“Right on. You want me with you when you go?”
“Let me sleep on that. There’s a lot I need to consider before I start moving.”
I finish my beer and my thoughts turn to Tati. I need to set things straight with her. If any of this is going to work, she’s gotta be on the same page as me. “I’m gonna turn in,” I tell Teddy. “Meet you back here tomorrow morning.”
“Bright and early.”
I leave the table and make my way to the back of the clubhouse. There are at least five rooms back this way that they use for various reasons, sex being one of them, of course. But most ofthe time, Nicki and I always found it to be a safe haven if we just didn’t want to go home…
Well, if Nicki didn’t want to go home.
I stop in the middle of the hallway as a flash of a memory comes back to me. Him sitting on the bed of one of the rooms one morning when Nikolai called me to go find him. His curly brown hair was mussed and he was shirtless and wearing nothing but his boxers.
When I first walked into that room, a girl was in his bed, topless except for her panties. The moment she saw me, she grabbed her clothes and skirted out of there like her ass was on fire.
Nicki rubbed bloodshot eyes as he looked up at me. I’d just asked him if he spent the whole night there.
“Yeah,” he’d said. “Guess I needed a little time away from home.”
I thought then that the statement was confusing, but I didn’t question him about it. I just told him to get his shit and that it was time to leave.
I should have questioned him. Should have gotten him to spill his guts right then and there. He would have told me. I know he would have.
Of the rooms in this hallway, the only one with a closed door is the one on the far right. That must be where Tati is.
She didn’t believe me in the apartment, and I guess I can’t blame her. On its face, it’s a tough pill to swallow. How does the Dark Cloud not follow through with a job?
It’s pretty clear to me now that Nikolai set me up. He must have known then that Tati and I were together and one wayor another, the problem of Marla was going to drive a wedge between us.
And that’s on me to fix. I walk up to the door and turn the knob. It’s open. That’s a good sign, at least.
I walk in and find her sitting on the bed. She’s wearing an oversized T-shirt and panties, her face clean of makeup and her pink curls hanging damp in the moonlight coming in from the high windows of the room. She’s holding the journal. It’s open and sitting on her lap.
She glances up at me and closes the book. “So, what’s next?”
