Chapter Twenty
~Nikolai~
“Nik,” Katarina stopped, taking her hand back. She swallowed. “There’s not…people behind that door, is there?”
Nikolai scoffed, “No.”
“I’m not about to find—”
“Let me open the door, Kat,” he huffed, punching in the numbers on the keypad and spinning the handle.
Once the door groaned open, he held it for her.
Katarina stared at him like he was holding her at wand point.
What does she think we’re capable of? But, then she seemed to come to her senses as she ducked under his arm and slipped into the ‘backroom’.
Nikolai stepped in after her, the door crying on rusty hinges as it shut behind him.
Katarina’s body was a tense statue a foot in front of him as she took it all in.
He let out a low whistle that bounced off all the walls, tables, shelves, and accessories.
Like an underground bunker, The Backroom of the Bonesaw operation was a busy hub of products.
Swords hung up on the wall, gleaming with different enchantments and auras.
One had an eyeball in the handle that gave Nikolai the heebie-jeebies, but it was on hold until the buyer from the Badlands could arrange transport.
The glowing gold iris followed them around the room as Katarina melted.
Her body twisted as she took it in, inch by inch.
There were cages full of car parts, not all of them legal in King’s Fall.
There was a back station for cleaning out magic tomes, a shadow box full of broken wands, and a cauldron that perpetually bubbled for some reason Nikolai didn’t understand.
“You guys run a chop shop. A real, magic chop shop!” She gasped, whipping to face him.
The room was the size of a living room. Down two steps from the lower bay and the floor was always cold.
Nikolai and Jessie were the only ones with the passcode.
Everyone else used a innocent looking chute, that led to an enchanted chest. If anyone fell in, they were unharmed but restrained.
If explosives were thrown in there, the chest snuffed it out.
If anyone went digging around in it, they’d find teeth.
Nothing like a mimic hexed treasure trunk to keep all one’s secrets secure.
“Like I said,” Nikolai hummed, shrugging nonchalantly. “We provide a service.”
“So, what was that goon in the yard trying to rough me up for? Why did he think you stole something?” She jabbed a thumb over her shoulder.
“I have no idea, but we have a hunch.” Nikolai nodded toward the back end of the room where there were two curio cabinets between him and the eye of doom hanging on the wall.
He pulled out a photo album underneath the simple, empty steel table they used as a workspace.
There were four photo albums. Evidence. No fool trusted their allies a hundred percent.
So, Titan Bonesaw started their little friendship collection. Nikolai flipped to Big Bobby’s page.
“You call him Big Bobby?” she teased, poking the photo of the gnome behind the wheel of his drag race car.
Titan knew that friendships could get snuffed out by jealousy or by money, so he kept his business tight and kept tabs on all his ‘buddies’.
Each person in the book had something on them that would make them think twice against crossing Papa Bonesaw.
Some knew what he had on them, others didn’t.
What they didn’t seem to know was that Titan gave his kid those albums. Might be time to let the world know Jessie’s in charge and not afraid to burn bridges to keep what he cares about safe…which now includes you and the bug.
“Everyone has a nickname.” Nikolai explained.
“What’s yours?” she leaned onto the table with a coy look on her face.
“Nik,” he stated point blank with a narrowed glare pointed at her.
She stuck her tongue back out at him before looking down at the book.
He didn’t tell her that people like him didn’t get nicknames.
He was Jessie’s right hand. The enforcer or the muscle.
Shop manager was the closest to a title he would ever get.
Guys like Nikolai Sokolov didn’t have names like Big Bobby or Frankie the Fridge…
because people didn’t talk about Nik. They just hated to see him show up on their doorstep.
“So, this Bobby guy, why do you think he’s the culprit?” Katarina ran her finger down a page of dates, times, and photographs.
“Bobby owed us money earlier and refused to pay. He runs the little dealership on second street, and some of the cars in his lot didn’t come from the manufacturer floor. We scrub them clean, give them a fake paper trail, and Bobby pays us a fee.”
“Except he didn’t pay, so what?” She straightened, arms folding over her chest.
“So, we showed up and took the money out of his pockets. That’s all…I don’t know what he thinks we took other than his library card—”
“You stole the man’s library card?” Katarina wheezed. She leaned her hip against the table and stared him up and down incredulously.
“What can I say?” Nikolai puffed out his overalls with a quick tug of the fabric on his chest. “I’m a bad boy.”
Katarina snorted, rolling her eyes. “You asshole.”
“That too.” Nikolai shrugged as he closed the book again and stuffed it down under the tabletop. When he dusted off his hands, he found Katarina sagging against the table. Her gaze roamed out across the room with relief. Nik smiled softly, nudging her with his elbow. “Hey.”
“Yeah,” she whispered, her eyes still on the stack of parchment in the corner used for forging spell books or runes.
“You were scared to find out who it is you were sleeping with?” Nikolai stepped back from the table. He put his back to one of the few concrete pillars in the rooms. It was the only one that wasn’t used as magic carpet re-rolling or other circular projects.
Katarina spared him an apologetic smile.
“I think I knew somewhere in my gut you guys could never, but there for a second I worried I’d gotten out of bed with a violent abuser only to get into the bed of two masked villains, you know?
I was worried maybe I couldn’t trust myself to know people like I thought I did. ”
Nikolai beckoned her with a curled finger.
She slunk toward him before sinking into his chest. Wrapping his long arms around her, he pressed his cheek into her hair.
She smelled of sunshine and sweat and metal, which was practically home scented.
But deep underneath, I can smell something uniquely her.
He shifted his face to kiss her scalp and caught her perfume under all the smell of work.
Like orange blossom, slightly tart but fresh, a hint of cashmere, and vanilla, a mixture of sweet and smooth with just enough bite to make his mouth water.
He replayed that morning over in his head as she snuggled down into his chest. Seeing her staring off into space, the playful confession, the look on her face…
How did I even doubt that she could handle this?
Granted, that morning she told him she liked messy.
But there’s messy…then there’s us. Jessie especially; Nikolai thought himself as a simple guy.
I like soft things. I like my lovers saucy.
And I want people I shouldn’t. He shouldn’t keep Katarina, but he couldn’t help it.
Would her life be better living in some apartment away from all this mess?
Absolutely. Would he hate the hole she left in his chest when she left?
Most definitely. Had she possibly opened his eyes to the possibility that maybe Jessie was ready for more? He wasn’t ready to answer that.
Because if Jessie was ready for more, Nikolai was about to feel like an oblivious idiot. If Jessie wasn’t ready for more, it meant…that he didn’t want that with Nikolai. And the mechanic absolutely could not let himself find out the real answer.
“So, this is what you meant when you said you guys were messy,” Katarina sighed against his chest. Nikolai snorted and nodded but didn’t respond. She leaned back in his arms, peering up into his face with a broad smile. “How does this work now?”
“How does what work?”
“Us,” she giggled. Her hands roamed up his sides then down the front of his overalls till she had the rumpled fabric curled up in her fists.
She tugged him away from the pillar. Nikolai let her lead him to the table till it was pressed in the small of her back and his hands caged her against it. “Jessie’s still in heat, of course.”
“Of course,” Nikolai parroted.
“So, one of us is going to have to take his knot—”
“One of us?” Nik snorted, shaking his head. “Wicked girl, how many times have you been through a minotaur’s heat?”
Katarina’s eyes widened but her lips curled wider. “This would be my first.”
“Then let me be the first to tell you, that knot? It gets more frequent. It gets more demanding. At his peak, he’ll knot you, and while you’re laid spread out on the bed, dripping with cum, you’ll watch me take it a few moments later.
You said you liked messy. I hope you mean that, because that pretty pussy of yours is about to know the full meaning of sore here shortly.
” Nikolai studied her face, relishing every change of her face.
He embellished a little more than he should, but the way her eyes blew open, and her rubies were mostly inky black by the time he finished with a raspy whisper…
he couldn’t help himself. Their lips crashed swiftly after.
She yanked him into her and he eagerly met her.
Their tongues twisted up with each other.
A moan rumbled up his chest at the feel of her hands tugging him out of his overalls roughly.