Page 71 of Armed ’N’ Ready

Those were the first—and only—words she’d spoken to him since leaving the U.S. Attorney’s Office thirty-five minutes ago. The only time she’d shown any emotion was when they’d stopped to pick up Saxon, who’d given her a sound licking on the chin.

He ground his teeth together. Again, the silent treatment was killing him.

After parking in the DPC’s empty lot, he got out and rounded the hood to open Andi’s door, but she’d already whipped it open, slammed it shut, and was stomping toward the restaurant.

He clicked the button on his key fob, popping open the kennel door. Saxon leaped onto the pavement and bounded after her. When she opened the DPC’s front door, Saxon poked his head through, trying to squeeze in after her. She laughed, and it was like music to Nick’s ears. Sadly, her laughter wasn’t for him. It was for his dog. Fuck. Me.

Beeping sounded, then quieted as she deactivated the alarm. She held the door partially open to prevent Saxon from entering, but she leaned down and put her arms over Saxon’s neck, burying her face in his thick coat. His tail wagged back and forth, a sign of just how much Saxon loved her. Pathetically, he wondered if she’d ever throw her arms around him again.

Great, now I’m jealous of a dog.

As he neared the door, she gave Saxon a final scratching behind his ears.

“Hier.” His dog reluctantly disengaged from Andi’s arms and looked up at him with a quizzical expression. Golden eyes pinned him, then swiveled from Andi, to him, then back again. Even Saxon sensed the tension between the two of them. “Let’s go see Stray.”

Minutes later, he’d put Saxon up in the house with Stray and come back inside the restaurant to find Andi holed up in her office, poring over a stack of bills—the ones he knew she still couldn’t pay.

Crossing his arms, he leaned against the doorjamb. “We need to talk.”

“There’s nothing more to say.” She didn’t look at him. “And by the way, you’re fired.”

Ignoring the jibe, he sat on a corner of the desk. “Now that you’re officially not a suspect anymore, your account will be released. You should be able to access your money within two weeks.”

“Great, thanks. Too bad that may be too late.” The tips of her fingers were white where she clutched a pen in one hand and the bills in the other. “This isn’t the first time I’ve been late paying bills. I’ll be lucky if these vendors don’t tack on interest, increase their prices, or cancel my accounts altogether.”

Not if I can help it. That, he could fix, but he couldn’t fix things between them.

Back at the courthouse, he’d wanted to tell her what was in his heart—that he couldn’t live without her. Didn’t want to live without her. It was just as well he hadn’t. She would never have believed him. Not right on the heels of what she’d overheard.

He nearly choked on the irony. She’d thrown his own words back at him. I was nothing more than a job to you—a means to an end. He’d said almost the exact same words to Cox the day before starting this operation. She’d been right. He had used her. The true depth of his deception smacked him in the face, and it was worse than he remembered. Only now did he understand that he would have kept right on using her until he got his man.

Mission almost accomplished, asshole.

Even then, he’d liked Andi as a person, but it hadn’t mattered. Her cooperation had been deemed integral to the case, and he’d vowed to work her the way he’d work any cooperator. It was simply good, old-fashioned police work, a technique used for centuries by thousands of cops all over the world. The best cases were made either with snitches or cooperators. Andi had been a cooperator. Until she’d become something more.

Bottom line, I fucked up.

He’d had it all, and now it might be too late. He’d let his obsession over making up for the past and nailing this gun dealer destroy a relationship with the woman he’d fallen in love with. Somehow, she’d managed to get through the cracks of his thick skin and make him love again. After what he’d done, he didn’t deserve her. Maybe she was better off without him.

With someone who isn’t a cold-hearted sonofabitch. Someone who didn’t use people for his own personal gain. Like that piece of shit in New York who’d hurt her. Shit, hadn’t he done the same thing?

No. There was no way that faceless motherfucker could possibly have cared about her the way he did. Because Nick had no intention of letting her go.

When she sniffled and turned away, he knew she was about to cry, and it ripped at his guts like nothing else could. The urge to touch her overrode all his common sense, and he rose to reach for her.

“You guys okay?”

He jerked his head around to find Tess and Eric standing in the doorway. He pressed his lips together, annoyed that he’d been so distracted he hadn’t heard their approach.

“We’re fine.” Andi smiled, but it was obvious to him she wasn’t feeling any joy.

“You don’t look fine.” Tess eyed him with outright suspicion, and he found himself admiring her protective nature.

Eric arched a brow but said nothing.

Nick headed for the door, about to brush past Tess and Eric when the cell phone on his belt vibrated. He grabbed the phone and looked at the screen. Cox.

“Houston,” he answered. Much as he wanted to tell the agent exactly where to go, he held back.