Page 77 of Nicolette

He cracked open an eye to look at me. “You have two minutes.”

“What if I have to take a shit?” I asked.

“I know you don’t, not after getting your ass rammed as much as you did tonight,” he stated.

Rolling my eyes, I kissed him. “You say the sweetest things. Now let me go pee, and I’ll be right back. Besides, no one is in here anymore. You heard Nine kick them all out an hour ago.”

“That has nothing to do with the fact that I have you here, in this bed, naked and next to me,” Dice countered.

Okay, now that was actually adorable, and I cursed my bladder for its terrible timing. Then my stomach growled loudly as if the two of them were working in tandem to make my life hell.

Dice let out an irritated growl, starting to get up. “Go use the bathroom. I’ll get you something to eat.”

I put a hand on his chest. “Dice, I’ve got it. I’m a big girl who can handle going downstairs by myself. Don’t forget you’re not the only badass in this room.”

“Yeah, there’s three of us,” Circus piped up. “Nine knows we’re here. He would make sure the place was locked up, so don’t smother our mate on the first night.”

“It’s not smothering,” Dice muttered. “I wanted to do something nice.”

That had me melting at how adorable he was being. “Okay, you can get the snack. I’m sorry for not realizing you wanted to do this for me. It’s gonna take a bit to adjust to having people who care so much.”

Dice pulled me into another kiss that had me moaning and almost risking it to climb on his cock again. He broke the kiss and grabbed the shirt Nine had left for me, pulling it over my head and covering me up. Getting out of bed, he pulled on his boxers, took my hand, and led me downstairs.

“There’s no bathroom upstairs, so you’ll need to use the one down here. It’s down that hall right there, second door, unless you want to use the men’s,” Dice said.

“Got it,” I acknowledged and hurried off, fearing I might just piss myself if I waited a moment longer.

I didn’t bother turning on the lights and ducked into the first stall—no toilet paper. For fuck’s sake, why does this always happen? The second one was stocked, but the door wouldn’t lock. At that point, I didn’t fucking care since I was the only one in there. Popping a squat, I let out a sigh of relief. Still feeling super sleepy after the fight, dancing, and copious amounts of sex I’d had tonight, I didn’t pick up on the sound of the door opening right away. Then as the stall door slammed open, I looked up but wasn’t able to react fast enough to dodge the metal baseball bat before it slammed into my head.

The force of the blow slammed me against the metal stall wall causing my head to bounce off that before crashing to the floor.

“Not such a tough bitch now, are you?” Zealot sneered as he kicked me right in the temple, knocking me unconscious.

Chapter 31

Nicolette

Pain was the last thing I remembered and the first thing I felt as consciousness returned.

What the actual fuck just happened?

Groaning, I tried to bring a hand to touch my head, but I couldn’t. Something was restricting my movement. My brain also processed that my hands were above my head, and I was just barely able to touch the ground with my tiptoes. No wonder my shoulders were fucking killing me. They were holding my entire body weight.

Taking a moment to listen before I opened my eyes and gave away that I was awake, I heard movement and voices. They were too far away for me to tell who it was or what they were saying, even with my supernatural abilities.

Taking a slow deep breath, I tried to see if I could pick up on any scent I could recognize. That’s when my heart sank as I realized where I was. The stench of sweat, body odor, and plastic mats were ones I knew well. I’d spent years training in this place, adding my own sweat to the mix. I’d been brought back to the Lucky Strike.

“I can tell from your heartbeat that you’re awake, Nicolette,” Mortas said.

My eyes snapped open to find the vampire sitting in a chair, leg casually crossed, sipping on a wine glass full of blood. How had I missed him? Now that I could see him, the reek of death and decay wafting off him was overpowering. If nothing else, I should have been able to scent the blood. How could it be that I’d failed to pick up any of it?

He smiled widely at me. “Surprised you, didn’t I? It’s amazing the charms and spells witches can make these days. My favorite is a charm you can wear that keeps anyone, regardless of species, from knowing you’re there until you speak. Once you draw attention to yourself, it’s like you appear out of thin air, making your prey believe you can materialize wherever you want. It’s rather fun, don’t you think?”

“Why am I here?” I asked, skipping over that whole psycho-babble bullshit he was sprouting.

“Don’t act stupid. It’s not a good look for you,” Mortas chided. “You know exactly why you’re here. We have unfinished business.”

“My contract is void. There’s no reason for you to keep looking for me,” I argued.