"Not a twenty-somethin' a.s.shole with my eye on a pretty girl who'd fall in love with my brother. And back then, when I first knew Anya, you didn't exist for her. Until you did. Then it was all about you."

Now Knight didn't appear pleased. "We don't have to go over this, Nick."

"Then don't talk s.h.i.+t you don't know, Knight," Nick returned.

"I don't know, share with me," Knight invited.

"Only got it in me to spew that once tonight, brother. Anya got it. She can give it to you."

His older brother studied him before he repeated, "She's tied you up."

"I'm loose."

"You didn't get loose for you," Knight observed.

"Nope. Not for me. Perfect world, she'd be here tonight so I could give Kasha a shot at makin' her smile."

"Kash is good at that."

"She broke through with Olivia, I'd buy her a human-size Barbie car."

Knight held his gaze and whispered, "f.u.c.k, she tied you up."

"She'll never be happy, Knight, I know it. And yeah, that ties me up."

"You wanna make her happy."

"She'll never be happy."

"You wanna make her happy."

"Yeah, in that perfect world that doesn't exist, I'd wanna make her happy. But we don't live in a perfect world, Knight."

"I do, certain times a day, those bein' when I walk over that threshold," he stated, jerking his chin toward the front door.

He liked Knight had that. Nick had started his life after his father got their mother out of all her s.h.i.+t. Knight didn't start his life like Nick did, his mother clean and sober and not whoring.

Yeah, he was glad Knight had that.

He was glad his dad found his mom and cleaned her a.s.s up and he was glad his dad gave that to Knight.

And he was glad Anya gave him everything else.

But that was for Knight.

"Some people don't get that, Knight."

Knight again studied him before he said, "Get this done. Just take these guys out."

"They need to hurt."

"Just take them out."

"Four and a half years, Hettie's just a memory. I promised she wouldn't become that. I failed. I had no choice. I'm human and that happens so I can survive, not be the walking dead, stuck in the past. Deacon taught me that and I learned it. Too good. But I have to finish the job she started. I promised that too. And that's a promise I gotta keep."

"Brother, do you have any clue how all the s.h.i.+t you're sayin' does not jive? Olivia Shade is wound up in that mess. You take those guys down instead of takin' 'em out, she goes too. She might not be happy now. But I've seen the woman in her tight skirts and heels. She'll be a lot less happy wearing an orange jumpsuit being someone's b.i.t.c.h."

"I'll figure it out," Nick muttered.

"f.u.c.k," Knight muttered in return. "Do not get your s.h.i.+t jacked trying to save hers."

"There is no way to take care of my s.h.i.+t without jacking hers. I just gotta jack it so she ends up just hating me and not doing it wearing a f.u.c.king orange jumpsuit."

"f.u.c.k, maybe I'll take these f.u.c.kers out," Knight irately told his drink.

Nick watched him take a sip.

When he was done, he got his brother's attention when he said, "Maybe this is penance for me bein' an a.s.shole. Havin' it good growin' up, unlike you, unlike Ma, and still givin' her s.h.i.+t. Dad s.h.i.+t. You s.h.i.+t. Actin' like a motherf.u.c.king t.w.a.t. Maybe that's it. Why it was the way it was with Hettie. Why s.h.i.+t went down the way it went down with Olivia. I don't know. I could think on that for millennia and never know. I just gotta keep movin' through it and hope I find a life where I walk over some threshold into my version of the perfect world."

Knight opened his mouth to speak but he didn't get in there because Nick didn't stop.

"What I do know is, I might have been an a.s.shole t.w.a.t, but I learned not to be that. I also learned other things. From you. From Hettie. From Dad, Mom, Anya. And something Hettie gave me was how to read people. And I know to my b.a.l.l.s, brother, that Olivia Shade deserves a lot more than just being saved from an orange jumpsuit. Her father being responsible for Hettie's death, my mission to make him pay, to finish her job, bring him to justice, it can't be me who gives her more. But to my b.a.l.l.s, Knight, I know she deserves it."

Knight heard him. Knight always listened. It was just in the last four and a half years Nick noticed he did.

And this time when his brother heard him, Knight offered, "You want anything from me?"

"I want this done so Olivia can be free to find herself some motherf.u.c.king happy. But you can't help with that so you're doin' what I need you to do. Just bein' the big brother I never let you be."

"Not a hard job, Nick," Knight said.

"Not anymore," Nick replied.

Knight gave him another look then took another drink.

After that, thankfully, they dropped the subject.

Nick went home.

He did not sleep.

Knight 8:23 The Next Morning After making love to his woman and with her curled close, Knight had slept soundly.

But he woke with things on his mind.

So he made the call.

And he gave the order.

"Find everything. Do it invisible. Give it to me. And however you do it, it never leads back to Nick or me."

"You got it," Sylvie Creed, one of his closest friends and an ex member of his team, being ex because she now lived in Phoenix with her husband and kids, replied.

Knight hung up feeling better.

Sylvie and her man Tucker, both PIs, two of the best in the business, would get him what he needed.

Which meant they'd get what Nick needed.

Nick wanted to do this on his own.

He could do that.

He didn't need to know until it was time to know he had help.

Chapter Fifteen.

An Eye Nick 10:12 Tuesday Morning, Two Weeks Later "Nick, that Ralphie guy is on the phone again."

Nick looked from his desk to Bernadette, his a.s.sistant who was hanging from both hands on the doorjamb, her torso swinging inside his office while her lower body remained out of it.

He gave her the same answer he gave her the last three times over the last week and a half that this Ralphie guy had called.

"I'm hopin' I'm makin' this clearer than the last three times I said it, Bernie. That bein' I do not want to take a sales call from an art gallery, any art gallery or any sales call."

"I told you," she stated irritably. "He's not sellin' you something. He says someone bought something for you and he needs to make an appointment with you to install it."

"Bulls.h.i.+t, Bernie, it's a gimmick to get me on the phone."

"I thought that but the reason he keeps calling back after I tell him we're not interested and we don't want to be on their call list is that he insists someone bought some painting for you."

Nick looked back to his desk, ordering, "Find out who supposedly bought me some f.u.c.kin' art so I can call them and tell them I don't need any f.u.c.kin' art."

"Righty ho, jefe," Bernadette replied.

Jefe.

Jesus.

She called her husband Dante that too.

Why he hired a smarta.s.s a.s.sistant, he had no idea. She'd even been smarta.s.s during the interview.

Perhaps it wasn't karma kicking him in the a.s.s for being a t.w.a.t while he was growing up and staying that way well into his twenties.

Maybe he got off on the pain.

He put Bernadette out of his head and was about to make a call when she showed at his door again ten minutes later.

"Goin' out to get coffee, want one?" she asked.

"Got a meet with Hawk in half an hour, I'll be gone before you get back, so no," he answered.

"Feel like springin' for coffee for me and all the boys?" she pushed. "It'll be a write off. Not to mention team building."

He sighed and did what he did a lot with Bernadette because apparently he did get off on the pain.

"Hit petty cash."

"Gotcha," she muttered, grinning and swinging back out only to twirl around in the hall and catch his gaze again. "Oh, yeah, and that Ralphie guy said the painting is from some woman named Olivia Shade."

Nick went still.

Bernie kept talking.

"So, totally a sales call. You don't know any Olivia Shade."

"What was the gallery again?" he asked, his voice so low it seemed it made no noise.

Apparently, it didn't.

"Come again?" she asked.

"The gallery," he bit out. "What's the name?"

Her head twitched. "Do you know an Olivia Shade?"

Nick leveled his eyes on her.

"No," he stated firmly, her eyes flared and he knew she took his meaning which finally reminded him of why he'd hired her. "Now tell me the name of the f.u.c.king gallery."

"It's called Art," Bernadette answered. "That one downtown. Close to Larimer Square."

"Thanks," he replied, turning to his laptop.

She disappeared from the door.

Nick found Art's website and the number. He called it.