Page 36 of Winter's End

Sort of.

“Logan.” A startled female voice came from behind me just before I marched into Georgio’s office.

Janet Lindross, mousy librarian wanna-be and double agent detective, looked me up and down with wide eyes as she moved around me into the office space.

“What are you doing here?” she asked carefully, her face not giving a single indication that she had any other connection to me.

She was good, I’d give her that. I’d never have suspected if I hadn’t heard it from Travis myself.

“It’s payday, Janet.” I smiled, showing teeth like the predator I was and held up the envelope in my hands. “Where’s your boss?”

“Downstairs,” she answered smoothly, moving to me with outstretched hands. “I can give that to him.”

I moved the envelope away from her. “Hard no. I’m delivering this personally. Scurry along and let him know I’m here, would you?”

I shooed her away with a condescending smile, truly enjoying that I could treat an FBI agent like shit with no blowback.

Serves the fuckers right.

A flash of annoyance crossed her features before she turned on her heel to leave the room. I settled into a large wing-backed armchair and waited.

I was oddly at ease today. Maybe it was the thrill of knowing I was going to destroy Carson sooner than I’d hoped, or the relief that Hill had come through.

It had nothing to do with the dreams I’d been having about my little vixen of a woman and the trusting way she’d looked at me when I’d visited her in her dressing room. Or the way her naked body begged me to fuck her with another man’s cum dripping down her legs.

I had that imagery on loop since I’d caught her and Chase inmygym.

She fucked him like they were animals rutting. I wanted to tame that panther into a submissive little kitten. But it had nothing to do with my unusual state of calm.

While I was still lying to myself, I also didn’t feel the need to bury myself in a powder keg of blow right now.

Fuck. I’d call Hillary on my drive home for my daily NA call. They were getting less and less frequent, but I hated that I still needed them.

“Hello, Logan.”

Georgio didn’t sound irritated, but he didn’t sound happy to see me either. Good.

“Hi, Georgio.”

I wasted no time, not wanting to be in the man’s presence, or his tempting drug den establishment, any longer. I handed him the envelope and stepped back, as if touching him would taint my skin more than it already was.

“All of it,” I said, “including an additional ten thou in accrued interest.”

He thumbed through the contents, and a shrewd smile took over his face. “Well done. I should have known Stanley’s son would follow through. Did you have to sell a kidney to get this?”

I bristled, but bit my tongue. Now that I didn’t have cocaine saturating my bloodstream, my temper was getting easier to manage. Good fucking thing, because Georgio was intentionally goading me for a reaction.

“I am a man of many means,” I answered smoothly and matched his smile with one of my own. “And I pay my debts. If you need nothing else, I have another appointment to get to.”

His hand snapped out, grabbing my arm. “Just one moment.”

He released me and walked over to his desk, opening a top drawer. With a smug smile, he shuffled the contents around, then walked back towards me. He dropped a small clear baggie of white powder into my palm.

“A gift, to celebrate.” He patted my shoulder with a knowing smirk and beckoned to Janet. The two of them left the room as I held a staring contest with my greatest nemesis.

My mouth turned drier than the desert. Blissful release sat right at my fingertips. Fuck.

Fuck.