That was a definite “thank fuck” considering the fact that once Knight and his crew extracted Nick four and a half years ago, Knight as well as Marcus Sloan made it clear, and they did that widely, that Nick had their protection. They also made it clear that if anything happened to him, it would be blood for blood until there was nothing left of anyone who harmed him, including and especially anyone with even remote ties to the House of Shade. And both Knight and Sloan could guarantee that, with far more men in their armies who were loyal for real reasons.

They’d also shared Nick was no longer connected to the FBI and his cooperation with them in the first place had been about the girls being trafficked, something known wide through Denver was a family thing.

They didn’t lie.

Officially.

What Vincent Shade didn’t know that eventually blindsided him didn’t matter.

Shade had let Nick be and Nick had been careful not to fuck up as he carried out his plan. As far as Shade was concerned, Nick had learned his lesson through Hettie and was returning the favor of letting Shade be.

And in the meantime, Nick had built his own threat that included a loyal army. But he knew if Shade found him a threat, Shade would ignore that. He’d even ignore Knight.

But he would not get in the face of Marcus Sloan.

“In your listening, Georgia Shade have any clue what went down with Hettie and the FBI?” Knight asked.

“No one mentions it except Shade, Harkin and Leary, but only in Shade’s office. Never Georgia. Definitely not Olivia. Don’t listen myself, but reports state she doesn’t even know much about what’s going down with the labs, has been fully removed from the illegitimate operations, her ties to the soldiers have been cut and she’s not in close communication with the warehouse anymore at all.”

“Sister protecting sister as one builds up to a takeover?” Knight asked, his brows going up. “Or sister cutting out sister as she builds up to takeover?”

“No clue,” Nick answered, his mouth tightening after he did.

He had no bugs in Olivia’s new office. But he got a report on her conversation with her sister weeks ago, including Georgia’s not-gentle nudges for Olivia to start seeing Dustin Culver.

It was a strange fixup considering Culver was an attorney with no ties to anything illegal in any way except a few semi-dirty clients who weren’t much to get excited about. And Nick had no idea why Georgia was pushing that because, outside her nudges, neither Georgia nor Shade had mentioned Culver.

After he broke things off, Olivia not a focus of his plan, Nick didn’t know if she’d started seeing him.

Or fucking him.

That got scratched on the top of the list of shit they were discussing that night.

“Nick,” Knight called.