Inescapable (Men of Mercy Novel, A)

by Joss Wood

  It’s a town, not a war zone, moron!

  “Two weeks, at the most. I just need to get him bailed out, get him into rehab, and check in with my folks,” Sawyer said, sounding exhausted already. “Hire him a lawyer. Beat him senseless.”

  Kai could do this. If it meant helping Sawyer, then he would walk through the fires of hell. Although that hike sounded a great deal more fun than slowly going crazy in Mercy.

  “I’m leaving in the morning, so why don’t we blow off some steam tonight?” Sawyer suggested. “Some beers? Some pool?”

  “Sure.”

  “Jack’s at nine?”

  Kai nodded glumly and Sawyer sent him a wry smile. “You’d like Mercy, Kai, if you gave it half a chance and if you didn’t constantly have one foot out the door.”

  Kai doubted it. He was still trying to wrap his head around the concept when Sawyer poked his head back into his office. “Oh, and I heard that you spent the afternoon with Flick. I’m presuming that you weren’t playing Monopoly.”

  There wasn’t a right way, or any way, to answer that question, so Kai kept quiet but he winced internally. Crap. “How did you hear that?”

  “It’s Mercy, dude. Nothing stays a secret, ever.” Sawyer pinned him to his seat with a hard glare. “Especially since they now have an online bulletin board.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “The Mercy OnLine forum. I emailed you the link. You’ve been here a couple of days and you’ve already made the board twice.”

  Kai threw up his hand. This damned town! “You have got to be shitting me.”

  “Nope. All true. Anyway, I’m not going to ask what’s going on between you—that’s your business—but if she sheds one tear over you, I’m going to wipe the floor with your face. We clear?”

  Kai knew Sawyer well enough to recognize the seriousness of the threat. “Yeah, crystal.”

  ***

  Who was the famous author who said the only thing worse than being talked about was not being talked about at all? Oh, none of the customers—or any members of Flick’s extended family—had the guts to come out and directly ask her what she and Kai had spent the afternoon doing, but she’d lived in this town long enough to know that they were thinking about it, and speculating their heads off.

  And she wasn’t even going to think about that damn forum!

  Didn’t these people, her aunts and her cousins, and all their friends, have something better to do than talk about her love life? It seemed not. She just hoped, she thought as she wiped down the outside tables as she and her staff prepared to close the bakery for the day, that her family, especially her brother Jack, and Sawyer were kept in the dark.

  She wasn’t too worried about her dad though. He was, thank God, generally clueless, and seldom paid any attention to family gossip. He was a professional ostrich, able to shove his head in the sand whenever life got tough. It was the way he’d coped with Andy’s and then her mother’s death; he checked out emotionally. She frequently envied his ability to do just that. She’d never been able to create that distance between herself and an event like her father, brothers, and cousins managed to do. Whether it was a relationship, a death, a breakup, or a fight, she immersed herself in the situation, sinking into what was frequently a hot bubbling mess, rolling over and over in it until her soul reached saturation point.

  It was what she always did. She had no concept of taking a breath, thinking things through, finding some perspective. Since her return to Mercy four months ago, she’d been trying to be a little less impulsive, calmer. More thinking and less acting. She was trying to be more authentic and not be a reflection of what was happening around her.

  She’d thought that she might be getting the hang of being just Flick, but then Gina and her house full of secrets happened, and Kai came along. But Kai was just a distraction, a fun way to spend some time. He wasn’t another man who could cause havoc in her life—who she allowed to cause havoc—because he was gone, gone, gone. Thank God, she thought, because he was the type of man who would turn her inside out and flip her over.

  And not just sexually, although he’d done that too. Metaphorically and—she blushed—literally.

  “Flick?”

  Flick was so deep in her thoughts that she jumped at the hand on her shoulder and whipped her head around. When she saw who was standing next to the table she rocketed up, a huge smile on her face. “Mr. Mo! Oh, wow, it’s so good to see you!”

  Flick gripped the man’s still-strong arms and dropped a quick kiss on his cheek, breathing in his familiar scent. It was the smell of her childhood, of running into this bakery after school and having to hug Moses, who smelled of Ivory soap and flour, before he’d give her a piece of still-warm ciabatta slathered with homemade butter. “Oh, I’ve missed you so much.”

  “The bakery looks wonderful,” Moses said, a smile reaching his faded blue eyes.

  “Thank you. Are you back in town? I heard you left the bakery to go the city a few years back; a while before Grandma died,” Flick said, noticing the blond-haired moppet who had her head tucked into Moses side. She was looking up at Flick with deep green eyes and when Flick smiled at her she turned her face away and buried her head under her grandfather’s arm.

  Moses stared at the lime-green pots dripping with geraniums. “We went to my daughter, to help look after her.”

  Flick remembered his dark-eyed daughter, who was just a few years older than her. “Maria? How is she now?”

  Moses shook his head. “She died of breast cancer about six months ago. She was a single mom, so the wife and I are looking after Melanie here.”

  Oh, God, Flick thought, her heart bumping and her eyes burning in sympathy. “Ah, I’m so, so sorry. That’s dreadful.”

  Moses shrugged. “We still have the house here and it’s cheaper to live here than in the city, so we came back.”

  Flick didn’t want to use the word father in front of the little girl. “And the paternal? Is he part of the equation?”

  “Maria never told us who that was, and she passed with the knowledge.”

  Flick looked down into Melanie’s face and felt a tug of awareness. There was something so damn familiar about that face . . .

  Rufus sat up and she half-jumped when he emitted a high-pitched, excited bark. Looking past Moses, her heart fluttered when she saw Kai, dressed in black cargo pants and a gray long-sleeved Henley T-shirt, climbing out of what looked to be a brand new Range Rover. What a beautiful machine, Flick thought, her body tingling.

  And the car wasn’t too bad either.

  Rufus snorted his joy when Kai joined them and then whimpered when his hands sank into the special spot behind his ears. Flick was sure that she’d had the same doped-up expression on her face last night when Kai touched her sweet spot. Yanking her thoughts out of the bedroom, Flick suppressed the urge to find out what he was doing there and found her manners. “Moses, meet my favorite guy, Rufus, and his new friend Kai.”

  After shaking Kai’s hand, Moses looked at the shaggy dog and shook his head. “Where did you find this one, Felicity?”

  Moses always called her by her full name, and she loved that about him. “He was on the side of the road, injured from a hit-and-run. He had a fractured pelvis; I had to keep him caged for six weeks. After I freed him he’s taken every opportunity to run wild.” Flick saw Melanie pull away from Moses to stare at Rufus with childlike amazement. She kept her voice low and gentle. “Hey, Melanie? My name is Flick but your granddad calls me Felicity “

  “Why?” Melanie whispered.

  “Because it’s a pretty name,” Moses answered her, his hand on her head.

  Flick kept her eyes connected to Melanie. Just like Kai, she had such sad, sad eyes. And she was so young.

  “But you can call me Flick or Fee—my best friend calls me that. And this is Rufus, and he’d love you to
shake his paw.”

  Melanie’s eyes widened. “He can do that?”

  “If he feels like it.” Gesturing to Rufus, Flick grinned when Ru raised his left foot and Melanie grabbed his paw with her much smaller hand. She giggled and then dropped it to bury her face in his neck. “Nice doggy.”

  Rufus, because he was a slut for affection, sat on his haunches and allowed the little girl to hug him. Flick grinned and stood up to look at Moses, whose eyes were soft and suspiciously damp.

  “Rufus loves company, so anytime you want to come and play with him, you tell your granddad and he’ll bring you over to my house. I’m living in my grandma’s house now, Mo. Pip and I inherited the house and the bakery from her.”

  “And so you should.” Moses nodded before jamming his hands in the pockets of his faded, frayed jeans. His jacket was looking a little worse for wear too, and Melanie’s clothes looked a little tight. Keeping her voice light, Flick folded her arms and jerked her head. “So, the bakery is going really well. I can’t keep up with the orders and my bread isn’t nearly as good as yours.”

  Moses stood up straighter and she saw the interest and excitement in his eyes. Thinking she was on the right track, she kept her tone light and casual. “Pippa and I are thinking of hiring on a new baker. Do you have any ideas? I mean, I know that you won’t want to come out of retirement, but maybe you know someone?”

  Excitement was joined by anticipation in his eyes, and she saw a smile hover around his mouth. “Well, I sure do miss baking. Let me talk to the wife and see if I can help you out a bit.”

  Gotcha, Flick thought, keeping her expression bland. “Oh, Mo, that would be great. Let me know, okay? It’ll be like old times.” Flick bent down to look at little Melanie, whose small arm was still around her dog’s neck. “And, you, gorgeous girl, you come and visit me and Ru, okay?”

  “’Kay.” Melanie nodded with a small grin. They said their good-byes and Flick watched them walk away, her hand on her chest.

  “Well, don’t you just have the heart of a marshmallow?”

  Flick turned at the teasing, warm voice and sent Kai a wry grin. “The little girl lost her mom, and having an animal to play with is great therapy.”

  Yeah, okay, she was in rescue mode again, but she wouldn’t tell Kai that. But helping out and doing for others was something she’d learned at a very young age. The need to make things right, or at least a little better for people she cared about, was deeply ingrained.

  Flick smiled as Melanie turned back to look at them. “Isn’t she the cutest kid?”

  Kai just shrugged and Flick frowned. “You don’t like kids?” she asked.

  He lifted just one powerful shoulder this time and she wished she could see his eyes, which were hidden by dark, wraparound glasses. “I haven’t had anything to do with them. I don’t know how to relate to them.”

  “You were a kid once. Talk to them the way you wanted adults to talk to you.”

  “I was never a kid.” Kai’s voice was as cold as a mid-winter breeze. Dear God, what did that mean? Before she could ask, he shrugged once more and changed the subject. “So why did you offer him a job?”

  Flick shrugged. “He worked for my gran for more than twenty years and he needs money. I couldn’t not offer him work.”

  Kai’s thumb drifted across her cheekbone. “As I said, marshmallow heart.” Kai sent her a crooked grin. “So what are you going to do now?”

  Flick frowned. “About what?”

  “Well, I understand that you’re the”—he looked up at the sign—“Artsy Tartsy baker and you just hired someone else to do the job. So, what are you going to do?”

  Flick just looked at him, horrified. “Oh, shit, I didn’t think of that!” She’d done it again, jumped into a situation feet-first without any thought. Pippa, who could take months to make a decision about what toaster to buy, was going to throttle her.

  “You are pretty impulsive, aren’t you?”

  “You have no idea.” Flick muttered her reply.

  Kai just laughed and shook his head, his eyes deepening with humor. Flick saw them drop to her mouth and then to her chest and stepped back before she fell into temptation and hurled herself into his arms.

  “That reminds me—what are you doing here? You’re supposed to be gone. I thought we agreed that—” Flick felt a jerk on her hand and felt the leash slide out of her grip as Rufus lunged away. She cursed and whirled around, then winced as Rufus slapped his two front paws on the shoulders of an woman about her own age walking out of the bakery, leaving dusty paw prints on her white shirt. Rufus gave her makeup-free face a long lick and the woman yelped and dropped the box she was holding, scattering a selection of pastries all over the pavement. Those being Ru’s prime target, he dropped his paws and proceeded to gobble them up.

  Shit. She was going to have to replace the entire box. Damned dog. If Kai hadn’t had that look in his eyes, the one that was all lazy passion, then she wouldn’t have loosened her grip on the leash and she wouldn’t have to apologize to this supermodel in designer jeans. It was all his fault. She should make him pay for the box of ruined pastries.

  “I’m so sorry.” Flick quickly spoke, flashing her best conciliatory smile. “He’s just a puppy, really, and I’m trying to train him.”

  Model Girl dusted Rufus’s hair off her skirt and Flick bit the inside of her lip, waiting for a sarcastic comment or an imminent explosion.

  The woman placed her hands on her size-two hips and grinned, to Flick’s great surprise. “Don’t worry about it, I’ve been jumped on by worse.” She lifted an eyebrow in Kai’s direction. “As you should know. Hello, Boss Man.”

  “Reagan.” Kai stepped forward and his lips brushed Reagan’s temple. Flick noticed that she closed her eyes as his lips connected with her skin. Flick narrowed her eyes as Rufus leaned against her toned leg, the mean girl inside her mentally urging Rufus to pee on her shoe. Who was this paragon who Kai kissed with such affection?

  “Why are you here? I thought you were in London,” Kai asked, keeping his hand on her shoulder.

  Reagan lifted her shoulder. “Was. My contract ended.”

  Kai frowned. “Problem?”

  Sunlight bounced off her bright blond head as she shook it. “Marriage. The wife objected.”

  Kai sighed. “Those wives are hell on business. And how are things?”

  Flick frowned. She didn’t like not being in the loop. Who exactly was this Heidi Klum lookalike? What work did she do at Caswallawn and why did Flick wonder whether she’d ever been more than just Kai’s colleague? There was a familiarity, a warmth between them that suggested that they’d known each other for a long time. Had they been under the bedcovers together? Her stomach flipped over at the thought—one afternoon together and she was pea-green. Ridiculous.

  “Things are fine.”

  Kai sent Reagan a slow smile, full of affection. It was a smile Flick hadn’t seen from him before—not that she’d seen many at all.

  “It’s good to see you, Reags. It’s been a while.”

  “You too, Kai.” Reagan looked down at the empty box at their feet. “That dog ate the baked goods I was bringing to the office.”

  “Flick will replace them. It’s her mutt,” Kai said.

  Mutt? Who was he calling a mutt? Flick looked down at her dog, who was licking his balls. Hell, yeah, he was a mutt. And an embarrassing one at that.

  Kai kept hold of Reagan’s hand and Flick folded her arms, tapping her foot in irritation.

  To hell with standing around like a spare wheel. Flick cleared her throat and held out her hand in Reagan’s direction. “Hi, I’ll introduce myself, since Kai has apparently forgotten to do so. I’m Flick. I’m the co-owner of the bakery, so if you give me half a minute, I’ll replace those pastries for you.”

  Reagan’s smile was warm and open and Flick was tempted to
like her. “Oh, that’s great! Thank you so much.” She looked up and down the street and turned back to Kai. “So back in Mercy, huh?” She smiled up at him. “How are you coping?”

  “It’s still my definition of hell,” Kai said.

  Jeez, what was his problem with her town? Flick glared at him. “As I keep saying, you’re welcome to leave,” Flick told him, her tone frosty. Why was he still here? Was he trying to torment her? If so, he was doing it well. She extended her thumb and jerked it toward her shoulder. “The airport is that way. Just drive down this street, turn right, and keep on going. I thought that was the plan.”

  Kai dropped his eyes to her feet and they drifted up her legs, lingered on her hips, her stomach, her breasts, before eventually connecting with hers again. Heat and memories, wet and warm, pulsed through her. His mouth on her breasts, his lips drifting lower . . .

  Do. Not. Go. There.

  Kai spoke again. “Yeah, well, that’s partly why I’m here. I just stopped by to say—”

  “Sawyer!” Reagan squealed. Both Flick and Kai whirled around and she immediately knew, thanks to Sawyer’s sucking-a-lemon expression, he’d heard about their afternoon tryst. As Reagan ran to greet her cousin, God, she also had the quick moves of an athlete, Flick decided that it would be a good time to retreat. Kai was on his way out of town and Flick didn’t have the foggiest idea why he’d come down to the bakery to say good-bye again. She thought that they’d covered all those bases last night.

  They didn’t need to rehash it.

  “I’ve got to go. Bye. Again,” Flick muttered to Kai. Without giving him a chance to respond, she spun away and yanked the door open to the bakery. Irritated, she walked up to the counter, and her hands slapping the counter brought Tiffany, who was texting on her phone, to her feet. She jerked her thumb over her shoulder in the direction of the front window where Kai, Sawyer, and Reagan were smiling at one another in the sunlight. God, he looked stunning when he relaxed and smiled like he meant it. What she wouldn’t do to have him smile at her like—