Chapter 24 Nikolai
NIKOLAI
Two weeks before the big wedding, Ace and Blade decided to have their bachelor party.
Normally, the event would have been filled with strippers, booze, and loads of debauchery.
But considering the two getting married—one a possessive blade thrower and the other a vindictive, jealous Latino—it was safer for everyone if they stayed away from naked strippers and focused more on the booze and rowdy good times.
After a long and arduous discussion, which turned into a two-day argument concluding in what could only be described as a savage sex-beating, the happily engaged couple finally decided they wanted to go camping for their bachelor party.
There was nothing like spending the weekend in the woods with your boys, boozing it up by the fire, with a shit ton of mosquitoes.
It had been a few days since their trip to the farm, and Reid insisted that there wasn’t much they could do on their end.
Simon and his team were investigating the farm and its financials to see what kind of information they could find.
So, in the meantime, they should go out with the boys and celebrate Ace and Blade’s final stage of freedom.
Niko reluctantly agreed.
As it turned out, Reid was becoming fast friends with Ace and the other guys. The boys were quickly falling for Reid’s charm and wit, often sharing laughs and inside jokes to which Niko was not privy.
Niko wouldn’t say he was jealous. Perhaps a little envious that his best friend—his closest ally—was sharing his attention with people… people who weren’t him.
And why shouldn’t he be… envious? Reid was his best friend, his confidante, and the only person who truly knew him.
He was the one who brought Reid soup when he was sick or had a sore stomach. He was the one who made sure that no one messed with Reid when they worked for Mikhail back in the day. And now, he was the one who… hmm, perhaps he was a little jealous.
Once the tents were all set up and the campsite had been arranged, the guys decided to do a bit of fishing.
Well, Marcus, Caden, and Blade did the fishing, while Lucas and Ace floated around on a large double-man inner tube that they somehow convinced Blade to inflate for them.
The two leisurely floated around the lake, sipping cocktails, talking about boys and which drag queen should have won the latest competition on television.
Niko and Reid had no desire to play with worms or smell like fish, so they decided to take a canoe out and enjoy some beers on the water.
Playing with worms and touching fish was not their idea of having a good time.
Neither was sleeping on the floor, but hey, sometimes you do things just because everyone else is doing them.
“It’s so peaceful out here,” Reid said, taking in the calmness of the lake.
“You call that peaceful?” Nikolai said, pointing over his shoulder at Caden and Blade, who were fighting over a fishing rod. Marcus was just sitting in the boat, shaking his head as his children argued over the rod.
Reid glanced over at the commotion, then turned back to Niko. “Well, it’s peaceful over here.”
Niko half chuckled.
“Can I ask you a personal question?” Reid asked, his voice suddenly low and serious.
Niko nodded.
“How come you aren’t seeing anyone?”
Taking in a breath of air, Niko looked out over the water, wondering why himself.
“I guess I’ve never really met anyone I connected with on that kind of level.” That was the best answer he could come up with.
The truth was that he couldn’t imagine spending every day and night with any of his sexual partners. Well, all except for perhaps one.
But that was crazy talk. He wasn’t gay.
You didn’t just wake up one day in your thirties and suddenly decide you liked dick and wanted to marry it. That wasn’t how real life operated.
“How about you?” Niko asked, curious as to why his old friend hadn’t been snatched up. He was a good-looking guy, with a sweet personality and a pretty good dick.
Reid shrugged his shoulders.
“I don’t know. Given everything we went through with Mikhail and then me being sold, I’m not sure there’s anyone who would really understand me as a person.
Understand why I sometimes wake up at night in a cold sweat, or why I sometimes go days without talking.
When people see that kind of behavior, they think that you’re sick or weird and don’t want to be around it.
So, I guess I never really gave it a try. ”
“The only thing weird about you is your fashion sense. Lime-green booty shorts for running? Please. Who are you trying to attract? All the hippies and their flower-power groupies?” Niko added, giving his friend a shake of his head.
Reid chuckled.
“Yeah, I guess you have to be sick in the head to wear what your best friend gave you.”
Hearing Reid refer to him as his best friend warmed Nikolai’s heart. It was nice having someone around who really understood him and wanted to be there with him.
The two of them had been through so much together when they were younger. Reid was right. No outsider would ever truly understand them.
A loud splash, followed by a barrage of laughter, caught their attention.
Niko glanced over his shoulder to see Blade wiping the water from his eyes as he reached for the side of the boat. Caden sat on the end, holding the fishing rod with a huge smirk on his face.
“You’re getting weak, old man,” Caden taunted, reaching for some bait to attach to his line.
“Your friends have issues,” Reid said nonchalantly.
“Yeah. They are the brothers I never had but always wanted.”
After fishing, they all went for a swim, then spent the afternoon drinking and ribbing one another. Caden wouldn’t stop teasing Blade, while Marcus kept telling embarrassing stories from when Ace was younger.
Listening to Ace plot Marcus’s murder was one of the highlights of the night. The man was a devious little monster.
“I won’t even be a suspect!” Ace said confidently. He was in the process of revising his “Marcus Murder Plan.”
“The first person they are going to suspect is the jealous younger brother,” Caden argued, laughing as he took a swig of his beer. He was leaning back against a rock, with Lucas safely tucked between his bent knees.
“Of course they will. But I’ve got the ultimate secret weapon,” Ace shouted. Well, he wasn’t exactly shouting. He was talking in his regular voice; it was just set to Latino mode.
“Your dick isn’t that big,” Blade noted.
“Shush, you. I’m Latino. Everything is big on me. My dick, my ass, even my personality.”
“You got that right. So what’s this secret weapon?” Caden asked. “Your ability to bore people to death?”
Ace smiled. “Nope. I’ve… got Lucas.” He turned to his best friend, whose cheeks suddenly flushed.
“Who? Sweet, golden retriever boy over there?” Reid asked, jerking his thumb toward the man sitting between Caden’s legs.
The group fell silent.
Reid looked around the campfire, appearing confused by the sudden shift in atmosphere. He looked over at Niko and gave him a confused look.
“Let’s just say, don’t ever eat or drink anything that Lucas gives you. Oh, and don’t open any bags of his.” Niko paused for a moment. “Umm, and if you see him holding anything with a pin in it? Run.”
Reid began to chuckle as he looked around the campfire nervously.
“Come on. You’re fuckin’ with me, right? Mr. Showtunes has an evil streak?” Reid joked, his voice unsure and shaky.
Lucas shook his head.
“These guys are just fucking with you. I’m harmless.
So I drugged Caden and had a little happy time with a few grenades?
Big deal. Who hasn’t? Oh, and there may have been an incident with a few snakes.
Nothing to be concerned about at all.” Lucas shrugged it off before turning to face his boyfriend with a concerned look on his face.
“Oh, hun, did I remember to take my meds today?”
Reid’s lips parted slightly as he tried to figure out if the happy ball of sunshine was actually a demon in disguise.
“Don’t worry, I’ll sleep next to the tent door tonight. He’ll have to kill me first before he gets to you. I’m sure my screams will wake you,” Nikolai offered gallantly.
“My hero,” Reid said, fluttering his eyelids and tucking his hands between his head and shoulder.
“You fucking know it,” Nikolai responded, giving his buddy a smirk of his own. He missed this sort of banter.
Glancing over at the man sitting next to him, Niko realized that he never wanted this to end. He wanted to have Reid around… forever.
But Reid was only here for a short while. Then he would be heading back to his home in LA—if that was where he lived. He hadn’t really asked Reid that question.
That sad truth pained him. He had thought Reid was dead for nearly ten years, but suddenly, he had him back in his life. How was he ever going to survive not having him around once again?
Perhaps he could convince Reid to stay. Move to Baton permanently, or maybe move in with him if it makes things easier.
Whatever it took, he wanted Reid to stay. He couldn’t bear the thought of losing him again.
The rest of the night, he tried not to think about the sad reality that one day his friend would head back home, and Niko would lose him all over again.