25.

Next Morning

“Oh yes, Andy,” she moans loudly.

I watch as the pleasure takes over her body, her eyes roll at the back of her head.

“This is absolute heaven,” she says, “You make the best muffins by far.”

I blush, “Thank you.”

It was nine o’clock in the morning, Nikki and I had woken up each other pretty early, we had a great session in the shower, and we came to the kitchen for some breakfast, and I made waffles and bran muffins, while she sat on the chair, like the beautiful queen she is.

Bliss is the only thing I can describe it as, finally feeling free and happy from within. I had forgotten how happiness felt, and then she walked into my life, and she just changed everything. Her pure energy of love and positivity, something I’d been lacking my whole life. Guess Charles was right? Finding love is something that one person has to do.

I look at her and I smile, “I’ve never been this happy in my life, and it’s all thanks to you.”

She averts her eyes from me, but I lift her head with her chin and look into her eyes, “Nikki, I love you.”

“I love you too,” she whispers, and she gives me a gentle, yet passionate kiss. We pull apart and we press our foreheads together.

“So, who taught you how to bake such amazing muffins?”

My cheeks heat up, “Google, I can’t cook or bake to save my life.”

Nikki laughs, “Wow, you could have fooled me, baby. These are good for your first attempt.”

“I’m glad you like them,” I laugh lightly, “I’m looking to brush up my cooking skills and treat you to a wonderful three-course meal one day.”

“Aren’t you the sweetest? I’d love that,” she gushes.

I give her a wet kiss on the cheeks, and she squeals as she wipes her cheek, I laugh, and she punches my chest lightly.

“You are nasty,”

I smirk, “Wanna get nasty before we head to work?”

“No, Xander, we are going to be late?”

“Blow job on the drive to work?”

She gives me a smirk, “Deal.”

I grin, I take my apron off, and we rush upstairs to her room, and we take a quick shower, I had my suit delivered in the morning, pressed and ready. We both take a shower together, both of us resisting the urge to devour the other. When we are done, we get dressed and Nikki decides to match my navy-blue suit and white shirt, with a navy blue, pencil dress, a white blazer and stilettos, and boy if looks could kill, I’d be a dead man.

Our drive to work, as well risky, if it weren’t for my excellent fast and furious driving skills, I’m sure you know what would have happened.

We get to the office in one piece, and I help Nikki with her hair, we step out of the car, and we make our way up to the boardroom for our scheduled meeting. We get to the boardroom, and it’s just Jo-Anne in the room.

“Good morning,” we both greet but Jo-Anne doesn’t say a word.

“Jo-Anne?”

Jo-Anne snaps out of her trance and smiles at us, “Morning, morning, sorry got a lot on my mind today.”

“That’s okay,” Nikki replies, “Where is Charles, though?”

Jo-Anne shrugs, “I have no idea, I tried to call him, but he never answered.”

“That’s unlike him,” I say, as I pull a chair out for Nikki, she sits down and just as I’m about to take my seat, Charles comes stumbling in.

“Sorry, sorry, I’m late,” he apologizes.

He looked awful and Charles never looks awful, no matter what he’s going through., he stands beside me, and I look at him.

“Are you okay, Charles? You don’t look well,” I whisper.

He nods, “Yeah, yeah. Just had a long night.”

He’s not ready to tell me, I’ll leave him be.

Charles and I sit down, and the meeting begin. Charles wasn’t okay, I could see, no, I could feel it in my gut. He has this sadness about him today, something is going on. After about an hour the meeting is over, Charles gets his phone out and starts texting.

“Is he okay?” Nikki asks, “He looks upset about something.”

“I don’t know, he won’t tell me,” I frown.

Nikki sighs and stands beside Charles, putting a hand on his shoulder, “Charles, what’s wrong honey? You don’t look okay.”

Charles looks like he’s about to burst into tears, “There is someone I want you to meet.”

“What? Charles, what’s going on –

“Promise you won’t get mad at me,” he says as tears roll down his cheeks.

“Charles, now we are really worried, what’s going on?” Nikki asks worriedly.

“Just promise me, Xander,”

I nod, “Of course, I promise, scout's honour.”

I hear a clicking sound behind me and I know that sound all too well, it’s a gun. I turn around and Jo-Anne has a gun pointed at me.

“Jo-Anne?”

I stand in front of Nikki with my hands in the air, “Put the gun down Jo-Anne, you don’t have to do this.”

“Oh, fuck off. If I do that, you’re gonna throw me in jail too,” she says angrily.

I shake my head, “No, of course not.”

And she raises her gun in the air, shoots the ceiling, and points it back at me, Nikki is whimpering behind me, and I have to do everything to protect her and Charles, no matter what.

“You threw my boyfriend in jail! You think that that’s going to sit well with me, hell no, I’m going to kill every last one of you, if it’s the last thing I do,”

“Are you talking about Aiden?”

“All he had to do was steal enough money for us to run away and start new lives, but he wanted more, he wanted the whole bloody cow!”

“Jo-Anne, I trusted you,” Nikki cries, “After everything I’ve done for you.”

“Oh, shut up and spare me the fucking tears, all you’ve done is make me your slave,” she spits.

Where is Damien when you need him?

“Couldn’t you just resign or ask for a raise like everybody else?” Charles yells from behind me.

“Watch it, Dante, I’ll blow your head off first!” she yells, pointing it over my shoulder.

“You let me sleep with Aiden and have him do all those things to me? Just so you could steal from me?”

“Well, it had to be convincing,” she says in a duh tone.

The door swings open and Damien is armed and ready to shoot, he has his gun in hand pointing at Jo-Anne and there is an elderly woman with him.

“Put the gun down, Jo-Anne,” Damien commands.

That aims for my head and Damien steps closer, I’m in full panic mode, Nikki is crying behind me and so is Charles, I have to stay calm, for their sake and mostly mine, I can’t make any sudden movements.

“1” Damien counts.

She doesn’t flinch.

“2”

Her finger is on the trigger.

Lord, forgive me for my sins, I pray.

“3”

And in the blink of an eye, two shots are fired. My ears are ringing, I slowly open my eyes and look in front of me, Jo-Anne is lying on the floor with a bullet in the middle of her forehead, I turn around and Nikki and Charles are alive, but their gasps raise some concerns.

That’s when I feel it, a sharp pain in my abdomen, I look down and blood is soaking my blazer and shirt.

Shit.

Damien catches me before I fall, and he lays me down, Nikki kneels beside me, and he’s crying, I can’t hear a thing, but I know she’s telling me everything will be okay. The elderly woman is beside me too, and she’s crying, her bright blue eyes twinkling as tears fall from her eyes. I see a bright light in the far distance.

“I’m so sorry baby,” she cries as she lifts my hand and kisses it, “Mama is here.”

“Mom,” I croak out.

And the bright light consumes me.