Page 37 of The Secrets We Share

“Trust me, I’m not giving him the benefit of the doubt. Domenico has something up his sleeve, and there’s no way in hell it doesn’t involve Keira in some major way. Thankfully, she wants fuck all to do with him. But it’s better to know than to leave it hanging like a noose over our heads.”

“Harkin!” Keira yells from somewhere upstairs.

James and I take off, our conversation forgotten. Our feet pound up the stairs like charging bulls after a red flag. I halt suddenly at the end of the hall when the living room comes into view. James barrels around me, never being taken off guard for a moment.

“Who are you? How did you get in?”

“I let her in.” Keira looks over her shoulder at the both of us.

Her voice snaps me out of my moment of shock. “James, this is Nikita. Nikita, James,” I say, passing his stalled frame to join Keira on the small leather couch. “You know, when I gaveyou my card, I expected you to reach out digitally, not drop by unexpectedly.”

“What’s all the yelling about?” Stacey asks, stepping off the last stair next to James.

Nikita lets out a loud whistle, staring down Keira’s best friend in her best replica of a 1930s window maker outfit, marabou robe included. “And who is this beautiful angel?”

Stacey steps closer to James’s side, still unsure of the situation. I don’t blame him for the possessive arm he tucks around her back, displaying his hand across her hip. But it must surprise Stacey, because her eyes fling up to his, shock evident in their wide gaze. Keira and I try to hide our amusement, but we share a look that speaks volumes. I pity the two of them, trying so desperately to hide whatever is happening between them.

Breaking Nikita’s line of thought, I ask, “How’d you find us?”

“What, you think you made it hard?”

“Nik, come on. Tell us why you’re here,” Keira placates, nudging an elbow into my rib at the same time.

“I found something.” She pulls out a drive from her jacket pocket, chucking it across the table at me. “Your family’s fucked up on both sides of the tree.”

“Great,” Keira mutters under her breath. “How bad is it?”

“Depends. What would you consider worse, flooding the streets with shit drugs or running guns through the port and spreading them throughout the country, even up into Canada? Maybe it’s not so bad you ended up away from your family all these years. If I were you, I’d keep it that way.”

“If only it were that simple,” Keira adds.

“Do your contacts know anything about this?”

“Trust me, they don’t know what I don’t tell them. And this didn’t seem like a need-to-know situation, unless?”

“No, we’re not going there. It’s enough of a mess without including a bunch of blowhards with enough red tape to keep this from being squashed quickly.”

“My thoughts exactly. Everything’s on that drive. Including where you can find your mom’s side of your family if you’re looking to go down that road,” Nikita says while standing from the couch. “See you around, K. You know where to find me.” And then she’s gone, heading out the front door like a summer storm that blows in unexpected and unwanted.

“And the punches just keep on coming,” Keira blows out as she sags against my side.

“This is what we were looking for, sweetness. We assumed they were both into some bad shit, but it gives us something to play off. Let me dig through the drive and see what I can piece together. There might be something to give us the upper hand for tomorrow’s meeting.”

“Us.”

My eyebrows draw up in confusion. “Us, what?”

“We’re both going to look through that drive, Harkin. I want to see what she found about my mom’s side of the family.”

“Is no one going to tell me who that girl was?” Stacey breaks into the conversation.

“That was Keira’s ex,” I tell her pointedly, never dropping my eyes from Keira’s annoyed ones. But it’s the eye roll I was expecting that pulls a tight grin to my face.

She shoves me away playfully, peeling her warm body from my side and off the couch. “Let’s get into it. We’ve got less than twenty-four hours to find anything that might tell us what Domenico is planning tomorrow night.”

The elevator dingsupon its arrival on the ground floor. Keira steps forward, the sky-high heels on her feet making her toned legs a distraction under the silk dress draped on her body. When she came out of the bedroom earlier, we almost didn’t make it out of the house. I wanted to wrap her long, curly hair up in my hand and bend her over the living room sofa. The only thing that saved us from being late for this meeting was the other two people waiting for us to leave.

Following in after her, I select the fourth-floor button. James and Stacey will be joining us, but the plan is to arrive separately so they can keep an eye on the surroundings. James called in some backup to give us better numbers should something go down.

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