Delaney stood, paced the length of the house. Shook her head when it took less than ten steps, and then returned. “I’ll verifyyour actual transcripts. Making a set under your current name won’t be any trouble after that.”
It was that simple? After all these months of assuming her dream of teaching was gone for good? Maybe she should’ve gone tothe authorities sooner.
Or maybe everything had happened at the right time, for the right reason. That would take some more pondering once her pulsestopped racing with joy. “Thank you. Thank you so much.”
Acting on impulse, she hugged Delaney. The marshal stiffened initially, but she did come around to a few light pats on Sierra’sback.
“To be clear, you’ll have to testify under your real name. Once we catch Wayne and Rick, the danger to you will be over. Wouldyou like protection until then?”
“No. I’ve already got protection.” Sierra heard the confidence brimming in her words.
It was true that she’d never felt safer than when with Flynn. The problem was that she’d said some harsh things to him. Judgedhim, in a way he hadn’t judged her at all when she’d shared her story. Flynn was such a good guy, he’d protect her no matter what. Even if their relationship was over.
But she hoped that wasn’t the case.
Chapter Twenty-three
A tap on his shoulder had Flynn spinning around, fists raised. Especially dangerous since one held a hammer.
Rafe leapt backward, banging into the workbench before tripping over a pile of wood scraps. His mouth moved, and from thethunderous expression on his face, Flynn wasn’t at all sad he couldn’t hear the words.
He yanked off his headphones. “I thought we had a rule. No sneaking up on each other. Not so much a safe thing to do withex-mobsters.”
“That’s why I tapped you on the shoulder. To not sneak up on you. Jesus H, Flynn. There’s no danger here. Overreact much?”
Flynn thought about that as he put the hammer down on the grass. “No. Not an overreaction at all. Just because O’Connor’sgone doesn’t mean there’s no danger.”
“He’s not just gone. More importantly, he didn’t come here for us. Our cover’s still rock solid. No one from McGinty’s crew has any ideawe’re in Bandon.”
Yeah. But . . . “We got lazy, depending on the marshals to keep us safe.”
“You got spooked,” Rafe corrected.
“Maybe it was a sign that we should keep our guard up.”
“No way. I’m not living with one eye over my shoulder and one arm cocked again. Not in this new life we’ve got. This thingwith O’Connor turned out to be a big fat nothing. So quit with the fists as your first go-to.”
Rafe was right. Flynn hadn’t so much cared before if danger came down the pike and necessitated another move. Now that hedid, he’d overreacted. Covering, he said, “You’re scared because you know I can take you.”
“I’m scared you’d embarrass yourself trying.”
Flynn decided to test the normalcy of their brotherly bond. He’d either get an elbow to the face or an answer that would helphim sleep at night. “Hey, Rafe? Can I ask you something?”
His older brother tugged at the dark wave of hair atop his head. “Shit. Now what’s wrong?”
“You just said we shouldn’t be living under a Code Red mentality.” He wiped his hands on his shorts to get rid of the wood dust. “Whyassume anything’s wrong?”
“Because I know you. Because the last innocent question you asked me was if I wanted sausage on our last pie at Lou Malnati’s.”
Son of a bitch. Like Flynn wasn’t having a shitty enough day without that reminder of one of the things he missed most abouthis former life. “Why’d you have to go and mention pizza? Every time I get the craving for some deep-dish under control, yougo and bring it up.”
“That’s the problem with going cold turkey. Cutting off an addiction like that never works.”
Not as if they’d had a choice.
Rafe of all people should remember that, seeing as how he was the one who made the unilateral decision to uproot them. ButFlynn understood why, and wouldn’t be giving his brother grief about it anymore. He’d spent too long already moping aboutthe past.
With a hope in his voice he barely felt, Flynn said, “Think we can split a pie when we go back to testify?”
Rafe shook his head. And had the decency to look damned sad about it. “We can’t go to the restaurant. It’d be one of the firstplaces McGinty would send people to look for us. But maybe we could sweet talk Delaney into bringing us takeout.”
“I dunno. I’m pretty sure the favor I asked her for this week already pushed the limit.” Flynn was, in fact, positive he couldn’t ask her for another favor and needed to do something nice for her. Over-the-top nice. He’d offer to build hersomething, but he had no idea if the marshal even had a real home, or just followed her protectees around the country 24/7.
Didn’t that just put things into perspective about his six months of bitching about the homes she’d tried to get him to accept?
“You asked for help changing someone’s life,” Rafe said. “This isn’t close to being on the same level. I’ll give her the money.I just want a fucking slice.”
The ferocity in his tone gave Flynn more than a little satisfaction. It was only right that Rafe should crave it as much ashe did. “About the whole danger thing . . .”
“Christ. We’re circling back to that? You want to rig up pots and pans hanging from the ceiling like Home Alone in case someone tries to break in?”
“Very funny.” Flynn twisted his upper body to deliver a high side and back kick combo to the air. “You forget that I knowseven ways to completely disable, if not kill, an opponent with my bare hands. I don’t need a homemade alarm to keep me safe.”
“Then what’s with the one-track mind?”
Flynn paced a slow circle around the bookcase he’d almost finished. He’d been too busy having fun with Sierra all these weeksto work on it. That excuse was gone
