by Vanessa Dare
In the meantime, we had a day to set my plan in motion. I had a few key players I needed to pull in to accomplish it and—
Anna’s intercom rang.
“That’s going to be Carrie,” I told her as she walked over to answer it.
Anna tucked her hair behind her ears as she arched a brow in question. “Anything else you’ve got planned I should know about?” she asked before talking with the desk downstairs.
Not only had I moved into her place, I’d invited people over. If she liked her solitude, tough. She’d just have to deal. I was in her life now and it was something she’d have to get used to.
A minute later, Anna let Carrie in. My sister wore tan cargo shorts, a T-shirt with the Rangers logo on it and flip-flops. After a quick hug with Anna, who appeared completely surprised by the spontaneous gesture, Carrie turned to me, hand on hip. “Since when do you want to know about my boyfriend?”
“Since your latest just happens to be related to Frank Carmichael.”
Carrie’s mouth dropped open, and I reveled in the moment as I’d clearly figured out a secret of hers. Dating the nephew of a major crime boss would definitely be something she’d want to keep from her cop brother. “How…?”
Anna just looked between the two of us.
“At lunch the other day, you told me what Uncle Frankie likes for lunch. Is the nephew named Huey, Dewey or Louie?”
Carrie rolled her eyes. “Ha, ha,” she said, her voice snarky as she slumped down on to my couch, propped her feet up on the coffee table. “His name is Adam and he’s very nice.”
“Nice. Nice?” I asked, full of brotherly exasperation. “Does he work for his uncle?”
Carrie shook her head. “No, he’s a lawyer.”
“A lawyer in the family who’s not in the family?” I wondered. “No way.” Not a chance little Adam Carmichael didn’t work for his uncle.
“He’s an ADA with the city, so fuck off,” Carrie grumbled.
“That’s one way to stay out of jail—well-placed relatives,” I scoffed.
“You’re one to talk,” she countered.
“It’s true, Nick. You work for Moretti and I seem to want you around,” Anna admitted. She moved to sit in the armchair.
I clenched my teeth. I was undercover, for Christ’s sake, not a blood relative of an East Coast crime boss. “Fine. We’ll stay off that topic.”
I still couldn’t tell Anna I was a cop. She’d be pissed—understatement of the year—and probably run off and take on that new identity. At the moment, it was critical I made connections with the likes of Frank Carmichael and I couldn’t do that if I was a cop. He wouldn’t take a meeting from me then if I held up the last corned beef sandwich on the planet.
“You dragged me over here on a Saturday morning to talk about my dates?” Carrie wanted to know.
“You have more than one?”
I wanted her to line them all up so I could check them out. Carrie might be thirty-two years old, but it didn’t mean I wouldn’t shoot any asshole who treated her poorly.
“Save your alpha personality for Anna,” Carrie grumbled, letting her head fall back against the couch cushion.
Anna just arched a brow and her gaze flicked down my body. Just a look like that had me getting hard, which wasn’t good in front of my sister. Alpha with Anna was definitely working—for both of us.
To hide my eagerness for Anna, I walked to the kitchen to get a drink. My dick was running the show now and I needed that to stop. It wasn’t going to see any action until I saved Anna, so I needed to get my brain in gear and focus on the dangerous shit. “I need you to set up a meeting for me with Uncle Frank,” I called out.
Carrie sat up. I couldn’t see her, but I knew this because her feet hit the floor. “Why would you want me to do that?”
“Because he’s going to help me kill Anna.”
I rested my forearms on the counter that looked out into the main room. Anna’s eyes practically popped out of her head. I hadn’t told her about that. Yet.
“What?” Carrie screeched. “How is Frank Carmichael going to help you? Do you really think he’s going to actually keep you alive? And I mean really alive?”
I figured it out in the middle of the night. Sleep wouldn’t come, not with the weight of trying to save Anna’s life on me, nor her naked body pressed against me. I had to get us out of the shit storm we were now in. Fast. I could kill the other guy Moretti sent, but that would make me just like him. Evil and dirty. Even if it was in self-defense, I couldn’t guarantee Anna wouldn’t get hurt in the process.
If it came down to that man’s life or Anna’s, there was no choice. Just as the sky started to lighten with dawn, it came to me. It was perfect. I could take down Moretti—get him put in jail for good—finish my stint undercover, and save Anna’s neck. Pulling it off would be something else entirely.
“Carmichael hates Moretti as much as we do.” Thoughts of Moretti and Carmichael made my hard-on go away and I was able to come out from behind the counter. “We’re going to offer Uncle Frank a deal that will make him very happy, keep us alive and put Moretti behind bars,” I told them.
“You work for Moretti. Don’t your loyalties lie with him?” Anna asked.
God, she was so pretty. Even in cutoffs and a tank top, she was perfect. I knew how soft her skin was, how good she tasted, how she looked when she came. She had no idea of her effect on me. How desirable she was. On the direction of my thoughts, which seemed to divert off of what was going to save us to the feel of her beneath me. I was whipped. Big time.
Focus. No, my loyalties didn’t lie with Moretti. I’d taken an oath to protect and serve, not shoot and kill. He’d ordered a man to finish both of us. Moretti didn’t do loyalty.
“He sent a guy to kill you—and I’m not talking about me. Why would I side with that asshole when I have you?”
She also didn’t have any sense of her own worth. After everything I’d said, everything I’d done to her, Anna still didn’t see how important she was. I’d tried words, I’d tried actions. It seemed time and trust would be pivotal for her to realize this once and for all. “Don’t you get it, woman? My loyalties lie with you.” I moved and knelt down in front of her, tilted her chin up with my finger. Forced her to look at me. “Nothing else matters but you.”
Carrie cleared her throat.
“Set up a meeting with Carmichael,” I said to Carrie, but kept my eyes on Anna. “Today. Dangle Moretti in front of him if you need to.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Carrie had done her job. We were on the subway headed to Carmichael’s Brooklyn home for a meeting at two. I sat between both women on the row of seats, only a few other people in the car with us. The clatter of the wheels was loud, the car cooler than the summer air above ground. Once we had word of the meeting time, Anna and I took showers—separately, intentionally, but not what I really wanted—and dressed for our roles.
It was important—crucial—we got Carmichael’s help. I hadn’t come up with any other way to get Moretti to believe our deaths. He didn’t take people’s word. The second guy he sent to kill Anna, and me, was proof of that. She might be brave. She might be strong, but Anna didn’t have the experience or ruthless know-how—thank God—to deal with Moretti.
There she sat, wearing another little skirt, flowing as if a stiff wind could kick it up. It wasn’t overly sexy; not skintight or revealing, but it did a number on my desire for her, continuing to ratchet it up a notch to the point where once I had her beneath me, I worried I wouldn’t be gentle. I’d lifted her skirt once and driven her to multiple orgasms. Once we had Moretti taken care of, I planned on doing it again.
I had blue balls from hell and only a time, or ten, with Anna was going to make it better. Would I always think like this from now on? Would my mind be perpetually distracted by a glimpse of her smooth thigh or remembering the taste of her?
This distraction would get me killed while undercover, so Carmichael had to pan out. Then Moretti would be behind
bars, I’d be back on the beat and I could continue my pussy-whipped daydreaming without the chance of a hit on our heads.
“I figured your boyfriend would be riding with us. Thought he wouldn’t want to miss out,” I told my sister. I wanted to poke at her for her choice in boyfriends, but I didn’t have much fight in my words. No matter what I felt, I couldn’t leave Carrie out of this. She was our connection, our introduction to Carmichael. Without it, we wouldn’t make it through the front door, so I didn’t need to piss her off. Hell, I didn’t even know where the front door was.
“He’s meeting us there,” Carrie replied, equally civilly. She probably didn’t want to mess with me either, ensuring she was in the meeting with Carmichael. No way would she want to miss out on it.
I felt Anna’s hand on my biceps, turned to her.
“I can’t be Olivia again, Nick,” Anna said, her voice quiet.
This is what had kept her quiet all morning? Worrying about taking her old life back?
“Let’s get you dead first, then we can figure out who you’re going to be.”
“No.” Anna shook her head as she spoke. “We need to figure this out now.”
“What’s the matter?” Carrie asked.
Anna stood, leaned against the pole in front of us to brace herself against the sway of the car. “Nick wants me to go back to being Olivia.”
Carrie looked between the two of us. “What’s wrong with that?”
“People don’t just ditch a new identity. They take one for a really good, really dangerous reason. I can’t go back. That wasn’t a life, that was existing,” Anna said.
I noticed her fingers were white holding on to the bar.
Carrie cocked her head to the side. “Isn’t that what you’ve been doing for the past twelve years, just existing?”
Anna looked away, down the length of the car, her cheeks flushing pink with what I imagined was shame. She shrugged casually. “Yes, but I don’t like the person I used to be. Waiting for years and years for a father to claim me. Embarrassed just thinking about how gullible I was when Todd said he wanted to marry me. Naïve. Clueless. Stupid.”
The last she spat out, bitterness lacing her words.
I pictured her as a child, wild hair and gangly limbs, waiting anxiously for any word, any kernel of love to come from her father. To watch as other kids went home for holidays and summer breaks to their families, knowing that she wasn’t loved. She’d had a cruel childhood, but she’d endured, survived. Until she was duped—used—by her ex. I clenched my fists in my lap, wishing the bastard was here so I could kill the fucker.
“You weren’t stupid. You were tricked,” I told her.
I could see it. Carrie could, too. That’s because we were on the outside, seeing her life as one long timeline. Anna saw it as failure on her part. She believed something was wrong with her for people to treat her like they had.
“You were strong and brave and just eighteen,” Carrie shared. “Don’t let Nick tell you about the stupid crap I did when I was that age.”
I couldn’t help rolling my eyes at the memories. “Who wasn’t stupid and naïve and clueless at eighteen? Most people weren’t attacked and then tossed in jail. Divorced even. You never gave that girl a chance to prove herself besides becoming Anna.”
“Are you worried about your ex?” Carrie put her hand on the seat next to her at a sudden lurch.
Anna considered Carrie’s question as we pulled into a station, watched as people came on the train: a family with tired children, a runner with earbuds in, an elderly couple.
“I’m scared of him. Of what I remember him to be like. What he did to me. He’s toxic and I don’t want to be anywhere near him again,” she confessed.
“How did you think you’d help Elizabeth?” No way she could help her half-sister without running into Todd or her father. No question they’d have that poor girl on lockdown.
“I wanted you to do it for me.” She ran her fingers over the cotton of her skirt. “I’d just be in the background and able to stay safely hidden behind my new identity. I just knew I had—have—to keep her from marrying Todd.”
“What ammunition do you have against him? I know you have something.”
She lifted her chin. I was starting to recognize that as her tell. She had a secret and she didn’t want to share.
“I do. I have something you can use against him.” She glanced around the subway car. “I don’t want to get into it here. Now.”
“Okay, love. It’s time, don’t you think? Reappearing after all these years is going to throw him off, on top of whatever you have against him. Don’t you just want to fuck him over?” I wanted to do more than fuck with the guy. I wanted to kill him. One thing at a time.
“What my brother is trying to say in his crude way is: Get back at Todd. Show him you can handle him, then make him pay. Keep Elizabeth from him. Keep him from getting what he wants. Again. Revenge is going to be awesome.”
Carrie’s words coaxed a smile from Anna, a small nod. “You’re right. I want revenge, more than you can even imagine. But first, Nick, kill me. Let’s get rid of Moretti so we can move on. So I can move on. It’s time.”
The evil glint in Anna’s eye made me rock hard. God, what about her didn’t? She was plotting. I could see it. In the short time I’d known her, she’d recognized she was stronger, braver and more powerful than she ever imagined. Having someone on your side, rooting for you, supporting you, did that.
I’d showed this to her, showed her she was strong, but we, the two of us together, were even stronger. Through more than just words, through actions. Getting her beneath me, getting her to respond to my touch, was powerful business. It wasn’t just about sex. It was about recognizing there was more to life than just living. She just didn’t know that it was a two-way street. Her newfound strength came from trusting me, but I found my own strength in knowing that I held that trust, protected it. Cherished it. It made me feel like a super hero: powerful, invincible, whole.
Anna
Instead of taking twenty minutes to get to a quiet street in Brooklyn from Manhattan, it took forty-five. We stayed on the subway an extra stop, backtracking via a coffee shop, a Jewish delicatessen and merging in with a group of Japanese tourists for a block before Nick felt confident we weren’t being tailed by Moretti’s man. Nick didn’t want the guy to know we were visiting Carmichael, which seemed like a good idea.
A very attractive man answered Carmichael’s door. It was obvious this guy was Adam since Carrie stepped up off the stoop and was pulled into his arms for a hug while Nick looked ready to clock him. The guy, over six feet and built like a football linebacker, gave her a soft kiss on the forehead before turning to Nick. The way they sized each other up, I had no doubt if his girlfriend’s brother wasn’t standing there watching, Adam would give Carrie a wholly different kind of kiss. Adam had sandy-blond hair, very blue eyes and a soft smile. The last was for Carrie, but when he looked to Nick, his expression changed. Guarded, assessing.
Nick glared at Adam with what I recognized now as the Look of Death. “Hurt my sister and I’ll kill you and bury you in a place even your uncle won’t be able to find,” he said, his voice dark and cold. It was the voice he saved for strangers and those who pissed him off. I remembered it from his office at Scorch when he thought I’d killed Bobby Lane. It was difficult to tell whether Nick was joking or not. From his expression, I was leaning more toward him being completely serious. Since he had an inside track with the underworld of society, his words were also very plausible. Adam pulled Carrie in even closer, I’d even consider a taunt, as she rolled her eyes at her brother. Her arms went around Adam’s waist and Nick’s eyes narrowed into slits following the movement.
“Good. You’re watching out for her as a brother should,” Adam told Nick, with a nod of approval. “But now…you’re not the only one taking care of her.”
Another moment passed, then Nick somewhat grudgingly held out his hand. They shook and the tensi
on dissolved.
“Men,” Carrie grumbled. “Seriously, you guys are a bunch of Neanderthals.”
I was a little wistful at the exchange. Carrie had no idea what she had. A brother who cared enough about her to grill and potentially kill a boyfriend to protect her. A boyfriend who knew his role wasn’t just to fuck her and take her money. Adam seemed really to want Carrie, cared about her wellbeing, to the point of overbearing, alpha male. After spending my entire life on my own, overbearing and Neanderthal sounded pretty darn good.
“You must be Anna.” Adam smiled as he shook my hand, his large one dwarfing mine. He had a firm grip, but gentle.
“Be nice to her, Adam,” Carrie warned.
“I’m always nice to women. I would never hurt a lady, you know that.” Adam kissed the top of her head, then winked at me.
“Hello,” I said, taken in by his smile. He didn’t have a dimple like Nick, but he did have that appeal that I had no doubt made women fall at his feet. Carrie hadn’t quite done that, but she was definitely smitten. The way Adam held her, possessively, it was obvious he felt the same. I darted a glance at Nick, his jaw clenched tightly. Nick might have shaken the guy’s hand, but he didn’t have to like him.
“Come inside, please.” Adam stepped back, keeping Carrie snug against his side, a place where she seemed perfectly content. I entered first, Nick following behind after taking one last look down the street. His hand was on my waist, which was reassuring, and remarkably arousing in its simplicity. I inwardly groaned; I was turning into a nympho, thinking about Nick and sex at a time like this. He’d said he’d have me begging for it. I was getting close.
We were in the main foyer, a staircase was on the right, to the left a formal living room decorated with fine antiques, a hallway down the middle. It was cooler inside, but not air conditioned. “My uncle’s in the family room.”
Adam led us to the back of the house and the family room, clearly an addition on the old structure, with large windows and skylights. It was bright, sunny and comfortable. I was a little surprised by the Carmichael home, expecting a shady storefront with a bunch of oversized thugs manning the door. Frank Carmichael would be a man with large gold chains about his neck, an equally gold tooth winking when he smiled. I’d seen too many movies. That was film, and my overextending imagination.
