“Yeah, they work for some very nasty people—people who don’t exactly joke around.”
“What? Who?” Niko growled, trying but failing to keep his anger in check. He didn’t want Reid to freeze up and not tell him who was after him.
“No one you need to be concerned about. I promise I’m not here to hurt you, and the fewer people who know why I’m here, the better.”
“What? But—I can help you take down these motherfuckers!” Niko argued. “There’s no way that I’m letting anyone lay a hand on you.”
Reid’s lips pulled back in a gentle smile.
“I know. And that’s one of the things I’ve always loved about you. You’ve always been there for me whenever I’ve needed you. But this, right now, is something I need to finish on my own. I have a friend who is helping me, and I’ll tell you more when I can, but for now, can we please just keep this conversation between us?”
He watched his friend’s face, searching for any sign that he might be lying and was, in fact, in desperate need of some help. But he couldn’t find any.
“Fine,” Niko huffed. “Is there anything that I can do to help?”
Reid shook his head. He placed his hand over Niko’s and gave it a sturdy squeeze.
Niko understood the need for secrets and even leaving out certain information in order to protect those you loved.
But still, Niko was not the type to let his friends go off to battle alone. He was going to keep a very close eye on his best friend. He might not want his help at the moment, but Niko was determined to make sure that his buddy's ass was covered.
Niko turned and began propping up some of their bags to use as pillows.
“Come,” he said, lying down on his back and pulling Reid into his side. “You know that I will always be here for you and will always do everything I can to protect you, right?”
Reid nodded into his side.
They weren’t cuddling. They were more… resting upon each other, kind of how good, straight men do when they are trying to bro bond or comfort one of their own.
Yeah, that was probably the best way to describe it,Niko tried to convince himself. He wasn’t cuddling with Reid; that was something that only gay men did. And he wasn’t gay.
“You know I’ve always got your back, too, right, Niko?”
Niko pulled Reid’s body closer to his and gently kissed the top of his head. “Yeah, man.”
Okay, that right there was a little gay.But Reid was his best friend and needed some comfort.Was kissing someone on the head really gay anyway?
“So, what now?” Reid asked, still resting his head on Niko’s chest.
“Now we wait for the sun to go down over that hill. You can’t come to Baton and not check out the sunset over this lake. That’s just… wrong.”
“Hate to tell you, but this isn’t a lake,” Reid noted.
“Fine. Watering Hole,” Niko clarified.
He felt Reid chuckle into his side.
19
NIKOLAI
By the time they got home, it was just after eleven p.m. Nikolai was tired from a full day out in the sun, so he decided to go to his room and lie down on his bed for a bit.
He pulled out his tablet and began scrolling through the profiles of women on his screen. Even though he was tired, it didn’t mean he wasn’t horny.
To say that Niko’s sex drive was high was an understatement. Sometimes he wondered if he was secretly a sex addict.
He thought about getting his cock sucked day and night. Watching it disappear into a tight hole as he fucked his way through women in the dark.
