Nothing To Lose: A Grey Justice Novel (27 page)

“The idea of seeing Grey today seems to have pleased you.”

Another crack in Irelyn’s armor? That remark had held a distinct hint of jealousy. Did she have romantic feelings for Grey? When Kennedy saw them together, they acted as impersonal as any employer/employee.

Since the last thing she wanted was to get on this woman’s bad side, she shook her head. “I was just thinking of Nick.”

“Ah, Mr. Gallagher.” Her expression became dreamy. “Now there’s a man who can curl a girl’s toes.”

She should have been used to remarks like that about Nick. All of her friends, married or single, had carried a crush for him. A man didn’t look like Nick Gallagher without attracting many admirers. Irelyn’s comment should have slid off her back as easily as any others she’d ever heard. But it didn’t. This was said by a woman who, if she set her sights on someone, could get her man.
 

“Something wrong?” Irelyn asked.

“No…I…uh…no.”

“How eloquent.” She opened the door. “Why don’t you deal with the green-eyed monster later? Now it’s time to face a real monster.”
 

And with those astonishing words, she walked out of the room.

Chapter Twenty-four

Grey stood beside the window in his office. He’d heard Irelyn’s remark about Gallagher and her less-than-flattering comment about him. Odd how he could still feel the barbs after all this time. It wasn’t as if he didn’t deserve them. Some would have been horrified by his arrangement with Irelyn. Others might have applauded his ingenuity. He didn’t care what others thought. Their relationship was no one’s business, and as long as it remained beneficial, nothing would change. That had taken Irelyn a long time to accept, but she had finally come around. However, every now and then, the bitterness seeped through.
 

Noting the frown on Kennedy’s face as she came closer, he said, “You’re looking a bit stressed. Everything okay?”

“Yes.” Then, as if she remembered her lessons from Irelyn, she gave him a brilliant smile and added, “Irelyn is an excellent teacher.”

“Yes, she is, in more ways than one.”

Her accent as authentic as any born and bred Texan’s, Irelyn waved her hand in a self-deprecating way. “Well, bless both your hearts. You’ll have me blushing like a schoolgirl with such praise.”

Grey could only shake his head in admiration. Despite the darkness that had caused their lives to intersect, this woman had fascinated and enthralled him from the moment he met her.

Kennedy pulled him back into the present. “Irelyn said you wanted to talk to me.”
 

“Yes. Eli’s on his way up. We want to talk with you about a slight deviation to our plan.”

“Should I give Nick a call or is he already on his way, too?”

His admiration for Kennedy O’Connell was already high, but it just soared. She was loyal to a fault and was determined not to leave Gallagher out of anything. She trusted the man implicitly. It’d been a long time since he had felt anything as human as envy, but he recognized the symptoms.

“Gallagher will be here soon. However, I wanted to talk with you first. Your influence will be instrumental in getting him to go along with our plan.”

 
Doubt flickered on her face, but to her credit, she just said, “Okay. I’m listening.”

“Irelyn has a relationship with someone within Slater’s inner circle. He won’t tell her who or when, but someone has been targeted for termination. We’d like to prevent another death, if possible.”

“Are you sure he’s not talking about me? Maybe they’ve found out who I am.” Panic hit her face. “Or Nick? Could it be Nick?”

“No. If your identity had been discovered, there would be no need to plan or even inform Mathias. You would be dead within minutes.”

Her laugh held no humor. “Small comfort.”

Grey shrugged. He wasn’t much into sugarcoating the truth. “Someone has been targeted, that’s all we know. Who and why are unknown.”

Irelyn seated herself across the room from Grey and Kennedy, the separation a normal thing for her. “My contact will share only so much. I feed him useless information from time to time. In return, he gives me tidbits.”

“How do you know they’re not useless, too?”

“Because they’ve proven to be true. He’s the one who told me—”

“That’s enough, Irelyn.”
 

Though she shot him a small glare at his hard tone, she closed her mouth.
 

“What do you mean by a deviation?”

Eli entered just as Kennedy was asking the question and answered for Grey. “He means that you’re going to have to become irresistible to Adam a lot sooner than we’d planned.”

Grey took in Kennedy’s reaction and was damn impressed that he couldn’t read her. He saw no panic or fear. In fact, if she revealed any emotion at all, it was a glimmer of excitement.

“How are we going to do that?”

“We can discuss the how in a minute. What I want to know from you is, are you ready to go as deep as you need and do what’s necessary to bring down the bastards responsible for your husband’s death?”

Without hesitation, she answered, “I believe I’ve proven that by being here. You don’t need to question my commitment. I’m ready to do what it takes.”

“That’s all I needed to know.” Grey glanced over his shoulder at the door to his private bathroom. “Why don’t you go freshen up?”

“Why?”

He liked that she wasn’t intimidated. He had way too many people in his life who did what he told them to do without question. Most times, that was a convenience he enjoyed. But when he was asking someone to put her life on the line, then that person had every right to question him. And every right to expect an honest answer.

“I’d like to gauge Gallagher’s reaction without your influence.”

Body stiff with indignation, her reaction was as easy to read as a first-grade primer. “You don’t trust him? I assure you, Mr. Justice, Nick Gallagher is the most honorable man I know.”

“Don’t get your tail feathers ruffled, Kennedy. I do trust Mr. Gallagher. If I didn’t, believe me, he wouldn’t be involved in this case. However, I need to know how he will react to our change of plan without having you influence him.”

She stood, her look of stubbornness telling him she would do what he asked, but she still didn’t like his request. He didn’t have any issues with that. Few people liked what he asked them to do.

He waited until she’d left the room before he said to Irelyn, “Can she do this?”

“Yes. But only with Gallagher’s full approval. They’re
true
partners…she won’t do it if he asks her not to.”

Ignoring the obvious reference to their own strange partnership, Grey nodded. “That’s my opinion as well.”

The room went silent as they waited for Gallagher to join them. He had told Kennedy the truth—he did trust Gallagher. Problem was, the man had a tendency to soften his reaction when Kennedy was in the room. He was protective of her…a good thing. However, there was a fine line between protective and overprotective. Grey wanted to see Gallagher’s reaction before bringing Kennedy back.

As soon as the man entered the room, a new tension developed. Gallagher’s instincts were good. He knew this wasn’t a typical meeting.

Grey made a low-key start. “How do you think she’s doing?”
 

As Grey asked the question, he took note of both Eli’s and Gallagher’s expressions. Depending upon their responses, he would know how they would take to his new plan.

“Based on what I saw the other night with Adam, I think she’s doing damn well.”

Gallagher’s response was no surprise. The man was so head-over-ass in love, he couldn’t see straight. And that might be Grey’s biggest problem of all. His plan was going to put Kennedy right in the middle of the lion’s den. The way things were escalating, though, he didn’t think they had a choice. Time was running out. If they didn’t act soon, someone else was going to die.

“I agree,” Eli concurred. “Adam didn’t know which end was up.”

“How about we up the ante?”

“Up the ante how?” Gallagher said.

“Make her even more irresistible.”

“That might pose a problem unless we make some changes,” Eli said. “I don’t see Adam moving faster than we anticipated. He’s not naïve. If he suspects she’s being pushed on him, he’ll back off completely.”

As was often his way, Grey approached his explanation with a question. “When you first brought your family to the U.S., besides Shelley’s illness, what was your biggest problem?”

Comprehension came almost immediately to Eli’s face. “Adam.”

“How so?” Gallagher asked.

“He wouldn’t leave Shelley alone. It was like he couldn’t bear that I had a wife and a family. I finally had to tell him to either back off or I’d kick his ass. That worked. Adam isn’t one to risk getting a bruise if he can prevent it.”

“So you think if Kennedy, I mean Rachel, is in a relationship with Eli, that will make Adam want her more?” Gallagher asked.

“More and faster,” Grey said.

Gallagher shook his head, his resistance obvious. “How would a romantic relationship with Eli make Adam want her more? You both said he’s not into women that way.”

Eli nodded. “You’re right, he’s not. But me having something…anything better than what he has is going to eat at him. He won’t rest until he’s stolen her away from me.”

“I want this asshole taken down as much as anyone, but why are we rushing things? What’s changed?”

Grey shot a glance at the woman who’d been sitting quietly, absorbing the nuances of their discussion. Irelyn only spoke when she had something to say. Since they’d begun their partnership so many years ago, he had learned that and many more things, such as her ability to pull a splinter out of a bear’s paw without him knowing it.

Responding to Grey’s look, Irelyn said, “I have it on good authority that something big is about to go down.”

“What exactly does that mean?” Gallagher asked.

“Someone is going to die.” Elegant shoulders lifted in a slight shrug. “That’s all my contact knows so far. He’s not always told his target until the last minute. I’ll try to get more later tonight, but he’s proven himself sound on several occasions.”

“Who is your source?”

“Mr. Gallagher, I trust you as much as I trust any man.”

Correctly interpreting Irelyn’s statement, a crack appeared in Gallagher’s stern expression, showing an amused appreciation. Grey fought his own smile. Irelyn always spoke her mind in such a way that few people had doubts about her opinions.
 

Quick as lightning, Gallagher’s amusement disappeared. “Putting Kennedy at more risk than she’s already at based upon an unidentified source who has a feeling something’s about to go down isn’t something I’m willing to risk.”

“Maybe you should let her make that decision for herself.” Irelyn said.

Shit.
Nick went to his feet. The minute he’d walked into the room, he had known something was going down. There had been an electrical energy in the air, supercharged and tense. These people might have the same goals as he did, but Kennedy’s safety was his first priority. About to tell them exactly where they could put their asinine ideas, he swallowed his words when the person he most wanted to protect entered the room.

Justice waved a hand at Kennedy. “Come on in. We were just discussing our new strategy.”

She gave Nick a fleeting, encouraging smile, and he knew the truth. She had already agreed. “What the hell did you call me here for if you’ve already coerced her into doing this?”

“They didn’t coerce me, Nick. When Grey told me we needed to make some changes, I agreed. If we can get this done faster, then that’s what we need to do.”

“Not at your expense we don’t.” Nick gave everyone in the room with the exception of Kennedy a hard look. They’d damn well known how he would react. “Getting blindsided doesn’t exactly make me a team player.”

Justice nodded. “I understand your concerns. Why don’t you sit down again and let us tell you how this can work? If you don’t agree after you hear us out, we’ll consider going in another direction.”

Nick watched Kennedy come toward him. Moving with her natural grace, she also had the confident air of a woman comfortable with herself and the direction she was headed. Even though she’d never seemed to lack confidence before, she had a new assurance about her. She really believed she could do this. He could feel his resistance crumbling in the face of her assurance. Still, he wanted details. This bullshit of vagueness was unacceptable.

She settled beside him and gave him another quick smile. She probably meant the smile to reassure him, but all it did was remind him how damn vulnerable she was. His gut was beginning to get that feeling when things were about to turn to shit.

“Here’s where we are.”

As Nick listened to the plan, he carefully watched everyone’s expressions. Each one of them had their own agenda and reason for wanting to see Mathias and Adam Slater go down. He had one, too. However, his agenda was twofold, and at the top of that list was making sure that Kennedy stayed safe. If that delayed justice for Thomas, then so be it.