“Being in the mob is a part of who I am. The guys in McGinty’s crew—they’re not that different than me. Okay, some are wayworse. Violent scum that should spend the rest of their lives behind bars. But some were just making a living the only waythey knew how. Same as I did to put Kellan through school.”
Sierra jabbed a finger in the air between them, swirling with dust motes in the filtered sunlight. “But you didn’t engage in criminal acts.”
“Not really. And I was grateful for that.” The words, the bitterness he’d hidden for so long choked out of him. “I did hatethe mob. I hated that I didn’t feel like I had any choice but to join. Hated that all my choices were taken away from me.Now the government’s made more choices for me. And I’m pissed about it. Pissed my brothers are suffering for my sake. Pissed that I got dropped here. God,Sierra, I was mad at the world.”
“Was?” she challenged.
“Until you. How you just enjoy what happens in a day. Then I started to realize that I liked my days, now, too. I liked thatevery shift is both the same and completely different. I liked the fun of figuring out new cocktails. I liked shooting theshit with Carlos. You woke me up. Made me see that it’s okay to live this new life.”
Color pinked up her cheeks. “Flynn, I can’t take credit for something that huge.”
“Tough.” He stroked a hand down her arm, needing to touch her, needing to physically connect in gratitude if only for a second.“Your caring got under my skin. In all the best ways. Look, I faked who I was for years. I showed up to a job I didn’t want.Made friends with guys who I knew I didn’t respect on a certain level. I did what I was told. But that’s over.”
“What do you mean?”
“The man you’ve fallen in love with? That’s the new Flynn Maguire.” He jabbed his fingers against his sternum. “New name,new life, new person inside. You’re seeing the real me—as soon as I figure out who the hell that is.”
Another long silence fell. Birds chirped overhead. Something small and brown raced under a fallen log. Sierra pressed herlips together. Anger, no, disappointment hardened every line of her face. And when she spoke, it was an indictment. “You’ve been lying to me.”
Was she closing the door between them? With swift desperation, Flynn said, “Sweetness, I’ve been lying to everyone. WITSEChas strict rules. We aren’t supposed to tell anyone who we really are. Ever.”
Those big blue eyes got impossibly wide and round. Sierra’s lips parted. “Are you going to be in trouble for telling me?”
Look at her caring shining through her obvious and justified temper. God, he didn’t deserve a heart as big as hers. “Hopefullyyou won’t email Danny McGinty telling him where he can come looking for his revenge. It’d be nice if you don’t tell the U.S.Marshals that you know the truth about the Maguire brothers, too.”
“Flynn. I would never put you or your brothers at risk.”
“I can promise you I don’t want trouble. I don’t want to go back to any part of that life, or bring it here to Bandon.”
“You’re done with being a bad guy?” Doubt coated her words thicker than the frothy head of a Guinness.
Flynn might not be sure of a lot about his future—including if he’d even have one once he went back to Chicago to testify—buthe was sure about that. “Yes. I swear. Relieved as hell about it being over . . . on top of feeling guilty.”
“That’s a lot to carry,” she said, almost cautiously. Like she wasn’t entirely sure of how to react or what to say next.
“I’ve been sitting with it for a while. It’s time to get over it. Put all of it—including the feeling shitty parts—behindme. My brothers helped by not giving up on me. Time helped. This place, the people in it, helped. All of that opened a door.Falling for you pulled me through it.”
“To what? What’s your big plan?” Sierra’s eyes narrowed to slits. “Who is Flynn Maguire?”
He caught her hand and brought it over his heart. “The man who loves you. That’s the God’s honest truth.”
“Those are pretty words. Ones I’m not sure I should believe.”
Desperation jacked up his heart rate. She was pulling away, literally and emotionally. “I hated lying to you. A good relationshipcan’t be built on lies. But I would’ve kept lying to you forever, knowing that it would keep you safe.”
“Looks like you just blew that.” She yanked her hand back. Everything about her rigid stance told him not to try touchingher again.
“No. Sierra, I told you all this so you’d trust me when I told you that I could fix your problem with Rick. My handler. MarshalDelaney Evans. I trust her with my life. Literally every day. She’s, ah, gone to bat for us more than once. Let’s just saythat we weren’t the most by-the-book protectees she’d ever been assigned.”
A faint smile, the kind he wasn’t sure he’d ever see aimed at him again, ghosted across Sierra’s lips. “That’s not hard tobelieve at all.”
“If you tell Delaney what went down in Milwaukee, she’ll bring down Wayne’s counterfeit ring. And she’ll keep you safe, keepyour identity and whereabouts protected.”
“I’m so mad at you.” Then a single tear tracked down the center of her cheek.
“Aww, don’t cry.” Flynn tried to put his arms around her. Sierra shook her head and shuffled back a few steps, hugging herself.
“No. Don’t . . . don’t touch me.”
“Sierra. I won’t hurt you. I swear. That’s not who I am.”
“You’ve already hurt me. After everything I went through with Rick and Wayne, I promised myself I’d never so much as jaywalkagain. I don’t want to be with anyone on the wrong side of the law. I don’t want to be with someone who’d file their taxesa day late. I hate that you pulled me back into a criminal association, even secondhand.”
“I’m so sorry.” He thumped his fist against
