Full Domain (Nice Guys 3)

“It’s a perfect cut for your young man, and the color will bring out those gorgeous eyes,” Sergio said, his accent thicker this time, causing Aaron to furrow his brow, wondering if Sergio was even truly Italian. “Take a seat here. Let’s get a look at what we’re working with. Would you like to sit close by?”

Okay, the accent turned British, and for some reason, that annoyed Aaron that much more. “No, surprise me. I’m gonna see if I can get a quick wax while you’re working on him,” Kreed said, before reaching down to pat Aaron’s thigh.

Aaron caught his hand, whispering as the stylist turned away. “You’re a douche.”

Kreed’s smile grew brighter and he winked again. “It’s gonna be hard to keep the guys off you when we’re done,” he said loudly, puckering his lips, blowing him an air kiss before walking away. Sergio was back with a comb in hand, a big giant grin in place as his eyes tracked Kreed’s ass in the mirror.

“Oh, he’s something,” Sergio cooed, his accent changing again. Aaron said nothing as his own eyes followed that strut out of the room. He was in so much trouble.

~~~

“It’s about damn time you picked up your damn phone, dickwad,” Mitch barked by way of greeting. The inpatient tone of his friend’s voice made Kreed grin. He’d missed their interactions. They were fluid, very comfortable with each other. Man, he was so going to hate losing that more than he was willing to admit.

“You kiss little Cody Turner with that mouth?” Kreed mocked. Cody was a big guy, bigger than Mitch, actually, and it always made him smile to tease Mitch about his boyfriend’s age. Cody was seven or eight years younger than Mitch, which made joking about robbing the cradle fair game.

“Don’t talk about Cody, just fill me in. Nobody’s answering the fuckin’ phone. I hate that shit.”

“That’s because I was supposed to call and fill you in. I just got somewhere reasonably safe to talk.” Kreed could just tell Mitch and put him out of his misery, but where was the fun in that?

“It sounds like you’re standing on the highway.”

“Well, I’m close to one actually. I had to walk out in the freezing weather to the middle of the parking lot of a salon where Aaron’s getting a makeover,” Kreed explained.

“Okay, that’s weird. I knew you liked all that girly shit, but he does too? That changes my opinion of him a little bit,” Mitch said, snickering.

“Do you wanna know?” Kreed stopped his pacing, looking up as the cloudy sky began to part, the sun peeking through the drab gray of a DC winter day.

“Keep going.”

“Officially, your gaming partner and I are going undercover, and we need you to go to Dallas to keep an eye on your buddy Colt Michaels and his guy. Make sure they aren’t at risk until we can get this thing wrapped up.” Kreed summarized the info and waited for Mitch’s inevitable questions.

After a couple of heartbeats, Mitch responded. “Why? They haven’t had any trouble.”

“For the bureau, it gets Colt covered and you out of their hair. Here’s the unofficial part. I’m almost certain the bad guys are local to DFW and watchin’ everything right now. It puts you with two of their intended victims. Actually, it puts all of you together in the same place. The way I see it, they have to hate you even more now. So if they’re keeping an eye on things like I think they are, you being in Dallas with Michaels would set up a pretty good target close to home. They’ll come out of hiding just to cut you down, especially after everything you did to get in their way. ”

“Okay…” Mitch was silent. Kreed could almost hear the wheels turning in Mitch’s head. “And you’ll catch sight of their plan by being on the inside. Is it a done deal, getting you two on the inside?”

“Close to. As done as anything can be. It’s a solid plan or I wouldn’t be asking you to put yourself or them out there like that,” Kreed added. Mitch had always been balls to the wall, but now that he had Cody to consider, his partner was a little more cautious. It was kind of weird.

“I fucking know you wouldn’t. I’ve gotta tell Cody,” Mitch barked back.

“Of course, it’ll be hard to be everywhere by yourself. He needs to be prepared. And there’s another side benefit. You’ll be close if I need you or vice versa,” Kreed added, laying it all out there.

“Huh, so you’re working this deal like you normally do. I bet they even fucking think this was their idea.” Mitch knew him too well; No need for Kreed to reply to that statement. “And this part’s just between me and you?”

“Yeah, I haven’t said a word to anyone else. I think Skinner suspects it, but it was never spoken.”

“Okay, so you’ll be close to me?” Mitch asked.

“Reasonably, but you’ll have to be on your A-game. There’s five—now six—people that know Stuart and I are goin’ in undercover. Who knows who we can trust out of any of ’em? And honestly, it doesn’t matter. Same philosophy applies. I think even if someone on the inside is part of the problem, you, Cody, and Michaels being in the same location will be too much temptation. They’ll have to be drawn out. If I don’t get ’em, you will.” Kreed dropped his head and closed his eyes, praying the outcome would turn out as simple as that sounded. He had to trust Mitch as well as himself that they could keep everyone safe from harm. It was a lot to ask.

“We’ll head out right now,” Mitch finally said.

“Keep me posted, but keep it secure, Knox, and watch yourself.” Kreed was serious about that. “We’re heading that way in a couple of hours.”

“Yeah, you got yourself out of the ass kickin’ I planned for you the next time I saw you.” Mitch chuckled.

“I told you to trust my ass. I had to get everybody working together under the guise of it being their idea,” Kreed responded. He knew Mitch must have gone through hell being forced to sit back and wait.