Page 98 of Sins of a King

Jack ignored her comment and said to me, “Did you know he threatened me?”

My brows snapped together. “What are you talking about?”

“Your boyfriend,” he spat, his voice rising, “threatened me. Told me to stay away from you. And to keep my mouth shut about what I found in his background check.”

People were starting to look since Jack was making a scene. I didn’t care at the moment what he was spewing about Flynn. Grabbing his arm, I tugged him out of the main room. We walked away from the event to the empty Greek and Roman art wing so we could chat in private. Marble statues were our only companions as we turned to face each other.

“Do you believe me?” Glassy eyed, Jack smiled at me, but it wasn’t pleasant.

“Yes.”

“Are you angry at him? For threatening me?”

“He must’ve had a reason for it. I shouldn’t have asked you to delve deeper into his past,” I replied.

“So you no longer want to know what he’s keeping from you?”

Of course I was curious, but I thought trusting Flynn was more important. “No. I don’t want to know.”

He stepped back in disbelief. “What the hell happened to you? You’re not the Barrett I know. Blindly trusting a man because you’re fucking him.”

I reached out and slapped him across the face. Friend or no friend, he couldn’t talk to me that way. Jack slowly turned back to me, his hand going to his cheek.

“You love him.”

I said nothing as I stared at him.

“Barrett,” Ash called, striding toward us. “Are you guys okay?”

“Yes. Jack was just leaving.”

With one look back at me, Jack left, shaking his head as he went. Ash sat down on a bench and peered at me from beneath the sweep of long blond lashes. “What’s going on?”

“What has Jack told you?” I asked.

“Oh no, don’t do that. Level with me.”

I sighed, taking a seat next to her. “Okay. Let me think a minute.”

“So you can make up a lie?”

My mouth dropped open. “You think I’d lie to you?”

“I think ever since you met Flynn, things have been different—you have been different.”

“I am different,” I admitted. “I’m performing burlesque, and I’m involved with a man who’s not an open book. That’s weird for me, but I’m trying to accept it.”

“What just happened between you and Jack?”

“Jack said Flynn threatened him.”

“Why would Flynn do that?”

“A while back, I asked Jack to do a background check on Flynn. Nothing came up. It’s like he doesn’t exist. So Jack volunteered to dig deeper. And apparently he found something.”

“What did he find?”

“Don’t know, don’t want to know. Not from Jack. I’ll wait until Flynn tells me.”