Page 59 of Nikolai (Kansas City Reapers)

“Hey! You never mentioned babysitting duties,” Jax griped petulantly.

“Babysit? Babysit!? I do NOT need babysitting.” Maddy, in all her brat-filled glory, stood from the table, palms flat on the table as she stamped her foot in utter outrage.

“Maddy, calm down.” I used my most gentle, yet dominant tone, but based on the way her eyes narrowed, that wasn’t going to get me anywhere.

“Calm down? Fuck you, telling me to calm down. I’ve been stuck in here as long as you guys. Longer, if you count all the little side adventures you all get to take into town or out on the property. Hell, Niko! You wouldn’t even let me lay out by the garage and sunbathe! You’re so fucking rigid and uptight and controlling—”

“She sure has you pegged,” Jax snickered. Maddy’s glare turned on him, her hand shooting out to smack him across the back of his head, much as I had only minutes ago.

“Does this look like a conversation involving you?” she chided him, giving him one hell of a talking down to in one simple sentence.

“Maddy…” I said, low and in warning. She was playing with fire, and princess was about to get burned if she wasn’t careful.

“Don’t youMaddyme. I’m going nuts in here, Niko. Where are you all going that I can’t go, too?”

“To the shooting range for some target practice,” Jax answered for me. I growled low in warning towards him this time. “Er… I’ll see my way out of this conversation right about now.”

He stood, but Maddy pushed on his shoulder hard until he sat back down.

“No, you don’t. You might be the only way I get a real answer. Lord knows the fucking Russian over here is pretty tight-lipped when it comes to leaving this property.” She raised one eyebrow high, goading me. Fuck, it took all I had not to rise to her challenge and dominate the situation.

But I had to slow down, to remind myself that this was not a full-time dynamic, and I had no control over her here. Not in any real way. We hadn’t agreed to that.

“Now, explain to me why I can’t go with you,” she all but demanded, her nails clicking on the table as she drummed her fingers impatiently.

“We’re headed to the shooting range, about thirty minutes from here,” I answered, somewhat begrudgingly.

“And why can’t I go with?” she reiterated, obviously irritated.

“Because we are supposed to keep you safehere, at the safe house,” I scoffed. The answer was fucking obvious. I had no idea why she was fighting me like this.

“Is it a public shooting range, or private?”

Her answer surprised me, but I answered anyway. Lead with honesty. It was a core tenant of mine, one I tended to forget when pledged to a duty such as this. But with what Maddy and I had shared already, I knew I needed to do some personal work in that department.

“Private.”

“So why can’t I go?”

“Because you could be seen, and therefore, it could put you and the rest of us in danger.”

“Well, if going out puts us in danger, maybe all of you should stay home, too.”

“I mean, she has a point, Niko,” Jax chuckled.

“Nobody asked you!” Both Maddy and I shouted at the exact same time.

“Touchy, touchy.” Jax sat back in his chair, lowering his eyes back to his laptop screen and making himself as invisible as he could, the sound of his fingers clacking on the keyboard the only sound in the room for a solid minute.

“I’m not going to put you in danger, Maddy.”

“Then be smart about it. I can dress differently, wear my hair up, and under a ball cap. You know, like in the movies.”

“This isn’t the movies.”

“Oh, don’t I know it? If it were the movies, I’d be having more fun.”

“You’re impossible.”

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