usually got a man killed. Mikey stepped forward to shake his hand, though.
“Word went around town a few years ago Detective O’Flaherty liked to play for the other team,” Mikey said with a sideways grin at Nick. “First thing Paddy did was lay down the law. No one touches him or his flavor of the month.”
“Is that right?” Nick’s tone sent a chill up Kelly’s spine.
Mikey nodded, still grinning at Kelly. “This one’s more than just a taste, though, huh?”
Nick met Kelly’s eyes, his expression guarded and a little frightened. He obviously hadn’t realized the mob had been keeping such close tabs on him, or that Kelly might have been in any kind of danger in the first place.
“These the two need the meeting?” Mikey asked with a nod at Julian and JD.
“Sort of,” Nick said. He introduced them, but he seemed a little thrown off his game now. Kelly was too. He stayed quiet, trusting Nick to lead them into the fray.
Mikey escorted them around the lobby, toward a hal way marking the ballroom and elevators to the jail hotel rooms.
They piled into the elevator, with Mikey putting his back against the wal . He might have greeted Nick warmly, but the man wasn’t letting his guard down with them.
They rode to the second floor, which consisted of a private gallery bar that had once been the catwalk ringing the prison. When they filed out, Mikey took Nick by the arm and stopped him.
“You know what you’re doing here, Nicky? Boston police detective asking Paddy for favors? Oh, son.”
Nick gave him a curt nod. “I got no other options. Friend of mine is in trouble.”
“Life or death trouble?”
“That’s the one.”
A hint of sadness passed over Mikey’s dark eyes, and he nodded slowly. He walked by them, leading them past the hostess toward a point in the middle of the catwalk where chairs and sofas had been set up in an isolated lounge.
Two large men stood in their path, both dressed impeccably in tailored suits. They refused to let the group pass.“It seems the sister organization in Boston is far better dressed than the ones in New York,” Julian commented. He sounded like he approved.
A man sitting on a sofa behind the bodyguards stood and greeted them with a crooked smile. Something about it struck Kelly deep in his gut, like it was familiar to him. “You dress like a thug, you get treated like a thug,” the man told them.
He pulled at his bow tie and raised a glass to them. “Nicholas, join me a moment, won’t you?”
Nick stepped forward and held his hands up so Mikey could pat him down. Then the bodyguards let him by, leaving Kelly and the others unable to get to him if anything went wrong. Kelly shifted from foot to foot, not liking the way any of this felt.
The man they called Paddy handed Nick a glass of champagne. “To celebrate your safe return from war.”
Nick hesitated only briefly before touching the tip of his crystal glass to Paddy’s and taking a sip. Kelly was fascinated and confused by the ritual. It seemed almost like Paddy was taunting Nick for coming to him for help, forcing him to consort with the very criminal element he had sworn an oath to protect the city against.
Nick set his glass on the table after a small sip, and Paddy did the same. “Good then. Shall we take this upstairs?”
The bodyguards backed the four of them against the railing as their boss walked by. They fell into step behind Paddy, and Kelly and the others followed, with Mikey bringing up the rear. They were instructed to wait for the next elevator, then left without escort in the vestibule.
“What the hell?” Kelly asked as soon as they were alone.
“Why not just have us meet them in the room?”
Nick cleared his throat, looking a little sick. “A lobby full of people just saw a Boston police detective having a drink with a mob boss. Did you see the tourist with the camera on the floor above us?”
Kelly shook his head.
“Added security,” Julian commented. “One hint at corruption and it could bring the police force to its knees. I like it.”
Nick scowled at Julian. “Try not to keep reminding me that you’re not a good person, okay?”
“I will do my very best.”
“I’m so nervous,” JD announced. “I might throw up on this suit.”
Kelly shook his head. “You throw up, I throw up. Nobody wants that in an elevator.”
JD laughed shakily.
“It’ll be fine,” Nick said. “Just keep your mouth shut unless they ask you a direct question. Don’t try to play them, just answer honestly.”
Kelly stood beside Nick, staring at his profile, waiting until he got tired of feeling Kelly’s eyes on him so he’d look at him. Nick’s jaw jumped and he swallowed heavily, but he never turned, never met Kelly’s eyes.
“What’s this going to do to you, babe?” Kelly finally asked him. “What does it mean, owing Paddy a favor?”
Nick licked his lips, a nervous habit he’d nearly broken himself of over the years but which had returned full force when he’d come home the last time. “It’ll be fine.”
“O’Flaherty,” Julian said softly. “I understand what you’re doing. I can assure you, the next time you call I will answer.
No matter the reason.”
Nick glanced over his shoulder, but never actually at Julian. He returned his eyes to the elevator doors. “I do hope you mean that.”
The elevator opened up before they could say more.
Nick’s face could have been cut from marble when Kelly finally saw it.
Kelly had always wondered about those tales Nick had told of barely escaping the grasp of the mob, if Nick had simply been a young man exaggerating about a rough past because it gave him that added air of authority among the other Marines, or if he’d been serious.
The look in his eyes now, of stark fear and resignation barely covered by steely determination, told Kelly he hadn’t been exaggerating all those years ago.
Nick would go to the ends of the earth, carve out little pieces of his soul, to keep a promise. Kelly could see him carving away right now, preparing another piece to throw into the fire.
“Hey,” Kelly whispered. “Whatever this costs you, I’m here to pay it with you. Got it?”
Nick’s green eyes shone bright in the lights of the elevator. He leaned closer and kissed Kelly, his hand gentle on Kelly’s cheek, his fingers trailing down Kelly’s neck when he pulled away.
The elevator lurched to a stop, and Mikey was standing there waiting for them when the doors opened up. He had seen the last bit of their kiss, and he was pursing his lips and frowning. “Got to tell you, Nicky, I’m good with it and al , but it’s still weird. You want to keep your face pretty, you might want to keep your hands inside the ride until you reach the exits.”