“Mmmm. Impress me, baby.” Nicki glowed with pride as she stepped back again, enjoying the view as she watched his muscles flex and come to life. He was a beautiful, dangerous man, and she was so in love with him it actually hurt, an ache so sweet and addicting she couldn’t survive without it.
Deciding he didn’t stand a chance in hell, the last remaining man dropped his gun and put his hands up. Sean looked disappointed, then decided to put a tranq dart in him anyway.
“Did I ever tell you how sexy you are?” Nicki purred. Sean grunted and pulled her to him, ravishing her mouth.
“Ah, Christ. Get a room, will you?” Kieran said as he joined them. “Next time, I vote we take Nix and leave Sean at home. She’s just as lethal and looks a hell of a lot better in body armor.” Sean did not lift his head, but clearly shot his youngest sibling the middle finger.
Shane laughed. “Come on, guys. Unless we want these bad boys to be ashes, we need to drag them out with their buds before this places goes nova.”
“I say we just toast ‘em,” Kieran said, looking down with disgust at one of them. “What does T want them alive for anyway?”
“Don’t know,” Shane said. “And not our problem.”
Nicki had a pretty good idea what was going to happen to the captured. She almost felt a stab of pity for them. Death would be kinder. Taser had a special punishment for scum specialized in drugs targeted towards kids. Most of the stuff this little facility produced looked like innocent candy. Things that even diligent, concerned parents would never suspect. The small squares coated in hallucinogenics and coke dust were popping up in schools everywhere, and this place was a major supplier.
Reluctantly, Sean pulled away from Nicki. “Duty calls, love.”
“I’ll just wait outside, let you boys do all the manly hefting and lifting. And don’t worry. I’ll shoot anything that comes near you.”
“God, I love that woman,” Sean said fervently as his eyes watched her walk away.
––––––––
Nicki walked outside and positioned herself at the corner of the property fence. She leaned against it, rifle in hand, looking for anyone foolish enough to try to come out and make a buy tonight. They’d never get near her family.
She looked up briefly, admiring the stars. It was a slightly overcast, so there weren’t too many visible, but there were a few that were twinkling brightly amidst the occasional breaks. A long-forgotten rhyme rose unbidden in her mind: “Star light, star bright, First star I see tonight, I wish I may, I wish I might, Have the wish I wish tonight.”
She chuckled silently. Wishes. It wasn’t that long ago that she refused to even consider such things. Wishes weren’t for people like her. Nicki didn’t believe that anymore, but try as she might, she couldn’t think of a single thing she would wish for.
Nick was doing great; Nicki got to see him nearly every day, and the two of them were closer than they’d ever been. Sean had promoted him to lead mechanic at the garage, and Nick had really risen to the occasion. Sean no longer worried about leaving the garage for several days at a time. Nick had a girlfriend, now, too – a pretty young, quiet girl that took classes at the local community college and was studying to be a veterinary assistant. Nicki couldn’t have been happier for him.
Nicki had free run of the garage, and could often be found tinkering on some old piece of junk Sean had collected for her. To hell with jewelry and flowers; her husband knew just what would get her eyes sparkling.
Now that she and Sean were officially married, the guys treated her with a lot more respect, too. All around it was much more comfortable than it had been, especially since she could talk shop with the best of them. And on weekends, sometimes they’d take a cruise over to Birch Falls and hang with Lina and Kyle. She and Kyle were working on ideas for a new custom series that would be featured on one of the popular cable shows come spring.
She was now part of a big, loud, and fiercely loyal family. If she’d thought any of them would look down upon her, she was soon proven gravely mistaken. It was somewhat daunting to find herself with six additional big brothers – all lethal but protective as hell – and three sisters. She’d come to know each of them pretty well in a relatively short amount of time.
Kieran was the youngest, and quite possibly the most boyishly adorable, though he was unmatched in martial arts skills. As part of her “team training”, she sparred with him weekly, and was learning a lot of great stuff.
Shane was just as soft-spoken and polished as she’d first surmised. He was quite brilliant, a human computer of sorts, and a source of inexhaustible knowledge. He also had the very useful gift of reading people with astonishing accuracy. Quiet as he was, there was no one more fiercely loyal to Sean than he (besides her, of course).