Nick sounded stunned. “You retiring early?”

“Job offer. Better money. And what I’m gonna be doing, likely not gonna end up in some tatty motel miles from home starin’ at a man with no face.”

“Christ,” Nick muttered.

“Not to mention, I got unfinished business I can’t take care of inside. That snake’s still in the garden, Nick, and I gotta get hold of the resources I need to deal with it. Those resources not bein’ in the FBI. One of my team got dead because of that. Nearly two. She’s avenged. But the job isn’t done.”

Even with Tucker and Sylvie Creed’s best efforts, they still didn’t know who’d turned on his team.

Eric Turner intended to find out.

“You need anything, you obviously got my number,” Nick offered.

In the new world where he’d be dwelling, that would be a number Eric could use for a variety of reasons.

And he would.

“Headed to LA,” Turner shared.

There was another beat of silence before he heard Nick Sebring bust a gut laughing.

That pissed Eric off.

So he said not a word and hung up.

Half an hour later, free to do it now, Nick called him back from his old cell.

And the asshole was still laughing.

* * * * *

Olivia

Hands to the deck railing, I stared at the trees.

“That wasn’t what I wanted to happen, Livvie,” Nick whispered in my ear, his front to my back, his hands at the railing beside mine moving to cover them, instantly warming them against the cold.

“I know,” I replied to the trees.

“Valenzuela dismantled her operations. She was expanding too fast. Getting cocky. Making deals. She owed people money. She was screwing with Valenzuela every chance she could get. They were on the run. I communicated I wanted her shut down. Way the scene read, Harkin turned on her. Witnesses say—”

I shifted a hand and laced my fingers through his.

Nick quit talking.

“Valenzuela would have eventually made his moves. He was stronger. She had no chance.” I was still talking to the trees.

“What I pulled expedited—”

I twisted my neck to look at him. He lifted his head and caught my eyes.

“She made her decisions,” I said, soft but firm. “You made yours. I made mine. I knew precisely what would happen if I got on that plane, Nick. I knew. It came faster than I expected, but I knew. I made my decision and got on that plane. It still doesn’t make what happened my fault. It also isn’t yours. It’s the life she chose. Neither of us should feel guilt because my sister decided to resurrect the family business not with sound investments but by building drug labs.”

“You make a lot of sense, baby,” he replied, but he did it watching me carefully, and I knew he thought I was making sense just to make him feel better.

So I decided to give him what he needed actually to make him feel better.

“Do I miss the sister I thought I had?” I asked. “Yes, but I’d been missing her a lot longer than this.” I turned in his arms, curled my lips slightly and put my hands on either side of his neck. “I missed her even longer than it’s been since you faked my death.”

At my words, his lips quirked and he took his hands from the railing to wrap his arms around me. Closing in, he pinned me against the deck and held me tight and warm in the cold mountain evening air.

“Have I told you you have a flair for drama, body bags, burning mansions?” I teased in a further effort to lighten the mood.

He bent his head closer to me but said nothing.

“One day,” I murmured, “you’ll have to explain how you pulled that off.”

“Coroner owed me a favor so the ID swung our way. And Baldy has certain access and assured me that particular…specimen would, in the end, do a single good deed in her life, making you safe in yours,” he explained immediately.

My eyes slid away. “Okay. Maybe I didn’t want to know.”

“Though, he was so willing to help, I wasn’t likin’ that much,” Nick stated and my eyes slid back.

“Dr. Baldwin has a soft spot for me.”

He gave me a squeeze. “Yeah, caught that. That’d be the part I wasn’t likin’ that much.”

“I wouldn’t allow a man to fake my death and then get on a plane, leaving everything behind, knowing my shoes and handbags were all going up in smoke, if that man was Dr. Baldwin.” I squeezed him back. “I did it for the man I love. I did it for you.”

Again, Nick said nothing.

Weirdly, he did this for a long time. So long, it concerned me.

“Nick?” I called on another squeeze.

Finally, he spoke.

“The man you love.”

“Yes,” I confirmed rather unnecessarily.

“The man you love,” he repeated.

“Yes,” I repeated as well, getting annoyed because I was getting confused.

He stared at me again.

When I was about to open my mouth, he gave me a shake and declared, “Babe, you’ve never said that to me.”

I stilled.

Hadn’t I?

Months in the mountains with my man and I hadn’t told him I loved him?

“I…well…” I stammered as it hit me.

I actually hadn’t.

How on earth had I not done that?

“Well, I allowed you to fake my death,” I pointed out lamely.

Nick stared at me yet again.