No Good Deed by Allison Brennan Page B

taken to ensure the priest would comply. He was tied to a pipe, head down. Defeated. Good. “I need to make sure he understands exactly what he’s supposed to do to save his little lamb.”

 
    CHAPTER TEN
    Nicole fell back onto the sheets, naked, wonderfully sweaty and comfortably sore. She reached over Joseph’s naked chest for the water on the nightstand and drank greedily, then stretched and looked down at her lover. “I love you, Joseph.”
    “I missed you.” He kissed her ear, then her neck, caressing her breasts until she considered staying in bed.
    “You’ve done so well without me, I thought you might not need me anymore,” she teased.
    “Everything is for you, Niki. Everything I do is to make you happy.”
    “You have made me happy.” She brought his hand to her lips and kissed it. “Tobias will be here soon; we should get dressed.”
    “He can wait,” Joseph said. He rolled her over and held her wrists loosely above her head. He kissed her passionately. She’d truly missed his affection while she sat in prison.
    “Yes, he can,” she said. She returned his kiss, then pulled back. “But he’s been reckless and I need to pull him back in line.”
    Joseph’s dark eyes narrowed as he stared at her, his face only inches away. “He had too much freedom. He became arrogant and we lost so much of the ground we gained over the last three years. Longer—all the sacrifices we were forced to make ever since you joined the DEA.”
    “It’s … delicate.” She moved her body against him, hoping to divert Joseph from this conversation. It was complicated, and while Joseph claimed to understand, he truly didn’t. He didn’t have family.
    “I would have killed him for you,” Joseph said.
    “He’s blood, Joseph.” If Tobias didn’t yield to her authority, if he continued to make mistakes, she would have to kill him. She’d do it herself, because he was blood. She’d never allow anyone else to take him down, not even Joseph. “He knows that he screwed up. Now that I’m out, I will control him. I promise, Joseph.”
    Joseph didn’t say anything. He rolled over to his back. She put her head on his chest, needing him to understand her decision, needing to understand why he was so moody—moodier than usual. “Tell me what’s troubling you, baby.”
    “He’s the reason you were found out.”
    “No, Joseph. That was Trejo and Sanchez. They are dead and their organization has been annihilated.”
    “Tobias brought Trejo into the operation.”
    “Yes, but we agreed. At the time, it seemed like the smart decision.”
    “Perhaps.” Joseph sat up and didn’t look at her. Nicole didn’t move. Sometimes it was best to let her lover work out his problems himself. He would always come around to her viewpoint, he would always support her decisions. They’d been together far too long to let one small disagreement come between them.
    “Aside from my arrest, everything else has been moving along according to plan. We had a delay; now we can finish. As soon as we get back the money taken from us, and finish this last big job, we’ll have enough resources to disappear and run our operation from anywhere in the world. Without Toby.”
    When Joseph didn’t answer, she said, “Is there another problem?”
    “The fed doesn’t know anything about our money. If he did, he would have talked.”
    “Someone does.”
    “Who?”
    “When we get Dunbar’s files decoded we’ll have our answers. Has Lyle returned?”
    “No.”
    “I should talk to Tobias about it.”
    She started to get up, but Joseph turned back to her, grabbed her wrist, and pushed her back to the bed. “Make him wait.”
    Nicole stared into Joseph’s dark eyes. This was important to him, she realized, that she choose him and his needs over her cousin.
    She smiled and put her hands on the back of his head, kissed him. “He can wait until fucking morning for all I care.” She bit his bottom lip and Joseph growled.
    “Dear God, I