Page 100 of Caught Up

He shook his head.

“What happened with McKinney?”

“He’s a gambler,” Nic said, filling me in on all the work he’d put in after the night I told him about Velvet’s financial woes.

I sat there, stunned, listening to how he’d gotten Josh to do some hacking for him and then hired a whole ass merc team to hunt McKinney’s bookie down. My jaw dropped when he told me the bookie was Josh’s douchey friend Tyler, of all people.

“And then I went to McKinney’s place and convinced him to sell to me,” Nic finished.

I eyed him. It couldn’t have been that easy. I’d met McKinney, and he was as selfish and greedy as they came. “How, exactly, did you convince him?”

His eyes slid away from mine.

“The truth, Nic,” I said. “It’s the least you owe me.”

With a sigh, he nodded. “I may or may not have used force.”

Unease wormed its way through my stomach. “How much force?”

He winced. “I took his finger off.”

“Youwhat?”

His tone turned placating. “He got it reattached.”

I gaped at him. “That doesn’t make it any better!”

“Look,” he said. “It was the last awful thing I ever plan on doing, but I would have done much worse to get free from my father, because taking a finger off is a fucking cakewalk compared to most of the shit I get told to do. I can’t keep this up anymore, Lauren.” He tapped his temple. “I can fuckingfeelmyself dying, feel pieces of my soul withering up every time I get a phone call. At this rate, I’ll either be dead or incarcerated or beyond all hope within a year or two, and I don’t want that to happen. I don’t want to become my father.”

My heart stuttered in my chest. “You’re not your father.”

The fact that he was so tortured over the possibility of turning into him proved that. And while I might not be ready to forgive Nic yet for everything he’d done, there was no way in hell I was letting him sacrifice his freedom for me.

I picked the deed up and held it out to him. “I can’t take this from you.”

He made no move to accept it. “Why not?”

“Because as mad as I am, I won’t steal your chance to get out.”

“You’re not stealing it. I’m giving it to you.”

I shook the papers. “I don’t want it.”

He pushed them back at me. “Your happiness means more to me than my freedom. And don’t worry about me. I’m sure I’ll find some other way to get out.”

Yeah, but will it be too late by then?I wondered.

“You have to take it back,” I said, trying to stand. My head swam again, exhaustion and hunger and dehydration winning out as I started to tip sideways.

Nic caught me before I fell. The world tilted, and suddenly, I was flat on my back on the bed, with him rising above me. His hands stroked my hair from my face, so gentle, like he would never hurt me. “Lauren? Are you okay?”

He looked so worried, so helpless, that I finally let myself accept the fact that he hadn’t come here to harm me; he was only trying to make things right.

“Please,” I implored him. “Take the deed. If you don’t, I’ll just find some way to give it back to you.”

His hands stilled, cupping my face. “I don’t want to ruin your feelings about the club by being the building’s owner.”

I shook my head. “Nothing could ever ruin my feelings about Velvet. This is your chance, Nic. You have to take it.” He frowned, but I could see the hope building in his eyes, so I pressed on. “If you’re really trying to make me happy, then keep the building. I could never live with myself if I knew my gain led to your continued misery.”

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