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“Plus, you have your guys already positioned in there,” Penn added.

“Toni, Danny, and I can easily blend in as workers.”

“I’ll contact Liev myself to let him know,” Gideon said.

We stayed for an hour going over everything. Toni pulled up blueprints of the distribution center to mark off exits. Gideon would make sure they were covered so that once Oleg entered the building, the only way out was with us.

I saw Danny leave the house to start the car and get the heat going, so I followed him. He got into the driver’s seat, and I went to the passenger’s seat.

“You should’ve waited inside; it’s fucking freezing.”

“Danny, look at me.”

He hung his head briefly, then turned to face me. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Too bad because we are, but not here. Come to my place tonight. We’ll have a drink and talk. You all are always on me to get my feelings out with therapy; don’t be a hypocrite.”

Danny rubbed his forehead. “I’d rather just pretend it didn’t happen.”

“Yeah, not likely. So tonight, my place.”

With a sigh and a nod, Danny agreed.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Danny

I can do this. I’m a grown-ass adult, and he is my best friend. He just wants to talk, have a drink, and hopefully forget I ever blurted I love you to him. “Fuck.”

Even though I had a key to his house, at the moment it felt like I should ring the doorbell. Judging by the expression on his face when he opened up, I should have used my key.

“Lose your key?”

“No, I just thought maybe I shouldn’t walk right in after…you know.”

“You’re being dumb. Come on in.” He turned on his heel, leaving the door open so I could follow.

“Beer?” he shouted from the kitchen.

“Sure.”

He handed me a cold one, and we went into his living room. We sat, we drank…we didn’t speak. Was I supposed to start?

“I didn’t mean it,” I blurted out at the same time he asked, “Did you mean it?” We both laughed.

“I don’t know why I asked that. You had to mean it. So, maybe we don’t lie to each other, yeah?” He looked pointedly at me.

“I shouldn’t have said anything. It’s not fair to you.”

“Not fair to me?” I placed his beer on the table and sat forward. “How do you figure?”

I stared at the label on the bottle and picked at it. “You lost Mila, Alex. Your heart is shattered, and you shouldn’t have to deal with my shit.”

“Your shit?” Alex released a heavy sigh.

“You’re one bad day from going over the deep end, Alex, and you know it.”

He hung his head and dragged his fingers through his dark hair. “I had a dream last night, well, more like a memory in dream form.”