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“Whoa! Hold on there, boy. ” Dawg jumped in front of him, blocking him with his wider body as Rowdy growled in fury. “You know how he gets. Dammit, Rowdy, you start a fight in here and Maria’s gonna kick all our asses. ”
“Get the fuck out of my face. ” He jabbed his finger over Dawg’s shoulder, glaring back at Natches as his expression darkened with anger. “And so help me God, you treat her like that again and I’ll tear your dick off and feed it to you. You want to be a bastard because you’re not getting what you want, then you take it up with me. ”
He knew Natches’s problem, and he knew he should have anticipated it. Dawg and Natches both had waited, just as he had, for Kelly. They had hungered, lusted, expected certain things where her relationship with Rowdy was concerned.
This was his fault. As he jerked away from Dawg, he admitted it was his fault, but he’d be damned if Kelly was going to pay for it with Natches’s surly attitude.
He paced to the bar, pouring a quick drink and kicking it back as he grimaced at the sting. Natches was damned good at pushing buttons, and, Rowdy admitted, Kelly was a sore spot with him. Hell, he should have known years ago that this wasn’t going to work, rather than running from the situation as he had. And he had run. The emotions that damned woman caused to rise inside him threatened his sanity at times.
“I didn’t mean to hurt her. ” Natches cleared his throat uncomfortably. “Hell. I didn’t mean anything by it, Rowdy. ”
Rowdy lifted his gaze. He was so damned close to fighting Natches that he had to clench his fist to hold onto his control.
“She’s mine, Natches,” he snapped. “I can understand why you’re pissed but if you take it out on her again, you’ll deal with me. You got that?”
“Yeah, I got that. ” Natches snorted, though he didn’t sound overly concerned at the prospect. “I’m going to go see if I can find a sign of that bastard while you cool off. Hell, son of a bitch needs to die for fucking shit up like this. ”
He stomped from the living room. Seconds later, the door slammed behind him. Rowdy stared back at Dawg then.
“He’ll chill out. ” Dawg slapped him on the shoulder as he headed from the room. “You take care of Kelly, and we’ll watch your back. And when Natches’s time comes, we might even watch his. ”
NINETEEN
Kelly was furious. The anger that sizzled through her carried her through the afternoon and into that evening.
It was the fear making her angry and she knew it. It was making her crazy. And Rowdy, Dawg, and Natches weren’t helping matters. They were making a target of themselves rather than her, daring a madman to strike out at them. Endangering all their lives, and it scared her to death. And that’s where the anger stemmed. Toward the bastard who thought she should belong to him rather than the man she loved. A monster who wanted to terrorize her because she wasn’t the good girl he had decided she should be.
She snorted at that thought. The fantasies she’d had over the years where those three men were concerned were anything but good. But they were fantasies for her. She liked the fantasies, she liked pretending she was daring enough, cool enough, to control Rowdy and his cousins.
But the truth of the matter was that she was anything but cool, calm, or collected when it came to Rowdy. And as hot as the thought of having all three men focused on her was, as hot as it had been in the boat, something still held her back. Made her wary.
“I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings. ”
She whirled around with a gasp, wishing now that she had turned the lights on. Natches was shadowed from the hall light, a dark form leaning against the wide entrance into the room.
“You didn’t hurt my feelings,” she snapped. “You pissed me off. ”
He sighed. “I didn’t mean to piss you off either. ”
Natches flipped on the light. He grinned at her as she watched him warily.
“Do you remember how Dawg and I rushed to the hospital after you were attacked?” he asked, his voice soft, a bit sad.
And they had. Ray swore the doctors had almost had to call security to get them to leave the hall outside her room.
“I remember. ”
He brushed back the long hair from his devilishly handsome face. Natches was a charmer, with the face of a fallen angel and eyes that invited a woman to be bad.
“We knew you were ours even when you were a little girl,” he said reflectively. “Not in the sense we knew it after you grew up, but we claimed you. Watched out for you—”
“I love Rowdy, Natches,” she whispered, halting what she feared was coming. “And don’t try to tell me you love me in the same way, because we both know better. ”
His lips tightened. “We’re a set. You’re destroying it, Kelly. ”
He stared back at her, his light green eyes wary and somber but she could feel the anger in him. She was changing the rules and he didn’t like it.
“I don’t mean to, Natches,” she whispered. “I can’t be what you want, I can’t do what you need. ”
