Sierra held up a hand, like he’d hit her stopping point for absorbing info. Too bad Flynn still had a lot to share. “Kellan’sa lawyer? Kellan, who works at the cranberry plant?”
“He’s almost a lawyer. Can’t bring anything from your original life into WITSEC, though, so he doesn’t get to finish. He’s trying to finda job that’ll let him use his giant brain. We just haven’t figured it out yet.”
Sierra paced a tight circle. When she finally faced Flynn again, all the warmth had left her expression. Clearly the factsof his past life were settling in—and she didn’t like them one damn bit. “So you were a mobster.”
“Yes . . . and no. I swore the oath.” Flynn patted his hip. “You’ve seen the tattoo. But I didn’t do, ah, mobster things.McGinty paid for my degree so I could run his legit business. A construction company with books that could be safely audited.The one that supplied his whole crew with paychecks on the up-and-up so that they all looked like law-abiding, tax-payingcitizens. My job in the mob was to not break the law.”
“You ran a whole company? Aren’t you a little young for that?” More disbelief. But Flynn appreciated that she challenged him.
With a shrug, he answered, “Yes and no. I worked the construction business every summer, high school and college. I knew itinside and out. Add to that my business degree, and let’s just say I was a hell of a lot more qualified to run it than thelast guy who did.”
“But you didn’t want to get a business degree?”
Ah, she was paying attention. Clueing in to the little things he said as well as the big ones. “I wanted to do something inscience. Chemistry. I started mixing chemicals, making them explode or change colors with my mom back in elementary school.But McGinty said no.”
“Can you do it now?”
“Go back for another four-year degree, that’ll probably take six while I also hold down a full-time job? No way. And McGintylaid down the law—do it his way or no degree. Then, once I had it, I wanted to keep going and get my MBA. Make myself moremarketable. The day I went to ask him if he’d pay for grad school is the day Danny laid out the plan for me to come work forhim full-time. And no, there wasn’t a thanks, but no thanks box to check. Not if we wanted to keep Kellan completely clean.”
“This man turned you into an indentured servant.”
Flynn loved that she got it. Knew he wasn’t blameless, though, and would cop to that, too. “He’d sucked me in slowly, withtickets to Bears games and gifts. McGinty was like a favorite uncle. Always there to bail us out of trouble. Always givingpresents. And a whole bunch of friends who always hung out with him. It seemed awesome.”
“Until?”
“Until I knew there was no way out. Until I learned what he did to come up with the cash he used to fund my education.”
Her whole face crinkled in confusion. “You were a mobster . . . in name only?”
“More or less. Did some stuff when I was a teenager that bordered on sketchy, just to help Danny out, I thought. But onceI graduated, he needed me to keep my hands completely clean. To be the legit and honest face of the construction company.”
“If you didn’t, you know . . .” Sierra punched the air, her face screwed into a grimace.
“Kneecap people?”
“If you just kept your head down and your nose clean, how did you get here?”
Like Flynn hadn’t asked himself that every single day since Halloween. “McGinty had an operation that went badly. He decidedhe’d throw me to the wolves for cover. Let the cops pin the whole thing on me and he’d walk away with clean hands. The manhad such a fucking God complex that he went to Rafe. Gave him the heads-up that he planned to make me take the fall. Thankedhim in advance for ‘his family’s service to the organization.’”
“But you didn’t go to jail?”
“No. Rafe made a deal with the Feds. Got them to put all three of us in Witness Protection. Rafe was the fixer, McGinty’sright-hand man. He knew where the bodies were buried. Literally, in a couple of cases. Me, I knew about the second set ofbooks. I had proof of the money laundering, the tax evasion—between the two of us, we knew enough to implode it.”
Sierra gaped at him. Again. Then fury burned a hot flash in her eyes. “Rafe made a deal? He didn’t come to you first and ask how you felt about it?”
The fact that she’d zeroed in on what had stung him the most when it happened just proved how perfect Sierra was for him.If only she’d stick around long enough for him to point it out.
“You caught that, huh? Yeah, it was a done deal before he dialed me in. I had a day’s notice to secure evidence and tie uploose ends. Then we went into government sequestration. From there, we moved on to our new lives.”
“So . . . who are you? Really? A mobster? Or a bartender?” This time the challenge in her voice was a little sharper.
Now probably wasn’t the best time to mention the four other starter-lives they’d attempted to live before landing in Bandon.The ones that had fit worse than shoes four sizes too small. Sierra’s question was a good one, though. It hit at the heartof what he was trying to get across to her.
Flynn shrugged. Looked down at the scuffed-up dirt. “I don’t know.”
“That’s not good enough,” she shot back.
Okay, okay. If there was ever a time to dig deep and connect with his innermost feelings, today was probably it. He
