Sweet Pain (Amatucci Family #3) - Sadie Jacks Page 0,107

take it hard when her work or ethic are impugned. If she says she can document each step for you, she can. She’ll probably even give it to you in triplicate if you want.”

Nik’s smile was tight. “Yes. And it saves me from answering the same question asked fourteen different ways to get the same answer.”

Jerrod nodded. “You can present any information you want. I’m the one who has to verify it. I’m the one who can get screwed if you’re wrong or can be proven wrong. I want justice for those girls just as much as anyone else in this room. But this is also my job. Which I take very seriously.”

“We understand. While I would like to show this at the gala, force my parents to acknowledge their atrocities, I’m willing to forego that if it means you can verify the information. The justice for those women and girls and my parents paying for their crimes are more important to me than anything else.”

Jerrod scrubbed a hand over his face. “Give me everything you have. The steps. I’ll get my guys on it.” He looked at me. “If I can verify the information, I’ll let you run your little sting. But I don’t want any bitching if my guys don’t find the same things.” He looked at every single person in the room.

We all nodded.

He stood. “I’ll expect the files and your documentation as so—”

Nik hit a combination of keys on her laptop. “You have it now. We’d always planned to send it to you. We want these monsters caught as much as anyone. More than most, really. We won’t make your job harder. If you need anything, I can give you some professional contacts who can help out. We don’t like each other, so you can be sure that they wouldn’t be helping me or mine.” Nik smiled. “We want the same, Wright. The bad guys to lose and the good guys to win.”

Jerrod nodded and turned to the door.

Ryker popped up. “We’re in privacy mode. I have to let you out.”

Once Jerrod was gone, Ryker closed the door and reengaged the privacy screens. It really was a lot more than just locking the door. If my uneducated eyes were correct, there was even some kind of shield thingy that covered the glass on his floor to ceiling windows.

“What are we going to do about the financial information? That was definitely obtained from illegal means,” Ryker said.

Nik smiled. “No it wasn’t. That information is from the collective. It’s routed through so many proxies that it’s essentially anonymous. We can’t control other people’s actions. But we can damn sure use the information within those anonymous files.”

I shot to my feet, pulled her into my arms. “Thank you.”

She stilled against me for a couple seconds before her arms came around my back. “That’s what a girl squad is for, right?”

My laugh was a little wet as I nodded against her shoulder. “Definitely. If there’s ever anything I can do, you let me know.”

She pulled back, smiled at me coyly. “Give me some more baking lessons?”

All the men, except Rafe and Mas, groaned.

“No. You girls aren’t allowed to get together for girls night anymore,” Ryker said.

Nik flipped him off. “What I do in my off time is no business of yours, bossman. If Willow wants to teach me her wicked ways, then you can just suck it.” She stuck her nose in the air.

I bit back my smile. Turned to the love of my life. “Yeah. She’s got awesome aim with a spatula full of icing. I’m sure she’ll be a goddess in the kitchen in no time.”

Ryker and Turo both groaned. Shook their heads.

I hugged Nik again. “You want to learn to bake, sweets, you’re in good hands.”

“Okay, so assuming Wright’s guys find what they need to find, we need to nail down specifics for the gala,” Rafe said, interrupting our love fest.

“Well, we already have Willow’s dress, so I think we just need one for Nik. I think we’re good,” Tali said. She had her Dumb Blonde face on as she looked at her brother.

He didn’t rise to the bait. “Nik, can you put the slideshow together?”

She nodded. “It’s essentially done.”

“Do we want to make a media announcement on the down low?” I asked. “Do we have any trustworthy media people?”

Everyone looked at me with varying degrees of disgust. “You want to invite the media. On purpose?” Nico asked.

I nodded. “Yeah. My parents highlight their awesomeness for the