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She opened her eyes and stared out the window again, those dark glasses shielding his eyes, his too-long black hair pulled back at the nape of his neck, the savagery of his features more pronounced than it had been the year before.
He always looked like a dark avenging angel to her. But now, he looked like a savage warrior. She knew if he pulled those glasses off the forest green eyes would be piercing, dark, and filled with knowledge and anger.
So much anger. And she couldn’t blame him. Not in the least.
“You’ve done it this time, Chaya,” she murmured into the silence of the room.
And she had. She had allowed her boss to blackmail her into another mission that threw her directly in Natches’s path. Big mistake. Very big mistake.
Rowdy strode into the upstairs office of Mackay Lumber and Building Supplies and glared at Dawg as his cousin pulled a beer from the fridge and threw himself in the big leather chair behind the desk.
“Someone needs to let me in on the secret,” he snapped as he slammed the door closed. “What the hell is going on? Or has gone on?”
Dawg slouched back in the chair and tipped the beer to his lips thoughtfully. A long drink later he sat the bottle on the desk and stared back at Rowdy.
“Now see, I was hoping you would have the answers to those questions. ” He wiped his hand over his jaw before shaking his head in obvious confusion. “He was actin’ stranger than hell with her last year. Every time he got around her he was pokin’ at her or watching her. Don’t you think she’s a little plain for him?”
Rowdy moved to one of the comfortable leather chairs across from the desk and lowered himself into it as he considered Dawg’s question.
“She has pretty hair. ” He finally shrugged, his expression creasing into male contemplation.
“She’s homely,” Dawg grunted.
Rowdy snorted at that. “We’ve been saying that about every woman we’ve come across since Kelly and Crista got their hooks in us. Admit it, Dawg; we’re prejudiced. ”
Dawg glared. “I know a pretty woman when I see one. Just because you’re blind as a bat doesn’t mean I am. ”
Rowdy shook his head. “She looks okay, I guess. Can’t tell much with those loose clothes and the way she scrapes her hair back from her face. ”
“She smokes. ” Dawg tapped the desk with his fingers, his expression worried.
“You’re nitpicking. What’s the real problem, Dawg?” Rowdy leaned forward, watching his cousin carefully. “It’s not like you to nitpick. ”
Dawg’s lips tightened, then pursed thoughtfully.
“Natches brought a woman out of the Iraqi desert with him on that last six-week mission he took. You know he was always goin’ off on a hit and taking his good ole easy time loping back to extraction so he could spy a little on the enemy?”
Rowdy nodded.
“Word got around. Natches managed to hook up with an Army Intelligence agent. Female. Beaten, tortured. He pulled her out and the extraction team picked them both up. After that, no one’s talkin’. Something happened after that, Rowdy. Something that made Natches darker than ever. ”
“Female agent, beaten and tortured. ” Rowdy frowned. “She didn’t have time to break his heart, Dawg. A lot of shit happened to all of us in the Marines. That wasn’t a pleasant place to be. ”
Dawg shook his head. “No. Something bad happened out there that Natches doesn’t talk about, and I think she was there. Natches knew her the minute we met the team Cranston brought in last year. That night he went on a drunk like I ain’t seen since he busted up his daddy’s restaurant for him. ”
Rowdy leaned back in his chair and grimaced at that information. He hadn’t been a part of that mission. His damned cousins seemed to think he needed a vacation after dealing with the serial killer who had tried to kill his wife.
But Dawg was right, something had changed in Natches last year, something that had bothered both of them for a year now.
“Is he in love with her?” Rowdy mused.
It was damned hard to imagine Natches in love with any one woman. He seemed to like them all equally. But there had been something different about how he acted last year outside the spa in town.
Dawg and Rowdy had met with Natches there, while Kelly and Crista went in for their woman stuff. They hadn’t felt secure enough to leave the women unguarded. And Greta Dane—no, Chaya, Natches had told them her name was really Chaya—had been there following Dawg and Crista.
Natches hadn’t been able to stay away from her and neither of them acted just normal around each other.
“She’s on an op,” Dawg muttered. “I can feel it. Something’s getting ready to go down and she’s going to pull him into it. ”
