Page 27 of Nauti Kisses (Nauti 6)

Turning back to him, Cranston moved closer, opting to sit in one of the deck chairs across from where John stood.

“I won’t ask again,” John stated with far more patience than he felt.

Cranston only chuckled. “The Mackay boys use that same tone with me, John. It doesn’t help them any more than it’s going to help you. ”

No doubt. The little fucker was going to get himself killed one of these days. From what John understood, he was far too prone to fuck with too many people’s lives.

“You have a problem,” Cranston finally stated.

“And you’re one of them,” John pointed out.

To which Cranston’s low laugh filtered through the night.

“This could be true,” the other man agreed, nodding. “But honestly, JW, I could easily become your best friend. ”

“Not if you keep calling me JW. ”

He might just have to kill the little bastard himself if he kept that up.

“That’s what most people in these parts call you, you know,” Timothy informed him. “Especially those who knew your father. ”

John restrained a sigh. Too many people in this area remembered his father before he moved to Boston. Or perhaps escaped to Boston would be a better way of describing it.

“Cut the shit, Cranston. ” John shook his head wearily. “Why are you here?”

“Because someone was in town today asking some very pointed questions about John Walker Junior. Someone obviously not from the area. ”

John froze. No one but his parents and sisters knew where he was, and there was no reason for anyone he knew to have followed him to Somerset, Kentucky.

“Who was he?”

“She. ” Cranston grinned. “The intrepid investigator claimed to be your fiancée. ”

John stared back at him in silent shock.

“I don’t have a fiancée,” he answered the other man.

Cranston tipped the beer back, finished it, then set the bottle on the floor of the deck.

“She didn’t seem much like a lady,” Cranston remarked. “Strange, I can’t imagine you hooking up with such a woman, even for a short time. ”

John remained silent, refusing to answer the subtle question.

Cranston stared back, just as silent.

John couldn’t imagine Marlena in Somerset, Kentucky, for any reason. There had to be a mistake. But Cranston wasn’t a man that made mistakes.

“Strange, in the year you’ve been here, no one has questioned your arrival, nor followed you. It struck me as rather funny that this woman arrived only hours after you met your sister’s plane on Hickley’s private airstrip and collected a passenger. ”

John crossed his arms over his chest and restrained the heavy curse hovering on his lips. Hell, he didn’t need this.

“What business is it of yours if someone claiming to be my fiancée is in town?” John tilted his head and stared back at the other man.

“Well, normally, I really wouldn’t care,” Cranston assured him. “But the last name Genoa tipped me off. Were you aware your ex-fiancée and her family were suspected of being involved with one of the largest crime families in the nation?”

Fuck!

John rubbed at the bridge of his nose and couldn’t imagine why he wasn’t surprised.

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