Stand Of Redemption(27)

“Hey, Nick. You look like shit.” Zane observed when Nick walked through the office door.

“Good morning to you, too motherfucker,” Nick retorted.

Zane leaned back in his chair to study Nick.

“Stop it, Zane. I get enough of that shit from Melanie; quit trying to find a way to fix me,” Nick said harshly.

“Man, you know we care about you. What if Melanie was doing what you’re doing to yourself? You would do everything in your power to help her, wouldn’t you?” Zane pointed out.

Nick sighed. Everyone knew Melanie was his only fucking weakness; subsequently, she was easy to use when Zane wanted to drive his point home.

“I’m fine.” Nick said with finality.

Zane narrowed his eyes at Nick. “I honestly just want to beat the shit out of you, but someone else is already doing that.”

“Can’t I have any secrets?” Nick snarled.

Zane shrugged. “Then don’t pick fighters in my gym to train with.”

Nick grinned. “I need to work on my techniques. Your fighters have the different ranges I need. Marco gives me the martial arts. Frank the boxing.”

“What’s Trey giving you?”

“An ass whipping,” Nick said wearily, sitting down in the chair across from his desk.

“I’d do that for free.”

“When my arm has healed, you can try,” Nick threatened. “You know I don’t plan to lose to you again.”

Zane laughed. “Fuck, I’m not looking forward to our next fight.”

Nick laughed, too. “Me, neither.”

Their last fight had been intense, both of them getting a lot of good blows in. Zane had ultimately found a way to get Nick into a hold he couldn’t break free from. Nick sometimes wondered to himself if he had let it happen just to let his friend win, but he knew it wasn’t in him to give up. He gave full credit to Zane.

“So what have you been up to? Anything new?” Zane asked as he looked back at the computer to enter some information.

“Not really. I took Ria out last night, but I won’t have time to see her again. I’ll be busy getting Ty ready for the fight,” Nick replied as he scrolled through his phone messages. He realized he wasn’t hearing anything from Zane, and looked up to find Zane giving him a hard stare. “What?”

“You’re seeing Ria?” Zane asked, almost too casually.

Nick sensed there was something he didn’t know. “We’ve been out a couple of times, but I don’t plan on seeing her again,” Nick repeated, hearing the slight hint of disappointment in his own voice. He hoped Zane hadn’t heard it, too.

“Oh, okay.” Zane tried to put on a casual air as he went back to the computer.

“Zane, what the fuck are you trying to hide? Since when do you give a fuck who I go out with?”

Zane hesitated. “You don’t know who she is, do you?” Zane continued before Nick could respond. “It’s a crazy, small world.” He shook his head when Nick told him to quit bullshitting around.

“Do you remember when we confronted Dragon?”

Nick nodded his head in silence.

Dragon had been the chief of a drug cartel that Nick had recently discovered Zane used to work for. When Nick had first found out, he had been furious with Zane. However, as the truth came out, Nick had discovered that Zane was only working for the cartel in order to protect Nick’s family.

Nick felt the guilt rise in him again. Zane had suffered for years, just to protect Nick. Zane’s sacrifices hadn’t been known by his family until he had tried to quit the cartel, and they had struck back. Dragon had taken Melanie as punishment. Therefore, Zane had taken Nick with him for the meeting.

During the confrontation with Dragon, Nick had quickly realized the reason they were there. Zane had helped Nick out as a kid, helping him hide any evidence of killing Dragon’s younger brother. After the meeting, Zane had needed Nick to help eliminate any evidence when Zane killed Dragon. Nick had watched Zane point the gun and shoot Dragon with no hesitation. So far, no one had come after them.

“What about it?” Nick asked.

“I knew how to keep Dragon from fighting back and accept his fate,” Zane stated.

Nick thought back to that night. He had been so tormented over Melanie’s disappearance, as well as watching Zane shoot a man in the head, that everything else was just a blur. He thought hard about what had changed Dragon’s demeanor. It came to him suddenly.

Zane had kidnapped someone. Nick had never asked any details about the girl, though. He had known Zane wouldn’t hurt an innocent person and had assumed he had been bluffing.

“Yeah. You said you had Ariel,” Nick responded, and then jumped up when the realization struck him. “You’re not telling me what I think you are, are you?”