Flick looked up and blew air into her cheeks. Kai Manning was the last person she wanted to see her like this—blotchy skin, piggy eyes, messy hair—yet he was the only one she could stand to see. Unlike Jack, he wouldn’t try to placate her, wouldn’t try to finagle the reason for her tears out of her. He’d just offer his help.
“Jack always wants to rearrange someone’s face. It’s a quirk of his,” Flick replied in a croaky voice. “What did you do to annoy him?”
“I slept with his baby sister.”
Flick nodded. “That would do it.”
Kai folded his arms and leaned his shoulder into the door frame. “He also thinks I made you cry.”
“Not this time,” Flick answered, trying to keep her tone light.
Kai nodded. “Then who can I beat up for you?”
Flick managed a wobbly smile. There was the offer of help she expected from him, short and hard-ass, but still sweet. He was that type of man, someone who would, without fanfare, offer what he could. If he cared about you, even a little, he’d offer his time, his wallet, his fists. He was so much better than he imagined himself to be.
Flick, her feet resting on the edge of Jack’s desk, looked at him, and for the first time didn’t see the hot guy with the broad shoulders and lion eyes. She didn’t see the ex-soldier or the tough personal protection specialist. She looked past the muscles and the attitude to the man beneath. She just saw Kai.
She knew he’d expected her to run when he’d told her about his past, but instead of the thug he portrayed himself as, she saw someone who intrigued her mentally and emotionally. Someone who’d been given a hard path to follow, but who’d navigated his life using his brain and his guts, along with his street smarts. Oh, he wasn’t an angel, she knew that, but she also knew, instinctively, that he wasn’t all devil either. He lived by his own code of honor; the people he liked enough to help, he would. He would serve and protect and give as much as he could without removing the layer of Teflon encircling his heart.
He’d been disappointed too many times by too many people to ever risk his heart. It was such a pity, because whoever managed to break through the layers would be one lucky girl.
Kai snapped his fingers and she blinked. “Sorry...what was the question?” she asked.
“I was offering my services to beat up whoever it was who made you cry.”
“Thank you, but it wouldn’t be a fair fight,” Flick pushed a curl behind her ear, sadness clouding her features. “I had a horrible fight with Pippa.”
“She told you?” Flick heard Jack’s voice from somewhere behind Kai, and rolled her eyes. “She told you but she wouldn’t tell me?”
“Go away.” Kai followed his terse order with a hard look at Jack.
“It’s my office and she’s my sister.”
“Scram,” Kai stepped into the office and slammed the door closed behind him, muting Jack’s irritated squawk. Flick smiled. There weren’t many men who weren’t intimidated by her big, burly, surly brother. Kai ignored Jack’s thump on the door and flipped the lock. He walked over to the desk and sat down on the corner, placing his hand on her ankle. “I don’t know much about girls and their friendships but I would assume that it was a pretty big argument if it sent you running from your house.”
You can’t just take her over because your own mother didn’t love you enough to stick around!
Yeah, it still hurt like hell. It was one of those arguments that altered a friendship, that caused cracks in the foundation where there were none before. Nothing between them would ever be the same. Flick blinked back her tears and bit her bottom lip, trying to keep her composure. Pippa was the most important person in the world to her, and she wasn’t sure what to do next, or where to go.
“Do your tears have to do with the secret you were talking about earlier?”
Flick nodded.
“Can you tell me who is asking you to keep the secret?”
What harm could that do?
“Gina, Pippa’s mom,” Flick turned the heavy silver ring on her thumb. “After my mom died, my dad pulled away from me, and Gina took me under her wing.”
“Where was Jack?”
“Jack and my brothers have a different mother—my dad was married before. Jack is six years older than me and was in his freshman year at college. My other half-brothers are older than him. I was pretty much left to my own devices after Andy and my mom died.”
“Tough break. What caused their deaths?”There was a trace of sympathy in Kai’s voice, but not pity or misplaced sentiment.
“Andy had cancer, and my mom’s official cause of death was double pneumonia.”
“And the unofficial cause?”