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Like a wolf protecting its mate. Or a Dawg protecting a bone, he thought sarcastically.
He had taken one look at her, and something inside him had exploded in awareness. He knew damned good and well what would happen if he didn’t get her out of there. If she had been caught with the others, with the description of the female suspect they had, she would have never gotten out of the arrest and subsequent imprisonment, involved or not.
And why that should matter to him, he couldn’t figure out.
“She’s not involved. ” Natches cradled his rifle in his arms like a lover as he stared back at Dawg.
“That’s not Crista, Dawg. ”
Maybe it wasn’t. But then again, maybe it was, and he just couldn’t see it for his own lust.
Dawg tightened his lips and stared back at the organized chaos inside the now well-lit warehouse.
He was a paranoid son of a bitch. He trusted no one but the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and Crista wasn’t included in the Trinity last he checked.
Yet he was risking his own reputation to protect her. Not because of Natches’s warning but because his own emotions had interfered with the job for the first time in eight years. And as he stood there, watching the arrests, the recovery of the missiles and their chips, and felt the sense of triumph that the team radiated, he felt disassociated.
He was impatient. Eager to have it over with, because his mind was brewing with all the possibles filtering through it. It was possible Crista wasn’t involved. And if she wasn’t, then it was possible that for the first time since her return a year ago, he had an edge on her. She couldn’t just turn and run, as she was wont to do whenever he came near.
Oh no. Not anymore.
His eyes narrowed, and his lips curled with an anticipatory smile.
He had lived on instinct too damned long to discount it, and instinct was giving her the benefit of the doubt. But he was still a part of the ATF, and she was at the scene of an arms buy. She also fit the brief description of the one female in the group of thieves that had hijacked the weapons and attempted to sell them.
He was going to have to keep an eye on her. A very close eye on her.
“Oh hell, I hate that smile,” Natches suddenly groaned beside him. “Dawg, what the hell are you up to?”
Dawg glanced over at him, his brow lifting in mock innocence. “I’m just considering how best to determine who’s guilty and who’s innocent,” he drawled. “Nothing for you to worry about, Natches.
Nothing whatsoever. ”
It was a lot for Dawg to worry about, and even more for Crista.
For Dawg, because Crista made him break his own rules, and that was something he never did, under any circumstances. And for her, because he was going to take payment for those rules out of her sweet little body.
Natches’s shoulders slumped. “Hell. Why do I have a feeling now that I should have just played the knight in shining armor myself rather than giving you the opportunity to pull your head out of your ass?”
Dawg snorted at that. “Stop worrying. I have it covered. ”
“I’m guaranteed to worry at any time that you tell me not to worry. It’s a cosmic rule. ”
Dawg lifted his brows and chuckled in amusement. “Trust me. ”
Natches stared back at him in worried disbelief. “Man, don’t go pulling that kamikaze shit on me again, okay? Four years of it in the Marines were enough. You promised to take it easy once we got home. Remember?” Natches reminded him. “Think about your knee, man. You’re only one good accident from being a cripple. Let’s not push it, ’kay?”
Dawg let his grin widen. “Take it easy? Easy wasn’t what I had in mind, but taking it sure as hell is. ”
Natches stared at him suspiciously. “Don’t do something you’re going to regret, Dawg. I don’t have time to pull your ass out of any fires. ”
Dawg clapped him on the shoulder before moving toward the men being lifted from the cement floor and prepared for a nice little trip to the nearest jail cell. “No worries, Natches. ” He grinned over his shoulder. “No worries at all. Grab her car. Tell the commander we drove in separately; they won’t know any better. You were just borrowing a friend’s vehicle. And I’ll catch ya later. ”
He had plans to make. Plans that included one sexy little waitress, his bed, and all kinds of wet, hot, nasty sex acts.
The next time she turned her back on him, she would at least remember what it felt like, what it meant to be owned by him. And by God, before it was over, he would own her. Heart and soul. By fair means or by foul. Dawg wasn’t playing anymore.
TWO
