Finlay Donovan Is Killing It(Finlay Donovan #1)(71)



“Why are we staking out Theresa if the bartender said that it wasn’t her in the bar?”

Nick wiped his greasy fingers on a napkin, his eyes raking the parking lot until he spotted Theresa’s car. “Because I think they’re both hiding something, and I want to know who she was with that night.”

“How are we going to do that?”

He reclined his seat back, crossed his arms, and closed his eyes. “We’re going to wait for her boyfriend to show up.”



* * *



Twenty minutes passed. I was pretty sure Nick spent most of it with his eyes closed, a ball cap draped loosely over them. At least now I understood why he hadn’t ordered us anything to drink.

“What am I supposed to be looking for anyway?” The vinyl seat creaked as I tried and failed to get comfortable. If I reclined my seat back as far as Nick had, neither one of us would be able to see.

His voice was groggy when he finally answered. “Just tell me when Feliks’s Lincoln shows up.”

My spine went rigid. “Feliks?” I plucked the cap off Nick’s face. “So all this time you knew who Theresa’s client was? At what point were you planning to tell me?”

Nick opened one eye, a lazy grin carving a dimple in his cheek. “You never asked.”

“What else have you figured out that you haven’t told me?”

He opened his other eye and stretched, his arms reaching for the ceiling behind him. He laced his fingers behind his head, his knees bent slightly on either side of the steering wheel and his jacket hanging open around the gun holstered against his ribs. “I know Theresa’s client is a man named Feliks Zhirov. He’s very wealthy, very powerful, and very deep in organized crime. And, according to our guys in criminal intelligence, Feliks has Harris Mickler’s accounting firm on retainer.”

A nervous laugh slipped out. “That’s probably a coincidence, right?”

Nick drew on his cap, curling the bill over his eyes. “When it comes to the mob, there are very few coincidences. Unfortunately, the man’s made of Teflon. Nothing sticks. He should’ve been locked up a dozen times, but there isn’t a judge in the state with the balls to convict him. Even if we could, he has friends that can make almost anyone disappear … new name, new passport, and wipe them off the map as if they’d never existed. He’d skip bail, and we’d never see or hear the name Feliks Zhirov again.”

“What does he want with Theresa?”

“That’s what I plan to find out.” As if reading my face, he sighed and said, “Look, Finlay. I’m not trying to ruin Steven’s life, or even Theresa’s. If Feliks is involved in Mickler’s disappearance, then I’m guessing Theresa’s a victim in all this too somehow. I promise, we’ll figure it out. And you and your kids will be okay. I plan to keep the three of you as far out of the investigation as possible. Georgia made me swear to it.”

“She did?”

He winced. “She did.”

Curiosity got the best of me. “What else did she say?”

He looked out his window, a flush creeping over the back of his neck. “She said you had your heart broken pretty bad. And if I do anything to hurt you, first she’ll take my badge, and then she’ll break my face.”

I shook my head, chuckling to myself. “Between my sister and my kid, you must think this is all just one big setup. I swear, none of this was a ploy to get you to ask me out.”

“Would it be so terrible if it was?” He turned from the window, his eyes moving over me the same way they had last night on my porch. Only this time, his appraisal of me felt far less professional.

My laughter died. A charged silence settled over us, prickly and hot. Nick was attractive and single. He was friends with my sister, which meant he had already passed the world’s most stringent background check. I was pretty sure he wanted to kiss me right now, and I was also pretty sure I’d like it.

A bead of sweat trailed down the small of my back. I reached over the center console for the thermostat just as he reached for the radio. Our hands brushed. When I glanced up, our faces were close, the bill of his hat shadowing our faces. Neither one of us moved, and my heart beat a little faster as Nick laced our fingertips together.

“I have a confession,” he said in a low voice that left me a little breathless. “This wasn’t all Georgia’s idea.” I didn’t pull away as the vinyl creaked and he leaned closer. My adrenaline spiked and the air felt thin. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been this close to a man other than Steven.

“Is this all right?” he asked, our foreheads touching under his cap. Nudging it loose.

No, this was not all right. What I wanted right now was very, very wrong. Wrong for a million reasons. I nodded, dizzy, the inch of distance he was holding back testing every ounce of my self-control. Our noses brushed as a long black hood rolled past the window behind Nick’s head.

I pulled back sharply. “That’s him,” I said. “That’s Feliks’s car.”

Nick fell back against his headrest with a quiet swear. He closed his eyes, releasing a heavy sigh before raising his seat back.

The Lincoln parked along the curb in front of Theresa’s office. Andrei opened Feliks’s door and followed him into the building.

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