“You’re also not going to dissuade me,” Marcus shared.
“Am I doing any dissuading?”Nightingale asked.
Marcus studied him.
Then he told him quietly, “I’m protecting you.”
A flash shot through Nightingale’s eyes.
Rage.
“I saw that fuckin’ tape,” he bit out.“And justsayin’, so did Vance and so did Luke.So I think you morethan anybody get me when I say Luke and me feel the need to see this through.”
He was young.
He was good at what he did, but he was young.
He’d learn.
Rage had no place in what they did, Nightingale’s placeskirting the edges of it, Marcus’s right in the middle of it.
You gave in to your rage, you got sloppy.
In their game, sloppy men didn’t survive.
You planned.
You executed.
Then you moved on.
“Let me protect you,” Marcus urged.
They locked eyes and it took some time but eventuallyNightingale proved he wasn’t only good, he was smart.He did this jerking uphis chin, cutting his gaze through Stark, and he dropped his hands from hiships before he cast a glance at Tucker and strode away.
Stark stared at Marcus another beat before he dropped hisarms from his chest and followed Nightingale.
Marcus waited until the sound of the heavy door closingechoed through the room and only then did he look at Darius.
“It’s arranged?”he asked.
“Zano and Townsend are both on board.”Darius walked toMarcus, pulling a gun out of the back of his jeans and offering it Marcus’sway.
Marcus took it.
Darius continued, “They find anything, it’ll be linked tothe House of Shade.Everyone wants Shade out.He’s sliding,somethin’surfaces with this,things’llget a lot moreslippery.”
“Is something going to surface?”Marcus asked.
Darius shrugged.Then he smiled.
Christ.
Cold as stone.
A long time ago, Shirleen’s now-dead husband made thingsvery difficult for Vincent Shade.He was holding on mostly because there wasalways enough crime to go around, and even stupid and completely insane, Shademanaged to find his share.
He’d been a nuisance for some time.
