“Hold on. I’m coming. If you’re in that much of a hurry to get on with this, you could have called….” He knocked the latch off the door and pulled it open. The flutter in his stomach was replaced with a sinking feeling. “What do you want?”
Teddy St. John leaned both his hands on a walking stick and tilted his head back so he could look down his ship’s prow of a nose. He looked older. Of course he did, Flynn supposed. It had been twenty years, but it still managed to be a surprise.
“Would you have been here if I had?” Teddy asked dryly.
A muscle twisted in the corner of Flynn’s mouth.
“Probably not,” he said. “What do you want?”
Teddy tightened his fingers on the polished silver head of his stick. “Nothing that I want to discuss on your doorstep, Mr. Delaney.”
Flynn glanced around. To the left there was clear blue sky, and to the right there was a mile of uneven heather and heath.
“Who are you scared is going to overhear you this time?” he asked. “The rabbits?”
“I don’t discuss business at the door like I’m a salesman,” Teddy said. He tapped the cane on the curved stone step impatiently. “I know your mother taught you manners, even if your father never bothered.”
There was a bad taste at the back of Flynn’s mouth—like blood and bitterness. He cleared his throat.
“Keep your mouth off my mother, Mr. St. John,” he said. It would serve Teddy right if Flynn just closed the door on him and his assumption that everyone cared about what he wanted. But there was an itch of curiosity in the back of his head. It had been twenty years since he’d spoken to Teddy face-to-face and not through an intermediary or a lawyer, and he wanted to know why the old bastard had broken that habit. Flynn stepped back with a shrug. “Come in, then. Have your say.”
Teddy stepped over the threshold, and the lighthouse didn’t fall down. He walked over to the sofa, each step accompanied by a tap from the cane, and sat down without waiting to be asked. He propped the cane against the arm and fastidiously smoothed his trousers down over his knees.
“I don’t see any point in beating around the bush,” he said as he finally looked at Flynn. “I do not approve of your relationship with Nathan Moffatt.”
Well, Nate couldn’t complain that Flynn wasn’t pulling his bad-boy weight anymore. Flynn leaned against the banister of the stairs, the metal cold against his back, and crossed his arms.
“I don’t recall asking you to,” he said. “Mostly because it is none of your business.”
Teddy gave him a glittering look of dislike. “He is my employee. As such, his well-being and his behavior are my concern. Not to mention he’s one of my son’s closest friends and someone I’ve known since he was a boy.”
“All of which gets you an invite to his birthday party,” Flynn said. “Not a say in who he fucks.”
He used the word deliberately, just to see Teddy’s mouth priss up in annoyance. If he had pictures of what he did to Nate the other night, he might have been able to make Teddy swallow his dentures.
“I care about him,” Teddy said. “I care about the smooth running of my business. That gives me a say.”
Flynn raised his eyebrows curiously. “Did Nate sign off on that?”
There was a pause and the flicker of something that might have been guilt through Teddy’s pale eyes, and then he reached into his jacket.
“Nevertheless.” Teddy pulled an envelope out of his inside pocket and leaned forward to lay it on the table. He tapped it pointedly with one gnarled finger and then sat back.
“What’s that?” Flynn didn’t need to ask. He knew. The question was just tinder for the smoldering anger lodged behind his breastbone.
A humorless smile twitched the corners of Teddy’s mouth. “Call it the next installment.” He reached for his stick and braced it against the floor for balance as he stood up. His eyes flickered over the curved walls and huge windows for a second and then came back to Flynn. “You can keep this place if you want. Even visit sometimes. However, I expect you to be gone within the month.”
Flynn expected to be angry, but the black flash of dry rage was a shock. It parched his mouth and wiped away all his good sense long enough to clench his fist and take an angry step forward. He stopped himself before he did anything stupid. His hands trembled with banked adrenaline as he sucked in a lungful of air.
“You arrogant son of a bitch—”
“Once you’ve been bought, Mr. Delaney,” Teddy interrupted, “it’s disingenuous to act surprised when someone suggests repeating the transaction.”
Flynn huffed out a laugh that didn’t have any mirth in it. He shook his head slowly. “You’re a piece of work, Teddy.”
A shrug of Teddy’s elegantly tailored shoulders was the response. “Maybe.” Teddy raised his stick and waved it in the direction of the incriminating envelope. “However, it’s a generous offer, and I would consider it if I were you. We both know that Nathan could do better than you, and eventually he’ll realize it too.”
Something in Teddy’s tone caught Flynn’s attention. He narrowed his eyes. “Better than me? Like who?”
