Queen of Hearts (18 page)

My head spun. “Come again?”

“With everything going on with his father, he’s in pretty deep with all this legal bullshit, which I’m sure you know all about. He said he looked into me and my career and felt that I’d be the best to take this on. I’m not sure why. I usually handle messy divorces.”

I grimaced and gave her a baleful look. “What the fuck is he up to?”

She sighed, standing and motioning toward the kitchen. “This calls for wine. You want some?”

I shook my head and bit down on my lip nervously. “I’ll just have some water, with lemon if you have it.”

She disappeared into the kitchen, and I had to fight the urge to go for my phone and call Flynn out of his stupid poker game to bitch him out. What the hell was he thinking interfering with my friendship with Pamela? There was no telling what he had up his sleeve. I wanted to give him a swift kick in the nuts and then wait until he recovered to do it again. Harder.

She returned with my water and her wine and took a seat, her gaze unrelenting. My knee bounced, and I tapped my fingers against the arm of her couch.

“First of all, I thought Alonzo Davidson was his lawyer. Why would he need a new one? Alonzo told me they’ve known each other a long time.”

Shrugging, she took a long gulp from her wine and placed the glass down on the coffee table in front of her. “How do you know Alonzo Davidson?”

I gave her an incredulous look.

“I see. Yeah, well, there’s your reason. Flynn’s ego.”

Rolling my eyes, I shifted so I could sit back against the couch. “That’s ridiculous.
He’s
ridiculous.”

She laughed, obviously amused by my not so funny situation. “I have to say. He’s quite a character. Charming. Funny.”

I almost choked on my water. “You have a crush on him or something? I’m livid here. I’m ready to kill him. You have no idea.”

“Look, Jayne. This is a heap of shit. I have no idea how he’s even holding it together and handling all of this. His dad is in a lot of trouble, and the fact that he’s disappeared is not helping things. Flynn could take the brunt of this if we don’t get this situated.”

“I don’t know anything!” I cried. “He tells me nothing! He said it was being taken care of and that I had nothing to worry about. Pamela, if he’s in trouble, I need to know everything. Damn him!”

I stood and began to pace the room. My night was getting worse and worse. I knew something was going down. I just
knew
it. I felt like the biggest idiot on the planet for falling for his shit again. So much for no more lies.

“Jayne, calm down. Listen, he is probably only trying to protect you, and I just fucked up in a very big way by talking to you about this. I told him it was a bad idea. Fuck!”

I turned around quickly and pointed at her. “No,” I said fiercely. “This is not your fault. You know what? He knew! He
knew
you’d tell me! He’s just a chicken-shit coward and couldn’t tell me himself. That’s just like him... what do I even see in that man?!”

I continued to ramble like a crazy person. “I don’t see shit. I mean, I do. My eyes are full of him, all broody and gorgeous, and that smile. It’s that smile that breaks me, you know what I mean? Don’t get me started on his dick. I am literally addicted to it. I can’t help myself and I turn into this stupid, stupid woman that can’t control herself. My legs just fall open like I’m paralyzed. I just see that thing, and I lose all coherent thought. That’s not normal, is it? I mean, do you even understand?”

She had a bemused smile on her face when I finally stopped to face her. “Actually, no. I’ve never been real fond of dicks, but I do get the appeal of that smile.”

I grabbed at my hair and cursed, falling against the couch again. “What the hell? Why? Why can’t I just catch a break?”

I was on the verge of tears. I think the only thing stopping them was the rage.

“Jayne, he’s doing all he can. I’m sure he was planning on telling you in his own time. Or maybe you’re right—he left the dirty work up to me. Maybe that’s why he told me that the two of you were back together.”

The doorbell rang, and we both jumped. “Pizza. Just in time. I need to eat grease and drink booze more than I did before you got here.”

~~***~~

I
ended up staying much longer than I expected to, and drinking a lot more, too. Pamela managed to calm me down, but I could tell she was just as sketchy about Flynn as I was. When my phone started chiming at two in the morning, we both knew who it was. I really wanted to make him sweat—I was that pissed. Even drunk, I knew that was a bad idea, so I answered.

“What?” I snapped into the phone.

“Where are you? I just spoke with Vince, and he said he sent you home hours ago. More than five hours ago.”

I rolled my eyes and drunkenly rolled over onto my stomach as I held the phone to my ear. “Yeah, well I don’t take orders from big fat liars who lie. I’m with Pamela. She’s my friend, and she tells me the truth.”

“Shit,” he spat. “I’ll be there in thirty minutes. Be ready.”

The dial tone hummed in my ear, and I pulled the phone away and stared at it. “He hung up on me! He’s coming here!”

She jumped out of her chair, startled. “How does he know?”

“Oh, he probably had me chipped in my sleep, the bastard.”

It wasn’t an unreasonable thought. He managed to find me in a tiny town in freaking Oklahoma. He had no boundaries.

“You need to stay calm and talk to him. Give him a chance to explain before you go off on him. Be an adult. We talked about this.”

We had talked about that. For hours. I’d never met a person so smart in my life. She had a way of breaking things down that just clicked. I was new to this relationship bullshit, and in the back of my mind, I was trying to come up with any excuse I could to make it fall apart and blame it on him. It was the frightened girl in me. I didn’t listen, and I had a shitty temper. Putting that all in perspective, even being drunk, was easy with her in my ear.

Apparently, she’d also become a card-carrying member of the Flynn Maguire fan club, and she wanted me to become president. Putting my anger to the side and giving him the chance to explain was a step I’d skipped before. I’d run away, and I wanted to do the same thing when I heard her tell me he was in trouble. My gut twisted with grief just thinking about it. Trying to keep me safe from the trouble was understandable, but I’d begged him to make me his full partner, and he’d demoted me before I had the chance to prove myself.

That was going to change. It was ultimatum time.

I
didn’t remember Flynn showing up to pick me up from Pamela’s, and I didn’t wake up the next day until well after noon. Needless to say, when I did wake up, things were tense and uncomfortable. He surpassed me in the pissed-off position, but that didn’t mean I was letting him off the hook. He could be mad at me for disobeying his freaking orders, but being lied to trumped all.

We sat across the table from each other in silence as we ate breakfast he’d had room service bring up. I could hardly stand to eat anything, but I tried to avoid the imminent conversation by focusing on tearing a croissant into fifty little pieces.

“I hired Pamela because you trust her. If you trust her, then she has to be the most trustworthy person I could find. I need someone I can trust to handle this, Jayne.”

I answered without looking up at him. “I’m not mad because you hired Pamela—but that’s another conversation.”

His fork clanked as it hit the plate, and I heard him sigh. “The casino is clean. The books are legit and always have been. I told you that.”

“Mmm hmm,” I hummed. “So you’ve told me. What I’m worried about is the stuff you’re keeping from me.
For my own good
, I’m sure.”

Slamming his palm against the table, he stood and moved to the other side of the table to stand in front of me. He grabbed my chin and pulled my face upward so my eyes met his. “There’s nothing you can do to fix it, so there’s no reason for you to get involved. I don’t need my dad’s thugs sniffing around you, thinking you’re setting them up. I want you to stay out of sight so they leave you alone. It’s the only way to keep you safe. You could bring my dad down, and if he gets wind of you getting involved with this, he’ll take you out the same way he did with your dad. He makes very few mistakes, and letting you get out alive was one of them. Trust me—if he had the chance, he’d have you killed.”

“Was that so hard,” I whispered. “Was it so hard to just tell me what I already expected? I can handle it, Flynn. I half expected him to kill me when he had my father. I’m scared, yes, but knowing that I need to be careful is going to help keep me alive. Living in this fantasy world you’ve decided to create for me is a joke. I’m not a child. I think you forget who I am and where I come from. This isn’t the first time I’ve had to worry about some asshole trying to kill me.”

His fingers gripped my face harder, and he brought his lips closer to mine. “But this will be the last time. That’s what I’m trying to do. I can’t even think about something happening to you. The thought alone kills me.”

He pressed his lips against mine firmly, and his tongue swept across my mouth. “I will fucking kill him myself to keep you safe. If I knew where he was, I would go to him just to make sure he was gone for good.”

My breath shuddered as he lifted me from my chair and pulled me into his arms. “I want to give you a life. You should have never had to live like this. It’s my vow that you never will again, Janie.”

I held onto him like a beacon, desperate to believe in him and every promise that spilled from his lips. I had to believe in him, or I was lost. If Doyle wanted me dead, I’d be dead. There had to be something more significant, more threatening than me.

“Why don’t you go get a shower and get back in bed. Rest for a while. I have some business to handle, and then we’re going to see Vince. It’s time you know what we’re up against.”

I nodded against his shoulder and then pulled back, smiling coyly. “Can I convince you to shower with me before you go?”

He groaned, and then laughed. “I wish I could, but I have to go. You’ll need time to scour that smell off of you before I get back.”

I gasped, slapping him on the chest, and raced to the bathroom. “That was just mean. And to think—I was going to suck your cock in the shower. I guess I’ll just have to find something else to do to keep myself occupied in there.”

I pulled off the T-shirt he’d put on me to sleep in and threw it on the floor before giggling at his growl and slamming the door behind me. Seconds later, the door burst open, bouncing off the wall behind it, and Flynn had me pinned to the sink and began pulling at his tie.

He was smiling, his eyes wrinkled at the corners and his face flushed. We needed more moments like that—carefree and explorative. Everything with us was so hot and cold. Teasing him was fun—it brought out the natural, loving nature in Flynn, and sadly, I don’t think he’d had enough of that in his life. It was one of the things that made us similar.

“You are such a bad little girl, Miss King. I think I need to spank your ass pink and remind you that I’m a very busy man with a lot of important things to take care of.”

My breath hitched, and my pussy clenched. He’d been paying a lot of attention to spanking my ass in the past few weeks, and I found that it was pretty much my favorite thing. Oh, I’d had plenty of men pay me to let them spank me, but they weren’t Flynn, and I’d never enjoyed it before him.

All of a sudden, I wanted to do every naughty thing possible to get a spanking.

He reached down, cupping my pussy, and pulled a nipple into his mouth as he caressed the other. He bit down, causing me to cry out, desperate for more, and then pulled away. “I could make you come, but I won’t. You can just wait for me to get back, and then you can use your mouth and suck my cock like you promised. If you’re a good girl while I go do what I have to do, I’ll make sure you’ll scream my name for hours.”

He turned me around and gave my ass a teasing slap. “Get your sweet ass in there. You smell like a distillery.”

He winked as I gaped at him, and shut the door behind him. I snarled at the door and stomped my foot, so turned on that I could feel the blood rushing through my body. He was evil, but at least I had something to look forward to later on.

I was a bit disgruntled that he’d brought me back to his room and I couldn’t spend my time lounging in my bathtub, but I did feel like shit, and as I turned to face my reflection in the mirror, I decided I looked it, too.

“Good God,” I groaned.

I couldn’t regret it, though. I’d gained a lot of clarity spending the night at Pamela’s, and once again, she made me feel like a normal girl. Little by little, I was able to gain a little of the normality I’d wanted so badly. If I could just get the rest of my life in order, including Flynn, I would finally have that dream I so desperately craved.

Once I was nice and pruney and as clean as possible, I got out of the tub and trudged into Flynn’s room to find something to wear. I spotted the shirt he’d worn the night before hanging on the back of his red chair with the rest of his suit and walked over to grab it, choosing to wear that instead of digging through his drawers.

After my shower, I felt much better, but my stomach was still queasy, so I ordered some more food and sat in front of the television while I waited. It felt good to just sit around and absorb everything that we’d gone through that morning. As usual, the way we did things was a little fucked up. I couldn’t regret it, though. Going into things with both feet at the same time felt more natural.

I’d never been one to shy away from what I wanted, and I wanted Flynn. Every screwed up, dysfunctional, selfish inch of him.

“I
thought we were going to see Vince,” I said as I watched the colors and lights fly by while we drove down Las Vegas Blvd. “Why are you driving through all this traffic when his house is in the other direction?”

He reached over and squeezed my hand, smiling. “I’m taking you out for dinner first. I realized something earlier, and it got me to thinking.”