Until Nico (Until 4)

“I should let you go while you’re driving,” she says quickly.

“No, you shouldn’t.” I grip my steering wheel tighter.

“I really should,” she argues.

“No, you’re going to tell me exactly what’s wrong with you,” I growl.

“Actually, I’m getting off the phone,” she snaps, and the phone goes dead.

“What the fuck?” I press dial on the phone again, and this time, it goes right to voicemail.

She’s lucky I have to meet my brother; otherwise, I would be at her house dealing with this shit face to face. I drive the rest of the way to Asher’s with my music on full blast, thinking over our conversation. I have never let a woman affect me, never given a fuck what they think, say, or do. I have been told the same shit my whole life about the boom and used to think it was a bunch of bullshit. That is, until Asher met November, Trevor pulled his head out of his ass and claimed Liz, and now Cash with Lilly. Then I felt it for myself when I saw Sophie.

“I’m such an asshole,” I say aloud as everything clicks into place. Her shyness, the way she carries herself, how her body reacts when I touch her— either she’s had very little experience or is a virgin, and I just threw that shit in her face. “Fuck me,” I whisper into my empty car. I shake my head and drive the rest of the way, coming up with a plan. No way am I letting her push me away.

I pull up to Asher’s house twenty minutes later, shut off my car, and hop out.

“Uncle Nico’s here!” July yells over her shoulder before running down the steps straight into me.

“Hey, kiddo.” I swing her up into my arms.

“You didn’t bring Daisy,” she pouts, looking over my shoulder and into my car.

“Nope. She’s at home.”

“Awww! But I wanted to see her,” she whines.

“How about the next time I go out of town, you babysit her for me?”

“Really?!” she squeals.

“Really,” I say, kissing her head before setting her down once we get into the house.

“Thank God you’re here,” November says as soon as she sees me. I raise an eyebrow, and she shakes her head as she gives me a hug. “Those three”—she points out the glass backdoors towards the pool where Asher, Trevor, and Cash are all standing—“have been trying to get the kid gate put up around the pool for the last three hours. I tried to help them, but they refused to listen. Hopefully, now that you’re here, they will stop arguing like a bunch of old ladies and just get it done already.”

“I’ll see what I can do.” I laugh when she rolls her eyes. Then I walk out to the back patio and down to the pool area where—just like November said—Asher, Trevor, and Cash are all arguing.

“You do know that, if you guys stopped bitching for a few minutes, you would probably already be done, right?” I ask, walking up to join the circle.

“You think this shit’s easy? There aren’t even instructions in English! All this shit is in Chinese,” Cash complains, shoving the piece of paper at me.

I don’t even bother looking for English directions; I just look at the picture, glance at the pieces, and immediately start to assemble the fence.

“You have always been a fucking show-off,” Trevor says in disgust, making me laugh.

“You’re just mad I’m smarter than you.”

“You wish, motherfucker,” he replies, helping me put pieces together.

“You girls going to stand there and watch, or are you going to help us out?” I ask Asher and Cash, who are both just standing over us in identical poses with their arms crossed over their chests.

Realizing they’ve been called out, they immediate jump into action. It takes thirty minutes to get the last piece attached, but once we’re done, we all stand back to appreciate our hard work.

“That didn’t take long to do once y’all stopped bitching,” I pointed out, just to rub it in their faces.

“We would have figured it out…eventually,” Cash says, smiling—something he does a lot more these days.

“How are Lilly and Ashlyn doing living with you?” I ask him.

“Good. They’re settling in. Never thought I’d be thankful to Jules for anything in my life besides Jax, but she proved to be useful getting Lilly to live with me, even if the situation was fucked up.”

“True,” I agree; Lilly is the best thing to happen to Jax and Cash. Every time I’m around them as a family, I see the love she has for my brother. In the beginning, I was worried about her intentions, but now, I know she is exactly what Cash said she is—a good woman.

“How’s work been?” Trevor asks. He always asks me the same thing, and I know they all want me to go back to working with them, but I can’t; I love what I do.

“Good. Busy.” I give him the same vague answer I always do.

“Guess there’s never a short supply of criminals. At least you have job security,” Asher says, laughing.

I look at my brothers and chuckle. I’m blessed to have such an awesome family, and I can’t wait for everyone to meet Sophie.

*~*~*

I pull up in front of Sophie’s house a little after ten; all of her lights are out, but that’s not going to stop me from seeing her right now. I’m about to get out of the car when I see movement. It’s dark out, but I can see someone in all black walking around the side of her house. I reach over and open my glove box, grabbing my Glock. I get out of my car and put the gun in the waistband of my jeans at my back. I pull my hoodie down over it before heading towards her house.

I stay in the shadows, watching as the guy walks around to her backyard. I follow but then stop long enough to send a quick text to Kenton with the address, along with a code telling him that I need backup.

I watch the person as they walk from window to window, and I can tell that whoever it is is trying to find a way inside. He tries the last window at the back of the house, and when I see this one open, I pull out my gun and walk up behind the person. Just as they are getting ready to climb inside, I put my hand to the back of their sweatshirt and yank them back.

“What the fuck?” a male’s voice cries as I place my gun to his head.

Rage like I have never felt in my life consumes me. I feel out of control and know I could kill this guy without a second thought.

“I was just going to ask you the same question, motherfucker,” I say near his ear. I start to pull his hoodie off, but he turns slightly and I feel a sharp pain in my side.

In sudden shock, I drop to my knees and watch as the guy takes off running. I fight to take back control of the muscles in my body that have been seized by the voltage from the Taser.

“Nico?” I hear Sophie’s voice behind me. I look over my shoulder and our gazes meet before she looks down at my side, her eyes going wide. “What happened?”

“Sophie, go back inside,” I tell her through gritted teeth. I don’t want her out here if the guy is still around.

“But—”

“Sophie, go back inside. Now,” I say, watching as she does what she’s told before I pull out my phone to call Kenton to let him know what just happened.

After I finally get control back, I check around the house to see if I can catch the guy’s trail, but there is no sign of him. I’ve circled the house three times when Kenton pulls up and parks behind my car.

“Cops are on the way,” he says as soon as he gets out.

“Good.” I run my hands down my face.

“How the hell did he get the drop on you?” he asks.

“I wasn’t expecting him to have a Taser,” I admit.

“You know the rules, man. Expect the unexpected.”

“You don’t need to tell me that shit,” I growl, already completely pissed off at myself. Thinking that something could’ve happened to Sophie when I was right here because I wasn’t on my game has me mad as fuck.

“Is that her?” Kenton asks, looking over at the house.

I turn to see Sophie standing just inside her open front door. ?

??It is.” I take a deep breath as I look at her.

“Where the fuck did you find her?”

My head turns to him, and I can see the appreciation on his face. “Cousin or not, I will fuck you up,” I tell him.

“Just a question,” he says, smiling.

I shake my head, not in the mood for bullshit right now.

It takes a few minutes for the cops to show. Luckily for us, we’re in good with the local precinct and know most of the men who show up. As soon as I’ve told them what went down, I head up to the house where Sophie is standing on the front porch, her face free of makeup, her hair down around her shoulders, her legs covered in pajama bottoms with cupcakes all over them. She has a sweatshirt pulled tight around her middle.

“What happened?”