So they ate.

Now they were back at the motel in the middle of nowhere that was so in the middle of nowhere and so nothing it cost only twenty bucks a night.

Not what she’d worked her ass off her whole goddamned life to have.

He opened the door.

It didn’t happen until they were both through.

When the light came on, with the amount of guns on them, they didn’t move as the door swung shut behind them.

Her eyes were pinned to the man sitting on the edge of the bed, a woman standing next to him, her hand on his shoulder.

Benito Valenzuela and his woman, Camilla Turnbull.

Fuck.

Her man made a move at her side.

Stupid. So fucking stupid.

But he loved her.

There it was. Proof.

Love made you stupid.

And in Gill’s case, dead.

The shot only gave a sharp buzz. She felt the spatter hit her face but all she allowed herself was a flinch as he fell to the floor at her side.

Gone, now.

Everything.

Gone.

Her heart shriveled inside her.

Fucking shit, maybe in all her bitching, Liv had been right.

“You were simply affecting profit margins,” Valenzuela noted like a member of his crew had not just shot the man she loved in the face. “Which was annoying and needed to be dealt with.” He shook his head. “This business after what happened with your sister. Quite the nuisance.”

He said no more, just continued to shake his head.

“You burned her in her bed,” Georgia hissed.

“For many years, you haven’t been stupid. What’s turned you stupid now, Georgia?” Valenzuela asked.

“We have one enemy,” she returned. “You.”

“And as that enemy, you know me. You know it’s bad business to eliminate something that’s not a threat.” He tipped his head sharply to the side. “Worse business if eliminating that non-threat suddenly makes me the enemy of someone who gives not one shit about me and,” he leaned slightly forward, “I don’t want them to.”

“You don’t know your enemy either, obviously, since I gave a shit about you,” she snapped. “We could have made a deal.”

His eyes turned shrewd. “I was talking about Sebring.”

“Knight has dick to do with this,” she retorted.

“That’s not the Sebring I mean.”

All over her body, her skin got tight.

“Nick’s unhappy,” Valenzuela said softly.

“I don’t give a fuck about Nick,” she shot back.

But it was a lie and they both knew it.

“That’s your mistake,” he whispered, standing. “Pretending that’s true, that’s been your mistake for years.”

She felt her lip curl. “He’ll be taken care of.”

“Such bravado,” Valenzuela muttered.

That was when every inch of her skin got cold.

“You’ve blown up all my labs, taken out or turned all our boys, Leary’s running one of your fucking crews.” Saliva filling her mouth, she swung an arm down to the body prone on the floor at her side, indicating a termination of her resources, the finality of which Valenzuela was sure not to have missed. “You don’t eliminate something that’s not a threat,” she reminded him.

Valenzuela settled in like he was about to tell a tale and spoke again.

“You see, Georgia, I have a rather tenacious adversary. I’ll need patience in dealing with them, and in the meantime, I need nothing further to take my attention. I also need not to damage relations with those who keep out of my way. I’m afraid, for you, it’s important for me to keep the Sebring brothers happy.”

“So you’re telling me, Nick playing my sister…what? He’s got some guilt and he wants me dead because pissing you off got her dead? So to make him happy you’re gonna take me out even though because of you I’ve got nothing?”

He shook his head. “Nick doesn’t want you dead. He wants you neutralized.”

So the invisible Nick Sebring was communicating his wishes.

Fucking fucker.

She should have taken care of him first. Unfortunately that had not been a viable option, considering at the time the House of Shade wasn’t strong enough to withstand the onslaught from Knight Sebring and Marcus Sloan if she had.

Then he played her sister and when shit got hot for him, he disappeared.

Months…nothing.

Now…

Fuck.

She leaned back slightly and crossed her arms on her chest, drawling acidly, “Congratulations. Job done.”

“It’s me who wants you dead,” Valenzuela stated.

Georgia Shade froze solid.

“You’ve cost me money. You’ve cost me time. You’ve cost me assets. All of that has value. I don’t like losing things I value, Georgia,” Valenzuela went on.

She stared at him, giving all she had to keeping her breathing even. She’d lost everything to this motherfucker. She was goddamned going to keep her dignity.

“But because he loves your sister, Sebring wants you neutralized, which means breathing,” Valenzuela continued.

She let out a heavy breath, saying, “He didn’t love my sister. He played my sister.”

“He seems to be going far out of his way for a woman he’s playing with.”

“Then he’s going in the wrong direction since, because of you, there’s no sister to love.”

Valenzuela’s knowing smile sliced through her sternum all the way up her gullet.

A knowing smile.

What did he know?

He loves your sister.

Loves.