Page 55 of Never and Always
Blood poured from Alan’snose.
“Mia? You know Mia?” Alan asked indisbelief.
Nick kicked him in his shins, making him cry. That was enough. He wouldn’t do any more damage. This guy was weak and Nick didn’t need to exert his strength onhim.
That was just to teach him a lesson for what he did to Mia, and to make the rest of this mission a littleeasier.
“Don’t say her name. Don’t you dare.” Nick pointed at him. “Tell me what you did with the money. All of it. Right from the business money to her inheritance, and don’t fuck with me. I will beat you to death withthis.”
Alan cried somemore.
“Talk, you fucking piece of shit!” Nick came at him with the bat and hit the wall behind him. “That’s your head the next time I raisethis.”
“Most of it’s gone. I spent it. Please don’t kill me.” He winced, rocking backwards and forwards, holding hisface.
“Most? What of therest?”
“It’s in anaccount.”
“How much, asshole?” Nick wasn’t joking or playing around. He knew that most of it would begone.
“I have thirty thousand left. It’s in an account in my brother’s name,” Alan babbled. “He lives about fifteen minutes fromhere.”
Nick grabbed him up from the floor and raised him into the air. He couldn’t believe that out of all that money only that much was left. It was small, but he’d get it back. “Great, let’s go visit your brother, and this better not be some kind of game or you’re dead.” He meant that pure and simply for the fact that he would defend himself if he had to. Often times these wise guys would bring someone else into the equation, like now, and it would be atrick.
Nick was in no mood forthat.
* * *
Nick wasglad that Alan was playing nice and doing as he was told. The man shook all the way to the luxury apartment complex he led himto.
Before they got there, Nick called his police contact for back up. They got there just as Nick arrived withAlan.
Everyone was prepared in case this turned into some crazy showdown, but thankfully it didn’t. Alan’s brother was even weaker than him. When Nick found himself face to face with a short, round, bald man who looked like the Monopoly man quivering in his bed socks, he knew he had this in thebag.
They took them back to the station where they unveiled at least ten more instances of theft. Having the brother’s name pieced it alltogether.
Most of the money was used to fund a sex-trade business in South America, and the rest went to paying off debts from previous heists. They’d hoped to use the money Nick recovered previously and the paintings as theirprofit.
It made Nick sick, all of it. He was at least hoping that they’d bought a yacht or a house, anything that could be sold to recoup some of the money. Now all Mia would have from what she lost was thirty thousand and the ten thousand they tracked to the Bahamas the other week. It wasn’t much, but perhaps it would help in some way with her plans for her spa retreat. He arranged to have it back in her account as soon as they cleared and verifiedit.
It was late by the time he was done at the station. It was after midnight. He wanted to travel back to Chicago, back to Mia, and he would have if Glenn wasn’t there. Nick planned to speak to him about Mia the minute he saw him, but since it would be too late to do that if he travelled now, he chose to wait until tomorrow. He wanted to make sure he did thingsproperly.
Nick got back to Chicago the next day at noon. He messaged Mia to let her know he was on his way, but he didn’t know if she was home. Glenn would most likely be at the office so that would give him a chance to be with her for a while,alone.
He’d missed her a lot and just wanted to hold her. When he spoke to her last night she didn’t seem to care about the money too much, only that he was safe. She seemed more eager to have him home with her than anythingelse.
He rushed up to herroom.
“Mia,” he called for her, pushing the door open, but froze when he saw Glenn sitting on her bed with her phone in hishand.
Glenn lifted his head and met Nick’s stare head on. The coldness in his eyes was evident, along with theanger.
He’d been reading Mia’smessages.
Nick wouldn’t have a leg to stand on because he’d messaged her several times, and none of those messages could be classed as the run-of-the-mill friendly ones. Especially the one asking her what underwear she was wearing, and the one that followed her reply asking for apicture.
“She’s not here, Nick,” Glenn eventuallyreplied.
