Page 111 of Nash

“Vale,” my heart rate climbs, “I will never be happy about you, even for a ritual, with someone else. But I’ll allow it, and that’s as good as it gets.” I change lanes. The car behind me does the same. “Now get ready. We have a tail.”

“A what?” She turns around, glaring through the back windshield. “Are you sure?”

“Sure as shit.” I call out to my Bluetooth, “Call One.”

After one ring, Axel answers, “Did she approve?”

“Yes.” I focus straight ahead. “But we were followed out of the club. Secure it and find out by whom.”

“Fuck,” he grumbles. “What about The Queen?”

“She’s fine. No one spotted us with her. Turner must have eyes there.” I smirk at my pun. “Or one.”

I make Axel huff, amused. “Now what?”

“Is the captain on duty?”

“Yes. It’s third shift.”

“Tell him I’m headed his way.”

“Copy.” Axel ends the call.

“Captain?” Vale pipes up. “What captain? Please don’t say it’s another boat.”

“It’s the captain at the police station.”

“The police!” Vale shrieks. “But you’re mafia! They’ll arrest you.”

“For what?” I smirk. “Being devilishly handsome?”

“Nash!”

“I’m serious. I’m not wanted for any crimes. None of us are. A few captains in town love the services we secretly provide. You think they care if we take out men like Turner? It only saves them paperwork. And the last place Turner or his men want to be is pulling into a police station. They’ll drive right by, and no one will stop us as we switch cars. We keep one parked there.”

“My god,” she sighs. “You’re like the Bratva Boy Scouts: always prepared.”

“Not always,” I admit. “We’re human. We make mistakes, and we’ve learned some tough lessons.”

“Like?”

“Like Sire, Nadine’s oldest, is the reason I joined their family. He made the mistake of breaking into a drug store at seventeen, and that’s when I met him in juvie.”

“So, he made the mistake of being anaddict?” She sounds sympathetic.

“No. He made the mistake of trying to steal Epi-Pens for his best friend’s little sister. Their family couldn’t afford them, and she had a deathly allergy to bee stings. So Sire and his big, dark heart thought it was a smart idea to break into a pharmacy covered by cameras to get some.”

I turn right, not increasing my speed; I don’t want to lose this tail. I want them to knowIknow they’re following me, and secretly, I have the law on my side.Sometimes.

“That’s sweet,” Vale sighs. “You all make the mafia sound moral.”

“We’re not moral,” I correct her, “because we’renotmafia. Think of us as ex-mafia. If you saw the scars on Nadine’s back, as her sons have, you’d understand why they vowed never to be like their father.” I turn left and left again. “But you can take the men out of the mafia, but not the mafia out of the men. The brothers just use their talent for brutality and blood for good, not harm.” The memory of Turner’s gaping eye hole makes me confess, “Sometimes.”

“So that’s how you met Nadine? When you were in juvie?”

“Yes.” I check the mirror three times.There they are.“Sire was my cellmate, and he told his mom I was about to lose Alena to the foster system. Lainey couldn’t afford to take care of her alone, and my dumbass was in jail. So Nadine stepped in. She gave them free rent, groceries, everything. When I got out, she even paid for my college. She babysat. She?—”

“And Lainey never knew how you knew Nadine? She was just ‘Ms. Faye: the nice neighbor’?”

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