Page 14 of Kill Shot

Crossing the Line

Seb

“Are you sure you’re ready?” Nico asked with a doubtful raise of his perfect eyebrows. “It’s only been a few weeks since I started showing you around.”

“Yes, absolutely,” Seb said instantaneously. He was trying his best to look patient, mature, and anything else that might convince Nico. Seb knew this was a golden opportunity, and he wasn’t going to let it pass him by.

The two men sat beside one another on a park bench, listening to a particularly loud group of children play tag and argue over who had broken the sacred rules of the playground.

Nico had just casually informed Seb that he was going to meet with some associates for business tonight, so he wouldn’t be able to show Seb around the city.

Naturally, Seb had leapt onto that opportunity and begged to tag along.

“You don’t know just how dangerous my work can get,” Nico pointed out. “I’ve still only shown you the very surface of just how bad life can get in the city.”

“I can handle it,” Seb said stubbornly. “I’ll do anything you say.”

“Anything, carino ?” Nico purred, turning to give Seb a raking look up and down his body. “Don’t make promises that you can’t keep now.”

“Anything,” Seb agreed, leaning in closer and giving Nico his most smoldering gaze. “Anything at all.”

They were near enough that a kiss was only a gentle breeze away.

The slightest movement, and the two of them would be publicly doing what they’d hidden up until now, not to mention their nightly sextcapades ever since Nico made him touch himself and come.

But by some unspoken rule, they never mentioned it when they were face-to-face.

“Careful now,” Nico said softly, every syllable bathing Seb’s face in tempting warmth. “People might be watching.”

“They might,” Seb agreed, then he got even closer. “And maybe I’ll kiss you right here, right now, unless you agree to take me with you tonight.”

That surprised Nico, and for a moment, genuine irritation seemed to flash across his face. However, Seb didn’t get a chance to apologize or even begin to feel bad before a devious little smirk turned the corners of Nico’s lips.

“Is that so?” he asked, fighting fire with fire and inching even closer.

At this point, there was no plausible deniability whatsoever about what they were doing as Nico’s lips brushed against Seb’s.

“And how would you explain that to your loyal bodyguards? You really think they would let you venture into the belly of the beast with me ?”

“Y-yes.” Seb shivered, already quite certain of what sensations he was going to be recalling when he laid in bed alone tonight.

“Th-they’ll follow me no matter what. Later, there might be a disagreement, after they’ve had a chance to report to my dad, but that’s a bridge to cross when we get to it. ”

Nico’s laugh was low and throaty, exactly the sort of thing that Sebastian absolutely hated hearing, but only because he knew that it meant Nico was teasing him again. It would be a different matter if he was actually going to deliver upon all these tiny promises, but Seb knew better.

The rest of the afternoon passed in a heady blur, mostly because Seb had to spend it away from Nico. He returned to his college for some of his classes, but he was unable to focus on the droning lectures of his professors. All he could think about was exactly what he was going to see tonight.

He tried to convince himself that this was a purely academic excursion. After all, he was enriching his own understanding of how many, many people lived, and if he wanted to help them, then he needed to know more than he could learn from textbooks.

But in his heart, he knew the truth. This was nothing like the warm satisfaction he felt when looking forward to visiting Caroline. No, this was a pulsating thrill, the combination of the dangerous unknown and the comfort of Nico’s protection.

He nearly giggled in disbelief in the middle of his class.

What would his father think if he knew that his son felt comfortable because there was an exceptionally dangerous man that had taken an interest in him?

Seb thumbed his phone under the desk for the tenth time in five minutes, glancing down at the latest message.

Nothing new. Just the last text Nico had sent him—short, commanding, and somehow still intimate.

Nico : Tell me when you’re out

It was insane how much comfort those five words gave him.

Another buzz made him look again. Spam.

“Okay, what the hell is going on with you?” Tom muttered, leaning in and giving Seb a sideways nudge. “You’ve checked your phone so many times, I thought you were waiting for a kidney transplant.”

Jenny, seated just beyond Tom, perked up. “Oh my God, is Seb seeing someone?”

Seb turned sharply. “What? No. Shut up.” Even as he said the words, he knew it would do nothing but make his friends pry for more information. He’d met Tom and Jenny during the social work department orientation in freshman year, and they’d been friends ever since.

Tom narrowed his eyes at him, grinning like a devil. “It is a boyfriend, isn’t it? He’s all jumpy. It’s adorable.”

Jenny leaned across Tom, chin on her hand, voice syrup-sweet and teasing. “How cute is he? Where’d you meet him? Does he go here as well? Gym? Some uptown gay bar you haven’t invited us to yet?”

Seb groaned, stuffing his phone deeper into his lap. “You guys are the worst.”

Jenny laughed. “That’s not a no!”

“Seriously,” Seb hissed, but he was smiling now. “Can we not do this right now?”

Tom mimicked a whip crack under his breath. “Oh, he’s serious serious.”

“Shut up,” Seb said again, flustered, cheeks a little too warm.

Unfortunately, their laughter had drawn attention.

“Mr. Altamirano,” came the dry voice of Professor Matsuda from the front of the room, “if whatever’s on your phone is more engaging than social welfare policy, I’d recommend you and your friends step out and let the rest of the class suffer in peace.”

The class burst into snickers.

Seb snapped to attention, muttering, “Sorry,” while Jenny covered her mouth, still giggling.

Tom just smirked and whispered under his breath, “We better meet him soon. You know.”

Seb rolled his eyes, but the grin stayed. He looked down once more at his phone, thumb hovering over the screen. Then, reluctantly, he slid it into his pocket and forced himself to focus on the board.

At least for now.

And then, before Seb knew it, the day was over and night had fallen.

With his guards in tow, he made his way to the rendezvous point.

Whether he thought of it as the place near Caroline’s house, the place near the bus stop that he’d nearly been jumped in front of, or the place by Nico’s apartment depended entirely on how he was feeling at any given moment.

“Hey, pretty boy.”

Sebastian nearly leapt out of his skin, and not just because of the voice whispering into his ear. Nico always had to go that extra mile, and this time, he’d run his fingers down Seb’s back after sneaking up on him.

“Christ, you nearly gave me a heart attack,” Sebastian said as he struggled to regain his breath.

His bodyguards were watching intently from a short distance away, but he waved them back and reassured them that it was okay. Just friends playing pranks on one another, nothing more.

“Relax, relax,” Sebastian mumbled, but there was no way that they could hear him, and he was mostly talking to his own pounding heart anyway.

“So, you ready to go?” Nico asked, but Sebastian didn’t really hear him.

He had finally recovered from his shock enough to notice that his friend had changed since they’d parted ways earlier, and Nico was now wearing a suave, slim outfit suitable for a nightclub.

With the top buttons open, the sleeves rolled up, and expensive sunglasses on, Nico looked more ready to seduce everyone in the room than make a business deal.

“Y-yeah,” Sebastian said belatedly, finally remembering to speak.

Nico grinned as if he knew exactly what sordid thoughts had just run through Sebastian’s head. He nodded his head back to a car parked a few spaces down the street.

“This is yours?” Sebastian asked faintly as the pair made their way over to a sleek black beast, the kind that he definitely didn’t expect to see in this sort of neighborhood.

“It sure is,” Nico said with a smirk as he got in the driver’s side.

Once Sebastian was in the passenger’s seat, he realized that he had absolutely no idea how well-off Nico really was. Or what he did exactly to be able to afford this kind of purchase. The interior felt even more expensive than the exterior and was far more luxurious than any car his father had.

“Bet you’re wondering why I’d risk parking this on the street.” Nico turned the key in the ignition, and the engine roared to life.

It felt as though the entire world was rumbling around Seb, who could only nod in response.

Nico chuckled. “It is pretty risky unless everyone happens to know who you are. Once you reach a certain level of notoriety… well, let’s just say that people understand what they are and aren’t allowed to touch. By the way, some of your boys are getting a little antsy.”

Sure enough, Seb could see one of his guards approaching through the side view mirror next to him.

Feeling more than a little panicked, he waved the frowning man away. To his credit, the guard did pause, and his frown turned into a fierce scowl.

Seb couldn’t help but imagine how embarrassing it would be to roll down the window and be chided in front of Nico, especially on tonight of all nights, when he had just promised that he was mature enough to handle whatever world Nico was going to show him.

Fortunately, Nico broke the tense standoff by rolling down the window and addressing Sebastian’s bodyguards directly.

“I’d recommend hopping in your big black SUVs if you want to stand a chance of tailing me.”

And with that, Nico gunned it, shooting out into the road and blazing down through an empty street and a row of green lights. Behind them, Sebastian could vaguely make out the sound of panicked cries and his bodyguards trying to catch up.

“Don’t worry,” Nico reassured him as they slowed down to a much more legal speed. “I was just giving them a little fright. I’ll give them time to catch up.”

Seb nodded, still a little rattled by how quickly things were progressing. Had this been a terrible mistake?

“Unless, of course, you want me to give them a slip,” Nico remarked casually as they pulled up to a red light. “If you want, we could just lose them.”

It was tempting. Even with Sebastian knowing exactly how insane of an idea that was, it still held some appeal.

“I dunno…” he said, taking the coward’s way out and halfway hoping that Nico would make the decision for him.

A long moment stretched out to several long moments, and the light turned green, but still they sat there. Sebastian’s bodyguards hadn’t quite caught up yet, but they were visible in the rearview mirror.

“Nah, not today anyway,” Nico said, his attention returning to the road as he eased the gas down once more.

“Your dad’s men really do have your best interests at heart.

No sense in taking your frustration out on them for just doing their job, and besides, a little rebellion today might end with you having no privileges tomorrow. ”

The way he put it made Sebastian feel like an unruly child, but he quickly forgot about that as their surroundings grew darker and more malevolent.

“Why… why are you meeting someone all the way out here?” Seb asked as he tried very hard not to make eye contact with any of the terrifying locals that they were passing.

“Do you really want to know?”

Seb was surprised at just how hard it was to answer that question. Did he want to know what Nico actually did for a living? Would he be fine living in the dark and just accepting comfortable assumptions?

It was a thought that occupied him until they finally coasted to a stop in a wretched old parking lot with no lights and no signs of life.