Chapter Six #2
“Didn’t plan on it once you mentioned it being cursed and all.” Gigi couldn’t help but respond tartly, she wasn’t an idiot. Leaning forward, bending down to get a good look at the thing Nico claimed was killing him. “It looks…”
“Insignificant? Trust me, it isn’t. That thing is packing the mental wallop of a herd of elephants wearing shitkicker boots.”
“Actually, I was going to say it looks kind of girlie. Made for a young girl I mean. The dove. That’s the symbol of first love, isn’t it?”
“Traditionally, yes, in ancient times.”
“So how does the curse work?”
“I’m guessing some idiot, that would be me, touches it and boom, kicks it off.”
“Kicks off what exactly? Like I said, you don’t look ill.”
“Remember the inconsistencies between the photos of my intruder and the sketch Patricia found of him, versus what he looked like twenty-fours after dying? Warrior General, major bad ass, versus golden curls and kind of soft, wearing a pale blue toga that matched his eyes.”
“So the ring changes the bearer somehow?”
“I think so. Digby asked me if I was using some kind of self-tanner this morning. I twigged then that something might be different about me.”
“The crowd of clamouring women wasn’t your first clue?” Ah, Nico actually blushed for a brief second, it was kind of charming
“Ever since your Great-Great Aunt released her last book with that naked model on the cover who sort of looks like me, I’ve been getting a little more attention than normal.”
“And you mentioned a herd of elephants?”
“Pretty much from the moment I touched the ring, it’s been hammering away at me, like someone is pounding against my head, trying to get me to…”
“Let go? Give in?”
“Yeah, I think so. It’s mental torture 101. Won’t let me sleep. Making it harder to think. Or make decisions. Wearing me down.”
“That’s why you were acting a little spacey at Aunt Lucy’s!”
“I hadn’t had a moments peace for over six days before I walked into the Valhalla farmhouse.”
“How is that possible? You seem…” Gigi searched Nico’s face for any sign of fatigue or insanity, because clearly the ring was trying to drive him nuts. “…fine.” Such a small word to describe someone so sinfully hot and annoying, just because he was cursed didn’t make him any less annoying.
“That’s the thing. Somehow you’re like a mute button.
I noticed it first at that meeting with Lucy.
The moment you walked in, bam, silence.” He wasn’t ready to share with Gigi yet that he appeared to be doubly cursed.
That though she was his mute button when it came to the ring, the silence came with a price, that subtle, seductive pull that Gigi exuded.
A faint tugging on his senses that he wanted absolutely nothing to do with.
If she even gave the slightest indication that she was doing it on purpose, or actively pursuing him, he’d tell her to cut it out. But all he usually saw in Gigi’s sparkling eyes when she looked his way was generally irritation and exasperation.
“I mistakenly thought the ring had burnt itself out. Unfortunately, the moment I left, it was back hammering away at me.”
“But that meeting with Lucy was days ago. How are you still functioning?”
“It took me a while to put it together. I wasn’t sure if it was you or the rabbit who was the key to muting the ring, not until you walked into the bar by yourself just now. Click. Off it went the moment I saw you.”
Something was missing, something he wasn’t telling her. Why would he look so wary of her if she was the key to bringing him peace? “But you said you can’t sleep with this thing in your head. You should be an incoherent vegetable by now.”
“Yeah, about that. I’ve been sleeping on your deck for the last few nights. Your outdoor recliners are surprisingly comfortable.”
“You’ve been sleeping on my sundeck?”
“Yes, I was out running a few days ago and literally stumbled into a zone of silence, it was your deck. Since then I’ve been spending every night there. So thankfully I have a work around now for the no sleep part of this bloody curse.”
“As long as it doesn’t rain.” Gigi observed dryly. A little miffed she hadn’t realised her private space had been invaded.
“True. My next pressing problem appears to be, thanks to the ring’s influence, suddenly all these women are chasing me.
” Reaching into his jeans pocket Nico pulled out a wad of bar napkins, all had phone numbers scrawled on them.
Several had lipstick stained kisses acting as exclamation marks.
Scowling down at the crumpled mess he threw them in the rubbish bin.
“Like I said. At first I put it down to Adelaide’s book getting re-released.
But after this morning, it’s pretty clear that I have a new problem… that I’ve become some kind of—”
“Chick magnet?” Again he blushed. She was not charmed. She wasn’t. “So this ring, along with trying to get into your head to control you? Changes you? Or perhaps the women’s adoration is just another form of bait it uses. Like, if you give into it, these women could all be yours?”
“That’s sick. Who would let an object manipulate them like that? Want that kind of forced adoration and bask in it?”
“A grumpy, sullen, arrogant he-man, who’s never known what true love is, I’m guessing.”
“I am not secretly pining for my one true love. And I’m not sullen or arrogant, I just have a lot on my plate at the moment.”
Gigi couldn’t quite hide her smug gotcha smile, though she did her best to give Nico innocent doe eyes. “I was talking about Aploonius. Who appears to have transitioned from bad-ass warrior army general to some golden haired, peace on earth, flowers for all, love everyone hippie lifestyle.”
“Oh. Yes. Him.” Nico scowled. “So you think it’s trying to lure me to the love-side?”
“Lure? More like brow-beat. It’s approach isn’t exactly subtle, is it?
Kind of ham fisted really. Perhaps it thinks every man’s secret wish is to have a flock of women pursue them.
Fight over them. Shower them with blinkered adoration and praise.
Basically the ring turns those it curses into rockstars.
Many men would happily give into that kind of curse. ”
“Yeah, well, count me out. I don’t do love, ever. And a bunch of women batting their eyes at me whilst treating me like a stripper on a stage and stuffing their phone numbers into my pockets, isn’t going to change my mind.”
“And yet somehow, someway, the ring managed to coerce or browbeat Aploonius, a blood-thirsty, notorious battle general to the love side. Aren’t you a little worried?”
“I have something he didn’t, you.”
“Me?”
“You don’t just mute the mental hammering. You negated the effect of the curse on those women at the bar. The moment the ring stopped hammering at me, they seemed to wake up. Shake off the effects of the ring or me.”
“All those women downstairs, they were all single, right? I didn’t see any of the melds there. So this curse of yours at least has some limits. And for some reason I’m immune to your cursed charms.”
A cocky wry smile twisted up the edges of Nico’s lips for a split second. “That kiss took two, Cookie. I wouldn’t exactly call you immune.”
“Please, you were impressed by that pity kiss? You need to get out more.”
“Pity kiss?”
“When a desperate man pleads for a lifeline, it’s only good manners to throw him one.”
For some reason the idea Gigi had allowed him to kiss her so long, so thoroughly, was because she had sensed his desperation and taken pity on him, kind of stung. “What’s going on with the ring throws a definite wrench into my plans.”
“You mean your ridiculously outdated macho plan, where at the first sign of danger I’m supposed to run away and let big strong you deal with the problem?”
Those purple eyes of hers had darkened with strong emotion.
For some reason the fact that he’d gotten under Gigi’s DeWitt’s skin made Nico happy.
Probably because it was the first crack he’d seen in that mary sunshine professional mask she wore, and he preferred knowing exactly what she was thinking.
“We’re supposed to be partners on this mission Fate is about to throw in our laps. Partners.” Gigi stressed the last word.
“Yes. And in our case there will be a senior partner, me. And a junior partner, you.”
“Seriously? Who died and made you El Hefe?”
“You make chocolates. You don’t have the skills to face off with whatever Fate has planned for us.”
“You’re a bar owner. How are you any more qualified than me?”
“I’ve spent decades chasing long lost treasures and civilisations, facing off against competitors and bad guys is all part of the deal.”
“And I’ve grown up in the Southern Sanctuary. You know, where an apocalypse is thwarted every other Tuesday.”
“Yeah. But not by you. Tell me, when was the last time an apocalypse was foiled thanks to your Mocha Jaffa Fudge Bars?”
Gigi opened her mouth to deliver a scathing retort.
The man was just so insulting, she couldn’t remember the last time she’d been this angry.
His insistence that he would solely deal with any adversity they faced was infuriating.
Pidgeon-holing her as a burden. Oh, a sudden thought hitting her.
He’d said it twice now, but she was only just registering the meaning of his words – he had a lot on his plate.
Nico Yanez was weighed down by more regrets and responsibilities than any man could possibly bear. Probably from the moment he could walk he would have been told to take care of his brother, Matias. Then kid sister, Copper. Be the big brother, assume responsibility for them.
And he would have taken on that role with gusto.
The responsibilities and expectations only piling on as he grew older, more capable.
Stepping up eventually into the first mate role aboard the family vessel, The Merry Maverick.
Ensuring his family and the boat crew, their extended treasure hunting family, were safe and well.
It had to eat at him, to wonder if things might have been different that day, the day his parents and all the crew were viciously murdered, if only Nico had been there.
Perhaps things would have turned out differently.
Perhaps he could have stopped her, Kristiah, the woman he had thought he would marry, who turned out to be a murderous hybrid jaguar controlled by a human sacrificing power hungry priest.
But Nico hadn’t been there that day. He’d been away, at the nearest Port, collecting mail, and purchasing essential engine parts.
What must it have been like for him to return, to discover not just his parents and the crew dead, but to find his sister and the woman he intended to marry missing?
And his younger brother badly hurt, not just physically, but mentally.
Matias spending the next ten years resetting every night he slept.
Waking each morning, thinking it was the exact moment Matias had just discovered their parents had been murdered.
And all the while Nico was dealing with Matias, he scoured the world for answers. Who had killed their parents? Did a cure exist to fix Matias? Where were Copper and Kristiah?
A decade of his life spent searching.
Had he ever taken a moment to mourn everyone lost?
Probably an impossibility given Matias would have kept the memories fresh with the need to have the events of that day and its fallout explained over and over again, for ten long years.
Neither of them allowed to forget or move on.
And even now. Eleven years later. With Matias mended and married to the love of his life.
Kristiah identified as the murderer and killed by Nico’s own hand.
And Copper returned to them, setting out on a new path as a deity herself, wrestling with mastering her powers thanks to some mentoring by Maat and Apep.
None of that would lessen the guilt. The eleven years of blame Nico had shouldered, continued to shoulder. He was the oldest. First mate. The responsible one. And he’d taken his eyes off the prize for a brief moment and disaster had struck.
The man was haunted still by the should-haves and the if-onlys.
No wonder he was a grumpy control freak.
And the poor man could not catch a break.
If he thought a staid simple life as a bar owner would give him space to finally begin dealing with the traumas of his past, he should never have settled in the Southern Sanctuary.
Although, to be fair, thanks to that decision he had his brother and sister back in his life, both hale and hearty physically and mentally.
Huh, perhaps that was the reason he was so insistent upon taking point on this mission of theirs. Gigi had a feeling Nico always paid his debts, no matter the personal cost.
Honestly, the man needed saving from himself. And he definitely needed to be reminded that he was not her big brother. And that he was in no way responsible for her. Senior partner! What a doofus. Did he even hear himself?
But clearly trying to reason with the man was futile.
“You know what.” Gigi stood, gifting Nico a warm smile.
“You’re right. I vote you in as team leader.
Which means you get to be Darcy’s point of contact.
Lucky you. Just tell me when and where I need to be when the time is right.
And I absolutely pinky swear I’ll run away at the first sign of any danger, leaving you to save the day.
” Walking away across the room, so not looking at the large mattress on the floor and certainly not thinking about Nico sleeping on it.
Gigi headed for the antique firepole, she was dying for a chance to slide down it.
Nico was a little bewildered, they’d been fighting, which he’d weirdly been kind of enjoying and then suddenly they weren’t. Gigi was smiling. Agreeing with all his directives. It made him wary, it had been a little too easy. “So we’re good?”
“Absolutely.” Standing next to the antique firepole Gigi considered the logistics.
She was going to have to hike her skirt up, there was no other choice, since she was going to need a fast exit.
“Senior partner.” She pointed at him and then at herself.
“Junior partner. I totally get it now. Well, good luck with that curse, Casanova. Sounds like you can totally handle it all on your own and don’t need any more help from me.
” Giving Nico another warm smile, this time she added a wink.
“Oh, and you might want to pack a brolly when you hit my sundeck later, they’re forecasting thundery storms tonight. Sleep tight.”