“The one the cartel framed you for killing?”
“The very same. She was called Anna. She was quite lovely.”
Nick searched for the right words, torn between wanting to dig for information and feeling sorry for the man. “I’m sorry for your loss,” he finally said.
Liam cleared his throat. “I’m sorry for dragging you into this by force. I’m sorry . . . my life is such that the only person I could think to go to for help wasn’t a friend, but rather an enemy.” He laughed ruefully.
“I was a friend once. That counts, I guess.”
Liam met his eyes, nodding absently. He was still nodding when he turned around and thumped down the stairs, calling out as he disappeared below deck. “Brace the mainsail, matey!”
Nick sighed and stared off at the harbor. He and Liam had swiftly run out of options and time. The cartel would be on Ty and Zane soon enough, the NIA would be on Liam and Nick, and then nothing would save any of them. Their only hope was to track down the money Burns had stolen and use it as leverage, offer it as a trade for Zane’s freedom. That was what Nick had convinced Liam to do, anyway, instead of the original plan he’d been pushing.
He still had no idea how to clear Liam’s name, but Nick wasn’t losing sleep over that. If Nick had to let Liam crash and burn, he would.
He checked all their safeguards one last time before limping down to his cabin and crawling into bed. Kelly was in town. God, he was so close but Nick couldn’t reach out to him, he couldn’t risk any of his actions putting Kelly in more danger than he already was. And Ty . . . Nick’s entire being ached at the very thought of the way Ty must hate him now that he’d come clean.
His oldest friend. His dearest friend.
Nick curled on his side, burying his head in the covers as the Fiddler’s Green bobbed peacefully in the falling snow.
He woke later gasping for air around the hand that covered his mouth. His left wrist was pinned to the mattress in an iron grip, and there was a weight on his hips like someone had straddled him. There was also something dripping on him. It was too dark in the cabin to see much, but Nick struck out with his right hand, grabbing his assailant by the throat. If this was Liam in some fucked-up attempt at cuddling, they were both dying today.
“Nick, it’s me. It’s Doc.”
As soon as that familiar voice broke the silence, Nick’s fingers loosened their hold and his eyes widened. Kelly removed his hand from Nick’s mouth, placing it on Nick’s shoulder instead.
“Kelly?” Nick gasped. He could barely see Kelly’s grinning, bearded face. “How did you find us?”
Kelly bent and kissed him, disregarding Nick’s hand still at his throat. Nick pawed at him, desperate to feel the man and make sure he was real. It was apparent that Kelly had been in the water. He was shivering, and they were both breathless when Kelly finally broke the kiss.
“I knew you’d head for water, searched every marina until I saw the Fiddler.”
“Jesus,” Nick whispered, awe and sadness mixing in his tone. He sat up and wrapped Kelly in his arms, pressing his face against Kelly’s chest despite how wet he was, squeezing until the man grunted. “God, it’s good to feel you.”
“You too,” Kelly whispered, and he kissed Nick’s temple.
“You’re going to freeze, you need to dry off.”
Kelly batted Nick’s hands away as they tugged at his wet clothing. “Fuck that, we’re getting right back in the water. I snuck past Bell to get down here. I kind of expected you to be tied up or something.” He knelt back and patted Nick down like he was checking him for hidden restraints. “I watched him for a good hour from the dock; he’s got no fucking pattern with his patrol. He’s just weaving around up top like he’s drunk. If we’re going to get by him, we have to go now. Are there any more, or is it just Bell?”
“Kelly,” Nick said, hesitating as nerves fluttered through him.
Kelly was crawling off of him, but he stopped and turned back to Nick, eyebrows raised. “You can run, right? Can you swim? They told me you’d been stabbed.”
“Yeah, but . . . Kels, I can’t leave.”
“What?”
Nick opened his mouth to explain, but he couldn’t force the words out.
Realization seeped through Kelly’s expression as he studied Nick’s face. He slumped back to the bed. “Oh my God.” Kelly was breathless, as if the revelation had knocked the air from his lungs. “You’re not a prisoner, are you? He didn’t snatch you off the street after you left Ty’s place. Did he?”
Nick shook his head. He couldn’t pull in any air either, and the chill that ran through him made him light-headed. His heart pounded at his chest and his fingers pulsed with each beat as the silence stretched between them.
“You went with Liam Bell . . . by choice?” Kelly asked, his voice cracking.
“Kelly, no. He showed up after my surgery. He told me he’d be coming for my help, and if I refused . . . you’d be the one paying for it.”
Kelly’s shoulders slumped, and the water dripping off his nose into his scruffy beard made him look like some dejected cartoon character. “You’re doing this because of me? You . . . you . . . you’re with Liam Bell because of me?”
“No.”
“Yeah, you are! You’re working with Bell because of me. Why the fuck didn’t you tell me? I could have helped you, I could have gotten you out of this!”
“I couldn’t risk that he wasn’t bluffing, and I couldn’t lose you. We both know he strikes from a distance.” Nick took a deep breath, nausea churning his gut. The look of utter betrayal in Kelly’s eyes was almost too much for him. “Once I started actually listening to him . . . he’s not on the wrong side of this.”
But Kelly wasn’t listening to Nick. “This explains why you babbled about wanting to kill him for two weeks when you were delirious.” Then the frown deepened and he turned his changeable eyes on Nick. “Wait . . . you remember being in the hospital? You remember after you woke up?”
Nick took a deep, shaky breath. “Yeah.”
“You remember.” Kelly gasped and looked away, swallowing hard. “You remember asking me to marry you?”
Nick reached for him, but before he could make contact he drew his hand back, lowering his head. He closed his eyes and clenched his trembling fingers into a fist.
“Why wouldn’t you say anything? Why would you let me think . . .”
Kelly’s words were like sandpaper against Nick’s conscience. He stayed silent, unable to raise his head.
“You didn’t say anything because you knew he was coming for you,” Kelly realized. “You figured why marry me if you’re just going to disappear and die on me.”
“I’m sorry,” Nick said without looking up.
“You son of a bitch!”
Kelly launched at him, flattened him to the mattress and backhanded him with a grunt. Nick bit back a cry of pain as Kelly’s knee hit his stitches.
“What the fuck were you thinking?” Kelly demanded, barely managing to keep his voice down. “We’re a team. We’re partners, and I’m not some fucking possession of yours that can be threatened. That’s never the way we’ve worked, and I refuse to start now just because you’re fucking me.”
“I—”
“Asshole!”
“I’m sorry.”
“Fuck you, Nick. Fucking coward. You’re going up against our own boys with a man who’s tried to kill them, all because you thought I needed protecting. Do you get that? Do you understand that you’re the bad guy now? You’re a traitor.”
Nick caught his breath. “Kelly.”
“Hell, if what Ty says is right, you’re a fucking murderer! All to protect other people who don’t fucking need your protection in the first place!”
Nick nodded jerkily, the cold flowing through him again when he saw the disappointment and betrayal in Kelly’s eyes. It was so much worse than waking up in handcuffs and finding out Ty had done it. Nick hadn’t thought he could feel lower than that, coul
d feel colder than he had then, but Kelly was proving him wrong.
He swallowed hard. “You’re worth it,” he managed to say.
Kelly waited a few heartbeats as Nick’s words dissolved beneath the rhythmic thumping of the harbor’s tides on the Fiddler’s hull. Then he lunged and kissed Nick, biting at his lip, clacking their teeth together, scratching Nick’s cheeks with his beard, as Nick groaned in surprise.
“Well,” Liam said from the open doorway, and he flicked on the light to reveal a liquor bottle in one hand and a sniper rifle in the other.
Kelly rolled off Nick and came up flat on the mattress with a gun aimed at Liam. Nick tackled him before he could pull the trigger, and they both went tumbling off the bed.
Liam smirked and set his rifle against the doorframe, taking a drink from his nearly empty bottle. “Dinner and a show.”
“Fuck you,” Kelly snarled as he struggled to get his gun out from under Nick.
Nick rolled away from him and struggled to his feet, scurrying toward Liam to block Kelly’s line of fire. He put both hands up, but then he had to hold one to his aching side. “Hear us out.”
Kelly’s lip curled mutinously, his eyes blazing.
“Please, Kels. Please.”
“What are you doing, babe?” Kelly asked, his voice breaking. But he lowered the gun to his lap.
“I know how this looks, but we’re not the bad guys. Not this time.” Nick edged closer to Kelly and knelt. He placed his hand over the gun, squeezing Kelly’s frozen fingers as he took the weapon from him. “Do you trust me?”
Kelly stared into Nick’s eyes for several long, heartrending seconds. Then he looked over Nick’s shoulder at Liam. His jaw jumped and his body tensed. “You know I do.”
Liam cleared his throat. “Another man wouldn’t hurt. If we can trust him.”
Fire flared in Kelly’s narrowed eyes, and Nick turned to sneer at Liam. “Could you . . . I don’t know, keep your fucking mouth shut for one second?”
Liam shrugged.
Nick slid his fingers down Kelly’s arm. “You can leave now, babe. Go back to Ty and the others and tell them everything. Tell them . . . tell them I’m working with Bell. Tell them where we are. We’ll be gone before you can get back because we haven’t finished what we started out to do. Or you can stay.”
Kelly jerked his head, meeting Nick’s eyes. His expression was unreadable, but his jaw was clenched.
“You can stay and help us save the others.”
Kelly gave Liam one more slide of his eyes before returning his attention to Nick. “You know I’d follow you anywhere. Even if it’s straight to Hell.”
Nick brushed his fingertips over Kelly’s cheek.
“I’ll leave you to it, then,” Liam drawled. “I’ll be on watch.”
“A lot of good that did you,” Kelly snarled. “Are you drunk?”
“You think I didn’t see your stupid frozen arse climbing out of the drink?” Liam chuckled. “Please.”
He closed the cabin door as he left them, but neither Nick nor Kelly moved. Nick was pretty sure neither of them was even breathing.
“We should get you dry,” Nick whispered, and he reached to pluck at Kelly’s wet shirt.
Kelly shoved his hand away. “Don’t fucking take care of me, man.”
Nick bit his lip against an angry retort. Kelly had to get it out of his system, and Nick knew he deserved whatever Kelly dished out. “I’m sorry.”
Kelly huffed. “I’m here with you, babe. I’ll stand with you no matter how fucking stupid you are. And if we fall . . . we’ll do it together.”
Nick watched him longingly, fighting back the regret and shame and mourning that came with the domino effect of his decisions over the past year. If he’d stayed true to his own code of honor, they wouldn’t be here right now. He’d never have taken the hit from the NIA, he’d never have wrapped his arms around Richard Burns’s neck and snapped the life out of him, he’d never have said words to his best friend he knew would wreck him. He’d never have avoided Ty for the last year out of guilt and despair. He’d have married Kelly the moment he was able. He wouldn’t be here now, begging for forgiveness from every person in his life he cared about.
“Ty’s coming for you,” Kelly said as he peeled out of his clothes. He still sounded torn, like he was trying to decide which side of the fence his loyalties would fall on. He gave a resigned sigh. “For us. He’s not on the warpath anymore, but . . . we’re going to need something to show him when he finds us. You said you had evidence that Burns was coming for him and Zane?”
“We may have enough to convince him. But Liam knows how to get more.”
“Liam.”
“I know,” Nick said. “It’s not easy trusting him, but . . .”
Kelly narrowed his eyes. “I don’t trust him. I trust you. Only you. Regardless, we need that evidence when Ty finds us, or . . .” He shook his head and kicked his jeans to the side.
Nick had expected nothing less, but the news still hit him like a load of bricks being dropped on his heart. For a second time, he’d need proof to show Ty before the man would believe him. If he’d had it the first time they’d dealt with Burns, how different would their lives be now? Would Elias Sanchez still be with them?
He nodded and tried to catch his breath as he grabbed a robe out of his closet and handed it over to Kelly. He perched on the edge of the bed and dug his fingers into his knees as Kelly wrapped himself up. Ty hadn’t taken Nick’s word on the way he’d felt about Richard Burns ten years ago, and he wouldn’t take him on his word now. Nick wasn’t sure what part of him had expected that he would when he’d knocked on Ty’s front door.
“Nick.” Kelly knelt in front of him, putting a hand on top of Nick’s. “You live on a boat and you’re docked in the nearest harbor to Ty’s house. He will find us soon.”
Nick struggled not to fidget. The fact that Kelly was willing to stay with him after what he’d done was sinking in, and he met Kelly’s eyes with a hint of awe. “You can really forgive this? Forgive what I did and stay with me?”
Kelly’s nostrils flared and his eyes flickered away. “I’m not saying I’m proud of it. The whole time I was tracking you down, I kept telling myself you’d never kill Burns without . . . And if I got to you and found out I was wrong, I’d . . . But there was something in the back of my mind . . . I knew that wasn’t true, that I’d stay with you no matter what. Even if you killed him just to see something burn, I’d stay with you. I’d . . .” He shook his head, cursing in disgust, then laughed ruefully. “Broke his neck righty so I wouldn’t recognize it. That’s some serial killer level shit, Nicko.”
Nick’s stomach churned. He took hold of Kelly’s chin, turning his head so he could meet his gaze. Kelly was still angry, his eyes sparking. Nick didn’t know if he was angry with himself or with Nick or maybe both, but the cold hard fact of the matter was that Kelly was ready to give up every good thing he’d ever done, ready to sell his soul just as surely as Nick had. All for Nick. He couldn’t catch his breath, couldn’t move. “I love you,” he said desperately.
Kelly’s jaw tightened. “You came to Ty’s to feel him out, didn’t you? See if he’d be willing to help you?”
“Yes.”
“You let Liam stab you. On purpose.”
“Yes,” Nick whispered.
Kelly stood with a muttered curse, went to his pile of clothing to rummage through them, and came up with his dive knife clutched in one hand. “I’m going to initiate myself into the team, then.”
“Kelly!” Nick called as Kelly stomped out of the cabin.
“It’s okay, it’s team building,” Kelly answered, his voice fading as he jogged up the steps. A moment later Nick heard a squawk of alarm and a thump as Kelly and Liam introduced themselves.
Nick ran a hand over his face. “God help us.”
Somewhere in the room, something began to vibrate. Nick straightened and looked around with a frown. His own phone had been tossed into the
sea two weeks ago; not only had Liam not trusted him to somehow get a call off for help, but he’d also claimed the government could track them with the GPS. Nick had promptly made him a tinfoil hat with a little swan on top and then sulked on the flybridge for an hour.
Now, though, Nick was pretty sure Liam had been on the up-and-up. The cartel was after him. The NIA was after him. God knew how many other alphabet agencies were on his trail. Nick had no doubt they were tracking Liam down. He still missed having his phone, though.
The vibrating continued, and Nick picked up Kelly’s jacket and patted the pockets. Inside he found Kelly’s phone in an OtterBox. Nick turned it over to see the display. It was Owen.
He held his breath for a second, fighting with himself over whether to answer and what the consequences of doing so might be. Owen had slipped him that key in Ty’s bedroom. Was he willing to pull Owen or Digger into this?
Before he could think the better of it, he slid his finger over the screen and brought it to his ear.
“Doc?” Owen said excitedly.
“No,” Nick said.
Owen’s breath caught, and then he cleared his throat. “So . . . you’re okay then? We were getting worried when you didn’t come back.”
“We’re on the Fiddler. Bell is here with us, but we’re safe, you hear me? Safe.”
“Yeah, good,” Owen said, injecting a little upbeat tone into his voice. “I’ll let the others know. You coming back to Grady’s, or . . . we’re at the Pier 5 hotel, near the aquarium. I left a key for you at the front desk when we checked in.”
“Okay. We’ll meet you at your hotel in one hour. Make damn sure Ty and Zane don’t come with you, got it?”
“Okay, good. As long as you’re safe. We’ll see you when we get back. We’ll find him, Doc, I promise.”
Nick waited a heartbeat, then smiled sadly. “Thanks for the assist, Ozone.”
“Hey, love you too, bud.” He cleared his throat, and when he spoke again, his voice was further away. “No, he just hung up. He’s fine, he gave up and he’s going back to the hotel to shower and sleep. I told him we were pretty much done here, so we’d be there soon.”