“Getting clear with the artifacts more likely.”
“I don’t get it,” Lauren said, twisting in her chair.“He’s got the artifacts.He’s the dignitary overseeing their transport.”
“But who actually owns them?”Nic said.“His deceased wife?Her heirs?The government?I’m guessing not him.We need to see the bill of lading on those pieces and the wife’s will.”
“What’s his end game?”Cam said.“Sell them on the black market?”
Nic nodded as Aidan added, “Something tells me his flight plan will change Monday.”
“After he kills or puts away the people who worked for him,” Cam said, and Nic didn’t like that determined glint in his eye one bit.“I’m going back in.”
“No,” Nic snapped, pushing up off the wall.Two steps and he was standing right in front of Cam.“You’re safe here now.”He glanced out the window, toward the house.“And so is Abby.”
“He’ll make another run at the artifacts, probably at the show tonight or Sunday.We can’t risk more people getting hurt.”
Desert sand and heat settled in Nic’s gut, suffocating and uncomfortable.“So we risk you instead?”
Cam shot to his feet, the space between them narrowing more.“This is my job, Price.”
“And your case is circumstantial, Prosecutor,” Aidan added from his spot on the other armchair.Fucking traitor.“If Cam can get direct evidence that it’s Kristic pulling the strings...”
Cam glanced over at him.“I can get it.”
“Kristic knows who you are,” Nic reminded him.
Cam had taken off his mask and helmet in the penthouse after the heist that started all this.And he’d been in Kristic’s hospital room after.
“If he ever shows his face,” Cam said, “I’ll convince him Abby turned me.That I’ve gone rogue.”
“That why you kissed her?”The words were out before Nic could stop himself.
Aidan cut in before the argument could go further.“She’ll have to go back in with you.”
“I’ll protect her.”Of course he would.
“This is a fucking suicide mission,” Nic gritted out.
“What was it last week when you jumped out of the van and ran toward the Kristics’ building?”Cam replied.“Or when you ran out of Mel and Danny’s condo the other night, charging for the park?”
Effectively silenced, Nic scoffed and turned away, hands braced on either side of the window frame, glaring out at the ocean.
“I can do this,” Cam said to Aidan behind him.“I can close this case.”
Sixteen
After seeing Lauren and Aidan out, Cam made his way back across the patio to where Nic waited inside the warmly lit cottage.He’d claimed he was staying behind to take back his truck.Cam figured he wanted one more chance to plead his case.Not that it would change Cam’s mind.He knew what he needed to do.
About Nic too.
Bucking up his resolve, he entered the cottage and closed the door behind him.Nic didn’t flinch, arms still spread on either side of the window, his back to the room.Sleeves rucked up to his elbows, Nic’s toned forearms were on display, as was the perfect V of his torso.Broad shoulders that led down to a trim waist and a firm, round ass.Cam’s pulse ticked up, remembering the tattoos on Nic’s chest, imagining the JAG emblem on his hip, wondering about the ink on his back.Something was definitely there.The spindly ends of it had been visible on Nic’s shoulders and sides the other night, but Cam hadn’t gotten a look before they’d been interrupted.He wanted to see it now.
But he needed to set something else straight first.
Nic, however, as Cam anticipated, wasn’t ready to let go of their earlier argument.“I don’t like this plan,” he said, still glaring out at the ocean.
“Of course you don’t.”
“We have no idea who is playing who here.”
