"Mr Careles. Going somewhere?"
"As a matter of fact I am."
"Not just yet. We have something we need to discuss with you. You'll need to come with us."
§§
Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC), New York
Spending time in a holding cell with two unpleasant sweaty NYPD detectives isn't exactly how Nico pictured his night would go. After the game, after he talked to Mark Cuban, he'd called Xeno and asked him to go to his house and prep his travel bag - he was planning on driving to Dallas that same night, hoping the nightly drive would clear his head some, although he knew it would do nothing to relieve the sensation that his heart had just been yanked out of his chest.
Yet, here he is.
"Am I officially being charged with something?," he'd asked the detectives.
"We have some questions we would like answers to," the taller one had said. "Really, sir, it's in your best interest to accompany us to the station."
He had and once they had him in a holding cell things quickly became clear. They only needed to mention the name 'Mrs Pittman' for the shoe to drop.
Nico isn't worried - yet. The charge is a joke - even the detectives know it - but it looks like he's not going anywhere until he gets his bail hearing the next day. He sent a quick text to Xeno from the car before they took his cell, and he's called Devin - the lawyer owes him quite a bit of favors, so he has no doubt he'll be there first thing in the morning. Now he's got nothing to do but count the hours until morning - in the dark, with little hope of sleep and no distraction and Nico thinks it must be the worst kind of timing to be left alone with nothing but the thoughts in his head. Thoughts of Gabrielle, thoughts of Dani, and the impossible mess he seems to have created for himself involuntarily. He wants to focus on Gabrielle, on his anger towards her, come up with a battle plan to outwit her, to hit her back as hard as she's trying to hit him now but his focus keeps getting lost. Some thoughts have glue on them. They keep coming back. It's a line out of Smilla's Sense of Snow, one that rings especially true when it comes to his thoughts of one Doctor Danielle Santino, therapist of the New York Hawks and - if tonight was anything to go on - the re-appointed girlfriend of the Hawks' general manager.
He's gambled. He's lost. It's an entirely new position for him. It's not that Nico Careles has never gotten a no from a woman before - he's just never gotten one when it mattered, he never put his heart on the line when he wasn't a hundred percent sure of the outcome.
But the thing with Dani Santino is that she has a way of disarming him, and she has since day one. Sassy, sexy, tough-talking, funny, lovable, kind, impossible creature that she is. Somehow, at some point, seeing Dani go full Santino about anything or against anyone had become the highpoint of his working weeks. It's been the main reason why he keeps sneaking up on her or pushes her buttons deliberately, just for the amazing pleasure of seeing her fly off the bat.
Nico groans, rubbing his palm over his forehead. He's in enough of a state for his eyes to sting, especially at the idea of Matt and Dani together like… right now. She just wasn't ready, he thinks. Maybe she's lying to herself, refusing to see what his gut tells him is so obviously there. Or maybe she really does love Donnally a whole lot more than he's reckoned. It doesn't matter anymore. It's game over. He loves her. He wants to protect her. But she's decided it's another man's business. The sooner he can get to Dallas, away from the Hawks, away from her, the better.