Page 15 of Kill Shot

Business Dealings

Nico

It wasn’t his finest moment. Nico was fully aware of that, but the situation was just too convenient to pass up. In one fell swoop, it would solve several of his problems, and the only price would be potentially scaring Seb out of his wits.

Just before meeting up with Seb for the day’s corruption, Nico had received a call from Bolero. Turns out that the gang of extremely unreliable distributors had decided to stop keeping in touch with the Black Cobra leadership, so Bolero wanted Nico to go remind them of their obligations.

Again.

Pinche pérdida de tiempo . Fucking waste of time. Bola de cabrones, no saben con quién se están metiendo. Bunch of assholes didn’t know who they were messing with.

Knowing that he’d been right about not trusting them did little to soothe Nico’s irritation. After all, he was still the one being sent in to clean up a mess that he had warned Bolero would happen. Not only that, but it also meant that he had to rearrange his plans for Seb, or so it had seemed.

With one look at Seb’s stubbornness, Nico had realized just what a useful opportunity this might be.

He could scare the boy, then be the comforting arm around him.

He could even use Seb’s bodyguards to imply that he had plenty of muscle at the meeting site.

After all, it wasn’t like they were going to contradict him if he suggested anything of the sort to the assholes that he had to intimidate.

“Yes,” Seb said at last, so long after Nico’s question that he’d completely forgotten about it. “Yes, I want to know.”

They were stopped but hadn’t exited the car yet. Nico was waiting for the distributors to arrive, and Seb’s bodyguards had already pulled up in their SUVs behind him, fanning out into a semicircle of imposing darkness.

“They’re drug dealers,” Nico said bluntly, having had a lot of time to come up with exactly how he would answer this particular question when it eventually came up.

He had ultimately decided that honesty of a sort was the best policy.

“They’ve been causing problems, and some people have sent me to tell them to quit fucking around. ”

It wasn’t false, but it was also vague, and a large part of him was hoping that Seb would lunge for the most charitable and unlikely interpretation imaginable.

“Like they’re selling to kids and you want them to stop?” Seb asked cautiously, as if hoping that it was true.

God, he was such an idiot… but that’s okay, Nico thought . Sebastian was his idiot. The poor kid really did wear his emotions on his sleeve.

“Yeah, among other things,” Nico answered, glad that he didn’t even have to lie. “If I had things my way, I’d just leave them to the wolves and never deal with them again, but my boss thinks otherwise.”

“Your boss,” Seb mouthed, and Nico could tell the exact thoughts going through his head. The boy was probably about to lay every sin of Nico’s at his boss’s feet so that Seb could continue to look up to Nico.

Which wasn’t entirely wrong, but that was a can of worms that Nico was not ready to open tonight.

Though he’d never admit it, a part of him liked how Sebastian always assumed the best of him.

As second in the Black Cobra, he’d mentored plenty who respected him—even feared him—but no one had ever given him the gift of their complete trust. None of them had made him feel worshipped beyond his status, for the person he could be beneath all the violence and trauma.

The way Sebastian looked at him now, all wide-eyed and shining, full of admiration and wonder, it did hit somewhere deep and dangerous.

Nico knew he was no hero, but fuck, the way Sebastian saw him made him want to be something more.

Even if it was for just a second, long enough to truly deserve that look.

And underneath it, darker instincts also stirred.

Because this kind of devotion didn’t only stroke a man’s ego, it bled straight into want.

And Nico wasn’t noble enough to pretend he didn’t feel it.

Especially not when that blind trust went straight to his cock and made him wonder how far he could push before Sebastian realized saints didn’t wear leather and blood.

“Ah, here they are,” he murmured as the flash of headlights lit up the other end of the parking lot. Car after car rolled into sight, numbering ten in total. They’d come in force, likely expecting that Nico would be here alone and that they’d be able to intimidate him.

Or who knows, maybe they’d even finally decided that they could just off him. It wouldn’t be the dumbest thing that they’d done this last week, which was impressive in and of itself.

Nico looked back through his tinted windows at the SUVs full of Seb’s bodyguards that were likely at their wits’ end. Push them just a little further and they’d likely snap.

“I’m gonna go talk to my business associates. Why don’t you go reassure your guards that there’s nothing to worry about?”

Seb looked both relieved and sad. His gaze lingered on Nico. “I… I can just wait here, if you don’t mind,” Seb said, his tone soft and unsure as if he knew the older man would deny his request.

“Mm, I know you want to. But I think it’s best to stay safe with your daddy’s men for now, okay?”

Seb didn’t move. Those wide, shining blue-gray eyes just kept searching Nico’s face like he was trying to memorize it, like he didn’t know when he’d get to be this close again. His gaze dipped to Nico’s mouth and stayed there for more seconds than it should, and that was it for Nico.

He didn’t think. The consequences of what he was about to do didn’t ring in his head.

He grabbed Seb by the front of his shirt and yanked him in, crushing their mouths together, taking what he’d been wanting since earlier, when he saw Seb waiting for him in front of his apartment building.

Nico’s other hand curled behind Seb’s neck, holding him in place and devouring his softness with tongue and teeth.

He hadn’t meant to kiss the boy with such hunger.

But when Seb whimpered against him, Nico chased after that sound, deepening the kiss and wringing more of that out from him.

Caught in the moment, he forgot why was there in the first place, and the goddamn business he was here to do.

Hell, he forgot about the men out there.

Seb’s bodyguards sitting in their SUVs. He forgot everything, consumed by the heat in this boy’s kiss.

It was messy and too much, and yet, not nearly enough.

He didn’t know who pulled away first, but the moment the air hit his lips, something snapped back into place.

“Go. Go now.” Nico exhaled hard, voice rough. He wasn’t sure if the bite in his tone came from the shock of the kiss or wanting Seb with his bodyguards, where it was safe.

Or maybe it was neither.

His fingers twitched. Every inch of him screamed to move and take what he knew Seb would give willingly if he so much as asked. But Nico held himself back, barely keeping it together. Because if he touched Seb again, he wouldn’t stop. And honestly? That terrified him a little.

If Seb didn’t leave now, Nico was going to press him into that seat and fuck whatever innocence he had left. Right here, in front of all these men.

“Please go now, carino .”

Seb nodded, breathing fast. His face was flushed a deep shade of red, and his lips were still moist from the kiss. But just before he exited the car, he looked back at Nico with a fierceness Nico hadn’t seen before.

“I don’t want to,” he said. “But because you said I should… I will.”

And then he was gone, leaving Nico sitting in the silence with his jaw clenched tight and his heart kicking like a fucking war drum in his chest. It took him a minute to shake off the daze before watching Seb through the rearview mirror, walking towards the SUVs.

Before, Nico might have worried that the boy would leave with his bodyguards, but now he was quite sure that his guard dogs couldn’t take him even if they tried. Seb was simply too stubborn for his own good, and Pablo’s protective grip had only made it worse.

Well, usually overprotective, Nico reminded himself as he got out of his car. In their line of business, and around men like Nico, it was just the right amount of protectiveness though.

“Nico, is that you?” a rowdy voice called out from ahead. None of the distributors had turned their lights off, meaning that it was impossible to make them out past the blinding wall of light.

“And I see you’ve brought friends!” another voice called out. “Aw, don’t you trust us?”

Nico had already done the mental math. There could be as many as forty men here, but there was little point in highlighting their hypocrisy, especially since they were trying to pick a fight with him and goad him into something stupid.

He glanced back and saw that Seb was at the window of one of his father’s cars, arguing with the men inside. The boy looked so passionate and full of life. Nico couldn’t help but wonder how feisty he would be pinned below him.

Nico moved to the front of his car and leaned against the hood, arms folded, basking in the glow of the headlights. He made no attempt to approach them as he waited, an unimpressed look on his face.

Let them come to him.

Across the lot, muffled arguing broke out. Eventually, three of them stepped out in front of their headlights, and the showdown was on.

“Now I thought you boys understood me when we talked last,” Nico mused. “You said you were gonna get in line and do what the bosses down south said.”

None of the three approached any closer, and it was impossible for Nico to tell if any of them had been the man that he’d negotiated with last time. With a shoddy organization like this, he wouldn’t be surprised if they went through leaders as fast as toilet paper.

“Well, we changed our minds,” one of the men called out, his voice high and reedy. “We got together and decided that we didn’t much like your terms. We’re doing all the hard work, and you’re fleecing us!”

“Yeah!” a chorus of voices agreed.

Nico looked back and made sure that Seb was both safe and watching. Reassured on both counts, Nico strolled over the no man’s land that separated the two sides, mainly so that his voice didn’t carry all the way back to his impressionable mark. No need to terrify the boy too much.

It was time to get down to business.