Page 23 of Pistols and Plush Toys

He was sorry for tossing him away like that, sorry for bringing him into a situation like this.

He was justsorry.

Elliot closed his eyes and tried to sink into the comfort of Apricot’s soft, familiar body. He tried to imagine himself somewhere else, not this room or even Mattia's penthouse, but in someplace like the diner. Someplace like his old work, where everything had been familiar. Safe. Where he’d felt confident, competent, and unafraid.

Would he ever get back to a place like that? Would he ever stop being such a uselessburden?

Elliot took a deep, shaky breath that wasn’t a sob—it wasn’t.He’d cried enough, and he wasn’t going to do it again.

Chapter 6: Nikolai

Nikolai set himself recurring reminders to check on Brooks every three hours. It wasn’t that he thought himself likely to forget he had a guest locked in one of his spare bedrooms, it just made him feel better toknowhe would be checking in on Brooks regularly. That as busy as he was with everything going on, it wasn’t going to slip his mind that he had someone here against his will.

Brooks was here to make Vitale behave, but that didn’t mean Nikolai had to be cruel to him. If Brooks would be… staying for a few days, until Vitale got his head out of his ass, the least Nikolai could do was try to make him relatively comfortable.

But when he kept his promise and looked in on Brooks at eleven, Brooks just watched him with those wide hazel eyes from his position on the bed where he was seated, body thrumming with tension, until Nikolai gruffly left him alone.

He was starting to get the sinking feeling that “relatively comfortable” was going to be an impossible goal when it came to Brooks.

When he poked his head in at two, carrying a tray with several different options from his favorite burger place, Brooks looked somehow noticeably paler than he had at eleven. Nikolai strode into the room and opened the mini fridge to check the contents.

They were untouched.

He rounded on Brooks, trying to fight down his glare. Was this a tactic of some sort? A hunger strike?

Brooks shrank back with a sharp intake of breath.

Maybe Nikolai hadn’t been successful at not glaring. He inhaled and let it out, schooling his expression to neutral. “Is bad for you, not eating,” he said, doing his best not to sound accusatory.

“I-I’m sorry,” Brooks whispered, hunching his shoulders.

Fucking hell. If Brooks was trying to make Nikolai feel like the bad guy, he was doing a very good job.

You’re doing this for a reason,he reminded himself. Because Vitale needed to be reined in.

But thinking of Vitale, everything Nikolai knew about that rat bastard, it was hard to imagine this timid, shaking creature who apologized with every breath hanging off Vitale’s arm and reveling in his flashy spotlight.

Nikolai squashed his sigh and set the tray down on top of the mini fridge, then bent down and pulled out a water bottle and a bag of trail mix. He held them up to show Brooks. “See? Is sealed. Is very safe.”I’m not going to hurt you.

But he couldn’t help glancing at Brooks’s wrapped wrists, his split lip.

Nikolai set both things on the tray alongside the fast food, not wanting to scare Brooks more by getting closer to him, and left the room.

Once he had relocked the door, Nikolai rubbed at his temples. He needed adrink.But he couldn’t allow himself one yet. Not until it was late into the evening and Brooks was safely asleep, no longer relying on Nikolai to check on him.

He could already hear Gerard and Meredith having an opinion about that, but Nikolai was just going to have one. Just one drink.

Just enough to forget this whole horrible situation for a few hours.

At five, Nikolai knocked to announce himself and then opened the door. He immediately looked to the tray, which wasstill sitting on top of the mini fridge. The bottle of water was gone, as was the bag of trail mix. The rest of the food looked like Brooks hadn’t even had a taste.

Nikolai swallowed down the bitter taste in his own mouth and decided on an early dinner. Brooks had barely eaten all day—surely the man had to be hungry. Maybe he just needed to get out of his room for a bit.

Except when he brought Brooks out for dinner, he once again only picked at his food. Like earlier, Nikolai tried to ask if he wanted anything else, but that had only made Brooks shrink down in his seat as though afraid Nikolai was going to backhand him for being obstinate.

Fuckinghell.Okay yes, the kid was being held here against his will, but did Nikolai really come off as the kind of person who would just smack someone around for finding dinner unappetizing?

He could practically hear Meredith’s voice, all the things she’d warned him about in this plan. How he was toeing a dangerous line kidnapping someone who really had no business being between Vitale and himself.

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