He studied Nick closely before he said, “Doesn’t feel like it, but with time, it’ll hurt less. It just will, Nick. Give it time and then get on with your life.”
Turner had no fucking clue what he was talking about. He didn’t know what girl Turner fell for but if she wasn’t dead, never to see her again, never to smell her hair, taste her pussy, listen to her laugh, eat the fried eggs she always broke the yolk when she flipped them over, knowing she wouldn’t give that to him or to anyone…
If he didn’t survive that then he had not one fucking clue what he was talking about.
Nick did not share this.
He just repeated, “Yeah.” Then, to turn the subject, he said, “Talked to Knight, Raid, Sylvie, Marcus, all of ’em. Had to, Eric. Their women and families were targeted. They had to know what we were doin’, why we were doin’ it and how they were gonna use anyone that was close to me or Knight in order to use him to get to me to stop us from doin’ what we were doin’. My brother and his crew also dragged my ass out of that hellhole so they had to know why I was there in the first place.”
“Not thinkin’ any of those folks will talk,” Turner muttered in reply.
He was absolutely right.
Nick nodded.
His gaze still intense, Turner stated, “We were planning an extraction, Nick.”
Nick nodded again, this time sharply.
He didn’t want to go there.
“I know you were,” he said in an effort to stop Turner from talking about it.
He did know that. Turner wouldn’t leave Nick hanging. He definitely wouldn’t leave Hettie that way.
“Your brother and his crew, they don’t have to worry about the rules like my crew does,” Turner explained. “They could go in hot. They could take those risks, no plan, flyin’ by the seat of their pants.”
“I know,” Nick replied.
“We were comin’ for you,” Turner went on. “You and Hettie.”
Nick didn’t repeat himself.
They were. It was still too late. When Knight and his crew tore in there to save his ass, they were too late too.
Too fucking late.
“Coupla weeks, we’ll go for a beer,” Turner suggested.
It was Nick’s turn to study him.
“You do that a lot with your ex-CI’s?”
Turner suddenly looked pissed. “Jesus, Sebring, the shit we been through the last coupla years, you seriously think you’re still just a confidential informant to me?”
Now that…
That felt good.
Nick had not had a habit of surrounding himself with good people.
And Turner was definitely a good man.
“Fucked thing to say,” Nick muttered.
Turner’s face again changed. He might not have any clue how bad it was but he still got where Nick’s head was at.
“Coupla weeks, buddy,” he said quietly.