Seduced 5 by P.A. Jones

wait for Gavin to get back with info on him.” Peterson pulled me back.
    “Let’s take him to the hotel room.” I grabbed Gerome’s arm and dragged him along with me. I was going to take every penny out of his pocket. I was going to make sure Stephen stayed with Nikki.
    ***
    Gavin entered the hotel room. We didn’t plan to stay so we booked only one suite.
    “Did you find anything?” I asked him.
    His eyes darted to Gerome and then back to me. “He is telling the truth. He'd transferred all the money to a Mexican account and that belongs to a hospital. I checked it in detail and apparently he is having a life there with someone named Paula. I’m sorry, bro, we can’t get that money back. It’s gone out of the country.”
    “Fuck, fuck.” I lost all my hope. The money was gone and there was no way to get it back. I'd failed Nikki big time. I looked back at Gerome. I wanted to kill him right there only, but I lost my interest. Nothing was going to change things for Nikki and Stephen.
    I walked out of the room onto the balcony. The traffic was flowing on the roads, but I’d lost all my hope. Everything was on the verge of being lost and I couldn’t do anything to save it.

 
    Chapter 15
     
    Nikki
     
    “We will run with him. Can't we do that?” I asked, wiping my tears away. I’d wiped them again and again, but still there was plenty of water left in my body to continue crying for hours.
    My eyes darted to the little kid playing with the toy. He didn’t even know he was going away from me. How would he live without me? Who would he call his mother? Who would take care of him when he is sick?
    “Jesus, please save my child from these bastards.” I looked up, but no help was coming from him anywhere. God must be angry at me. He must be punishing me for the sins I'd done in previous life. But why would he punish that little kid too?’
    How could I let them take away piece of my heart? How could that bastard Shaun do that to me?“If he wants the money, the power, let him take that. But for God’s sake, please don’t take me away from him. I’ll die without him, Tristan.” I begged him.
    He just hugged me tightly. After returning from Philadelphia, he had been like this, quiet and lost in his own thoughts. He was helpless, like me. I knew he loved Stephen as much I did, but he couldn’t save him from legal things.
    “I wish I could do that, Nikki. I’m so sorry, dear,” Tristan answered in a low voice. “But don’t worry, babe. I’ll fight till my last breath and get him back for you. I’ll do anything, even if I’ve to steal him from that jerk.”
    “I want him with me, Tristan.” I picked him up and hugged him to my heart. He started crying because of the force I squeezed him with.
    Tristan took him away from me. For the first time I saw tears in his eyes. “I’m sorry, Nikki. I couldn’t do anything for you. I failed you.” A lone tear fell down. He kept saying he’d failed me. Actually, he was the reason I was still standing. If it wasn’t for him standing with me, I would have taken the drugs again. I couldn’t tell him how many times I felt like going back on that path when he wasn’t with me. But he had shown me the way life could be and I clung to those memories and kept myself sane.
    “No, Tristan. I’m the fool who believed in Gerome again. And I’m getting punished for that foolishness now. If I never had gone on that path, I would have been with you and Stephen.”
    “No, Nikki, you had gone through a lot already and I hadn’t been there for you when you needed me.”
    “Promise me you won’t go away from me. I’ll die if I lose you as well.” I was afraid that he would go somewhere, leaving me alone.
    “No, babe.” He wrapped me in his arms and brushed his lips on my forehead.“I won’t leave you in my lifetime.”
    “Thanks, Tristan.” My arms wrapped around his back in a tight hug.
    ***
     
    Tristan
     
    I watched her walking like a zombie, her shoulders