by Wyatt, Dani
“I—” she started, then halted and Flynn gave her a glare. “Touch me, please. I want you to touch me.”
“That’s not good enough. I can touch you anywhere. Tell me what you really want.” He stopped moving his fingers and began to pull them away.
“NO! Wait, no, please. I want your fingers inside me, inside.” Her voice turned desperate, squeezing her legs closed to hold him in place.
“Good. Now, one more thing, just a reminder. This—” Flynn pressed between the elastic around her thigh and let his fingers feel the wet warmth, a jolt of his own panicked lust sending his brain into that place where she was his prey. “This may be between your legs. But it belongs to me. You remember, yes?”
Lilly shuddered as he sank farther into her wet folds, tickling and exploring, finding her clit and letting the tips of his fingers indulge her.
“Answer me, babe.”
“Yes, it’s yours — please, God—”
“Good girl.”
Flynn gave her what she needed, toying and dancing for a long time then sending two fingers hard and deep, pressing against her front wall until he saw her eyes lose focus, her head falling back into the door. He cherished watching her come.
Sure, seeing her like this sent his lust into the damn red zone, but she was first and foremost. He would have her tonight, and he could tell right now it was going to be another sleepless one.
Lilly’s softness ran over his hand as she bit her lip and drove her hips up into his fingers. She whimpered and moaned as Flynn drew in her scent like the sweetest smell of coming home.
“That’s it, babe. You are so beautiful.”
When she came, her walls closed in, pulsing and running like a stream as she filled the Bronco with the heavenly sound of her bliss.
When she could form words, Flynn sucked her flavor from his fingers and tried to talk down his own pissed off dick from letting go inside his pants.
“What about you?” Lilly’s cheeks were rose red.
“I’ll get my payback tonight, you’ll see. Now, go to work. Remember, they’re about the money, and you are the winning ticket, so blow it up. Give them everything they want.”
“I will. See you later.”
“You bet. Give me those lips, then get going.”
Flynn loved her mouth with his and slapped her round ass as she turned to get out the door.
Can’t get enough. Damn.
***
Blood. It was still his fuel. His fuse.
When Roger put Flynn in the ring, everything else fell away. It was his church, his sanctuary. But today, he wanted blood. His own.
When the young kid with wide eyes and the cocky stare jumped in the eight sides of chain link, Flynn already knew he needed to manipulate him. The mental was as much a part of the fight as the physical, and even though Flynn knew he could knock the little wannabe on his ass in less than ten seconds, he toyed with him.
The sound of flesh on flesh, the grunts of the kid as Flynn let him get in a few solid, body shots, kicked in Flynn’s instincts, something so finely tuned that it couldn’t be taught.
Flynn could see the tiny changes in the dilation of the kid’s eyes, the way he pulled his punch back just a split second too soon, anticipating the retaliation that didn’t come.
Now, he was off his game, not sure what his opponent was giving him.
Flynn egged him on with a shot to the chin that sent the kid staggering to the left, the sound of the metal cage rattling with his weight.
“Come on!” Flynn gestured, glaring and pulling his lips back over his toxic green mouth piece, his hands wide open, daring him to bring it. “Fucking pussy, what are you waiting for?” The sound of Flynn’s voice was muffled and muted by the rubber on his teeth, but he could see the kid heard him just fine.
The line was drawn, and it was more than a fight. If the kid didn’t come for Flynn with everything he had, he’d lose some of his sac.
Flynn smiled, tapped his fists on his rock hard abs, and began a little side-to-side dance while his opponent visibly tried to figure out what was going on.
“Quit fucking around in there! You two have your damn tutu’s on? You’re wasting my time with this princess shit! Both of you!” Roger slammed his cane on the side of the cage, and the kid’s eyes darted back and forth.
With doubt in his eyes, the young fighter came at him. He was off balance, and Flynn easily could have swept under his feet, knocked his damn teeth down his throat and had him dead to rights against the floor in three moves.
But, that’s not what he wanted.
Not today.
He needed the taste. It was his drug, his home, and it had been too long.
Flynn lowered his guard, leaned in, and finally the kid found his balls and smashed his fist, wet and out of control, into his cheek, then up with another one under, and finally, brought his leg around and landed with a huge ‘thunk’ on the side of his head, sending his face into the metal cage.
Ahhhh, and there it is.
That flavor rolled down his face, off his lip, and he sucked it into his mouth. When he turned, the poor kid was already covering up, waiting for what would happen next.
Instead of giving him the beating of his lifetime, Flynn raised his fists for a bump.
Roger’s yelling and moaning in the background barely registered as Flynn swallowed.
“Good hit. ‘Bout time. You waited too long. That was a gimme. Next time, I’m taking your ass. You just caught me right. Good fight.”
Flynn stomped out the cage, Roger right behind him, poking his cane into any part of his body he could reach.
The next three hours, Roger did his best to kill him — on the bag, the weights, whatever he could find. Flynn took everything the old man had and drank in the pain. By the time he left the gym, every muscle vibrated but his head pounded and his fingers felt like they had been smashed with a hammer.
Perfect, I’m ready for tonight.
Chapter Thirty-two
There is nothing that exists close to how I feel when he takes me the way he does. Like a moth flying straight into the flame, I’m no one I ever imaged I would be.
After Flynn picked Lilly up from work, they’d managed a quick dinner before he took her in three different rooms, leaving them both slick and spent.
Flynn kissed the ring on her finger before tucking her under the quilts. The last thing Lilly remembered was his warm breath in her ear.
“You are mine, beauty. Don’t ever forget it. In two days, we’re going to make that legit, just you and me and the judge. It’s all for us. When all this other shit is over, I’ll marry you again in front of whoever you want, but it’s more important for you to belong to me in every way right now.”
Lilly never dreamed of a big white wedding.
Never imagined it at all.
Never wanted to marry.
No one ever showed her a marriage that she admired.
With his lips on her neck, she finally drifted into this new dream, only it was just them, taking their vows with each other, no one else around. And it was exactly as she wanted.
***
“Hurry, okay?” Little Molly’s eyes darted around like that of a field mouse.
“I know. Thanks. I’ll be back for you, I promise, okay?”
Flynn ducked inside the door, the house nearly silent except for Molly’s soft, quick breathing.
“You better not get me in trouble.”
“Nope. Cross my heart. Just go back to work; pretend everything is normal. I’ll get back out on my own.”
When she tiptoed away, Flynn sniffed, working his way down the hall toward the office.
Ironically, Molly had told him his father kept the thumb drive in a hollowed out copy of Hamlet. Another beautiful family epic with a happily ever after, just like the Dunleavy dynasty.
There was no sound now except his blood moving through his veins.
The floor on the old house squeaked under his weight, but Flynn didn’t
temper his steps. No one was here, and his task would be fast and exit-easy.
That thumb drive would have all the codes, computer passwords and who knew what else. He should have enough time to log onto the laptop he’d brought, download the files, get into the safe for a good cash load, and finish up by getting what he needed to access the bank accounts Colin kept in Flynn’s name — accounts with at least seven figures.
A soft beep stopped him as he stood next to the office door. Security was on, but it didn’t matter. By the time Colin figured out what was amiss, it’d be too late. With the flash drive back in place, Colin would be none the wiser until shit blew up.
Once inside, Flynn let his eyes adjust to the dim light as he scanned the twelve vertical feet of book shelves, stopping on each faded, green-leather, bound spine for the gold lettering of the classic novel.
His heart kept pace with his eyes as they darted for what felt like hours over the hundreds of volumes that filled the shelves. Finally, he locked on to the single word title, and he felt more nervous than ever.
The book had that musty, antique-paper scent, but instead of pages of text, there was a perfectly cut out square in the middle of the pages.
Flynn fingered the little storage devices, not just one, but three.
“Fuck,” Flynn whispered. This would take longer than he’d thought.
The good news, they were right where Molly said they would be. The little flash drives felt so small and at the same time so heavy as he powered up his laptop and pressed the first device into the USB port.
“Come on, baby. Show me what you got.”
The drive opened up, and there were thousands of files. He didn’t bother to look at what they were. He just needed the data. He could filter through it later.
The first took a good twenty minutes, the next two about fifteen each and Flynn felt his heart starting to hit the inside wall of his chest. Just being in there for so long was turning his fingertips cold.
The last drive seemed to stick on a file as Flynn looked at his watch and stared at the unmoving progress bar.
“Fuck, come on.”
The silence in the enormous house turned ominous. A flash of light from the driveway spun Flynn’s head around.
He felt his breath stall in his chest, held it until his lungs burned, waiting for the download to complete.
Come on, come on, fuck. Chill out, no one’s here, man. He’s gone until tomorrow night. Just take a breath and nut up. Almost done.
Just as he felt his heart begin to slow, the sound of light footsteps hit his ears like a bomb.
“Hey!” Molly’s urgent voice came through the doorway.
“What?” Flynn whispered, but he knew already.
“He’s here! They’re coming inside! You gotta go!”
“Fuck!” Flynn whispered, the progress bar at ninety-nine percent
“NOW! Please, you got to go!” Molly was shaking as she flipped her head to look down the hall, then back at Flynn. “They’re coming!”
One hundred percent.
Flynn snapped the laptop shut and jerked the last flash drive out. Stumbling around in the dark, he threw them back into the book and shoved it on the shelf.
“Molly, go, take this. Put it outside the back door under that big white rose bush. Okay? Please, don’t ask. Just do it. That way.”
Flynn shoved the laptop into her hands and gave her a push in the opposite direction from the back door.
“Go! Go somewhere until they’re settled in, in bed or whatever. Go! Trust me, just leave that where I told you — I’ll get it. Thank you, Molly.”
Flynn watched to be sure she made it around the corner toward the guest wing, then he made his way to the main stairs. If he got caught, he sure as shit didn’t want Colin to think he’d been in his office.
Muffled voices were coming from somewhere. In this cavernous old house, things echoed and shifted, and in the dark, he couldn’t see shadows.
Flynn froze. The scrape of shoes on the wood floor from directly behind him as he came around the corner toward the massive curved staircase. Just as he turned to bolt upstairs, he felt the cold steel press into the back of his head.
“Hello, son.”
***
The light gray cement floor darkened in spatters of crimson under Flynn’s face as his breath came out in a ragged, wet burst.
“You have to know me better than that. You think I don’t know she’s been gone? That you’ve been together at that house? You cannot outmaneuver me, son. It’s not your instinct. Besides, you haven’t the resources. If I wanted you dead, I could have taken care of that already.”
A burning, intense pain throbbed in his side under his left arm where one of the goon squad swung a 2 x 4.
One of the two black suits held his own blood back with a piece of gauze where Flynn managed to swing on him and slam his face into the cinderblock wall. Cement floor, no windows, painted stark, glossy white with a drain in the middle of the floor and a utility sink and stainless steel shelves against one wall.
The room was always locked when they were kids. But, as they’d gotten older, Colin had stopped hiding it, and now both his sons knew its purpose. After all, cleaning up blood was a lot of work when there were carpets and furniture involved.
“Fuck off.” Flynn spit as blood filled his mouth.
He pushed up off the floor. Taking a breath was like stabbing himself with ten knives, but fuck if he was staying down. Let them take another shot. They could beat him until their hands ached — as long as he lived. He just had to live.
His left eye was swollen shut, cutting down his peripheral vision, but he could hear the movement to that side, so he turned to keep his good eye on the threesome.
“Why can’t you just do as you are told? Why must you make life so difficult for yourself? You're not hurting me. You realize that, right? You never did understand. You have the violence. It’s your defiance that keeps you from your potential.”
“Fuck. Off.” Flynn felt his heart race as he pulled his shoulders back.
The two walls of black-suited muscle took a step forward, daring him to come closer to his father.
“If only you would be more like your brother. He understands, has the instinct for our business. I raised you both to take your place next to me. Only you, my dear son, have pushed back every step of the way. Remember when you were twelve, when you got your nickname? You hated it.” Colin smiled as Flynn remembered how they had called him Push for a year before they realized he was going to swing on them every time they said it. “Because that’s all you ever did, push back. Don’t you appreciate our life? You want to end up in that hole down in Detroit? Is that the life you want?”
“I want her. That’s all. I don’t give a shit what kind of life I have. Just let her go, and I’ll be gone.”
“I don’t care what you want. What matters to me is securing this family’s future. I need her for that, to bring us into the legitimate world with more money than we ever imagined. What is it that you want? What can you do for her? You keep her in an old lake house. You can’t even take care of her. But you’re right about one thing, I don’t care about you, not your life. It’s true I raised you, and you're lucky for that. Without me, you would've been raised by the state, eventually found your home in Jackson State Prison. Probably should be there now. It’s where you belong. It’s me that kept you from that, because I’ve always been too soft-hearted.”
Flynn spit again, the color more pink than red now.
“Yep. Your next Father’s Day card said just that. You’re too soft-hearted, Dad. Please, fuck me up some more.”
“You had your place here. You’ve been a good dog when you fought, showed me you have what it takes. But then like always, you get too caught up in your own head. Overthink things.” Colin pointed to Flynn’s forehead with a sick, playful smile “Don’t fool yourself, you and I are not so very different. Your hands are plenty dirty, don’t forget. You’ve done your job just like t
he rest of us. Bloodied your hands.”
“What the fuck do you want?”
“I want her to finish what she started, to stay the course with the family. We have a debt to pay, Flynn. I know you don’t respect the way things are done, but it doesn’t change anything. I take care of my responsibilities.”
“Yeah, you sure do.”
“Stop it. Grow up. I’m not telling you to bring her back. Fuck her. I don’t care. But, she will show up and finish this work, or you’re both going to end up down here and you will get to watch me fuck her right before I stick a damn knife in you.”
Flynn blew up, his body rising like a shark from the water to smash a punch in Colin’s mouth just before the goons managed to get their hands on him. Flynn twisted, screaming as the pain from his ribs shot white light across his vision.
He tore one hand free, lurched forward as Colin’s hand went to his face and shot one more bullet from his fist into his father’s gut, sending him folding over.
“No, it’s okay.” Colin chuckled.
The goons took Flynn in a headlock, and he saw stars dance in his eyes as one slammed his fist into his gut.
“That is who he is, an undisciplined dog who needs to be trained. I expected nothing less from you, son. So, here’s the deal.”
Colin’s face turned to stone as he moved close enough that Flynn could see the gold fillings in the back of his mouth as he spoke. His breath was hot and smelled of Scotch.
“She finishes her work, or she will never see her mother again. I know what her currency is. I’m four steps ahead of you. You can’t trump the master, son. You do what you’re told; keep watching over Topher’s little gym. I know you’ve been there. You’re still fighting those losers. Maybe it’s where you belong. But, her — make no mistake, she will finish this job. She will marry me because that is the contract, son. Our life is not about love, it’s about honor and making good on our word — which I intend to do.”
Colin stared Flynn down as Flynn fought, his hands pulling at the locked arm around his throat. Another gut punch from Thing Two left him struggling to breathe as stabbing pain radiated up and through his cracked ribs.
