Nike's Wings

by Valerie Douglas

  “Least I can do for the Yankees who came down to help us is to introduce them to good tequila.”

  A universal snort of derision came from the Yanks.

  Mitch, Andy and Brad grinned at the unspoken challenge.

  With a level look at Manuel, Ty leaned back in his chair, lifted his glass in salute, and tossed his shot back neatly, without even a blink.

  The Texas contingent hooted, banging their mugs on the tables in appreciation.

  “The man’s got style,” Jake declared with a grin.

  All eyes were on Niki, though.

  Surrounded by law enforcement, Niki let herself relax a little.

  Lifting an eyebrow, grinning, she tossed the tequila back without a blink as well – to the approval and applause of the Texas contingent. She bowed a little to them, smiling.

  Happily, Buck tossed his tequila back and signaled for another. “It’s a good night and good company to get drunk with, none better.”

  Already Niki’s toes tapped to the music. A small smile curved her mouth as she listened. She shimmied her shoulders to the beat

  “You dance?” Jake asked, watching her rock to the music in her seat.

  Niki rolled her eyes.

  “Prove it,” Jake challenged.

  To the surprise of the rest of the Northern contingent, she stood up and stripped off the leather jacket, so that all she wore was the halter and the flippy skirt, the wings on her back impossible to ignore.

  “Oh, now that’s what I’m talking about,” Jake said, eyeing her.

  Niki looked at him narrowly, planted a finger in the middle of his chest and pushed him back. Her hips swung to the rhythm. “This is just for fun. Don’t forget I can still kick your ass, Ranger Aragon. Like the song says ‘A little less talk, a little more action.’”

  Surprised, Manuel grinned. “Go, baby.”

  It had been a long time since Niki had danced anywhere but in her car or along to the radio in her tiny apartment. It was wonderful to relax and let loose.

  Certainly Jake seemed to be enjoying himself; his dark eyes flashed in his handsome face. To her surprise, she heard Brad and Andy behind her cheering her on, with a sharp whistle of appreciation from the normally quiet Andy.

  She glanced back over her shoulder at Ty and grinned.

  It was the first time Ty saw a completely open smile on Niki’s face. For the first time the mask came down, it completely disappeared, and her lovely face relaxed as she laughed.

  She was beautiful when she smiled.

  When it came down to it, it had been a long time since he’d done anything like it himself.

  Not to mention what watching her dance did to his anatomy. She was as graceful and fluid on the dance floor as she was in action. Watching her hips and shoulders shimmy awakened parts of him he’d long thought dead until he’d met her.

  Jake escorted her back to the table, running his hand down the length of her spine.

  Behind her back, glancing at the others he shook both his head and his hand at the others of the team. The girl was hot!

  “That is one gorgeous piece of work,” Jake said, eyeing her back as they rejoined the group.

  It wasn’t just the tat he was talking about, either. Her back was nicely muscled and showed off her neatly nipped in waist and the curve of her hips in that little flippy skirt. If both Ty Connor and Mitch Haydon hadn’t been giving him warning looks he might have made more of a move just to see what she tasted like, but they weren’t here for much longer, and judging by the way she looked at Ty Connor, he knew a taste was all he’d get. That wasn’t enough. Whatever else, he knew she wasn’t for him.

  Oblivious to the undercurrents, Niki glanced back at him over her shoulder, grinned and said, “Thank you.”

  “My pleasure,” Jake said, sincerely.

  Almost unconsciously, Ty stretched his arm across the chairs so his hand was on the back of hers, her hair brushing across it. He caught some of the silky ends in his fingers. The curls wrapped around them.

  Niki looked at him, warmth washing through her as he played with her hair. He looked relaxed. It was good to see him smile.

  Conversation went around and around in arguments and debates, discussions of sports teams and chances, politics and whatnot, to a lot of laughter as another round or two of tequila went around the table. One of the Rangers challenged Brad to an arm-wrestling contest. Niki shook her head, knowing what Brad benched. She gave Ty an elbow and a grin when the bets started.

  He looked at her. She gave a little shake of her head and rolled her eyes.

  Buck and Jake challenged Ty and Niki to a game of pool.

  Niki danced a little to the music as she lined up her shot, hips shifting.

  “My God,” Buck said, quietly, and then glanced at Ty.

  Smiling, admiring the view, Ty gave Buck a look back. He had to agree. It was quite a view with those long shapely legs. She was something.

  Then she turned and looked over her shoulder at the lot of them admiring her butt. She gave them all a look and laughed.

  Even so, she sank the shot.

  Niki posed behind her pool cue to distract Jake. It was almost too easy. He missed his shot, and Ty cleaned up the table.

  “Shark,” Buck cried.

  The jukebox was playing “Whatcha Gonna Do With a Cowboy?” and Niki just grinned, shimmying to the music as she went past, hair swinging with Ty’s arm around her waist.

  He laughed.

  “It’s karaoke time,” the bartender announced. “We’re taking names up here.”

  Buck and Jake got together for a half-drunken and very enthusiastic version of Garth Brook’s ‘Friends in Low Places’.

  Manuel did a hilarious and off-key version of Jailhouse Rock.

  Involved in an intense debate with Manuel over whether the border fence would work or not, neither Ty or Manuel noticed when Niki left, until the opening bars of the song began. Shania Twain’s ‘Honey I’m Home.’

  Everyone started laughing when Niki sat down beside Ty for the line ‘and the boss got smart’. They all started ribbing him, to her amusement and his. Niki had a lot of company on the last chorus.

  A few of the others got up and sang. Mitch did a creditable version of Alan Jackson’s ‘Country Boy’.

  Buck dragged Niki up on the dance floor to teach her the Texas two-step, to a lot of laughter. Even her own as she tried to watch his feet and duplicate what he did, not entirely successfully.

  It was a revelation to watch Niki laugh, to see her eyes light up and sparkle. Ty’s heart caught as she smiled at him, watching her hips swing. Even when she stumbled and made a mistake, it was still graceful and funny, even oddly charming as she - to everyone’s astonishment - blushed and rolled her eyes at herself.

  They turned down the lights for the romantic songs, then dimmed when they played Shania Twain’s ‘You’ve Got a Way’.

  To Niki’s surprise, she found Ty’s arm slipping around her waist to draw her close as he took her hand and guided her out onto the dance floor.

  Her breath caught as she looked up into those sky blue eyes. Her stomach fluttered. Suddenly she found herself conscious of everything, of the eyes on them, of his hand warm on her waist while the other clasped her hand. The feel of his long lean body against hers. She could feel the warmth of him against her.

  Her heart ached.

  Ty was conscious of the sweet clean scent of her hair, of the way her hips moved against his. It was natural. She just fit against him, flowed with him. As her body moved in rhythm to his, her breasts pressed against him. Beneath his hand at her lower back, her skin was like warm silk, unscarred, smooth, soft and warm. Something inside him shivered, tightened, warmed.

  For a few moments, everything went away, but the feel of Niki in his arms, the expression on her face and in her eyes.

  He looked down into her eyes, at her lovely mouth, as she tilted her head in that way she had to look at him.

  For Niki it was heaven to feel Ty�
��s arms around her, to feel his body warm within her arms, to feel him hard and solid against her. Heat rushed through her, and desire. All she had to do was look up to see his lean handsome face, his beautiful blue eyes, his firm mouth so close to hers. His body felt incredible against her. Parts of her body ached sweetly, deliciously.

  To her surprise Niki found herself almost more terrified of the emotions that poured through her as Ty held her than she’d been of all the guns she’d faced.

  She didn’t want the song to end. She wanted it with an intensity that nearly shattered her.

  Ty wished once again that she wasn’t wearing her glasses, but what he saw in the eyes behind them was enough to make his body tighten. Her mouth had gone soft, inviting. The urge, the need to kiss her nearly blinded him. He lowered his mouth to hers even as she lifted hers to meet his. Almost.

  Their lips teased, taunted, just a little out of reach, both of them smiling as the heat built between them and then their lips met, to cheers around the tables. Not that they heard or noticed.

  And then the song ended.

  Ty walked Niki back to the table, his hand in the small of her back, his heart still pounding, his body taut. Once they were seated again, he kept his hand possessively on the back of her chair, his thumb caressing her bare back, playing lightly with her hair, tracing the wings on her back with his fingers.

  The feel of Ty’s fingers on her skin drove her crazy and yet Niki didn’t want it to stop. Heat poured through her to pool low in her belly.

  Another round of tequila went around and then Manuel called challenge on Buck to another round of pool. To smiles and laughter as Buck pointed out he’d wiped the table with Manuel the last two games. The only time he’d missed a shot was when Niki tried, successfully, to distract him

  Watching, Ty noted Buck was doing his usual job of clearing the table to Manuel’s visible and amused dismay.

  “You shouldn’t have let him break, Manuel,” Ty called.

  Concentrating on his shot, Buck acknowledged another patron slapping a dollar down on the table.

  “I’ve got the winner,” the man said.

  That voice carried.

  Niki looked up. Something about that voice, deeper even than Ty’s, sent off alarms.

  Focused on his shot, Buck said to the newcomer, “You’re cramping me…”

  Alarm shot through Niki like a jolt of electricity.

  Dressed in casual clothes, jeans and a western style shirt, the man was indeed standing too close to Buck. In the same moment, she recognized the too-perfect features, the too-perfect hair despite the informal clothing.

  Niki was on her feet and moving before she even thought… Fury and fear exploded through her. She knew she was too far away.

  Buck. He was her friend. That and more to Ty. He was too close and the bar was too crowded to risk a shot.

  She knew one sure way to distract all of them.

  “Garcia,” she shouted, over the laughter, the conversation, the karaoke singers.

  Buck’s head turned, hearing Niki’s voice and the alarm in it.

  He straightened even as he felt a sudden flash of pain. It shot through him, caught him by surprise.

  Instinctively his body arched away from it.

  All Niki could hear was the pounding of her heart and all she could see was Garcia’s face. As Garcia turned, she saw Buck flinch. Everything had gone quiet, it seemed, the karaoke singers stopped singing, the music stopped playing and everyone stopped talking.

  There was the glitter of the blade, a bright splash of blood.

  Behind her, Ty came to his feet in a rush as people turned, reached for their weapons at the alarm in her voice.

  Deliberately, Niki stepped between Garcia and Buck, putting herself between them, blindly reaching behind her for Buck to be sure of where he was.

  Garcia slashed at her and she threw her arm up defensively. Feeling the sharp sting, she arched back even as he slashed back the other way toward her abdomen. She sucked her gut in and away, throwing her arms up and out of the way.

  “Buck?” she said, sharply.

  Pain burned, a long lance of it across Buck’s back.

  He put a hand to the cut, swore angrily at the feel of hot blood and the sting as his fingers brushed it.

  That was all the answer Niki needed, he knew.

  Garcia smiled and bolted out the door as both Niki and Ty drew on him.

  “Go, get the sonovabitch,” Buck hissed, angrily.

  Niki nodded and ran toward the door, glancing back at Ty and the others, stopping just inside and beside the door to take a quick look outside.

  Ty fell in beside and behind her, covering her, as the others took backup positions.

  It was so strange to have someone at her back. Niki still wasn’t used to it, but it was Ty, as in Austin… She took a strange kind of comfort from that. Mitch and Jake darted across to the other side of the open door, their guns drawn and ready.

  “You all right, Buck?” Ty asked, glancing back.

  “Just a scratch,” Buck said, disgust in his voice.

  If Niki hadn’t distracted the man and Buck hadn’t flinched, it might have been worse. Much worse. And Ty had no doubt that Buck knew it.

  Mitch gave Niki a look, unspoken communication, before his eyes went to Ty.

  Glancing over her shoulder for Ty’s response, Niki saw Ty nod, first to her and then to Mitch and Jake.

  It was her play.

  With a quick dip of her head in response, she chanced another quick glance around the door.

  And swore.

  A dozen men waited in the parking lot, all armed with automatic weapons.

  The cartels had chosen to go for payback.

  “Shit! Down,” she shouted, spinning to throw herself against Ty. “Everyone down, down, down!”

  Mitch had chanced a look at the same time she had. He spun and slammed into Jake, as every cop in the place took cover, some taking the other patrons down with them.

  The bartender dove behind the bar.

  All hell broke loose as automatic weapons fire raked the honky-tonk to the sound of glass shattering and bullets hammering the walls.

  Wrapping his arms protectively around Niki, Ty rolled them both against the wall by the door, where they could crouch. He glanced at her. Her eyes came back to him, steady.

  They turned in opposite directions, he to the window and she to the doorway, opening fire on those in the parking lot, forcing them to take cover themselves.

  On the other side Mitch and Jake did the same as Manuel found cover at the opposite side of the window and some of the other cops returned fire.

  “What the hell?” Mitch snapped, ducking a little reflexively as bullets shattered more of the bottles at the back of the bar.

  The smell of good booze filled the air.

  “Payback,” Ty said, with a glance at Niki, who nodded in agreement. “Garcia doesn’t like losing his targets. The cartels, too, probably, it’s their style.”

  Neither Garcia nor the cartels would fight an honest fight.

  “Buck, are you up to taking this to them?”

  In disgust, Buck said, “Yeah. Ready when you are.”

  A part of his heart didn’t want to say the next, but Ty knew how good Niki, too good not to use. And she’d be pissed and annoyed if he didn’t.

  They didn’t have much time, either. Most of the cops here had worn their weapons as a matter of habit. A few might have taken them off or left them in the car. Even so, no one had expected this kind of a firefight. It was unlikely any of them had a lot of ammunition on them. This had been an impromptu party, not a day on the range.

  “Niki?”

  She looked at him and a part of him ached to see that her face was expressionless, watchful and wary.

  The warmth was gone.

  Those cool eyes met his, and then warmed a little. He didn’t even have to ask. She nodded in acknowledgement.

  “Mitch, you and the others cover us,” Ty s
aid.

  “We’ll keep them off you, Ty,” Mitch assured him.

  Jake dove across the opening to take his place as Ty darted to the cover of the pool table with Buck and Niki close on his heels.

  Gunfire erupted behind them.

  They went out through the kitchen, finding the meager kitchen staff cowering behind the counters, not that anyone could blame them.

  At the back was a steel security door, the kind with a push bar to open it.

  “If I were them, I’d have somebody watching the back,” Ty said. He looked at Niki. “Fast and low.”

  She nodded.

  “Let’s go,” he said.

  He straight-armed the door. It popped open just long enough for Niki to dive out into the darkness as bullets hammered into the steel.

  Niki rolled on the unfamiliar ground, making herself as small as possible, looking for the muzzle flash as she came to her feet. She saw movement in the backwash of light from the front of the building. Even as she spun away she saw it and snapped off three quick shots.

  The man dropped.

  This was what she was good at, and she gloried in it.

  “Clear,” she called. For the moment.

  Ty came out fast, leading with his weapon, with Buck right behind him, Ty glancing quickly at Niki.

  Guns lowered at first, they made their way around the back and side of the building.

  From the parking lot they heard the unmistakable sound of battle and gunfire – the thick sound of bullets as they punched into steel, glass shattering as headlights and windshields gave way to the onslaught.

  “Cover us, Niki,” Ty said.

  The thought of watching her take fire out in the open again was more than Ty could tolerate at the moment.

  With a nod, she swung her weapon around the corner, staying behind cover as Ty and Buck ran, keeping low behind the cover of the cars and trucks that filled the parking lot, and waited for a shot. She snapped off a couple at the first head that popped up and looked toward them.

  From inside the bar he heard those inside picking their shots amidst bursts of automatic weapons fire.

  It was difficult to tell who was shooting where.

  Ty glanced at Buck.

  His eyes steady, Buck nodded. “Let’s go.”