MEGAN

Chapter 2

Niklas

"Just a bit longer, Nik." the therapist said, and Nik barely managed not to snarl at her as the pain starting in his thigh grew stronger, making him feel like there were a thousand needles beneath his skin.

"And time." she finally said, and Nik let go of the stretching equipment, his whole body shaking from extortion as cold sweat burst out of his skin.

"Good job! You know, you have made big progress since your first session. You should be proud!" the bubbly girl exclaimed as Nik sat at the nearby chair, trying and failing to keep his temper in check.

Great progress! Right!

As if you could call being able to walk without stumbling down progress.

Sure, if you were a civilian, but as a soldier in his mid-thirties, it was a disgrace.

"See you next week!" the girl yelled out behind him as Nik made his way to the locker room, dragging his feet as if he was coming back from a battle and not an hour-long therapist session and hating himself more with each step that he took.

He took off his sweaty clothes, the cold air of the changing rooms hitting his damp skin and making goosebumps spread over his whole body, before opening the locker to get his bag out.

Nik was in the middle of debating with himself if he should just dress and leave the shower for when he got home, as just the thought of having to bathe in the hot tub instead of in the communal showers of the wellness center made him tremble in anger, when another man entered the room in a rush, slamming the doors so hard that they almost flew out of their hinges.

"Fucking bitch! Who is she to tell me..." he started to curse, the rest of his words getting lost in the loud buzzing in his ears as the room disappeared in front of Nik's eyes.

"Retreat! Retreat! I've been made!" Tamara yelled as she ran back toward their hiding place, the bullets raining down on her, making the sand at her feet rise in a dusty cloud.

She was still a long way from where Nik and the rest of the boys were covering, and George took out his rifle and began shooting back, trying to take down the shooter before Nik's eyes widened at the sight of a man jumping out of the stone ruins with something clutched in his hands.

"Grenade! Get down, Tam!" Nik screamed and started running toward her as soon as he realized what the object was, the yells and curses of the rest of the team echoing behind him as they urged him to get back.

Tamara's eyes widened when she saw Nik running toward her, and she started to tell him something, but it never got out as the grenade fell and exploded right between them, and the blast threw Nik back into the ground.

An excruciating pain spread through his leg as a scream tore out of his throat before everything went black.

"What the fuck is your problem!?" someone growled, and Nik was snatched back into reality.

The locker room came back, and he suddenly found himself pinning the guy from before up against the wall with his forearm against his throat.

"Get off me, you fucking lunatic!" the man wheezed out, his face slowly turning purple, and Nik immediately took a step back as a wave of shame washed over him.

"I... I'm sorry... I didn't..."

"You're fucking sick, you know that! Stay away from me!" the man yelled and ran out of the room before Nik could even finish apologizing, the look of terror in the man's eyes making him hate himself more than he had ever before.

He slid down the wall and slumped down over the floor as he realized that the word 'sick' couldn't even begin to describe him.

∞

"Just five more minutes," Tamara murmured and snuggled further into the white sheets, making Nik smile.

"Tam, we will get in trouble if we are late for a morning run again," he whispered into her ear before starting to kiss down her naked shoulder.

A smile spread over Tamara's lips at the action, and she sighed as Nik's hand pulled the sheet a bit further down to reveal more of her mocha-colored skin.

"And that won't make us late?" she asked, raising her head from the pillow with a smirk as Nik's lips traveled down to her lower back.

Nik shook his head without answering before rolling Tamara on her back and draping his body over hers in one swift motion.

"I'll make it quick," he said with a grin before cutting off the laughter bubbling out of Tamara's mouth with his own.

∞

A shrill ringing sounded off in the room, pulling him out of his dream as Nik turned over, trying and failing to turn off the damn alarm without opening his eyes.

There was a loud crash followed by blissful silence, and Nik sighed and turned back into the pillows, already deciding to get back to sleep before he remembered why he had set the alarm in the first place.

One of Nate's friends had left him a message the previous day, asking for them to meet and discuss a possible job.

Nik wasn't really ready to work, especially for one of Nate's friends, since the last job he had taken from him ended with Nik in a hospital with a bullet in his shoulder. Still, the woman had sounded quite spooked, even though she had tried to hide it, so Nik had reluctantly agreed.

He sat up and scooted down to the bottom of the bed where his leg was leaning against it and made quick work of pulling it on before he stood up and went to the bathroom to get ready.

A little bit later, Nik pulled up to the driveway of a gorgeous-looking house on the outskirts of New York, making him whistle at the thought of how much it must have cost.

Of course, Nik already knew a bit about the owner, having heard about her from Nate, and the fact that the woman had quit her job as a lawyer when she had been at the height of her career only to open a nightclub sounded quite intriguing and made him curious about this Megan Jones.

He exited the car and walked up to the door, pulling the brass knocker and letting it fall back while shaking his head as the word 'pretentious' echoed around his mind.

Nik had already started imagining some stuck-up rich girl at the other side of the door when the door in question opened.

He felt all breath leave him in a rush as big, green eyes looked up into his and widened slightly before a polite smile spread over the slightly shorter woman's full, plump lips, revealing a set of shiny, white teeth.

"You must be Niklas. Thank you for coming; my name is Megan."