Second Hand [manxboy]

Chapter 21

The morning was mostly usual, with Nico rushing last minute to get ready to school and Miroslav driving him there. They shared another quick kiss in the car before Nico hopped out. "Are you picking me up later?" he asked.

"I might be busy later, but someone else should be here," Miroslav answered. "Have a good day at school."

Nico nodded and went in for his classes. He tracked Amy down in the halls and pulled her aside. "So guess what," he began, grinning like the devil.

"Oh, no," Amy groaned. "What happened?"

"Don't say it like that," Nico scowled at her. "I mean-well things happened. With Miroslav. Things," he stressed at the end.

Amy chuckled and raised an eyebrow. "That's great. I don't want the details, though."

Nico gave her a slight punch on the arm. "It wasn't like I was going to give you every detail." The bell rang and interrupted them, so they had to scramble for their classes.

Nico had his head in the clouds for most of the day and was lucky to not get called out by his teachers for it. At the end of the day Nico met up with Amy briefly as they walked out of the school. He scanned the carpool lines for a familiar car but didn't see one. He frowned and did a second, slower look. No scary looking Russians anywhere to be seen-No Mirolsav, but also no Adrik or even Shurik. "Where's your ride?" Amy asked.

"Great question." Nico pulled out his phone, dreading the phone call to his dad.

He waited anxiously for the pick-up, and wanted to shout for joy when Yakov actually answered. "Nico, what's up?" Yakov asked, though sounding slightly out of breath.

"There's no one here to take me home. Is everything okay?" Nico worriedly bit the tip of his thumb.

"I... uh, no. Look, I might be able to come get you if you give me some time to break away here-"

"No, no," Nico corrected him quickly, shooting Amy a frantic look. "Amy can bring me home?"

Amy nodded eagerly, and Yakov sighed into the phone. "When you get here, don't speak to anyone, alright?"

Nico just agreed and Amy dragged him over to where her mom was parked. "What's going on?" Amy asked in the car.

"Not too sure," Nico admitted, though he could guess most of it. "I think... the police might have finally come down."

Amy swore under her breath. "And Miroslav?"

"I don't know," Nico groaned. "My dad didn't say anything. I think the police are at our house."

Amy's mom dropped him off down the drive from the house-mostly because she couldn't get any closer with the number of cars parked there instead. Nico hopped out and promised to text Amy updates. He inspected all of the cars on his way up-some of them were unmarked, but some of them were sporting the word 'police'.

Yakov was waiting just outside the front door, looking nervous. He grabbed Nico by the shoulders and checked him over quickly. "Say nothing," Yakov reminded him.

"Where's Miroslav?" Nico wanted to know, but was immediately shushed by his father.

Yakov pointedly glanced to the side, and Nico followed the look to a stranger who was very obviously listening. Nico got it well enough that the man was probably a translator. Yakov led Nico off a distance until they were away from the front of the house and all of the people.

"What's going on?" Nico asked again. "Are you going to get arrested?"

"No, they're just searching. They'll find nothing. They might seize some assets, but that's all," Yakov assured him.