Chapter 7- Her Determination
2118 Words
Kace
Kace walked out of the bathroom with just his towel on when he heard pounding on his door. He reached up, grabbed his gun on the top shelf, before looking through the hole to see who it was. He froze, stunned. Under a hoodie was Niki. Was she at his apartment?!
Quickly, he opened the door, grabbed her wrist and pulled her inside.
He looked at her. “What the hell are you thinking about coming here?”
She stared at his bare chest. She shook her head. “I needed to talk to you.”
“Yeah okay, but at my apartment, Niki? You realize how dangerous this is for both of us? How did you even get past security?”
She lifted one eyebrow. “Really, you don’t think I know how to get through security.”
He shook his head. “Okay, okay, fair point. But there are security cameras everywhere.”
“No camera has seen my face.”
He walked into his living room still in disbelief that Niki was there with him. What was she thinking? If any of the mafia families caught on that they were attached, there would be hell to pay. Her father would send Niki back to the pits. Which made his blood turn to ice. Several times Niki came out of it and he saw her. She looked frail and the light had left her eyes as if she had met and danced with the devil in hell.
“Who takes a shower in the middle of the day?”
He looked down realizing he was only in his towel and the most beautiful woman he had ever known was standing in his living room.
He relaxed. “Someone who slept in because someone else left him stranded in the middle of the city last night.”
She relaxed. He loved that he had that effect on her.
“Will you put some clothes on?”
He grinned. “Am I distracting you?”
She gave him a ravishing smile. “Yes. Now go.”
He laughed, “Okay, okay.”
He walked into his bedroom, slightly shutting the door, and began putting on clothes.
“What brought you to this side of town?”
“Last night.”
He paused, getting dressed and, with only his pants on, he opened the door. What happened last night? Niki was too smart to ever risk herself unless there was a reason.
She took a deep breath. “My father made a deal with Tov Tech.”
“Wasn’t that always the plan? Kidnap Golden Boy so he can use him as leverage?”
Niki said nothing. Instead, she had a mixture of emotions flicker through her face. He identified anger, resentment, sadness, and defeat. She never showed emotions like that.
“What happened?”
“Tov Tech worried about making a deal with us, so Padre and he agreed to marry me off to his son to seal the deal.”
Kace took a sharp breath in. No.
“Why?”
“Neither one can back out when their children are involved.”
Kace walked a few steps past her, covering his mouth with his hand. How could Gallacini do this to her? Anger flared. He didn’t want to lose Niki.
He quickly turned. “Come to DN.9 with me. You hate it at The Crimson Spider, come with me. I can protect you.”
She touched her shoulder where he knew the tattoo was. The one that not only identified her as a Crimson Spider member, but as the daughter of the boss. It was a statement that anyone who hurt her would suffer far worse. It protected her from any crime family who had the brains not to kill her, she was far more valuable alive than dead. But it also put a target on her. People wanted her. That was why very few people knew who she was and had ever seen her face.
“I’m marked. You can’t hide that. When my father learns what I did, he will go to war with DN.9 to get me back. Then I’d go back to the pits.”
“Maybe not.” He had to try.
“Come on Kace, you really think that your father won’t figure out who I am, and use me as a bargaining chip?”
He looked away and put his hands on his hips. They both knew his father would. If his father ever knew that he was in love with Niki, he would twist it and use it to his advantage. His father was always looking for a way to gain the upper hand against his rival. His heart twisted and ached thinking about what she might be implying.
“Then what are you sayin'? Should we stop seeing each other?” He raked his hand through his hair.
For seven years, they had known each other.
“No. What we have here is what I chose. The one thing in my life that I have chosen.”
He walked towards her, pulling her into him. Feeling her warm cheek on his chest soothed him and his pain of possibly losing her.
She brought her head up.
“Kace, there is a solution…” She hesitated before speaking, “What if we take down the mafia families?”
He jerked back. “Take down? Are you crazy?”
“We both hate it. We didn’t choose this, we were born into it. But we can choose what we do. No one knows more about the crime families than us.”
“Are you hearing yourself right now? You can’t just take down the mafia like you do a house. If your dad discovers what you're doing he will send you to the pits, almost indefinitely.”
Her face paled and her eyes widened with fear. He could tell that her focus was no longer on the present. Her body shook and he grabbed her upper arms. What was he thinking? He shouldn’t have mentioned that place. He knew what she had gone through. The exhaustion, the hunger, the beatings, and the mental breaking.
“Niki? Niki? Look at me, I’m sorry I said that.”
She looked at him and narrowed her eyes, concentrating.
“It’s fine, Kace. I’m good.”
“See, this is what I am saying. We can’t.” She can’t risk herself like that. He can’t watch her suffer again.
“I know. You’re right. I should go.” She stepped away from him and started walking towards the entrance.
He didn’t want her to leave. Having her in his apartment felt too natural, too warming to just let her leave.
He grabbed her hand, pulling her to him. “No Niki. Stay a bit longer.”
She looked annoyed.
He looked down at her. “What if… I kidnap you? But never tell anyone where you are.”
She spoke sarcastically, “There’s no flaws in that plan.”
“Okay…” He looked up thinking. “What if I kill the CEO’s son?”
She rolled her eyes, speaking sarcastically, “Yeah, that’s a good idea.”
“Fine. Don’t kill, maybe just conveniently disappear? Maybe he needs a really long bath. Full immersion. I can make that happen. Provide him with the best bath this city can offer.”
Niki laughed. Her sweet laugh filled his usually lonesome apartment, making it feel homier than it ever had.
“I punched him twice last night. It felt good.”
Kace looked at her in amusement. “That is one moment I want to see.”
“I was so mad he agreed to this ridiculous agreement.”
Kace laughed, imagining the shock on the poor fellow's face. He deserved it.
“Don’t worry about it. We will figure something out.”
Niki nodded. Kace looked up at the clock and realized it was two thirty. He didn’t want to go, but he had no choice.
“Niki, I got to be on time for the meeting, my dad is already going to be mad about the Tov Tech situation.”
She nodded her head and let go of him. He hated to feel her apart.
“I’ll see you soon, Kace.”
“Get home safe, Niki.”
She smiled. “Don’t worry about me.”
She walked to the door and opened it. Just before she walked out he said, “That’s my girl.”
He wasn’t sure how they got into that particular goodbye. But it was theirs. He watched her walk out of his apartment door, longing for her to come back.
But he recognized the look in her eyes, one he had seen before. And that look is what worried him.
He then turned and looked at the hidden camera in the corner of his apartment, now having recorded documentation of their relationship. Kace wondered how much longer it was before his father discovered them.
At three o’clock he approached a restaurant with the sign that said closed. He walked in, a man walked out. He crossed his two right fingers and put over his left heart.
“Desinit Nobiscum”
The Latin translation rang in his head, it ends with us. The man nodded, repeating the words, and he walked through the back to the upstairs rooms. His father, the crime boss of DN.9, sat at the head of the table. His nine underbosses sat around. Kace sat on the chair near the door.
“Tov Tech CEO, Garrett Millbrooks, apparently ran and made a deal with the Crimson Spider. They got to the son before us.” The pungy boss with dark brown hair, small eyes, and a narrow nose banged his fist on the table.
Three spoke, “What can we do? Tov Tech is now under the Crimson Spider. Doing anything with Tov Tech could create war.”
Seven said, “We’ve stayed out of each other’s way for nearly a decade.”
One said, “They traffic guns as one of their main operations. We don’t have nearly the same resources to put ourselves against the Crimson Spider.”
Boss spoke, “We don’t go to war... yet. There are other ways to crumble the Crimson Spider.” He looked around the group. “We need to discover what exactly the deal is with Tov Tech and then break it.”
Kace began tapping his right pointer finger. He knew what the deal was. He knew that it implicated Niki.
His father continued, “If it is money, we drive down his profits. If it is a person, we kill them. There is always something. Tov Tech needs to come crawling to us. Their influence is large enough to financially support all our operations. We would be able to expand.”
Five said, “What do we do?”
“Discover the deal. Five, this is your assignment.”
Kace looked at his best friend, Cal. He was there last night. Kace had actually shot at him.
Cal was twenty-eight, three years older than him, but the youngest underboss to DN.9. But he was ruthless. Despite their friendship, he always saw his dirty blonde-haired friend acting, before thinking.
“Go. Seven through nine, we need to discuss possibly moving our gambling operation from Harper’s to Gilman Mechanics. I don't like how close the police are to it.”
Gambling was illegal in the city, but that was where DN.9 made most of their income.
The other six individuals stood and left. Kace followed them out.
“Hey Cal.”
Cal slowed down and waited for Kace.
“What up, man?”
“Nothin. You got a new assignment.”
He shrugged. “Yeah, it should be easy enough. See you tonight? Drink on me.”
Kace watched his friend walk away down the street with an awkward swagger. He closed his eyes and turned in the opposite direction. Niki was the key to the deal, which meant he would have to get involved to protect her. He just hoped he would come up with a way to keep DN.9 off her tracks, and do so without compromising himself. What could go wrong?
The answer, everything.
But what bothered him even more was the look Niki had in her eyes. The look he had seen before, when she taught herself how to swim. The thing is, she wasn’t content with learning how to keep her head above water, she wanted to be the best swimmer. She was determined. Niki was not just going to crumble the mafia, she was going to destroy it.
- Writer
