Lawless (Defenders MC Book 2) (7 page)

Thirteen

Law took Nikki back to his house.  The tension between them was as thick a concrete wall, but she was alive.  She knew Law felt betrayed by her and he never touched her or even looked her way, but there were times at night when she swore she felt him in her room.

It had been almost a week since the night Law had claimed her and she still couldn’t believe it.  She had seen a leather cut that he’d had made for her hanging in his closet, but he never offered it to her.  She ran her hand over the property patch when she went to put his things away, just to remind herself that it had really happened.

The brothers had attacked Teddy’s house, but she didn’t know anything and was afraid to even ask if her stepbrother was still alive.  She knew she was walking a very thin line and that might send her off balance, so she waited.  To her everlasting terror, Slick had escaped.  She wasn’t told any details other than that he had gotten away and the brother were searching for him.

Knowing that Slick would have relayed her treachery to the Devils, Nikki knew she lived on borrowed time and the stress began working on her.  She couldn’t eat or sleep.  She paced and chewed at her nails until they were sore.  Lawless watched her like a predator, but he was there and she felt safe when he was there.  He hadn’t left her since Slick had gotten away and she didn’t know what she would do when he did.

“Nikki.”

Nikki screamed and turned so fast she almost fell when Law spoke from behind her.

“What the fuck is your problem?  Calm the fuck down.”  He berated her.

She only nodded jerkily.

He sighed out his frustration.  He knew she would freak when he told her he had to be away, but there was no other way.  He was losing his mind sitting here doing nothing while she fell apart.  He had to kill that son of a bitch or Nikki would lose her mind.

“Come over here and sit the fuck down.  I need to talk to you.”

Nikki nodded and sat where he directed, but she was twitchy and her eyes were everywhere.

“Nikki, for shit’s sake calm down.”

He looked up when Lizzie walked in with a bag in her hand.

“Nikki, listen to me.  Lizzie is going to stay with you for a little while.  She brought you something to help you sleep.  I want you to eat something, whatever she gives you and I want you to rest.”

Nikki looked up at Lizzie and back to Law.  “Are you leaving?”  Panic filled her voice and she reached for his hand.

He allowed her to grasp him.  It was the first contact they’d had since all the shit went down.  It felt good.  He turned his hand over and held hers.

“I need to make you feel safe Nikki.  I need you to feel safe with me again.”  It broke something inside of him that he thought was long dead when she looked up at him.  She looked like a china doll his grandmother had when he was small.  He had broken that doll too, but had been too small to put it back together.  This time he would.  Before he could stop himself he pulled Nikki into his lap and held her.  He couldn’t think about what the Devils may have done to her or if she was ready for him to touch her, he had to.  She held on to his shirt and shivered, but she didn’t cry.

“Will you please do this for me Nikki?  I promise it will all be over soon and I will make sure you are safe again.”

Her eyes were huge in her pale face, but she nodded as she searched Law’s face.  “You swear to me that you will come back.”

“I can’t do that.  I will come back if there is any way for me to.”

She thought for a minute.  “Will you get someone to kill me if you don’t come back?”

“Fuck no.”  He crushed her to his chest and kissed her inky black hair.  “No Nikki.  I will make you safe.  If something happens and I don’t get back, you can be happy.”

He studied her for a long moment.  “Is Nikki your real name?”

She looked confused and the wrinkled her nose.  “My name used to be Nikole Pride.”

“Used to be?”  Law found himself stroking her back in an attempt to calm her.

“Mmhm.  Before they killed me inside.  Now I’m just Nikki the stripper.”

That’s when Law knew he’d been right not to force her back to his bed.  She needed to heal.  He lifted her chin and drew on every kind instinct he had, which wasn’t much.  “I want to help you become Nikole Pride again, ok?  I want to do that and I want us to figure this shit out.  I am coming back to you.”

“Lawless?”

“Yeah?”

“What is your real name?”  She looked at him like a child and he gave her what most of his brothers didn’t even know.

“Tucker Shane.”  Saying his name caused a lump to form in his throat and he cleared it.

“Do you think we will ever just be Tucker and Nikole again?”

He thought about it.  He knew he could never go back to being the person he had been and the realization that she couldn’t either hit him hard.

“I don’t think so, but this is who I am after I picked up the pieces.  We will figure out who you will be too.”

Nikki believed him.  She believed him with everything that was inside of her.

“Nikole wouldn’t have loved you and Nikki isn’t sure she knows how, but I think there is someone in here,” she rubbed the spot between her breasts, “that really does.”

Law kissed her head.  “I hope so, I really do.”  He thought of something smart to say about how his dick was pretty crazy over her too, but he couldn’t ruin the moment.  He had a feeling she needed it.

“Nikki, sometime I think I’d like to hear about you.  Your mother.  How are you handling all that shit?”  He sighed.  “I really suck at this shit, but I’ll try.”

Nikki shivered in his arms and he just held her tighter.

Lizzie walked in carrying a tray and sat it on the coffee table.  “I made you a sandwich Nikki.  Eat it and drink your milk and then I want you to take these.”  She handed Nikki two sedatives.  She nodded to a bag on the coffee table.  “I packed one for you too Law, I know you aren’t really eating either.”

Law was shocked.  Lizzie had shown her true colors in the past few days.  Rider had been taken to his room at the clubhouse and Lizzie had appointed herself his full time nurse and she wasn’t all flirty and moony, she was professional and damned competent.  She had gotten the pills for Nikki too.  Law was shocked to find his opinion of the willowy blonde changing.

“Thanks Lizzie.”  His eyes fell on Nikki and watched her slowly eating.  Lizzie reached out and touched his hand.

“We will be fine.  There are four men outside and I know how to shoot.  We will keep her safe.”

Law hated it, but he agreed.

Fourteen

Law had been gone for eight days.  Lizzie came to visit often, but she was still looking after Rider and he needed her more.  The other women had come out too, but everyone was so on edge that the men didn’t want them out in the open very much.  Law had ordered four prospects to guard her, but they never came in the house and she felt like they were there more to keep her in the house than to protect her.

Law had sent texts to the phone he had gotten her, but never called.  Nikki knew that the texts were a big step for him and it made her feel a tiny bit special that he sent them, but she longed to hear his voice.

It was late when Lizzie arrived and she looked like she had been crying, but when Nikki started to ask Lizzie gave her a look that said she didn’t want to talk about it.  She fixed Nikki something to eat although Nikki was quite capable and had been feeling better since she had been eating and sleeping.  Nikki just ate like an obedient child and took the pills she was given.

“I can cook for myself Lizzie and if you’d leave the meds I could take those too.  There is no need to trouble yourself like this.”

“Yeah and if you ate the whole bottle Law would crawl up my ass, no thanks Nikki, don’t do me any favors.”

“Oh.”  So that was it then.  He didn’t trust her.

Lizzie looked up and her face fell.  “I’m so sorry Nikki.  I shouldn’t have said that!  I’m just upset because of something Rider said.  I’m sorry.”

“Did Law ask you to keep the medicine from me?”

Lizzie blushed and Nikki knew her answer.  “He was just worried.  You were so depressed Nikki.  He just wanted you to be ok.”

Nikki nodded.  “I know.”  But it still stung.

Lizzie’s phone rang and she sent it to voice mail, but when it rang again she sighed and held it to her ear.

“What?”

She listened and then sniffled.

“Ok.  Yeah, it’s fine.  I’ll be back in a little while.”

She hung up and buried her face in her hands.

“Men are such bastards.”

Nikki agreed, but didn’t ask questions.  She finished her food and climbed the stairs to shower.  As always Lizzie stayed until she was sleeping and Nikki had to admit that she didn’t mind one bit.  She drifted into a peaceful slumber and forgot all of her fears as soon as the meds hit her blood stream.

Law sat in the seedy bar and watched the little weasel across from him.  Spec sat at the bar and Law knew he caught every twitch this bastard made.

“Tell me what I want to know you piece of shit or I will make you dig your own grave before I bury you alive.”

“I swear Law, I don’t know where Slick is.”  The junkie’s eyes were everywhere and the table shook from the motion of his bouncing leg.

“Yeah, I don’t believe you.  Am I gonna have to hurt you to make you talk?  That might not be real fun, for you.”  He grinned as if it sounded better than the carnival at the damned Fourth of July.

The man paled even more and Law was pretty sure he didn’t have any blood left in that mush he called a brain.  Damn he hated junkies.

“I swear man.  If I knew I’d tell you Law.  We are brothers.”  The guy actually had tears in his eyes, but his words pissed Law off.  He grabbed the piece of shit by the top of the head and smashed his face into the table.  Blood gushed from his broken nose and the man started crying like a bitch.

“You are no brother of mine.  You WERE a punk prospect that couldn’t do his fucking job because he was too busy getting high.  No.  We ain’t brothers.  Now tell me where the fuck to find Slick so I can kill that motherfucker instead of you.”

“I’m telling you, I don’t know anything.”

Law nodded.  “I think we need to take a little walk there Snake.”  Spec came over and Snake looked up as if he had seen the devil himself and Law wondered what Spec had done to cause such fear.  Spec only winked at the man which caused him to shiver and piss his pants.

“Fuck Spec what the hell did you do to him?”  Law asked, genuinely interested.

“Taught him some manners one time, I guess he remembers the lesson.”  He shrugged and turned his attention to Snake.  “Now Snake, it is rude to keep secrets.”

The man scooted away from Spec as far as he could and cowered against the wall shaking his head.

“Slick said he had a bitch to fuck up.  I don’t know who.”  He babbled.

“When?”

“Last night…this morning?  It was still dark.  Said something about Hill-something-road…  Been bitching about it for a couple days, but Dax said to let him handle it…”

Law stood up so fast his chair hit the floor.  That was the closest road to his house that wasn’t on compound land.  That fucker was going after Nikki.

Fifteen

Nikki woke up when a hand capped over her mouth.  She tried to scream, but the hand pressed tighter.

“Stop it.  Nikole listen to me.”

Nikki’s eyes widened and began to adjust to the darkness.  Her brother stood over her with a look of panic on his face.

“Nikole you have to come with me.  The Devils are here and I slipped away to get you out.  They are gunning for Shad and that bitch of his and then they will come for you.”

“You came for me?  To take me to them you mean?”

“No.  God no.  Do you really think I could do that?  I had no choice.  I always planned to help you get away.  Now get up.  You have to run.”

“We both know there is no place I can run to that they won’t find me.  You killed me when you brought me into this.  You may as well leave me to take what I get.”

“I’m so sorry Nikole.  I had no idea Dax would claim you.”

He ran his hands through his hair.  He looked really sorry.  Nikki was so glad he was still alive, even if he had betrayed her in every way.  He was still the only family she had left in the world.  She reached out and took his hand and he jerked.  His eyes were red rimmed and he was pale.

“Just shoot me.  Please.  It will be better than anything they will do to me if they find me.”  She pleaded.

“I can’t do that.”  He whimpered and began to cry.  Nikki wanted to punch him. 

“Then go away and save yourself if you can…”

“How touching.”

That voice made Nikki’s skin crawl and ice form in her blood.  Her eyes cut to the doorway where Slick lounged against the wall.  “Why are you here Slick?”

“I came for you Nikki.”  He stalked her and she scooted back.  She felt the gun under her pillow and gripped it tight.  She knew Law had tried to hide it, but she felt safer with it under her pillow at night and now she was glad for it.

“Law will kill you Slick.  You were a fool to come here.  He will make you suffer.”

“You first bitch.”  Slick stepped forward and Teddy shoved him back.

“Leave her alone!” 

The shot rang out and Nikki screamed as her brother fell to the floor.  He gasped as blood bubbled from his chest and Nikki wanted to go to him, but Slick stopped her.  He laid his gun on the foot of her bed and unsheathed a long slender knife.

“I’m gonna fuck you bitch and then I’m gonna cut you.”  Slick loosened his pants.  “Lose that fucking shirt.”

Nikki shook her head.  Slick reached down and sliced her shirt down the front as he let his pants fall.

Nikki pointed the gun and pulled the trigger.  She knew she hadn’t killed him, but she only needed enough time to get to Law’s closet.  She ran and made it to Law’s bedroom door before she was tackled.  She held onto the gun and pulled the trigger again when she could point it in his general direction, but it missed him.  He was stronger, but she was fueled by fear and fighting for her life.  She had a split second as the gun passed his chest and she pulled the trigger.  Blood sprayed and the sticky warmth made her stomach churn, but she shoved and kicked until she could slide out from under the writhing man.

She raced to the closet and locked the heavy door.  She knew Law would come.  Law would find her and if anyone else tried to touch her she would kill them.