Page 32 of Edge of Secrets (The Edge Trilogy #2)

Chapter Nineteen

Duncan

I looked around Malloy’s, and concluded that there were too many people crowded together in the place. It wasn’t safe for Nell here. Good thing I’d had jeans and a sweater to change into at the office, because I would’ve felt like a clown in the suit in a place like this.

I’d never been in an Irish pub. The loud, fast, noodling melodies played by the table of musicians made my brain pound, but I could deal with it as long as Nell’s fingers were twined with mine.

I would accompany Nell D’Onofrio into the bowels of hell if I had to.

Complaining bitterly about hell’s shitty security all the way down, no doubt, but I’d be there to the end, stuck to her like glue.

My attention had divided itself into independently functioning units.

One unit was constantly scanning for attackers.

Another was intensely anxious about meeting Nell’s sisters, who might or might not want to toss my entrails into the gutter if I failed to adhere to some incomprehensible code of behavior toward her.

A third was intensely aware that, thanks to my uncivilized sexual excesses, Nell D’Onofrio was wearing no panties.

She looked decorous and ladylike, her tidy blouse stretching slightly across her tits, her long sweater skirt reaching to her ankles—but paradoxically, that made it even worse.

It was her little sexy secret. If I slipped my hand under that skirt and slid it up over her stockings, I’d find just hot, velvety skin between her legs.

Warm fuzz. Damp ringlets. Tender, moist pink folds inside her pussy lips.

That hot, tight, slick well. If I stroked my hand up the petal-soft skin of her upper thighs, I could just pet her tender involuted folds, feeling that hot, silken inside flesh clinging tenderly to my finger.

Talk about distracting.

We were the last to arrive, since I’d insisted on stopping at a good steak and burger joint that I knew near the Midtown Tunnel, to get some serious protein into her. When we walked into the bar, two women leaped up and went straight for Nell, sneaking fascinated peeks at me.

I was grateful for the noise level, so I didn’t have to hear what they were whispering to her, but whatever it was, it made her blush.

“Duncan, this is my sister Vivi,” Nell spoke loudly into my ear, indicating the smaller of the two women, a slender girl with long red hair and big gray eyes.

“And this is Nancy.” She touched the shoulder of the other woman, a pale beauty with hazel eyes and curly auburn hair that reached her ass.

“This is Duncan, my friend,” she told them.

“And that tall guy at the table playing the fiddle is Liam, Nancy’s fiancé. ”

The tune ended with a flourish and a burst of hoots and hollers. The guy Nell had pointed at glanced over at us, laid his fiddle on the table, and excused himself, to unanimous cries of protest. He came toward us, sizing me up with sharp green eyes.

He had a strong grip and a clear, unwavering gaze. Nell had told me the story of how Liam had defended her sister Nancy from Snake Eyes. I was a good judge of men, after all those years as a field agent, and this Liam seemed okay to me. A guy I’d want at my back. That was good. Alliances were good.

The musicians launched into a new tune, louder than the one before. “Let’s go sit at a table in the back!” Liam shouted over the din.

I was relieved at the suggestion. The back room was deserted and relatively quiet. We sat down around a table and I stoically endured their collective scrutiny.

“So, Duncan,” the sister named Vivi finally broke the silence. “I’ll just start things off by saying thanks for saving Nell’s ass for us. We can never repay you.”

“My pleasure,” I replied.

“Yes, I’m grateful too,” Nancy said. “But that brings us to something important. Nell, you and Vivi can’t live in New York alone anymore.

You need to go into hiding. I know it sounds dramatic, but so is getting jumped by three guys on Lafayette.

It’s happened to me twice, and to you once.

How many times will it take to convince you? ”

Sensible though that was, I was instantly unhappy about the prospect of Nell leaving town. But I need not have worried, because Nell was shaking her head stubbornly, true to form. As contrary with her sisters as she was with me.

“I am so close to getting my doctorate,” she said, her voice rebellious. “It’s taken me years having to work full-time while I work toward this degree, but I’m almost there. I’m not going to let this murdering piece of shit take that from me.”

“But where will you live? You could stay with me and Liam, but you’d be exposed every time you traveled back and forth?—”

“She can live with me,” I cut in. “I’ll make sure she’s covered.”

All eyes went to me for a long, startled moment. After a moment, only Nell’s eyes stayed fixed on me, big and worried, while the others exchanged silent signals, significant glances, suppressed smiles.

Nell leaned over to me. “Duncan, do you mind?” she hissed. “This is not an issue for everyone to?—”

“Actually, that is not true. It is our issue now,” Vivi said. “You’re my sister, and I don’t want you snatched. How’s the security in your building, Duncan?”

“Good,” I replied. “Even better when I’m with her. Which I’ll make a point of being, as much as possible. And if I can’t, for whatever reason, I’ll make arrangements for a professional bodyguard. At all times. No matter where she is.”

Nell glared at me. I stared back, unrepentant. The sisters and the future brother-in-law exchanged nods of cautious approval.

“I’d like to be included in the decision-making process here,” Nell snapped. “And who’s going to pay for a bodyguard? They’re expensive!”

“So Nell’s covered,” Liam went on smoothly, ignoring her protests. “Thank God. That leaves you, Viv. You can always stay with us. You shouldn’t go back on the road. At least not unless you change your name, your car, your brand, etc.”

Vivi looked forlorn. “You’re sweet, Liam, but staying with you guys is not a long-term solution.

I’m the only one of us with no pressing reason to stay in New York.

But I can’t do the crafts fair circuit if I don’t use my own name, or I’d be starting from zero again.

I can’t afford that after working so hard to build up my brand. ”

Nancy looked worried. “But I thought you wanted to quit the circuit!”

Her younger sister shook her head. “Sure. I’m sick of it, but it doesn’t make sense to stop now.

I have to wait until I’ve saved enough to buy a little house someplace beautiful, in the middle of nowhere, maybe.

Somewhere with lots of trees, where my dog can run free.

Where I can have a big studio, do sculpture again, maybe open my own shop.

But that’s just a fantasy. I lost thousands of bucks in crafts fair registration fees when I came back for Lucia’s funeral, and even more after the Boston adventure.

So now I’m way behind, and playing catch-up with my credit card. ”

Huh. Trees, flowers, a big art studio, far from New York. I had a sudden idea. A fucking awesome idea. “I know of a place you might be able to go,” I said.

They all turned. “What might that place be?” Vivi asked slowly.

“I’ve got this friend I met in Afghanistan,” I said.

“We were on an intelligence-gathering task force together. He got out of that line of work a few years ago, around the same time I did. Bought himself a place out in Oregon. He’s into organic gardening, orchards, that kind of thing.

He grows flowers, I think. I’ve never seen the place, but he told me it’s all covered with forest, and that the guy he bought the land from was an artist who’d converted the barn into a studio, with a small apartment in a loft. ”

Liam and Nancy gave each other speculative glances.

“And why would this guy want to host me there?” asked Vivi.

I shrugged. “He owes me some favors. He’s not an artist, so he doesn’t need the studio. He doesn’t raise animals, so he doesn’t need the barn. He built his own house, so he doesn’t need the apartment. And he likes dogs. Maybe he’d rent the place to you. Do you want me to talk to him?”

Talk, my ass. Bully and guilt-trip him was more like it.

Jack owed me his life, like Gant. Actually, the truth was that we all owed each other, but I would bring out the big guns to help Nell’s sister, in a heartbeat.

And the best part was, Jack was a hard-core badass.

If anyone gave Vivi trouble, Jack could handle it.

That would be part of the rental contract too.

Although no one but Jack and I would know about it.

Having Vivi someplace safe would comfort everyone and earn me big points. I’d take every opportunity I could find to do that. No matter who I inconvenienced.

Vivi’s shrug was casual, but I read signs of stress in her face, the shadows under her eyes, the nervous movement of her hands, her mouth. She looked pinched, kind of the way Nell’s beautiful face had been, just a couple of days ago.

Nell herself was looking better. Rosier, brighter, eyes sparkling.

So damn pretty, it just kept knocking me on my ass.

In fact, she was giving me a look of such shining, unmixed approval right now, it was almost disorienting.

She grabbed my hand under the table, and my brain went haywire at the contact.

My fingers curled around hers, and for a moment, I completely lost the thread of the conversation.

“... told us about the secret drawer,” Nancy was saying when I tuned in again

“Like the many other things Lucia never told us about.”

“Secret drawer?” I asked. “In what?”