Andi and Niro

by Gadziala, Jessica

  I had been the one to put my foot down about it. Because I'd just gotten the woman back in my life. I couldn't let anything happen to her.

  I'd lost her once.

  I refused to do it again.

  Even her father had pulled me aside and suggested it was time to loosen the reins a little bit.

  From all the information we'd been gathering thanks to Finn's dogged determination to know everything there was to know about the Alcazar Cartel, it seemed like everything was okay. For the moment.

  The cartel, led by the enigmatic Andres Alcazar, were minding their own business, setting up their own headquarters.

  It didn't escape anyone's notice that the house they'd chosen had once belonged to the town's biggest villain, back in Reign's early days as a leader, some sick fuck by the name of Lex Keith.

  We were all just hoping it was a coincidence, not some sort of power move.

  The mansion had been rebuilt several years ago, but thanks to the ugly history, there hadn't been any buyers. Until someone moved into town who didn't give a shit about the sordid past.

  Security fences went up, guard dogs went out, and men could be seen pulling shifts checking the perimeter.

  But no more violence was spilling out onto the streets.

  Andres hadn't had any more contact with Andi.

  It really was time to let things go back to normal.

  What can I say? I liked having an excuse to keep my eye on her at all times. It was interesting to see her in her element, cooing at animals, soothing scared cats, helping wrestle angry large dogs who were being babies about getting their nails trimmed.

  I'd always known her to be knowledgeable and calm around animals, but I'd never seen her with their owners, calmly and confidently explaining their care needs. In the past, she'd always deferred the authoritative shit to her mom. It was interesting to see how college and life away from her crew had changed her.

  "What? You getting sick of me?" I asked as I walked her up to the back door of her office.

  "You know that's not it, right?" she said, stopping, pressing a hand to her heart.

  "I'm joking, baby. If you're not sick of me after all these years, I don't think it's going to happen."

  "It's just a waste of your time. You look bored half the day. And we shored up the place."

  That was fair.

  She didn't technically own the building—though she told me that was her end goal, her dream, so she could do with it what she wanted to make the vet experience better for animals and humans alike—but we'd managed to convince the actual owner that the building needed to be more secure. Then we'd hired local experts to lock it down tight. There were locks with intricate passcodes to get in and newly installed security doors. Cameras had been set up to capture damn near every inch of the place. There were even panic buttons placed sporadically around the office in case of an emergency.

  I didn't know what the future held for the club, but I wanted to make sure that my woman was safe no matter what came our way.

  "Guess I've been a little over-protective," I admitted as she punched in her code to the door. "Today can be my last day."

  "It will give you some time to miss me," she told me, giving me that pure sunshine smile.

  I would, too.

  Since having her back, I couldn't get enough of her.

  That said, it was time to start planning some shit. Some putting-down-roots and building-a-future shit. A lot of it was a surprise for Andi, and since we spent almost every moment together after work, it would be good to have some time to myself to research things without constantly worrying about her catching a look at my phone.

  There were big things coming.

  I just had to get to work on it all.

  Andi - 4 months

  "No, absolutely not." I didn't like how snippy my voice sounded. I didn't like the way my arms folded and my chin jerked up when I said the words either.

  But, well, no.

  Absolutely not.

  "Andi," Niro tried, giving me his soft voice because he knew it worked on me. And it did. Just not this time.

  Just this once, I was putting my foot down.

  "No, don't Andi me like I'm being unreasonable. Do you not remember how bad it was last time? Because I remember."

  "It wasn't that bad," he insisted.

  "Yes, actually, it was. You were just too stubborn to see it."

  We weren't a couple who bickered. Having known each other for so long, we'd long since ironed out any weird little habits or quirks we had that irked the other person and managed to change them, or the other person learned to live with them.

  We were usually on the same page.

  There was no reason to fight.

  But this?

  This was a reason.

  "I've been hurt worse."

  "That's not the point."

  "What is the point then?"

  "That I don't want you to do it. And I don't care how much money Jax is going to pay you for it. We don't need the money."

  I made good money. He made good money. We lived pretty modestly. And, yes, eventually, there was a future to plan for, but we certainly didn't need to stoop to this level to be able to plan for a wedding or buy a house.

  He did not need to get in a cage to fight again.

  "Besides, I thought Reign and Fallon forbade everyone from even talking to Jax after that whole mess."

  "Everyone had a sit-down about it," Niro said, shrugging. "It's an option again."

  "But why do you want it to be an option again? I thought you were fighting because you were, you know, in a bad place."

  Had getting with me just been a band-aid on a bigger wound? Did he need therapy or medicine?

  "Hey," he said, moving closer, reaching out to snag my chin, forcing me to look at him. "I know you don't like it. I'm not asking you to like it. I'm just asking you to support me."

  It was a simple request, wasn't it?

  And just because I personally didn't like violence in any form didn't mean he was going to be like that too.

  Taking a deep breath, I tried to let it go.

  "Who are you going to be fighting?" I asked, watching as a mischievous smile tugged at his lips.

  "Jax," he told me, and I finally understood how the Henchmen and Ross Ward had come to a truce. Because as cocky as Jax was, I was pretty sure there was no way he was going to hold his own against Niro in the ring. Regardless, though, it would bring in a crowd and a lot of money.

  And the man did need to be taken down a few notches.

  "Well then," I said, my own lips curving up. "Hit him really hard for me then too."

  "I knew there was a vengeful, bloodthirsty woman in there somewhere," he said, pulling me flush to his chest. "But you can't be too mad at Jax. If it wasn't for his little plan, we might never have gotten to where we are today."

  "So, we will invite him to the wedding one day. I still want you to kick his butt."

  "Luckily for you, I've never been able to deny you anything."

  Niro - 1 year

  The ring was heavy in my pocket.

  They held a lot of weight, engagement rings.

  All your hopes and dreams and plans for the future. All your good and bad days. All your future generations.

  It all depended on her looking at that ring and saying yes.

  "Are you sick?" Hope asked, stopping on her way to the clubhouse kitchen for some coffee after a long conversation with her father who hadn't been too keen to see his daughter drop by with double black eyes.

  "No."

  "You're sweating. Like down your face," she added, lip curling.

  "Yep," I agreed, feeling like there was a massive weight crushing down on my chest.

  "Hm," she said, head cocking to the side. "Alright. Let's see. It's been about a year, right? One year, a new puppy, a rescue African Grey who calls you a rat bastard and tells you to shut up, and one pregnancy scare—"

  "She told you about that?" I asked, lookin
g over.

  "Who do you think brought her the tests?" Hope said, rolling her eyes.

  "Billie."

  "Right. Like she could keep a secret. Anyway, given all of those milestones, and the river that is pouring off of you, you are about to ask her to marry you, right?"

  "Why didn't you go into profiling again?" I asked.

  "Being in people's heads is exhausting. I'd rather be in their faces. Or on their asses."

  "Yeah, looks like that is working out for you," I said, nodding toward her face.

  "This is what happens when your partner fails you on a job," she said, shrugging. I was no expert like her parents, like she was even if she tried to deny it, but I knew betrayal when I heard it in someone's voice. "But anyway. What's with the sweat? Do you actually think she won't say yes? That woman looks at you with stars in her eyes. It's disgusting," she added.

  "It's a big ask."

  "Is it, though? I mean she loves you. You love her. This is just the next natural progression of your relationship."

  "You make it sound so romantic," I said, snorting.

  "Oh, the flowers and candies, that's your thing, not mine. But growing up in this club, I've seen more than a few of you lovesick idiots go from fucking to dating to engaged to married. I know the signs. She is just waiting for you to ask her. She probably has a Pinterest board full of wedding ideas that could include everyone's various pets being part of the ceremony."

  "Andi isn't like that."

  "Every woman is like that."

  "Every woman but you," I clarified.

  "Exactly," she said, nodding. "Look. It doesn't have to be grand. I know you have all these ideas about how to ask her the right way, but none of that matters. Just ask her whenever the moment feels right. But, you know, after you've taken a shower. You're starting to smell," she added, smirking, before turning to go into the kitchen.

  "Hey Hope," I called.

  "Yeah?"

  "That fucker who did that to your face. You give me an address and I'll make him pay."

  "I handled that already," she said, giving me a proud little smile.

  "Hey," I called her back again. "You want me to go after the dick who dropped the ball and allowed for that shit to happen, you let me know."

  To that, her jaw got tight.

  Hope wasn't someone for emotions, but there was something there, some sort of wound just under the surface, festering.

  "I think I will handle this one on my own," she said. "But thanks for the offer. Now, go shower. Tell your woman you love her. And ask her to marry you already."

  "You're awfully bossy about this. Who has a pot going on us?" I asked, knowing our people.

  "Your father," she said, smiling, then went to get her coffee.

  With that, feeling a little more reassured, though I didn't think my stomach would fully un-knot until Andi had my ring on her finger, I went ahead and showered, tried not to overthink it.

  Then, just like Hope suggested would happen, one day it just felt right.

  Because, through pure happenstance, we found ourselves in the woods with our dogs, Nugget, and his new sister Minnie who had come into Andi's office as a stray.

  It had been touch and go for a long time. Andi had insisted on sleeping at the office on a blanket on the floor with her, making sure nothing could go wrong. After all of that, we'd decided she had to come and live with us. So we had itty bitty Nugget and Minnie who was a pitty mixed with what seemed like a basset hound.

  We'd been following a path for a long time, but Minnie and Nugget had wanted to take off after a smell, so we'd been happily lost for a half-hour when we came upon it.

  A very familiar stream.

  With the juts of rock and the strong current.

  This was the exact spot we had saved Nugget together as teenagers.

  And it was just... right.

  Andi was just turning back from the river as I lowered myself down on a knee.

  "Oh," she said, her breath rushing out of her, eyes going immediately soft. "Yes. Yes. Absolutely. One-thousand times, yes," she said before I could even open the lid of the box.

  "I didn't get to ask yet," I told her, chuckling even as that knot in my stomach finally untied.

  She was going to be mine.

  In a forever kind of way.

  "If you weren't going to ask soon, I was going to ask you," she told me as I finally got the box top flipped open.

  "Oh, Niro that's... wait..." she said, shaking her head, her brows furrowing. "Wait, this looks familiar," she said, looking up at me.

  "It should," I agreed, smiling as I slipped it out of the box, slipping it on her finger, watching as she pulled it up closer to look at it.

  "This is the ring from that arcade," she said, finally remembering.

  "Yeah. Well, no," I said, smiling.

  One summer, a bunch of our parents had decided to rent out some houses in Cape May just to get away for a long weekend.

  And while they were out doing adult shit, all of us took to the boardwalk, eventually ending up spending the first night in the arcade.

  Where Andi fell in love with a ring in a case at the ticket redemption counter.

  It had been surprisingly nice for an arcade prize—an intricate silver band with four daisies with bright yellow centers on each side of a much larger daisy made with a fake yellow gemstone.

  We'd spent the entire night at that arcade, each of us spending an ungodly amount of money trying to get enough tickets to get it.

  In the end, though, they'd closed before we got enough.

  And no one had wanted to go back the next night.

  I did, though.

  While the others slept in or went to the beach early, I got up, got dressed, and made it to that arcade at opening for the next two days.

  I blew half of what I had saved for my own motorcycle when I turned of age.

  And when I finally, fucking finally, had enough tickets to go up to that counter and get Andi the ring she wanted so badly, I found someone else had chosen it.

  I'd always remembered that ring.

  When the time came and I knew I was going to ask her, I had taken that memory to a local jewelry designer, and I'd had them draw me up some sketches, finding the one closest to the one I had imprinted on my memory, then let them have at it.

  What they came up with was a perfect replica of the ring she had loved so much, the ring I hadn't been able to get for her.

  "Niro..." she gushed after I told her the story, dropping down on her knees in front of me, framing my face with her hands.

  "You like it?" I asked, already knowing, because her eyes were flooded.

  "No," she said, shaking her head as the first tear slipped down her cheek. "I love it. Almost, almost as much as I love you," she told me, arms going around the back of my neck, lips pressing to mine.

  Andi - 2 years

  You would think that being involved with an outlaw arms-dealing biker would mean a life of constant stress and upheaval.

  And, don't get me wrong, it seemed like the club had some new brand of chaos every six months or so.

  But a lot like Niro had told me Reign had said years back, that chaos, those little mini wars, most of them had been brought on by the women who—slowly, but surely—came into the lives of the men of the Henchmen MC.

  Those were stories for other people, though, and not mine to tell.

  What was mine to tell was about a ring on my finger and a clue in my hand.

  What the clue would lead me to was a mystery.

  Niro had always been an amazing gift-giver, always put more thought into it than anyone else I had ever met.

  He'd outdone himself this time, though.

  Because whatever this key was to was likely a part of this strange, massive, three-week-long scavenger hunt he'd put me on.

  Nothing, not a single part of the process, had been ill-planned.

  The first clue had led me to my parents' house, to the attic, to a box of knick-knacks
, to an envelope full of pictures. It had taken me a couple of minutes to know what they were. The prints that had been on an old disposable camera my mom had given me when she'd dropped Niro and me off at a water park to spend the day on our own. We'd been fifteen and felt so grown up walking around the park all day with each other. We'd taken an entire camera's worth of pictures. It had been one of the best days of my life.

  But I had forgotten all about the camera.

  I guess because Niro had been in possession of it all along.

  I looked at print after print of our often blurry, but smiling, elated faces and then found the next clue on the last one. One that hadn't been from back when we were fifteen, but from some unknown time in the recent past.

  A picture of Nugget and Minnie standing at the place of the next clue.

  It had been three weeks with a new clue every other day.

  There were moments when I felt like the worst fiancée in the world because it took me a long time to figure out the next clue. Niro had a better memory for small details than I did.

  But I always figured them out.

  Three weeks into this thing, I was antsy to finally figure out what the present was. If he put all this work into the discovery of it, it had to be good.

  This clue wasn't like that elaborate cipher he'd made me decode the week before.

  This clue was easy because I'd seen something very similar tattooed right there on his very skin.

  Geographical coordinates.

  It didn't take much thought to figure out that the coordinates coincided with an address that would end up meaning something to the story of our life together.

  And when I had plugged the address into my GPS, it didn't click at first.

  It actually wasn't until I pulled into the neighborhood that I realized where he was sending me.

  But, no.

  Why would he send me back to the house where something so traumatic had happened to me? Even if the years had dulled the horror of that evening.

  My stomach was in a knot as I pulled up to the house, not sure what I was supposed to do next. Until I saw a single daisy stuck in the door knocker on the front door.