“No,” he answered, not liking that he had to give that answer. But they had a leak, it was too risky. He didn’t like not having ears on the House of Shade. But at least Olivia wasn’t in that fucking warehouse anymore. “I gotta look into some shit, I’ll let you know,” he finished.

Curt accurately took his cue from Nick’s words, nodded and walked out the door.

Nick pulled his cell out, sat in his chair and stared at his phone.

He wanted to contact Turner. He wanted to give him a heads-up that the internal investigation of his team was shit.

Turner had a snake in his garden.

But Nick needed to clear his own men first.

And when he went to Turner, he had to have solid info to give him.

Nick ran his thumb over the screen and put his phone to his ear.

“Nick,” Knight greeted.

“Sylvie and Creed still in town?” Nick asked.

His brother’s tone was more alert when he answered, “No, but they can be.”

Nick drew in a breath.

Then he stated, “I got a couple of jobs for them.”

* * * * *

Olivia

2:25 – The Next Thursday Afternoon

I moved down the hall of the warehouse toward Dad’s office, hoping our first monthly meeting went quickly so I could get out of there.

I did it thinking how easy it was getting used to living clean. Just walking down the hall, it felt like the grime of the place in all its incarnations was settling on me, clogging my pores, making it hard to breathe.

Gill nor any of our other boys were outside Dad’s door but I heard voices inside.

I knocked.

I received no reply. Not a “come in.” Not a “go away.”

I was early for our two thirty meeting, but not that early, so I expected Georgia was in there, maybe Gill, Tommy, Miguel, whoever, and they were just waiting for me.

What I did know was that if Dad didn’t want me in, I’d get a “go away.”

I turned the handle and walked in.

I stopped dead at what I saw, thankful that a lifetime of training blanked my face and any telltale line of my body.

“Come in, Olivia, this won’t take long,” Dad said irritably, his hand waving at me, his eyes annoyed and on the man sitting in front of him.

I didn’t want to go in.

But I needed to go in and not only because Dad was waving at me.

So I went in.

The man sitting in front of Dad looked at me. His eyes slid down the length of my body in a way that exacerbated the feel of filth coating me and he turned back to Dad.

“I’m done waiting, Vincent,” Drake Nair declared, dismissing me.

Drake Nair.

I knew the man and part of what I knew was that he would disappear.

Then resurface.