Nick finally looked up, blinking at Kelly when he met his eyes.
Nick put his pen down and glanced around the squad room. He gestured for Kelly to come with him, and he stood, heading for the stairwell. Once in private, Nick trailed his fingers down Kelly’s cheek with a soft smile. “You’re pissed at me.”
“Irritated, yes.”
Nick’s smile was gentle, almost amused. “What’d I do?”
“You’re being a little more cavalier than I’m used to seeing you, it’s throwing me off.”
“I’m sorry,” Nick offered. He sounded sincere. “The letters are important, you’re right. But I want Cross off the streets, you with me? If he’s combing through letters, he’s not shooting up my city looking for Cameron.”
“Yeah, makes sense,” Kelly grudgingly acknowledged.
“What about me, though? Why am I sitting and watching you do paperwork?”
Nick narrowed his eyes. “One, because it was you and not me who cut the tape at the scene and I needed you to give me the details.”
Kelly flushed and scrunched his nose. “Oh yeah.”
“Two . . . I need you to come somewhere with me.”
“To do what?”
“We need to buy JD a suit that’ll get him past security for the meeting tonight. And I don’t feel like living through a Pretty Woman scene today, so I want you with me.”
Kelly laughed before he could stop himself. “Wait so, Hagan and Cross are delving into historical mysteries, and we’re going shopping?”
Nick nodded, though he looked thoroughly disgusted with himself. Kelly grabbed Nick’s face and kissed him. “I love you, you know that?”
“I know. I know I’m lucky,” Nick rumbled.
Kelly kissed him again. “Does this count as a fight?”
Nick hummed deeply. “It does if you want to rack up makeup sex for next time.”
“We’ll count it as a fight then.”
Nick kissed him again, holding him tighter.
“Can I get a new suit too?” Kelly asked against his lips.
Nick bit him. “As long as I get to pick it out.”
The task didn’t take them particularly long. The suit they wound up getting JD wasn’t perfectly tailored or anything, but it was close enough to pass Nick’s rather critical inspection. He also got JD a few more items of clothing, because he’d been borrowing jeans from Nick and shirts from Kelly, and neither fit him particularly well. JD kept promising to repay him, but Nick shrugged it off in the way only Nick could.
JD certainly looked more comfortable leaving the store in clothes that fit him well.
Nick dropped Kelly and JD off at the marina and told them to spiff up like they were getting a chance to walk the high-dol ar street corner, then left them. They were supposed to take a cab to meet up with Nick and Julian at the hotel that evening.
A few hours later, Kelly and JD were climbing out of a cab and gawking at the odd building that was the Liberty Hotel.
It was made of brick, and laid out in the cross shape of an old prison, which Kelly knew it had once been. A huge decorative window graced the front entrance, and a smiling doorman greeted them as he held the door for them. Kelly craned his neck to take in the impressive lobby.
“Jesus, this is cool,” JD said. He was doing the same thing as Kelly, and they probably looked like chickens in the rain, staring at the wonders above them. The brick was all exposed, and so were the remains of the bars from the cells. The catwalks still encircled the lobby, where giant iron chandeliers displayed twinkling lights high overhead.
Kelly grinned. Of course Nick loved this place. It had everything Nick was drawn to: a dark history, a story of regeneration and retribution, luxurious surroundings, and alcohol. His breath caught when he saw the escalator that would take them to the main lobby floor and realized the man standing there watching him was his boyfriend.
Nick was wearing a sharp three-piece suit with a thin, green silk tie and matching handkerchief in his lapel pocket. It had likely been tailored, because it fit him perfectly. Kelly had never seen it on him before, but god damn. Nick was watching Kelly with a small smile, one hand in a pocket.
Kelly whistled when he walked up to him. “Don’t you look fancy.”
Nick stepped into him and kissed him on the corner of the mouth, right where he knew it would send shivers through Kelly’s body. “Not so bad yourself,” he whispered into Kelly’s ear.
It took Kelly a few seconds to realize Julian was with Nick, and that he and JD were waiting for them to stop flirting long enough to get on with things. They both looked a little amused, though.
“Sorry,” Kelly offered.
Nick snorted. “I’m not.”
Though Nick was trying to keep an easy smile on his face, Kelly could feel the tension in Nick’s body. It was making him nervous again. He supposed anyone meeting with a famous mob boss would be tense, but especially someone like Nick, who had childhood ties to the organization and a job that was inherently opposed to everything the mob stood for.
He was a white knight, stepping into the shadows.
“Come on, he’s upstairs waiting for us,” Nick said.
A man was indeed waiting for them in the lobby when they reached the top of the escalator. He was attractive, with dark hair and kind eyes that seemed at odds with his job.
He was dressed in a soft-gray suit, his sky-blue tie the only anomaly. Nick slowed when he saw him, coming to a stop a few yards in front of him.
They stood opposite one another, silent, their expressions stern. Kelly glanced uneasily at Julian and JD. This was going to go so wrong. He could feel it, they were going to destroy this beautiful hotel lobby in a firefight.
The man took a step forward, and Nick moved to meet him. Instead of violence, though, they embraced. The stranger patted Nick on the back and held a fistful of his hair as Nick hugged him. They broke apart and both men were smiling, although Kelly recognized the wistful glint in Nick’s eyes.
This was a bittersweet reunion, at best.
“Damn, you look good, Nicky,” the man said, and he brushed at Nick’s shoulders, grinning.
“No one calls me that anymore.” Nick turned and waved a hand at Kelly, keeping his other hand on the man’s shoulder.
“Mikey, this is Kelly Abbott.”
“The boyfriend?” Mikey asked with a raised eyebrow.
Kelly didn’t know how to answer that. He knew enough about mob and gang culture to know that having a “boyfriend”