Chapter Nine #2
I demonstrate meditative breathing for him. He follows my lead until color returns to his cheeks.
“Thanks,” he says. “You’re being weirdly chill about all of this.
Unless…” His face brightens. “Oh my God. Of course. I can’t believe I didn’t realize it sooner.
Tey has you on Find My Friends, doesn’t he?
Oh my God, he’s probably on his way here right now.
Right? That’s why you’re not bugging out. We’re saved!”
I bite my lip. “Um. About that.”
His jaw drops. “You didn’t.”
“Well…”
“Joonie!” He groans loudly.
I give him a sympathetic look. “But if you think about it, Tey was totally right. About the ax murderer thing. So that’s cool.”
Nico looks up at the garage ceiling.
“So.” I clear my throat. “Do you have something you want to tell me?”
He looks away, guilt-ridden.
“Oh my God, I knew it,” I say. “Tell me exactly what we’re doing here, Nico. Who the hell is Harry ‘the Hug’ Lester? And what does he have to do with you?”
Nico clears his throat. “Um, has Tey talked to you about how the business is doing?”
I stare at him. Hard. “What are you talking about?”
“He swore he was going to,” he mutters under his breath.
Crunching the numbers. That’s what Tey said Nico was doing at Kabobs ’n’ Bits before Sunday night dinner.
Oh no. Oh God.
“Ever since your parents left…” His voice trails off. “Things haven’t been going too well. You know how Abbotts opened that outpost. And then there’s that Michelin-starred oyster bar down the street. People are just…less interested in fast casual Middle Eastern food, I guess.”
This baffles me. Kabob is timeless!
“Anyway, when the books started to look really bad, Teymoor asked me to take a look. I promised I’d help him get back into the black, but I made a miscalculation that resulted in Tey taking out a loan…
using the shop and his apartment as collateral.
I felt so bad, Joonie. So fucking awful.
I mean, he trusted me with this, and I let him down in this massive way.
So I made another really stupid decision.
I thought I was helping. I truly believed I was doing what I had to. ”
I stare at him, letting the silence between us grow thick.
“I went to Mohegan Sun.”
My groan must be audible in New Jersey. “Nico! Nothing good happens at Mohegan Sun casino. Everyone and their mother knows that!”
“You think I don’t know that?” he asks. “I was desperate, Joon. Come hell or high water, I needed to pay off that loan. So I chose hell. I had a fair amount of savings, and I ended up placing some risky bets—”
“But you detest gambling!” I interrupt. “You once told me that I played poker like a reckless child!”
“I studied blackjack for weeks,” he retorts.
“Watching Casino Royale doesn’t count.”
“Well, I thought I was prepared. I had a plan. Play a few hands, make the money I needed, pay off the loan, save the business. Except…”
“Except that’s not what ended up happening. You lost. Big. To Harry the Lobster.”
“Harry ‘the Hug’ Lester,” he corrects me.
“And now I owe him an ungodly amount of money. Money I don’t have.
Money he gave me a few weeks to come up with, but the deadline has passed.
I never thought he’d actually come after me like this.
Come after you. Joonie, I would never, ever, ever intentionally put you in danger.
I swear on my mother’s life, I had no idea he was Mafia.
Otherwise I never would have played that hand.
He told me he worked in waste management. ”
“If you had ever read a Mafia romance in your damn life,” I practically snarl, “you would know that’s practically textbook code for the Mob!”
“Well, as we’ve established, you’ve read a lot more books than me.”
I huff. “You bet all the money you had to save Kabobs ’n’ Bits? Why would you do that? Why put yourself at risk?”
He looks at me pointedly. “Why do you think, Joon?”
We stare at each other for a single heated moment, but it’s too much. I look away first.
“What kind of name is Harry ‘the Hug’ anyway?” I ask.
“He’s known for starting every conversation with, Where’s my hug at?”
“Jesus Christ,” I say. “And I thought this couldn’t get worse.”
“We’re dead,” Nico agrees. “We’re completely and utterly dead.”
I pound my bound feet against the pavement to get his attention.
“Listen to me very carefully. We are not dead. These guys? They’re clearly amateurs.
Pretty terrible bad guys, in my opinion.
They may have taken our cell phones, but they placed us next to each other.
Rookie mistake. And they didn’t bother to tape our mouths.
That’s, like, kidnapping 101. This is a totally workable situation. ”
Nico stares at me, unblinking.
“Who are you, and what have you done with Joonie?”
I grin. “Now, do exactly as I say. Okay?”
“Yes, boss.”
My cheeks flare with heat. “Pull your hands in close to your chest. Splay your elbows out wide, creating space between your wrists. Good. Now, I want you to start stretching the rope by twisting your wrists.”
Nico starts frantically contorting his wrists. I watch as his forehead beads with sweat.
“Like this?”
“Yes, but easy. It’s a dance, not a fight. Now, bring your elbows back together. See that slack? Take it in your teeth and work one of the loops over your hands. Then get back to wriggling. And repeat.”
We both work in silence, twisting our wrists to loosen our ropes’ grip. Over and over again, until our skin is red and sore.
After what feels like years of trying, we finally break free.
I let out a silent cheer before getting to work on the knots around my ankles.
When I look up, Nico is gaping at me as if he’s never really seen me before. “How on earth did you know how to do that? Are you secretly a spy or something?”
I waggle my eyebrows. “You don’t think the only thing I learned from A Tale of Salt Water and Secrets is what I deserve out of a romantic relationship, do you?”
Nico’s mouth widens another degree.
“You learned how to escape from restraints by reading a fantasy romance series?”
I free my ankles and fight back a grin, satisfied by the flabbergasted expression on his face.
“I learned how to be strong and independent from reading my silly little fantasy series. Physically agile and mentally tough. I’ve trained.
Practiced. Just like Merriah. And I’m saving your ass, so I better not hear any more complaining about the fairy-tale world I live in.
Now, hurry up and untie your feet, kid. We need to keep moving. ”
I run over to the gardening tools, grabbing a shovel and a rake. When I hand the latter to a newly liberated Nico, he looks at me quizzically.
“We’ll need weapons,” I explain. “Do you know any hand-to-hand combat?”
“Do you?” he asks, shaking his head.
“Not much. Just some judo. And I have a black belt in tae kwon do.”
“I’m a crisis insurer, not the Karate Kid.”
I stifle a laugh, then look around the mostly empty garage.
“So, here’s where I’m stuck. Even if we can open the garage door, that loud beeping sound will give us away—although I’m sure off-brand Mr. and Mrs. Smith will black out pretty soon from whatever cheap booze they’ve been drinking.
They reek. Breaking a window will set off the alarm, too. ”
Nico follows my gaze, both of us sweeping every inch of the room for an escape route. Finally, he points at a small hatch at the bottom of the right-hand wall, by the stacked boxes.
A doggy door.
“You think you can fit through there?” I ask.
“Not really,” he says. “But I can try.”
We don’t waste time.
I go first, dropping to the floor. First I push my shovel through the tiny door. Then I silently roll onto my stomach and slither my way through. I pull myself onto the gravel on the other side of the wall with a grunt.
“Okay, your turn,” I whisper.
Nico whistles in response. Moments later, his hands shoot through the door, gaining purchase on the sidewalk, followed by the crown of his buzzed blond head.
“The miracle of childbirth,” I murmur.
“Shut up,” Nico’s head says. “Joonie, I think I’m stuck.”
He’s about halfway to freedom, his lower abdomen partially through.
And the door is clamped down on the round curve of his ass.
“Okay, you clench.” I bite my lip. “I’ll pull.”
Nico’s calloused hands latch on to mine. I shut my eyes tightly, mustering up every bit of inner strength I have, and pull him forward. When I open, I’m disappointed to discover that he hasn’t moved an inch.
“One more time,” he says.
He squeezes my hands, and I nod.
We count to three, then hang on for dear life.
And his body snaps like a rubber band, landing next to me with a thud.
“We did it!” Nico pulls us to our feet and wraps his arms around me. My heart thuds loudly as I exhale. My entire body is vibrating. “Joonie, you did it.”
My stomach twists, constricting tightly. For a second, I think I’m having a heart attack.
“Well, we’re not home free yet,” I say, pointing to where Clarisse and Thomas’s car remains parked in the lot.
Our bags are still stowed in the back seat.
Dumbasses.
“They took the keys,” Nico says. “How are we going to get the car running?”
“I have a couple of ideas.”
He shakes his head in disbelief. “Let me guess. You know how to hot-wire a car, too?”
My answering grin tells him everything he needs to know.
“Man,” he says. “I’ve got to read these fucking books.”