Free Web NovelChapter 4: Really Was Dumb Back Then...
I stepped out of the bathroom, dressed in a white shirt, black jeans, a loose black utility jacket, my hair still slightly damp, and found Kara exactly where I’d left her, scrolling through her phone on the sofa while Tikki slept with his head resting on her thigh.
She looked up.
"Not wearing your usual hoodie?" She asked, looking me over once.
"Got stuff to take care of," I said, pulling on my brown leather boots and lacing them. "I’ll drop you off at the university. I’m skipping today."
"I could’ve caught a bus if you’d told me sooner." She lowered her phone.
"It’s fine..." I looked up with a grin. "Just make sure you feed me something."
Kara held my gaze for one flat second, chuckling and reaching into her bag, pulling out a lunchbox before setting it on the table.
"Grilled chicken sandwiches."
I pulled the lid off and breathed in. "My favourite~"
"I know," she said, already looking back at her phone.
I ate one standing up, pulling on my riding gloves between bites, and then crouched down beside the sofa and said quietly, "Let’s go, Tikki. We’re heading out."
And boger’s eyes opened immediately. The drowsiness was gone by the time he’d lifted his head, replaced with the sharp, forward attention he always got when he heard those words.
He was on his feet and off Kara’s lap, crossing to me in a single fluid motion before climbing up my arm to settle himself into the large pocket built into the back of my right shoulder, front paws braced on my shoulder, face angled forward, ready in two seconds flat.
Chuckling, I looked back at Kara. "Let’s go."
We stepped out into the open-air corridor of the second floor and made it approximately four meters before something large dashed at me from the left, followed by deep guttural growls.
And that very instant, three years of hard conditioning fired before my brain had even processed the sound, and I was already pivoting, and the kick connected before I even knew what it connected with.
-Bam-!-Kei!- -Kei!- -Kei!-
That’s when I noticed the kick had connected with a dog’s face in a single committed arc, and the Doberman immediately folded backward, hitting the concrete wall with pained screeching, scrambling backward toward the far end of the walkway on instinct.
I straightened up and checked Tikki. Still in the pocket. Paws on my shoulder. Completely unbothered, looking at the dog like it was a mildly entertaining inconvenience.
As my eyes trace the direction that thing came from, I found Mark standing there.
Dude was a six-foot-two of heavily tattooed gym bro, staring at me in absolute stun.
Kara, too, was equally silent behind me, after all, she’d usually been the one to step in before the dog reached my ankles or Tikki.
[Every single day...] I thought. [Every single day that asshole lets go of that leash.]
While Mark’s face went from stunned to ugly fast.
"You kicked my dog!" He shouted as he charged at me.
I stepped smoothly into it and drove a fist straight into his throat, felt the precise resistance of the impact, and added the knee to his groin as a courtesy before he could decide the first hit hadn’t been enough.
-Gulk-!
The big man choked immediately, his eyes widening while his knees went into the concrete walkway with a heavy, graceless crash. That mut of his barked aggressively from the far end of the corridor but did not dare come closer.
I crouched, gripped a handful of his hair, and tilted his head back until he was looking at me.
His eyes were watering, and his face had turned purple.
"And next time," I said quietly, "I will put the fucker down and then you. So keep the damn thing on a leash."
I let go, straightened up, and turned around. "Let’s go."
Kara followed me down the metal stairs without a word.
Halfway down, I glanced right at Tikki, who had ridden the entire thing on my shoulder without shifting his weight once.
"You okay, little man?" I murmured. "Don’t worry... That thing will not bother you anymore. Frankly, nothing will."
"Mea," he said, already looking forward.
Tikki was already smarter than most people I had come across three years into the shit show. And now that the System had confirmed I could use that Cognition Enhancer on Tikki, I could only imagine...
The parking lot was small and half-empty at this hour, and she was exactly where I’d left her last night, my red Ducati Diavel sitting in the second spot from the wall, the paint catching the morning light in a way that still did the same thing to my chest it had always done.
[Been a while, partner...]
I stood in front of her for a moment with my hands in my jacket pockets.
I had started saving at fifteen. After years of freelancing Cyber Security work, stubborn budgeting, and every surplus going into the same account, the day I sat on this seat for the first time and felt the weight of the machine under me, I knew those years of damn near starving myself had been completely worth it.
"That was excessive..." Kara’s voice came from just behind me, snapping me out.
"The dog lunges at Tikki every single day, Kara... And Mark lets go of the leash every single time." I replied, pulling the bike out of its spot without looking at her.
She was quiet as she took the helmet I held out before speakin, "I know... But it isn’t the dog’s fault."
"Never said it was..." I pulled on my own helmet and threw a leg over the seat. "Look. I love animals too. But I also deserve the right to defend myself and... more importantly, Tikki. Now hop on."
She got on. I hit the ignition.
-WROOM-!
The Diavel’s engine came to life with a deep, guttural roar that absolutely demolished whatever was left of the morning’s bad mood, and I felt the grin stretch across my face before I’d even consciously decided to smile, rolling the throttle once just to hear it, and then we were moving.
We rode through the city while Kara stayed quiet behind me, which I figured was the kick to the dog’s haunting her.
"You’re not even a little bothered that I nearly caved in Mark’s windpipe? And his balls?"
"He had it coming..." she replied with a snort. "Honestly, I’m surprised you stopped where you did... I wouldn’t have. Those were some sick moves by the way."
And I laughed out loud, because that mindset is going to be worth its weight in gold in about two weeks. Between that and four years of vet training, she’s going to be invaluable.
I glanced right. Tikki had his face directly in the wind stream, eyes wide, ears plastered flat, expression absolutely scrunched, and looked like he was having the time of his life.
"Hey," Kara’s voice came from the back. "You read that novel I recommended? Told you it has great character development!" freewёbn૦νeɭ.com
"It’s a reverse harem smut with alpha werewolves."
"But it has great emotional-"
"Kara..." freēwebnovel.com
"Oh come on! I read that Repopulating the Elven Kingdom trash you recommended!"
"And you can’t argue it didn’t have an awesome power system and some real big brain politics!" I shot back.
"The only big things in that novel were... You know what, fine! Humph!"
I was still grinning when the university gates came into view, riding past the usual drop-off point without even glancing at it.
"Hey. The stop went past."
"I know," I said. "I wasn’t kidding when I said I was over her."
Kara’s gaze settled on the back of my helmet, and I felt it clearly, but she didn’t say anything else.
Me being crazy for Bella was no secret; the entire university knew. So to make sure nobody saw us together and told Bella about our arrangement, I dropped her off a bit away from the entrance.
But now, I rolled the Diavel through the main gate and felt the campus open around us, and the attention followed immediately, heads turning as the engine note echoed off the buildings, conversations stopping in patches across the courtyard while I navigated toward the parking lot.
"That’s Nikki, and is that Bella on the back?"
"No, I just saw her down by the faculty lot with-"
"What is that on his shoulder?"
I backed the bike into a spot, killed the engine, and Kara swung off and pulled the helmet free, and the whispers sharpened immediately into something louder.
Ignoring them all, I took my own helmet off and looked at her.
"Kara. I need you to trust me..." I kept my voice even and low. "I saw some genuinely disturbing stuff on the dark web last night."
She just gave me a flat look. "It’s the dark web. What were you expecting, ponies?"
I stared at her, speechless.
"Fair...But look. Something is going to happen. So I need you to share your live location with me and keep your phone charged and with you at all times... Tell Nora and Leo to do the same. And if anything happens like a riot or something, you call me immediately."
She searched my face, reading it the way she always had, and whatever she found there made her go quiet and serious.
"What did you see?"
"I’ll tell you in the evening... Right now, just share your live location with me."
She held my gaze a moment longer, then nodded and reached for her phone.
And that’s when the murmurs shifted.
A cluster of designer jackets and expensive shoes came through the far gate, and at the center of it, a beauty of blond hair and blue eyes walked, who had once occupied a very specific and, apparently, very stupid portion of my brain for an embarrassingly long time.
Alex walked half a step behind her, smirking at nothing in particular, yet everyone at once.
Her eyes found me, and the easy smile she’d been wearing sharpened into an entitled smirk.
"What the hell is this, Nikki?" Her voice that once made my heart skip a beat now sounded like a banshee’s shriek. "Yesterday, you were telling me you were in love with me. Now you’re parading this girl around? Gosh, you make me so mad!"
I barely gave her a passing glance before turning back at Kara. "Don’t forget what I told you."
And just as I did, a hand closed around the back of my collar.
Alex pulled hard, spinning me back around to face him, the smirk now performing at full power. "Bella said something to you, little shit. You deaf?"
And I damn near snapped.
And credit to Alex’s luck or instincts, his hand released my collar, the very next instant, as he looked at me, even that annoying smirk had vanished.
But Bella, reading nothing from any of this, pressed the advantage she thought she still had with her chin lifted her up. "Explain yourself right now, or I will completely stop talking to you. You should be glad I even look your way."
[I really was dumb as fuck back then...] I couldn’t help but sigh as I stared at her.
I glanced at the crowd that had formed in a slow, instinctive ring around us while this was happening, and then at Kara, standing two feet to my right with her phone in her hand.
I could’ve just turned around and ridden off. After all, who’s gonna get in the way of a 1,159 CC hyper-bike?
[But then they’ll gang up on Kara...]
