Page 84 of Nixon’s Promise

I also needed to get to the grocery store and get home to Zack and Mandy.

“I’m gonna head out, go to the store, and start these searches from home,” I told the guys. “Alec, are you staying for dinner?”

“No, thank you, I need to head back to D.C. ‘Preciate the offer, though.”

“Any requests?” I looked around the room.

No one answered. Instead they were all looking at me with goofy smiles. What the hell?

“Lucky bastard,” Jameson said and cut his eyes to Nixon.

“Yep.” Nixon’s smile grew. “Anything you make will be fine, babe.”

“Hamburgers it is.” His smile stayed the same but his eyes changed, they grew warmer and gentled. “But just to warn you all, I buy my beef from the market. I like to know the cow I’m eating is an outatowner. I don’t like to eat something I know I’ve driven past a hundred times. Unlike Nixon who prefers his to be local. Knowing him, he probably goes to the farm and picks out the one he wants.”

Nixon laughed, just as I’d intended. It no longer sounded rusty, it filled the room and sent tingles down my spine.

32

Nixon had walked McKenna to her car, offering to keep Duke at the office so he didn’t have to sit in the car while she was in the store. After an all-too-brief kiss at her car, he watched her drive away and waited for Duke to sniff around Fountain Park and do his business.

He was climbing the narrow staircase leading to his office, thinking about how McKenna was right—getting real furniture up these stairs was going to be a bitch. Maybe he’d been too hasty in renting the space. On that thought, he opened the door to his office, let Duke precede him, and found Alec had not left. He was still there with the rest of his team.

“Wanted a word with you before I headed out,” Alec announced.

Nix was still peeved his friend had withheld information and hadn’t been forthright in his motives. He also understood.

“Don’t ever do that shit again, Alec. Swear to God, I’ll walk. I get you wanted fresh eyes and thought the only way to get that was by not giving us everything. But you were wrong. The only way this works is if you give us everything. We’ve wasted days—days we don’t have. And Don Miller? What the fuck, we should’ve been working that angle from the beginning.”

“You’re right, I should’ve. Won’t happen again, that’s what I wanted to tell you. I also wanted to assure you, McKenna’s clear of this. I didn’t run her and she’s not on the contract. Which means I also feel like I need to remind you, she’s not on the contract.”

Nixon understood what Alec was telling him. If McKenna got caught, she was fucked. That was something that Nixon was struggling with. He’d asked her to do some illegal shit. He also knew if she got caught, he’d take the fall and say he was the one who’d looked into Miller. No way would he let his woman get jammed up. Not for this, not for anything.

“I hear you. I also trust her if she says she can get us the information we need and keep herself clean, she can do it.”

“You’re sure about that?”

“If she says she can, she can.”

“Nix, you haven’t—”

“I trust my woman, Alec.” Nixon’s tone left no room for argument.

“All right.” Alec’s brows lifted. “I trust you and your judgment. We’ll head to Philly tomorrow. I booked us a block of rooms. Will McKenna be joining us?”

“Not a chance I want her anywhere near Philly.”

“But—”

“She also has two teenagers she’s responsible for. She can’t leave them.”

The statement was true. He also knew her best friend Becky would gladly help with Amanda and Zack if McKenna needed to work. But Nix wouldn’t be telling Alec that. He felt no remorse using her siblings as an excuse.

Nix had a job to do, and if McKenna was there, he’d be more worried about keeping her safe than a city under threat of attack.

Alec said his goodbyes and headed out, leaving Nixon and his team alone in the office.

“I think McKenna’s on the right path,” Holden started. “We need to be looking right when they want us to be looking left. We also need to find what they rigged in Carpenter’s Hall.”