Page 63 of Disavowed

Neither Jack nor Daisy knew it yet, but inside a month Jack would be locked up in jail facing murder charges along with his dirtbag buddy, Smith. Even if Jack wasn’t a hired killer there would never be a future for him with Daisy. Because there was no way she had the hots for the guy.

Not when she’d been on the verge of making love with me in her office.

She held up her bandaged finger. “I was careless de-thorning roses. Dom was giving me first aid.”

“You okay?” Jack’s eyes softened on her, but when he shot Dom another look they were still hard with warning, and he understood the message plain as day: stay the fuck away from her.

“The truck needs to be swept out,” Jack said to him, although it was more of an order. “Parked it down the street. Some asshole’s blocking the alleyway.”

“I’ll take care of it.” As he brushed past Jack he could practically feel the bolts of anger radiating from the guy.

Fifteen minutes later, he’d swept out the truck and emptied the plant debris and soil into a nearby dumpster. He was about to lock the doors when Jack grabbed him by the shirt, shoving him roughly against the truck.

“You moving in on my girl?” he snarled.

Resisting the urge to take Jack’s ass to the ground, Dom took a deep breath. “I don’t know what you think you saw. I was only helping her out with her cut.”

“By giving her a back massage?” Jack bared his teeth, crowding even more into Dom’s personal space.

“She was tense and upset.”

Jack continued glaring at him, as if sizing up the veracity of his answers. A muscle in his jaw ticked, and for a moment he thought it still might come to blows. “So long as we understand each other.”

“We do.” Dom nodded, finally sensing the other man’s anger diminishing.

Jack released Dom’s shirt and backed away. “Last night didn’t go the way I’d hoped, so when I saw you two together, I just assumed…”

He shrugged “Forget it. Guess I’d want to punch out any guy I thought was moving in on my territory.” And if anyone threatened Daisy, he’d go ballistic.

Jack continued glaring at him a moment longer before nodding subtly. “Good deal. Let’s talk business” He glanced first over Dom’s shoulder, then his own. “I met with Smith at the Piazza.”

His muscles tightened. “Fuck, I shoulda been there.”

Jack shook his head. “No, you shouldn’t have. Until this goes down, you need to stay away from Smith. I got no love for the guy, but he hates you. I mean he seriously hates you.”

“Yeah, no shit.” Putting the silver bracelets on Smith would give him almost as much pleasure as locking up the boss. “I only just met him, so what’s his fucking problem?”

“Hell, I don’t know.” Jack looked over his shoulder again. “Except that he did hard time in Leavenworth. That’s enough to turn anyone into an asshole.”

Dom gave a knowing snort. He wasn’t surprised to hear that Smith got half his training in one of the most violent federal pens in the country. He’d have to find a way to snap a shot of the guy and run it through photo recognition.

“Do we need to do any recon tonight?” he asked, fishing to find out what Jack was doing now that his hot date got squashed.

Jack shook his head. “The boss doesn’t want us doing anything else until tomorrow.”

He attached the heavy padlock to the truck’s doors. “What about the guns? Are they inside already?”

“Dunno. Like I said, that’s Smith’s job. I can’t stand the guy, but he’ll come through.”

He knitted his brows. “So Smith’s the only one who will know where they are until right before this goes down?” This was bad. If he didn’t know where they were, there’d be no chance of disabling them.

Jack wore an equally disgusted look. “I know that’s fucked up, but we got no say in it. The boss assigned each of us specific duties. That one went to Smith, and he won’t tell me anything until tomorrow.”

As he followed Jack back to the shop a sense of foreboding prickled his skin. Usually, when he worked undercover he pretty much knew how things would play out because he was the one orchestrating the whole thing. Not this time. Being in the dark was a dangerous thing on a UC op, and he didn’t like it. There were too many unknowns, and it was putting him seriously on edge.

Jack he could handle. But his gut told him Smith was a loose cannon with the fuse already lit.

Chapter Seventeen