Nick looked again to his friend. “Not that I haven’t shared this with you a hundred fuckin’ times but maybe this time you’ll let it sink in. I come out as the confidential informant I was and openly rat on Harkin, Shade feels nothing. And it’s not just Harkin but Shade who’s gotta pay. And Georgia Shade is a wildcard, but she’s a Shade. She’ll be about retribution. And I’m not big on the idea of entering WITSEC, if that’s even offered to me for the low-level player that is Harkin. I’m also not big on puttin’ my family’s asses on the line. That happened once because of Vincent Shade, I’m not gonna let it happen again. I don’t disappear into witness protection and a miracle happens and no Shade wreaks vengeance, a rat in my business, I’ll lose every client I got. And I kinda like to eat, Eric.”

Eric’s lips thinned again, not a big fan of anyone talking to him that way, but he still got Nick so he also nodded.

Nick turned away and said no more.

Eric fell silent with him.

Minutes later, Eric broke the silence.

“I think of a way in, we’ll talk.”

“Appreciated,” Nick muttered into his glass, lifted his eyes and caught the bartender’s attention.

He got another drink.

So did Eric.

He caught the girl at the other side of the bar looking at him two more times.

He went home alone.

* * * * *

11:17 – That Night

Nick stood at his kitchen counter, his fingers wrapped around another glass of whisky, a framed photograph held in his other hand.

The picture was of Hettie. A woman who looked like a girl. A pretty girl. A mature girl.

But a girl.

When she was alive, Nick had thought she’d always look like a girl and would do just that until the day she died. He’d thought this thinking that day would be decades in the future.

But in the end, in a way he hated, it had turned out he was right.

Blonde hair, it had been thin-ish but it was soft. Big blue eyes. Freckles on her nose.

She could act like a dork. She was sometimes klutzy. She had no problem being a big goof.

She could also take down a two hundred and fifty pound man who was six inches taller than her.

She looked so far from FBI it was hilarious.

Which made her perfect for undercover work.

He stared at her picture in its frame, something he’d had out for years. Something he’d put away when he’d started inviting Olivia over.