Tangled Up in You Read Online Free

his own boss. He didnt have to take orders or answer to anyone, and when he walked into one of his bars, he had a feeling of possession that hed never felt with anything else in his life. His bars were loud and raucous and chaotic, but it was a chaos he controlled.
    More than the hours and feeling of possession, Mick liked making money. During the summer months, he made tons of money from tourists and from the people who lived in Boise but owned cabins on the lake in Truly.
    The coin sorter stopped and Mick slid stacks of coins into paper sleeves. An image of a dark-haired, red-lipped woman entered his head. He wasnt surprised that hed noticed Maddie Dupree within seconds of stepping behind the bar. It only would have surprised him if he hadnt noticed her. With her beautiful smooth skin and seductive brown eyes, she was just the sort of woman who drew his attention. That small mole at the corner of her full lips had reminded him just how long it had been since hed kissed a mouth like hers and worked his way south. Down her chin and the arch of her throat to all the soft places and sweet parts.
    Since his move back to Truly two years ago, his sex life had suffered more than he liked. Which sucked. Truly was a small town where people went to church on Sundays and married young. They tended to stay married and if not, looked to remarry real quick. Mick never messed with married women or women with marriage on their minds. Never even thought twice about it.
    Not that there werent plenty of unmarried women in Truly. Owning two bars in town, he came in contact with a lot of available women. A good share of them let him know they were interested in more than his cocktail list. Some of them hed known all of his life. They knew the stories and gossip and thought they knew him too. They didnt, or they would know he preferred to spend time with women who didnt know him or the past. Who didnt know the sordid details of his parents lives.
    Mick shoved the money and receipts into deposit bags and zipped them closed. The clock on the wall above his desk read 2:05. Traviss latest school photograph sat on a polished oak desk; a sprinkling of brown freckles scattered across the boys cheeks and nose. Micks nephew was seven going on fourteen and had too much Hennessy in him for his own good. The innocent smile didnt fool Mick one bit. Travis had his ancestors dark hair and blue eyes and wild ways. If left un checked, hed inherit their fondness for fighting, booze, and women. Any one of those traits by themselves wasnt necessarily bad in moderation, but generations of Hennessys had never cared squat about moderation, and the combination had sometimes proved lethal.
    He moved across the office and set the money on the top shelf of the safe, next to the printout of that nights transactions. He swung the heavy door shut, pushed down the steel handle, and spun the combination lock. The tick-tick of the lock filled the silence of the small office in the back of Morts.
    Travis was giving Meg hell, that was for sure, and Micks sister had little understanding of boys. She just didnt get why boys threw rocks, made weapons out of everything they touched, and punched each other for no apparent reason. It was up to Mick to be the buffer in Traviss life and to help Meg raise him. To give the boy someone to talk to and to teach him how to be a good man. Not that Mick was an expert or a shining example of what made a good man. But he did have firsthand knowledge and some experience in what made an asshole.
    He grabbed a set of keys off the desktop and headed out of the office. The heels of his boots thudded against the hardwood floor, sounding inordinately loud in the empty bar.
    When he was a kid, no one had been around for him to talk to or teach him how to be a man. Hed been raised by his grandmother and sister, and hed had to learn for himself. More often than not, he learned the hard way. He didnt want the same for Travis.
    Mick flipped the light switches