8. ~Nico~
8
~Nico~
“Miss you as well, cupcake.”
“How long are you gonna be, Lev? It wasn’t the same sleeping in our bed without you these last couple of nights. Or at dinner. Or at breakfast this morning.”
“I love you too, Colt.”
“Love you. Mason sends his too. And Bree said she texted you.”
“Almost as much as you’ve been texting me.”
“Mason?”
“About a dozen messages.”
“I knew it! He’s been trying to hide how much he misses you, I guess for my benefit, but I fucking knew it.”
“I’ll try not to be too long, but they’re in a shitstorm here. I can’t leave until I’ve done what I can to give them an assist.”
“It’s okay. I get it. I know you need to help, especially because it’s Rina. Is Nico still being a shit to you?”
“No, he’s been fine. Welcoming even.”
“Well, that’s a change. I can’t believe they lost their baby, though. It’s so brutal. How are they all doing with that? I mean, if it was us—I know Bree’s not ready for that, I’m just saying—I don’t know how we’d get through it.”
“Together. That’s how. Unfortunately, that’s not what’s happening here.”
“With Rina gone because of the hit on her?”
“It’s not just that. I think she wanted to go. I saw the signs from her. She’s blaming herself. She feels guilty around them.”
“She’s doing that shutting down thing, you mean?”
“Seems that way.”
“Did you tell Nico that?”
“He knows her, too. I’m sure he’s aware. I’m sure they all are.”
“It’s so sad. What are you gonna do?”
“Help them with my skills and get her home here as fast as possible, so they can begin to properly process it all. It’s taken her a long time to find what she has in the three of them. I might interfere a little personally, too, in order to make sure her guilt and grief don’t have her fucking that up in a bid to protect herself.”
“Be careful, Lev, I don’t want you getting yourself in trouble. I know you’re there for Rina, but keep in mind that you’re also delving into mafia shit by doing this. It’s dangerous, and we just broke free from that sort of thing ourselves with all the danger we’d been in, our own war.”
“I promise, cupcake. I’ll watch myself. And I’ll be home with you all before you know it. Video call later? All four of us?”
“Sounds perfect. See you soon, then.”
“Bye, Colt.”
I returned to sipping at my espresso as I heard Levi grunt when he finished his call. It was the crack of dawn, and he’d obviously thought that no one had been awake yet. Well, that certainly answered my concerns about him monitoring the surveillance system here too closely and possibly watching all of us. He wasn’t doing that at all. And judging by the content of that call, he was with us more deeply than I’d realized.
As he strolled into the kitchen, he jolted as he saw me standing there leaning against the counter.
“Hey,” he greeted, trying to cover up the fact that he’d been caught off guard. From my research on him, I was aware that it didn’t happen often.
Although, now he was done with his own long battle, it was possible that he was relaxing into the peace of it all, so he wasn’t as on the ball where that was concerned as he would normally be.
“Morning,” I responded. “There’s coffee ready,” I told him, gesturing at three mugs sitting side by side, appealingly neatly on the island. “Just don’t take the mug with the sorcerer on it.”
He cocked an eyebrow.
“It’s Milo’s. It’s got brandy in it. Helps take the edge off during stressful times.”
He screwed up his face. “Brandy?”
“His father used to drink it. It’s him carrying on the tradition.”
“I see.” He took one of the plain black mugs and eyed Milo’s. “The mug is really something, too.”
“It certainly is.”
He smirked at me.
“What?” I asked.
“Just look at us being civil. I didn’t know you had it in you, Nico.”
“Well, I’ve seen behind the mask with you.”
“Mask? No idea what you’re talking about,” he said with a wry grin.
“That antagonistic, bring-the-fight-right-to-my-door, and reckless image is far from all that you are. Although, I still do stand by my belief that it’s not always going to be received as the deterrent you intend it to be.”
“And believe it or not, I heard you. You’re not the only one who’s brought that to my attention. It can be viewed as a challenge and it can also invite a whole lot of trouble.” He took a couple of sips of coffee and slid onto one of the stools. “That image was necessary for what I was trying to achieve.”
“Taking down Malcolm Lynch.”
He nodded. “Something that’s been accomplished now. So I’m learning how to move forward from how I used to be, to separate from that image, tone it down, if you will.”
“I’m sure that’s sent waves of relief through those who care about you. Especially Roman.”
“No doubt.”
“Delving into this war with us after just getting out of one yourself is no small thing.”
He lifted a shoulder. “She needed me and I’m here. It’s as simple as that.”
“It’s appreciated. Thank you.”
He started at my open gratitude. A smile lifted his lips. “No problem.”
An understanding passed between us, one that I hadn’t thought possible not long ago.
How things had changed. Remarkably so.
He broke eye contact, clearly not liking the intensity, then told me, “Well, I haven’t done a whole lot yet.”
“You don’t count saving Caterina from bleeding to death by calling in that helicopter a whole lot?”
“Seeing as though that was due to my dad’s connections and ability to pull something like that off so insanely quickly, no.” He shifted his weight, then told me, “ But things are well underway toward me actually doing something and giving you guys the assist that you need. As you know, I have everything up and running, and I was honored to see that Rina’s been making use of my facial recognition program, but I’ve also put other things in place. During my pursuit of Lynch, I developed a program that can pull a wealth of data and information, analyze it, and work to predict patterns of movements for those in our sights.”
“That’s ingenious.”
“It is, yeah. It’s just a time-consuming process, unfortunately. But with you not wanting to use Julian to draw him out, it’s become the best way forward to tracking that sick bastard down. With him working closely alongside this black ops entity that’s shrouded in a whole lot of mystery, we’re now dealing with their security protocols. And these fuckers really know how to cover their tracks. The vehicle that ran you guys off the road was untraceable, not even fucking registered to a real person. Mason ran the DNA of the two we killed and it brought back nothing—they’re fucking ghosts. They basically don’t exist to the outside world. That was why there was no blowback from the hospital attacks, nothing that came back on you, because they covered it up, deleted surveillance footage, paid people off, a whole lot of covert shit to basically make it look like none of that ever fucking happened. Even the explosions they used as a distraction to move in and get to Rina.”
I nodded, telling him, “I had my people run tests on the bodies of two of them that Caterina dropped at Santino’s mansion too and it also came back with nothing.”
He shook his head to himself. “I’ve never seen anything like it. The fact that they were able to penetrate Caterina’s network is a hell of a feat in itself.” He rose to his feet. “Speaking of that, now I have everything in place, the program running in the search for Angelo, I can get to work on investigating that, figuring out the details pertaining to the hack.”
“What resources do you need from us?”
“Nothing. I’m all good. Focus on the Leo situation. I’ve got this .”
“Breakfast will be arriving in the next hour. Make sure you eat.”
“Arriving?”
I rolled my eyes as I had to tell him, “Julian has insisted on having his staff cater our meals for the next little while, as we’re focusing on everything else. Apparently, some of us aren’t getting the necessary sustenance. ”
He grinned. “You?”
“Right.”
“You get into an obsessive mode, like me, huh?”
“It’s been known to happen.”
“Well, try to redirect some of that to figuring out how you plan to assuage Rina’s guilt over what happened to the baby, and even the fact that she feels responsible for putting all of you in even graver danger because of taking out Santino.”
I jolted at his words.
Of course, that had been his intent, to deliver it as something of a shock to the system to ensure they were heard and received in an undeniable way.
“She’s engaging in victim-blaming, I’m aware.”
“It’s worse than that. It shook her. Really fucking badly.”
Knowing her as well as I did, I was aware of what he was getting at, what he was worried about. I hadn’t needed to overhear his conversation with Colton to determine it.
“She could be shutting down.”
“And she could try to cut you out in a misguided attempt to protect the three of you. And herself.” He folded his arms across his chest and regarded me. “I want this for her. Love and safety, but also people who really understand her, even the facets of herself that she used to previously be ashamed of. She deserves this. She’s been alone for so long, I don’t want her to go back to that. I might be overstepping as just her friend, but I needed to put it out there. And to also tell you that if she does try to cut you out, it’s not through lack of care or love on her part. It’s pain. A lot of fucking pain. The fact she’s let the three of you in so deeply, that you’re cohabiting together, and that she’s even slated to partner on her expansion plans for Camlann Corporation with Julian, when she never lets anyone interfere in that, then that she wanted this baby with the three of you… it’s an undeniable testament to how deeply she really is in love with you all.”
I stared out at him, awestruck by his words.
The heartfelt sincerity.
The openness.
Even the vulnerability that he was putting out there.
Risking bringing all of this up when things were so volatile and also pained currently.
Trying to safeguard what we had in any way that he could.
All in the name of helping Caterina.
I couldn’t help smiling. “You’re a really good friend to her. I’ll take these words to heart. And I can assure you that Caterina isn’t going anywhere, or—”
Commotion coming from the main entrance had me pulling up short.
“No. You need to turn back around. Return all of this.”
It was Julian, sounding frantic.
“Vin, come on. Help them get this out of here before Nico sees it.”
Vin? He was enlisting my soldier to help with whatever this was? It wasn’t in his assigned duties. He was running point alongside Mike on perimeter security around the Manor for the next couple of days until the changing of the guard beyond that timeframe.
And what didn’t Julian want me to see?
I strode out of the kitchen and headed into the foyer.
And there Julian was, anxiously trying to usher two delivery guys back out of the door.
I frowned, taking in one of them carrying a shag rug that sparkled with gold. The other was hauling a giant plush panda that was more than half the size of the guy carrying it. There was also a box propped against one of the entrance doors with a picture of a… changing table?
My stomach dropped at the sight of it all.
Julian spun, registering my presence.
He held up his hands. “It’s all good. I’m taking care of it.”
“What is all of this?”
He grimaced. “I think you know.”
“Obviously. That’s blatantly apparent, Julian. But why? Why are you doing this?”
“I’m sorry. It was an accident. With everything else, I forgot to cancel this additional order and—”
“Additional?”
“Nothing. I mean—”
“J!”
His shoulders slumped, and he said, resignedly, “Come with me.”
I gestured at Vin. “Get this gone. Now.”
“Will do, Boss.” The sympathy in his eyes hit me in the gut. Word had spread about the loss of our baby. “Don’t think twice about it. Consider it done,” he told me quickly.
“Thank you,” was all I could manage before Julian then took my attention as he headed on up the staircase, gesturing for me to follow him.
I braced myself when he stopped outside the door of the room beside mine. It was one we didn’t use. I hadn’t ventured inside it in a long time.
Clearly he had because he then pulled out a key and unlocked the door, then pushed it open and stepped inside.
Bracing myself absolutely hadn’t been enough, as was made clear to me the moment I walked inside and took in what resided within.
“Fuck,” I choked.
A little nursery.
The crib, the bookcase, the… motherfucker .
I sank against the wall and hung my head.
“Nico, I’m so sorry. I didn’t… I couldn’t get rid of it. Not yet… I just….”
“It’s okay,” I murmured. “I understand.”
I held out my hand to him, and he came to me.
As I wrapped my arm around him and he nuzzled against me, Milo walked on in, taking in the scene in his usual rapid-fire way.
He smiled sadly at us.
And then he was there too, throwing his arms around us.
“It’s incredible,” I told Julian. “Caterina would have loved it.”
“Yeah,” Julian uttered on a sob.
“Our child will be avenged,” I ground out. I held them tighter to me. “And we’ll rise from all these fucking ashes, believe me.”
I fucking swear it.