Nickel
So far, I was going to have to beat the shit out of Pipe and four other guys who were sitting at the bar. Plus, I think there was a chick when we first walked in that I needed to add to my list.
Karmen was playing a dangerous game with me, and I don’t think she knew exactly what she was doing.
Let’s start with the heels. At least three inches tall, blood red, making her legs even longer and sexier. If I had known she had heels like that laying around my room, I would have made her wear them whenever I fucked her.
Now, the dress is where she started pissing me off. I wouldn’t even call the damn thing a dress. It went to her knees, but the bottom eight inches of the dress was damn fringe that swayed and moved every time she walked, exposing her bare thighs.
But here was the thing that was driving me absolutely insane. She wouldn’t let me touch her.
At. All.
Every time I reached for her or tried to walk next to her, she skirted around me and shook her head at me. Right now, she was sitting at the bar, flanked by Nikki and Cora, while Pipe and I sat at a table behind them.
“Everything all right in paradise?” Pipe asked me.
I glanced over at him and scowled. “I’m being punished for some reason.” I knew the reason why, but she was taking this way too far.
“Ah, the wonderful workings of woman’s mind,” he chuckled.
“Yeah, you laugh now. Just wait ‘til you finally find a woman who will put up with your bullshit for more than one night.”
Pipe shook his head. “Not going to happen, because I can’t find a chick worth putting up with.”
“I’m sure there's a chick out there that is right for you, but you probably told her to get lost before she ever had a chance.”
“You’re probably right.” Pipe didn’t seem too affected by this fact. “So, what are you going to do about your woman?”
I sipped my beer and watched as she peeked over her shoulder at me. Did I mention her hair was flowing around her shoulders? My hand was itching to run my fingers through it, and my lips were dying to kiss her lips and smear the lipstick that was perfecting framing her mouth. She was going to pay for this when we got back to the clubhouse. Hell, if she kept teasing me the way she was, the dark alley at the side of the bar.
“I’ll let her have her fun,” I mumbled.
The bar had started to get busy, and people were crowding the bar trying to get a drink. Cora got up to go to the bathroom, and I tipped my chin to Pipe. “You wanna keep an eye on her? I’ll stay here with Karmen and Nikki.”
Pipe grumbled under his breath about keeping track of a woman that wasn’t even his, but I didn’t care. Karmen was my main concern, but Cora still needed someone watching her because if anything happened to her, Jenkins would more than likely kill the whole club.
The crowd to the bar crushed around Karmen and Nikki, but I was still able to see them. I didn’t want to crowd Karmen too much. She had been complaining about not being able to leave the clubhouse whenever she felt like it the past couple of weeks. I was only ten feet away from her, but I wanted her to feel like she was just hanging out with her girls at a bar, not with her man watching over her.
Nikki tossed her head back, laughing like she always was. Nikki and Karmen were complete opposites. Where Nikki was loud, Karmen was her quiet. I was glad Karmen at least had Nikki the last few years. Now she had Cora to add to her group of friends.
Two towering guys stood in front of me, completely blocking my view of Karmen. “Yo, you two think you can move?” There wasn’t any reason for them to be standing so close to me. They both ignored and moved even closer to each other. What the fuck were these two asswipes thinking?
I stood up, ready to knock their heads together, when I heard a shrill scream and pushed past the two idiots to see Nikki pulling on Karmen’s arm while a guy in a black hooded sweatshirt pulled on her other arm. Karmen’s back was to me, but I knew she had to be terrified.
Nikki frantically looked in my direction. “Nickel!” she called
The guy who was trying to take Karmen jumped at Nikki’s shout and turned to look at me.
Fucking Morski.
He dropped Karmen’s arm, jumped over the bar, and ducked into the back.
Karmen fell to floor when Morski released her, and she took Nikki down with her. They were both laying on the floor shocked and afraid. I knelt down next to them and gathered Karmen in my arms. “Karmen.” She wrapped her arms around me and buried her face in my neck.
“I’m so sorry, Nickel. That guy came over and took Cora’s chair, and then the next thing we knew, he grabbed Karmen. I didn’t know what to do other than hold onto her,” I glanced at Nikki who was sitting on her knees on the dirty floor. Her face was flushed, and she was frantically looking around. “Do you think he is coming back?” she asked.
Morski was long gone. He hadn’t expected me to get to Karmen as quickly as I had or that Nikki would put up a fight. “He’s gone,” I told her. “You did a damn good job of helping Karmen.”
She wrinkled her nose. “She’s my best friend. I would have done anything to keep her safe.”
“What the hell happened?” Pipe was looming over us with Cora standing next to him.
“Morski tried to take Karmen.” I managed to stand up with Karmen in my arms. “He took off back behind the bar. I didn’t go after him.”
Pipe nodded.
I looked behind him and saw the two guys who had blocked me maneuvering for the door. “The two tall fuckers headed toward the door. Get them. They tried to keep me away from Karmen.”
Pipe took off out the door before I even finished my sentence.
Karmen slid down my body, and her feet touched the floor. This wasn’t what I had planned for when she let me touch her. “You okay?”
She tilted her head back, and her eyes were squinty, and she was pissed the hell off. “That prick tried to take me like I was a package and he was the damn UPS guy. What an ass!” Well, that wasn’t the reaction at all that I had expected.
Nikki helped brush the dirt off of Karmen’s black dress. “I’m so sorry I couldn’t help anymore,” she rambled.
“I’m pretty sure you’re the only reason that I’m standing here and not in asswipe’s creepy ass van that I’m sure he drives.”
Nikki stepped back with a sad smile on her face. “I was so terrified that he was going to take you,” she whispered. A lone tear streaked down her cheek, and her shoulders shook as a sob racked her body.
Karmen stepped out of my arms and flung herself at Nikki. “Why are you crying?” Karmen asked as she started crying, too.
I glanced at Cora who shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t do crying, man. You got me why they’re crying.” She held her hands up and looked about as uncomfortable as I felt.
“It’s like they completely changed personalities,” I mumbled.
Karmen and Nikki pulled apart and looked at Cora and me like we were heartless bastards. “I just almost got kidnapped, Nickel.”
Uh. Yeah. “I know that, baby girl. I watched it.”
“I do care. I’m ready to rip the fucking guy's balls off, not cry.”
Nikki looked at Karmen. “His reaction is probably much better than ours.”
No shit.
“You two need a little more time to hug it out?” Cora asked.
I was beginning to like Cora more and more. She was going to be good for Karmen. “We need to head back to the clubhouse, but first I need to see if Pipe was able to grab those two guys.” I grasped Karmen's hand and pulled her out the front door with Nikki and Cora following close behind.
My eyes scanned the parking lot looking for Pipe, and I heard him in the alley where I had planned on taking Karmen. “We’ll be by the car,” I called to him. I wanted to talk to the guys too, but I didn’t want to have Karmen by my side while I did. There was no way in hell I was going to leave her by herself right now, either.
“Did he say anything to you?” I asked Karmen.
She leaned against the side of her car and shook her head. “No. It was really weird. He had sat down next to me, and I figured it was just someone wanting to order a drink.”
“I probably shouldn’t have leaned around Karmen and told him the seat was taken,” Nikki cringed and ducked her head.
“Yeah, probably not the best idea, but there was no way you could have known that it was Morski,” I explained.
“Nikki talked to him, and then he just turned to look at me and then he grabbed my arm. I had no idea what to do. I tried to hook my heels on the barstool, but he managed to sweep my legs out, but thankfully Nikki had a hold of me, too.”
I looked down at her arms and saw that the one Morski had been pulling on was going to be bruised in the morning. The one Nikki had been yanking on was red, but it didn’t look as bad. My fingers grazed over the emerging purple on her arm, and I pulled her to me. “I’m so sorry I wasn’t there, baby girl.” She had gotten hurt when I was only feet away.
“Nickel,” she mumbled into my chest.
I pressed her close and buried my face in her hair. Nikki and Cora moved to the other side of the car and turned their backs to us.
“Nickel,” Karmen protested as she pushed against my chest. My arms loosened, and she leaned back and looked up at me. “I’m okay.”
“Some asswipe almost took you away from me right under my nose.”
She rolled her eyes and rested her arms on my shoulders. “I’m the one who is supposed to be freaking out right now, not you.”
“Karmen, I’m not going to take your safety lightly. I should have been right next to you, but I was trying to give you space so you wouldn’t feel suffocated.”
She quirked her eyebrow and shook her head. “I don’t feel suffocated. Do I wish I could run to the grocery store on my own? Yes, but I understand why I can’t right now. I was just playing with you by not touching you. It was stupid of me to try and put distance between us just because I was mad at you.”
I leaned in and pressed my forehead against hers. “Do you have any idea how calm you sound right now? Nikki is more shook up than you are, and she wasn’t even the one he was after.”
She lifted her shoulders. “I guess I’m good under pressure?”
Damn right, she was. “Yeah, I guess you could say that.”
“Yo,” Pipe called.
Karmen tried to move away, but I held her close. “What did you find out?” I asked.
“They don’t know shit. They said Morski approached them in the bathroom, gave ‘em each a hundred, and told them to keep you and me busy.”
Son of a bitch. Again, Morski was getting people to help him but only giving them the bare facts. “You let them know they almost became accessories in a fucking kidnapping?”
“They were both half in the bag and said they had no idea what Morski was going to do. I told ‘em next time a guy approaches them to do some shady shit, they should stay no even if it’s for a hundred bucks.”
“Jesus,” I scoffed.
“So, what are we going to do about Morski?” Karmen asked. This was the reason why I didn’t want her around when I talked about Morski with the club. I didn’t want her to have to take this upon herself and worry about it.
“You don’t do anything,” Pipe said to her. “This shit is way above what you can do, Captain.”
Karmen growled. “But this is happening because of me, I should be involved in fixing it.”
“And if it was something you could handle, we would all step back and let you handle it. This involves this guy hitting the dirt and not fucking coming up.” I was glad that Pipe was on the same page as me when it came to Karmen helping, but he didn’t need to lay it out to her like that.
“Pipe, chill out, brother.”
He shook his head and pointed at me. “I’m not letting you bring your woman into this. That shit never ends well.”
“I never even thought of doing that shit.”
“Yeah, until she talks you into doing it.” He ran his fingers through his hair and paced back and forth.
I had never seen Pipe like this before. He was normally laid back and kept his cool. Apparently, what had just happened was affecting him something bad. He pulled a cigarette out and stuck it in the side of his mouth. He fumbled with his lighter as he lit the end and blew a cloud of smoke into the air.
“You good enough to head back to the clubhouse?” I asked.
He shook his head. “No. I’m gonna take your girl home, and then I got some shit to take care of.”
“Nikki?” Karmen asked. “I thought she was coming back with us.”
“Yeah, and then I was going to take her home. Don’t make sense for her to go back to the clubhouse just for me to take her home as soon as she gets there. I’ll take her home now,” Pipe informed her.
“But I thou—” Karmen started to protest.
“Pipe is right. I think it’s best if we just head back to the clubhouse and lay low. If Nikki comes back to the clubhouse, then she might get caught up in this even more. You’ll see her at work tomorrow.” Karmen opened her mouth to object, but I squeezed her gently and shook my head.
She clamped her mouth shut, but I knew she wasn’t happy.
Karmen and Nikki hugged after we told Nikki what was going on. She looked like she wanted to protest just like Karmen had, but she was smart enough not to. She managed to get on the back of Pipe’s bike without flashing the whole parking lot and roared off in the direction of her house.
“I hope you know that I don’t agree at all with what just happened.” Her hands were propped on her hips, and she was staring me down. “There is no reason why Nikki couldn’t have come back to the clubhouse. It’s only nine o’clock.”
“Yeah, but you also have to work tomorrow, and I’m pretty sure you’re running on an adrenaline high that you’re going to crash off of really quick, baby girl. Just trust me that Nikki going back to her house was a good idea, okay?”
Karmen looked at Cora who nodded her head. “I hate to agree with him, but he’s right. What happened tonight was scary as hell, and you need to listen to Nickel.”
Cora popped Karmen’s bubble when she realized she wasn’t going to have Cora in her corner about this. “Fine, but remember that I don’t like this at all.” She opened the passenger door and slipped into the car, the whole while glaring daggers at me.
And she was back to being pissed off.
“You just can’t catch a break with her tonight,” Cora laughed. “At least she got in the front seat and not the back. If she had gotten in the back, I would have said you were really screwed.”
“You’re right about that,” I mumbled.
I rounded the car, moving to the driver’s side while Cora slid into the backseat.
Karmen didn’t talk the whole way back to the clubhouse, and Cora did like she always did and blended into the background.
I had expected Karmen to have a fun night out with her girls and then take her back to the clubhouse to have my way with her, but instead, she was pissed off at me, and I didn’t know how to get out of this one.
What a fucking night.
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