Chapter 18
Chapter 18
Lake
I stood in the front of the shop, wondering why there were so many eyes on me and knowing that I just needed to get this over with. I should have been here earlier. I knew that. And Nick needed to know that as well.
I knew he was here, but I hadn’t expected everyone to be here. So now there was no hiding.
“Hi, Nick,” I whispered.
“Lake.” Nick prowled toward me and my heart raced.
Sebastian moved out of the way and looked between us, eyes wide. Leif stood there, an older woman next to him. Leo and his client, as well as Tristan and Taryn and their clients all sat in their sections, staring.
There wasn’t even the whir of a tattoo in progress to drown out the screaming in my thoughts as I tried to think of what to say. I should have practiced this, but there wasn’t any practice when it came to Nick.
“I just wanted to say I’m sorry,” I whispered.
He scowled. “What for?”
“Oh fuck,” Sebastian whispered before he let out a grunt. I assumed somebody elbowed him, though I didn’t know who.
“What are you sorry for, Lake?”
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry that I pushed you away. I keep doing that, and I know you didn’t fight right then because you promised you wouldn’t. You promised you wouldn’t control me like Zach did. But it’s my fault that I walked away when things got tough. And I’m sorry.”
Nick looked at me and put his finger over my lips. “Shush. Stop. Don’t apologize.”
I blinked at him. “I should have leaned on you. I should have called you.”
“We both should have done a lot of things. Probably a lot earlier than just a few months ago.” He let out a breath. “I love you, Lake. I might get growly and angry over things, but I’m not going to leave or feel like the world is ending because we get in a little fight. I’m pissed off that he did that, and if I could find him, I’d strangle him. Or maybe I’d rip out his guts, I don’t know. But the cops better find him before I do. It doesn’t matter. We’ll figure it out, we’ll help you rebuild. And I’m going to be by you no matter what. And I should have done something long before this. Long before you even fucking met Zach, but that’s on me.”
He continued to talk but all I could focus on was one thing. “You love me?” I blurted, feeling as though the floor were falling out from beneath me.
He scowled. “Of course I fucking love you!”
I blinked. “Well good. Because I love you too!” I was yelling at this point, and somebody snickered.
“Oh they’re still fighting. Of course. At least we know some things will never change,” Leif shouted.
“Fuck off, Leif,” Nick called out then looked back to me. “I’m going to make you a promise. If I feel like I’m being an asshole, I’ll try to step back, or you can tell me.”
I snorted, I couldn’t help it, even as my heart felt it was growing five sizes. “I do that anyway.”
“That is true. However, just know that we’re going to get on each other’s nerves. We’re going to make mistakes. But I’m done pretending. I’m done thinking that it would be better off if you were the princess in the tower and I was the farm boy.”
“She ends up with the farm boy. I’m just saying,”
“She does, but I don’t really look good in black leather pants.”
“That I’m going to have to see,” Leo called out.
I looked past Nick and grinned. “You know, I’m picturing a Halloween party at my house. Dress-up for couples.”
I fluttered my eyelashes, and Nick scowled. “I love you. But that’s a hard no.”
“I’m hearing yes. As you wish?” I teased.
“Well, it’s official, we’ve lost another one,” Tristan said with a laugh.
Nick kissed me before I could think, and everything felt as if it was finally making sense.
I loved him. And he loved me too. How could I not have known?
“I’m sorry it took me forever to figure it out.”
“Our trip wasn’t that long ago,” I corrected.
“You know as well as I do that this goes back far longer than that. I don’t believe in love at first sight, but we had something at our first meet. So that should count for something.”
“Hold on, I am writing that down,” Leif joked. “Now that is a line. A truthful one, but poetry.”
“Excuse me?” a soft voice said from behind Nick.
Nick stiffened, before he turned.
“I’m sorry to interrupt. I was trying to be good and not make myself known, but that was the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard, Nick.”
I looked between them, as recognition dawned.
“You’re Nick’s mother.”
She smiled.
“I am. And again, I’m sorry for interrupting. But I didn’t know Nick could say something so sweet. You’re right, Leif. I’m glad you’re writing that down.”
Nick cleared his throat. “Lake, this is my mother, Teresa.”
I looked between them and smiled. “It’s lovely to meet you.”
I had a thousand questions, and from the pained look in Nick’s eyes, he had some as well. But he would give me answers, eventually. It seemed like today was a day for many things and for many ways for our lives to change.
“So I guess this means that when we fight with each other, we don’t have to hide it anymore?” I asked with a laugh.
“You were hiding it before?” Sebastian scoffed.
I laughed and leaned into Nick as his mother opened her mouth to say something, and glass shattered behind us.
Shards of glass slid into my skin, and I screamed as Nick threw his body on top of his mother and me. I hit the ground hard, pulling his mother out of the way as more glass shattered.
People were shouting as another window broke, and then smoke began to fill the air.
“Oh my God, what is that?” Teresa asked as she sat up, blood pouring from an open wound on her forehead. I reached out and covered the wound, keeping her down.
“I don’t know. Nick?”
“Fuck, get everyone out of here. There’s a fire. Somebody threw a brick in the window, and I don’t know…fuck, part of the side entrance is on fire.” I coughed as I pulled Teresa up, and Nick dragged us out of the shop.
Debris fell as the fire licked up one side of the room, and some of the guys were trying to put out the flames though Leif and Nick pulled us all out. The whole place wasn’t on fire, but enough of it was that if the authorities didn’t get here soon, it was going to be bad. Little cuts covered my arms and side, and I looked up at Nick, my hands shaking as I reached out. He had tiny cuts down his body like me, and I let out a breath.
“I’m fine. Who the fuck did that?”
But I looked at him, and I knew.
“Are there blankets or something? Can we put the fire out?”
“You’re not fucking going back in there,” Nick ordered.
I counted everybody, my hands shaking as I coughed smoke out of my lungs. My adrenaline was beginning to fade. Nick’s mother stood near us, the small box in her hands that carried their memories, but I couldn’t think about that right then.
“Is everybody out?”
“We’re all out. It’s empty. But fuck, we can’t put the fire out.”
Someone running caught my attention, and I turned, and then Nick was running.
He didn’t even look back, he just kept going, Leif right behind him, and I knew. I knew who they were following, who they had seen.
I looked at Nick’s mother, at Sebastian. “Stay here and stay safe. Don’t go back in there.”
And then I followed after them.
“Don’t you get hurt!” Sebastian ordered as he pulled Teresa to his side, keeping pressure on her forehead.
I was wearing heels, so running wasn’t easy, but I kept moving, chasing after them.
And as I turned, I heard the shouting.
“Fuck you. If I can’t have her, no one can!” Zach called out as he kept running, but Nick was faster, and bigger. He tackled Zach to the ground.
“Don’t you fucking talk about her,” Nick snarled. And then he punched Zach.
“I’ll take you all. She doesn’t deserve anything.” Zach pushed up, smacking his head into Nick’s chin. Nick rolled back, cursing, blood splattering, but Leif was there, pushing Zach back down, as Nick hit him once, twice, again and again.
“Stop it. Don’t kill him!” I shouted as I finally caught up to them.
“He deserves it.”
“Yes. He deserves a lot of things, but you don’t deserve to go to jail. Come on, people are watching. The cops are on their way. We have to go to see the shop. We have to save the shop. Zach’s here, we have it all on camera. He’s going to jail for a very long time.” And if he didn’t, I would find any other way possible to make sure he got there. Because I was done with this.
I looked down at Zach who glared up at me with bloodshot eyes.
“Fuck you.”
“Scum, just like the rest of them,” he spat, even though Leif had his knee on the man’s throat. “You’re scum. You’re nothing. You never deserved me. And you’re going to rot wherever you go. You’re just a bitch who wasn’t even a good lay. I should have killed you when I had the chance, when your throat was beneath my hands, and I could have just squeezed a little bit more and then you wouldn’t have breathed another word. You can have this low-life scum. My family will get me out of jail. It’s what they do. Because you’re nothing. You don’t have my connections.” As Leif pulled back to punch him, I kicked, my pointed shoe hitting Zach right in the balls. He let out a sharp gasp before he began to cry, and Nick looked at me.
“Okay then. You okay, baby?”
He looked at the blood on my arms, I looked at the blood and small bits of glass on his face.
“I’m okay. I promise you I’m okay. But let’s never do that again.” And I burst into tears. He held me as we waited for the cops to come, and I knew there would be a thousand questions to answer, countless things to go over, and I didn’t know what we would do. But I had Nick, and that was all that mattered.
Because this was over, it was finally over.
I had first come to him when I had nothing in my heart, nothing in my soul. I had been broken, beaten down, and shattered. But Nick had been there, the one person I could ask for help. The one person I hadn’t known I could.
And he had watched me grow into the woman I needed to be.
And he hadn’t asked me to stop. Hadn’t asked me to not be who I was. He had watched me make my mistakes, on my own, and had helped me stand up afterwards, by his side.
I loved him. I had loved him for far longer than I wanted to admit. Because Nick had always been there. The one man for me.
It had just taken me a long time to realize it.
And I was never going to take that for granted again.
I knew our future began right then, and our past didn’t matter, because now was the only moment that did.
He was mine, finally.