Free Mackie's Men by Lynn Ray Lewis Page B

individuals that carried similar traits and each man wore the same tat on their upper chest. A three flamed fire was an unusual tattoo with vivid coloring, and she wondered at the meaning.
    No matter how deep she dug, there was no mention of how they met, or any permanent female companions. Rumors and speculations ran from gay to kinky and straight when she spoke to a few people about any of the men. Maybe she would eek out some information on her date, but she wouldn’t hold her breath. The best she could hope for would be a pleasant dinner and conversation. At least for tonight.

    She walked into the pub and wasn’t surprised to see the place was almost filled to capacity. She stood by the door to try to find Liam, but there were too many people blocking her line of sight, and it creeped her out a little. She hated crowds of people. In her profession, a crowd of people could contain who knew how many potential assassins. Deciding to walk further into the room, she began dodging waitresses and people balancing drinks in an effort to get to their tables without spilling the contents of the glasses. She glanced toward the bar and saw a tall man with a moustache and bald head waving his fingers at her to keep going to the back of the room. She pointed at herself and he nodded his head and smiled. She smiled back and kept walking.
    Liam must have asked the man to watch out for her and direct her to his table. It was a nice thing for him to do, and for some reason, the knowledge made her feel warm inside. She still hadn’t seen Liam in any of the booths or at the scattered tables as she was almost to the back wall when her arm was grasped just above the elbow of her right side. She stopped in her tracks and slowly looked to see if she should have cause for concern.
    “Liam asked me to bring you to the room, this place is always a crush on Friday nights. I told the dumbass that he should have picked a less popular place to have this meeting, but he figured that you would want to be in a public place the first time. And by the way, you look beautiful tonight.” Darryl Reynolds was talking and almost mowing people down as he pulled her along through the short hallway and she was surprised she hadn’t questioned his presence.
    He didn’t even stop when they reached one of the small meeting rooms, he just opened the door and almost shoved her inside the room before he came in behind her and shut and locked the door. “Now she’s wondering if I’m going to try to kill her or fuck her. I told you that you should have picked a place that would be quieter,” Darryl said to Liam, even as he took her arm again and escorted her to the table and pulled out a chair for her to sit in, before scooting her forward and sitting in a chair on the opposite side of the table.
    The only thing on the table was a leather soft-side file case, and an electronic notebook. There were no drinks, not even a bowl of popcorn in the room, and she was getting the impression that she had been lured here for something other than for Liam to whisper sweet words into her shell like ears. Fuck, just her luck to be attracted to someone who wanted to use her for reasons other than a bed partner. Men like these didn’t go for scarred oversized women with brains, and she should have known better than to allow vanity to override reality.
    So much for Laura’s giddy excitement that the handsome Mr. Klinger was romantically interested in Mackie. She’s chatted along as they finally picked out the pretty royal blue dress that was short enough to be fashionable, yet long enough not to show her ass when she sat down. The five inch heels did awesome things for her legs and the way she walked too.
    Liam was still on the phone talking in French, if she wasn’t mistaken, and she was about done with this charade. It had been a good ten minutes since she’d walked into the room and sat down. She turned her inquiring eyes toward Darryl. “Is this a business meeting? I