Chapter 6
SEPTEMBER 10 – WEDNESDAY 3:11 AM
N ash
Outside the police station, I leaned against my car in the dark, waiting for Liam to be released. The glass doors allowed me to watch as he signed the paperwork. I couldn’t keep the smile off my face. Oh, to have been a fly on the wall when they realized all they had was fifty kilos of icing sugar. Guess I’d have to thank Princess for the idea at some point. That thought sent my brain into overdrive.
She had a breakthrough moment the other day. For just a flash, her guard was stripped away, and under that tough-as-nails exterior, I saw her vulnerable side. The side that fucking Blake and Myles got all the time. It was my fault that she never shared that with me, and the few times she had, I gave her more than enough reason to lock it away in my presence. What the hell did I do with her sweet and emotional personality? Crushed it. Yet…fuck, she swam around in my mind as easily as I did a pool.
“Can I have a cigarette,” Liam asked as soon as he walked outside.
“Not a fucking chance.”
“I was in jail for you. The least you can do is let me have a smoke. Even inmates get smokes.”
“Get in the car and shut up, or I leave you here,” I said as I got into the driver’s seat.
He mumbled a number of creative profanities as he slipped in beside me.
“When can we pick up your car?”
“They’re releasing it from the impound tomorrow. Mr. Howard was pissed that they wouldn’t cut it loose tonight. I swear he’s going to get the entire division shut down. I did warn Ellis. He can’t say I lured him into a trap.”
“Fuck, I wish I’d been able to see it. How did it go?”
Liam smirked and then laughed, the sound rare coming from him.
“Oh fuck, that was the funniest shit I’ve ever seen. Ellis was so fucking arrogant. He was positive that he’d nailed us with a massive load of product. But when he started testing the bags, and they were coming back negative, even the fucking drug dog looked at him like he was crazy. Just before I left, he got a very nasty call from someone he didn’t want anyone to know about. You could hear the screaming through the phone before he closed the door. My bet is that it was the mayor or governor. Knowing Mr. Howard, it could be both.”
“That’s fucking brilliant,” I said, smacking my steering wheel. “I’m sure Ellis will be a little more careful with his random searches now. I genuinely love this and may have to come up with another way to make him look like an incompetent idiot.” Starting the car, I headed for the exit.
“It was a stroke of genius, man. But I’ll deny saying that if you tell the guys.”
I rubbed the back of my neck. “It wasn’t my idea. Princess came up with it.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah. Who knew the little snow queen would help us evade the Feds?” Flicking on my turn signal, I pulled onto the highway and cruised toward the school.
“Didn’t know she had it in her—under that holier-than-thou persona,” Liam said with a distinct bitterness in his tone. A glance showed his arms crossed protectively, and his face pulled into a dark glower.
“Still having issues with Theo?”
“Don’t want to fucking talk about it,” he said.
“Well, that’s a yes if I’ve ever heard one,” I said and smiled.
At least she wasn’t just under my skin poking at me. Totally different reason, but the fact that Liam was holding strong against her wiles gave me hope that I wouldn’t fall prey. There was something about her…fuck, it was annoying.
“Whatever. If Theo wants her and not me, then fuck him.”
“Pretty sure that wasn’t what he said.” I looked at Liam as he glared at me and shrugged. “Why are you looking at me like that? It’s true. If you want to hear it that way…well, then it’s your prerogative. But we both know the truth.”
“It is way too fucking late, or I guess early, to be talking about this shit. Can we change the topic?”
“Sure, I don’t care. The new lights got installed yesterday. Nora is whipping the contractors. It’s kind of nice not to be the one having to do it all the time and to have someone keeping an eye on them during the day.”
“She’s great at speaking her mind. None of them will get away with anything. They take even a five-minute unscheduled break, and she will let them hear it and deduct their pay. Great for the building but bad when she was living at home. Trust me.”
“I’ll take your word for it. We’ll need a ballbuster like that for the business. Just feels weird not being hands-on at the helm every day.”
“Get used to it. With the number of businesses you inherit once you take over, you’ll end up a puppet master pulling all the strings but won’t get to visit them often.”
I looked at Liam and licked my lips but kept my mouth shut about Mr. Genovese.
Holding back from Liam felt wrong, but there were very strict rules to our deal, and I couldn’t do anything to jeopardize what I’d put into place. It was fucking unnerving to place so much trust in such a powerful family. I didn’t know them well, and he could crush me with a single call, but anything was better than living under my father’s control, even if it meant selling my soul to another family to make it happen.
“What? You look like you were going to say something.”
He had that analyzing look in his eyes, and I made sure not to twitch, or I’d give something away.
“Was just going to say something stupid but decided not to be a prick. Take the win,” I said and glanced over at him.
His eyes eerily searched my face in the dark of the car. I hated when he used his skills on me, but he nodded and looked away. Either my lying skills were becoming top-notch, or he was letting it go.
We lapsed into silence for the rest of the drive, and by the time we pulled into Wayward, I was thankful to have first period free this morning. Everything was still and quiet when we got to our dorm. It was the only time of day that I didn’t mind being here.
“You not coming in,” I asked as we reached our room, but Liam continued down the hall.
“Naw, not tonight,” he said.
Why he wouldn’t just cave confused me, but not my circus.
Myles was sound asleep when I opened the door, and I smirked. That meant there was a high probability that Ren was alone. Walking over to my side of the room, I grabbed the photo I’d printed, the glue stick, and a couple coffee creamers. Liam was nowhere to be found when I slipped back into the hallway.
Getting to Ren’s room unnoticed was easy. Unlocking and opening the door without a sound was the tricky part. Ivy was curled up in a ball facing the wall when I slipped inside. I bypassed her quickly and went straight for Ren. She was lying on her side with her hand under her pillow. Perfect.
Walking into the bathroom, I doctored the photo and was so tempted to set up a camera to catch her glorious reaction. Dean Henry might actually kill me if evidence of this got out. I didn’t trust him to overlook my indiscretion despite how much he’d helped me.
Heading back out to Ren, I kneeled beside her bed and stared at her sleeping face.
“Are you dreaming of me, Princess?” A small crease formed between her eyes. “Do you want me to crawl into bed with you?”
“Nash,” she mumbled. The soft sound hit hard and had me fully erect.
Fuck, I needed to step away, or I really would lay down beside her. Sighing, I pulled out the glue stick and smeared some long lines all over the photo of her sleeping.
It took all my stealthy skills to get it slipped beneath her hand that was hidden under her pillow, but as soon as it felt stuck, I left it alone. Reaching out, I swept a strand of hair away from her face.
“Sleep well, Princess,” I whispered in her ear and almost lost it as she said my name again, and it ended with a soft moan. Backing away before I did something that couldn’t be taken back, I snuck out.
“Fuck,” I said, leaning against the wall, closing my eyes.
Her walls were crumbling around me, but what the hell was I going to do when the truth came out and she found out about Mr. Genovese and the deal we made? Vicky…god…I couldn’t even imagine how this was going to unfold. I was a dead man walking.
Until then, I was going to have fun with Princess. Pushing away from the wall, I wandered back to my room to collapse for a few hours. I’d never been so excited to attend a Russian class before.