Page 18 of To Love and Protect
She shooed the depressing thoughts away and offered Nico a smile. “You go ahead.”
She also loved that he never judged her. He simply nodded, bowed his head, and prayed.
When he finished, they dug into their food, Nico much more enthusiastically than her. Remedie’s mind wandered. There was so much she didn’t know about Nico, yet she lived with him and saw him every day. Questions swarmed her mind every time they sat down to eat together.
“Go ahead.” His voice startled her out of her thoughts.
“What?”
“Go ahead and ask your question. You always do while we eat.”
She giggled. She didn’t realize she’d gotten so predictable. The way Nico paid attention to her and her habits was new to her. The only person who knew her that well was Isla, but Nico was well on his way to surpassing her best friend in the Remedie knowledge department.
“How do you keep a relationship with God when you beat people up for a living . . . illegally, I might add.” That question had plagued her for the past day or so. She’d seen glimpses of some of his old fights during his study sessions, when she walked by. She always looked away quickly, but she got the gist.
“How is doing it illegally any different from doing it legally? It ain’t like I’m beating niggas up who ain’t ask for it.”
Remedie shrugged. She guessed he had a point. She picked at her food for a second before she asked, “Do underground fights ever go too far?”
She noticed Nico stiffen. “What you mean, cookie?” he asked before he took a bite of his sandwich.
Her shoulders bobbed once again. “Like, does anyone ever get seriously injured or die?”
Nico took his time chewing before he answered. “It happens.”
“Have you ever done that to anyone? Hurt them real bad or killed them?”
“You really wanna know the answer to that?”
The way he said it kind of gave her the answer she sought. Instead of digging deeper into that, she changed the subject. “You got any friends besides your brother?”
Nico shook his head. “Niggas is weird. Gramps and Ree are all I need for real.”
“Yeah, niggas really are weird,” she agreed before popping a fry into her mouth.
Nico playfully cut his eyes at her. “Aye, watch it. Not all niggas is weird.”
“I agreed with you. How you gon’ switch up just because I said the same thing you said?” she asked after a giggle slipped past her lips.
“’Cause, you not about to use that to keep that wall you got up standing strong. I ain’t one of them weird ones.”
Remedie waved him off. “Please. I met you when you were trying to convince a big ugly bitch to give you head. That sounds weird to me.”
Nico dramatically placed a hand over his heart. “You bringing up old shit?”
“That wasn’t even a week ago,” she pointed out.
“Exactly. Old shit. That was before I met you. I’m a changed man.” He offered her his dazzling smile, and she rolled hereyes, though she felt a blush creeping up her cheeks. He seemed to have that effect on her, which she really wasn’t sure she appreciated.
After Zayden, men disgusted her. She wanted to be single and stack her money. Nico seemed to have other ideas.
“Whatever.”
“I’m serious. When you gon’ stop playin’ hard to get?”
“I’m not playing, Nico. Iamhard to get. You see what I just went through. Last thing I want to do is get into another situation like that.”
Nico stared at her for several seconds without blinking. She squirmed under his gaze.
