Chapter 26 Nick
Nick
Maya comes out of her room, carrying a tiny orange and white terrorist who evidently shredded all the toilet paper in her room. The kitten doesn’t look sorry or done trying to shred things as it claws at her arms to break free.
Perfect timing, she has no idea what’s coming, nor will she suspect anything while she’s focused on that damn cat.
“Ethan, will you take Squeak? She keeps attacking me when I try to clean up her mess.” She holds the cat out to him.
“Sorry, Rivers, I don’t negotiate with terrorists, no matter how cute they are.” He gives her a sly smile.
“Please? And why do y’all keep calling her a terrorist?” She looks exasperated. Oh, this is going to be so much fun.
“Because she terrorizes everyone and everything in this house. Hand her over. I’ll take her,” I say. He doesn’t know what’s coming either and we can’t have the furball getting hurt.
She looks confused, but hands her over and doesn’t ask questions. She turns to walk back to her room when Lucas comes barging through the front door and grabs her before she has time to react. He covers her mouth and drags her kicking and screaming out the door.
He won’t take her far, just to a van he rented. He’s been instructed to lock her in there for a few minutes and drive around the block a few times, then come back.
A half hour later she comes barging in the door in a murderous rage.
“You could’ve fucking warned me you were staging a kidnapping on me today!” she screams at me when they return, very visibly shaken.
“And take away the element of surprise? That’s not how kidnappings work, cupcake.
This was a training exercise to show you how fast you can become a victim when you let your guard down.
It will never happen in this house again, but from here on out, I bet you won’t forget to be more aware of your surroundings. ”
I dodge the lamp she throws at my head. She’s so cute when she’s mad.
It’s been three days and she still hasn’t forgiven me for that. I smile with amusement. It was good for her to see what might actually happen while she’s working undercover for me.
Lucas slams Maya to the mat for what seems like the tenth time in the last hour. They’ve been at this for several days. While she is getting the hang of basic things, like being aware of her surroundings and avoiding threats the proactive way, she has yet to learn the reactive way to handle things.
“Focus! You’re not going to hurt me. When I come behind you, I want you to fend me off like I taught you,” Lucas orders.
He comes behind her again, covering her mouth with his hand so she can’t scream. She’s not tall enough to throw her head back into his nose, so she stomps on his foot like he taught her and then throws her fist back, effectively hitting him in the groin.
Even though he’s wearing a cup, it’s enough to make him loosen his grip where she can break free from under his arm.
“Good, let’s try that again!” Lucas tells her while doubled over and his voice an octave higher.
“I’m tired. Can we take a break?” she huffs and bends over, her hands pressing against her knees.
“Do you think an attacker cares if you are tired? They’re not going to stop for tea because you can’t catch your breath.
You’ve just now succeeded with this move.
You have a lot to learn. When you’re able to take me down on the mat, you can stop for the day.
” Lucas takes another stance, ready to attack.
He is ruthless—there’s no tiring him out. He was a marine for twenty plus years. Volunteered to go to war every time the need arose.
“Maybe we can bring the van out and drive her around the block so she can think about how she’s going to take you down,” I snicker.
“Fuck off, Nick.” She throws her fist my way, but I catch her wrist and kick her feet out from under her. She hits the ground with a thud.
I lean over while straddling her, “I’m sorry, I can’t hear you from way down there.” She tries, unsuccessfully, to take my feet out from under me. She does, however, manage to land a hard kick to my knee.
Pretty sure that’s not what she was aiming for. Good thing my reflexes are faster than hers. I knew she would fight back harder if I got involved.
“Very good. Why don’t you fight like that against me?” She doesn’t possess near the same rage with him.
She’s basically avoided all contact with me since I told her she could see who she wanted to.
I told her she was free to make her own decisions—not that she had to go out with someone else.
I also let Marcus know. Neither one of them have messaged each other—I’ve been checking her phone history, relieved each time I don’t find any correspondence.
“Nick pisses me off.” She stands up off the ground and turns her back to me.
I want to blow her a kiss but refrain. Pissing people off is part of my charm. I want her to pick me, but that’s selfish. I can’t let her pick me. I’m no good for her. It’s better for everyone for me to yearn for her in silence, which has been even harder to do since she let me taste her…
“Pretend I’m Nick then.” Lucas shrugs, his comment bringing me back to reality.
“I’d rather jump off a cliff than deal with two Nicks.” She glares at me over her shoulder.
God she’s adorable.
Her therapist still reports things are going good and she’s still making improvements, but keeps their discussions confidential—as she should.
“Then get off your ass. It’s you and me. Let’s go.” He runs for her.
This time when he comes at her, she’s ready. She takes him down on her second attempt to get away.
“That’s progress. Thanks, boss.” He calls from the floor.
“So glad I could be of help.”
She snatches the knife strapped to Lucas’ leg, I take a bow and see myself out as she throws it at me, thankful her knife-throwing skills are subpar. We will have to work on that.
Upstairs, I glance down at my phone, there are two missed calls from Vade. Making sure I’m out of earshot of anyone, I call him back. “What’s wrong?”
“Six young women have been reported missing from Gulf View and surrounding areas just from the car event last week. The feds are poking around but they don’t have any leads yet. We have to act now. How long until your girl is ready?” The irritation in his voice is very obvious.
Ethan hasn’t been able to turn up any leads with his surveillance efforts. The tens of thousands of people who flock to this area for the car event complicated everything.
Every hotel, business, and street was jam-packed with people. Even a shithole like The Lucky Rabbit didn’t have any vacancies.
“She’s been working with Lucas most of the day, every day. Sasha is coming tomorrow to take her shopping and start her part of the training with her. Give me a few more days. I’ll put Sasha on paid leave and Maya on expedited sunup to sundown training.”
“Don’t you have any feds in your pocket who would be interested in collaborating?”
“I know a few, but now isn’t the time to call in favors when we don’t know who is pulling the strings. They’re more crooked than we are. For all we know, they slipped up and got greedy last week and are trying to cover their tracks.” Besides, I refuse to involve anyone else where Maya is concerned.
“Fine. We need someone in there now. What about that Kaleb Cherry? We know he’s involved, it’s time he talks.”
“He starts work tomorrow. I’ll follow up, but if you think it’s time to bring her in, it’s time we take Kaleb out.
We can’t risk him recognizing her.” I won’t risk it.
“Arrange for more men to cover security detail inside Cottontails. If they don’t have any employee openings, kill someone and make an opening.
This has gone on too long. I don’t care if they’re bartenders, bouncers, or regular customers.
She doesn’t step a toe in there without a team behind her. ” Her safety is my number one priority.
“Agreed. I’m on it,” Vade replies before he hangs up the phone.
When I walk into Ethan’s room he’s sitting cross-legged on his bed, typing away on his computer. I wish I could be more help to him, but I am not the best with technology. My hands and mind are my best weapons.
He peers up from over his screen. “I know that look, and you better get me some fucking help if you’re going to ask me for something else.” He sighs and takes a sip of water.
“There’s nobody else who is as good with hacking as you. I just need a small favor, and I’ll see if Vade has someone that can help with the rest.” I cross my arms and lean against the door.
He meets my stare; he’s more on edge than usual. I’m assuming he is still irritated with me over the hot tub incident. Not that I can blame him. He’s just trying to look out for her. So am I and right now, as predicted, she hates me.
I’ve been shamelessly stalking her training sessions. I’d love to be the one pinning her down on the mat, but I know I couldn’t control myself if I did. My hand is starting to get calluses from the amount of times I’ve been in the shower picturing her naked body beneath mine.
“Are you going to tell me what the fuck you want, dickhead?” Ethan snaps me from my stupor.
“I need you to hack The Lucky Rabbit’s HR computers and pull all the employee files,” I say.
“You can’t be fucking serious. I don’t have time to go through all that,” he whines.
“I’m not asking you to go through them, just get them. I’ll take care of the rest.” I’ll look through them myself in my spare time.
I’m sure Vade will be willing to help. We aren’t expecting another shipment of guns for another couple weeks. He has some free time. He might own Diamond Aces Casino, but he pays people to run it for him. It gives him much more flexibility with our weapons trade.
Speaking of which, I need to reach back out to Diaz and see if he has any leads.
“Fine. I’ll see what I can do.” He doesn’t look up from his computer again.
“Thanks.” I turn to leave his room and my eyes lock on the beautiful woman downing a glass of water in my kitchen.
She’s standing there, sweat still dripping down her body. I wish it was me who had her dripping wet. We lock eyes for a moment when she sets the glass down.
Instead of walking past me to get to her room, she picks up the kitten and heads to the back porch.
This is a perfect opportunity for me to talk to her about escalating things.
Hopefully, Ethan won’t hear us and come running outside.
Things are entirely too tense in this house as it is. No need to add to it.
“I need to talk to you.” I take a seat in the lounge chair next to her.
“What would you like me to do now, master,” she huffs.
“We have to escalate things. As you know, Kaleb starts working at The Lucky Rabbit tomorrow…”
Maya cuts me off. “Let me guess, you want me to blow him for information.” Her face turns red and she refuses to look at me.
My heart rate spikes, heating my anger to a boil.
She knows how to push every damn button with her smart mouth.
Usually, it’s cute. But right now, I want to fuck that attitude right out of her.
Make her scream my name until I’ve erased every drop of self-doubt I’ve caused by telling her she should see Marcus after our night in the hot tub.
“No, I don’t want you to blow him. More girls have been reported missing and Kaleb might be a dead end. Vade thinks we need to get you inside sooner rather than later.”
“Fine. Let me know when. I’m ready to get this over with anyway so I can move on with my life.” Her sharp words cut like a razor blade.
I know I said I was ready for her to move on but I selfishly want to keep her under my wing a little bit longer.
“As soon as I have all the inside information, you’ll apply for a position.” I stand to walk back inside. “I really am sorry, cupcake, but it’s for the best if we keep things professional between us.”
Her chest puffs up, and I have to walk away before the first tear falls. I can’t bear to see her cry and know I’m the one responsible.