Jade (The Kings of Guardian Book 9)

by Kris Michaels

  Chapter Four

  Nicolas DeMarco rubbed his eyes. He'd been awake for far too fucking long. Why in the hell had he decided that going on that rescue mission was, one, a good idea and, two, any of his goddamned business? Now, three days later, he was smack dab in the middle of paperwork hell. He fucking hated paperwork.

  "Too bad you're so damn good at it."

  Nic snapped his head up glaring at Jared King's comment. "Say what?"

  "You're talking to yourself again, DeMarco."

  Nic yawned and his forehead hit the conference room table with a resonating thunk. "Have we sent over the final transcripts on the chemist interviews we conducted after we brought them in? The DEA wanted to see if they could match anything we got to ongoing cases."

  "Ahh…" Jared pushed at his tablet and shook his head. "No, but then again it is three in the morning… I think those guys are smarter than we are, and they are home asleep."

  Nic lifted his head until his fisted hands cradled his chin. He closed one eye and squinted at his business partner. "You should go home. Go snuggle up with your man and get some sleep. At least one of us should get some." He wasn't just talking about rest.

  "We've hit the end of the road for today." Jared started to roll down his shirtsleeves. "You should go home, too. Actually get some sleep instead of jumping into the sack with one of your women."

  He responded with a derisive huff. If his friend only knew. He hadn't had a date in… hell… months. His womanizing ways had shut down when he'd attempted to get closer to Jewell. The woman was everything he'd always told himself he wanted. She was gorgeous, smart, dedicated, understood the crazy hours necessary, and as a side benefit, his mother would love her. Hell, Jewell worked harder than he did. He thought there had been a mutual attraction. Boy, had he called that one wrong. He'd gotten over it, but his pride took one hell of a punch when she chose Zane Reynolds over him. He'd acted like a total douche, and Jewell had called him on it. He should have blown the rejection off and got back on the horse, so to speak, but he wasn't sure if he wanted a life of nameless, faceless fucks any more.

  He yawned again, cracking his jaw in the process. "I don't know. I'll probably catch a nap on the couch in my office. We need to confer with the program managers first thing in the morning. If they are hitting any speed bumps with the multitude of follow-up cases we've funneled their way because of this bust, we need to make sure we get them the resources to handle it."

  Jared dropped his head into his hands and scrubbed his face before he gave Nic an exhausted and slightly glazed over stare. "Yeah, okay. I'll do the same."

  "Nah, man, get out of here. Sleep for a solid eight and then come back and tag me out of this insanity. I'll handle anything that comes up until you get back."

  Jared sighed and stood. He scanned the files and papers scattered across the conference room table. "It feels like I'm forgetting something."

  "Dude, whatever it is, I'll handle it. Go home. Reintroduce yourself to your husband, and get some sleep." There was no sense in both of them imitating zombies. Although a zombie would probably have more energy than either of them currently possessed.

  Jared gave him an owlish blink and nodded. "Alright. If I remember what it is I'm forgetting, I'll message you."

  Nic waved him off. "Don't worry about it, I got it." He watched Jared walk out the door and down the hall toward his office. Nic stood and gathered the fucking paperwork into semi-coherent stacks and cursed when his tablet lit up with the final interview transcripts. He tapped on the attached file and flung it up onto the ninety-two inch LED monitor hanging on the wall. There was no way his tired eyes were going to focus on the small tablet screen. He opened the document and cringed. One hundred and three, single-spaced, typed pages. "Fuck me. I'm going to need one hell of a lot more coffee." He cast a glowering look at the coffee station and grimaced. He'd consumed enough java over the last two days to sink the Titanic, but desperate times equaled desperate measures. He needed ten or twenty more cups of go-juice.

  Four hours, seven interview transcripts, and twenty-three written statements later, he stood and stretched. It was official. He was brain dead.

  "What in the hell are you still doing here?"

  Nic jumped at Jason King's bellowed question.

  He grabbed his chest and leaned forward, bracing himself on the table with his free arm. "Holy shit, man, what are you trying to do, give me a heart attack? I've consumed so much caffeine I'll explode if I move too fast."

  "Yeah, let's not do the spontaneous detonation thing. I think the cleanup would suck. But seriously, did you work through the night, again?" Jason surveyed the carefully constructed chaos on the conference room table.

  "Yeah. I sent Jared home about 3:00 a.m., but then the final transcripts of the interviews came in, so I dug in and finished them. The DEA should have all the information they need when they come into the office." Nic yawned so hard his body shook at the end of it.

  "Did you forward them to Legal?" Jason studied his tablet as he spoke.

  "Yeah, these were the last documents they required to work up the cases we have open. I also put copies on the domestic server and courtesy copied all the department heads that need the information in order to pursue the suspects we're hunting."

  "Excellent work. Why don't you head home and grab some sleep?"

  "I will after Jared gets back. I'll pop back to my office, shower, change, and take care of the morning meetings and anything else that comes up. When Jared comes in, I'll crash, but one of us needs to be here. We have too many moving pieces right now with this meth manufacturing and distribution case on top of our normal workload." Nic folded his suit jacket over his arm and grabbed his tablet, making a move toward the door.

  Jason snorted and followed Nic out of the conference room. "The scope on this is almost as large as the Morales Cartel takedown. We had a multi-organization task force working the fallout on that one for months."

  Jason walked beside Nic as he headed toward his office. Nic tried to hide another yawn but wasn't successful. He chuckled before he spoke, because fuck, he was tired and he couldn't hide it, "I'm glad we've grown enough we don't have to beg a handout from the alphabet soup crew." Nic had zero love for the FBI, CIA, or any other XYZ organization. He'd run up against the bureaucracy when he was a cop and later in his current position. Of course, that was when he'd finally gotten smart, leveraged his Yale law degree, and took this job with Guardian.

  Nic shook his head as he considered the final interviews. "The Fathers had one hell of a network, I'll give them that, but they need to work on the loyalty of their employees. We had so many people rolling over that putting these guys behind bars won't even be a challenge." Nic paused outside his office with Jason and greeted several people heading into the office for the day.

  Jason glanced at his tablet again and nodded to himself. He flashed the face of the pad toward Nic before smiling smugly. "Sonya has shuffled my meetings. It has been a couple years since I've held the helm in Domestic, but I'll take the morning meetings for you and hold down the fort until Jared comes back in. You've busted ass over the last couple days. Get some sleep. I don't want to see you for at least twenty-four hours, and since it is Friday, I'll alter that. Seventy-two hours. Non-negotiable."

  Nic would have argued the point, but the yawn that currently stretched his jaw was an all-encompassing thing. Shit, he was done. He needed to sleep before he drove anywhere. When he finished his cell-restructuring yawn, he nodded his agreement. "We may need to send out more manpower to supplement the regional departments. The caseload we doled out has everyone stretched paper thin."

  "Yeah, been there, done that. I got this. Go away." Jason cuffed him on the shoulder in a friendly gesture, only it sent him forward two steps. The mountain didn't know how fucking strong he was, or maybe Nic was that fucking tired. He watched Jason walk down
the hall toward his office. Nic closed one eye and tried to keep him in focus. He was so tired he felt drunk. "Office, DeMarco!" Jason's voice snapped him back to the hallway.

  He lifted his hand and waved off Jason's concerned look. At least he thought it was concern. The man had a resting bitch face that could make a person wonder. Nic opened the door to his offices and did a double take at the woman sitting at his personal assistant's desk. Since his administrative assistant had taken maternity leave, he'd been getting a rotation of temporary help. This one peeked up at him through her fake lashes and smiled at him. He'd seen that type of smile before, hell, he held the patent on the prototype. This one was on the hunt.

  "Mr. DeMarco, I'm Candi, with an "i". I've been assigned to you. I've printed out your calendar and put your messages on your desk. You have a stack from yesterday afternoon, one of which was from a Judge DeMarco. May I get you some coffee?"

  Nic shook his head and literally shivered at the thought of consuming more coffee. He planted his tired body in front of the desk where Candi-with-an-i sat. Even in his comatose state, he could appreciate the fact that the woman was pretty. Big brown eyes, brown hair pinned up in a feminine style and a very tight dress that displayed an unnatural rack. Nature didn't hand out what he estimated to be 32 double Ds as a rule. "Candi, is it?"

  The woman nodded.

  "Yeah, my calendar has changed as of a couple minutes ago. Jason King will be taking my meetings today. I'm going in there…" Nic pointed to his door, "…and dropping dead on my couch. I do not want to be disturbed for any reason. At all. Period. What day is it, by the way?"

  "Friday, sir."

  "Right." Jason had said something about it being Friday, hadn't he? Nic stared at his tablet to confirm the date. "I think that's a record. No sleep in…" Shit, the last time he slept through the night was Tuesday, so it was… hell… it was too hard to figure out. "…a long time. Even if the zombie apocalypse happens, I don't want anyone to wake me up and tell me. Got it?" Which was really something, because being in the middle of that would be a major league thrill ride. But right now, the only thing he wanted was sleep.

  The woman blinked at him and nodded before she lifted her hand, halting his turn. "Do you want me to wake you up before I go, and what if one of the Kings asks for you?"

  Not the brightest bulb in the pack was she? Nic rubbed his eyes. It felt as if the entire Jersey shore lodged itself between his eyelids and eyeballs. He rubbed those poor tired bastards so he didn't have to look at the Della the Double Ditz. Hell, that wasn't fair, but right now he didn't care. He wanted to go to sleep. Finally, he blinked his vision back to normal and shook his head. "Jason King told me to get lost. If he comes looking for me, the world has ended, and the zombies are storming the facility. You have my permission to wake me if you actually see a zombie in person. There is no other reason on this earth that you should go near that door. Understand?"

  "Yes, sir." The little brunette gave him a wan smile.

  "Awesome. Good night." Nic turned on his heel and made it to his office five steps later. His jacket got tossed toward the coat rack. He had his shirt sleeves unbuttoned, his tie, belt, and shoes off in less than thirty seconds. He hit the remote dimming the lights in his office before he flopped face first into the Italian leather couch that occupied the far wall of his office. He'd slept many hours on the thing and knew it like a lover. He pushed into the cushions at the back of the sofa and unabashedly snuggled in. His messages could wait, especially the one from his mother. Nic took a deep breath and slowly exhaled, letting his body relax into oblivion.

  Jade walked down the halls of Guardian noting the subtle changes in the building and the lack of familiar faces. Jared had told her not to show up today or he'd put her on admin duty tracking down some of the leads she uncovered while living at the meth complex. Bold threat, but having her on admin duty could bring Guardian to its knees. Hell, the last time Jewell left her unattended with her computer system she'd fried a server. No, a processor. And that event was just one of many she could list. No, admin anything wasn't her forte. She knew her limits, and so did her brother. She was bored. To tears. Well, not really tears because big girls don't cry and all that shit.

  She'd hung out with the twins last night, enjoying a bottle of Gentleman Jack and some honest communication with two men she respected and admired. The twins were funny, brilliant and fucking uber sexy. Could she jump in the sack with them? Hell, yeah, but that would ruin the connection she had with them. She honestly liked the twins. Having sex with them would fuck that up, and she'd be damned if her over-excited libido would take them away from her. Jade knew how she rolled. Fuck them hard and walk away. One and done with little to no chance of repeat hook-ups. She was allergic to commitment. That shit made her break out in hives and itch. Splotches were not in her future. Ever. Besides, she wasn't willing to walk away from Dixon and Drake a/k/a Double D, so she would never get physically involved with them.

  Jade stopped in the hall and rubbed her thigh above her bad knee. The joint still ached like a mother, and it swelled when she was on it too long, so no clubbing for a while. Ha, as if. Dancing wasn't what was on her mind. Unless it was a tango between the sheets. Not that she'd been able to act on what was front and center in her thoughts because her mom had flown into town. Which was cool. Her mom filled her in on all the shit that had happened while she was undercover. They had a great visit, but Jade felt invigorated by being back at Guardian, by simply being in the building. Family was great, but she'd had an oversized portion of brothers, friends, and mothering in the last three days. Now she wanted to find something else that she hadn't had in over a year. She'd dropped her mom off at Jared's about two hours ago to find out Jared had rolled in after almost three days of around the clock work, and he was dead to the world. Her mom and Christian made plans to work at the youth center Christian had started. Not a good fit for her. It wasn't a secret that she didn't like kids, and man, could those little humans tell it. Kids could see shit adults couldn't. They freaked her out. How her mom raised eight kids was beyond her. Jade shivered as a chill ran up and down her spine. Take her nephews for example. Her nephews were cool as long as the parental units were around giving her no opportunity to fuck them up somehow. Because she would, it was a foregone conclusion. Jade plus little humans equaled a disaster waiting to happen. No, she'd work for Christian's cause in other ways. Like donating a healthy chunk of change to help the kids out.

  With Jared down for the count, that meant Nic was in charge. Which was totes cool with her. She hadn't spent much time around him, but if Jared, Jason, and Gabriel liked him enough to hire him, she assume the man was solid until he proved himself otherwise. At least he was really pretty to look at. The man was a jungle gym she'd wait in line to play on. She laughed to herself. If you believed the rumors, she probably would have to wait in line, because the man was popular with the women. Another reason the handsome hunk of man intrigued her.

  She pushed open one of the glass doors to Nic's office. His assistant was on the phone with her back to the door, one foot on the ground and one foot tucked under her as she swiveled back and forth.

  "I know! So I told her that there was no way. I mean can you imagine? As if that would happen."

  Jade crossed her arms and leaned back against the doorframe waiting for the woman to turn around and see her. Far be it from her to stymie someone's gossip time, even if it was in the middle of the workday.

  "Seriously, he is to-die-for dreamy! He doesn't have much of a personality, though. I mean he showed up here looking like he'd lived in his suit and then had the audacity to tell me not to come into his office… Oh, you know I did! I snuck in a bit ago, and he was so sound asleep he was drooling. I thought all these guys were supposed to be like ninjas and stuff. What? No, didn't even stir."

  Jade straightened and examined Nic's office door. Fu
ck, if the man worked the same hours that Jared had worked, he should be at home asleep, not trying to rest on an office couch. Obviously not.

  "I would have taken a picture on my phone, but you know how it goes with all the security around here. They always catch me when I 'accidentally' forget and try to bring it in. So many good-looking guys. My Instagram and Snapchat followers would like double, you know? So, I grabbed his tablet, took a picture and emailed it to my account. What? Of course, I deleted it off his tablet. What do you think I am, stupid? Here let me forward it to you." The assistant worked her keyboard and laughed.

  Jade put her hands on her hips and glared at the little bitch. The woman pushed her chair around and froze for a heartbeat before she tried to cover up her bullshit. "I'm sorry sir, I'll have to get back to you on that." She hung up the phone, crossed her hands on the desk, and assumed an air of superiority. "May I help you?"

  Jade threw back her head and laughed because the little twerp had no idea what was about to drop on her. A pile of shit was falling fast. "Oh girlfriend, you're out of here. As of now. Get your shit and report to HR."

  "I have no idea who you think you are…"

  "Who I am, is the woman who overheard you telling whoever was on the other end of that phone call that you defied your boss's orders. You snuck into his office after he told you not to disturb him aaand dared to take a picture of the man while he was asleep."

  "You can't prove any of that. Who are you?"

  Jade stalked forward and picked up the phone. She pounded out her sister's extension and put the phone on speaker. "Hey, Jewell, hook me up will ya?"

  "You got it sweets, whacha need?"

  "Two things. There was a photo sent from Nic's tablet to an undisclosed email address. Can you pull that photo, capture the email address and retract the message and attachment?"

  "Amateur hour. Consider it done. Give me something challenging would you?"