Sebring

But he lifted away.

I got up on an elbow to look down at him to see his eyes on me.

“It over?” he asked.

“Yes,” I answered impatiently.

His face got lazy as he whispered, “Good, baby.”

Then he rolled, doing it clamped on to me, forcing me with him so we ended with him on his back and I was up, straddling his head.

He yanked down on my hips.

I rode his face.

It wasn’t a lie I’d told Dustin. Breaking things off with a nice guy wasn’t easy.

It was just, for the first time in my life, as luck would have it, doing something not easy led to a reward.

A really good one.

And that led to another reward.

Sleeping next to Nick Sebring.

So for the first time in my life, it was worth it to do something not easy.

It made me feel almost happy.

Except for the part that I feared down deep in my bones that it would end for both of us in misery.

Chapter Nineteen

Clean Up on Aisle Five

Nick

8:03 – That Next Monday Morning

Nick barely got to his desk in his office before his man Curt was at the door.

“A minute?” Curt requested.

Nick caught the look on his face and lifted his chin.

He didn’t take his seat behind his desk while Curt moved in and closed the door.

He walked to Nick’s desk and stood opposite it.

“Georgia Shade ordered a sweep of their offices this weekend,” he reported.

The itch that was beginning to creep up Nick’s neck stopped.

“Standard practice for them, Curt, you know that,” he replied. “Bugs are good. They’ve been in place without detection for years now.”

Curt’s voice dipped. “Different kind of sweep, Nick. Whoever did it located all of them like he was goin’ right to them. We got nothin’ from that warehouse since noon yesterday.”

That itch crept back.

“Like he was goin’ right to them?” Nick asked.

“Took him an hour to sweep our shit clean,” Curt told him.

“Anything heard before that?” Nick asked.

“Georgia giving the order. She didn’t say a name. We got no clue if the guy who pulled them is on the Shade crew or if he’s freelance. But he didn’t fuck around.”

Nick and his man held each other’s eyes.

This was not good.

It meant a leak.

There was no leak in Nick’s crew but shit happened. New allegiances were bought or coerced. He’d have to expend the effort to make certain that was true.

Knight’s crew was tight. No way in fuck any of Knight’s men would share what Nick had told his brother. But it wouldn’t get that far. There was no reason for Knight to share that information with any of his crew, and until there was, he just wouldn’t do it.

The only other person who knew he was on this job and knew how he did that kind of job, which meant knowing the kind of equipment Nick used and being able to make an educated guess where it might be placed, was Turner.

Twice while Nick had been working that situation with Hettie for the Feds, Nick’s position as a CI had been compromised.

The first nearly got him dead. Hawk Delgado, with the help of Sylvie and Tucker Creed, had intervened, working another job and in doing so, forcing the bust of a small-time player in the larger operation Turner’s team was targeting. Nick had gotten away and Turner and his crew had scrambled and covered Nick.

The second almost had the same ending, with Hettie getting dead and the operation never coming to fruition due the players backing off because of Federal heat.

Nick would stake his life that Turner wouldn’t fuck him.

That didn’t mean someone on his crew wasn’t playing both sides.

Obviously, in both incidences, questions had been asked. How Nick had been made. How Nick and Hettie got put in the position that had ended Hettie’s life.

Internal investigation, everyone came up clean.

Nick had never liked that, but taking that on was not his mission.

Getting his shit together, sorting his life, settling in with Livvie and finishing the job he started with Hettie and vengeance for the early end of her life was.

Fuck.

Now he had to take that shit on.

“You want us to send a guy in to replace our shit?” Curt asked, taking Nick out of his thoughts.

“No,” he answered, not liking that he had to give that answer. But they had a leak, it was too risky. He didn’t like not having ears on the House of Shade. But at least Olivia wasn’t in that fucking warehouse anymore. “I gotta look into some shit, I’ll let you know,” he finished.

Curt accurately took his cue from Nick’s words, nodded and walked out the door.

Nick pulled his cell out, sat in his chair and stared at his phone.

He wanted to contact Turner. He wanted to give him a heads-up that the internal investigation of his team was shit.

Turner had a snake in his garden.

But Nick needed to clear his own men first.

And when he went to Turner, he had to have solid info to give him.

Nick ran his thumb over the screen and put his phone to his ear.

“Nick,” Knight greeted.

“Sylvie and Creed still in town?” Nick asked.

His brother’s tone was more alert when he answered, “No, but they can be.”

Nick drew in a breath.

Then he stated, “I got a couple of jobs for them.”

* * * * *

Olivia

2:25 – The Next Thursday Afternoon

I moved down the hall of the warehouse toward Dad’s office, hoping our first monthly meeting went quickly so I could get out of there.

I did it thinking how easy it was getting used to living clean. Just walking down the hall, it felt like the grime of the place in all its incarnations was settling on me, clogging my pores, making it hard to breathe.