Sebring

I didn’t see Harry but now I knew he could be back there.

He’d played me.

God, I didn’t even have Harry, such as he was, a reminder of a golden time when I still hoped. When I still had it in me to believe.

Now I’d learned. Definitely learned.

Gold didn’t exist. It was all fake and tarnished.

My phone rang. I looked to the dash to see it was Nick.

That ice crawled up my throat, frost crackling and spreading.

I ignored it as well as the strange coolness of the tears sliding unnoticed down my cheeks.

My phone stopped ringing but it did chirp with a text.

It would do this repeatedly for some time.

But I kept ignoring it.

I was too busy.

Too busy reminding myself.

Too busy reminding myself never, not ever, not ever again to forget.

There was no Brightside.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Dark

Nick

11:49 – That Same Day

Tweaked and pissed off that he knew Olivia left that fucking warehouse, made it home, but didn’t return a single call or text, on his way to her house to check on her, he ignored Knight’s first call.

Tweaked and pissed, Olivia not communicating, the second one coming from Knight five minutes later, he took.

“I got shit happening, brother. Something I need to know?” he asked as greeting.

“Late last night, anonymous tip came in. The body of Drake Nair was discovered early this morning in a shallow grave that is absolutely not the Shade MO but absolutely is exactly where the tipster said it would be. The cops got their search warrant, they hit the Shade warehouse. Found what they figure is the murder weapon right in Vincent Shade’s desk drawer, residue of blood spatter on his carpet. Shade has been arrested. CSI team went in. My guess, more evidence is gonna rack up.”

Shit.

Shit!

“Georgia is makin’ her move,” Nick guessed.

“So it’s not you,” Knight replied.

“No it’s not me,” Nick bit out. “I made that move you think I’d do it without tellin’ you?”

“I hoped not. Good to know I hoped right.”

Nick couldn’t let that annoy him. He had more important things on his mind.

“Olivia was called to the warehouse this morning. She left, went home and in between she is not taking my calls or returning my texts. Your sources who gave you all that shit, they say anything about my girl?”

“No word breathed about Olivia or Georgia or any of the Shade crew, outside Vincent.”

“You know, Knight,” Nick said.

Knight knew. And what he knew was that Olivia was there when that shit went down. She was a witness to her father shooting Drake Nair. A witness that didn’t come forward. Murder covered up, that made her an accomplice.

She was vulnerable.

“Not a word, Nick. Nothin’ about Olivia,” Knight assured him.

“Sylvie and Creed findin’ anything for me with the Feds?”

“Nothin’. All clear. So fishy it smells bad, it’s so clear. This includes them not seein’ any link from the Feds to the Shades. Georgia picked a solid crew, none of them are stupid, none of them are fuckups. Not like the dad. It’s a new dawn for the House of Shade. She played the long game and cleaned up along the way. Though, she tied shit tight, Sylvie and Creed have heard Valenzuela is not pleased with Georgia’s recent activities. He was amusing himself with her, thinking she was a joke like her father. Her getting her feet under her, he’s not amused anymore.”

“Shit, shit, fuck,” Nick muttered.

“Shit’s hot, brother,” Knight told him something he knew but he did it quietly.

“I don’t know what’s goin’ down, I just know whatever goes down from here on out might need to be fast, Knight. Lightning speed. You got my back on that?” Nick asked.

“Don’t piss me off with stupid questions,” Knight answered.

Nick drew in a breath and let it go, parking in the first spot he found close to Olivia’s house, a parallel job one door down.

“I’m at her pad, gotta go.”

“You need me, I’m here and I’ll put out the alert in case we need to break a sound barrier.”

Nick wanted to be amused.

He was too worried to be amused.

“Gotcha. Thanks.”

“It’s gonna be okay, Nick. If it isn’t right now, we’ll make it that way,” Knight told him as Nick knifed out of his car.

That felt good. Having Knight at his back, that felt good.

But he didn’t have a good feeling about this. Liv knew he wanted her communicating. He reached out, she knew to reach back. Her non-response was more than a little troubling.

“Thanks, brother, I’ll check in soon.”

“Right. Later.”

They disconnected and Nick tore his eyes from Liv’s house when he heard his name called.

He looked to the car where Jed was sitting across the street.

“Stay or go?” Jed called his question.

“Stay,” Nick called back. “And get another man here. Eyes everywhere. Anyone approaches this house, they’re stopped and I’m notified.”

Jed nodded and closed his window.

Not giving a shit, the jig was up because, with shit going down at the House of Shade, he was not going to let Olivia out of his sight, he walked right up to her house.

He tried his key.

It didn’t work on the front door.

He rang. He knocked.

She didn’t answer.

He turned and looked to Jed who was now leaning against the door outside his car.

Jed pointed at her house with a sharp upward jerk of his chin.