Honey Trapped

Chapter Twenty-One

Pria's mouth gaped open when she noticed Niki at her sliding glass door, arms bogged down by multiple grocery bags. She launched herself at her friend, hugging her tightly. "Oh em gee, Nik! You're a goddess."

"Get off of me, you leech," Niki griped. "I'm about to drop it all."

They headed into the kitchen and Niki set the bags onto the counter. She began putting the groceries away, but Pria reached for a box of cereal, tore it open, and fisted some flakes into her mouth.

"Geeze." Niki frowned. "You are hungry!"

"I feel like I haven't eaten in weeks," Pria said, her mouth full.

"Because you haven't. Stress has been kicking your ass." Niki grimaced when Pria poured more cereal into her open mouth. "You're disgusting. Go sit down. I'll make us some dinner."

"It'll go faster if I help. I have a conference call in about an hour."

As they set about making dinner, Niki questioned Pria about court the day before. "Tell me everything."

And of course, Pria did.

"Wait." Niki paused, her eyes wide. "He actually spoke to Mama?"

Pria nodded. "Well, Mama did all the talking. He seemed more interested in what I had to say though."

Slowly, Niki nodded as she dipped the rollatinis into the saucepan. "I guess he would be," she said softly. "He spent two years of his life with you. I can't imagine everything was fake."

Pria scowled. "You don't get to be on his side just because you're a cop now."

Niki grinned. "Relax, hun. You'll always be my one and only. I'm totally on your side. I'm just saying, job or no, you were his girl for two years. It's impossible to be with someone for that long and not have some genuine moments together. And I can't imagine it was easy for him either. Especially once he realized how awesome you are. And hey, if you're going to get lied to, at least you were lied to by the good guys."

Hitting her friend on the arm with a dish towel, Pria scowled. "That doesn't make me feel better at all, you bitch." Then she looked away. "And Sal lied to me for a lot longer than Agent Donati did and I never saw it."

Niki glanced up from what she was doing, pulling a rueful expression. "God, that sounds pretentious, doesn't it? I mean, I get it, he's FBI, but like, we took body shots off him. I licked his navel! He held my hair back when I got food poisoning, and he saw my breasticles that night at Luciana's pool party."

Pria almost grinned at the memory. "Everyone saw your breasticles that night." With a sigh, Pria resigned not to think about the past anymore. It was over. "He slipped me his number at the courthouse."

Letting out a soft whistle, Niki studied her friend's expression, then returned to her work. "See, it wasn't all faked. He wouldn't have done that otherwise."

The frown was back on Pria's face. "He probably apologizes to all the innocent people he uses."

Niki shook her head. "Hun, if he were to go around apologizing for doing his job, he wouldn't have a job."

Pria eyed Niki balefully. "Yeah, see, it still kinda sounds like you're on his side."

Niki faced Pria. "You have to remember, he got Tino away from Sal and made sure he got himself on the right track. If it weren't for your FBI-guy, my baby brother would be in jail with the rest of them. And when I wanted to become a cop, he wrote me a recommendation letter. I love you, but a part of me feels like I owe him."

It was a fair point, but Pria didn't want to acknowledge it. Moving to sit on the couch, she turned on her computer and settled in, allowing Niki to finish making dinner. Forcing herself to concentrate, she went over the notes sent to her earlier and clacked away lightly on her laptop. By the time dinner was ready, she was well into her conference call, working diligently. Niki took it upon herself to feed Pria, forking morsels of food into Pria's mouth as she typed and spoke intermittently.