Page 20 (1/2)

Right Now

I feel the booth cushion depress and Nik slides in next to me He hasn’t been in the booth a second before I’m on him I’m not entirely sure why but I feel like I’m about to burst into tears

And I do

The first of the tears streak my face and I bury my face in Nik’s neck Nik stands, holds me close to his side and leads me to the door behind the bar When we’re in the familiar hall Nik stops, picks me up bridal style and carries me over to the sofa in the ‘chill out’ room As soon as we sit, I cry a river

Nik coos in ently rocks me, "You’re breakin’ my heart, sweetheart I’m so sorry He’s not even allowed here, I let his uncle know and he’s pissed as hell"

"He- he- he- he said he was your fr- fr- friend!" I hiccup my reply

Nik strokes my hair and says, "He lied, baby Omarr is bad people I need to knohat he said to you Can you tell , I respond, "He asked if I was one of your women, th- th- then he told Ghost I was free rein a- a- and he told me he wanted me in his b- b- bed!" I finish on a wail

When I mention the last bit, I feel Nik’s body stiffen so solid I’reat as a bronzed statue

Getting off the subject,you don’t want to happen, Tina I’ll make sure that doesn’t happen Oht need so"

I sputter, "Th- th- this is why you need the gun, isn’t it?"

I lift my head and I see conflicted emotions run across Nik’s face He whispers, "There are a lot of things you don’t know about me, Tina I’ll tell you all about ‘em one day, I promise But not yet"

I nod under his chin and whisper back, "Okay, Niki"

Chapter Fourteen

Sleepover

After ht, he heldand al sos for Nik And while this scares the bejeezus out ofas he never finds out

I findeveryday s like how he stirs his coffee clockwise then counter clockwise Or how his eyes narrow and he scratches hi Or how he rolls up his shirt sleeves to his elbohen he’s stressed out

I can’t believe I’ve worked across the street from The White Rabbit for two years and never knew him All that time I could’ve known him seems wasted

That makes o There is no way I would’ve let hilad he’s a part of o

And O played by so broken I’m sure that’s why I was so emotional on Sunday after the O tiered a rush of emotions in me that I couldn’t halt I felt overwhelmed

Nik caht in Versace ar tiirls and we left a little afterNat and I open up the store and a little past nine a flower arrangement delivery comes to the store

I ss are heating up between theether already They’re sn for the delivery and Nat bounds over I set the arrangeood look at it There are approxihteen perfectly white lilies surrounded by baby’s breath

Good going, Trick!

That’s an expensive arrangement At least two hundred dollars’ worth of lilies

Nat and I look at each other and se She takes the card, looks over it then hands it to me

I take in her frown and hard eyes This is not going to be good

Think about what I said You can do better than hi you’ve ever dreamed of Cos holy!

They’re frobetween me and my friend I hate that!

I told Nat what had happened and she was livid I told her Ghost and Nik took care of htly placated I think she didn’t like to think about ood ti tih and walk over to the phone, dial the number and wait

"Ghost? Yeah, I’m okay Can you come over here please? Thanks"

Within ain hand He doesn’t greet us, just walks straight over to the beautiful arrange Then he walks over to arbage bag in tow

"I’ to kill that motherfucker!" I roar

Max puts a hand on my shoulder and quietly replies "Calonna take her away from us No way We’re family"

Omarr is a deadhe isn’t irl

…not that she knows she’s irl like a free rein whore And, lastly, sends her expensive floith promises when he really just wants to fuck her and leave her broken as aOmarr wants is for oes way back to when I was just a teenager Dad had just died and I was given a choice to join Chaos

Chaos are a Russian-A My dad hat you could call the vice president of the gang They were criood man I joined them and to my complete disapproval, so did Ghost and Max We we’re just kids doing the hard lifting for old , Iive us a list and ould collect By any means necessary Mom was devastated when she found out She didn’t want that life for us My dad was trying to get out when he died

Omarr is a part of the Sixes Most of them went to school with me and ere all cool til Marcus died

Marcus was Omarr’s older brother He broke into our fa Chaos related from my dad’s office My dad shot hi to go to jail I had to do so Just as the officers asked who fired the first shot, I spoke up and said, "I did"

I was just about to turn sixteen I got a suspended sentence I would do it again in a heartbeat Anything for my dad

Ghost, Max, and Trick all know this Ghost and Max were there I told Trick soe His uncle has forbidden any retaliation on me

Uncle Jerm leads the sixes The first time we met he questioned me about Marcus’ death I know he knows I didn’t kill Marcus I was flustered and defensive I left too many questions unanswered because I simply didn’t know the answers to theeance He knows I didn’t do it But I confessed I’ve made my bed, now I have to lie in it

It never bothered un and hope for them best

This is different

This affects Tina

Ghost and Trick are delivering a garbage bag of half dead flowers to Uncle Jerainst Jerer makes my voice harder than it should be, "Yeah I know, Max But he’s toying with her Fucking with Tina I don’t like it"

Max shakes his head and concedes, "Me either But let Uncle Jerm take care of it You know he’ll fix it"

I do I know Uncle Jerood people who do bad things out of obligation That’s Uncle Jerm He looks after his fanized Oet Tina the fuck away froone down there, anything could’ve gone down and there was no way I was putting Tina in danger

Omarr is what you would call unstable