Flawless(75)

She found Kevin at the bar talking to Declan.

They both looked up at her, and Declan said, “Kevin is going to go with you to your apartment, and then he’ll hop the subway back to his place.”

She looked at her twin. “You’re not going to stay over?”

He shook his head. “I have to get some things at my apartment.”

“Then it’s senseless for you to see me home,” she said. “I can just get a cab.”

“Not alone,” Declan told her.

Normally she would have argued with him, would have assured him that she knew which areas were safe and which weren’t, and that she knew how to watch out for suspicious people and stay out of the shadows. After all, she was a native New Yorker.

But things were different now that she knew someone wanted her dead. She could have told one of her brothers.

But they would have called in the cops, not to mention the FBI, and she would have been putting Tanya in danger, besides.

“Okay,” she said simply.

By the time Kevin opened the pub door for her, she was worried that she might be putting her brother in danger, as well. Maybe she should say something. No. She had talked to Tanya in confidence.

But this was her brother....

She sensed something, and turned to see the two musicians getting up and starting toward the door.

Following her.

She stepped out to the sidewalk, and then something snapped in her and she spun around, nearly slamming into the musician from Georgia. Without stopping to think how crazy she sounded, she demanded, “Why are you following me?”

“Kieran!” Kevin protested.

But suddenly she knew. It wasn’t anything in the way he looked.

It was his scent. The faint yet sensual scent of the aftershave he wore.

Her eyes widened, but she managed not to blurt out his name, something in her mind warning her that it might not be safe.

“You bastard,” she muttered.

“Kieran!” Kevin protested again.

A cab pulled up just then to let someone out, and she spun around, raced toward it and practically leaped inside, shaking.

Special agent Craig Frasier had been spying on her family—on her—just waiting for one of them to give themselves away.





CHAPTER

FOURTEEN

“KIERAN, PLEASE, LET ME IN.”

Craig stood outside her door, aggravated and yet kicking himself. She was no fool, and she’d jumped to at least part of the right conclusion the minute she’d figured out who he was.

He didn’t know what had given him away. He’d changed his voice, and he knew his accent had been good, not to mention his disguise was worthy of the big screen.

And yet somehow she had seen right through everything.

When she didn’t answer he said, “Kieran, I’m going to start suspecting a lot more than you think I do if you don’t talk to me.”

That did it. The door swung open. She stood there in her stocking feet, hair streaming around her shoulders, eyes shooting off sparks of fury.

“I can’t believe you!” she snapped. “The whole time, you were only there to watch my family, thinking you were going to trip one of us up. What, do you think I was with the jewel thieves that night and they were all so stupid they forgot I was their partner and took me hostage? Or maybe you think Declan’s the bad guy. Yeah, Declan. He just pretends to work his ass off running the pub. He really meets with master criminals and the KGB and the IRA and you name it, ready to tear down the political infrastructure of the world.”

“Kieran—”

“Or how about Kevin? Screw acting. Maybe he’s really a drug dealer when he’s not figuring out the best way to rob a bank.”

“Kieran—”

“I know! It’s Danny. One look at him, and you just know he’s a vicious killer.”

“Kieran, stop it!”

He stepped forward, forcing her back into the living room, where she flew at him, ready to beat her fists against his chest. To his amazement, she seemed to deflate the minute she touched him.

He wrapped his arms around her, but she pulled back, walking away from him.

“You have no right to suspect my family,” she said. “I can absolutely guarantee you that my brothers would never, ever be involved in anything that hurt people.”

“Did I say I suspected your brothers—or you—of anything?” he asked her.

“No, but...”

“Are you worried about what your brothers might be caught up in?”

“No!” Kieran protested. “No!”

“Are you worried about yourself?” he asked quietly. “Or even Julie?”

She turned away and walked into the kitchen, taking a bottle of Jameson’s from the cabinet. She poured a liberal portion into a glass.

He smiled. He’d never seen her drink and doubted that she did so often. Few bartenders imbibed on a regular basis, probably because they saw the effects of too much alcohol on a regular basis.

“Were you going to offer me one?” he asked.

“I don’t know. Aren’t you on duty? Aren’t you always on duty?”

“No. Well, a lot of the time, yes,” he admitted. “But not now. I’ve never been on duty here, with you, Kieran,” he said quietly.