Nicco would have been murdered in cold blood right in front of us. He had been working as a bouncer at a seedy strip club downtown and had to cut through the area we were in to get home.
We had had just finished clearing a building where some assholes were trying to smuggle almost two dozen kids out of the country. All the children had been loaded into vehicles and they were in route to be delivered Sergeant Houtter at the station, so that he could begin to contact their families and make arrangements for them to return home. None of us were aware of anyone heading our way or that there were still any people still on the premises. The only thing that we heard were Nicco's footsteps as he started to turn the corner. Poor Nicco. as soon as he turned the corner, one of them grabbed him thinking that he was with us. When the other two men came up from behind the first making it clear that they were going to do something that they could not come back from, let alone the fact that they had just unknowingly grabbed a civilian that had nothing to do with the situation as a hostage.
I had already checked in with Mia, telling her to pack up, we'd be there in ten to pick her up. God bless that girl; she must have spotted Nicco before she started doing anything else. Alex, Axel and myself were the only three left there. We had taken off our bulletproof vests and had everything ready to roll out. We were just about to close the back to the SUV when everything started to happen.
We all three thought the poor kid was a goner, let alone ourselves, when heard Mia on our earpiece come through and tell me to have the kid take deep breath, that she had them in her sights.
"Hey kid, take a deep breath. Everything's going to be fine. You're in good hands. Trust me." I commented
"Yeah, good hands." One of the men laughed.
"Oh, you have no idea." I said lowly.
Even though there were only three of them but when you get the drop on someone it's your game to win. And fortunately we had Mia on our side. I'll never forget the look Nicco had when he saw those three dropped within seconds of each other and he was still alive. We rushed him into our SUV dragging him with us. Needless to say, we were hightailing it to Mia's location.
"See, told you, you were in good hands."
"Probably the best that he could be in, without her being there." Axel chuckled.
"Her?" He asked in slight shock.
"Yes, her." Alex laughed. "And just to forewarn you, don't let her size fool you. She's probably the toughest of all of us."
As we pulled up outside where Mia had been staked out and stopped, I watched the door that Mia was supposed to exit. Waiting for her to make her appearance, while also making sure that no one had followed us or had made their way here to take out our sniper.
When she popped out of the building her gun broke down, and put away, it made me sigh in relief. As she tossed it in the back of the vehicle and opened the front door to our SUV and hopped into the front seat beside me.
"I see that you both took my words to heart when I told you that this seat better be open for me when this was all done."
Axel was laughing in the back watching Nicco's expression when he realized that she had saved his ass in the most literal form. "We weren't joking when we said her. But I would put your eyes back in your head before she puts them back in for you."
Mia however pops into the conversation like nothing at all had been said, turns around, holds out her hand to shake his. "Hi Nicco, I'm Mia. Just so you know you made my night pretty rough, next time stay out of the shot box and we'll be great."
"Really? That's all that you're gonna say? If that had been one of us you'd have had our heads on a post outside the gate."
She looked at us all afterwards with a smile on her face and laughed. "Oh, please I had been watching him for almost eight blocks before he got there. And of course I would have you guys' heads, you know better than to get anywhere near my shot box. Would you rather me scare the poor boy more than he probably already is or make him feel better about not knowing what was going on or what he had walked in on?
Don't worry you were in good hands kid don't worry. And I wouldn't have let anything happen to you regardless. I'm just glad one of these idiots didn't get a brilliant idea and try to take care of the situation themselves. Especially since I had the best view of everything." She smiled, turned and leaned against me.
"Who are you guys?" Nicco asked fear lacing his voice.
"No one that you have any reason to be scared of." Mia laughed, her head never leaving my shoulder.
"Well, since you all seem to know my name, it would be fair that I know yours as well." He said trying to be fearless.
As Mia turned to him, her eyebrows lifted and a smile on her face. "That all depends really? Do you think that because you think that you owe us something or because you plan to use them against us later on?"
"Neither." Nicco said calmly. "I would just like to know who I'm thanking for saving my life."
I looked at Mia, awaiting her decision. "Well, what's your thought on it?"
"I think that we can trust him." She nodded. "But there is a stipulation that comes with it."
"What would that be?" He asked.
"Well, you seem as though you could use a change in career. We have a few openings that we could probably use someone such as yourself in, if you're interested that is."
After making sure that he got home safely and staying awhile to talk to him about who we were and what Mia was thinking about position wise for him, we were just getting ready to leave. We were loaded into our SUV, Mia leaning against my shoulder again, comfortable, ready to head back to our house.
"3...2...1." Mia whispered in my ear as she still looked straight forward.
"Huh?" I asked looking at her in confusion, just as I heard a light, yet firm knocking on the passenger side window.
"Roll it down." She giggled. "I'm pretty sure that you're gonna like his answer."
Rolling down the window, I saw that it was indeed Nicco standing there, his demeanor cautious yet strong. "If I agree, can we come tonight?"
"Of course." I answered before Mia could. "Does that mean that you've made a choice?"
"Yes. We don't have that many things that we would need to pack. Mostly just our clothes and a few things like that."
"You have a way to get there if we leave?" I asked.
"Unfortunately not, that's why we live so close to the club I work at." He said sadly.
"I'll stay here with them, until you can drop Axel and Alex off and make it back here." Mia offered.
"You're sure?" I asked her.
"Yeah, I have a feeling that I'm more than safe here with them." She smiled, grabbing her gun from the glove box and holstering it underneath the long shirt that she was wearing.
"You didn't have your gun on you that whole time?" I scolded.
"I didn't figure that I'd need it when you three were supposed to be carrying yours." He chuckled. "Anyways...who in their right mind would attack me when the three of you are with me?"
"Okay, I'll be back shortly. Be safe and make sure you guys gets everything that you need from here. Either Mia can help you guys tomorrow to finish settling in or I can have someone else help you."
After deciding that night that he was staying with us, he's had no issues, hesitations or disagreements with anyone here and he hasn't left. I don't even think that the thought has ever been something that has crossed his mind. Even his girlfriend at the time, now wife Chelsea, who wasn't exactly thrilled at first has now come to adore Mia.
It took her some time to get used to how things worked in the house of course and I think that in some ways Chelsea felt as though she had something to prove to us. Even though there was nothing that she had to prove. Though when it was all said and done Chelsea too had proved herself to be a very useful asset, should we have ever needed to tap her as a resource.
Especially after the twins had been born, Mia had decided that since she already live with us and she was comfortable with her being alone with them she hired her as their so-called nanny even though she was really just there for their protection, as she had gone through a police training program before Nicco had come to us.
Even though she wasn't standing there with him, I had seen her in the room behind us, not looking any happier than the rest of us. It wasn't until Nicco turned to look for her that she made her way in front of us as well, standing directly beside Nicco.
Seeing her standing with him and the rest of those who stood before us, truly made me think about the words that Axel had chided in such a joking manner may indeed be truer than he thought at that verry moment.
"Doesn't seem as though you've really thought this through Erin." Nicco said lowly, his voice sounding like a predator waiting to pounce.
"She really hasn't." Chelsea smiled, while looking at Nicco and then back to us. "You know, I've never felt this kind of rage before in my entire life."
"See...I told you." Axel teased lightly. "You have a pack of pitbulls standing in front of us with no leashes on them and their master isn't here to reign them in. I have a feeling that this could get interesting."