She gave it to him.

Open and out there and once it was, for the first time, it didn’t fade away.

She smiled as she repeated, “Sweetheart, trust me.”

Oh yeah.

Fuck yes.

She owned him.

He’d never been owned.

Not even by Hettie.

But he was hers. All hers.

Olivia’s.

He knew it in that instant because he also knew in that instant he’d do anything, absolutely anything, beg, borrow, steal, kill, crawl, lie, cheat, die, eat taco extravaganza…

All just for her smile.

* * * * *

8:58 – That Night

Her cheek to his thigh, his hand in her hair, she was flat out on the sofa at his side while he had his feet up on the coffee table and they were watching TV when he heard Knight’s car.

“He’s here, Liv,” he muttered.

“Pause, honey,” she muttered back.

He paused the program and she pushed up.

She’d brought the groceries.

She’d also brought a bag and was now casual in soft, black, loose-fitting drawstring pants and a gray ribbed tank.

“I’ll start the dishes,” she said.

“Help when I get this done,” he replied.

She reached out to touch his collarbone through his tee before she glided to the kitchen, no less graceful in bare feet.

He went to the door, turned the bolt and slid it open.

He walked out to the landing, sliding the door closed behind him, seeing his brother nearing the top.

“Not feelin’ big on this habit you’re gettin’ of summoning me,” Knight stated, still two steps down.

“Livvie’s here,” Nick replied.

“And?” Knight prompted when he hit the landing and stopped.

“And until shit is sorted, I got the opportunity to be close and bein’ that, know she’s safe when every day I gotta suck it up when she goes to work for those lunatics, I’m takin’ it.”

Some of Knight’s irritation faded.

“Wouldn’t call if it wasn’t important,” Nick went on. “And would tell you over the phone if I could risk it.”

“I gotta get to the club so you wanna lay it on me?”

“Vincent Shade murdered Drake Nair today.”

Knight’s head jerked back before he ordered, “Repeat that.”

“After I got her through freakin’ out that her bein’ in my life means this kind of shit bein’ in my life, she briefed me. Nair was with Shade to try to get him to partner up, percentage off the backs of your girls when he takes them over after he takes you out. To make that sting, he had plans of putting a hit on me. Shade didn’t feel like taking up that offer. Nair got ugly. Shade shot him in the face with a .45.”

“Jesus,” Knight whispered.

“Good news is, that recurring headache is done for you.”

Knight watched him closely. “Any bad news?”

“Mention of the Feds which confused her, though not enough for her to snoop around to find out what it means. She doesn’t much care what her dad did or does outside of the fact she hates all of it. But even though she now knows my end game is to get her clear of that mess, she doesn’t know how that game started. So it’s good she isn’t snooping around because not only have I not figured out how I’m gonna get her clear, I haven’t figured out how to tell her how that game started.”

“Fuck, Nick,” Knight muttered.

“You got any ideas?” Nick asked.

“No, brother,” Knight answered quietly. “Feel for you on that. That’s gonna be an uncomfortable conversation.”

“Unh-hunh,” Nick mumbled.

“Advice, sooner rather than later,” Knight said.

“Right,” Nick mumbled that too. He drew in breath, looked to the door and then looked to his brother. “You wanna meet her?”

Knight’s focus intensified. “Absolutely.”

It was the perfect moment. She knew Knight was coming. She knew why. She had to figure Nick wouldn’t keep him out in the cold. And Knight couldn’t stick around so Olivia didn’t have to be on the spot for long.

The first meet over, the next would go easier.

He slid open the door, and if the sound it made wasn’t enough of a warning, he called out, “Babe, you wanna say a quick hi to Knight before he has to take off?”

If Nick had to guess, he would have said she’d ice over. Stone-cold. Polite, definitely, but distant in her princess way that might be borderline insulting.

He was shocked as shit when she walked from the kitchen toward them, her hands engaged in rubbing a dishtowel to dry them, doing this almost obsessively, her eyes on Knight, the wide hems of her pants too long.

She tripped, fortunately close so when she went flying, he could lunge and catch her before she hit the deck.

The dishtowel floated to the floor as she latched on to him and he brought her up straight and close, her head jerking back to look at him, her face beautiful and horrified.

No stone-cold princess there.

“Shit, fuck,” she whispered.

No stone-cold princess there either.

The laugh he tried unsuccessfully to bite back scraped up his throat over the roof of his mouth to make an amused scratching noise coming out of his nose.

“Brother,” Knight admonished when he heard it.

Nick held on to his woman and she held on to him as they both looked to Knight.

“I…um…hi, hey…um, hello,” she stammered.