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She hated it then, and she definitely hated it now. It smacked of patronization, and that was something she had never tolerated well.
“Don’t you sweetheart me,” she told him fiercely. “And don’t bother patronizing me now that you can’t blackmail me any longer, Dawg. That’s only going to piss me off. ”
“And blackmailing you didn’t piss you off?” His eyes crinkled with amusement, amusement overlying pain, as he glanced around the opened panel and pulled free several handguns and clips.
Crista stared askance at the weapons. She recognized the Glock handguns; Alex had several similar ones. That didn’t mean she liked them or the necessity of having them.
“At least I understood the blackmail,” she snorted. “I would have done it myself if I had the chance. ”
He paused, his brows arching, as he laid the two handguns on the dresser and reclosed and locked the panel as he stared back at her in interest.
“You would have?” His gaze heated, filled with arousal, as she watched his body tense in preparation.
Crista frowned back at him fiercely. “Don’t go there, Dawg. We’re going to talk about this. ”
“Of course we are,” he assured her smoothly as he sat down on the bed and patted his knee.
“Come here, fancy-face, and tell me what you would have done if you could have blackmailed me. ”
Her lips pressed together firmly, controlling the amusement that would have slipped free.
“I wasn’t talking about blackmailing you. ” She crossed her arms over her breasts and glared back at him. “Dawg, Johnny can’t be completely sane—”
A bitter bark of laughter left Dawg’s throat. “Crista, sweetheart, Johnny isn’t insane. He’s highly intelligent; he graduated only one point below valedictorian. Just under Natches, who claimed that honor during their high school graduation. He’s not crazy; he’s a highly intelligent menace who will cut your throat if you turn your back on him. Just like he did the driver of the military transport carrying those missiles. ”
Crista stared back at him in horror. “They killed him?”
“The lone female of the group sliced his throat open. We suspect, based on the video and voice box in the cab of the transport, that he knew her. Or him, as the case may be. We know Johnny has portrayed himself as female through this whole deal. As you. ”
“He set the explosive in my Rodeo then?” she whispered.
Dawg nodded heavily. “He’s the only one with a motive, Crista. Killing you would have made it look like a hit by the mercenaries and placed all guilt on you. He would have gotten away with the money, and the mercenaries would have been in prison scratching their heads. ”
“What about friends of the men you arrested?”
He shook his head as he reached out and drew her to him, pulling her onto his lap.
Crista leaned into him, her head resting on his shoulder as her arms looped around his neck.
He kissed the top of her head before he answered her. “The mercenary and his team didn’t have a name for the woman, only a description, which they gave. No name, and the physical features of the face, though similar, weren’t yours. The buyers aren’t talking yet. Cole knew your name, but only after Johnny visited in the detention center. In the small talk, Johnny told him to get fucked, pretending to be you. He had the money and he was free; Cole wasn’t. That would have drawn those mercenaries right to your door. They learned different during the interrogation Cranston and Natches led after Johnny’s visit. We suspect even they weren’t certain exactly who they were dealing with. Johnny’s slick like that, Crista. He always was. I’m just surprised that he could actually kill in cold blood. I didn’t expect that out of him. ”
Neither had Crista. But she had a feeling Johnny had disappointed Dawg as well. For all Johnny’s faults and his mother’s influence, Crista had the feeling that Dawg had managed to hold out a measure of hope for his other cousin.
“He was the one who told Natches’s father about the sharing, when we were teenagers,” Dawg said then. “I thought Dayle had killed him when we got to the house with Uncle Ray. Natches’s mother had called, calm as hell, and told Ray he needed to come for Natches before Dayle killed him. There was blood everywhere, and his father was still trying to beat the hell out of him. He was in the hospital for a week and refused to admit his father had done it. He still has scars on his back. And Johnny cried when we confronted him. Blubbered like a baby and swore he hadn’t meant for it to happen. That he had been playing, poking at Dayle because he was always so critical of him. ”
Dawg’s voice echoed with that past horror.
“He meant to do it?”
“I don’t know,” Dawg mused. “To this day, I still don’t know. But I suspect he knew what would happen. We all knew not to push Dayle where Natches was concerned. He took great pleasure in beating the hell out of him whenever he could justify it. ”
Crista blinked back her tears.
“And your father?” She already knew part of Dawg’s history, had known it even before that first night she had spent with him.
“He wasn’t as violent as Dayle. ” He shrugged negligently. “And I knew how to fight back.
Natches never fought back, and I never understood why. ”
