Red Hot ~Nikki Sixx

Part 32: Public Enemy #1

Ashten's POV

After Nikki and I'd fallen asleep at dawn, we'd awoken around 11:00AM to the sound of a text message announcing we would be in Chicago until further notice. No surprise considering there was almost three feet of snow/ice on the ground and the flakes were still falling from the sky. The weather report said it was supposed to finally taper off around midafternoon but we still were not going anywhere at least until the next day.

This is why I don't live in the Midwest. Eight months of winter that actually starts before Thanksgiving? No thanks. I had enough of that crap while I was in school.

Anyway, we were still at the Ritz-Carlton for at least another night and, once we got out of bed, my cabin fever infected boyfriend informed me he wanted to go out and shoot some pictures while it was still snowing. Something about how great snow looks in black and white and the contrast would be rad and blah blah blah. I stopped listening when I saw the temperature was sitting at about five degrees. There was nothing he could say that would convince me going outside in the arctic chill was a good idea.

Nevertheless, as we all know, once Nikki Sixx has set his mind to anything trying to talk him out of it is nothing but an exercise in futility. If he wanted to turn into a Sixx-sicle that was his choice.

Anyway, he took off so Jozie and I headed down to the gym and then to the bistro downstairs to catch a late brunch/early lunch. Turns out on Sundays the place has bottomless pitchers of Bloody Mary's and Mimosas. Due to that, naturally, neither of us were surprised to find Tommy, DJ, and James parked at a table surrounded by pitchers. The true astonishment was they were playing a board game. Clearly, being in this hotel for two days had caused staggering levels of boredom.

"Alright, here it is. For real this time." Tommy cleared his throat for his big announcement. "It was Colonel Mustard with the rope in the hallway."

"Nope." DJ shuffled through his cards and showed one to Tommy, proving him wrong.

"Fuck you, Ashba." Tommy grumbled.

"Starting to get ugly," Jozie murmured sarcastically, flipping through the pages of a Playboy magazine one of the boys had discarded.

I let out a snort watching the three of them relive their childhoods over a game of Clue. Jozie and I sat at the table late in the game but from what I could gather Tommy had made his third guess and still had not cracked the case. I figured he would take one more shot before he stood up, flipped the board, and stomped off in a huff. While I awaited the inevitable tantrum, I figured I would make myself useful and crack open Tommy's laptop to get his household bills paid for the month. Much to my chagrin, the dinosaur of a computer was still trying to boot up five minutes later.

"Tommy, this thing is a piece of shit." I complained, sipping my coffee.

"I know. We need to get me a new one when we get home." Tommy fired up a cigarette and took a drag. "Do me a favor and back up that hard drive. That things probably gonna blow any time now."

"K." I nodded and fished the external hard drive from his computer bag.

"Anyone know where Sixx is?" James asked as he rolled the dice.

"Yeah, he said something about going out to do some shooting," DJ took a drink from his Bloody Mary.

"He's been gone awhile," Tommy added.

I looked at the clock on the laptop once the home screen finally booted up. It was almost one and Nikki had been gone nearly two hours. Two hours out in the freezing cold.

Much longer and he will end up with frost bite. Or hypothermia. I let out a deep sigh and chewed on my bottom lip.

"Sixx is big boy. I'm sure he's ok." Jozie offered. She met my eyes and gave me a wink in understanding, clearly sensing my concern. She flipped the page in the magazine and her eyebrows shot up. "Holy shit! Speaking of Nikki."