Page 120 of Jace 4Ever
Nelson
“Give me the gun.”
I jerked up to find Smoke standing there.
“Give me the fucking gun, Nelson. This is only going to work if you don’t have that damn thing.”
I lifted the gun off the pebbles covering the roof I was sitting on and held it out for him. He took it and inspected it.
“Legal?”
“Of course.”
“Sure hope this isn’t a favorite.”
“No, it’s a backup.”
“Good, because you’re never going to see it again.”
“That’s fine.”
He squatted down and stared directly at me. “What the fuck were you thinking?”
“Save Jace.”
He let out a sigh and shook his head. “We all told you to stay at the apartment.”
“He’s my fiancé, Smoke. He’s my everything. If I have to face the consequences for shooting that piece of shit in the head, I will.”
“I looked you up, Nils Siggurdson. You were an expert rifleman in the Rangers. I’m not letting you go to jail for using what skills you trained for.” He quickly and efficiently disassembled the rifle. “I’ve already had the right people on the phone, and they are more than happy to let it be a mystery who shot Shoemaker. They wanted him gone, Fitecchio wanted him gone. So, it’s done.”
He put all the pieces of my now-unrecognizable rifle into a duffle bag I hadn’t seen him carrying. “These are going to be washed in acid to get rid of your prints. The parts are going to be scattered. You’re going to get me all the paperwork for this, and you’re to never speak of this piece of weaponry again.”
“Is what we’re doing legal?”
He stared at me. “Do you really want the answer to that?”
I pursed my lips and tipped my head, not sure I did.
“Gray area,” he said. “Don’t push it.”
“Understood. I just don’t want you to take the fall for what I just did.”
The smirk was clear on his face as he zipped the bag shut. “I won’t. Believe me. That’s why I’m doing this for you.” He stood and offered a hand up. “Come on. Your fiancé is waiting.”
Smoke pulled me to my feet in an easy grasp. We headed for the stairs, and he held the door open.
“Fiancé? When the hell were you going to tell the rest of us?”
“The plan had been to spring it on all of you at the listening party,” I answered. “I didn’t think he’d get himself kidnapped.”
Smoke shook his head as the shadow of the stairwell closed around us. “I have to say, Nils. I’m totally impressed by your time in the Rangers. You know, if you ever want to give up Hollywood, I’m pretty sure Bridget would love to have you on board.”
I knew what he was doing. It was a technique some people used after an armed encounter. He was trying to bring me down and back to reality. I was more than willing to be coaxed.
“No recruiting.” I laughed. “If I’m ready to give up the silver screen, I’m going into script writing with Jace. Just wait until you see what we set up for the Xavier Renegade story.”
The dim light showed his eyebrow pop up. “You and Jace wrote it?”
