Love Against the Ropes

Round 8

Nick couldn’t believe the boss would send his goons to try to intimidate him and in front of his lady no less. Nick hated having his personal life involved with his work. Nothing angered Nick more than having his family’s lives put at risk because of some silly fight. Luckily Nick tossed Aree inside the car before she could notice or ask a thousand questions. “What are you doing here man?” Nick asked walking up to Ian, the Boss’s right-hand man. Ian, looked up from under the brim of his hat, his eyes sparkling in the darkness. Ian was also a tall foreboding man with large shoulders and a muscular build. His heavily bearded faced concealed most of his facial features leaving much to the imagination. Arees eyes darted back and forth as she peeked out the passenger seat window. She looked on curiously as the two men chatted for a moment until they shook hands and nodded going their separate ways from each other. It was dark aside from a few street lamps littering the parking lot. Rain fell lightly against the window as Aree rested her head against the seat. She wanted to know what was really going on with Nick. They had only been married six months and neither side of their families agreed with the arrangement. Aree let those jthoughts slip out of her mind as Nick opened the door and hopped inside. He shook his jet black hair, flinging a few water droplets onto Arees face and chest. “It started raining out of nowhere,” he said starting up the car. They pulled out of the parking lot and went home.

Once at the house Aree tried her best to not show her annoyance to Nick. He was hiding things and she wasn’t sure she liked being left in the dark. Nick threw himself on the couch turning on the tv. He stretched and let out a loud moan before laying back. Within a few minutes he was asleep. Aree wanted to go through his phone. “Classic paranoid woman,” she thought. Aree decided to think on it before making any brash decisions. She took a shower and cleaned the house up a bit. Aree had to know what was going on with Nick and this casino. She only went during his fights and he never allowed her to see the exact location of it either. Aree went through some web history on Nicks computer until she found an address. She sneakily wrote it down and put it away in her purse. It was already 2 am so she decided to call it a night and go to bed.

In the morning Nick opened his eyes not realizing that he spent the night on the couch. He hated sleeping away from Aree. Usually when he would fall asleep somewhere else Aree would either join him or she would wake him wearing nothing but a thin cover up. He sat up and grudgingly walked to the bedroom where Aree was sleeping. The bed was empty. Where could she have gone? Nick looked over at the clock. It was almost noon. Nick grabbed his phone and called Aree. If she didn’t answer he was going to lose it. “Hello?” Said a familiar voice. “Where are you? Are you okay?” Was all Nick could say. His heart was racing not knowing where she was. He heard her giggle on the phone then another voice in the background. Nick pressed his ear hard to the phone listening. “I’m just out doing some shopping that’s all. You were sleeping and I got tired of waiting,” she replied. ‘Yeah, okay’ he thought to himself. “Whose with you?” He asked her. There was a long silence on the phone. The longer she hesitated to answer the angrier he became. “Ah, someone I haven’t seen for a long time,” she said. Nicks palm started to sweat and his heart raced as he listened to her. Nick never liked for Aree to take off without him even if it was twenty minutes away at the mall. He had to be near her in case anything happened. There was still too much he couldn’t tell her yet. “Just stay there. I’m coming too,” he said hanging up before she had a chance to say no. Nick got dressed in record time and bolted out the door. He hoped the boss hadn’t started to interfere with their “agreement” not yet. As he drove to the mall, Nick couldn’t help but think about Arees cute round face and fit, right body. He had wanted her since the first moment he saw her but she despised him at first. So, instead of wooing her, Nick found out who she was related to and decided to go from there. Aree was the Boss’s sister. To him, she was nothing more than a pawn to get what he wanted. The fight hadn’t happened yet. It wasn’t until that evening and the boss was already setting up his next move.