Flynn's Firecracker: A SEALs of Honor World Novel (Heroes for Hire Book 5) Read online

  FLYNN’S FIRECRACKER

  Heroes for Hire, Book 5

  Dale Mayer

  Books in This Series:

  Levi’s Legend: Heroes for Hire, Book 1

  Stone’s Surrender: Heroes for Hire, Book 2

  Merk’s Mistake: Heroes for Hire, Book 3

  Rhodes’s Reward: Heroes for Hire, Book 4

  Flynn’s Firecracker: Heroes for Hire, Book 5

  Logan’s Light: Heroes for Hire, Book 6

  Harrison’s Heart: Heroes for Hire, Book 7

  Saul’s Sweetheart: Heroes for Hire, Book 8

  Dakata’s Delight: Heroes for Hire, Book 9

  Michael’s Mercy: Heroes for Hire, Book 10

  Jarrod’s Jewel: Heroes for Hire, Book 11

  Books in the SEALs of Honor Series:

  Mason: SEALs of Honor, Book 1

  Hawk: SEALs of Honor, Book 2

  Dane: SEALs of Honor, Book 3

  Swede: SEALs of Honor, Book 4

  Shadow: SEALs of Honor, Book 5

  Cooper: SEALs of Honor, Book 6

  Markus: SEALs of Honor, Book 7

  Evan: SEALs of Honor, Book 8

  Mason’s Wish: SEALs of Honor, Book 9

  Chase: SEALs of Honor, Book 10

  Brett: SEALs of Honor, Book 11

  Devlin: SEALs of Honor, Book 12

  Easton: SEALs of Honor, Book 13

  SEALs of Honor, Books 1–3

  SEALs of Honor, Books 4–6

  SEALs of Honor, Books 7–10

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  About the Book

  Complimentary Download

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Epilogue

  Author’s Note

  Complimentary Download

  About the Author

  Also by Dale Mayer

  Copyright Page

  Back Cover

  Welcome to Flynn’s Firecracker, book 5 in Heroes for Hire, reconnecting readers with the unforgettable men from SEALs of Honor in a new series of action packed, page turning romantic suspense that fans have come to expect from USA TODAY Bestselling author Dale Mayer.

  Some jobs are more pleasant than others…

  Flynn agrees to do a security job for Levi as a trial run for more work. Looking after Anna and her animal shelter is a breeze. Trouble free. Until he leaves…

  Having Flynn around was both good and bad. To have the help at the shelter was huge, but they drew sparks just being around each other. She tells herself she’s relieved when he’s gone but when a dead man shows up, she’d do anything to have him back.

  Someone is after Flynn… and he doesn’t care who he kills in the process…

  Sign up to be notified of all Dale’s releases here!

  Your Free Book Awaits!

  KILL OR BE KILLED

  Part of an elite SEAL team, Mason takes on the dangerous jobs no one else wants to do – or can do. When he’s on a mission, he’s focused and dedicated. When he’s not, he plays as hard as he fights.

  Until he meets a woman he can’t have but can’t forget. Software developer, Tesla lost her brother in combat and has no intention of getting close to someone else in the military. Determined to save other US soldiers from a similar fate, she’s created a program that could save lives. But other countries know about the program, and they won’t stop until they get it – and get her.

  Time is running out … For her … For him … For them …

  DOWNLOAD a complimentary copy of MASON? Just tell me where to send it!

  Chapter 1

  He damn well better be there. Anna Burrows whipped down the road, turned into the compound and braking hard, stopped abruptly in front of the garage. Part of her was absolutely ecstatic to see Katina, while another was equally so to see Flynn. But the biggest part of her was furiously angry with him. And she planned to take a strip off his hide. If he wouldn’t stand still long enough for her to do that, she would rip into him one way or the other. She hopped out and slammed her car door. Several men stood in front of the garage, and a few more came out to see what the commotion was. Then she caught sight of Flynn. She snagged his jacket from the passenger side, stormed up to him and slammed it against his broad chest.

  “Did you really think I wouldn’t know?” she yelled into his face. “You did this on purpose. Why? Why would you do that?”

  His face split into a huge grin. And his eyes danced with joy. She knew she had made his day, but this was way too damn serious to let him walk all over her.

  A joke was one thing. But this was beyond that.

  She shoved her face into his surprised one. “Well, it didn’t work, asshole.” She turned and marched back to her car. Then she grabbed the plastic bag from the dashboard and held it up for everyone to see.

  By now there had to be half a dozen men about. All of them big badass-looking dudes. But her gaze was locked on Flynn. He was the one who had made her absolutely bonkers the last few weeks. She knew she’d been nothing but a job to him, all the sadder for the type of reaction he’d gotten out of her, but even then he hadn’t been able to keep it totally professional.

  From the first moment he’d stepped on her property, he’d set her ire exploding into the sky. And it hadn’t calmed down yet. She shoved the bag in his face. “And if this is yours, I’ll call the cops again and see if it’s covered in owl blood—one that was killed last night and left gutted on my back step. And, lo and behold, this bloody knife was in your goddamned jacket pocket in my bedroom.”

  With fury riding her like she’d rarely felt before, she pulled her arm back and smacked him hard across the face.

  Absolute silence filled the air.

  Then she heard a gasp. “Anna?”

  Katina came running. As soon as Anna saw her best friend, she burst into tears. The two women fell into each other’s arms. Not one of the men said a word.

  Finally, when she had calmed down enough to stop crying, Anna hugged Katina again and said, “I’m so sorry. But I had to come and tell him that I knew what he did.”

  Katina shook her head. “Something’s wrong, sweetie. Flynn might be a lot of things, and I certainly don’t know him as well as the others, but I do know the type of man he is. He’d never hurt an animal.”

  Anna lowered her voice and whispered so the men couldn’t hear. “What about a woman? As in my heart?”

  Katina pulled back to stare into her friend’s eyes and must have understood as she didn’t say a word, but Anna saw the question in Katina’s gaze. Anna shook her head.

  “I’m sorry,” Katina whispered. “I was hoping things would work out better between you two.” At that Katina turned and stepped in front of Anna, fisted her hands on her hips and glared at Flynn. Then she took one step forward and poked him in the chest. “If you hurt one hair on any of her animals, or on Anna herself, and let me add her heart to that list too, you will answer to me.” She glared at him, almost eye to eye.

  Behind her, Merk said, “Easy, Katina.”

  Without breaking her stare on the sho
cked man in front of her, she took one step back and reached out a hand. Anna grabbed it immediately. Katina wrapped her arms around her friend and said, “Come on inside. We don’t need to be around him.”

  She shot a look at Merk that had him holding up his hands and saying, “It wasn’t me.”

  Anna nodded her head in defiance at him too. As the two friends walked inside, Anna whispered, her voice loud enough to carry backward, “Is that Merk?”

  Katina nodded.

  “Well, now I understand.”

  *

  Flynn stood in complete shock. He’d only returned home earlier this morning, from a quick job Levi had sent him on. He’d been looking forward to seeing Anna as soon as he could get the time.

  However, this was not the homecoming he’d envisioned.

  Very few things in life could shut him up. A woman’s tears made him blubber apologies left, right and center, but her anger—that unjustified and unprovoked attack just now by Anna—well…he didn’t have a clue what to do about it.

  The other men surrounded him.

  “Flynn, what the hell was that all about?” Levi asked. His tone was hard and uncompromising.

  Flynn looked at Levi and said, “Shit, I’m not sure.”

  “Even if that knife was used on that animal, we know it wouldn’t have been you wielding it. But, for the record, could you please state that?” Merk asked.

  “I have never in my life intentionally hurt an animal,” Flynn said, shaking his head in bewilderment. “Yes, this is my jacket. And yes, that’s my knife. But I thought I lost it at her place.”

  Stone leaned against the garage doorway. “She mentioned calling the police once already. So I’m assuming she found your jacket with the knife in the pocket afterward.”

  “Right, but I didn’t gut any owl.” Flynn couldn’t tear his gaze away from the doorway the women had disappeared into. Sure he’d left his jacket in her house on purpose. But in the kitchen. And that he could explain, if he ever got the chance. But he really didn’t want to do it in front of all the guys. As for both his personal and professional life—although the lines had blurred many times in her case—he’d prefer to keep them as far apart as possible otherwise. Particularly as the former wasn’t exactly headed the direction he wanted it to go and maybe never would now.

  He ran his hands through his hair and rubbed his face. “When she calms down a bit, I’ll talk to her.”

  “When she does, we all will,” Levi said. “She’s made this public, and made accusations. We have to get to the bottom of it.”

  Flynn looked at Levi and nodded. “We can do that.” Inside his heart was sinking. Damn, he really wanted to be a part of this unit. He didn’t need this. But it was so typical to finally make headway in his life just to have something blow up and, literally, smack him across the face. “I have no idea what she’s talking about, but I had nothing to do with killing an animal.”

  Stone punched him on the shoulder. “We know that. We just have to convince her.”

  From a few steps away, Merk said, “You’re also missing a very major point here. Not only did somebody have access to her house to put the knife into your jacket pocket, chances are good he knew exactly what would happen between you two by doing this. So what you need to ask yourself is, who the hell hates you enough to set you up for this?”

  Flynn stared at him in shock. “No one. I made a lot of enemies in the military. Hell…” He looked around at everybody, his arms outspread. “We all did. But nothing at this level. This is…” He shook his head. “I’d never hurt an animal.”

  “So what happened hits you at one of the most painful levels possible?” Stone asked. “Interesting.”

  With a sinking heart Flynn knew he’d have to apologize, somehow convince Anna he had nothing to do with this, and then get to the bottom of it. These guys were right—somebody was pinning this on him.

  “I need this sorted fast,” Levi said. “We have three jobs, people.” They were just setting up all the teams to head out. “With this coming down on you, Flynn, you have to stay local.”

  “Oh, hell no. I was so ready to go off on another job.”

  Levi nodded. “Understood. Depends on what we find out.” He nodded toward the inside of the house. “So the sooner the better. You ready?”

  Flynn felt as if he were being led to the slaughter. He took a deep breath. “Damn, yeah. I guess I shouldn’t have left my jacket there.”

  “In her bedroom, I believe we heard her say,” Merk said, one eyebrow raised.

  “Not by me,” Flynn said, one hand up as if swearing to God. “As much as I tried, I never quite got her there. But she has an asshole hanging around. He’s trying to start a relationship, yet she’s been saying no all along. He’s just not listening. He saw me around the place a couple times. I figured if I left my jacket someplace—like, in her bedroom—then he’d believe there was more going on between us, and he’d get the hell out of her life. Honestly the guy is messed up.”

  “Enough to kill an owl and pin it on you?” Stone asked, turning to face him.

  Flynn frowned. “Maybe. But I assumed he loved animals too. He was always talking to them.” Flynn stared at the doorway again. He was a huge animal lover. He’d enjoyed helping Anna at her place. The few weeks he’d been there had been an easy job, which gave him a chance to indulge in his love of animals of all kinds. To think of somebody going in there, killing even an owl, well, that was heartbreaking. That it had been left on her doorstep was disturbing. As a threat, it said the killer could get to an animal anytime, as well as Anna. Flynn wouldn’t be happy until he resolved this, as much for her as for him. The last thing he wanted was to start his career at Legendary Security with a tainted history.

  He knew Katina and Anna had been best friends for a long time. He didn’t want anything to get in the way of that. But he had high hopes for Anna himself. He’d met very few women who faced up to him, and who got his emotions rocking and rolling like she did. There was a whole lot more to their relationship that he was only starting to figure out. He had tried damn hard to get her into his arms and still planned for it in the near future, but he had come to realize she wasn’t the one-night-stand or easy-on/easy-off type of affair. And that was a good thing as he wasn’t either, but it did mean he had to slow down.

  She was the type you took home to your parents and married for life.

  That had set him back just enough to reconsider his own long-term plans.

  When Levi had a quick second job available for him, Flynn had jumped at it, thinking distance would help him put his relationship with Anna into perspective. Only problem was, he left four days ago and was home again this morning, with her right back into his life. And from what he could see—in his heart—she’d damn near made herself a permanent home.

  Too bad she didn’t look interested in spending any time there, as she’d just proven.

  No, he was better off alone. Damn. Even though she was a bit volatile, he had liked her all the more for it.

  Chapter 2

  She sat inside the massive kitchen beside Katina with a hot cup of coffee in her hands. She could feel her rage and pain fading. She’d needed to vent. At someone. She hoped she’d chosen the right person. She certainly was justified with the jacket mess. Only she didn’t know for sure if he’d killed the owl. If he had, what was to stop him from attacking her other animals? That inherent threat scared her. These animals didn’t deserve this shit. Why would anybody kill them so unmercifully? She shuddered.

  Katina reached an arm around Anna’s shoulders and hugged her again. “It’ll be okay. Just take it easy.”

  Anna raised tear-stained eyes to her friend and said, “Why would anybody hurt an animal?”

  Katina winced. “We know that many people would say it was only an owl, but it was so horribly…” She swallowed hard.

  “It had been gutted. Essentially there’s no rhyme or reason.”

  “Often we can do nothing about it but catch th
e assholes who did this and put them away.”

  Anna had been trying to find good homes for the animals at her shelter, but in the meantime, they had her to look after them. And maybe that was why she felt so bad. What if this guy came back? She’d never thought Flynn did this, but she’d lost it when she’d found the bloody knife. The guilt just ate at her. She was alone again since Flynn left. Permanently, just over a week ago.

  It hadn’t taken long for the reality to set in. He’d been a huge help getting the backlog of work done, and he also maintained a steady presence there. One she’d been happy to have. Also, the extra hands made the work go so much faster. Without him there now, all the chores fell once again on her shoulders. She’d become used to having his assistance. She wasn’t sleeping well at night now either. She thought there had been an intruder the night before, but then realized it was probably just her nerves. Now she had to rethink all of this.

  But she hadn’t called the cops last night. She hadn’t done anything because she had nothing concrete to tell them. But she’d called this morning about the gutted owl. The police came and took notes and pictures. She’d given a statement, and they’d left. She had no idea if they gave a damn. After all it was just an owl.

  Feeling sorry for herself, she’d had a crying jag in her bedroom, and only then did she realize Flynn’s jacket was on her chair. It hadn’t been there earlier. It was hanging on the back of her door, and she’d smiled when she’d first seen it there—right after he had left her, his job done—knowing he’d come back for it. But she wasn’t smiling now. She didn’t even know how it had gotten in her bedroom because he had been gone for over a week and sure as hell hadn’t spent any nights in there with her. But it was definitely his. And when she had picked it up, the knife had fallen from the pocket. One with dried blood.

  Even now she couldn’t quite explain to herself why she hadn’t called the police again right away and shown it to them. Instead, she came racing out to the compound. And now that she was thinking straight, something even more horrific gripped her throat. If that knife had been used to kill the owl, then the asshole had been inside her house, her bedroom. And placed the jacket on her bedroom chair.