact is a good friend of mine. Even if they’re part of a shit for brains club.”
“Just tell us, Nova,” Taryn snapped.
“It was the Murdoch Devil Riders.”
My ears perked up, which had me shoving away from the desk.
“Murdoch?”
Taryn turned her head toward me, but neither of us spoke.
“You guys can trust me. Tell me why you’re looking at each other like that, what’s wrong?” Nova asked.
“You have a friend in this club, the Murdoch Devil Riders?” Taryn asked.
Nova’s face flushed. “We’re dating. It’s new…and complicated.”
Taryn scoffed. “Fuck, Nov. Do your parents know?”
“No, and neither does Connor. I’d like to keep it that way.”
My voice was cold as I shot off my own reply. “I would hope so. You dating anyone outside of the Stone Riders is bad enough, but someone who leaked a video of me?”
“Dad is going to freak.” Taryn shook her head while releasing a sigh.
If my gut was right, then it wasn’t my father who was going to be upset, it was Ford. Hell, he’d probably start a war over this.
“You can’t say anything.” Nova shot to her feet, bringing her hands together. “I’m begging you guys. I wanted you to know so you could put it to rest. I was able to convince them to take the video down, so it’s not up anymore.”
I rubbed my forehead, feeling frustrated. “Should we thank you, Nov? Fuck, they took an extremely vulnerable video of me and blastedit on the internet. I was harassed, nearly assaulted because of that video.”
“I know, it’s unforgivable. I know.” Nova held her hands up. “But it wasn’t Matt who did it. He just knows someone in the club who did.”
“Nova, we love you, but you cannot be serious about dating someone from a rival club. Especially after Dad forced everyone to leave Rose Ridge. The threat from Max is still hanging over our heads. I mean, shit, we’re in lockdown as we speak.” Taryn argued, tossing her hand out every so often.
Nova waved her off. “That’s Matt and a few of his friends. They rode to make sure I was okay. I’ll tell Uncle Killian once I’m no longer within range of being held hostage by my mom and dad.”
“So you’re telling them then?” I asked, trying to catch up.
Nova pulled her fingers tightly together. “I’ll tell them I’m dating Matt, but it can’t ever get out that they were the ones behind the video…”
My sister slowly stood from her chair and let out a sigh. “The men who came here with you are a danger to us, Nova. Surely you can see that, otherwise what motive did they have to release that video of Royce?”
