Page 55 of Seizing Mack
Chapter Twenty-Seven
~ Nick ~
Nick kept running longpast his usual five miles. He’d been out early, too many things on his mind to take advantage of the fact that it was a Sunday and he could sleep in. He still had some things he wanted to pull together for his upcoming call with the DEA agent. He was heading over to his sister’s later that afternoon. And Mack was still MIA. Jay had told him that Mack was off rusticating, whatever the hell that meant, and that she’d be back when she was ready.
In the meantime, he was forced to bide his time. He’d already decided that he was going to stop pussyfooting around and let Mack know how he felt. They could take it slow, take it fast, or somewhere in between, as long as they took it together.
Unless, of course, she told him pointblank to fuck off.
If that turned out to be the case, he’d respect her wishes. That didn’t mean he’d give up easily. There was too much potential there, too much electricity crackling between them whenever they were in the same room. She’d felt it too, he was sure of it. It was in the way her eyes softened when she looked at him. In the sound of her laugh on those rare occasions when those walls she surrounded herself with became a little less solid.
Now, thanks to her sister’s mean-spirited stunt and Emerson thinking more with his dick than his head, Nick was going to have to work even harder to convince Mack that his motive was pure and his intentions honorable. It wasn’t going to be easy. Good thing he was a determined, patient man. Deep in his gut, he knew he and Mack could be so good together.
Now he just needed to convinceher.
Knowing Mack wasn’t atSeize, Nick had opted to go for a run along some of the local trails instead. It was a nice day and the cool, fresh morning air helped clear his thoughts. Running outside also had the added benefit of reducing the chances he’d run into someone hedidn’tcare to see. Every time he thought about the smirk on Delilah’s face, the anger began to simmer all over again.
He paused at a crossroads and checked his phone. Still no response from Mack.
Nick turned left and headed toward the river trail. Where was she? Was she alone? Was she okay? He didn’t worry so much for her safety; he believed Mack was more than capable of taking care of herself. In fact, Mack was probably the most capable woman he knew. But even strong people sometimes needed someone to fall into. He should know. He’d lived as an island for almost ten years.
Forcing worries for Mack toward the back of his mind, he focused his attention on other things, like the fact that in a few hours, he was going to be seeing Liz again and meeting her husband.
He wasn’t sure how he felt about that. After his encounter with Brandon Grayson, Nick had done some information gathering, a process which may or may not have included background checks on Miles Grayson, his brother, and his son, all of whom now resided in Covendale. Some of the things he’d found had been surprising, to say the least.
For instance, Adam Grayson, Miles’s younger brother, had been the one responsible for finally putting Eve Sanderson away. Adam had been a victim of Eve’s warped obsession, just as he had been all those years ago.
Not for the first time, Nick wished he’d known enough to have his blood tested when he’d woken up dazed and confused after only having a few beers. Fresh out of college, he didn’t have the resources or experience to suspect what had happened to him. Girls were often warned about the dangers of someone slipping something into their drinks at a party, but that wasn’t something most guys thought could happen to them.
Of course, he hadn’t been in his right mind then, either, having just discovered that he’d lost his Annie. By the time they’d put all the tragic pieces together, it had been too late to prove anything, and with the power the Sandersons wielded in the local community, unsubstantiated claims from a man half out of his mind with grief and guilt hadn’t been taken seriously.
Thankfully, times were changing, and Adam Grayson had been able to do what Nick (and who knew how many others?) hadn’t.
As for Miles Grayson, well, he had been some hot shot marketing representative. From what Nick managed to dig up, after divorcing his first wife, Grayson had been somewhat of a playboy, pulling in big bucks in sales and marketing and jet-setting around the world. Then one day, he just walked away from it all, enrolled in the architecture program at the local university, and joined his brother’s construction company doing manual labor. Was it a mid-life crisis, or the actions of a man who’d finally found what he’d been looking for? For Liz’s sake, Nick sincerely hoped it was the latter.
Not leaving any stone unturned, Nick had also researched Miles’s ex-wife, looking for any red flags that might indicate a history of abuse or domestic violence. Thankfully, he found none. Liz might be the older sibling, but that didn’t mean Nick’s protective brotherly instincts didn’t still kick in.
A dull ache radiated across his chest, one that had nothing to do with the grueling pace he’d set for himself. This one came from guilt and regret. He shouldn’t have waited so long to come home. He should have been there for Liz, watching out for her the way brothers were supposed to look out for their sisters, meeting boyfriends and vetting would-be suitors.
He should have been helping with his parents, too, instead of leaving Liz to handle all that. After speaking with Liz the night before, Nick had called them. His mother had been surprised to hear from him and absolutely thrilled when he’d told her he was moving back to Covendale permanently. His father didn’t seem to remember that he’d ever left.
That was another thing he and Liz were going to talk about. At one point she had hinted that their father was showing signs of Alzheimer’s, but Nick had no idea things had progressed quite so far. As soon as things settled down a bit, Nick was going to fly down to Florida for a long overdue visit. Or maybe he’d offer to fly them up. Autumn wasn’t too far away, and his mother always said how much she loved the colorful, changing foliage. Then he could introduce them to Mack...
...And just like that, his thoughts were back on Mack.
He checked his phone again. Still nothing.
He shook his head and picked up the pace, heading back towards his place where he checked his phone again. And again after he took a shower. And after he dressed and poured himself another cup of coffee.
Refusing to call Jay again, Nick set the mug beside him as he compiled more info on the Necromancers. All the interviewing and digging he’d done was finally beginning to pay off. A local hierarchy was emerging, one that would prove extremely useful to Special Agent Bartholomew and his team. Nick had spoken to Bartholomew several times over the past week, and after each conversation, it became clearer that the Covendale-based MC was just the tip of a very dirty iceberg.
His cell phone remained silent until it was time for him to leave for Liz’s. With a heavy sigh, Nick grabbed the mobile and slipped it into his pocket.
Liz had the door open before he even got out of the car. Any concerns he had about Liz not being happy to see him vanished the instantly she wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him hard right there in the driveway.
“I can’t believe it,” she said with tears in her eyes as she stepped back and looked at him. “My baby brother is all grown-up.”
He laughed. He’d been in his early twenties when he’d left, hardly a kid, though admittedly, he had bulked up a bit since then. A few years picking up work as a ranch hand, then the academy, had broadened his shoulders and hardened his body.
