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“Easy, Dad. ” Rowdy’s voice was clearly warning. “Johnny probably just wanted to check on Crista. They’re neighbors. Kind of. ”
Ray’s eyes speared into her then. “Don’t tell me you befriended that little shit?”
“Johnny’s always been kind to me, Mr. Mackay,” she said, wishing she didn’t sound so weak, so tired. “He wouldn’t have meant any harm. ”
She was aware of the gazes now trained on her in disbelief. Her chin lifted. She didn’t base her opinions or her friendships on others’ opinions, and she wasn’t going to start now. “Fine. For some reason you don’t like Johnny, and from what he said earlier, there’s not a lot of love lost. That’s none of my business, and it has nothing to do with me. ” And she was too tired right now to make sense of any of it.
She respected Ray Mackay, trusted him. The fact that he so intensely disliked his own nephew was telling. But until Crista understood why, she wasn’t going to automatically dislike him herself. She would definitely be wary, but she would reserve judgment.
Ray turned his gaze from her to Dawg as he rubbed his hand over is face in agitation before he and Dawg seemed to share some private communication. Crista hated private communications between men. She wasn’t a male mind reader, so she didn’t consider it fair in her presence.
“I’ll take care of her, Ray,” Dawg finally murmured.
“You know, you could get on my nerves fairly quickly,” she told them with no small amount of her own irritation. “If you want to take care of me so damned bad, take me to get my clothes, and then leave me alone to shower and sleep. ”
“We’ll stop on the way to the marina and buy you a few more things,” Dawg told her firmly, causing her to freeze and stare back at him in disbelief.
“You said we could pick up my stuff from the house. Damn it, Dawg, I can’t just go out and buy more clothes. ”
“And that was before someone decided to turn you into a piece of charcoal,” he snapped back. “I
’m not even attempting that house with you along. I’ll go check it out myself in the morning and get your stuff. Until then, we can stop on the way home and buy you a few extra things. ”
She was aware of the interested gazes on them. The men were watching with expressions varying between amusement and wariness, and Kelly shook her head back at Crista warningly from Dawg’s side.
The men she could have ignored, but there was something in Kelly’s eyes that warned Crista that now wasn’t the time to push Dawg. And that sucked. Because she wanted her own clothes; she didn’t want to have to spend the small amount of savings she had on clothes she didn’t need.
“I’ll just use your damned washer tonight,” she finally retorted. She wasn’t about to end up more in debt to him than it already appeared she was going to be.
“Just get in the truck. ” He didn’t wait for her to follow the harshly worded order. Dawg gripped her waist and lifted her in before crowding in beside her and forcing her to climb over the console to the passenger seat.
As she faced forward and stared through the windshield, she was faced with her poor little burned Rodeo. She had loved that little SUV.
The engine flared to life. As it did, Crista glanced over to see Dawg’s hands wrapped around the steering wheel with a white-knuckled, furious grip.
“Is Lessing who you left here with?” His voice was cold, furious.
“Yes. ” She kept her voice soft, kept it calm.
Mark and Ty had come from Virginia that week eight years ago to inform Alex, their former Special Forces commander, why they were discharged from the Army. She had left with them when they returned home. It was supposed to have been a temporary thing. Instead, they had all become friends, family in a strange kind of way, and she hadn’t moved out until returning home the year before.
“You left me for another man?”
She stayed silent, despite the shaking in the pit of her stomach. She could lie to the sheriff but not to Dawg, not about this. The words would choke her to death.
“Crista, so help me God, you better answer me now. ” His voice was a graveled, curt sound that had her flinching imperceptibly.
“I didn’t leave you for another man,” she finally answered evenly.
She had left him because of two other men, the men he had been intent on sharing her with. Then she had left town because she couldn’t bear the hollow pain that burned inside her months later.
“But you went with another man?” His voice was harsher, if possible.
“I left Somerset with Mark. I moved in with Mark. I lived with him for seven years. Is that what you want to know?
He turned his head toward her, his eyes glittering back at her with burning male lust and anger.
“No. What I want to know is, did you sleep with the son of a bitch?”
