But Nikolai was more interested in how the little shit snuck her way through the shop without a single person noticing.
“Isabella? Bella!”Until right then.Nikolai perked up, raising a hand up high so the molting mother hen could find him. She immediately clocked him with those ruby eyes of hers, face softening from frazzled panic. Nikolai waited for her to come to him. She rushed through the shop, easily avoiding all the normal pitfalls they warned customers about.Jessie would tell me to walk any loose animals or children back through the shop.Nikolai didn’t want to put hands on the tiny terror, lest she kick and scream. Plus, and he wasn’t ashamed to admit it, he was checking mom out.
I like soft bodies…and she looks so comfy.Red hair that begged to be pulled, a strong nose to compliment her soft cheeks, and there was something about a lady who liked red lipstick.I’m a sucker for red lipstick and matching thongs.Nikolai cleared his throat as he stepped aside. The woman avoided the doors laying on the ground.
“Bella, we talked about this. This car isn’t ours anymore.”
Tiny terror huffed, “But vroom, vroom.”
“No, baby, no vroom, vroom. Mommy’s got to get a new car first.”
“What’s wrong wiff-it?” The little girl pouted, pointing back at her car seat still strapped into the vehicle. “Mine!”
“Oh,shit, that is still yours.”
“Uh,” Nikolai laughed nervously, scrambling to the other side. He reached in and unbuckled it. “I’ll put it in the room.”
“Thank you…” She exhaled heavily.
“Nikolai,” he inputted, not sure what to say.
Her smile warmed his chest and made his stomach clench. It was a genuine smile, something sweet and foreign to him. “Thanks, Nikolai. I’m Katarina.”
“I’m Bella!” the tiny terror chirped, bouncing on the seat.
“I gathered,” Nikolai hummed, nodding at the tiny one. “You should get out though. I vacuumed the glass, but there’s no telling—”
“Oh! Bella!” Katarina, having picked up what Nikolai was struggling to put down, snatched up her daughter.
“Mommy! Vroom, vroom.”
Nikolai finished unwrapping the car seat and peeled it out from its previous prison. Thankfully, that side of the vehicle got the least amount of damage. It stopped the bugbear in his tracks for a second. He stared at the vehicle as less a machine he was analyzing, and more a victim.The kid said Daddy did it earlier…And that’s when he saw the bruise on Katarina’s exposed bicep. It was growing dark.
“Uh…” he swallowed the lump in his throat. Nikolai wasn’t exactly squeamish. He’d woken up in a puddle of his own blood once or twice. He’d mopped Jessie’s off the garage concrete. He broke too many bones to count. It just felt wrong to see her there with fingerprints embedded into her skin. Nikolai prided himself on being a good judge of character and Katarina didn’t give him fight club vibes. “We got stuff for that.”
“For what?” she furrowed her brows.
He poked at his own arm. Both Katarina and Isabella glanced down at her bicep. While her child softly palmed at her mother’s arm, whispering something to the bruise, Katarina sighed. “Yeah, uh—”
“Lemme grab it, I’ll meet you in the waiting room. Jessie doesn’t like when people stand in the garage.” Nikolai nodded back toward the steel door beyond the chain link fence that protected their customers from the dangers of the shop.
“Oh, yeah, because we get in the way,” she laughed.
“Slip hazard,” Nikolai hummed with a nod, marching off with her car seat against one hip.
He couldn’t fix the car. The frame was dented.Who did she marry, a fucking bulldozer? That’s not nice Nik.Not just that, but he smashed in a bunch on the dashboard. Plus, the car was old, the worth wasn’t there anymore. No, it was better to get her a good price for the pieces of it and patch up the bruises.
‘Not a lot of justices in the world, Nikolai.’That’s what his mother said as she left him with his aunt, running out of the city before the Enforcers descended.Gotta make your own justice and fairness where you can, because the world won’t be kind.
He elbowed into the supply room and snatched one of the many jars of healing salve off the shelf. Ignoring Oats taking a power nap in the corner, he stomped back toward the waiting room. He passed Jessie, standing an inch beyond one of the bay doors and talking with a regular about their tires. The desire to pass this off to Jessie wasstrong. The minotaur was the charisma guy! Nikolai was the muscle. But he spotted a pair of familiar, ruby eyes staring him down through the waiting room window. With a sigh, he marched the rest of the way. Through the rustygate, into the cool ac of the office.It’s fine, I need water anyway.He sat the car seat down in front of the kiddo.
“Mine!” Isabella cheered, rocking the chair in front of her.
“Thank you—oh!” Katarina froze as Nikolai acted on impulse. Kneeling in front of her, he spun the cap on the glass jar off. He set it on her thigh so he could hold the jar in one hand, and scoop goop out with two fingers off his free hand. Katarina shifted to give him her bicep better. He spread the blue, gelatinous creation onto her skin. It immediately glowed like a lamp as it melted.Man, she is so soft. She’s gotta be using lotion or something.Nikolai tried not to gulp as he stroked her arm.So soft.When his gaze lifted off her arm, he was trapped in glowing rubies that bore through him.
“You—uh… the car…you’re not going to find a new one tonight. Check takes three days to print.” He nodded, like he’d said anything actually important.
“So, what am I supposed to do,” she breathed to no one other than herself.
