“The plan never was to take Harkin down, Knight. He was following orders but he pulled the trigger. The plan has always been to take Harkin out.”
Knight’s gaze on him was intent but he said nothing against Nick’s decree.
“Thank fuck Marcus and my protection hasn’t worn thin,” Knight muttered.
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.
Nick focused on his brother.
“Want you to take a chance on finding someone, bein’ happy. Not real thrilled you picked the way you picked, not your girl, a tough road you both gotta travel. But I’ve already found what I need. I know how it feels. You find what you need, I’m happy for you and I’ve got your back. But is that all you wanted with askin’ me here? To tell me you found a woman you wanna try to make happy, your neck’s on the line and the woman you’re claimin’s neck’s on the line? Or do you want somethin’ from me?”
“I called you here because I wanted you to know my decision about Olivia. I called you here because you need to know that’s the path I’m on and it’s gonna be bumpy. And I called you here because, along that path, I might need you and I needed to give you that heads-up.”
“To launch this operation, you pulled in your buddy Turner, a fuckin’ Fed, and every other marker you got out there and you asked nothin’ from me.” Knight smiled. “I was feelin’ left out.”
“Think, over the years, I’ve asked enough of you.”
His brother stopped smiling and stated, “You don’t got much left to learn. You set about learning it and you didn’t fuck around doin’ it right. But one thing you do still gotta learn is, when it’s family, Nick, there’s a limit to the shit I’ll eat. But there is no limit to the love I’ll give.”
Nick kept his mouth shut but he did it to swallow against the lump that was all of a sudden blocking his throat.
Knight let that go and pushed up from his seat.
Nick pushed up with him.