LITMIR.BIZ

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in, he wasn’t having any more luck than he’d had the first time they’d argued. Instead, she stared up at him, her eyes flashing with anger. And something else.

      Fear.

      She should be afraid, for herself. But he knew she wasn’t. She was afraid on behalf of her sister, and recklessly willing to do anything to help her, even if it meant putting herself in danger. He finally accepted that no amount of arguing was going to change her mind. Intimidation wasn’t going to work. He sighed.

      “I’ll help you get Lily back,” he said, “but like I said earlier, I have conditions.”

      She darted her eyes toward the closed door, as if by sheer will she could get Waverly and Rickloff to step inside. “What conditions?”

      “First, we’re through, finished. There is no ‘us’ anymore. And there never will be.”

      “Agreed.”

      She answered so quickly Nick was taken aback. He’d been prepared to explain about his job, how he couldn’t date anyone tainted by illegal drug activity, even indirectly through a family member. He’d planned to tell her he still cared about her, that he regretted how things had turned out. But there was no point in apologizing now, not when she so obviously didn’t want a relationship with him anymore.

      That knowledge stung far more than he would have expected.

      He rested his hip against the table. “Second, you do exactly what I tell you to do at all times. I mean it. Exactly what I say. Unquestioningly. If I tell you to get down, you drop on the floor as if someone had swiped your legs out from beneath you. If I tell you to be quiet, you don’t even breathe until I tell you it’s safe. Can you do that?”

      Her eyes widened with alarm, as if she was just beginning to realize how dangerous this mission was.

      “O-okay,” she said, her voice soft, hesitant.

      “Three, you report to me and me alone. I don’t care what Rickloff or Waverly tell you. One phone call to them at the wrong place, wrong time, could get us killed—you, Lily and me.”

      “Why would you think they would ask me to call them?”

      “It’s what I’d do if I were them.”

      She nodded. “Okay. Is that all?”

      He shook his head. “No, there’s one more condition. And it’s a deal breaker. You already agreed to my other conditions. Remember that. One of those conditions was to do exactly what I tell you to do.”

      “I understand.”

      “Okay. Final condition. We’ll go to Key West together, but you’ll stay in hiding, in my hotel room with another agent watching over you, while I go to that bar to draw Gonzalez out somehow. I will figure out a way to save your sister, but I refuse to use you as bait. It’s too dangerous.”

      She raised her hands in a gesture of surprise and frustration. “How will we save Lily if I’m in hiding?”

      “Leave that to me. You have my word I’ll do everything I can to save her, but putting you in danger is not part of the plan. I meant what I said. This is the deal breaker. You agree to this or I’m out. And you already know I’m the best agent for the job or Rickloff wouldn’t have tried so hard to convince me to do this. So what’s it going to be?”

      She stared at him for a full minute, frustration and anger warring with each other across her expressive face. Even though she didn’t want to agree to his final condition, she obviously knew he was her sister’s best shot at making it out of Key West alive.

      He glanced at his watch, well aware of how urgent it was to get moving soon or there wouldn’t be a chance to help Lily at all.

      Heather let out a long breath and glared at him, obviously not happy, but resolved.

      “I guess I don’t really have a choice,” she said. She shoved out of her chair and headed to the door.

      “You made the right decision,” Nick said.

      “I hope so.” She paused in the door opening. “Because I’ve decided Lily’s best chance is with someone other than you.”

      * * *

      NICK AND RAFE leaned back against the desk in the SAPD squad room. They both had their legs spread, arms crossed, as if they had nothing better to do than to watch the fiasco playing out in front of them.

      Waverly and Rickloff stood on the other side of the room with the small group of agents who’d come up from Miami with Rickloff, talking to Heather. Apparently they were giving her last-minute instructions while one of the agents grabbed her suitcase that she’d gone home and packed after telling Nick she didn’t want his help. Her refusal to trust him still stung, but he supposed he’d earned that by letting her sit in jail all weekend and not giving her a chance to explain what had happened.

      “I heard they’re flying out to Key West in the morning,” Rafe said. “They’re going to a hotel by Jacksonville International Airport for tonight.”

      Nick grunted in reply.

      “They’ll arrive at the Key West airport around noon,” Rafe said. “An agent from Miami will meet them there with the kilos and drive Heather to a hotel. I might have even heard a rumor about which hotel they’ll be using.”

      “One of those infamous contacts you brag about, I suppose?”

      “Yep.”

      “I don’t suppose you also know the name of the Miami agent they’ve chosen to go to the bar with Heather?”

      “I might.”

      “That could prove useful.”

      They watched in silence as Heather shook Rickloff’s hand. She and the entire entourage headed across the far side of the squad room toward the exit. Heather didn’t even look Nick’s way.

      “Are you sure you’ve made the right decision?” Rafe asked, stifling a yawn as he, too, watched the group head to the exit.

      “Yep.”

      “If Waverly fires you, I could put in a good word for you at SAPD,” Rafe said. “We have an opening for a meter reader. A washed-up DEA agent might be qualified for that.”

      Nick shoved him.

      Rafe shoved him back.

      Waverly held the door open for Heather, and the small group headed out front. They stood at the curb, apparently waiting for the van from the airport that was heading toward the front of the building from the end of the parking lot.

      “He’s not going to fire me,” Nick said.

      “You sure about that? He seemed pretty ticked that you didn’t go along with Rickloff’s plan. I haven’t seen his face that red since you cleaned him out at poker a few months ago.”

      Nick sighed. “I miss poker nights. I can’t believe you let Darby cancel our poker nights.”

      “Let her? Are you implying the decision wasn’t mine? That she has me wrapped around her finger?”

      “I’m not implying anything. You’re her lapdog. Ruff, ruff.”

      “I’ll pay you back for that.”

      “Looking forward to it.”

      “This is serious. You could lose everything.”

      “Yeah. I know,” Nick said quietly. “But I’m still going through with it.”

      While Heather’s luggage was being loaded, she and her entourage got inside the van. Apparently they were all accompanying her to the airport hotel. Nick supposed that was their way of pretending they were actually protecting her instead of sending her into an impossible situation where the odds of her being hurt, or killed, were enormously high.

      Конец

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