Chapter 16
C H A P T E R
NIKOS SAID HIS GOODBYES TO EVERYONE AT THE CLUB BEFORE HE MADE HIS LEAVE.
After that fight, he was tired and worn out, and all he wanted to do was rest. He headed to the side door, so he could leave the building when he saw Honey lingering there.
The beautiful smile she had shown him before was gone and replaced with a dark frown, and Nikos wondered who soured her mood so quickly in a short amount of time.
“You’re scared to go out?” Nikos asked as he approached her, wondering if she had been traumatized by the situation, which he couldn’t blame her for.
He had stepped outside earlier, waiting for Rita so he could have a little fun before doing the drop tonight with his uncle, when he saw Honey slapping the huge man with her purse.
A thought hadn’t crossed his mind before he had gone to help her, and though he had taken a beating for it, Honey’s smile had been worth it.
When Honey looked at him now, her frown didn’t dim and only got worse, and Nikos wondered what he had done to her without even doing anything. He thought he only had that effect on women he had sex with.
“No, I’m waiting for my Uber,” Honey said.
“You didn’t bring your car?”
Honey shook her head. “My sister has it.”
“I can give you a ride,” Nikos offered, thinking that Honey was probably still shaken up and maybe she would rather ride with him than a stranger. She quirked a brow.
“I thought you didn’t have a car?”
“Just brought one last week,” Nikos said. “Want to see my baby?”
Honey looked at her phone before looking at him as she seemed to ponder on whether she should take him up on his offer.
Even if she declined, he would not be offended or upset.
If he remembered correctly, her apartment went in a different direction from his, so he would be going out of his way.
He would get home much quicker if he didn’t drop her off.
“Okay,” Honey said, and Nikos smirked as he led her out to the parking lot where his car was.
“A Camaro?” she questioned. “Somehow, it fits you.”
“I’m going to take that as a compliment,” Nikos said as he looked at his custom-painted blue and black sleek Camaro.
He unlocked the door for her, and they both got inside.
As Nikos turned on the ignition, he glanced at Honey, who sat rigid in the seat as if she were afraid of touching anything.
Nikos bit back a smile. All of the women who had been in this Camaro spent the entire time admiring it or fucking him in the back seat.
Only she would sit as if he had brought her back to a dungeon chamber.
“Will I ever get another smile from you again?” Nikos asked as he pulled off. Honey ignored him, and her frown remained permanent.
“You have a beautiful smile,” Nikos commented as he fiddled with the radio.
When Honey thanked him earlier, Nikos had been surprised.
Honey was very stubborn and independent, and she never gave him an inch, which Nikos thought was kind of cute.
But he had been flabbergasted when she smiled at him.
He had never seen her smile before, and the fact that it was directed at him made it even more special.
Honey was truly beautiful, and that smile was worth every punch he took tonight.
Honey continued to ignore him, and Nikos arched a brow because Honey had to be truly upset about something for her to ignore him like this.
“What’s bothering you?” Nikos questioned.
“Your uncle is crazy,” Honey said irritably, and then it all made sense. Honey only got this angry whenever it pertained to his uncle. He had a feeling that he shouldn’t have left her alone in the room with his uncle.
“I can’t deny that,” Nikos said, thinking of how weird Antonis got whenever it came down to Honey. “If it helps, he’s not my uncle by blood.”
Honey scuffed. “That only makes it worse because that means that your father chose to be friends with a psycho like him.”
“You must not be aware of the type of work my father does,” Nikos mused. “What happened?”
Honey stared at him with sharp eyes, and Nikos pointed at himself. “Was it about me?”
Though she didn’t say anything, her expression said everything, and Nikos blinked in shock, wondering how it could have possibly been about him when he hadn’t done anything.
He kept his flirtations mild with Honey, and he hadn’t even tried to pursue her.
He didn’t understand why they would be having an argument about him.
“Is it because you have a crush on me?” Nikos asked her. “If you do, then don’t because I don’t want to have any problems with my uncle.”
A quiet beat passed as Honey stared at him in disbelief, and Nikos had to do everything in his power not to laugh as he saw the veins appear on her forehead.
“I would never ever, ever like someone like you,” Honey said, scuffing. “A crush? You can’t be serious.”
Unable to control it anymore, Nikos laughed as he slapped the steering wheel. “It’s okay if you feel something for me. If my uncle weren’t infatuated with you, I would ask to take you out on a date. But like you, I know that my uncle is crazy.”
Without a doubt, he had a feeling that his uncle would show him no mercy if he ever did anything with Honey.
His uncle’s relationship with his father and Aris wouldn’t matter at all.
Their ties of uncle and nephew would fade in an instant.
That was what was left unsaid that first night he got here when Antonis told him that Honey was off-limits.
It was everything that was left unsaid that spoke the most volumes.
“I don’t like you,” Honey emphasized, and Nikos chuckled, knowing that already. He could tell when a woman wanted him, and Honey definitely didn’t want him and was the only woman at the club who didn’t.
“I’m just joking,” Nikos said, though technically, he wasn’t. If his uncle wasn’t infatuated with her, he would have asked her out on a date.
It was less than thirty minutes later when they arrived in front of her apartment. Nikos glanced at his GPS. It would take him over an hour to get back to his own place, but hopefully, the traffic wouldn’t be bad. He was just glad to know that Honey made it back home safely to be with her son.
“Thank you,” Honey said as she reached for the door handle when she paused. She looked at his arm, and Nikos glanced down at himself, seeing how haggardly it was tied. Honey sighed.
“Come inside,” she said as she stepped out of the car. “I’ll reapply your bandages because clearly, you didn’t do a good job of it.”
Nikos was surprised by her kindness but followed her upstairs anyway. He hadn’t done the best job placing on the bandages, and if Honey could do it better, then he didn’t mind. It wasn’t like he had anything to do tonight anyway.
“Hope, what took you so long? I was worried,” a voice greeted them as they stepped inside Honey’s apartment.
Nikos was surprised to look at a woman who looked similar to Honey, except that her nose was much sharper and her face was less round.
She looked equally surprised to see him as her eyebrows rose to her hairline.
“Who are you?” she asked.
“This is Nikos,” Honey answered. “Nikos, this is my sister, Olivia.”
“Nice to meet you,” Nikos said as he took Olivia’s hand before kissing it. “You’re just as beautiful as your sister.”
“You know your lines don’t really work when you’re all beat up,” Honey said as she walked to the back and came back with a first aid kit. “It really takes away from your charm.”
“So, you admit that I have it?” Nikos asked, winking.
“Nik!” Kai yelled as he ran over to him from his room. Nikos bent down just as the kid threw himself at him. He ignored the pain in his arm and hugged the kid back, happy to get such a welcoming. It had been weeks since he last saw him, so he thought the kid would have forgotten all about him.
“Be careful, Kai. Nikos’s arm is hurt,” Honey warned, “and shouldn’t you be sleeping?”
Kai pulled back and looked at his arm, seeing the bandage, and his eyes widened. “What happened? Did you get in a fight?”
“I saved your mother from a bad guy,” Nikos said. “You could say I’m a hero.”
“Hero?” Honey repeated sarcastically as she led him over to the couch before she started working on his bandages. “Please, you’re at best a bootleg Batman.”
“Batman? I’m at least Superman. Right, Kai?” Nikos said as he tried to show off his muscles, but Honey swatted his arm down so she could continue to work on the bandages.
“No, you’re Captain America. You can’t fly like Superman, but you can fly planes,” Kai said excitedly.
“Saved you from a bad guy?” Olivia questioned as she came over and examined the cut on Honey’s face. “Are you okay? What happened?”
“I’ll tell you later,” Honey told her sister as she looked pointedly at her son, probably not wanting him to know what happened. Noticing the cut on her face, Nikos rifled through the kit until he found some ointment.
“Can you get me a band-aid, Kai?” Nikos asked as he uncapped the tube. Honey watched him with an arched brow as he gingerly brushed the ointment on her cut, and next, Kai blew on her cut before he put a small band-aid across his mother’s cheek.
“Is it better now, mom?” Kai asked.
“It is. Thank you, honey,” she said, smiling at her son.
“You have to thank Nikos too because he saved you. Right, auntie?” Kai said as he looked back at his aunt, who smirked as she folded her arms together.
“Right,” Olivia agreed, looking amused by the situation. “Hope, you heard your son.”
Nikos blinked upon hearing the name.
Begrudgingly, with a tight face as she knotted the end of the wrapping, she said, “Thank you, Nikos.”