Page 45 of Nikki Sinatra: For Her Lover
Nikki came to a stop too. Mick and Teddy hurried out. But it was Nikki who got out faster and beat both men to the driver side of that car.
She flung open his car door, grabbed his skinny ass out, and threw him against the side of the car.
And for the first time in over a decade, other than that moment at the train tracks, they were face to face.
And he smiled that reptilian smile she hated. “If it ain’t Nikki Baker in the flesh,” he said. “You ran away from me the first time. Why so courageous now?” Then he looked at Mick and Teddy running up. “Oh how I wonder if it’s because you have your husband and your boyfriend for back up.”
Nikki punched him so hard the sweat flew from his face. Even he was spreading that bullshit too? “You got jokes,” she said. “We got guns.”
Teddy grabbed him by his shirt. “Bring your ass on,” he said as he began dragging Emilio to the Escalade.
Nikki could feel Mick’s stare, but she dared not look at him. All of it, from her ever getting involved with a slimeball like Emilio to his little comment about her relationship with Mick, was shameful to her.
“Good job, Nikki,” Mick said to her.
When he said those words, she looked at him. Was he truly unbothered by all the death she’d caused the family? By her past? By all the ridiculous rumors that were flying around?
To her surprise, when she looked into his eyes, she didn’t see the judgement she expected. She didn’t see his grief over the fact that he thought she was smart when the evidence showed that she was dumb as rocks to fool around with a drug dealer likeEmilio Cabrera and become his drug mule. But she saw concern in his eyes. True concern. And she appreciated it. Sheneededit.
“Thank you, sir,” she said, trying with all she had to maintain her brave front and never disappoint him again. And then she followed Teddy to the SUV.
Mick walked slowly back to the SUV as he watched Teddy put Emilio inside and Nikki walk up behind him. Teddy wished Nikki had never gotten involved in the family business, but Mick wished neither one of them had ever gotten involved. Now they had a baby too. A precious little girl. Nikki was blaming herself for the carnage, but at the end of the day, in totality, it was never anybody’s fault but Mick’s.
His heart was heavy.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
The door to the safe house was unlocked by Nikki as Teddy shoved Emilio inside. With his hands tied behind his back, he stumbled but didn’t fall. They were still on the outskirts of Philly in one of their sparsely used safe houses. The room was small, with a card table inside and chairs all around the walls. Teddy grabbed one and slammed it down in the middle of the room. Then he forced Emilio to sit down. Nikki stood in front of him. Teddy went and stood beside Nikki. Mick took a ringside seat in one of the chairs against the side wall.
Nikki folded her arms. She was dressed in a pair of black slacks, a black blouse, a white blazer and heels. She looked great, Teddy thought, and was handling with complete professionalism the man he knew she had to despise to her core. She wanted answers, but Teddy wanted revenge. He remembered those dangerous drug runs Emilio had her doing, all the way to Thailand. He remembered how that bastard almost ruined teenager-Nikki’s life.
“Why are you here?” Nikki asked Emilio.
“I told you in that truck and I’m telling you again: I got nothing to say.”
“I’m going to ask you one more time,” Nikki said. “Why are you here?”
Emilio smiled as if she was an insect to him. Then his look turned bitter, as if he was remembering what Nikki’s actions caused him and his family. “Fuck you, bitch!” he said angrily.
Teddy was about to beat his ass on the spot, but Nikki pulled out her Glock and shot Emilio in both knees before Teddy could make his first move.
Although Mick didn’t flinch, even he was surprised.
Teddy, who always knew Nikki to be the levelheaded, calm one of the two of them, was beyond surprised.
Emilio screamed out in pain, his face a mask of anguish, as he looked up at Nikki. “You shot me! You just shot me!”
“What you thought I was gonna do to you?” Nikki yelled back with a fixed frown on her face. “Congratulate you for nearly destroying my life? For forcing me to go on the run? For what happened to all those innocent children?!”
“They were my family,” Emilio cried out with a howling wail.
“Not all of them were your family,” Nikki fired back. “There were other children there too.”
“All because of you. Not me. You!”
“Bullshit!” yelled Nikki as she cocked her Glock again.
“Deescalate,” Mick ordered.
