“Our…” All that spitfire was put on pause as she breathed the word. Her shoulders slouched and her face fell. Jessie arched a confused brow as she studied his face, then Nik’s. Tears welled in her eyes as she nodded. “Okay…ours. She comes first, got it?”
“Got it,” Nik nodded.
Katarina swallowed loudly. “And you have to be 100% honest with me. Are you guys stealing stuff from other people?”
“Baby girl,” Jessie chuckled shaking his head. “I don’t steal nothing. People use our shop for services.”
Katarina eyed him. “What kind of services?”
Nik and Jessie shared a smug, knowing look before they nodded back to the shop. Jessie wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. “Nik, give her the tour…I’ll meet you both down there when I’m done locking down the shop.”
Chapter Twenty:
~Nikolai~
NikolaitookKatarinabythe hand as the other mechanics bowed out of the shop. Not a car parked in either bay, it was uncomfortable how quiet it was inside. Leading her down the steps into lower Bay 1, he took the steel steps one by one. Even though she was in work boots, she wasn’t used to slipping down those steps. Nikolai cracked his head on each one of those steps in the last twelve years or more he’d worked full-time at the shop. After ducking through the machines for oil-changes, the rack of spare equipment, helmets, and the hoses, he stopped at the steel safe door in the back right corner.
“Nik,” Katarina stopped, taking her hand back. She swallowed. “There’s not…people behind that door, is there?”
Nikolai scoffed, “No.”
“I’m not about to find—”
“Let me open the door, Kat,” he huffed, punching in the numbers on the keypad and spinning the handle. Once the door groaned open, he held it for her. Katarina stared at him like he was holding her at wand point.What does she think we’re capable of?But, then she seemed to come to her senses as she ducked under his arm and slipped into the ‘backroom’.
Nikolai stepped in after her, the door crying on rusty hinges as it shut behind him. Katarina’s body was a tense statue a foot in front of him as she took it all in. He let out a low whistle that bounced off all the walls, tables, shelves, andaccessories. Like anunderground bunker, The Backroom of the Bonesaw operation was a busy hub of products. Swords hung up on the wall, gleaming with different enchantments and auras. One had an eyeball in the handle that gave Nikolai the heebie-jeebies, but it was on hold until the buyer from the Badlands could arrange transport. The glowing gold iris followed them around the room as Katarina melted. Her body twisted as she took it in, inch by inch. There were cages full of car parts, not all of them legal in King’s Fall. There was a back station for cleaning out magic tomes, a shadow box full of broken wands, and a cauldron that perpetually bubbled for some reason Nikolai didn’t understand.
“You guys run a chop shop. A real, magic chop shop!” She gasped, whipping to face him. The room was the size of a living room. Down two steps from the lower bay and the floor was always cold. Nikolai and Jessie were the only ones with the passcode. Everyone else used a innocent looking chute, that led to an enchanted chest. If anyone fell in, they were unharmed but restrained. If explosives were thrown in there, the chest snuffed it out. If anyone went digging around in it, they’d find teeth. Nothing like a mimic hexed treasure trunk to keep all one’s secrets secure.
“Like I said,” Nikolai hummed, shrugging nonchalantly. “We provide a service.”
“So, what was that goon in the yard trying to rough me up for? Why did he think you stole something?” She jabbed a thumb over her shoulder.
“I have no idea, but we have a hunch.” Nikolai nodded toward the back end of the room where there were two curio cabinets between him and the eye of doom hanging on the wall. He pulled out a photo album underneath the simple, empty steel table they used as a workspace. There were four photo albums.Evidence.No fool trusted their allies a hundred percent. So, Titan Bonesaw started their little friendship collection. Nikolai flipped to Big Bobby’s page.
“You call himBig Bobby?” she teased, poking the photo of the gnome behind the wheel of his drag race car. Titan knew that friendships could get snuffed out by jealousy or by money, so hekept his business tight and kept tabs on all his ‘buddies’. Each person in the book had something on them that would make them think twice against crossing Papa Bonesaw. Some knew what he had on them, others didn’t.
What they didn’t seem to know was that Titan gave his kid those albums.Might be time to let the world know Jessie’s in charge and not afraid to burn bridges to keep what he cares about safe…which now includes you and the bug.
“Everyone has a nickname.” Nikolai explained.
“What’s yours?” she leaned onto the table with a coy look on her face.
“Nik,” he stated point blank with a narrowed glare pointed at her. She stuck her tongue back out at him before looking down at the book. He didn’t tell her that people like him didn’t get nicknames. He was Jessie’s right hand. The enforcer or the muscle. Shop manager was the closest to a title he would ever get. Guys like Nikolai Sokolov didn’t have names like Big Bobby or Frankie the Fridge…because people didn’ttalkabout Nik. They just hated to see him show up on their doorstep.
“So, this Bobby guy, why do you think he’s the culprit?” Katarina ran her finger down a page of dates, times, and photographs.
“Bobby owed us money earlier and refused to pay. He runs the little dealership on second street, and some of the cars in his lot didn’t come from the manufacturer floor. We scrub them clean, give them a fake paper trail, and Bobby pays us a fee.”
“Except he didn’t pay, so what?” She straightened, arms folding over her chest.
“So, we showed up and took the money out of his pockets. That’s all…I don’t know what he thinks we took other than his library card—”
“You stole the man’s library card?” Katarina wheezed. She leaned her hip against the table and stared him up and down incredulously.
“What can I say?” Nikolai puffed out his overalls with a quick tug of the fabric on his chest. “I’m a bad boy.”
Katarina snorted, rolling her eyes. “You asshole.”
