SCARS
CHAPTER 3
WAR WOUNDS
Vince looked out into the winter night. He was still restless.
"V?" Nikaury called from their bed. "Baby come back to bed its cold." She patted his side of the bed then tuned giving him her back.
The scars. They were what had brought them together.
War wounds, she called them. They are what make us who we are!
She had been right in more ways than one. He had proved it to himself for the last three years. Without her he doesn't think he would have been able to get back in touch with the team. While he still wasn't ready to go back, he was getting close.
"Vince," she called again. This time she sat up letting the sheets bunch up in her lap revealing her breast.
"Yea," he tuned back to look at her again. "Sorry, I was just thinking." He touched the hole in his abdomen and then the scar that roped around his arm.
"Oh yea, well I was thinking too." She said giving him that look he loved her for. "Come here and let me tell you what I've been thinking about." This made Vince laugh. He crawled into bed with her and laid his ear against her chest. She caressed his face and hair. "What's the matter baby, you've been weird since this morning. Who was it that called you?" Vince tightened his hold on her and just listened to the rhythm of her breath.
"No body just an old friend." He really wasn't ready to accept the fact that Dominic was contacting him after all this time. Dom was still 'missing' according to the rest of the team. He had called LA just after talking with Dom. Mia had not heard from her brother yet and Letty was still not talking.
"It better not had been some racer skank calling to tell you that she wanted to collect child support." Vince couldn't help but let out a loud laugh. He looked up at Nikaury resting his chin on her bare chest.
"Girl, see that's why I love you." She pulled his face up and they kissed passionately. He rolled her to be on top of him. "Nik, would you come to LA with me?"
"Dam and here I thought you was finally going to ask me to marry you." She sucked her teeth, sitting up putting her hands on her hips. He had actually asked her earlier that night during dinner. They were on their 3 year anniversary from when they first met.
"Do you remember our first night?" He said playing with her hair. It was now her turn to lie on his chest.
"Mm," she nodded smiling, "do I ever! Like I said that first night we were together. We were repaired for each other! And I still mean it." She was looking at the solitaire he had given her over dinner. It was the exact one she had described to him that first night.
THEIR FIRST NIGHT
Vince had just finished buttoning his shirt when she knocked on his door.
She was wearing a cobalt blue dress that coincidentally matched his shirt perfectly. They laughed when he opened the door.
"Great minds think alike I guess." She said as he stepped back to let her enter. "Been here long?" She asked referring to the dry-cleaning rack he had up against the wall.
"Yeah about 3 months." She looked at him surprise.
"What you can't afford an apartment?" She giggled. "Doesn't matter I love staying in hotels pay others to do everything for you," she waved a hand in the air as she sat on the sofa. He smiled glad he didn't need to explain himself to her and handed her the room service menu.
"Want anything in particular?" He asked. "I don't usually order." She looked it over and chose an appetizer and a dessert. He called room service and ordered two of each of the items she ordered.
"Stole this from my minibar," she handed him the small bottle of red wine.
"Oh I don't drink that stuff, but thanks." Vince said as he opened it and poured her a glass. There was that look again but this time there was something else there. He pointed to the medicine bottles and she nodded understanding.
"Yea I shouldn't either then." She finished the glass in one long drink and put it down. "So what they got you on?" She said reaching for the bottle when she saw his hand. She looked him in his eyes as if asking permission to touch his hand. He sat next to her and she tuned his hand over in hers.
Being this close to her he could smell the lilac scent coming from her. She looked at him again before unbuttoning his sleeve and rolling it up to his elbow. She noticed that the scar actually didn't end at the elbow. The scar was still healing, still pinkish. She looked at Vince asking for permission again and he began to unbutton his shirt.
"It only gets worse." Vince warned as he let the shirt fall off his shoulder.
"Can I ask what happened?" She asked with genuine concern. Vince didn't really want to relive that last heist; he didn't want her to know about his past just yet.
"Not yet. Maybe, maybe in the morning?" Vince was surprised when she smiled at him.
"So I guess were having breakfast then?" She asks just as the room service attendant knocked on the door. Vince laughed fixing his shirt.
"That's if you didn't get scared off by what is under this shirt." Vince said quietly once the room service attendant left grinning with the tip that Vince had singed on the ticket.