One Wrong Move Read Online Free PDF

Lily had even threatened to fly to New York, though her guy, Bruno, and Nina had both instantly vetoed that idea. Lily was in the eighth month of a problematic pregnancy, was taking anti-spasmodics, and was currently admitted at OHSU for observation. No way was she getting on an airplane. But it was great having a friend who cared enough to want to come.
    Nina missed Lily so badly, it hurt. All those late-night takeout dinners they used to have in her Upper West Side apartment, giggling and gabbing and just being together. It had been wonderful to have Lily nearby. A college roomate who had become the sister she never had. They’d counted on each other to fill the place of family, for years.
    It was Lily’s moving out to Portland that had finally prodded Nina to break the lease on her Upper West Side studio and move back into the house out in Mill Basin that she’d inherited from her stepfather. The family she’d rented it to had recently moved away, and New Dawn, the battered women’s shelter for which she worked, was in Sheepshead Bay, so her commute to work was far shorter from there.
    She had mixed feelings about that house, bad memories, but years had gone by. The past was dead and gone. So was Stan. She was not that damaged person anymore, and a house was a house, for God’s sake. She was damn lucky to own one.
    To think she’d thought that ditching her two-hour commute and being able to walk to work would improve her quality of life.
    Hah.
    With Lily gone, there was no reason to stay on in Manhattan.
    Lily was in Portland, three times zones away. Madly in love.
    Nina was happy for her friend. Really. Lily deserved to be adored the way Bruno adored her. After years of backbreaking work, Lily had finally gotten lucky. Bruno was smart, sexy, tough.
    A good dad, too. He’d demonstrated the dad skills with the toddler twins that he’d recently adopted. Lily was part of a big extended family now.
    So it was all good. Good for Lily. Yay. Hurray.
    And the sad, flat silence that followed that statement forced the comparison with her own arid life. Her own more-or-less shit luck.
    Goddamnit, she didn’t even want thoughts like that to cross her mind. She didn’t want to feel lessened by someone else’s good fortune, particularly not that of someone she loved so much. It felt hateful, small, and pathetic. It made her angry at herself. God, she missed Lily.
    Damn, girl. You have bigger problems than loneliness and envy right now. Like dying from some mysterious poison, for instance.
    She stared at the phone number that Lily had texted to her.
    The number of this guy named Aaro, an army buddy of one of Bruno’s adopted brothers. The one who spoke Ukrainian and various other Slavic languages. The phone jiggled in her fingers like a live thing. It had been twenty minutes since she’d last spoken to them. Bruno had been talking to Aaro while Nina spoke to Lily. He’d sent the file already. Aaro knew how urgently she needed this information. He might have already listened to it.
    He might know, at this moment, some crucial fact that Nina’s doctors needed. Something that could save her life, or her sanity, or her liver.
    So why was he sitting on it? Why the hell wasn’t he calling her?
    “Shit,” she muttered, and hit “call.” If he thought she was a freaked-out head case, so what? He’d be right. So?
    The phone rang four times before the line clicked open. Yes.
    She sucked in badly needed air, and opened her mouth—
    “What?” a deep voice barked. As if she were bugging him.
    Her heart rate spiked. It took a stammering couple of seconds to frame a coherent phrase. “Ah . . . ah, is this Alex Aaro?”
    “Who wants to know?”
    “I’m Nina Christie, and I—”
    “I know who you are,” the guy snapped.
    Nina’s raw nerves jangled at his brusque tone. Her response popped right out. “If you already know, why the hell did you ask me?”
    Dead silence. The guy had no good answer? Fine. She’d give him one