Free Hunted Love (A Dangerous Kind of Love Book 2) by Lisa Boone

Kristen wagged her finger at him, her anger growing. “I knew you were lying, Brian. I knew you knew something about Jamie and weren’t telling us.”
    Brian reached for Kristen’s hand. “I don’t know—” His eyes widened in surprise as she jerked her hand back and strode across the room toward her husband. “Oh, that’s not good,” he said watching as Kristen and Nathan spoke to each other in low tones. They motioned for Phoebe to join them. Soon all three were staring at Brian with angry and annoyed looks on their faces. “Oh, this is bad. Jamie isn’t going to like this.”
    Sarah sagged in relief. For a moment there, when Brian hadn’t answered, she had assumed the worst.
    Brian pointed his finger at her. “Just so you know, when this hits the fan, I’m blaming you.” He took a nervous half-step back as Kristen, Phoebe and Nathan descended on him, pulling him out of the living room and towards the library across the foyer.
    Sarah winced as the door slammed shut behind them.
     
    *  *  *
     
    An hour later the library door opened and Brian, Phoebe, Nathan and Kristen left, each going their separate ways. It was shortly after that, that Sarah noticed that her and Jamie’s name began popping up in conversations around her. Whenever she tried to get close enough to overhear what was being said, the conversation would stop and change to another subject until she moved on.
    Irritated, she searched the downstairs until she found Brian leaning up against the bar in the study talking to two of the pub’s regulars: Danny Dwyer and Mickey something or other. She had never been able to find out Mickey’s full name. Not that it mattered. To everyone, he was known simply as Moose.
    She stopped next to them just as Danny and Moose broke out into peals of laughter.
    “Oh, come on, Brian,” Moose said, “associating with us isn’t going to kill your career.”
    “It’s not going to help it either.” Brian turned to her with a sour expression on his face. “Well, this has been fun,” he whispered cryptically before hurrying away.
    She started to follow but found herself sandwiched between Danny and Moose. Danny wrapped an arm around her neck before she could leave, causing a slight shudder of revulsion to course through her body.
    “Here’s our good luck charm,” he said drawing her closer to the bar. “I hope you stick around forever.”
    Sarah raised her eyebrows, trying not to make a face at the smell of liquor covering him. She ducked her head, gracefully stepping out of his embrace. “Why is that?” she said twirling back around to face him.
    Danny held his arm out suspended for a moment before casually letting it drop. “I heard Jamie won’t come back until you leave.” His thin mouth stretched across his thin face, ear to ear in a cruel sort of smile.
    Sarah felt a little piece of her heart breaking. She swallowed hard. “That’s ridiculous. Where did you hear that?”
    “Brian.” Danny smoothed back an errant strand of red hair on his forehead before reaching for his drink. “He told us that Jamie got shot trying to protect you. Did you really hire that loser to follow you around like some kind of bodyguard?”
    Moose snorted in amusement.
    She turned to glare at Brian’s back. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Danny.”
    “Oh, don’t play dumb with me,” Danny said. “The cat’s out of the bag. Brian told us he had to patch Jamie up at your grandpa’s place.”
    “Seriously, Sarah,” Moose added gently laying one of his big thick hands on her shoulder, “if you needed someone’s protection you should’ve come to see Danny or me. Jamie’s no good any more. We would have helped you.”
    “Yeah,” Danny said, “and it wouldn’t have taken us months to take care of the problem.”
    “That’s right,” Moose said.
    “Could’ve taken care of that psycho after your sister just like that,” Danny said snapping his fingers. “What you needed was a real man.