He meant now.
“Sebring, I’m seeing him tomorrow night. When I do I’ll—”
I snapped my mouth shut when he asked in a scary tone, “Are you fuckin’ shitting me?”
“I’ll explain during dinner,” I promised. “He’s a decent guy. It’s—”
“End it now, Liv.”
“You know,” I started tersely, “it doesn’t make me very happy when you interrupt me.”
The minute I quit talking, he rolled off me and the bed.
I snatched the covers up over me before I pushed up to my elbows and watched him walk naked through his bedroom to the living room. I then watched him grab my purse from the coffee table, open it and dig through.
I got distracted by his wide chest, his cut abs, his thick thighs and his very pretty cock as he walked back to me.
I got undistracted when his weight hit me again and my phone was digging into my palm because he was pushing it there.
“End it now, Livvie,” he demanded.
“It’s going to get back to my mother,” I told him.
“You’re gonna date a guy when you got a man so you don’t have to put up with your mother?” he asked incredulously.
My eyes slid to the side as I muttered, “You don’t know my mother.”
“Liv.” My name vibrated with meaning and it was dangerous meaning even if the vibration was physical and slid along my skin rather pleasantly.
I narrowed my eyes at him. “We get along. He’s a decent guy. He’s interesting. He’s into me. What reason do I give to end things? I can’t tell him I’m with you, that’ll get to Georgia, then Dad, and we both know the results of me doing something Dad has not stamped as approved aren’t pretty.”
“Say you got a new job and you gotta focus on it. Say you’re not feelin’ it with him. Say you’re in a place in your life right now where you can’t be about a relationship. I don’t know. I got a dick. That shit comes easy. Just work it.”
Oh no he didn’t.
I gave him a chance to take it back.
“You got a dick and that shit comes easy?”
“A man wants shot of a woman, he doesn’t fuck around worried about her feelings. He gets on with it, and baby, I see your face screwin’ up to lose your shit about that but think about it. Why drag it out? There’s no point. You’re not asking for a divorce after bein’ married to him for a decade. You haven’t even been seein’ him but for a coupla weeks. In some shit, life’s too short to waste time bein’ sensitive.”
“You know, the absolute worst part about that is you’re right,” I snapped.
He grinned but through his grin ordered, “End it.”
“Fine,” I bit off.
He laid on me.
I lay under him.
He didn’t move.
I couldn’t move.
“A little privacy?” I requested.
“Uh…no.”
I blinked at him.
Then I got angry(er).
“I’m not lying. I said fine, I’ll end it. So I’ll end it. You can go away and that’s what I’ll do. End it,” I promised.
“Gonna eat you while you talk to him so you’ll remember who owns you and make that shit quick so we can get on with our night.”
My stomach dropped in a good way.
“Now, phone him, baby,” he ordered, sliding down my body.
“Sebring—”
He pushed one of my legs wide at the same time running his hand down my inner thigh.
His body fell through.
I quickly lifted up my phone and engaged it.
Nick kissed the inside of my opposite thigh.
My lip quivered and I hit buttons on my screen.
I put the phone to my ear.
Dustin answered on the second ring.
Nick lapped at me.
My voice was throaty and strained as I made up some excuse I forgot what it was seconds after it came out of my mouth, ending things.
I did note, albeit vaguely, Dustin sounded disappointed and it seemed he was going to push it but instead he asked, “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. You’re a good man and saying things like this to a man I respect isn’t easy,” I replied, then swallowed the noise I wanted to make when Nick sucked deep at my clit. I forced out to finish, “And I’m coming down with a cold.”
Dustin said more and it was nice because he was a nice man.
But mostly, I hurried it along so I could get him off the phone and I could concentrate on Nick going down on me.
I managed this, hitting the button to end the call and tossing the phone to the bed beside me, my other hand moving to Nick’s head to hold him to me.
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.
Gill nor any of our other boys were outside Dad’s door but I heard voices inside.
I knocked.
I received no reply. Not a “come in.” Not a “go away.”
I was early for our two thirty meeting, but not that early, so I expected Georgia was in there, maybe Gill, Tommy, Miguel, whoever, and they were just waiting for me.
What I did know was that if Dad didn’t want me in, I’d get a “go away.”
I turned the handle and walked in.
I stopped dead at what I saw, thankful that a lifetime of training blanked my face and any telltale line of my body.
“Come in, Olivia, this won’t take long,” Dad said irritably, his hand waving at me, his eyes annoyed and on the man sitting in front of him.
I didn’t want to go in.
But I needed to go in and not only because Dad was waving at me.
So I went in.
The man sitting in front of Dad looked at me. His eyes slid down the length of my body in a way that exacerbated the feel of filth coating me and he turned back to Dad.
“I’m done waiting, Vincent,” Drake Nair declared, dismissing me.
Drake Nair.
I knew the man and part of what I knew was that he would disappear.
Then resurface.
As far as I knew, he’d disappeared for some time.
Now he was back.
I wasn’t the only one who knew Drake Nair. Everyone in Denver knew Drake Nair.
Everyone in Denver knew he wasn’t that bright, but he was wealthy, and rich men, smart or dumb, could pay to get a job done.
They also knew he was a slimy weasel.
And last, everyone in Denver knew Drake Nair hated Knight Sebring.
I did not keep tabs because Nick was just a name for me back then, but I still knew it had to be years since I last heard of anything happening in the Sebring/Nair war.
Word was, Nair played dirty (not surprisingly).
But Knight Sebring had always prevailed.
I didn’t know much of what it was about, outside Knight and Nair were once partners and then they were not.
I just knew with Nair’s latest lengthy disappearance the bad blood seemed to have died down.
But now I had a very bad feeling mostly because I had no idea my father knew Drake Nair and I didn’t like him, his history, his hatred of Knight Sebring and the coincidence this all was right now sitting in my father’s office.
“You’re a fool, you go after that again,” Dad told him.
I moved across the room to Dad’s grubby windows, pretending their discussion mattered little to me but doing that listening closely and fearfully.
“Don’t give a shit the protection the brother has. They’re tight. The brother gone, that’d sting,” Nair returned. “Easy hit. Whack Nick. Deliver a big blow to Sebring. Seriously, Vincent, you cannot have a problem with that.”
I fought hard to keep breathing, looking out the window, hoping I was giving the appearance their conversation wasn’t that interesting to me when now I was listening so hard it was a wonder my ears weren’t bleeding.
“Our histories, respect, you sitting there,” Dad said. “You talk stupid shit, Drake, I don’t have time for that.”
I felt the tension in the room rise and looked to Nair because of it.
His face was twisted with distaste. “Was pussy, you backin’ down from that years ago.”
Very much not good.
Dad would not like being called pussy.
It was time for Gill to be involved in this scenario.
I moved two steps from the window, sliding my purse off my shoulder, my eyes glued to Nair.
I felt my father’s gaze and looked to him.
He seemed reflective as he studied me for a few moments before he shook his head.
I nodded, moved the strap of my purse back up my shoulder and stepped back.
Dad looked again to Nair. “I showed you respect. You wanted time, a meet, I gave it to you. You sit in my office and not give that back?”
“My shit got fucked right along with yours, the Feds shut that down,” Nair returned.
The Feds?
What on earth?
“I need resources if I wanna make Sebring hurt,” Nair said.
“This is not my problem,” Dad replied.
“The resources I need are not money. I got that and I’m good with givin’ it up,” Nair stated then stressed, “A lot of it.”
Surprisingly, Dad didn’t deign to respond to that.
“Take him down, when I get those bitches he stole from me back, I’ll cut you into a percentage of his gash,” Nair bartered.
Dad glanced at me before he sat back and declared, “We’re done.”
Nair glanced over his shoulder at me. Looking into my eyes but for the briefest moment, he took in my breasts and hips before he looked back at Dad.
“Word is your girls ain’t stupid. They know easy money and easy money to be made off pussy.”
My lip curled.
“You have daughters one day, come back and repeat that,” Dad shocked me by saying.
I was not shocked because Dad was in that business. He wasn’t, never was and I knew that.
I was just
shocked that he was intimating he wasn’t because of his daughters.
He shocked Drake Nair too. And amused him. I knew by the noise of the incredulous hoot Nair made.
“We’re done, Nair,” Dad decreed, doing it appearing bizarrely like he was getting antsy. “I’ve got a meeting with my daughters.”
“I’ll come back, you come to your senses,” Nair said, pushing up from his chair.
“I would suggest it isn’t me who needs to come to my senses. Both the Sebrings are untouchable and that’s been demonstrated to you especially because Knight Sebring has made that point personally and repeatedly.”
Well, at least that was a relief.
“We partnered up good in the past, Vincent, repeatedly,” Nair retorted. “Both of us did well workin’ together.”
They did?
That was news to me.
Unhappy news.
Nair wasn’t finished.
“And it’d be smart you don’t forget that because word is, you haven’t been smart much for a long time and you need good partners and you have since Leon put you in your place.”
I held my breath.
No one, not a soul, mentioned Leon Jackson to my father.
No one.
Dad’s voice was rumbling with contained fury when he said to me, “Our guest has lost his way to the door, Olivia. You can call Gill now to show him that way.”
“Valenzuela finally stops fuckin’ around, chews you up, spits you out,” Nair hissed, jerking his finger through the air at Dad with each “you,” he then turned and jerked it to me. “Valenzuela puts you on the auction block, I’m buyin’. Cover you in my cum then make that pussy work for me.” He turned back to Dad. “And everyone in Denver knows Valenzuela’s biding his time. That shit’s gonna go down. Make no mistake. Only one who’s in denial about that is you. You hearin’ me?”
“Our history,” Dad whispered, “gives you sixty seconds to get your fat ass out my door.”
“Fuck you,” Nair spat. “You had the balls to do it, you’d—”
I was desperately tugging my phone out of my purse.
I was too late.
Nair stopped talking because Dad pulled the gun out of his desk.
“Right,” Nair taunted, grinning an oily grin.
I quickly searched for Gill’s contact on my phone.
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