Chapter 15 Nikolai
NIKOLAI
The bar was pretty dead for a Thursday night. Usually, there was a steady stream of people dropping by, having an after-work drink, or getting started on an early long weekend. But tonight? It was like everyone decided to stay home for some odd reason.
Nikolai didn’t mind. It gave him time to think and process everything that had happened over the past few days. Running into the man he thought was dead, having him visit, and then shooting his load down his old friend’s throat.
There was a lot to sift through and digest.
When Reid first disappeared, he spent months trying to figure out what happened to his best friend.
There was no way Reid would have run off without telling him—or at least asking him to go with him.
After hitting countless dead ends and losing hope of ever finding him, he was forced to accept the horrifying reality that his buddy was probably dead.
His mind drifted back to that fateful night…
It was just after four a.m. when Nikolai returned home to the condo that he shared with Reid. He used his key to let himself in, then began peeling off his layers of clothing that reeked of alcohol and sex.
It had been a good night.
The woman he’d been entertaining was a widowed heiress in her seventies, who lived alone in this gigantic, twelve-bedroom estate that was way too large and way too old.
She’d dismissed most of her staff for the evening, so she could concentrate on entertaining the young buck she’d hired for the night without any interruptions or judgment from those who kept her house in order.
Niko didn’t mind. Mostly, the woman wanted to give him oral and watch as he did push-ups on the floor in front of her.
She had this strange fascination with watching the way his muscles moved whenever he exercised.
She’d even asked him to do a few dumbbell curls…
while naked, of course. To each their own.
It was his job to make people’s fantasies and kinks come true.
He was a sex god, after all.
At the end of the night, she tipped Niko twenty-five hundred! That was outside of whatever she’d already paid to Mikhail.
Nikolai couldn’t wait to get home and show the cash to Reid.
Kicking off his jeans, he nearly tripped and smashed his face into the wall.
He was too fucking excited.
“Hey, buddy! We can finally get that surround sound we were wanting to get!” Nikolai shouted, bursting into Reid’s bedroom without even knocking.
They’d lived together long enough that neither of them bothered knocking anymore before walking into each other’s bedrooms. It wasn’t like they hadn’t seen each other naked before or watched as they both jerked their meat together from time to time.
By now, he was standing in Reid’s room in nothing but his red boxer briefs.
The room was empty.
Reid’s blankets were messed up, and his clothing was thrown all over the floor.
This was nothing new.
Reid had a tendency to miss the hamper whenever he tried to throw his dirty clothes in. Nikolai liked to tease him about his lack of hand-eye coordination. Reid could somehow find the G-spot, but not the bottom of the hamper.
“Reid?” Niko called, stepping out of the bedroom and glancing into the bathroom.
Empty.
Hmm, perhaps he’d been called out for a client.
Mikhail sometimes did that, calling one or both of them out in the middle of the night and giving them twenty minutes to shower and freshen up before meeting a late-night client at some fancy-ass hotel.
It wasn’t ideal, but who were they to argue with their boss?
Niko picked up his cell and decided to give Reid a call to see what time he would be home.
The phone went right to voicemail.
Hmm, that was strange. Normally, they always kept their cell phones on, just in case Mikhail tried to reach them. It was a big no-no to turn them off.
Deciding that perhaps Reid’s cell had died, he decided to head to bed and tell Reid the good news in the morning.
When morning finally came, there was still no Reid. He tried calling Mikhail, who appeared uninterested, advising that Reid had been called out for a job late last night and would be home when he was home.
Three days later, and Reid still hadn’t returned.
“Mikhail, I’m getting worried now. Reid hasn’t been home in days, and his cell phone’s been disconnected.”
“Oh, has it?” Mikhail asked, counting the wad of cash he held in his hands before passing a bunch of it to Niko. “Here’s your weekly allowance for food and entertainment.”
Niko placed the cash down on the counter.
“And what about Reid’s? Shouldn’t you be giving me his payment as well so I can give it to him when he comes back home?”
Mikahil looked up at Niko. “Like you said, he hasn’t been home in days, so why would I give him money to spend?” His Russian accent was thick as he glared at Niko.
“Aren’t you worried about him?” Niko asked, trying his hardest not to grab his boss by the throat and shove his head through a goddamn window.
“Street trash like Reid goes missing all the time. Eventually, they either come back home or turn up in the Hudson. Either way, it makes no difference to me.”
Nikolai couldn’t believe how disinterested Mikhail was in Reid’s disappearance. Considering he had just lost a significant source of revenue, one would think that the man would be out scouring the streets.
This was getting ridiculous.
Niko went to the police station and filed a missing person report. Judging by the generic questions the police were asking, he didn’t have high hopes that they were going to spend any time searching for his friend.
It was only after a month of no word from Reid that Niko became convinced that something bad had happened to his one true friend.
That was also around the time when Niko realized it might be time for him to start planning his escape.
It was clear that Mikhail and his crew had no intention of ever letting him or any of the other men and women who worked for them go.
He had made Mikhail more than enough money to cover any costs or fees involved in bringing him to America all those years ago, yet Mikhail still insisted that he continued to entertain clients.
It was now abundantly clear that they had all been trafficked by Mikhail and were never going to be free to leave.
There were only two ways out of this mess: death or escape.
Or maybe there was also a third option…
“So, here you are,” Reid announced, stepping out of the bar and passing him a water bottle. “Been looking for you the past twenty minutes.”
Nikolai looked down at the bottle and raised an eyebrow at his buddy.
“Yes, I know. Your body is made up of ninety-eight percent vodka, but here, in America, we like to stay hydrated by drinking something called water,” Reid responded, shaking his head with a tiny smirk.
Nikolai unscrewed that cap and took a swig. He appreciated that his buddy cared about his well-being and made sure that he had what he needed. God, the guy was so sweet.
Lowering the bottle, he nodded toward the door. “Let me guess, the gossip guild had you cornered? Trying to get all the juicy stories out of you?”
Reid leaned against the wall next to the door.
“Come on, Niko, our stories are way too raunchy to share with these amateurs.” He gave Niko a wink.
The man had a point.
Other than Marcus, no one else knew about Niko’s past working as a high-end escort. He didn’t see a need to share that part of his past with the guys who had become his brothers.
“That’s one of the things that I’ve always liked about you. You know when to keep your damn mouth shut.” Nikolai chuckled.
“Or when to open it,” Reid added, giving Niko a wicked smirk.
He shook his head at his buddy. The man was an idiot.
“So, are you going to tell me what happened?” Nikolai asked, the smile fading from his face as he shifted into serious daddy mode. “I tried giving you some space, but it’s been a few days now.”
Reid locked eyes with Niko, holding his breath as he seemed to struggle.
“Not tonight. But soon. This isn’t something that we should discuss when surrounded by drunkards and horny customers.”
The man was right. This was a conversation they should have in private, with a big bottle of vodka glued to the palm of his hand.