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“Damn it, Natches. You’re not even a contract agent on this assignment. I am not letting you butt your nose into it. ”
“Are you ready to go pick your stuff up at the hotel this morning? You can pack while you’re waiting on Cranston’s e-mail to come through. ”
He was as immovable as the mountains surrounding them. Stubbornness defined his expression and the cool green of his eyes, and had her gritting her teeth to hold back her anger and her desperation.
Was it too much to ask for just a few hours to think? To clear her head enough to make sense of what she had done the night before? Was that too much to ask for? Evidently it was as far as he was concerned.
“You are not returning to the hotel with me. I know how
to pack on my own. ” There was no getting out of moving in with him, and she knew it. But at the moment, that was as far as she was willing to go. “You can give me that redneck pride and stubborn look until hell freezes over, but I’m a fairly competent agent, Natches. Until Cranston begins sending names that might actually trip some tempers in your fair little county, I’m doing this by the book. Period. And my book says I follow orders. And those orders say no Mackay cousins involved. Period. ”
Frustration flickered in his eyes—and an edge of anger—as he rose from the couch, standing to his full, impressive six feet two inches. And he glared at her. Natches’s glaring was sexy as hell, but it was also damned intimidating.
“You don’t know this town or these people,” he argued again. “You don’t know which questions will trip tempers, and from the looks of the previous questions, tempers were more than likely tripped further than what you believe. This isn’t the city, Chay. It’s Kentucky. ”
“You make it sound like another planet. ” She rolled her eyes at his tone. “They’re still people, Natches. ”
“Are they?” he growled. “One of the good ole boys you questioned can shoot a deer from over a half mile out and his hunting rifle is sighted for even farther distances. How much easier would it be to take out one lone little agent?”
“And now you stop bullets, too?” She widened her eyes in mock surprise. “Why, Natches. Why didn’t you tell me sooner that you were freakin’ Superman?”
She watched him grind his teeth, the bunching of his jaw muscles, the flattening of his lips. Yeah, it was sexy as hell, but pretty damned intimidating.
“I was a Marine assassin,” he snarled. “Do you think I won’t feel those sights on you before some stupid bastard takes the shot? I know what it feels like, Chay, and you don’t want me going hunting if something happens to you, because the first son of a bitch I’d look up would be Timothy Cranston. ”
Chaya almost took a step back at the banked anger in Natches’s eyes. She wanted to tell him yes more than anything. But if she gave in to him now, then she may as well turn the entire investigation over to him because she would completely lose control.
“And do you think I don’t know when I have gunsights leveled on me, Natches? Do I really look that fucking green? That I’m not aware of when I’m pushing too many damned buttons?”
“International fucking terrorists are not damned pissed-off rednecks,” he almost yelled. “No rules here, Chay. No warning. No instinct, unless you’re one of them. ”
She held on to her own temper by a fingernail.
“My strength in these interviews is the fact that you aren’t with me, and though you’ve been shadowing me, you’re far enough away that most people are more amused than concerned. You’ll hamper my ability to get the answers I need, Natches, and that will only hinder the investigation. ”
“And you think people aren’t going to know you’re living with me?” He crossed his arms over his chest and glowered back at her.
“Where I sleep isn’t as big an issue as you sitting there terrifying everyone I question or having you chauffeur me from place to place. If we change the process at this point, we hamper it. ”
“And what the bloody hell does that have to do with me returning to the hotel with you this morning?” His voice rose slightly, just enough to assure her that his patience was reaching its limit.
“Because I need a few minutes to think if you don’t fucking mind,” she yelled back at him. “Excuse me, Natches, but you have my brain in so many damned pieces it resembles a puzzle right now. ”
“He does have that habit. ” Dawg stepped in as he slid the sliding glass door open and stared at Chaya, who fought to pull her anger back and adopt the cool, unaffected appearance she gave everyone but Natches.
And evidently, she was failing, because he was staring at her as though he didn’t know her. His eyes narrowed, his celadon green eyes, so light they were almost colorless, watching her curiously.
“What the hell do you want?” Natches growled at his cousin. “You know, Dawg, this nosy attitude of yours is really starting to piss me off. ”
“When hasn’t it?” Dawg finally shrugged. “I just thought I should let you know that I have a call coming in about a half hour on that project we were working on. I need you there. ”
Natches glared at his cousin. The project was this damned assignmentChaya was on, and it was obvious Dawg was hesitant about including her in on it.
“Yeah, I’m sure he has information now regarding your little project,” she snorted knowingly as she stomped across the room and pushed her laptop back into the case before collecting the keys to her sedan, which the sheriff had had delivered to the marina the evening before.
As if she didn’t know what the hell they were talking about. She wasn’t a moron, and she didn’t enjoy being treated like one.
From the look on Natches’s face, he was still intent on following her though.
