Anticipation

Nick stood and stalked over to the window. Fury roiled through him. “She’s dead.”

He hated it when he lost control and said stuff like that. Another reason to kill her. Jesus. He rested his forehead on the chilled glass of the window and closed his eyes.

“Nick, Nick, Nick. Don’t even think about breathing hard in her direction.” The hated voice sighed. “You know, it really annoys me when I have to think for both of us. If she turns up dead or missing or even with a broken fingernail, game’s up, bright boy. My people will figure out the information was leaked and then you and I are out of business and—who knows?—I just might be the one arresting your punk ass.” That laugh grated on Nick’s nerves like nails scraping a chalkboard. “And you’d never know it was me. So, listen up, loser, you don’t touch Debi Majette. Next time you want to dump a girlfriend, make it a body, before she talks to us. Get your shit together.”

Jo-Jo would have his head for this. His uncle Jo-Jo had been the one to offer him the opportunity to move beyond the ’hood, and Jo-Jo could just as easily send him back. Christ. He tamped down his panic. But it was fixable. Definitely fixable. He just needed a few minutes to think this through without the cop hanging on the line.

“We’ll move O’Malley into place,” Nick said, thinking aloud. “I’ll meet my contacts elsewhere and we’ll send O’Malley to The Barrister on those dates. It’s a little sooner than we’d planned, but it should work.”

“You’re sure O’Malley doesn’t suspect anything?”

Nick curled his lip. Even though he’d never met him, he despised Nick O’Malley and all the others like him out there. He’d read about O’Malley’s background in the papers. No graffiti-covered sidewalks in O’Malley’s childhood. No hookers on the corner across from the drug dealers. No, O’Malley was one of those laid-back lucky gimps who always landed on his feet. He led a charmed life. “Doesn’t have a clue. He’s so used to lady luck smiling on him, he never questioned the job offer.”

Once Jo-Jo had found out the cops were hot on Nick’s tail, he’d heard O’Malley’s story in the news and come up with a brilliant idea. Hire O’Malley to work in one of Jo-Jo’s secondary companies. Let him get comfortable, set him up and then let him take the fall as Slick Nick. O’Malley didn’t look like him, but they were close to the same build, nearly the same weight and about the same age. Every tabloid had carried the story that O’Malley had committed a crime, yet never done time. It was a beautiful plan. It’d take the heat off of him and O’Malley could enjoy the creature comforts of the state pen—and get a taste of what if felt like when lady luck spit in your face.

“Except now we all know you have a tattoo on your ass and he doesn’t,” the cop said.

Nick couldn’t think with this jerk hanging on the other end of the line. “I’ll figure something out and take care of it. Thanks for the heads-up,” Nick said. He hated thanking this piece of scum for anything.

“No problem…as long as you pay up. You know the deal.”

Nick watched the snarl of traffic on the street below. The little people rushing to and fro for their nine-to-five jobs. Pathetic slobs.

“Yeah. I know the deal.” Cash deposited into a numbered bank account.

“You know, I’m feeling generous today, so I’ll throw this in as a freebie, won’t even charge you extra for the info. Everyone in the 151st not only knows you have a tattoo on your ass, they also know you get off on a good spanking.”

Nick fisted his hand in the curtain.

The voice on the other end of the line laughed. “And the Debster says you’ve got a little dick. That’s a shame. Size really does matter.”

Giving way to his fury, Nick flipped the phone closed, cutting off the hateful laughter on the other end. He threw it against the wall and dragged in a deep breath.

One day. One day that bitch would pay for that. The same as that nameless, faceless cop.

2

“TWENTY-THREE DAYS DOWN, seven left to go. You’re never going to make it,” AJ said.

“I’m practically home free.” Okay, so maybe he’d underestimated just how prominent a factor women were in his life. But it hadn’t been as hard as Nick had anticipated, despite his buddies going out of their way to make it as difficult as possible. AJ and Matt had sent women his way left and right over the past twenty-three days. Matt had thrown a party, complete with lots of single, available, hot women. Oddly enough, none of them had even seriously tempted Nick. He didn’t expect it to be easy, but seven more days was doable.

“Home free, my ass. You’re gonna break before you manage another week.” AJ laughed. “You look ready to break now.”

“Man’s got a point.” Tim eyed him across a half-eaten Rueben, Dougal’s special of the day. “You look wound pretty tight.”

Nick forked a home fry. “You only think that because AJ’s brainwashed you.”

Matt tipped his stool back on two legs. “No one’s brainwashed me. You should have seen your face when Polly squeezed behind your chair.”

“What did you expect? Polly’s got these big…” Maybe he was in worse shape than he’d thought, he couldn’t say the word breasts without choking. “You know…and she—they brushed against my back.” And he wouldn’t even mention how good she’d smelled and how sweet her breasts had felt against his back. He didn’t doubt that AJ had slipped her—the prettiest waitress with the biggest tatas—a twenty to squeeze behind him.

“He’s sunk,” AJ said.

“A goner,” Tim seconded.

“Your hands are shaking, you poor slob,” Matt added.

“Hey, is that drool coming out of his mouth?” AJ said.

“I don’t know why I waste my time with you,” Nick said. He upended his beer.

“Because we’re your best friends,” Tim pointed out.

“Don’t depress me.”

“You know you love us.” Matt punched his shoulder.

AJ shook his head. “Easy, Matt. I wouldn’t get too close, Nicky might be getting desperate.”

“Damn right I’m desperate if you three are the best I can do for friends,” Nick said. They all knew they were just mouthing off. When he’d lost his mind and embezzled the money and then it had hit the news, he’d found out who his true friends were. Most of the guys he’d known no longer gave him the time of day. But AJ, Matt and Tim had stuck with him through thick and thin.

“C’mon, Nick. You know you’ll miss us next week.”

“Can’t say that I will. I’m looking forward to not being around.” And that was more than the truth. He could use a change of scenery—even if it was only the other side of the city. It’d be better not to be around the familiar. Like when he’d quit smoking a couple of years ago and it’d been a matter of not lighting up when he was used to. A change of scenery would probably curb his wanting a woman around. And if that smacked of habit and addiction, well, these guys didn’t have to know.

“How long are you gonna be gone?” Tim asked, bringing the conversation back to where it had been before Polly had brushed against Nick.

“Three days.” Long past were the days when he worked around money. He’d blown that career when he’d embezzled funds. His prospects had looked dim to dismal until he’d heard about this job through a friend of a cousin’s friend. Amazingly, Mack Enterprises was willing to take a chance on a guy with his history. Nick knew he was damn lucky he’d stumbled into anything better than scrubbing toilets at Fenway Park. Actually, he enjoyed his job as a booking agent for Mack Enterprises. And he was good at what he did. But for the past couple of weeks…it wasn’t anything he could put his finger on…

“So, you’re gonna be in Boston, but you’re staying in a hotel?” Tim frowned. “Man, that doesn’t make any sense.”

“I’m a company man and that’s where they want me so that’s where I’ll be.”

“Seems like this trip came up pretty sudden,” Matt said.

Nick shrugged. “It was a little last minute, but apparently the guy they were going to send was needed somewhere else. Me? I go where I’m needed.” And he’d keep his eyes and ears open. Crazy as it sounded, the people at Mack were too nice, too trusting considering his recent history. It simply didn’t feel right. But the best thing to do was to keep a low profile and his eyes and ears open. Maybe he was imagining things.

“We thought you were road tripping, so we all went together and got you a little going away present,” AJ said.

They were grinning like a trio of monkeys and Nick knew major grief was about to come his way.

AJ pulled a box wrapped in plain brown paper out from beneath the table.

“It’s a little something for your trip. When you’re sitting in your lonely hotel room,” AJ said. “Go ahead. Open it. It won’t bite.”

The three of them cracked up at that. Oh, boy. Nick tore off the paper. The vacuous grin of a blow-up doll stared up at him from the cardboard box.

“Meet Sheila. She’s got thunder from Down Under. We didn’t want you to get too lonely,” AJ said.