The Fire in Her Eyes [In Her Eyes 2] (Siren Publishing Classic)

by K. R. Haynes

  “Honey, you want to be coming when it comes to men like Mick and my Randall.”

  “Chloe!” Mary J couldn’t hide her astonishment at her friend’s crass comment.

  “What, I’m right ain’t I?” Chloe said sweetly to her.

  Yeah, she was right. When it came right down to it, Mary J wanted to be coming while writhing in Mick’s arms, while screaming out his name in ecstasy. Sitting back in her chair, Mary J let her gaze peruse around the small cosy diner they were having lunch in and she couldn’t help but notice a few cops from the Kingston police station and Bomb Squad dining here as well. “Do we always have to dine in the same place the cops of this town eat in, sweetie?”

  “Well, umm, Jon said the food was good here and well you know…” Mary J watched the awkward little shrug Chloe did with her shoulders before she took another bite of her tuna and salad. Yeah she knew the reason why they had both chosen to eat here today. It was a safe place for them to dine in when there was a constant flow of cops coming in to eat while on their lunch breaks. She also knew Chloe still felt wary about being out in public without Randall close by, not while the stalker who attacked her still roamed free. Both Randall and Mick had ensured them both that they knew who the bastard was and that Jake was handling it for them and they would have the bastard in custody soon.

  Knowing that helped appease some of her fears, but there was still this trepidation swelling inside of her, warning her that she needed to be careful now more than ever before and so did Chloe for that matter. Mary J only knew small bits and pieces of what the stalker had done to her friend. She was well aware that there had been some threatening messages left for her. What the contents of those messages contained she had no clue of whatsoever. Chloe and Randall had both been pretty secretive when it came to the stalker. Even Mick kept his mouth shut on the subject. This only made her wonder even more if she should ask one of them about it for her own peace of mind.

  Turning her focus back to her friend, Mary J asked her how the weddings plans were coming along. For the next twenty minutes Chloe talked nonstop about flowers, dresses, and cakes. Mary J tried hard to concentrate on what her friend was saying to her as she was babbling on at a million miles an hour from sheer excitement. She was glad though that Chloe had found the love of her life. Randall sure was the perfect match for her, just like her friend was the perfect woman for him.

  Over the past few months, Mary J had witnessed Randall’s demeanour change for the better as his relationship with Chloe blossomed. It gave her a warm, fuzzy feeling in her chest just thinking about the way he had wooed her best friend in an effort to get her to remember their teenage relationship, one her friend had no memory of at the time. Chloe remembered it now though and was practically glowing with love and excitement at the future ahead of her. Even after a decade of no contact with each other, Randall was still able to find his Chloe once again. Their happy reunion had Mary J hoping that she too could find happiness with her own soul mate. She didn’t want to admit out loud that she hoped that soul mate had the name of Mick Huon tacked onto the end of it. All she could do was hope and dream that he was the one for her, just like Randall turned out to be the one for Chloe. Mary J smiled up at Chloe when she mentioned going dress shopping soon, so they could both be fitted out with a dress for the big day. “Sure, sweetie, just let me know when and where and I’ll be there with my cowgirl boots on.”

  Chloe just laughed at her and uttered, “You’re such a dork, Mary J, you crack me up sometimes I swear.”

  They both continued to discuss the upcoming wedding plus everything else in between for the rest of their lunch date. Mary J even divulged in great detail about her brief kiss with Mick at the hospital chapel. This revelation had both shocked and surprised Chloe and had left her friend stunned and silent for a few long minutes even.

  “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me this earlier, Mary J. I mean, wow, that’s a big step for him and, well, for you too, hun.”

  “To be honest, sweetie, I can’t believe I stayed mum on this piece of juicy information for so long either.” And that was nothing short of the truth. Mary J really had been amazed that she hadn’t uttered a single word to anyone about the kiss she shared with Mick. She just wished her brief intimate contact with him hadn’t ended so soon. She longed for the day where she could kiss his lips any time she wanted to. It would be a glorious day when she would be free to kiss him and touch him any time she wanted or needed to. It sure would be a glorious day indeed.

  * * * *

  Mick was in his office when he heard Randall pull up out the front of his house around noon. Dropping the folders he held in his hand on top of the desk, he strolled out to the front door to greet him. “Hey, bro, so it is true?”

  “What’s true?” Randall asked him while ambling up the gravel footpath to the front porch Mick was leaning against.

  “That you managed to stash Chloe away by herself so you could come out here on your own.”

  Randall just grunted at him then told him she was in town having lunch with Mary J so she wasn’t exactly by herself. Just hearing that the two women were having a lunch date had Mick breaking out in a cold sweat. Christ, those two women, alone, together spelled trouble for him, big fucking trouble. There was no doubt in his mind that Mary J was filling Chloe in on what had happened with his date and the way he turned up at the pub the other night to apologise to her and how he managed to completely stuff that up too. He was totally screwed and not in the way he wanted to be either.

  “You don’t look so good, mate, do you need a drink or something?” Randall asked him.

  Beer, he definitely needed the cooling amber liquid to help him focus on the reasons why Randall was here by himself to start with. Plus, he knew his best mate wouldn’t want to be away from Chloe for too long, so he really needed to get his shit together and focus on the task ahead of them. “Yeah I could do with a drink, mate, how about you?”

  “A beer sounds good to me.”

  Mick told Randall to head down to his office to start going through the folders he left out on the desk for him to go through, while he went into the kitchen to grab a couple of beers and some snacks to munch on. Strolling into his study, Mick found Randall leaning his large, hard, muscular frame against the desk. He had a white-knuckle grip on the desktop and the tension showing on his friend’s face spoke volumes to him. It also left no doubt in Mick’s mind that Randall had started with the folder containing all the juicy information in it. “So I guess you started with the most incriminating file by the looks of it.”

  Randall turned to face him and held up the photo, the one Mick had stumbled across accidentally a week or so ago. It was a picture of the station’s captain and the Bomb Squad’s informant standing alongside the now deceased Bomb Squad team member James Murphy. The photo had been taken from a surveillance camera and it looked like the three men were having some sort of secret meeting.

  “What the hell is this, Mick?” Randall asked him, holding up the photo to show him.

  “You tell me, mate, because to me it sure doesn’t look like Murphy and the captain are shootin’ the breeze with our informant that’s for sure.”

  “Jesus Christ. We are going to have to dig a little deeper into Murphy’s past and background. Going by this photo, his death is looking more suspicious by the minute. What I want to know is what this meeting was about?”

  “That makes two of us. I don’t have all the answers for you yet, but I’m telling you now, mate, we need to be careful where we dig up information, and will need to watch each other’s sixes and stay alert. Something about this whole fucking mess stinks to high heaven that’s for sure.”

  “You’ll get no arguments from me on that one, bro. What about the two women though? My gut is screaming that the stalker and Chloe’s attacker are all related to this in some way. I’m just not sure on the how yet.”

  “Yeah I know how you feel. I get the same sense of foreboding when it comes to Mary J.” />
  Mick watched as his friend placed the folder and photo back down on the desk and crossed his arms over his chest and leaned his hip against the desk before he spoke. “Is there any word on Murphy’s replacement yet, as I’ve heard jack-squat on what’s going on there? No one’s talking about it and that doesn’t sit too comfortably with me.”

  “Nuh, I haven’t heard anything official. However there is a whisper going around that the department is looking for an interstate replacement and our Team Leader is on board with it. That could all be just change-room gossip though.”

  “Someone from interstate, you say.” Randall scratched his chin, seemingly thinking about what Mick just told him.

  “What?” Mick asked him in a tone more forceful than he had expected.

  “Not sure I want someone coming in from the mainland to join the team, could end up causing more trouble than it’s worth is all.” Pinning Mick with his gaze, Randall added on teasingly, “Now, getting back to the subject of Mary J, what’s going on between the two of you, or should I say, is there something going on between the two of you yet?”

  Mick didn’t bother answering him and dismissed that line of questioning with a wave of his hand. “Come on out the back, and bring that stuff with you,” Mick said while pointing his finger at the folders on his desk. “You can look over the information I’ve gathered so far while I fire up the grill as I’m starving.”

  “You’re always starving, Mick,” Randall teased. “What you need is a petite, redheaded barmaid to cook you a decent meal so that you’re not starving no more.”

  “Fuck off, Randall, and get your arse out the back now.”

  Mick didn’t wait to see if Randall would follow him or not and stalked out of the office and into the kitchen to snag the burgers from the fridge and a couple more beers, then headed out to the back deck to fire the grill up.

  For the next couple of hours they both ate and drank while going over the information Mick had discovered that could help locate who the mole was within the Bomb Squad and police department. Randall left as soon as Chloe called him to let him know she was finishing up her lunch date with Mary J and needed a lift home.

  Closing the front door after seeing Randall off, Mick strolled out to the rear shed at the back of his property to work on the broken-down truck his dad had sent over for him in the hopes that Mick could get it up and running for him. He and his father were both of the same opinion that there was nothing better than tinkering on a piece of mechanical junk to help you unwind, and after the afternoon he had just had, he was in need of some relaxation now.

  Chapter Six

  Wednesday night was usually a slow night down at the pub, not tonight though. Mary J had been run off her feet serving behind the bar and cleaning up as the patrons left, only to have more thirsty customers come inside. Needing a breather from the ruckus surrounding her, she slipped outside to drink in the cool night air for a few minutes. It was peaceful outside. No loud music was ringing in her ears and nobody was trying to pick her up or ask for her damn phone number either.

  That was the one thing she hated most about working in a pub, the number of sleazy male customers always trying to pick her up night after night. Being that everyone around here knew her and knew she was single, it seemed to give all the unattached men from Kingston and surrounding areas free rein in trying their luck at scoring a date with her night after night. They all received the same answer from her, a polite “no.” There was only one man in the whole of Kingston that she wanted to date, and she would be dating him soon if that certain male got his damn act together.

  However, timing was everything when it came to that man. If she pushed him too hard he would only run further away from her. Mary J was well aware that Mick fancied her, but there was something holding him back from taking what was his, and she was his to take and to pleasure as often as he needed to have her and for as long as he wanted her for. The temptation to ask him what his problem was with her was there. She just hadn’t worked up the courage to ask him what it was yet. Whatever his problem was with her, he better get over it sooner rather than later, because it was like having a giant white elephant sitting in the room with them whenever they were around each other lately.

  When she’d been out at lunch with Chloe, she had thought about asking her friend for some advice on how to tackle the Mick situation. In the end she had chickened out, not wanting to share such a personal issue with her. There were some things a girl just needed to keep to herself, and Mary J felt that this was one of those things.

  Leaning against the brick wall of the pub and staring up at the cloudless, dark sky littered with shining stars, Mary J wondered how she was meant to snag a man like Mick Huon in the first place. To her, he was like a forbidden sweet treat, one she couldn’t deny herself for much longer. She wanted to taste her way up every inch of his skin with her tongue and worship every ounce of his taut frame with her hands and with her mouth. God, the man made her crazy with lust and he denied her at every turn a chance to be with him.

  For the last two years, she had maintained her single status because of her last failed relationship and didn’t want to commit herself to anyone new. She needed space and time to heal and freedom only found in singlehood, or so she had believed. However, one chanced glance in Mick’s direction had changed all that for her. And it also spelled the end of her eighteen-month relationship with her trusty vibrator, that sometimes let her down when the damn thing died or heaven forbid she ran out of batteries at a crucial moment.

  Mary J just hoped that when Mick made her his that he treated her a whole lot better than her last boyfriend ever did. Hell, even just thinking about her last turbulent relationship with her ex had her heart racing from the fear of it happening all over again.

  Her last boyfriend ended up being an abuser of the worst kind. She had been so terrified of him and had no way out of the relationship, until she ended up in hospital one night after coming home from work late. Her unplanned trip to the ER had given her a brief window of opportunity to run from him. So she took it and never looked back. She couldn’t remember exactly how she managed to get to the hospital, but she had been grateful that she had. Her ex had gone to town on her that night. She could remember that part. He had punched and slapped her until she had bled for him. She had fought that night when he had advanced on her, but he was bigger, stronger than her, and she couldn’t stop his attack on her.

  She had been vulnerable that night, a victim of his abuse and torture. She refused to be his victim or anyone else’s for the matter. Mary J just wished she could refuse the burden of shame of being a victim of an abusive spouse. The shame from that night and other nights just like that one where her ex had beaten her senseless, not to mention the other numerous things he had done to her body which were just as horrific and painful.

  Before her ex had started using her as his own personal punching bag, no other man or woman had ever raised their hand to her. Two years later, she still couldn’t shake those haunting memories from her mind. They lingered there, torturing her further by forcing her to remember them when all she wanted to do was forget. If she could forget then she wouldn’t have to relive it day after day. She had been stupid to ever get involved with her ex in the first place. She knew that now. Nevertheless, when their paths had crossed at a nightclub one night while they had both been out with friends, he had seduced her with his arrogant persona and she had accepted his offer of a dance. Then that dance turned into several and a couple of drinks later, Mary J had found herself accepting his proposal of a date for the following evening, and then had stupidly accepted another date before the first one had even finished.

  After a handful of dates with him, she had ended up in his bed and with the devil himself a month later. Myke Dillon was a nasty man and even worse boyfriend material. He had kept her on an invisible leash for ten long months, before she found her escape. She may have been brutalised by him that night two years ago, but if she hadn’t, then she
may not have ended up in Kingston two years later. Plus, there was a good chance she would have ended up dead if she had stayed with him.

  Mary J could still hear her ex’s voice in her head telling her she was his possession. He owned her and could treat her any way that pleased only him. He had told her numerous times that she was like a dog one keeps locked up in the backyard. Ugh, she had been so very stupid to ever let herself get caught up in such a harmful relationship with him. Myke Dillon had been a mistake, one she paid dearly for and one that nearly cost her, her own life. It had been the hardest decision she ever made to leave her family and friends behind so she could escape her ex and his invisible leash. She missed her family every day but couldn’t risk contacting them just in case he was tracing the calls. God knows that man knew how to not only break her but also the law too. So she ran far away from her hometown and disappeared out of sight. She made sure that she never stayed in one place for too long, just in case her ex caught on to where she was. She couldn’t allow him to discover where she was. If he found her, she was dead.

  But after almost fifteen months on the road and no sign of her ex tracking her, Mary J had made the decision to settle down in the seaside town of Kingston and had been living there ever since without a single trace of her ex. Thank god.

  The last thing she wanted was to be forced into packing up her life for a second time round and to leave behind the few close friends she had made here in Kingston. She had started her life over once already. She didn’t want to have to do it all over again. Nonetheless, if Myke Dillon came after her, Mary J knew she wouldn’t have a choice. She would have to leave and that made her heart ache at the mere thought of it. She had a life here, a good one at that, and had friendships she treasured close to her heart. Plus, there was no other place in the world where she could find a man like Mick Huon. Hell, she was damn lucky to have found him as it was. Leaving him would destroy her.