Chapter 3
Pipe
“Wake the hell up.”
I cracked open one eye and saw the dingy, dirty wall in front of me. An audible grunt rumbled from my lips, and I closed my eye. There wasn’t anything I needed to wake up for right now. After my full bottle of whiskey last night and not falling asleep until well after noon, nothing was going to get me out of this bed.
“Karmen thinks she knows where Nikki is. I need someone to ride with me.”
I willed my body to not jump out of bed. This wasn’t the first time Nickel had come to me with those exact same words. No one knew where Nikki had gone. She was here one day and then gone the next. After she had come to my door and heard the damn whore in my room, I couldn’t talk to her. She shut me out, and I couldn’t figure out how to get in. Hell, I don’t know why the hell I even wanted to get in.
She should have been some girl who I had slept with, and that was that, but she wasn’t. The one time we had been together was burned into my soul, and I couldn’t get her gone. “Not interested,” I grumbled.
Nickel yanked off my blanket, and a chill greeted me. “Thank Christ, your ass wasn't naked,” he chuckled. “We leave in two hours. She’s right this time.”
I rolled over and looked up at Nickel. “You said that the last two times we tore out of here like a bat out of hell, and she wasn’t there.”
“I sent Manic and Slayer ahead. They both said she’s there.”
I closed my eyes and shook my head. “You sure are going to a lot of trouble to find this chick.”
“She’s not some chick to Karmen.” Nickel moved to the door and looked over his shoulder. “And don’t try to deny she’s only just a chick to you too. You’ve changed, Pipe, and we all noticed when it happened.”
“I’m not into whatever Oprah shit you’re about to lay on me. I’m straight. Your ol’ lady’s friend doesn’t matter to me.” I grabbed my pillow and laid it over my face. “Get out,” I muffled.
“Well, I guess that’s more than you’ve ever said about Nikki before.”
Her name rolled around in my head like it always did. The only way I lost it was at the bottom of a bottle. I yanked the pillow off my head and tossed it in the direction of Nickel. “You wanna tell me what the hell is going to get you out of my room?”
“Five o’clock, be ready.” Nickel waltzed out of my room, leaving the door wide open.
Fucking hell.
I didn’t want to do this shit anymore.
I had followed every lead I could to find Nikki, and none of them panned out.
My gaze landed on the clock across the room. It was three-thirty, and I had barely slept three hours. There was no way in hell I was going to be able to sleep now I knew we were going to possibly see Nikki tonight.
“Did he tell you?” Karmen peeked her head in my room. She had a huge smile on her face, and she looked like she could break out into song at any moment. “We found her.”
“You think she wants to be found?” I didn’t want to be a dick, but you had to wonder, if Nikki went to such lengths to disappear, if she actually wanted to see any of us again.
Karmen cocked her head to the side. “She calls me. If she truly wanted to never talk to me again, then she wouldn’t call me.
She had a point. “You’re relentless, doll.”
“You’re coming with, right?”
I sat up, leaning back on my elbows. “You really need me there?” I don’t know why, but Karmen always insisted whenever Nickel got a lead on where Nikki was I needed to go along.
She had been gone a little over a month, and we had been on five wild goose chases looking for her.
She looked over her shoulder and stepped into my room. She pushed the door shut behind her and leaned against it. “Something happened, Pipe.”
“With what?”
“With you and Nikki. I’m not stupid. After the whole thing at the club where Morski tried to kidnap me, things changed with you and Nikki.”
“She tell you that?”
Karmen shook her head. “No. She swore up and down she wasn’t interested in you.”
I laid back down and held up my hands. “Then I guess you have your answer. She wasn’t interested in me, so nothing happened.”
She crossed her arms over her chest and paced the length of my room in front of my bed. “You think Nickel will like you being in my room with the door shut?” Not that Nickel would actually think that I would try anything with Karmen.
She tossed her hands up in the air and sighed. “You’re not going to distract me from this, Pipe. Something happened to you and Nikki. Something that made her run.”
“Nickel told me you said Nikki had been thinking about moving for a while.”
“Yeah, but if she were going to move because she was fed up with Weston, then she wouldn’t have left in the middle of the night like some thief. She left with no trace because of something that happened with you two.”
“You’re barking up the wrong tree, doll.” I wasn’t going to admit to anything. Nikki and I had knocked boots, but that was it. Neither of us had made any promises, so I wasn’t going to take any blame in her running. Did I feel like an ass for having another chick in my room when she showed up? Hell yes, but I hadn’t been doing anything wrong.
“No, I’m not, but I don’t think you’re up to admitting that just yet.” She moved to the door and pulled it open. “I’m assuming Nickel told you we are leaving in an hour, right?”
“He mentioned it.”
She nodded her head and slipped out the open door.
I didn’t want to go.
The odd sensation she had left inside me when she disappeared wasn’t getting better, but I was getting used to it. The dull, nagging ache I felt was becoming a part of me. My hand grazed my chest, trying anything to brush away the feeling.
I did that often.
Fuck it.
I was going to go. Maybe seeing Nikki again would give me closure or some shit like that. I wasn’t a damn shrink, and there was no way in hell you would ever catch me talking about my feelings with some stranger, but just maybe seeing Nikki would make everything go back to the way it was.
Back to when the only person I cared about was myself.
Back to getting my dick wet with anyone I wanted.
Back to before Nikki.
*