Inescapable (Men of Mercy Novel, A) (25 page)

“Manning and I had a thing and, apparently, he’s back. But whatever we had is over, and I don’t care! Get a life, people! Mine is not up for dissection!”

Under the anger she felt tears gather in her throat so she rapidly blinked them away before closing her eyes. “Sometimes I really hate this town,” she said.

From the back of the room Flick heard the scraping of a chair as it skidded back on the tiled floor. “That’s a pity, because I always hated this town, but I’ve come to sort of love it. Could do without the gossip though.”

His voice was like drinking hot chocolate after a snowball fight, or cool lemonade on a stinking-hot day. Tart, deep with flavor, and exactly what she needed. Flick opened her eyes and there he stood, dressed in a pair of battered jeans that were frayed at the hem and held up by a leather belt, and a gray Henley that fell over his broad chest and across his flat stomach. A leather jacket hung on the back of his chair. He was sitting with Sawyer, who had a shit-eating grin on his face. Her anger drained away and humiliation, just as hot and intense, rolled in. Oh, God, she’d berated her customers in front of her ex-lover.

Her ex-lover who was back, standing in her bakery, looking hot and completely unavailable. Wait, what had he said? That he liked Mercy now? Crap, did that mean he would be spending more time here, or possibly even moving back? She thought that she could, maybe, possibly—with difficulty—handle his occasional visits home, but him moving here, permanently, would mean that she’d have to leave. She could not, would not, spend the rest of her life watching the man she loved from a distance.

Not going to happen. Ever.

Flick bit her lip and forced herself to meet Kai’s spectacular eyes. They were beautifully gold. “Does that cryptic comment mean that you’re moving back to Mercy?”

Kai lifted one powerful shoulder. “Maybe.”

Maybe? That sounded more like a yes to her. Flick gave one sharp nod, and, conscious that every eye in the joint was watching them, turned to look at Pippa. “If that happens I’ll sell you my share of the bakery. Moses will bake the product.”

Titters skittered through their audience but Flick ignored them. She carefully placed the knife on the counter, untied the strings on her apron, and handed it to Tiffany.

Forcing her feet to move, she walked across the bakery to the front door, her head held up high. She would not let anyone see her cry. She was better, stronger, and had more pride than that.

“You just gonna let her walk?” Jack’s words bounced off her back.

“I was thinking that I might let her walk off her temper before I tackle her,” Kai replied as she reached the door. She pulled it open as he spoke again. “Then again, maybe not. Wait up, Sturgiss.”

Flick ignored him and allowed the door to bang close behind her. As she walked down the road, she heard the muted roar of voices discussing her, as they would be doing for a long while . . .

Yeah, Old Flick, she’s still nuts, you know. That day was the day that tipped her over the edge. Never been the same since.

***

Flick huffed her way up her favorite trail and dropped onto the rock at her lookout spot, the same one where she and Kai had sat and talked. Everything she did, everywhere she went reminded her of him and she hated it. Flick pulled her long-sleeved cotton shirt away from her sweaty chest. Autumn might be rolling into winter but jeans and a warm T-shirt and cowboy boots were not suitable gear for hiking. She was upset enough—she didn’t need to add hot and sweaty to her current levels of discomfort.

God, she’d made such a fool of herself by allowing her temper to boil over. She could imagine the gossip flying around town, the speculation, the laughter. Would Kai be laughing along with them, thinking that he’d dodged a bullet, had a narrow escape from the crazy person?

Flick pushed the heels of her hands into her burning eyes. God, her life was so screwed up.

“You okay?”

Flick’s head snapped up and she blinked as she saw Kai standing on the path, his hands in the pockets of his jeans, sunglasses covering his eyes. He didn’t look sweaty or hot or even ill at ease, the bastard.

She’d had more than enough, more than she could cope with. She just wanted to sit here alone and lick her wounds. “Go away, Kai.”

Kai walked over to her and bumped her shoulder with his hip, a silent order for her to shift. She glared at him but she moved sideways. He sat down, stretching his long legs in front of him. He looked around and shoved his sunglasses up on his head. “Appropriate.”

“What is?” Flick demanded.

“We’ve had some pretty good conversations on this rock.”

Figures that he’d think that the conversation that would follow—something along the lines of how they were going to deal with each other going forward—would be important. He wouldn’t want her making any more scenes, drawing him into her drama. Kai didn’t do drama. It wasn’t her favorite thing either—she’d just had a really bad morning. And it wasn’t over yet.

“Can you just say whatever it is you want to say? Let’s get this over with.”

“You sure you want to hear what I’m going to say? You ready for that?”

His tone was solemn and loaded with an emotion she couldn’t identify. Intensity was there, and determination, but that wasn’t it . . . There was something else and it wasn’t good.
Rip the Band-Aid off, Kai.
Quick and clean, wasn’t that his style?

“Just get on with it, Manning.”

“Okay.” Kai nodded. He sucked in a breath and then his words rushed out. “I love you, and I want to live with you and spend the bulk of my time in Mercy. With you.”

Flick’s jaw hit the ground and when she pulled it back up she sent him a laser-sharp glare. “That’s not even remotely funny, Kai.”

“Yeah, I happen to agree with you. I don’t think it’s at all funny that I think about you all the time, that I dream about you, that I feel like I’m suffering from a bullet to my heart when I’m apart from you. It’s not funny. It fucking sucks.”

Flick’s chin nearly hit the ground again. She placed her elbows on her knees, pressed her fingertips into her forehead, and closed her eyes. Hope and excitement swirled in her stomach, her throat tightened, and pure undiluted joy threatened to melt her joints. She couldn’t give in to it, couldn’t believe it. If this was a joke . . .

“If you’re messing with me—”

Kai’s hand, big and broad, rested on her back. “Nobody is allowed to mess with you or hurt you, babe, and that includes me.” Kai’s hand drifted up her back and into her hair. “I’ve hated every second of being away from you. I really missed you, and I never miss anyone.”

She couldn’t open her eyes because she was petrified that if she did he’d disappear as fast as he arrived, that she’d realize that he was a miasma, the first of her psychotic episodes. She’d lost her mind back in the bakery, remember? But his hand felt so real, and she could smell his cologne, could feel his heat.

“Are you ever going to look at me, Fee?”

It was the gentle tone that got to her, the insecurity she heard in his voice. She dropped her hands and slowly, ever so slowly turned to look at him, waiting for him to evaporate before her eyes. Yet, there he sat, strong, tall, and, unless she was having auditory hallucinations as well, telling her that he loved her, that he’d missed her.

“Say that again?” She just wanted to make sure.

Kai’s hand came up to cup her face, his thumb skimming her cheekbone. He swallowed and the corners of his eyes crinkled. “I love you. So damn much.”

Flick placed her hand on his chest and felt his rapid heartbeat, heard his shallow breathing. Yeah, he wasn’t half as sanguine as he wanted to appear. He loved her. Thank God.

Flick scooted over to him, draped her arms around his neck and burrowed her face into his neck, inhaling him. She wanted to climb inside him and rest awhile, allowing the sunbeams of happiness to dance over her skin.

Kai gathered her close, pulling her thighs over his to cradle her on his lap. His lips tasted her ear, her temple, dropped kisses on her cheekbone before finding her lips. It was a soft kiss, exploratory, tasting her all over again. Tasting her with love, with hope for the future, with the knowledge that being with her was where he needed to be. Deeper, hotter, wetter . . . fantastic.

She was away with the fairies, dancing on lust and love and happiness when Kai pulled back and rested his forehead against hers. “Same old, same old,” he said, his fingertips digging into her thigh and her side. “I could take you right here.”

“I hope we never lose this passion for each other,” Flick murmured.

“Does that mean you’re going to take me on?” Kai asked, his question uncharacteristically hesitant.

Flick pulled back and frowned at him. “Why would you even doubt that?”

Kai lifted his shoulders and, under her hands, she felt the tension in his muscles. Why? “Maybe it’s because you haven’t, actually, told me that you love me. I said it at least three times—more than I’ve said it in my whole life—and you haven’t said it once.”

Oh, Lord, if he’d never said the words then that probably meant that he’d never heard them either. How could anyone survive without hearing an occasional “I love you”?

“Oh, Kai, of course I love you. You are the beat of my heart, the reason the sun comes up every day. You’re everything I thought that I didn’t want but everything I need. The last two weeks have been . . .”

“Crap? Shit? Hell?”

“Yeah . . . and sad. And lonely. And horrible.” Flick placed her fingertips on his jaw. “Mercy is my home and as much as I love it, I’d move tomorrow. I’d go wherever you took me, live out of a suitcase if it meant I could be with you. You are where I want to be.”

“Felicity.” Kai closed his eyes, possibly to hide the depth of his feeling for her, so she couldn’t see how she made him feel. Well, that would have to change. He would know, every day for as long as she lived, how much he was loved.

Flick rested her head on his chest, content to listen to the wind in the trees, feel his strength enveloping her, his breath on her cheek.

“As perfect as this moment is,” Kai said above her head, “I can’t help feeling that something is missing.”

Flick tipped her head back to look at him. As far as she was concerned, her life was super-shiny and practically perfect. “Like?”

Kai just grinned and let out a shrill whistle. She heard an answering bark and heard Rufus thundering toward them. She turned her head to watch her massive dog, ears flapping and drool swinging, bound toward them, a look of delight on his face. He jumped up and put one paw on Kai’s shoulder and another on Flick’s knee and they were gifted with a steady stream of doggy breath.

Rufus tried to lick Kai’s face and laughed. “Down!” he ordered and Rufus dropped to the ground.

Flick slid off Kai’s lap, stood up, and held out her hand. “Let’s take our dog and go home,” she suggested.

Kai grinned. “Yours or mine? And, on that point, we need an ours, as soon as possible.”

“I agree.” Flick grinned as his fingers interlocked with hers. Kai started to tug her away but Flick planted her feet.

Kai turned to look at her, a small frown between his eyebrows. “Flick? You okay?”

Flick nodded, her eyes brimming. “It’s just that . . . um . . .”

Kai’s thumb swiped a tear away. “Talk to me, sweetheart.”

“It’s just that I was so sad and now I’m so happy. I don’t know if I’ve ever been this happy.”

Kai pulled her head to his chest and her arms went around his waist. She felt his lips in her hair, the emotion skittering through him.

“You chased the monsters that lurked in the pitch-dark corners of my mind.” Kai stood back and pushed her hair off her face, tucking strands behind her ears. His eyes shone with love and truth. “In loving you, being with you, I found myself. Found that I might even like myself.”

Flick sniffed up her tears. “Oh, Kai.”

Kai smiled. “Though you shouldn’t expect me to say that again. This mushy stuff is a onetime deal.”

Oh, she suspected that it might not be, but she wasn’t going to push. “As long as you tell me, at least once a day, that you love me.”

“Deal.” Kai took her hand again and pulled her down the path. “Can we please go home now? I need to take you into my bedroom and not come out for hours. It is, after all, our job to give Mercy something to talk about.”

Epilogue

MayorBob: People, can we please give Knox Callow some breathing room and treat him like any other Mercy resident? He’s renting the Freedman homestead and would, I’m sure, like to be treated like any other resident.

BoredWife: That just means that we can gossip about him as we do about everyone else!

***

Sitting at the bar in the Smirking Fox, Flick took a sip of her mojito and sighed with pleasure. She was surrounded by friends and family, was chatting with her best friend, and she expected her sexy lover to walk through the door any minute. Life was very, very good.

“You look so damn happy it’s just not funny,” Pippa complained, frowning.

Flick smiled at her best friend. “Sorry, but I am. Deliriously, wonderfully happy.”

“I think I’m going to puke,” Pippa muttered, but Flick saw the tilt of her lips. She was happy, so Pippa was happy. They were best friends and it was that simple.

“So what are we going to do about clearing out the house, Pips?” Flick asked, trying to concentrate on something other than her wonderful, loving, sexy man.

“Kai paid for the rifle and the immediate financial problems are solved, so Gina doesn’t want to sell a damn thing.” Pippa frowned.

Oh, Gina
. Flick sighed. Still as stubborn as a mule.

Pippa looked up as the front door opened. “Is Sawyer coming tonight?”

Flick nodded. “As are Axl and Reagan.”

Pippa leaned toward her. “Do you think that she and Knox are . . . you know?”

Flick lifted her eyebrows at Pippa. But Pip hadn’t spent much time with Axl or Reagan and didn’t realize that whenever Axl and Reagan were in the same room together, sparks flew. “I don’t think Knox has a chance in hell.”

Flick nodded toward the entrance and they watched as Axl held open the door for Reagan. Kai and Sawyer walked in behind them. “Look at the way she looks at him, all crazy frustration,” Flick said, nodding in Reagan’s direction.

“Hmmm, I see what you mean. And he looks like he wants to grab her and push her up against the nearest wall,” Pippa replied.

“Do you want to grab the fire extinguisher or shall I?” Flick asked as the foursome approached them, three ridiculously good-looking men and one gorgeous blonde. Flick met Kai’s eyes and her body sighed and settled as his fabulous eyes softened. He loved her, absolutely and completely, and she adored his attention. When Kai reached her he held her face in his hands and kissed her as if he hadn’t seen her for weeks and not hours.

Yeah, this was it. He was her happy.

“Do you really think it’s appropriate that you prance around the place wearing just your bikini?”Axl’s muted shout pulled them apart.

“I was teaching Coe, his son, to swim!” Reagan retorted.

“It’s nearly winter!”

“The pool is heated!” Reagan responded, her tone aggravated. “Why should you care what I’m wearing? And how the hell did you know that I was wearing a bikini? Are you spying on me?”

Kai rested his forehead against Flick’s and rolled his eyes. “Here they go again.”

“How
did
he know that?” Flick whispered.

“He is spying on her,” Kai replied. “This Callow gig is driving him nuts.”

“Why?”

“Sawyer and I think that he’s really worried that she might actually fall for the guy. Knox is a good guy, single, and, apparently, good-looking. Axl is batshit with jealously.”

“Is that why he’s been spending more time than usual in Mercy?”

Kai nodded. “Though the one time I suggested that he nearly ripped my head off.” Kai wrapped his big hand around her shoulder and kissed the side of her mouth. “I really wish that he and Sawyer would find a quarter of the happiness you’ve given me.”

Flick sighed. There was only one response to that, three words that she never tired of saying. “I love you. So much,” she whispered.

Kai lifted his head, looked at his two best friends, and nodded before meeting her eyes again.

“Yeah, that’s my wish,” he said, his voice normal but his eyes telling her how much he adored her.

“My wish is that Reagan would start acting like a professional around Callow,” Axl said.

“My wish is that Axl would stop acting like the perfect ass that he is.” Reagan bared her teeth at him.

“My wish is that the two of you would find a room and settle this the biblical way,” Sawyer interjected.

Reagan blushed but Axl just ignored Sawyer’s provocative statement. He looked at Pippa. “So, Pippa, I hear that you can play pool. Want a game? I think that I’d be a bit more of a challenge than Kai. Or Sawyer.”

Kai exchanged a long look with Sawyer before letting his mouth curve into a wicked smile. “Want to bet on that, Rhodes?” he asked.

“Sure.” Axl looked cocky. “Anytime, anywhere. What’s the bet?”

“I’ll make a bet with you,” Reagan said, her expression fierce.

Oh boy
, Flick thought.
Here comes trouble.

Axl looked bored but Flick noticed the tension in his jaw, around his eyes. “Okay, hit me.”

Reagan cocked her head. “I’d love to but Jack doesn’t like violence in the bar.” She smirked. “Oh, you were talking about the bet. . . .” Reagan straightened her spine and turned serious. “If you lose, then you allow me to be a part of Morrigans.”

Flick winced, knowing that Reagan’s request would not go down well. Kai had explained Reagan’s desire to be a part of their rescue missions and she understood his reticence. None of them wanted Reagan to get hurt; hell, she didn’t want
any
of them hurt.

“Over my dead body.” Axl whipped the words back.

Reagan opened her mouth to argue but Kai held up his hand and spoke. “You’re not going to be allowed automatic entry because you’re you, Reags. But if you’re serious about joining Morrigans, then you have to prove to us that you are up to the challenge. That you can cope with the mental and physical demands of the job.”

“And I’m the only one who will determine that,” Axl growled. He pushed his hand into his hair and looked thoroughly pissed off. “Okay, then. If I lose to Pippa—”

“Who still doesn’t know what Morrigans is,” Pippa hinted, looking for an explanation.

Axl ignored her interruption. “If I lose, then you get a chance to prove that you’re up to standard. And I will
consider
using you.”

“I want Kai and Sawyer to be impartial judges,” Reagan said, looking stubborn.

Flick looked at Kai and fanned herself. Kai grinned, instantly understanding her reference to the heat Axl and Reagan were generating.

“My division, my responsibility, so mine is the only opinion that counts. Take it or leave it,” Axl retorted, rocking on his heels.

Reagan shrugged. “I’ll take it.”

Flick quickly realized that Axl’s smile was anything but amused. “And what if I beat Pippa? What do I get?” he asked, his voice low and dangerous.

Reagan crossed her arms, looking completely unfazed. Good grief, the woman had a set of brass balls, Flick decided, mightily impressed.

“What do you want, Axl?” Reagan drawled.

Axl didn’t hesitate. “For you to move out of Callow’s house and to be reassigned to work with another client.”

“Shit.” Reagan looked up at the ceiling, thinking. Eventually she dropped her head and looked at Pippa. “You’d better whip his ass, girlfriend.”

Pippa sighed. “You’re risking your career on a pool game?”

Reagan held Axl’s challenging look. “Yep.”

Pippa released a long, audible sigh. “So, no pressure, then.”

Kai dropped a kiss on Flick’s temple and muttered in her ear, “Crap. This is not going to end well.”

Flick swiped her mouth across his and rested her hand on his cheek. “Or they might, like us, work out very well indeed.”