Page 57 of I Stop Somewhere Waiting For You

Nicky snaps. He lunges for me, his shoulder driving into my abdomen as he tackles me to the ground. My back absorbs the hit and I use the harnessed momentum to flip us backward until I land seated on top of him. My arm drives up under his chin, pinning him to the ground.

Nicky kicks his hips up, and the lanky motherfucker he is somehow gets one of his legs up high enough to wrap around the front of my head, flinging me backward. I roll off to the side just as Nicky scrambles to his feet. Charging toward me, he swings full force, though he’s so blinded by rage I easily dodge him before springing upright.

The momentum of his missed punch sends him spinning and, as he turns to re-engage, I fucking clock him square in the jaw. Nicky stumbles off to the side before lowering himself to the ground where he assumes a seated position.

“Motherfucker,” he hisses, the palm of his hand rubbing at his chin where the hit landed.

“It’s not up to you, Nick.” I shake out my hand because even though I just rocked his shit, the asshole has a jawline made of fucking steel.

He scoffs at me, turning away to bury his face in his hands.

“I’m in love with her,” I continue. “She is everything to me. As soon as school’s done, I’m popping the question. I’ve already got the ring.”

His head shoots up, snapping in my direction. “Lemme explain something to you, Bishop.” He glares at me, his gaze rivaling the desperation of a madman. “I will not allow my sister to end up with someone like me. She is everything that is good and right in this world. You and me? We’re poison. We’re toxic shit that destroys anything that gets too close. Look where Daphne is right now!” He extends his hand out into the air, gesturing in the direction of Queen City where she’s currently posted up in the hospital. “I will kill us both before I allow you to ruin her fucking life. World would be better off without us anyway.”

He pushes to his feet, trudging off in the direction of the house, though coming to a stop at the base of the steps. I sigh, retrieving my cigarettes from my pocket and shoving one in between my teeth.

“Nicky,” I begin, lighting the tiny menthol stick and taking a deep pull, “she’s not gonna live this life. After tonight, I’m out. I’m gonna run the club, she can go to college, and we’re gonna make you cute little fucking babies that you can spoil with all your gangster money you’ll be making from absorbing my piece of the pie.”

“You want babies with my sister?” He stares at me in disbelief.

“I want everything with your sister.” There’s no hesitation in my response. The thought of her belly swollen with my child cracks my chest open, allowing the threat of an unimaginable happiness to seep inside.

Nicky lets out a deep exhale. Interlacing his fingers behind his neck, he turns to face me. “Maverick, if you love my sister, which—fuck—it sounds like you really do, then I need you to break it off.”

I wave him off in an attempt to push past him, though Nicky repositions himself in front of me.

“Mav, you just gave your gun business to the Sicilians. The same fucking Sicilians who are in a war with the Bratva that Tommy just unknowingly aligned me with. What the fuck do you think the Russians are going to do when they find that out? Hmmm?”

Fuck.

The pieces start to form a picture in my head, each one snapping into place.

“That’s right,” Nicky nods, his eyes glued to my own. “There’s not a fucking rock you’re gonna be able to hide under, Bishop. They won’t care if you say you’re out. The rape? What the Russians will do to her to get to you will make that look like child’s play. It won’t matter she’s my sister. She will look like a traitor to them. They will mail her back to us in fucking pieces, Mav. I need her to go off to college. And I know you had dreams of going legit, but I need you to stay in this with me now and fix this shit.”

“I’ll leave with her.”

He laughs at my suggestion.

“What? I will. No one will know where we go. I’ll have Carmine create fake identities. We’ll leave the country. Fuck, Nick, I’ll take her to Canada or Mexico.”

“AND THAT’S FAIR TO HER?!” he shouts, advancing toward me ‘til his chest bumps my own. “Living her life on the run?! Always looking over her shoulder? Come on, Mav. That’s bullshit and you know it. And we both know the paranoia would eventually get to you, too.”

He takes a step back, his Adam’s apple bobbing with a hard swallow. “I had to walk into that hospital room and see my sister on the brink of death for no other reason than the fact she was important to me. I see that image every time I close my eyes. I had to walk into my house today and find Daph—the only other girl I feel anything for—beaten to shit, out cold on the floor.” He scrubs a hand over his face, inhaling deep through his nose. “Could you do it, Mav? Could you come home one day and find my sister, your wife, on the floor? Fucked six ways from Sunday and beaten to death? Could you go through life knowing the only reason it happened is because she loved you? Because if you can, if you can know that risk and move forward with it anyway…” he closes the distance between us one last time, his face coming to stop mere inches from mine, “…then my sister doesn’t mean a fucking thing to you, and you don’t deserve her.”

Nicky spins without so much as a final glance, ascending the porch steps two at a time and disappearing into the house.

I stand alone in the darkness, my cigarette long since burned out, as the weight of Nicky’s words demolish any semblance of a future I’d constructed in my mind involving J.

CHAPTER 28

MAV

By the time I make my way down to the cells, Nicky’s already got Tommy prepped while Finn, T, and Rico stand off to the side. He’s gagged in the center of the room, hands bound up over his head, allowing his toes to just barely scrape the concrete floor where the built-in drain is positioned.

Over the years, I’ve made some upgrades to the house. Trust me, drains in your torture rooms are a fucking must. Don’t skimp on them.

Tommy glares at me as I enter, his jaw tensing with anger and with each step I take he clenches his teeth so tight I’m convinced he’s gonna crack one. Damn, he fucking hates me. We’re gonna use that to our advantage.

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