The Fighter

16- Punish me

My eyes got wide and I turned and glared at Joe, Blake and Mike who all pointed at Alec.

Alec busted out laughing. He came up and put his arm around my neck. "Busted, I was just as excited that you guys admitted your feelings to each other... I had to tell someone."

"Oh my God, this is so embarrassing." I added.

"Why? It's natural." Ivan said.

I gave him a blank stare. "You didn't think it was natural in Russia."

"Ehhhh, I didn't like any of them."

"And you like Nick?"

"Very much so." Ivan said, with a smirk.

"Still weird because you are like a dad to me, and Alec is a dad to; well, Nick... so we are done talking about it now."

Everyone was laughing, except me. There was no way I would ever let a conversation like this happen with Mason or Aubrey.

Oh God, I can't even think about that.

"What's this about not being natural in Russia?" Nick asked.

"Again, we really need to move on from this whole discussion."

"Looks like your girl wasn't a virgin." Mike provoked.

"What's a virgin?" Mason asked, coming into the kitchen.

I growled, "I swear to God, Mike. I will rip your arm right off your body and hit you over the head with it."

All the guys were laughing even more now. I picked Mason up, Aubrey came over saying she wanted to color.

"Why don't you take your sister upstairs so she can color in her notebook and you can play with your legos. I need to talk to your Uncle, Dedushka (grandfather), and Alec about something.

"Okay." They both ran upstairs.

I sat next to Nick at the island. "Moving onto something else now. What happened after we left, minus the gory parts, please."

Bryan, Alec and Ivan stood on the other side of the island. "Well, I questioned him more on this Santiago Ramirez. He was right, he's like a ghost. No one seems to know who this guy is. What I do know is at one point a few years ago, our lead was solid in Mexico and Mark ruined that." Alec was saying, then he looked at Nick. "So all that running around, missing school was for nothing, which pissed me off even more."

"Wait, what does that mean? Is that why you guys are still in school?" I questioned.

"A few years after the death, I got a solid lead from a reliable source. Those four and I chased after nothing and they missed over a year's worth of school."

"So you really did keep looking? I'm so sorry I ever doubted you guys."

I looked at Nick and gave him a big kiss. "You're all incredible." I went over and hugged Alec next. "Thank you for everything, Alec!" I whispered.

"You're welcome sweetheart, I told you your dad was a really good friend of mine." He said, as he hugged me tighter.

I pulled away and walked over to the three guys and pulled them into a hug also.

I went to sit in my chair back at the island but Nick pulled me onto his lap.

"So now, how do we go about finding Santiago?" I asked.

"Well, I asked around for a good dealer. I'm not into drugs but Mark said Santiago is a dealer. I'm hoping we wean him out."

"If he's a drug dealer, why was my dad doing business with him?"