Sebring (Unfinished Heroes #5)(104)

The tears slid down her cheeks and the whisper came again.

“You’re killing me.”

He said nothing and not just because she wasn’t letting him.

“And she’s gonna kill you, Nicky,” she kept whispering. “I can try to stop her but there’s no stopping Georgie. It’ll be her or you. I know it. I don’t want it to be either. Please be safe. Please get safe. Please get out of here and make yourself and your family safe.”

“I love you, Liv.”

More tears fell as she replied, “I wish, honest to God, I really wish I could believe that, Sebring.”

He held her eyes and watched the tears fall.

Then he made a decision.

“It’s gonna gut me to walk outta here not touching you.”

Her lip quivered so she bit it.

His stomach roiled like he was going to vomit.

He fought through it and did what he had to do.

“I love you, Olivia. And I can make you safe. I can make you happy. I want a lifetime of nothing but that.”

Another tear fell out of her swelling eye but she said nothing.

“I’m gonna walk out of here not touching you and the last thing you’re gonna hear from me is that I love you, baby. Fuck, I so f*ckin’ love you.”

They stood, her in front of her couch, him behind it, and stared at each other.

Neither moved except for the wet that slid out of Livvie’s sad, dead, beautiful green eyes.

“Love you, Livvie,” he whispered.

She pressed her lips together.

Nick Sebring watched.

Then he turned and walked out.





Chapter Twenty-Four


No Soul

Olivia




Fifteen Weeks Later



I looked to my list of Today as shown to me down the side of my email screen as I heard the noises in the outer office.

On a sigh I turned my attention to my office door.

Georgie came in.

“You know, us getting rid of that shithole warehouse and me getting awesome new offices you won’t move into so I don’t have to haul my ass all the way to DTC to have a sit down with you is a pain in said ass,” she complained instead of offering a greeting.

I didn’t reply.

I had no intention of moving into her offices.

Not because, even with the exit of Nick from my life, Tommy did not reenter it and he didn’t take very kindly to that. Although this surprised Georgia, she didn’t say anything. She had (albeit doing it as a means to a current end) encouraged me to get over him. She couldn’t be upset I’d actually done that.

And since Tommy was the man behind the less seemly part of Shade operations, he never came to her office anyway.

Which meant, thankfully, I never saw him.

Also not because Gill did show at the offices frequently. What happened with Nick and his girlfriend notwithstanding, he was as clean as Georgia (though not as clean as me). He was also officially taking Georgia’s hand in marriage. With Tommy managing the boys, he was therefore recruiting them, so her * was now out of commission except for Gill’s use. They were planning a lavish affair where the flowers cost more than an SUV and her gown was being custom made.

I had no idea my sister had fallen in love with a man seven years ago.

I was fine with that.

I’d had plenty of time to think about it and the decision I’d made was I was fine with anything that kept me out of their loop.

I was also fine with my father being out of the picture. The evidence pointing to the fact that he shot Drake Nair in the head in cold blood overwhelming (because he actually shot Drake Nair in the head in cold blood), he copped a plea. That still put him behind bars for twenty years, which meant he’d be deep in his seventies when he got out.

There was a small blip to this insofar as Dad got a message to Georgia reminding her she and I were present at that particular murder. His insinuation was that, if he went down, he was taking both of us with him, so he needed her to be certain he did not go down.

Considering the fact she’d masterminded his arrest, and he wasn’t stupid enough not to know that, he figured she could do something to reverse the situation, and as was his wont, he was using both of his daughters as a means to that end.

Georgia communicated to me precisely what a hassle she felt this was for her. Regardless (mostly, my guess, because she needed me to do the job I was doing for the family, and no way in hell she was going down), she negotiated a deal that my father would make it through that twenty years in prison without any issues if he left both of us be.

He’d balked at first. But something I was not made privy to happened in lockup so he changed his mind and made the deal.

He was no longer in our lives.

I had no intention of deepening my relationship with my sister because of that.

I also had no intention of continuing a relationship at all with my father, so I didn’t.

And as life was already dismal enough, I didn’t need other sources making it more so, therefore when Georgia cut off our stepfather’s kickback, I cut off my mother.

She brought me no joy so why bother?

Nothing brought me joy but Mom not only didn’t bring joy, she was a pain in the ass.

So seriously.

Why bother?

It was not a surprise when my mother didn’t bother either. I imagined it was actually a relief to her. It freed up her social schedule and added time she could berate her employees and control my stepfather.