Renegade (Elite Ops 5)

"Plenty," he was told. "Eddie liked to gamble too much. He kept it quiet, always did, but he had a problem with it, and he wasn't very lucky."

"Did he ask you for money?"

Gainard breathed out heavily at the question. "Eddie and I had an understanding from college that he would never ask me for money. He wasted his cash, and I struggled to get through on part-time jobs and scholarships. He knew better than to hit me up. He broke that rule a few months ago when I was in town, though. When I wouldn't give it to him, he threatened to go to a loan shark we knew, Martin Kefler. I tried to talk him out of it, I hoped I had, but he never mentioned it again."

"Did he say why he needed the money?" Nik asked.

Steve's expression hardened as he shook his head. "I didn't want to know. You have to understand Eddie Foreman, Mr. Steele. Loan him a dollar and before you knew it he owed you more than he could ever pay. He lost a lot of friends like that in college. I wasn't going to be one of them."

"The loan shark, you say you know him?" Nik was getting damned tired of the other man glancing at Mikayla with that edge of hunger in his eyes. Gainard was acting like a fucking animal on the prowl.

"Martin Kefler." Gainard nodded. "He's a bookie, a pimp, and a loan shark. Jack of all illegal trades." He grimaced. "Another college acquaintance, though I'm certain Martin didn't graduate from those expensive business courses his crime family put him through. Eddie got himself in a lot of trouble with Kefler several years back as well. He managed to pay him off, but not before he acquired a few broken ribs and a nice little stay in the hospital."

"Isn't Kefler the same man Maddix Nelson nearly lost the property the building site is on to?" Mikayla asked then. "I remember something about his almost being outbid on the property?"

Gainard nodded. "The property owner had that parcel up for auction rather than placing a price on it. He wanted a quick sell. Kefler wanted it, but I guess Maddix wanted it worse. Kefler wasn't happy when he lost it."

"What interest did he have in it?" Nik probed, wondering why a bookie would bother to bid on the property.

"It's a prime location," Steve informed him. "The owner wasn't real smart about selling it, but it was my understanding he had to sell fast. Kefler and Nelson both wanted it, but from what I understand Kefler didn't get notice of Nelson's last bid, for whatever reason. When he didn't come back with another offer, Nelson walked off with the property."

"What about Reed Holbrook?" Since the bastard was so full of information, Nik decided to probe further.

Gainard frowned thoughtfully as he rubbed at his jaw. "He owns a construction 183

company in D.C. I don't know him as well; I haven't dealt with him as much. His business practices have been questioned several times, though. He's a shark. One of the worst if rumor can be believed. But that's about all I know about him." Gainard's gaze slid back to Mikayla as she sipped her coffee. His eyes were locked on her lips, lips still just slightly kiss swollen from her exchange with Nik at the Foreman home.

The other man knew that redness for what it was. His gaze came back to Nik, a hint of anger in it.

Nik smiled. A slow, possessive curve of his lips as he stared back at the other man knowingly. He had what Gainard wanted, what the other man hadn't been able to possess, and if Nik was a betting man, he would bet Gainard had known about Mikayla's lover before he ever hit town.

A small part of Nik felt damned sorry for the other man, though. Nik knew pure male fury would have been eating him alive if Mikayla were sitting here in front of him with a lover. There would be no way in hell Nik could be civilized enough to actually carry on a conversation with the other man.

"Thank you for your time, Mr. Gainard." Nik nodded as he rose to leave.

"Before we leave, I need to use the ladies' room," Mikayla announced as she rose as well and glanced at the other man. "Do you mind, Steve?"

"You know where it is, sweetheart." Gainard nodded, his tone softening, his look almost fucking lovesick. Strike two, son of a bitch, Nik thought as his fingers curled into fists.

"I'll meet you in the foyer," she told Nik as she moved through the kitchen to the far entrance and into another hall.

Silence filled the void as Nik followed Gainard to the foyer.

"She's a wonderful woman; I hope you know that," the other man said somberly after several minutes went by. "Don't break her heart." The general consensus was that Nik was going to break her heart. He wondered if anyone knew what it would do to him to walk away.

"And if I do?" Nik bit out with an edge of anger.

"She doesn't deserve it." Steve shook his head. "But if you do, I'll be here, Steele, and I'll help her repair it. Is that what you want?"

Strike three, but Nik was damned if he could hit the bastard. He wanted to. The need to strike out and eliminate any competition raged inside him.

"What I want is none of your business," Nik informed him.

"What you do to her is," Gainard growled back. "I heard about you before I ever stepped foot back in America, and I had you checked out, Steele. Does Mikayla know you're no more than a damned mercenary? A fucking expensive gun for hire? Why don't you hurry up, finish your job here, and get the hell out of her life. She doesn't need you messing it up."

Hell, he was going to end up pissing Mikayla off, Nik could feel it, because he was going to take this bastard's head off his shoulders.

The problem was, Gainard might not have all his information correct, but he was right in the fact that Mikayla didn't need the instability in her life that Nik would bring. He knew that. He wasn't trying to deny it. But having it thrown in his face was only pissing him off.