Sebring

“Seems to me, you protectin’ that bitch, you mighta forgot it.”

“Careful,” Nick repeated, this time in a whisper.

Turner leaned back. “Are you fucking serious? Hettie was yours but she was also a member of my team. She got whacked under my watch. And you get that, Nick. I know you do since you were a member of that team too.”

Their drinks were dropped on the bar and Turner glanced at the bartender as they were.

Nick didn’t take his eyes off Turner and only spoke when the bartender was gone.

Then he asked, “You know what Tom Leary did to earn his acid?”

“Denver lore, brother,” Eric gritted out, still pissed. “Leary a walking, talking lesson to any soldier who done Shade wrong.”

“Yeah, I know that. But do you know why he earned his acid?”

“Not thinkin’ Shade gave a shit what the lesson was for, just that the lesson was learned and not just by Leary but anyone who’d clap eyes on him.”

“Olivia’s back is burned to shit.”

Nick watched Eric’s head twitch violently.

“What the fuck?” he asked quietly.

“Not acid. No clue what it was but it left scars and a lot of them. A fuckuva lot more than Leary earned. Look at Olivia’s, feel it in my scrotum, the pain that had to come with gettin’ those scars.”

Turner’s brows went up. “Her father?”

“Could be an accident. Could be a lot of shit. That is, could be if her father wasn’t Vincent Shade and known for doin’ that crap. But she said she ‘earned’ them. You have an accident, you ever use that terminology?”

Eric turned to his vodka rocks and lifted it, muttering, “No.”

“She never smiles,” Nick said as Turner took a drink.

His friend gave his gaze back to Nick but he didn’t speak.

“Not true, twice. Fucked her countless times, had her at my place every night for weeks. Ate dinner with her. Watched mindless TV. Saw her smile twice and both of them barely counted. Felt her smile but didn’t see them. She’d never let me in, Eric. Not because she’s protecting her father, because, if she does and she gets caught, what’ll she get? She knows. I saw those scars so I fuckin’ know. I’m not gonna fail in my mission but the slim chance I do and she gets caught between him and me, he’ll make her pay. And I’m not gonna be responsible for that.”

“She’s part of his business, Nick,” Turner reminded him.

“She hates her mother. I get a sense she’s relatively tight with her sister but that only goes so far. But she never talks about him. It’s like he doesn’t exist. And it’s not because we were both keepin’ shit to ourselves because that’s the way it is with people like us. She’s the most inaccessible person I’ve ever met. But if she opens up even minutely, lookin’ into her eyes when it’s there, it’s like falling into a pit of misery.”

“Jesus,” Turner muttered.

“Yeah,” Nick muttered back, remembering that look in Olivia’s eyes and shifting to the bar to grab his drink.

“If it’s her father who did that to her, why doesn’t she leave?” Turner asked.

Nick threw back a healthy pull before answering.

“The entirety of the small of her back to along the top of her hips. Not a lot of space but too much for what happened to it.” He turned his eyes to Turner. “Mutilated, man. Not even a centimeter of healthy skin. That at the hands of Daddy. Whatever she did to earn it, she learned. That lore in Denver?” He shook his head but said, “She learned it. Fuck yeah, Eric. She learned. But she learned privately. And she’s shit scared of it happening again. She’s bound, man. A prisoner in tight skirts and expensive shoes who lives in a mansion.”

“You take him down, you’re not gonna save her,” Eric stated.

“I won’t walk over her to take him down either.”

“She’s gonna know it’s you,” Eric pointed out.

Nick felt his mouth get tight and turned back to his drink.

She was. There was no stopping it.

“Nick,” Turner called.

Nick looked to his friend. “She will. And she’ll definitely get where I was at when I started things with her. But she’ll also know I didn’t end it that way. And she’ll know it was her that earned that respect. It might not be much, but it’ll be something.”

“Buddy, she’s your best way in there,” Eric reminded him.

Nick threw back more whisky and didn’t respond.

“Murder has no statute of limitations,” Eric went on. “You testify against Harkin, he’ll get the death penalty, takin’ out a federal agent.”

Nick looked again to his friend. “Not that I haven’t shared this with you a hundred fuckin’ times but maybe this time you’ll let it sink in. I come out as the confidential informant I was and openly rat on Harkin, Shade feels nothing. And it’s not just Harkin but Shade who’s gotta pay. And Georgia Shade is a wildcard, but she’s a Shade. She’ll be about retribution. And I’m not big on the idea of entering WITSEC, if that’s even offered to me for the low-level player that is Harkin. I’m also not big on puttin’ my family’s asses on the line. That happened once because of Vincent Shade, I’m not gonna let it happen again. I don’t disappear into witness protection and a miracle happens and no Shade wreaks vengeance, a rat in my business, I’ll lose every client I got. And I kinda like to eat, Eric.”