Flynn's Kiss (Disarmed & Dangerous) (15 page)

Simple curiosity got the better of him, and although he knew the last person he should ask was Frankie, he could no longer resist.

“Why?”

Frankie took it as an invitation and shuffled his wide backside onto the bench, moving Flynn along.

“Because Jack heard Liberty tell Kate sex with you was ‘magnificent.’”

“No shit.”

“None.”

“Does everyone know?”

Frankie glanced along the aisle to see where Jacob had disappeared to.

“Everyone over the age of eighteen.”

The cheerful warmth in his belly rolled up and over his chest and tempted a wide grin from him.

“When did she say this?”

“After you walked her home from Jack and Kate’s party.”

“Oh!”

He chewed the side of his cheek. She may not have changed her view about how good sex with him was, but she certainly had applied the brakes on any further development in that respect.

Sex with Liberty was magnificent for him, too, but what she needed he couldn’t give her. He acknowledged it wasn’t as though she was asking him for a ring on her finger or even any kind of commitment. She simply wanted him to kiss her and he was unable to.

“Uncle Flynn, you never said what color you wanted.”

Jacob staggered under the weight of a stack of boxes, and Frankie leaped to his feet to assist.

“Brown.”

“Oh.” Jacob sighed dramatically, stacked all the boxes on the floor except two, which he offered to Flynn.

“Those.” Flynn pointed. He slid the boots onto his feet and grunted as they fit to perfection. He’d never managed to get a pair of boots anywhere in the world to fit as well as the ones he could get from Frankie’s.

“Good. I’ll have them.”

“You don’t want some patterned ones to go to line dancing, like Liberty’s?”

Frankie snorted as Flynn growled at his nephew.

“No, I do not. Whoever made them should be shot. Come to think of it, so should the person who made those goddamned hats.”

“Liberty likes them,” Jacob defended, drawing a smile from both men.

“Yeah, well Liberty has peculiar taste.”

“I don’t think so. Besides, I think she would really prefer this one.” Jacob nodded at the men’s section of hats. Serious Stetsons. Idle curiosity made Flynn wonder.

“Which one?”

Jacob wandered over, picked a hat from one of the stands, and handed it to Flynn. “Here.”

Surprised, Flynn stared at the soft silver grey of the Stetson, ran his finger across the velvety rim, and understood why the woman would want such a hat. Where it lacked vibrancy and color, it made up for it in quality and texture.

“She does the same thing every time she comes in.” Jacob nodded as Flynn’s fingertips skimmed over the hat.

“Why hasn’t she bought it?”

“It doesn’t fit.”

“She could have one specially made.”

“She said she wouldn’t because it would cost too much and she’d be too tempted to have amethyst Conchos around the hatband to bring out the tint of heather in the hat and then it would cost even more.”

Frankie snorted again and rubbed the back of his neck.

“Not as if Liberty doesn’t have plenty of money.”

“She does?” And Flynn realized just how little he knew about the woman he’d been having sex with and how willing he was to listen to gossip about her.

“Sure.” Jacob’s youthful enthusiasm had him butting in on his employer’s conversation once more. “She buys stuff, sends it to her friends, she says.”

“Friends?”

“Yeah, Liberty has friends all over the world.”

“She sure does attract people easily. She’s a really nice lady, is Liberty, always seems to have the time of day to make polite conversation. Never puts anyone down.” Frankie and Jacob both nodded sagely and Flynn stood, deciding it was time to get out of there before they sainted her.

“I noticed a little too much attraction from Buddy.” Frankie rubbed the end of his nose, gave a quick sideways glance at Jacob, and jiggled his eyebrows at Flynn in a supposedly secret sign. “If you know what I mean.”

“Yeah. I saw.” Oblivious to the secret signage, Jacob nodded in the direction of the store room. “He grabbed her from behind and tried to push her in there, but the door was locked and he saw me coming.” Jacob flushed up. “He had an arm around her waist and his hand was on her…” Jacob did a quick scan up and down the aisles. “Tit. I wanted to hit him, but Liberty said she would rather deal with him herself.”

Frankie exchanged a look with him as Flynn’s temper soared. He was going to kill the bastard himself. It would be a long, slow death. Probably roast him over a pit till his skin crisped and burned.

“I hadn’t heard about it, Jacob. When did it happen?”

“Just now, before Flynn came in. You were taking delivery out back.”

“Well then. It’s not the first time, nor is she the first woman he’s caused trouble for. Perhaps I need to have a quiet word with Ethan and Jack.” Frankie glanced at the kid. “You keep quiet about this, you hear. Let the sheriff deal with Buddy. Liberty’s not to hear about it in case it upsets her.”

Flynn handed the boots back to Jacob, barely able to keep a grip on his fury. He needed to find Buddy, kill him quietly.

Frankie studied him. “That goes for you too, Flynn. Let Jack and Ethan deal with Buddy.”

Flynn gave a stiff nod and clapped Frankie on the shoulder.

“Sure. If they find him first, they can have his body. If he touches my woman again, he’s dead meat, pal.”

•●•

He pulled his battered old truck up outside Kate and Jack’s house and decided if Liberty didn’t want to be found, then she should not have rented such a conspicuously ugly little car.

He took a moment to compose himself. He didn’t want to walk in firing on all cylinders and frighten the hell out of the delicate little woman. He rubbed his face and deep-breathed to ensure his temper was completely under control before he made his way to the open door of the kitchen.

At the first sight of Liberty’s ashen face and huge eyes, the leash on his temper snapped.

“Why the fuck didn’t you tell me what Buddy did? I would have fucking killed him for you.”

“Flynn. Language.”

She raised shaking fingers to her mouth and flicked her gaze toward Kate’s baby lying on a play mat on the floor.

“I don’t think she’ll understand.”

Then he caught the look in Kate’s eye as she gave him a gimlet stare and raised her eyebrows.

“Flynn—do take a seat.”

“I don’t want…”

“Sit.” At Kate’s sharp command, Flynn grabbed a kitchen chair, slapped his ass into the seat, and placed his hands on his knees. Jesus. The woman was scary.

He cast a quick glance around the room and spotted Jack leaning nonchalantly against the counter at the far end of the kitchen, a mug of coffee in his hand. The long, slow smile said Jack knew the whiplash of Kate’s tongue and was thankful he wasn’t on the receiving end of it.

“Coffee?” His attention shot back to Kate, and he gave a sharp nod. Her eyebrow flickered up and down, and he felt obliged to verbalize his acceptance.

“Yes ma’am, please.”

He caught Liberty’s gaze and realized her lips were twitching while she tried to hide a smile from him. Goddammit, he was shit with women.

“Jack, coffee for Flynn. If you don’t mind.”

“No trouble.” Jack didn’t bother to hide his own grin before he turned his back on the room, and as Flynn watched the big guy’s shoulders shake with laughter, he wondered if Kate would kill him before he could get to Jack. He wouldn’t like to risk it. The woman’s tongue was sharp enough…her scalpel was probably lethal.

Jack handed him a coffee and pulled up his own chair, kicking it back on two legs so he leaned against the wall while he addressed the room in general.

“This is not the first time Buddy has done something like this. It’s not so long ago he cornered Lydia in the stables. Lucky for her, Sam arrived in time. Lucky for Buddy he was too drunk to notice Sam’s fist and didn’t get up from the straw till the bucketful of water hit him. Perhaps we should have got rid of him then, but we put it down to him being a mean drunk. On the whole, he’s normally a good worker.”

Flynn’s blood still ran fast and hot through his system, but he tried to keep a tight lid on it while he watched Liberty twist her fingers together as Jack continued.

“He’s grabbed Liberty three times in all now.”

“Three?” He could barely restrain his fury, but as his gaze met Kate’s, he forced himself to remain seated.

Liberty fidgeted before speaking up. “The first time he’d been drinking, too, but I wouldn’t say he was drunk.” She untangled her fingers and fluttered her neat little hands. “And I wouldn’t necessarily blame him.” A lump formed in Flynn’s chest as Liberty refused to meet his eyes. She shrugged. “I let him walk me to my car. It seemed harmless enough and then ummm…” She glanced around the room, possibly to locate where the sound of grinding teeth was coming from. Flynn sat back, crossed his arms over his chest, and pinned her with a glower as her gaze flitted past his and then back again, her huge eyes wide, her pupil’s pinpricks of shocked reaction. “I invited him to kiss me.”

Flynn leaped out of his chair, tipping it over so it crashed to the floor. The baby let out a terrified wail, and Kate flew across the room to pick her up and comfort her.

“I’m sorry.”

It had been a long time since he’d been made to feel like a naughty schoolboy, but remorse filled his pounding head as he leaned over, uprighted the chair, and sat back down while the baby howled.

Gemma calmed as Kate shushed her, rocking her small body to and fro until the little one’s eyelids fluttered and she slipped off to sleep while the adults sat around in complete silence, holding their breath.

Kate straightened from laying the baby in her stroller and walked directly over to Flynn to poke him with a hard finger in his solar plexus. He didn’t know whether to laugh, cry, or explode with relief.

“Wake my baby again, and I will personally…” She gave him another fast jab and almost had her finger under his ribs. “…carve out your liver and pâté it. Understood?”

The woman would have made a great assassin.

He held his belly and spluttered out a pained laugh.

“Yes, fuck, Kate. Yes.”

She leaned forward, bunched his T-shirt around his neck and gave him one hard knock against the back of the chair. “And don’t swear in front of me again. It really pisses me off. Clear?”

He glanced at Jack’s calm face and knew without a doubt Jack would have to kill him if he upset his wife again. He couldn’t help the wild grin that stretched wide over his face as he gave the other man a manic stare, before returning his attention to his wife.

“Kate, I’m not sure why the British government enlisted your brother into covert operations. If they’d recruited you, they’d rule the world by now.”

Relief swept over him as Kate reached out and scrubbed his hair like he was a little boy, and then gave the end of his nose a sharp flick before she wandered over to the coffeemaker.

But as his gaze swept over Liberty, her tense white face made him stop in his tracks. He brushed his T-shirt off and gave the normally bubbly woman a second glance.

Any kind of violence seemed to worry her. He could see the fear in her eyes. He’d seen it the first day when she’d thought Michael and him were going to come to blows. She’d stepped right into their path, but she’d been terrified.

Buddy must have scared her witless. But Flynn still needed to know why she had been kissing Buddy, because the thought of Liberty kissing another man was enough to make his blood boil.

“So.” He kept his voice soft as he pinned her with his gaze. “When did the kissing of Buddy take place?”

•●•

Flynn’s penetrating stare didn’t worry her. The man could drill holes in lead with his laser blue eyes, and he could pin her to the chair with a simple look. But he didn’t frighten her.

What frightened her was emotions running hot and wild and tempers soaring. Because that was when the fists started to fly and Liberty hated violence. She’d seen too much as a little girl. Foster parents weren’t always perfect, and living in a home with transient personnel and children was never ideal. Liberty’s escape had been her books, her studying, which in turn had earned her more than her fair share of bullying, because what people didn’t understand quite often frightened them, and fear sometimes led to violence.