July 12, 1939
Her mouth was hungry, her tongue sliding against his. Everything about her was soft and strong and hot, and it was burning him up. Nick had one hand palming her breast and the other gripped her hip. Her skirt was riding up thanks to where her legs were spread with his thigh in between them. Her hips ground down on him as she gave whimpering moans into his mouth. Her fingers tangled in his hair and kept his face pressed against his.
Nick was ready to go. He was hard and straining through his pants and rubbing against her hip. Jesus Christ, he wanted her. He wanted her so bad.
He was considering whether he could drop to his knees and put her thigh over his shoulder and torture her with his tongue, but the last time he tried that in bed, she had cried out loud enough that the recording had surely picked it up. They'd not tried it again after that. But he wanted to. He wanted to drive her wild, bring her to the heights of pleasure and follow her off the edge into oblivion, holding her in his arms as she trembled with her release.
A loud pounding startled them apart, Nick practically leaping back and hitting the bookshelf on the wall opposite where he'd had Jen pressed in their passionate embrace. Jen's eyes were glassy as she blinked them at him. She was panting. So was he.
But she recovered before he did. She smoothed back her hair and straightened her skirt. "Door," she said simply. She turned and hurried down the hall to answer it, leaving Nick to compose himself. The only thing he could think to do was go into the bathroom and wait for his body to calm down enough to be able to talk to people.
His legs were shaky and his whole body still felt buzzing with arousal. His mind was filled only with Jennifer. He wasn't even annoyed that they were interrupted. He couldn't think straight enough to be annoyed. He just wanted to touch her again.
God, he really had it bad. It was just over two weeks since they'd started sleeping together. And in a lot of ways, it was a smart idea. Jen had been right when she said that them trying to suppress their desires for each other would only make everything more difficult. They were able to do the job and to get lost in each other. If anything, having the tension between them relieved had made them even more focused and in sync about work they were doing.
For Nick's part, he knew that he'd never been happier than he had been these last few weeks. He worked with a woman he was madly in love with. He got to live with her and work with her and share everything that a married couple would. Except obviously they weren't actually married. But he had plans of fixing that as soon as they got back to Manhattan and back to their real lives. The FBI said six months. It had been nearly that. They'd be free of the Claybournes soon, Nick knew.
After about a minute, Nick flushed the toilet he hadn't used and washed his hands all the same. He'd recovered just fine. Time to see who was visiting.
"Hey there ya are! What gives?"
Nick was surprised to see Al Supomo sitting at the kitchen table with Jennifer. "Had to hit the head," Nick responded, coming over to sit own with them. "What's going on?"
"We're gettin' close. We've got a lead on Lepke," Supomo said.
"From one of our leads?" Jen asked.
Supomo nodded. "We're closin' in on Kid Twist. He's a Murder Inc. enforcer and he's losin' friends."
Nick hesitated, not wanting to reveal his connection to Kid Twist. He'd not forgotten what Supomo had said before, that Abe Reles—known as Kid Twist—had been responsible for the death of the Shapiro Brothers. There was a part of Nick who still wanted to avenge the death of his childhood friends. Nick had been one of their brothers. But that was the past creeping up on him. He'd spent more than twenty years on the straight and narrow, distancing himself from the life in shadows the Shapiro Brothers had fallen into. They'd been mobsters. And Nick was a cop. He knew where his loyalties lie.
"Do you think you can flip him?"
He was glad Jennifer was the one to ask that.
"We're hoping so. He could go a long way into getting a whole lot of those guys. He's been around a long time. He knows a lot. We could finally start making a dent in organized crime if we can get one of them on our side," Supomo answered.
"What's got the Kid scared? He wouldn't be giving tips to the feds otherwise," Nick reasoned.
Supomo shrugged. "Like I said, he's been around a long time. He's made enemies. I don't think Lucky's people are too happy with him. And Murder Inc. takes out their own all the time."
Nick nodded. "That's what Abe Reles did to the Shapiros."
"Exactly. Now, he's not in your territory here. He's out in Brownsville. We're hoping to get someone out that way and flip him. But he's a strong target. If he comes by your backroom in the next couple weeks, you make sure we know."
Nick frowned and fell quiet. He could feel Jennifer's gaze on him, but he didn't say anything. He couldn't.
"We will," Jen assured Supomo. "Thanks for giving us the heads up. Does this change our timeline at all?"
"Not sure yet," Supomo told them. "Depends how long it takes to make these last couple arrests. We want to keep the backroom open and the recordings going until we know they aren't useful anymore."
"Are we gonna get any warning about when we're being taken out?"
"We'll arrest you. That's how we get rid of the Claybournes. It'll be loud and public. But we probably won't be able to give any heads up," Supomo said. "So just keep doing what you're doing, and keep an eye out for Kid Twist."
He stood up and gave a nod before walking out of the apartment without any further pleasantries. Al Supomo wasn't that kind of guy.
Jen turned to Nick, both of them still sitting at the kitchen table. "Well?" she asked expectantly.
"You heard what Supomo said. We keep doing what we're doing," Nick answered. He hesitated for a moment before leaning in close to whisper in her ear. "How about we finish what we started?"
She didn't answer him. She stood up and took his hand and dragged him into the bedroom. After all, they had to stay quiet.
July 20, 1939
In the week since Supomo let them know that the FBI was closing in on their targets, Jen had noticed a shift. Nick was quieter than usual. And that was saying something. He was a quiet man by nature. But for the first time since they started this, Jen had the feeling that he was hiding something from her.
But at the same time, she could not deny that they were happy. Almost deliriously so. Jen knew she'd never been so happy in her life. She hadn't had the easiest life, but she'd never been too tragic or unhappy. She thought she'd done rather well for the most part. But getting to live this life working with Nick and living with him and loving him, she had come to realize that she had never really known what happiness like this really could be. She'd never felt this way about anyone. She never wanted it to end.
Only the thing was that it would end. And any day now, it seemed. Each day Jennifer woke up wondering whether today would be the day that the FBI arrested the Claybournes. And each night when they went to bed, she was glad that they'd had another day together. But they couldn't go on like this, waiting in limbo without any kind of plan.
With Nick being so quiet and Jennifer content to ignore her problems until she had to face them, she knew that if anything was going to be discussed, she'd have to bring it up. And she knew it was time to face it. There was no telling how much more time they'd have.
"Nick?" she whispered after the lights had turned out that night.
"Yeah?" he answered.
They both rolled over in the bed they shared so they could face each other and speak softly enough to evade the recording equipment. "What's been bothering you?" she asked bluntly.
Nick reached out and brushed her cheek with his fingertips. "I don't want this to end," he said.
She got the sense that the end of their undercover operation was not the only thing bothering him, but since they needed to talk about this, she didn't want to press further about anything else. "What do you think we should do about it?" she asked.
"I'd like to see you again," Nick boldly stated. "As ourselves. When we're done with the Claybournes."
"Might be nice to go out for a drink in Manhattan," she said, agreeing wholeheartedly.
"Not just that, Jen. I…"
"No," she interrupted quickly. "No, don't say anything else. Not yet. Not here."
"Okay," he answered softly. His fingers were still tracing over her face.
She sighed, allowing herself to enjoy his touch. The truth of the matter was that she wanted nothing more than to hear him say that he loved her. That he wanted to be with her. That he wanted to marry her. But they couldn't have that. Not until they were back to being themselves. And there was no telling what might happen between now and then. Their operation was risky. It wasn't usually too dangerous, but the mobsters had guns and sometimes used them. And being undercover, there was always a chance that they'd be discovered and punished by all those criminals they'd been spying on these last months. And what about after the operation ended? When Nick went back to being a homicide detective and Jen went back to being a private eye, would he still want her? Would she still want him? They were in a bubble here, and they only had each other. When they got back out into the real world, things would change. Maybe they'd feel the same. Maybe they wouldn't. But it wasn't fair to either of them to make promises they might not be able to keep. It wasn't fair to Jen to hear the words she wanted to hear from him if they'd be taken away.
"I want to be with you, Jennifer. And when we get out of this, I'm gonna find you," he whispered.
Jen felt herself smile. "Not if I find you first," she murmured in response.
With that, she leaned in to kiss him. It started out gentle and sweet and comforting, but as always, their kiss grew in intensity. And Jen was happy to lie in bed with Nick's mouth on hers and live in the beautiful dream of their future together until reality returned to her in the morning.