Chapter 29
C H A P T E R
CHAMPAGNE SPRAYED AROUND THE PRIVATE ROOM AT THE BELLEVILLE CLUB THAT HIS UNCLE OWNED.
The room was filled with men celebrating and the beautiful women who had come along to help them celebrate.
Nikos stood in the center of the room as the one honored.
People clapped his back and dapped him up, passing him many drinks as he stood as the man of the hour, and Nikos took that all in, proud of his own achievement.
Over the music, an insistent clinking noise started, and everyone turned to look at Theo, who clinked his glass with a knife. Nikos smirked, looking at his cousin, who was the drunkest of them all. Then, everyone quieted down and gave their attention to Theo.
“Brothers, cousins, friends, and family. Tonight, my cousin took down our enemy. Ricardo Rodriguez is no more, and that is thanks to Nikos. We stand at the top again with no one in our way. And when my uncle returns, he will return to no enemies. To Nikos.”
Everyone clinked their champagne glasses with one another before the celebration started again.
“You did a good job,” Christos said, clapping his shoulder. “I knew you could hold down the Fort while Antonis is gone, but even I’m impressed by how far you have gone. You were born for this.”
“Thank you, man,” Nikos said, genuinely grateful for Christos’s praise.
They pulled each other into a hug and clapped each other’s back.
The one person who had been on his side this entire time was Christos.
He had stood behind him, believing in him from the very beginning, more than he even believed in himself, and he wouldn’t have been able to achieve what he did tonight without his help.
They had taken down his uncle’s enemy, the same man who had put Antonis in a coma. It would change everything.
Theo clambered over to him with a glass of champagne in his hand. When he tossed his arm over his shoulder, some champagne accidentally sloshed out.
“My bad,” Theo said. He was clearly drunk, but Nikos could not blame him because though he wasn’t, he wasn’t necessarily sober either. He had many drinks himself tonight, and he was buzzed with energy.
“Here, man. For the man of the hour,” Theo said as he passed him the drink.
“I’m good,” Nikos declined.
“Aw, don’t tell me you’re giving up already. We’re celebrating,” Theo complained, and Nikos chuckled.
“Actually, I think I’m going to head out,” Nikos said.
“What?!” Theo exclaimed. “Don’t you see all of these beautiful women in here? Why would you want to leave? Unless you plan on taking one of them home?”
Nikos glanced around the room, seeing all the beautiful women, and not only the beautiful women but the men he had built bonds with these past few months while running his uncle’s group in his stead.
He should want to be here, and though he was having a good time, there was someplace else that he would rather be.
He wanted to celebrate with someone else who wasn’t in the room right now.
“I’m heading out,” Nikos said. Christos eyed him for a second but nodded while Theo complained.
“You better not have too much fun, or Amber will have your head,” Nikos said as he turned to leave.
“Don’t tell her that I’m here,” Theo yelled to him over the music, and Nikos laughed. He was nearly out of the room before he grabbed a bottle of champagne and then left. He told his driver the address to take him to, and forty minutes later, he found himself in front of Honey’s door.
He knocked twice, and a beat later, Honey opened the door. She wore a white camisole and gray pajama shorts that hugged her thighs. She wore no makeup, and her hair was down. She eyed him with an arched brow of confusion.
“What are you doing here?” she asked. Nikos leaned against the door frame, still feeling very tipsy and buzzed.
“I’m here to see you to celebrate.” He lifted the bottle of champagne to the line of her vision, and she blinked.
“Are you drunk?” she asked, and Nikos corrected her.
“I’m tipsy,” Nikos said as he stumbled into her apartment. He heard the door close behind him as he entered the kitchen and found the bottle opener.
“You came to my place tipsy?” Honey said sarcastically as if she clearly didn’t believe he was just tipsy. “What if my son—”
“Kai is at his cousin’s place tonight for a sleepover. You told me that. Remember? I would never come over to your place tipsy while Kai is here,” Nikos told her seriously as he popped the champagne bottle.
“But you would come over tipsy while he isn’t here,” Honey said, folding her arms as she fixed him with a small glare.
“I wouldn’t even say that I’m tipsy. Slightly buzzed, maybe?” Nikos said, winking, and Honey rolled her eyes.
“I don’t know why you keep saying that.” Honey snorted. “If you could see yourself right now, you would say the same thing. Look at your eyes, and your voice is off too. You’re definitely more than tipsy, and you came over so you could get me drunk too.”
Nikos walked around the island and passed her the glass of champagne, and Honey eyed it apprehensively, and Nikos hadn’t expected any less.
“No. I came over because tonight, at the celebration for my achievement, all I could think about was celebrating with you,” Nikos admitted. Honey stared into his eyes, searching them for the truth. But he was being honest.
He had been at Belleville for an entire hour, drinking, partying, and being surrounded by many beautiful women who had made suggestions for him to take them home. Still, for some reason, after achieving what he had tonight, he wanted to share this happiness with Honey—his friend.
“Do I want to know what we’re celebrating?” Honey asked, relenting as she held up her glass, and Nikos clinked his glass against her own. He watched as she drank the champagne while he drank some too.
“I can’t go into the details, and I know you don’t want to know, but I did something that’s going to change everything,” Nikos said. “I did something that even my father is proud of.”
After finally cornering Ricardo and killing him, Nikos called his father, who, for once in his life, told him that he was proud of him. Aris was also proud of him, and even Pierce had praised him reluctantly.
“I took care of my uncle’s enemy, even something that he couldn’t do,” Nikos said, and though Nikos knew he shouldn’t have been proud of this, and a few years ago, he had judged Pierce for celebrating when he had achieved things like this, Nikos couldn’t help but be proud of himself.
Besides, Ricardo Rodriquez wasn’t a good man.
If anything, he had done the community a favor by taking him down.
He wouldn’t lose a wink of sleep with Ricardo’s blood on his hands.
If anything, his blood made him feel powerful.
Honey stared at him with those brown eyes that he could not read before she downed the rest of her champagne.
“Though I don’t know the details, congratulations, Nikos,” she said, and the pleasure he felt from her words made him down his own glass, place it on the counter, and pick Honey up, pulling her into a hug.
“Put me down,” Honey said as he swung her around in a circle, but he could hear the smile in her voice, and he wasn’t ready to come down off this high yet. He wanted to celebrate more, and so he did.
***
“I couldn’t stand… you,” Honey confessed drunkenly, slurring her words.
For the past two hours, they had been drinking champagne until the bottle was nearly empty, and even Honey had brought out her favorite tequila, and they had both taken a couple of shots. With liquor in their system, it was making their tongues loose and their hearts honest.
“What did I do?” Nikos asked, laughing. Honey cut him a look that only made him laugh more.
“Really. What did I do, though?” Nikos asked.
“You were just…you were just…so annoying,” Honey confessed to Nikos’s amusement. “You were constantly causing problems with the girls, making chaos around the club, and you thought you were so handsome.”
“I am handsome,” Nikos said cheekily, and Honey pinched his arm.
Nikos laughed, feeling the joy he always felt around Honey, and this was exactly why he had wanted to come here. Even though it had been nice to celebrate with his men, nothing compared to the fun he had being around Honey, who always managed to amuse and entertain him.
“See! That’s what I’m talking…about. So arrogant,” Honey hiccupped.
“You want to know what I first thought when I met you?” Nikos asked, his eyes bright with amusement. Honey gulped down the shot glass before giving him a knowing glare.
“What? That I was so beautiful?” Honey asked sarcastically. “I already know all of your lines.”
Nikos laughed.
“I definitely thought you were beautiful. I could never deny that,” Nikos said, thinking about the first time he laid eyes on her beautiful brown skin and eyes and her shapely body. “But… I also thought you were arrogant too.”
Honey gasped, and Nikos laughed.
“You…you asshole,” Honey said as she smacked his arm repeatedly, and it turned into a tussle until Nikos captured both of her hands while Honey practically sat on top of him, trying to reach him in her attack.
“Wait. Let me explain,” Nikos drawled, chuckling as he held her arms prisoner.
Honey continued to glare at him, her eyes low-lidded in a way that made him want to forget the conversation and kiss her, but he carried on.
“You were Honey, the best dancer in the club, and you would barely look at me or speak to me.”
“That’s because I didn’t like you.”
Nikos chuckled.
“But you like me now, right?” Nikos slurred, looking into her brown eyes.
“As a friend,” Honey emphasized, and Nikos smirked.
“As a friend,” he repeated, finding that he didn’t like that title as much as he had before.