Irished (The Invincibles Book 7) by Heather Slade (the top 100 crime novels of all time txt) 📕

“Should I?”

Flynn giggled. “We went and saw his band play last night.”

“Nope, I didn’t recognize him.”

Flynn took a sip of her beer, stood, and held her hand out to me. “Wanna dance?”

The dance floor in the bar was a lot smaller than the one in the barn, but that was okay; we didn’t move around too much.

I took a break to go to the men’s room, and when I came back, I didn’t see Flynn anywhere. I ordered another beer and turned around to watch Holt play. A flash of a red-print top caught my eye, and I realized Flynn was dancing with a guy I didn’t remember meeting.

“Who’s that?” I asked Buck when he came and stood next to me.

“You mean dancing with Flynn? That’s Paco. He’s one of the guys who works in the kitchen.”

The bartender slid Buck’s drinks across the bar while I watched Flynn dance with a man a lot closer in age to her than I was. Somebody who’d probably be sticking around longer than I would be too since he worked at her family’s ranch.

Whatever the guy said to her made Flynn laugh. He tightened his arm around her waist, spun her around, and she giggled. Once she started, she couldn’t stop. The guy was laughing too.

When her brother started another song, the two kept dancing.

“How’s it going?” asked Ink.

“Pretty tired. Anybody heading to the ranch?”

“I can take you if you want.”

“Don’t want to spoil your fun.”

Ink raised one eyebrow. “I’m on your detail, man. This isn’t about fun.”

I threw some money on the bar and left before the song ended.

Instead of going to the dining hall, I made do with what I had at the cabin for the next few days. When I needed something, I asked one of the guys to pick up whatever it was for me the next time they went into town.

I felt like a jerk both for my foolish flirtation with Buck’s kid sister and for leaving the bar that night without saying a word to her. Both were jackass moves, but neither mattered. I was here to do a job while, at the same time, keeping my head down so I didn’t draw attention or bring danger to the Roaring Fork.

There was no doubt that if our suspicions were right and we hadn’t nailed everyone with the arrests of a couple of months ago, whoever was still out there would be gunning for not just me but Cope, Ali, and Decker too.

I still wasn’t convinced that Stella’s aunt, Kerr, or Interpol were connected to Fisk, but until we ruled that out, I had to consider it a possibility.

Something outside caught my eye, and when I stood, I saw it was Flynn. She dropped a package off on the porch and turned around to leave. From what I could tell, she kept her eyes down the whole time.

I raced over to the door, pulled it open, and called out her name. She turned around and shielded her eyes from the sun.

“Did you need something?”

“I wanted to talk to you for a minute.”

“Is there something wrong with your cabin?”

“No, nothing like that. I just thought I should explain about the other night.”

She opened the driver’s door to her truck. “Nothing to explain. Have a good rest of your day, Paxon.”

“Hang on.”

Flynn got in the truck, but when I approached, she rolled the window down.

“You were having so much fun, and I didn’t want to put a damper on your night.”

“Yeah, your leaving didn’t put a damper on my night at all.”

“Like I said, it seemed as though you were having fun.”

“Right. Was there anything else?”

“No. I just wanted to make sure things were okay between us.”

“Yep.” She turned her head and rolled up the window. As she drove away, I wondered if it was my imagination or if she had tears in her eyes.

It took three more days before I saw Flynn again, and in order to do so, I had to invent a reason.

“Your pilot light is out,” she said, sitting up from where she lay on the floor, inspecting my stove. She stood, walked over to one of the drawers, and pulled out a long-handled lighter.

“Do you want me to do it?” I asked.

“If you could do it yourself, I wonder why you called me.” She lay back down, reached in, and lit it. “There. You’re all set.”

When she stood up, I grasped her wrist and took the lighter from her hand. “I’m sorry.”

“Not a big deal. Next time, you’ll know what to do.”

“That’s not what I’m sorry for.”

“I know.”

“So you’re saying the next time I’m at a bar with you, I’ll know not to leave?”

“The next time you’re at a bar with a woman you acted like you wanted to meet you there, my advice would be not to disappear on her. As far as with me, that won’t be happening again.”

“Flynn, please accept my apology.”

“Accepted. Now, I need to get to work.”

I looked beyond her and saw Buck approaching in his pickup followed by an SUV. When they both parked, I watched Cope and Ali get out of the second vehicle.

“Friends of yours?” asked Flynn, walking out the front door with me right behind.

“Yeah.”

“I’ll let you get to it, then. Bye, Paxon.”

“Flynn, I’d really like to continue this conversation later.”

“Yep,” she said, waving behind her. I didn’t think for a split second she intended to allow me to.

I hugged Ali and Cope and followed them into Stella’s cabin, where Buck and Decker waited.

“Shall we get started?” asked Cope without any preamble whatsoever. He motioned for the rest of us to take a seat.

Decker looked at Buck, then me, and winked. He stood and cleared his throat. “Before we do that, you should know Stella is the lead on this mission. Anything related to the execution of it, has to be approved by her.”

Cope’s eyes opened wide. “Is Stella contracting for the Invincibles now?”

“That’s right, and if this