Page 64 of Covert
"Why are you angry at me?" She sits up defensively. Beckett lays a hand on her shoulder to calm her down.
"The people you're running from...did they hurt you? Who was it? Do we know them?"
Her eyes widen, but she looks at each of us, gauging what we want in response.
She lowers her eyes to her hands in her lap.
"Yes, they hurt me. But that's not the reason I ran. I ran because they were going to sell me, okay? Can you just leave it at that? I'm safe here, right?" she says, looking at each of us for confirmation. I can tell Maddox wants to press her on it, force her to tell us more, but she's just gotten comfortable with the idea of staying with us, so I stand and get Sanoderm.
"Yes, of course we'll leave it alone," I say, narrowing my eyes at Maddox. It gives us a little more to go on, and it explains her reaction to the auction site. I wince at the thought of finding Nikki on one of those sites. I may not have been able to save Natalie, but there is nothing I won't do to save Nikki.
Chapter thirty-eight
Maddox
The bell to the front door chimes as Beckett, Axel, and I wipe down our individual stations. It had been a pretty steady stream of work, and I was looking forward to relaxing with the boys and Nikki this evening. I was thinking of ways we could spoil her, of the things I wanted to do to her in bed, with a loopy, lovestruck smile on my face. Looking up at the boys, they have similar looks, even Beckett.
"Sorry, we're closed," Nikki calls in a singsong voice from her side of the pony wall.
A second later, an earsplitting clang of a metal tray falling, and the more delicate tinkling of the piercings inside that tray comes from the front, and we look up.
In an instant, I see Nikki, barefoot, no sweater, sprinting for the back door, skirt swishing around her milky thighs. I look behind her to see what she's running from, when my stomach sours with dread. Four men, in formation, three flanking the one in the front, all dressed in black suits, stand guarding the front door. Unmoving.
The back door opens then, and Nikki skids to a stop. Beckett moves to protect her, but the burly man who walks through the back door raises a gun to Axel's head.
"Stand down!" Nikki shouts as I go to charge the man in the back, her hands in fists against her thigh, back rigid. I freeze. Who is she telling to stand down? Us, or them? We don't have weapons, so it can't be us. Why does she think that will work against the five men who just ambushed us?
The man holding the gun to Axel lowers it immediately.
What the fuck?
Axel shoots me a quizzical look while Beckett just looks confused, wanting to go to her, but unsure how to read the situation correctly. Guns are involved, and if there's any chance his actions could cause Nikki to get hurt, he'd never forgive himself.
Nikki turns to look at me, and my heart shatters. My beautiful girl, with big brown eyes, looks heartbroken. Tears stream down her cheeks as her lower lip trembles. Her eyes hold so much love and remorse that I can't stand it. I step forward to hug her, but she stops me.
The four men from the front door have now positioned themselves on this side of the pony wall. Nikki turns and faces them. I get the same feeling I did when she put herself between me and loaded guns at the rally. I want to run to her; to protect her from these men, these must be her "them". The ones who tried to sell her. But then Nikki does the unthinkable.
I watch in horror as she turns and walks straight into the arms of the man in charge. He's handsome, with tan skin and black hair, and muscular, but his nose is crooked - likely broken before - and he sports several scars on his eyebrows and chin. He wraps one arm around her shoulders and holds her head to his chest with such tenderness with the other. He rests his cheek on her head and sighs, deep and weary.
"I've missed you," my girl whispers, sobbing against his chest.
"I've missed you, too, Letty," he whispers back before taking her face in his palms and swiping at her tears. "No tears, remember?"
She smiles sadly before looking back at us. "That was before I had anything worth losing."
In less than a breath, three things happen.
I step forward to pull Nikki from this man's arms and protect her. To question her. To demand that she explain what's happening.
The asshole in the back raises his weapon at me in warning.
Nikki shoves her hand into the suit coat of the man she was hugging and, in a flash, has a weapon pointed at the man in the back.
"I said stand down," she growls, a tone of authority and anger I've never heard from her before. "Raise your weapon at my man again and you'll be leaving here in a fucking body bag."
My mouth drops open, stunned. Nikki transforms in front of my eyes. How does she know how to use a gun? Where did the balls come from? And how come the leader allowed her to take his weapon? Even now, with his gun pointed at his man, he seemed unaffected. Nikki still has an arm around his waist for Christ's sake.
The goon pales and hesitates for a moment before lowering his gun. "Your man?" the leader whispers lowly.
