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“You two didn’t do anything easy,” Rowdy said then. “I thought the agreement was that we’d go in, do our duty, and come home without changing who or what we were. ”
Dawg had a feeling Rowdy wasn’t talking about the lack of need in sharing his pretty fiancée.
“Hey, you started it,” he said anyway. “Getting all possessive and snarly over Kelly the way you did. ”
Rowdy snorted at that. “Don’t play dense, Dawg, it doesn’t suit you. ”
Dawg grimaced. “We were more suited to some things than you were, Rowdy. You just didn’t want to see it. ”
“Killing?” Rowdy asked. “You were never suited to that. You or Natches. ”
“You just didn’t want to see it. ” Dawg stared his cousin in the eye then. “Killing wasn’t the draw, though. It was taking out the monsters. And that was something Natches and I both were ready to do before we were out of our teens. ”
Dawg’s and Natches’s fathers were bastards. But most of the men out of that family were bastards. Literally. Good ole Grandpa August had sired sons from one end of the nation to the other. He had paused in Somerset long enough to fake a marriage to Ellen Mackay and give her a daughter and three sons. Then he had nicely informed her that the marriage was illegal because he was already married, and then he had disappeared.
Ellen Mackay had taken the August name from her sons and given them hers instead. Four kids that she had raised herself with little help, and she had died knowing that out of all those kids, only one of them had a sense of decency. Ray Mackay had been solid as the earth. The rest? Hell, the rest of them were as black-hearted and mean as the old man himself.
As Dawg understood it, his cousins in Texas hadn’t fared any better. Their father, Joe August, the legitimate issue of old Nate August, had been pure evil. The hell he had visited on his sons had nearly destroyed them. It was only by a miracle that they had survived both during and after the torture they had endured.
“I saw Johnny’s mother and Natches’s dad with their heads together outside the courthouse yesterday when Kelly and I were driving through. They looked like they were brewing up trouble. ”
Nadine Mackay Grace and Dayle Mackay were vipers apart; when together, the destruction they could cause had destroyed more than one life.
“Hell,” Dawg cursed. “Dayle’s already disowned Natches. What more could he do to him?”
“I just wish I knew for sure it was Natches they were targeting. ” Rowdy sighed. “I don’t know what the hell’s up, Dawg, but it’s not feeling good. ”
Hell, no, it wasn’t. Dawg could feel his teeth clenching and his neck itching. Those two things were a surefire warning that shit was coming down.
“Fallback position?” Dawg murmured.
“I have you covered,” Rowdy answered.
Dawg had explained Crista’s presence at the warehouse as well as the risk that Crista could be identified as part of the group attempting to sell the missiles.
Their fallback position was clear: Rowdy and Natches would hold the line, while Dawg pulled Crista into the mountains to an old, hidden hunter’s cabin they had found years before as teenagers. No one knew about the cabin but the three cousins, and it would be the ideal place to hide Crista until they figured out the best way to protect her. Or until Alex and his group returned from wherever the hell they were.
“I’m going to put out a call to Alex’s contact,” Dawg muttered then, hating the need for that. He had hoped to be able to avoid contacting Alex. “We need to let him know Crista could be in trouble before it’s too late. ”
Rowdy nodded, then glanced back to where Natches leaned against the sedan farther down the street, obviously arguing with Agent Dane.
“When was the last time you saw Natches argue with anyone?” Rowdy asked.
Dawg glanced at his cousin and grinned. “The last time Greta spoke to him. ”
“Interesting. ”
“Damn interesting,” Dawg agreed as he pulled his cell phone from the holder at his belt and flipped it open. It took only a second to hit the speed dial number that connected with Alex’s contact.
“Leave a message. ” The voice was cold, hard.
Dawg said one word. “Crista. ” Then disconnected the call. Within hours Alex would know things had the potential to go from sugar to shit with his sister in a very short time.
And then he propped himself against the hood of the truck and glanced at the front door of the spa. Crista was inside, possibly getting the intimate waxing he had spent so long that morning talking her into.
His body tensed, lust rose sharp and painful inside him, hardening his dick in an instant.
God help Cranston if he messed with Dawg’s fun later that evening. He had waited years, hell, Dawg felt as though he had waited all his life for this. The man or woman who dared to mess with it would pay. Painfully.
