Free Double Tap by Lani Lynn Vale Page A

twinkled. “Yes.”
    Nico snorted, remembering the story well.
    He’d been on leave from the army that time as well. He’d just finished basic training and was home for a week before he was expected to go back.
    We’d been on the way to the lake and he’d been pumping gas at the time while we’d gone inside for snacks.
    It all started out innocent, of course, like it always did with Nikki.
    I’d gone to the bathroom and had to wait in line while Nikki had chosen our snacks.
    When I’d waited a really long time, I finally got the nerve to ask if everything was all right from the woman in the stall.
    She’d said that she was fairly sure she was having a miscarriage, and that her husband was outside and to please ask him to come in there.
    I’d ran out only to find the man in question putting the moves on Nikki.
    Nikki had thought it was funny, because Nikki had particular tastes.
    She didn’t like anyone that wasn’t a ‘bad boy’, so to speak. This man was about as uptight as you would expect any country club boy, so it’d struck me as odd at the time that she was even giving him the time of day.
    But, of course, Nikki was a bitch at times, and liked to play tricks on her brother; she liked to lead young, unsuspecting men on where she’d then tell them wild stories about her brother, where they’d then try to defend her honor.
    Only this time the man’s woman was in the bathroom having a miscarriage, and she wasn’t dealing with an ‘unsuspecting man’ but a real asshole that didn’t care that his wife was in there having a miscarriage. Only that he had a sexy woman willing to give him the time of day.
    I’d told the man about his wife, but he hadn’t cared. Nikki had, though, and had let him know what kind of ‘piece of cow shit’ he was. It’d escalated and turned into a screaming match where they’d both gotten nearly violent.
    I’d called an ambulance and had opened the door to the convenience store to gesture to Nico that shit was going down.
    He’d looked at the sky like he was in pain and had then proceeded to beat the shit out of the guy because the man had put his hands on his sister.
    It’d gone downhill from there, and needless to say we never made it to the lake, and it’d all been because Nikki had a big fat mouth with no filter.
    You’d think that eight years had given her a little more control, but alas, it hadn’t. In fact, I was fairly sure she was worse.
    “You really need to learn control, my best friend. One day that no-filter-thing is going to come back and bite you on the ass,” I shook my head.
    Her eyes lit, but it was Nico’s voice that had me turning in my huddle.
    “Michael likes to say the same thing all the time. The two of them fight like cats and dogs,” Nico muttered as he took a sip of his beer.
    “Gooooooaaaaal!! .” Sol yelled loudly. “Did you see that shit?”
    The question was asked to no one in particular, and we all watched as he stood and moved closer to the TV. “You pussy get off the ground!”
    Like I said. Things never changed.
    Which made me happy.
    “So, what’s for lunch?” I asked, eyes bright.
    Lolita opened the oven and removed what looked like a year’s worth of tamales, and I groaned. I hadn’t had a good tamale in forever.
    Twenty minutes later, I was on my third glass of milk and my fourth tamale.
    “These are burning my lips,” I mumbled, tearing open another husk and revealing the delicacy.
    Nico shook his head. “You know, even I can’t eat her hot ones for long. That’s going to come and bite you in the ass later.”
    Didn’t I know it?
    It’d probably torture me for hours later. Spicy food always gave me a raging case of heartburn, but I’d deal with it since they tasted so damn good.
    Lolita sold these once a week at the local farmer’s market. She even entered them in competitions around the state, and had won blue ribbons.
    “Michael can eat them,” Nikki said.
    I was surprised by that, but didn’t see the