by TJ Nichols
“I have family issues.”
“We need to work out a new arrangement,” David said.
“My deal was with Benitez. So was my sister’s. I don’t need to make another deal.” He was free for the first time in centuries, and he wasn’t going to waste it.
“I know you had something to do with it.”
“I was acquiring what he wanted.”
“Which was?” Impatience crept into David’s voice.
Olivier grinned. The replacement had no idea. “That was a personal matter. I did a lot of personal work for him, as I’m sure you’re aware.” And if he wasn’t, too bad.
“You’re not interested in continuing your work?”
Olivier gave a respectful pause as though seriously considering the offer. If it were genuine, he’d be tempted. It was what he knew. He understood the city and the people he worked for. They weren’t all bad, and it had been a good job, a well-paying job. But the price was too high. He didn’t need the money as much as he needed his freedom.
“I think, after the events of tonight, both personal and with the business, I need to walk away.”
“Then you have twenty-four hours to leave the city. Your confidentiality clause continues to your grave.”
That was an order, one Olivier would obey. “Given that the boss is dead, I think I should warn you that Palmerston has been poaching clients, and he’s preparing to make a push to take over. It was one of the issues I was dealing with. I think the boss would want you to know.”
“I think you’re right. You could come to the office and tell me more.” David’s voice was slick and calm, but Olivier doubted he felt anything close to that as he sat in Benitez’s old chair.
“I can’t tell you more right now. Once I have left the state. Let’s call it goodwill.”
“You want insurance,” David said.
“If you like.” If David really wanted him dead, a few state lines wouldn’t matter. It was an illusion of safety, and they both knew that.
“I can see why you dealt with the special jobs. You can keep your mouth closed.”
“I can. I hope you’ll feel the same trust that the old boss had.”
“I’ll call you in twenty-four hours.” David hung up.
Olivier set the alarm on his phone. He wanted to destroy it, but that would smell of deception, and he couldn’t afford that.
“Where are you going? And what’s happening?” Cody said.
The laptop screen flickered, and the files that had been locked opened in multiple windows, displaying their contents.
CODY STEPPED forward, his gaze locked on the screen. “Shit. That’s a lot of info.”
“It might not be good. There could be junk in there.”
As Cody reached for the laptop, Olivier stopped him. “Don’t touch her things. She’s twitchy about that.”
“How well do you know her?”
Olivier hesitated. “We dated for a while, a few years ago. So when she says don’t touch, do not touch unless you want broken fingers.”
“You and her?” Cody stared at Olivier. Him and Felicity?
“Yeah. Felicity was just as mean as me back then.”
“And since her?”
“There have been others. And other men. I may not be able to hold down a relationship, but I’m not a monk.”
Olivier was bi. “I didn’t know that about you.”
“It wasn’t an issue when we were together, because I was with you.”
The silence was filled by the noise of the computer. Cody’s brain worked just as hard as the machine. There was so much he didn’t know about Olivier—so much that he wanted to know. “How’d you meet her?”
“On a job. Then she came to me for help a year ago, so she owed me a favor.”
“And how many friends owe you favors?”
“Felicity is not a friend. We were never friends. Now I’m on the way out, the friends I do have won’t want to help me. Felicity was the only option.”
Cody frowned. He’d heard one side of the call, and Olivier didn’t give much away. “Is that what the call was about?”
“I’ve got twenty-four hours to leave town. The new boss will call me, and he wants information on what Palmerston is planning. Including a poached client list.”
“Clients?” Cody hissed. “Plural?”
“I know of at least one other. Or at least I suspected something, but now it makes sense.”
“How many businessmen are tangled up with people like your boss?” Was his father just doing what everyone else was doing? He’d never been gladder that he walked away. He couldn’t live with dishonesty. Connor hadn’t been able to either; he sought refuge in drugs.
Olivier watched him. “Big money means people take big risks to protect it. They have the money and name to buy that protection. The only thing I’ve learned in this job is that everything can be bought or covered up for the right price. The only honest people are the ones who can’t afford to be crooked.”
“That’s very cynical. People are generally good.”
Olivier lifted one eyebrow. “Oh, do tell me how I fit into that world view.”
Cody crossed his arms. “You started to help your parents. You acted under orders, like a soldier, but you wanted your sister and niece to be free. Regardless of everything else, you had good intentions.” He drew in a breath. Olivier hadn’t wanted to kill Connor. He hadn’t been in a position to refuse. “What happens if we’re still here in twenty-four hours?”
“It’ll be painful. I fully intend to be somewhere else. And you have a plane to catch.” He pushed off the desk. “I’ll get Felicity so we can move this along.”
For a couple of minutes, Cody was alone. He stared at the files his brother had gathered, but he didn’t dare touch the laptop in case Felicity had rigged it to burst into flames or something. What if she took copies of the files?
He needed copies of the files and all he had was his phone, which was slowly losing its charge.
Olivier and Felicity walked in, both laughing. Olivier’s smile didn’t reach his eyes, and there was a set to his lips that betrayed his anxiety. Twenty-four hours wasn’t long.
Felicity tapped a few keys and pulled out the flash drive.
“Can you send me the files?”
She looked at him like he was an idiot. Olivier frowned.
“I’m not your secretary.”
Cody took his phone out of his pocket. “I don’t have a computer at the moment.” Neither did Olivier. “You can email them.”
“Fine. What’s your address?”
Cody gave her his private one, not the shop one. His phone buzzed as her email arrived.
She deleted the evidence and handed the flash drive to Olivier. “You were never here.”
“Haven’t seen you in months,” Olivier said.
“There’s no copies on your computer?” Cody needed to be sure.
Felicity rolled her eyes and gave Olivier a look. “Stop trying to corrupt the innocent. Find someone as dark as yourself. Then you won’t break them.”
Olivier gave a small grin. “Tell him to stop trying to save me.”
Felicity glanced at Cody and shook her head. “He’ll run away before he gets too involved, but it’ll be too late for you.”
He wasn’t getting involved with Olivier. They had a mutual problem, and a shared curse… but that was broken. They also had lust, but that was it. He smiled, although it felt awkward around the edges.
“If we don’t get moving, we’ll be late.” Olivier gave Cody a pointed look and opened the door. “Been nice seeing you, Felicity. Stay safe.”
“Be safer without running into you.” She shut her laptop.
Cody slipped through the door. They made their way to the back of the club and went out into the cold night. “We’re trusting her just like that?”
“Yep. Sometimes you have to trust people.”
Cody didn’t trust her. He wasn’t sure he trusted Olivier. “You should be get
ting out of here.”
“Not yet. You’d die on your own, and I don’t want that on my freshly discovered conscience. Besides, I’m getting used to having you around.”
“After spending how many lives trying to kill me?”
“You don’t remember them.” His features froze, and in that instant Cody knew Olivier remembered them all—every death. “Come on. We can argue later. Once we’re safe.”
“What about your niece?”
Olivier stiffened as though he’d been hit. “In the morning. No point it waking up the sitter.”
“We’re going to need coffee, and I’m out of cash.”
“I have some, but I doubt they’re tracking us by our credit cards. They’ll be watching my place and Marie’s because they’ll want to make sure that I’m packing to leave—or because they plan to grab me.” He said it so calmly that it took a moment for Cody to register what he’d said.
“What?”
“It’s a possibility. If that happens, get across to New Jersey and get a flight home from there.” They walked out of an alley and walked up the street.
It was only then that Cody realized he didn’t want Olivier to die on his behalf.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CODY SAT in a café and read through the documents his brother had left and his father had killed for. They were why his brother had died—even though Benitez said he didn’t care about the contents and that Connor had been killed only for his betrayal. Lily had been scared when his father took all of Connor’s computers, and his father must have found enough damning evidence on them that he went after Lily.
At first glance it didn’t seem so bad. There were some transactions between Benitez and Anders, but they did business together, so that was to be expected. But there were unusual payments where Connor had noted that a project was able to move forward, a tenant left, or a permit was issued. It looked like the kind of thing that Benitez should have been worried about—not that it mattered to him anymore.
In the Anders file there were more documents. More transactions.
Cody skimmed them for anything interesting. He supposed that a police accountant would find it exciting and see the corruption, while Cody could only smell it. There was no clear pattern.
Starting six months before, payments were made to a business related to Palmerston. Cody only knew that because the name was on the folder. That must have been the start of the trouble.
What had happened to bring his father and Palmerston into contact?
He’d never know. His brother had kept all of it to himself and only passed it on once he was dead. Now Cody had to decide what to do with it. Would it really destroy his father?
Cody saved the documents to his cloud storage. He felt much safer with multiple copies, even though the files meant little to him. He didn’t have the time or the desire to trawl through each one so he could piece together what had happened. It was enough that he had the files.
Olivier came over with two coffees. “Done already?”
“Yeah. I’m not an accountant like Connor. All I can see is that there was a lot of money trading hands and moving things along. My father is playing dirty and doesn’t want anyone to find out.”
“And we still don’t know anything.”
“I’m not sure I want to know. I just want this over.” He took a drink and burned his tongue on the coffee. “Dammit.”
It was two in the morning, and he was tired. All the coffee in the world couldn’t give him the clear head that a good night’s sleep would.
Olivier watched him. “You okay?”
“Tired.” His tongue hurt. If that was all that hurt by the end of it, he’d be grateful. “No time to sleep, though.”
“Yeah, there is. I’ve booked a room at a place near Marie’s. It’s not fancy, but they take cash by the hour, and they don’t ask questions. We can go there. In the morning you can call your father.”
“I don’t know what I’m going to say. Anywhere I go he’ll bring his friends. Maybe I should call Mom.”
Olivier sipped his drink. “She won’t believe you over her husband. She might suspect. No one can live with that for all those years and not have a clue. But she’s probably made excuses for any oddities.”
“The same way everyone accepted Connor’s suicide.” Except him. Maybe his brother and sister had suspicions, but they had removed themselves from the family business and chosen careers that took them someplace else. They knew something was wrong and hadn’t wanted to be part of it. Connor, though… he’d wanted to be the good kid—the one who would get the family business—until he realized that it was as shady as hell. Cody had always been happy being the troublemaker.
Olivier studied the contents of his cup. “I’m not sure I like this guilt thing.”
Had he really never felt guilt when he put a bullet through someone? “You’ll get used to it. It’ll stop you from reverting to what you were.”
“Was I such an awful person?” He looked genuinely wounded.
Awful? That might be too harsh. “You did awful things, but you had to.” Cody swallowed and hoped he didn’t choke on the words he wanted to say. “I forgive you for Connor.”
If it hadn’t been Olivier, it would’ve been someone else—maybe even their father or his cronies. It was reassuring to know that Olivier hadn’t enjoyed taking lives. Add in the curse, and maybe it was all meant to be—except the bit where he was still breathing and the curse had been broken. He stared at Olivier. The curse that had dogged him for hundreds of years was gone. That meant that their lives would no longer intertwine after this one.
Olivier regarded him with his dark eyes. In the dim lighting, they were almost black, but there was nothing soulless about them. That ice had gone, but the hint of danger remained. It was in the way Olivier carried himself and the tilt of his head.
Olivier closed his eyes. “Thank you.” When he opened them, he smiled. “Now to break your family’s hold, and then we’re both free.”
Free. Cody had never really thought about it before. He’d just thought he was free.
How do you attempt an escape when you can’t see the bonds?
There were no locks to pick and no knots to unravel, no carefully hidden picks or timed distractions. He’d have to create them.
THE HOTEL room was clean and tidy, even if the outside looked like it had bedbugs. It had a reputation for being discreet and was well known in the social circles Marie moved in. Olivier had brought someone there more than once, when he didn’t want to take his hookup home or go to their place. He always hated to walk out after a couple of hours with everyone on the desk knowing what he’d done in the room.
Today was no different, even though the woman on the desk took his card and handed him a key. She barely glanced at either of them, but he knew she was wondering which one was the hooker and which one was the john. Cody looked as though he couldn’t believe places like this existed. It must be nice to come from such a privileged background.
But that same privilege was now hunting him for not complying.
The elevator had gaudy pink wallpaper on two sides and a mirror on the back wall. It didn’t make it look bigger. Olivier was well aware that it was barely three feet square. Classical music filtered through the speakers.
Cody leaned against the back wall, hands in his pockets. “Come here often?”
“No, but I thought it was the safest option. You didn’t see it, but they have pretty good security here. People getting hurt is bad for business and draws police attention.”
“It’s less sticky than some of the places I’ve been to in Vegas.”
Olivier smiled. “Want to tell me about them?”
“No.” Cody shook his head.
The elevator door opened before Olivier could ask more questions about Cody’s life in Vegas. The number was written on the door in a beautiful gold scroll. It was a pretty hotel that could’ve done okay business with tourists if it weren’t in a slightly risqué part of t
own. The hotel probably made more money this way.
Olivier unlocked the door and held it open for Cody. “You don’t talk much about what you do.”
“There isn’t much to say. You know I have the shop.”
“And when you aren’t working?” He flicked on a light and locked the door. “Grab me the chair.”
Cody complied and dragged it over. Olivier put it at an angle under the doorknob, and he put the chain on.
“I do stuff. I swim. Go to the movies… have a life.”
“Boyfriend?”
“Not really.”
Olivier checked the window, and it opened onto a fire escape. He closed the window and curtain. “Not really?”
“I wouldn’t have slept with you if I did. It’s a ‘friends who occasionally fuck’ kind of thing. He’s a performer in one of the shows. You?”
“My job isn’t… wasn’t… the kind of thing I could talk about. I didn’t like the lying.” He took off his jacket and his shoes. He really wanted to strip off, but he wasn’t sure it was worth it for a couple of hours of bad sleep. And he needed a few hours or he would make dumb mistakes that would get them both killed.
Cody was already pulling back the coverlet as though he intended to sleep.
Olivier wanted to sleep, but at the same time, if he died the next day, he didn’t want to waste his last night. It was his first night free of the curse—the curse that had held him prisoner for centuries.
Cody took off his coat and then his shoes and pants. “What? I’m not sleeping in my clothes. They’re the only ones I have. I dropped my bag when I ran from my father.”
“Mmm.” He should’ve noticed Cody had no bag.
“There’s nothing we can do about it now.”
“True. Since you’ve saved those files to the cloud, if someone hacks your computer, they can get them.”
Cody paused. “I guess. But we don’t know if my father has my bag. It’s in the flower bed.”
“If they have it, then someone will be going through your things.”
“It didn’t take us that long to get the files, so it won’t take them long to get into my computer.”
