by Katlynn Rose
Ashley was stunned, unable to piece it together. She might as well be grasping at wisps of smoke. None of it made sense. Lance wasn't fairing any better. He sat just as silent, not bothering to turn the car on. The silence and confusion lingered as neither one of them could sort it out.
Finally, Lance turned the ignition and drove slowly through the parking lot. It felt as if the car itself was dragging, not wanting to move the short distance to the diner. Ashley checked for Nikki's car as they drove past, but it was nowhere to be seen. She was so bewildered by it all that she didn't hear Lance when he first started speaking.
"... when she contacted me. Said she saw the ad." He sounded like he was talking to himself. "She gave me credentials, and I never questioned her. When we left the lake with Craig, I sent her one last message to let her know that I found you, and all was good." He glanced over at her quickly, and then looked back to the road while shaking his head.
"Nothing about this makes sense," Ashley said. Lance reached over for her hand and she clasped it. Nikki was not someone you wanted on your bad side, or wanted to be indebted to. "Whoever she made that promise to, it wasn't to me."
"Craig maybe?" Lance questioned.
"I can't imagine it would have been Craig. He was always trying to protect me from Nikki, not throw us in her path." Ashley sighed heavily. "Besides, he never had enough influence over her to make her do anything. And how would he have known we were going to Baltimore?"
Lance shook his head again but remained silent. She squeezed his hand, and he returned the gesture, but the rest of the ride was spent in troubled silence. Both of them were trying to put the pieces together and failing miserably.
As they parked, Ashley spotted Nikki's car and quickly took note it was empty. When Lance killed the ignition, he gently pulled her hand his mouth and kissed the back of her fingers.
"We'll be okay." He tried to reassure her. "If she had wanted to do something malicious to us, she would have stranded us there."
Ashley nodded but had no comment. She knew Nikki, and Lance couldn't be further from the truth. Nikki liked to play with her food, so to speak. Ashley pulled away and stepped out of the car, swallowing hard. In a few moments, Lance joined her as she stared at the ominous diner where Nikki waited inside. He reached down and took her hand again, pulling her along with him.
Entering the diner, Ashley immediately spotted Nikki sitting in a booth in open view of the front door. She knew exactly where to look for her. That was the same place Ashley would have chosen herself. It was Craig who had trained her to always watch the front door, and sit by an exit if possible. He was a paranoid son of a bitch, but the advice was sound even if she never had to utilize it.
This time it was her who pulled Lance along as they dodged the hostess, and Ashley slid into the booth opposite Nikki, giving Lance room to slide in beside her.
"Hello, Love." Nikki smiled sweetly, flashing her sparkling white teeth at her. She looked softer than she had earlier in the storage shed, but Ashley knew it was a mirage. The woman was as deadly as any viper.
"Hello Nikki," Ashley replied, and Lance was right behind her.
"Hello Colline."
This drew a deep, intoxicating laugh from Nikki as her eyes sparkled, looking back and forth between them. "Was that rehearsed?"
Ashley shook her head, but Lance's brow furrowed again, and Ashley reached under the table to clasp his hand. She preferred it if he kept silent as she had no idea how he would react to the vixen sitting across from them, nor how Nikki would handle his reactions.
"Well is it Nikki or Colline?" Lance didn't take the hint, but thankfully, Nikki ignored his gruff manner.
"Both and neither," she replied with a smirk, obviously enjoying the exchange. When Lance refused to be baited, she made a show of settling in comfortably before speaking again.
"Well, where should we start?" Nikki smiled slyly, and it was Lance who spoke again.
"How did you even know to contact me?" he said gruffly.
Nikki's focus turned directly on him, but he didn't budge. Ashley swallowed, knowing that if Lance knew half the stuff this woman was capable of, he would have at least softened his glare.
"In my line of work, you have to take care of your own before someone else does. If someone else gets there before you do, then you have a problem on your hands," Nikki started. "I make it a habit to peruse the missing and wanted person ads in every form of media I can find. It's much easier to nip a problem in the bud before it can escalate to..." her voice trailed off as she turned her gaze to Ashley, "To what we have here."
"So that initial phone call..." Lance interjected again.
"Yes. I found one of your ads and decided to feel you out. I will admit I was shocked that anyone would be hunting our little Lea here, but as soon as you said your name, everything clicked," Nikki responded coolly, and Lance started to question her again when the waitress swept up to the table and set a black coffee in front of Nikki.
"What can I get you?" the waitress questioned Lance and Ashley, and they both mumbled coffee. The waitress sniffed and left them alone again, not seeing a great tip in her future.
"What about the promise?" Ashley blurted out before anyone else could say anything. Nikki glared at her for a second, her eyes briefly turning to shards of ice, but then something changed in her facial expression. Something undefined softened in her eyes, and Ashley blinked in surprise. She had never seen Nikki like this.
Nikki actually started to fiddle with her coffee cup, pushing at the bottom of the mug with her beautiful, red nails. She sighed one word, "Bobby."
"Bobby?" Ashley questioned, completely baffled. She had liked Bobby. He was an older man who had always stood up for her where Nikki was concerned. Another protector, just as Craig was. "Didn't we lose him in Jacksonville?"
"You shut your mouth, you little twat," Nikki snapped, the venom back full force. Ashley fell back against her seat, and Lance leaned forward, a scowl of indignation on his face. Ashley reacted quickly enough, squeezing his hand to rein him in before he could get a word out.
Nikki glared at her as the moments passed, and Ashley shifted uncomfortably. Somewhere, she found the courage to beg, "Please..."
"I don't like you. I never did." Nikki cut her off. This wasn't news to Ashley. "I never saw it in you - the hardness you need to keep up with our lifestyle - and that made you a liability." Nikki rolled her eyes at that before exhaling softly, signifying yet another demeanor change that Ashley was not familiar with. Did she look defeated? Ashley mentally shook her head at that impossibility, but there it was in front of her.
"I never liked you, but others did. That big buffoon Craig for one... And Bobby." She turned her gaze out the window, no longer meeting their eyes. "Bobby saw the innocence in you and wanted me to cut you loose before you lost it. Guess it reminded him of simpler times before we chose our paths." A wry smile twisted her lips, and it seemed she was looking out the window into memories long past.
The waitress was coming with their coffee and Nikki halted her speech. Ashley took the opportunity to study Nikki while she was unguarded. Those cold blue eyes were soft now. Kind eyes. Bobby's eyes. She sucked in a breath, berating herself that she had never seen it before. The waitress addressed them, but only Lance responded to send her away, and Nikki continued as soon as the waitress was out of earshot.
"Yes, I lost Bobby in Jacksonville, but not before he made me promise to get Lance down here and get you away from us."
Ashley blinked at that. "Bobby knew about Lance?"
Nikki glared at her, and that perfect eyebrow rose in accusation. "Every one of us knew about Lance, you moon-eyed cow."
"Alright," Lance snapped before Ashley could stop him this time, her cheeks flushing with embarrassment. She was well accustomed to the badgering from Nikki, but it didn't seem Lance was adjusting to it well. "Enough of the insults. Let's get this over with. I don't think any of us really want to be here."
"Truer words we
re never spoken," Nikki conceded, letting his interruption slide, and she took a sip of her coffee before continuing. "It was Bobby that had me call Lance to the lake. He was supposed to rescue you there, and when Craig left you two in that little motel room, that should have been the end of it." She paused then to straighten her back and smirked at Ashley. "But what did you do?"
Ashley was at a loss as to what she meant. Lance looked down at her, but she just shrugged and turned back to Nikki. "Hal?"
"Very good. Halbert Sutton. Do you know what kind of things happen when you put a cop in the hospital?" Nikki admonished, and Ashley couldn't meet her gaze. "But, lucky for you, Sutton was a bad cop. A little talk with Hal made sure we were squared up, and I finally got the intel we needed for his stash up here in Baltimore. Then I found the pig couldn't keep his mouth shut, and Lance knew about it, too. The icing on the cake was Conner, and that was something Lance didn't know about."
Nikki paused to look Ashley over and teased, "You do remember Conner, don't you? The one that beat the shit out of you and was ready to lock you away in that storage room?"
Ashley nodded, blushing, and had to jerk on Lance's hand again to still him.
"So I drove." She grumbled. "It was only supposed to be Conner. You two were supposed to show up later to find an empty storage room." She locked eyes with Ashley. "But you beat Conner, and you beat me. You won. By right, whatever loot those dirty cops managed to hide in those boxes are yours."
Nikki gave Ashley a hard stare, and Ashley could only nod. Nikki's code. Honor among thieves. Between that and her promise, Ashley knew whatever was in those boxes indeed belonged to her, whether it was clothes, diamonds, or cockroaches. Nikki had conceded.
"And now it ends. All of it. Am I clear?" Nikki eyed them both, and this time both Lance and Ashley responded with a nod.
"Did Craig...?" Ashley started, but Nikki cut her off.
"No. As far as he's concerned, it was his idea to drop you off in that little motel room. I'm sure he left you your take. His too?"
Ashley nodded. She actually saw Nikki swallow before she continued.
"And Bobby's?"
Ashley nodded again. An unreadable expression crossed Nikki's face as she looked down into her coffee.
Abruptly Nikki stated, "We're done." With that, she gracefully slid out of the bench and sauntered towards the door as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Maybe for Nikki, nothing out of the ordinary had happened, but Ashley was astounded.
Lance apparently felt the same way as he just watched her go before turning his deep green eyes back to hers. "I'm so confused."
Ashley shook her head, reached into her pocket to drop a twenty on the table and motioned for Lance to get up. "Let's just get out of here."
He didn't disagree.
Chapter 15 – Forever