Chapter 1
He damn well better be there. Anna Burrows whipped down the road, turned into the compound and braking hard, stopped abruptly in front of the garage. Part of her was absolutely ecstatic to see Katina, while another was equally so to see Flynn. But the biggest part of her was furiously angry with him. And she planned to take a strip off his hide. If he wouldn’t stand still long enough for her to do that, she would rip into him one way or the other. She hopped out and slammed her car door. Several men stood in front of the garage, and a few more came out to see what the commotion was. Then she caught sight of Flynn. She snagged his jacket from the passenger side, stormed up to him and slammed it against his broad chest.
“Did you really think I wouldn’t know?” she yelled into his face. “You did this on purpose. Why? Why would you do that?”
His face split into a huge grin. And his eyes danced with joy. She knew she had made his day, but this was way too damn serious to let him walk all over her.
A joke was one thing. But this was beyond that.
She shoved her face into his surprised one. “Well, it didn’t work, asshole.” She turned and marched back to her car. Then she grabbed the plastic bag from the dashboard and held it up for everyone to see.
By now there had to be half a dozen men about. All of them big badass-looking dudes. But her gaze was locked on Flynn. He was the one who had made her absolutely bonkers the last few weeks. She knew she’d been nothing but a job to him, all the sadder for the type of reaction he’d gotten out of her, but even then he hadn’t been able to keep it totally professional.
From the first moment he’d stepped on her property, he’d set her ire exploding into the sky. And it hadn’t calmed down yet. She shoved the bag in his face. “And if this is yours, I’ll call the cops again and see if it’s covered in owl blood—one that was killed last night and left gutted on my back step. And, lo and behold, this bloody knife was in your goddamned jacket pocket in my bedroom.”
With fury riding her like she’d rarely felt before, she pulled her arm back and smacked him hard across the face.
Absolute silence filled the air.
Then she heard a gasp. “Anna?”
Katina came running. As soon as Anna saw her best friend, she burst into tears. The two women fell into each other’s arms. Not one of the men said a word.
Finally, when she had calmed down enough to stop crying, Anna hugged Katina again and said, “I’m so sorry. But I had to come and tell him that I knew what he did.”
Katina shook her head. “Something’s wrong, sweetie. Flynn might be a lot of things, and I certainly don’t know him as well as the others, but I do know the type of man he is. He’d never hurt an animal.”
Anna lowered her voice and whispered so the men couldn’t hear. “What about a woman? As in my heart?”
Katina pulled back to stare into her friend’s eyes and must have understood as she didn’t say a word, but Anna saw the question in Katina’s gaze. Anna shook her head.
“I’m sorry,” Katina whispered. “I was hoping things would work out better between you two.” At that Katina turned and stepped in front of Anna, fisted her hands on her hips and glared at Flynn. Then she took one step forward and poked him in the chest. “If you hurt one hair on any of her animals, or on Anna herself, and let me add her heart to that list too, you will answer to me.” She glared at him, almost eye to eye.
Behind her, Merk said, “Easy, Katina.”
Without breaking her stare on the shocked man in front of her, she took one step back and reached out a hand. Anna grabbed it immediately. Katina wrapped her arms around her friend and said, “Come on inside. We don’t need to be around him.”
She shot a look at Merk that had him holding up his hands and saying, “It wasn’t me.”
Anna nodded her head in defiance at him too. As the two friends walked inside, Anna whispered, her voice loud enough to carry backward, “Is that Merk?”
Katina nodded.
“Well, now I understand.”
*
Flynn stood in complete shock. He’d only returned home earlier this morning, from a quick job Levi had sent him on. He’d been looking forward to seeing Anna as soon as he could get the time.
However, this was not the homecoming he’d envisioned.
Very few things in life could shut him up. A woman’s tears made him blubber apologies left, right and center, but her anger—that unjustified and unprovoked attack just now by Anna—well…he didn’t have a clue what to do about it.
The other men surrounded him.
“Flynn, what the hell was that all about?” Levi asked. His tone was hard and uncompromising.
Flynn looked at Levi and said, “Shit, I’m not sure.”
“Even if that knife was used on that animal, we know it wouldn’t have been you wielding it. But, for the record, could you please state that?” Merk asked.
“I have never in my life intentionally hurt an animal,” Flynn said, shaking his head in bewilderment. “Yes, this is my jacket. And yes, that’s my knife. But I thought I lost it at her place.”
Stone leaned against the garage doorway. “She mentioned calling the police once already. So I’m assuming she found your jacket with the knife in the pocket afterward.”
“Right, but I didn’t gut any owl.” Flynn couldn’t tear his gaze away from the doorway the women had disappeared into. Sure he’d left his jacket in her house on purpose. But in the kitchen. And that he could explain, if he ever got the chance. But he really didn’t want to do it in front of all the guys. As for both his personal and professional life—although the lines had blurred many times in her case—he’d prefer to keep them as far apart as possible otherwise. Particularly as the former wasn’t exactly headed the direction he wanted it to go and maybe never would now.
He ran his hands through his hair and rubbed his face. “When she calms down a bit, I’ll talk to her.”
“When she does, we all will,” Levi said. “She’s made this public, and made accusations. We have to get to the bottom of it.”
Flynn looked at Levi and nodded. “We can do that.” Inside his heart was sinking. Damn, he really wanted to be a part of this unit. He didn’t need this. But it was so typical to finally make headway in his life just to have something blow up and, literally, smack him across the face. “I have no idea what she’s talking about, but I had nothing to do with killing an animal.”
Stone punched him on the shoulder. “We know that. We just have to convince her.”
From a few steps away, Merk said, “You’re also missing a very major point here. Not only did somebody have access to her house to put the knife into your jacket pocket, chances are good he knew exactly what would happen between you two by doing this. So what you need to ask yourself is, who the hell hates you enough to set you up for this?”
Flynn stared at him in shock. “No one. I made a lot of enemies in the military. Hell…” He looked around at everybody, his arms outspread. “We all did. But nothing at this level. This is…” He shook his head. “I’d never hurt an animal.”
“So what happened hits you at one of the most painful levels possible?” Stone asked. “Interesting.”
With a sinking heart Flynn knew he’d have to apologize, somehow convince Anna he had nothing to do with this, and then get to the bottom of it. These guys were right—somebody was pinning this on him.
“I need this sorted fast,” Levi said. “We have three jobs, people.” They were just setting up all the teams to head out. “With this coming down on you, Flynn, you have to stay local.”
“Oh, hell no. I was so ready to go off on another job.”
Levi nodded. “Understood. Depends on what we find out.” He nodded toward the inside of the house. “So the sooner the better. You ready?”
Flynn felt as if he were being led to the slaughter. He took a deep breath. “Damn, yeah. I guess I shouldn’t have left my jacket there.”
“In her bedroom, I believe we heard her say,” Merk said, one eyebrow raised.
“Not by me,” Flynn said, one hand up as if swearing to God. “As much as I tried, I never quite got her there. But she has an asshole hanging around. He’s trying to start a relationship, yet she’s been saying no all along. He’s just not listening. He saw me around the place a couple times. I figured if I left my jacket someplace—like, in her bedroom—then he’d believe there was more going on between us, and he’d get the hell out of her life. Honestly the guy is messed up.”
“Enough to kill an owl and pin it on you?” Stone asked, turning to face him.
Flynn frowned. “Maybe. But I assumed he loved animals too. He was always talking to them.” Flynn stared at the doorway again. He was a huge animal lover. He’d enjoyed helping Anna at her place. The few weeks he’d been there had been an easy job, which gave him a chance to indulge in his love of animals of all kinds. To think of somebody going in there, killing even an owl, well, that was heartbreaking. That it had been left on her doorstep was disturbing. As a threat, it said the killer could get to an animal anytime, as well as Anna. Flynn wouldn’t be happy until he resolved this, as much for her as for him. The last thing he wanted was to start his career at Legendary Security with a tainted history.
He knew Katina and Anna had been best friends for a long time. He didn’t want anything to get in the way of that. But he had high hopes for Anna himself. He’d met very few women who faced up to him, and who got his emotions rocking and rolling like she did. There was a whole lot more to their relationship that he was only starting to figure out. He had tried damn hard to get her into his arms and still planned for it in the near future, but he had come to realize she wasn’t the one-night-stand or easy-on/easy-off type of affair. And that was a good thing as he wasn’t either, but it did mean he had to slow down.
She was the type you took home to your parents and married for life.
That had set him back just enough to reconsider his own long-term plans.
When Levi had a quick second job available for him, Flynn had jumped at it, thinking distance would help him put his relationship with Anna into perspective. Only problem was, he left four days ago and was home again this morning, with her right back into his life. And from what he could see—in his heart—she’d damn near made herself a permanent home.
Too bad she didn’t look interested in spending any time there, as she’d just proven.
No, he was better off alone. Damn. Even though she was a bit volatile, he had liked her all the more for it.