He still felt it in his gut.

He hoped he made it so her happiness came at him so much, that feeling stopped, at the same time he hoped it didn’t.

“Just so you know, I love Vail, but my favorite is Winter Park,” she announced. “It’s fun and beautiful and not as hoity-toity.”

His grin got bigger. “So noted.”

“You want me to find a VRBO?” she asked.

“Knock yourself out,” he answered.

“You’ll have to give me some dates,” she told him.

“I get to the office, I’ll get them.”

She gave him bright, happy eyes and a hand squeeze before she dropped her head on his shoulder again and fell quiet.

He held her hand.

They landed.

Nick hung back so she disembarked before he did.

He knew (and didn’t like) that she’d have to get her bag alone and lug it to her car alone.

He simply went to his car alone, something he also didn’t like.

Twenty-five minutes later, he slid through the back gate of her house and let himself in one of her pool doors with the key she’d given him. He also turned off her alarm with the code she’d given him.

She joined him fifteen minutes later.

When she did, they shared a drink in front of the TV. Olivia conked out during the news. Nick woke her and helped her to bed.

Her head hit the pillow, she crashed.

But Nick lay with her pressed against him, staring at the ceiling, knowing the time had come for him to get shit done.

He lay there knowing it and wondering how the fuck he was going to get her safe and free.

He lay there knowing it, needing to do it, and also knowing he’d spent a weekend with his woman in Vegas, two two-hour plane rides where they weren’t fucking, eating, drinking, whispering about important shit or having fun, and he still had not come clean about where he was with her when they began.

It was good they’d had Vegas. She was relaxing into what they had. She was believing. She was trusting.

Tomorrow.

That shit had to come out tomorrow.

They’d needed Vegas.

Now it was time.

Nick had learned a lot since sorting his head and his life.

Unfortunately, the last lesson would be the hardest.

That lesson being he shouldn’t procrastinate.

Chapter Twenty-Two

The Brightside

Olivia

10:23 – Monday Morning

I was coasting into the parking area around the warehouse when my phone rang. I saw on my dash computer it was Nick so I took the call as I guided my Evoque to a spot.

“Hey,” I greeted.

“What are you doin’ at the warehouse?” he asked curtly in reply.

He still had a man following me.

His men had to have better things to do. Not to mention it was expensive to waste one following me everywhere.