Chapter 8

"A favor for freedom"

The next morning Niko gathed together some clothes for me to wear. Even though they were a size to big because they were altered to his height and frame, he still thought I was adorable. He laughed as I tripped over his trouser legs as I walked around his apartment. Still, at least it was better than wearing what I had on to speak to a government employee.

"You still look good. Even when you have nothing on." He said.

"Behave yourself. You shouldn't get yourself all hot and bothered before you meet this agent."

He ate his bowl of cereal at his small kitchen table in the corner while I mock scolded him. He patted his lap prompting me to sit. I wrap my arms around his neck and pressed my breasts against him.

"How can I behave when you do stuff like this?"

I felt his hardness against my leg as I teased him. I know what you're thinking. I'm a hypocrite for doing what I did to him yesterday and even now. Sometimes you should go with your gut feeling. My lust filled mind did have a point. I saved myself until I was ready with all four of my ex's. I was willing to be different this time with him.

"When you have a sexy man, it's hard for any woman to act normal."

"Ти си моја слатка љубав. Бити са мном заувек."

Before I could ask him what he said, his mouth met mine again and kissed me with a firey passion. My eyes rolled back as a small wimper escaped me.

"Волим те." He said as he broke the kiss.

"What?"

"Волим те."

"Yes?" I questioned what I just agreed to. He smiled at my lack of understanding.

"I said I love you."

I flushed red at his comment. I swallowed hard for I was about to confess the same thing.

"How do you say I love you, too in Serbian?"

"Волим и ја тебе."

"Yeah, that."

He laughed and gave me a quick peck on my cheek.

"I should teach you some more Serbian. It is actually really nice talking in my language with someone other than my cousin." He said thoughtfully.

The clock on the wall chimed in the 8 am hour, and that realization of the time changed Niko's mood.

"Well, we should get going. You called in sick for today already?"

"I called before we went to sleep."

He slid me off his lap and took his bowl to the sink. I noticed he grabbed a folder with a few papers in it as we left his apartment.

"Can we take your car again?"

"Sure."

He handed me his folder, and I gave him my keys.

"This drive could be a while. It's about an hour away."

I start up my game, and Niko let's out a laugh.

"I guess you'll manage. You're impossible. Ти си немогуће."

"You'll get hooked too if you play."

"I don't think I will like it. It's too childish. Не хвала."

"I can't understand you."

Niko roars with laughter and stops at a red light. He took his hands off the steering wheel and gave me another smile.

"Ти си најлепша ствар коју сам видео целог живота."

"Nope. Still don't understand."

"You are the most beautiful thing I have seen all my life. I really enjoy being with you."

The light turned green, and he progressed down the street.

As soon as we arrived, Niko grab the folder I was holding.

"What is in there?" I finally asked.

"Something you shouldn't see." He tucked the folder under his arm and gave me my keys. "Perhaps it is better if you stay here. Ја ћу се вратити."

"I thought you want me in there with you."

"I'd rather you not see or hear who I've killed. The less you know, the better."

"You've told me everything you've done on Saturday. Хајде, Нико."

He smiled. He must have been impressed with my fast learning.

"Not everything. Please, wait here for me. I will tell you what the result was when I come back. обећавам."

I sat back down in the car. I watched him go inside and wondered how he'd handle this without me. He told me he wanted me to fight for him. Oh well, better just listen to the radio.

I get a text message, and I look at the sender. It was Niko.

Вратићу се теби за неко време. Хвала на разумевању.

He really must want me to learn Serbian overnight because he has been speaking it more frequently. Even before we went to bed. He told me good night in Serbian. I reply back to him:

What?

I could only imagine him laughing as he waited or whatever the heck he was doing in there.

I said thank you for understanding. I will be back for you in a while. I'm about to sit down with this guy. Желим ми срећу. Wish me luck.

Okay. That I understood.

Желим whatever...

I recieved no reply. Nothing at all. I waited patiently for over 2 hours, playing my silly game Niko so fondly called. I texted a few people asking what's up. I even studied a little Serbian, so I could impress him when he came back.

"Како је прошло?" I asked him when he basically flopped down into the car.

He smiled at my language of choice.

"Није добро. Желио је да некога убијем, наравно, али сам му рекао не једном када сам сазнала ко је то."

Okay. I have absolutely no clue. I looked at him for a translation.

"It didn't go as good as I planned. He wanted me to kill someone, of course. I told him no once I was told who my target was."

"Niko! Why? That was your chance."

"Because the person is related to you. This is your last name, correct?"

I seized with worry.

"Who is it?!"

"I shouldn't tell you. You'll worry."

"Of course I'll worry!" I snapped. "Niko, Кажи ми."

He handed me the contract. It was my brother. My body went limp as I blacked out.

The next thing I know, I am back at Niko's apartment in his bed. I came to and there he was, waiting for me to say something.

"Thank God you're okay."

I sat up straight and looked Niko in his eyes.

"Why the hell do they want my brother dead?!

"They don't want him dead. They just want me to turn him in. He's gotten himself into some legal trouble. It caught the eye of my employers. He became involved in gangs. I told hi-"

"We have to find my brother immediately!"

I searched for my phone. When I couldn't find mine, Niko handed me his. I frantically dial his number in hopes that I can find out where he is. I called several times, hoping he didn't pick up the first time because he didn't recognize Niko's number. I left a voice mail and sent him a text message.

Niko was now sitting beside me in bed.

"I can't imagine how scared you are."

"Niko, what am I gunna do?!"

He looked like he had an overwhelming urge to go after his employers, judging by his lowered brows.

"I am going to defend your brother. I am going after the man who issued this contract."

"You can't do that! You'll be killed!"

"No I won't."

I grab his arm and plead with him.

"You can't go after a government employee!"

"What do you suggest we do!?" He snapped back. "Your brother is in trouble. I have to help him."

"It's suicide! I don't want my brother to go to jail, nor do I want to lose you. Волим те."

Niko froze his thinking for a moment. I said it. Even though I said it in his language. Hell, he must think it to be ten times better to hear it in his language.

"Волим и ја тебе. Чак и више од речи може рећи."

"I can't have you going off only to come back in a body bag. There's got to be another way of doing this. Can't you tell your employer to ignore this?"

"He has a small file, but it is all gang related. Small time criminals can be swept under for a while, but they will come for him."

"You have to help my brother, Niko."

"Do you know where he lives? Maybe we can go to him?"

I haven't talked to my brother in years. I try to recall his last known location. I type his address in my GPS and show Niko.

"I know the place. Let's go." He stood up and got a gun from his closet. I had no idea he had firearms in his apartment. I look at him with surprise.

"It's for my protection. I never know who'll show up to end me."

I follow him out the door. I noticed he grabbed his keys this time. I am too worried to be excited about driving in a sports car.

As he darted in and out of traffic, I get more scared. I wonder what sort of activity my brother has been doing, and I wondered why he never called me for help. I feel a sense of dread as the GPS tell us the destination is on the left. Niko pulled in a driveway, and he circled around. He was surveying the area before entering.

"Stay here. Don't let anybody in. I'll lock the doors." He said and slid out of his car.

"Niko, wait. Please be careful. Come back to me safely."

"I'll be fine. If you see someone sketchy, stay low."

His eyes stayed with mine for about ten seconds, then he turned and flew inside the apartment building. I waited inside the car nervously looking around. My eyes watched everything around the car. I had half the mind to call Niko after an hour passed, but that wouldn't be a wise idea.

It was after that thought, I heard gunfire erupting in an instant. I hid under the dashboard of Niko's car. I held my phone tight, hoping Niko was okay. It was extremely tense for the next fourty minutes. I stuck my head up periodically to see where he is. I still see nothing, and for a moment, I had the fear he might be dead.

My phone rang. I answered immediately once I saw who was calling.

"Sharon? Are you alright? Are you still in the car?" Hearing his voice washed the fear away.

"Niko! I'm okay! Are you?"

"I'm fine. I'm unlocking the door. Don't panic." I could tell he was running at full speed. I heard another voice come in the background.

"Be quiet and follow me." He demanded away from his phone.

I heard the car doors unlock. Niko and my brother came out of the apartment. Niko threw open the door and shoved my brother in. Niko sat in the car and revved the engine, seeming to tell a machine we need all its horsepower. A few bullets klanked on the body of the car.

"Stay down a hold on!" Niko warned.

He put his foot down, causing the tires to screech. He flew out of the parking lot and rounded the corner at full speed. I swear he took the corner on two wheels. I silently hope this car doesn't take a crap on us. He did say it has a lot of problems.

Niko took back streets to escape from whoever was shooting at us. He parked the car under a small pedestrian walkway bridge. A sigh of relief came from him. I didn't notice because we were doing atleast ninety miles per hour, but Niko was bleeding from his right arm and from his right side. My motherly instinct kicked in, and I tried to bandage him up with the shirt I had in. I began to tear the sleeves, and he stopped me.

"I'll be fine. Worry about your brother. The drug deal he was in was a set up by the police."

I turned to my brother in the compact back seats, and I attack him verbally and physically.

"You идиот! You глупи јункие! How dare you risk yourself! You could have died!"

"Bitch, you're crazy. Get your hands off me!" He said.

"I bet you don't even remember who I am!"

"I could care less why you are! I'm outta here!"

He attempted to escape from the back seat. Niko held him in check and held the door closed.

"Sit down and shut up. You're not going anywhere."

"This is kidnapping! Help!" He shouted. Passerby looked inside the vehicle, and Niko sped off again. He drove through the city back to his apartment. I found it a good idea that Niko kept him quiet by gagging him.

"Take him up to the apartment. I'll be up there in a minute. There's something I got to do." Niko instructed and gave me his apartment keys.

It was a struggle getting my brother to cooperate. The elevator made it much more difficult as it took a good three minutes to get to the main floor. Many people got off the elevator, and I forced my brother on. He struggled the entire ride up. I shoved him onto the couch and begin my interrogation.

"What the hell do you think you're doing with yourself! Why are you doing this?"

"Nobody cares for me! Not even you. You we're never there! You don't know what I've been through!"

"You never called me to tell me anything!"

"I called several times! You never picked up! I told you you never cared!"

Niko burst through the door as he heard raised voices. He had a look of pure anger.

"Do you have any idea how full of shit you sound? Your sister was terrified knowing you fucked your own life up, and she was still there to get you out of that mess. Do you know how serious it is if you got caught by those pigs? You aren't going to see the light of day as you rot up in prison. You better be more thankful for what she has done." His tone and harsh language scared even me. I did not expect to have tough love for my brother. I guess since he risked his life to save him.

Niko disappeared to the bathroom to patch himself up. I really wanted to help him mend his wounds, but I wanted to find out what he has been up to for 4 years. I started my questioning beginning with the last time I saw him.

He'd been a depressed wreck for a while. He cast aside all his friends and family and adopted a drug addiction. He also sold drugs and other illegal activities. The last time I saw my brother, he was working as a mechanic at a car company. I assumed everything was going good for him. He moved out of state, and I lost track of him. After all that time, he never called or attempted to reach out to anyone for help. Despite what he claimed. It was his smacked out mind that made him detatch himself from reality. And that hurt me when he said I never cared for him. Even though I knew it was the drugs talking.

I do some silent research on my phone about looking to get my brother checked into a drug recovery clinic when I heard Niko shout out in pain. I was there by his side in an instant to see if he was okay.

"I'm fine." He stated rather harshly. "I've suffered far worse."

It seemed he was more telling himself that as a way to ward off his complaining mind of the pain.

"Let me help you."

"No! I'm fine." He swatted me away, but didn't make contact.

His eyes held a rage that frightened me. Why wouldn't he let me help him?

He suddenly realized who he was with and regret filled him.

"I'm sorry. I get like this. It is the after math of something like that that makes me push people away. I am trying to work on that." He half smiled.

"It's okay. I know you didn't mean it."

He raised his arm up to allow me to clean his, what I assumed to be, stab wound and I bound it up around his abdomen with the wrap he selected. I planted a kiss on his side to fictionally promote a faster healing time.

"Just like a mother." He said upon seeing what I did.

He stood me up and we both went back to my brother, who was currently passed out from his last heroin use.

I shook my head at his lack of willpower.

"You really should try to show more support. Heroin is a powerful drug."

Didn't he just show the same disappointment I had a few moments ago? Why is he sympathetic all of a sudden?

"He never tried to reach to us for help, Niko. All he cares about now is how he is going to get his fix and when."

"Do you even know what he is going through? Something really bad must have happened to him for him to look for an escape."

Niko sat down on his recliner chair since his couch was currently being inhabited by a stranger. He waved to me to come sit with him. I swung my leg over his lap, and I sat on him like a little girl would when being given a life lesson by a grandfather.

"Look at you, Niko. You've seen a lot of bad things. How are you not using this stuff?"

"I never had a thought like that. I usually just turn to vodka if my thoughts turn for the worst."

"So, you're an alcoholic, like your father."

That comment snapped Niko's attention fully to me. I probably pissed him off. Great.

"I am not like him. You don't know alcoholic like Roman and I do. The son of a bitch hit us almost daily, and our mother every moment. Everything was our fault, and nothing we did was good enough for him. He's partly the reason I was drafted in the war. Don't you ever compare him to me."

His tone had a forbidding tone that made me think I should never mention his father ever again.

"I'm really sorry, Niko. I wish I could take that back. You're right. You're not anything like your father."

"Had you known him, you'd feel the need to obliterate yourself like I have. But I am a survivor. I make it my goal to laugh in my father's face every morning when I wake up to prove to him he was wrong about all of us."

"So, vodka is your escape then? Rather turn to drugs?"

"Alcohol is addictive as well. I feel I have found a safe balance. I haven't had alcohol in over a month though. Even at my cousin's birthday party, I chose water."

"I'm proud of you." I cheerfully say. That made his demeanor change again. Having Niko as a boyfriend is like flipping a coin, but if I can keep him on one side, he's worth it.

"I really didn't do it for you. I didn't know you then. I did it for myself. I felt myself losing control one day. I thought 'enough is enough' and I promised myself to cut down."

"You didn't seek out help? You did it on your own?".

"On my own. Some might say I have great willpower."

His phone rang yet again. He looked at the screen and answered. He put the caller on speakerphone to my surprise.

"Bellic, we know it was you who made that daring rescue." His tone mocked Niko. "In order to get him, we are willing to make you a deal. Give us our guy, and you'll get what you want. Legal citizenship and your freedom."

Niko held his finger to his lips, and I got the hint. I had no experience in this sort of negotiation. Niko was no doubt an expert.

"I will not give you anything. You had your chance to give me what I wanted. You had me by the balls this entire time working for you. Seems I have yours."

"What more do you want? The man is of no significance to you. Or are you doing this for the girl? Either way, you're wasting your time. Give is our man."

"You're the one who decided to bring her into this mess. I am doing the one thing I know how to do!"

"How to be a pain in the ass? What's she paying you? Or is she paying you in sex? I knew you only cared about the size of your Johnson. Take it out of her and surrender. Знамо где се кријете."

"Ово је између вас и мене! Остави је од овога!"

I had no clue what was going on, but apparently this guy knows Niko well enough that he speaks fluent Serbian. Or he is from Serbia.

"This is your last chance. Give us what we want, and we will give you what you want. It is a fair trade".

I held my breath at how time seemed to freeze between Niko and his caller. They must have been able to locate where we are by now.

"I will give you nothing!" He spat and hung up.

Niko then gathered all the necessities and hearded us out to his car. I noticed he grabbed a blue duffel bag and slung it over his shoulder. His next move was calling Roman.

"Roman, pick up you lazy bastard." He said.

He threw his duffel bag in the trunk of his car and sat me in the passenger. My brother was cramped up in the back seat again, but he was too passed out to care. He sat down and drove off in a direction that was unknown.

He dialed the number again and put the phone on speaker.

"Niko, what's up?" Roman's voice came over the phone.

"Roman, where's Mallorie?"

"She's with Mila. What's happened? Why do you sound so frantic?"

"Tell Mallorie I need to talk to her. Put her on the phone."

I heard Roman call for Mallorie and tell her Niko needed to talk to her. It took a few minutes for her to get to the phone. I assumed she was taking care of the baby.

"Hey, Niko. What's up?" She spoke after a while.

"I need to ask you a favor".

All of a sudden, Niko punched the peddle to the floor, and we took off at a blazing 100 miles per hour. I looked in the rear view mirror, and saw that the police department dispatched atleast 5 police cruisers and a S.W.A.T truck. The first cruiser called out on the megaphone.

"Pull over to the side of the road!"

Niko ignored the authorities, and blew through traffic light after traffic light. There was heavy traffic at the 5 pm hour with the workday winding down, but he weaved in and out like a professional. I, on the other hand, was still panicked as I watched from the passenger side. I looked in the side mirror and saw a cruiser approaching gradually.

"Niko!" I called his attention.

His instinct was to cut off the cruiser by swerving to the right, causing the car to slow down and eventually rear end a civilian car.

"Pull over, asshole!" The first car called out again.

Niko applied the breaks rather heavily. I swear I smelled burnt rubber. He turned onto a bridge that went over the lake.

"I'm not giving up her brother for any price!" He called out even knowing the fact they couldn't hear him.

"Niko, it's okay." I calmly stated.

He turned his head to me after approaching the end of the bridge. The toll booth was waiting for police on foot, and they threw out the spike strip. Niko easily went around it and raced past the booth.

"What do you mean?"

"It's okay, Niko. We should hand my brother over."

"What?!" He slammed on the breaks in the middle of the freeway. The police had to split in two seperate paths to avoid hitting us.

"They can take him to a drug clinic."

"No they won't."

By this time, the police had their guns drawn, aiming at us. Niko paid no mind, but I felt them targeting us.

"They will not help him like they helped me. They will put him in jail. Do you want that for your brother?"

A few officers cautiously approached the car, guns still drawn and ready to fire.

"Out of the vehicle, nice and slow." I heard an officer say.

"Answer me!" He demanded. "Do you want this for your brother?!"

I had no time to answer as an officer smashed open Niko's window and wrapped his arm around his neck. Niko struggled for air as he brought up both of his arms to try and pry off the officer. My window was also smashed open, and an officer grabbed me by the arm.

"No!" Niko called out.

He shifted the car in drive, and dragged both officers along for the ride. They eventually let go and rolled along the pavement in the rearview mirror.

Niko corrected his torn shirt from the struggle, and I saw he was bleeding from his stab wound.

"Are you alright?" He asked.

"I'm fine. What about you? You're bleeding!"

"I'll be fine."

Niko sped past mainstreets looking for a quite place to hide.

"We're going to ditch this car." He said as he searched around.

"We're going on foot?"

"No. I'm going to steal another car." He said as if stealing was a passing fancy.

"You never gave me your answer. Are you going to turn your brother in, or are you going to trust me enough in going along with my plan?"

I knew that prison was not what my brother needed. He'd possibly form a new drug habit, or even worse, be killed. I had no idea what his plan was, but it seemed a better plan than snitching out my brother.

"I trust you fully. Please take care of my brother."