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Rogue tapped a fingernail against the bar, frowning down at the movement for long moments. “Johnny didn’t walk for weeks,” she finally said. “I kind of felt sorry for him, went to the house to check on him. ” She shook her head on a bitter laugh. “Dayle had beat him from head to toe. Johnny was in a dress, stockings, and a wig. Said it was his punishment. ” Disgust marked her expression. “Damn, sometimes I wonder why I don’t just go ahead and move back to Boston. You know better than to get involved with people there. ”
Chaya glanced around the bar. There weren’t many customers, but those who were there seemed to keep an eye on Rogue. And Chaya.
“Did Johnny spend much time in bars?” she asked the other woman then.
Rogue shook her head. “Not really. Johnny was the home-and-hearth type. I guess that’s why it surprised a lot of us when we found out what he’d done. He didn’t seem the type. ”
“And you don’t care that you’re telling me all this?” Chaya injected. “Getting people around here to talk hasn’t been easy. Yet you’re more than willing. ”
Rogue smiled. A wicked upturn of Cupid’s bow lips, and eyes filled with cynical amusement. “Lady, this county holds no love for me, or me for it. ” Bitterness flashed in her eyes. “The only difference between me and the fine upstanding citizens of this town is that I tell the truth as I see it. Let’s see. Example. I bet a half dozen spiteful little bitches are going to tell you, if they haven’t already, how hard they partied with Natches the weekend before you lit back into town. ” She smiled gleefully. “I can tell you Natches hasn’t snacked on any homegrown offerings since he came back from the Marines. Now, the good sheriff over there? Widowed at a young age, he sampled the fine pleasures of one Janice Lowell just last week. And from what I hear, he’s a real go-getter. An all-nighter. ” She leaned over and waved at the sheriff over her shoulder.
Chaya glanced back and was surprised to see Sheriff Mayes watching the other woman with narrow-eyed disapproval.
“He does the whole good-cop routine so well. ” Rogue sighed elaborately.
“What else can you tell me?” Chaya asked her then.
“I can tell you a lot of women want to claw your eyes out. Weekend gossip is so much fun. And I can tell you that one of your agents—” She paused and shook her head, the brittle amusement dropping for a second. “Hell of a way to go. I heard he was killed this morning and several others almost went up in flames as well. What do you want me to tell you, Agent Dane?” The mocking, devil-may-care grin was back.
“Who was pulling Johnny’s strings? Even better, who set the bombs?”
“If I knew, I’d be barbeque, too. ” Rogue grimaced. “All I hear is a little gossip here and there. ” She shook her head, the tiny bells at her ears chiming softly. “The Mackay family is damned weird though. Ray, he’s a good guy, so are Dawg, Rowdy, and Natches. I didn’t know Chandler before he died, thank God, but I know he and Dayle were having one major fight the night Chandler and his wife were killed. And I know Nadine Mackay Grace and Dayle like to get the nasty on a little too often. ” Her smile was all teeth; her eyes were bitter and much too cynical. “If I had known anything more, trust me, one of the Mackay cousins would have known, because there’s nothing in this world I would have loved better than bringing down Nadine Grace. ”
“Why?” Sometimes that was the most important question a person could ask.
Rogue picked at the label on the bottle of beer, then reached over and turned the recorder off.
“Interview over,” she said softly.
Chaya picked up the recorder, transferred it back to her pocket, and watched Rogue expectantly. “Just between us girls then,” she told her. “What did Nadine do to you?”
Rogue glanced at where Natches and the sheriff sat, then turned her eyes back to Chaya. Somehow she wasn’t surprised to see the hollow pain reflected within them.
“She helped create me,” Rogue said then, her voice low and haunting. “One of these days, I’ll get to remind her of that. Create a monster, and it can come back and bite you in the ass. Isn’t that true, Agent Dane?”
Chaya nodded slowly. “That’s very true, Rogue. Very true. ”
“Natches, you’re making a mistake here,” Zeke muttered as they watched the two women. They couldn’t hear the words, but a look told a thousand tales. “You need to pull her out of this. ”
Rogue, the one woman who men in three counties feared on a daily basis, almost blushed, and she softened. She looked younger; her gaze twinkled in humor. Then her expression shifted again, sorrow, and then bitterness. Natches swore that in the years he had known her, which hadn’t been many, he’d rarely seen anything but hard, mocking amusement in her eyes.
As he watched Chaya though, his chest clenched. He’d been ready to tie her to his bed and force her out of this. Make her swear she would duck and hide until this was over and let him deal with the mess Cranston was creating.
But as he watched her, he remembered crashing into that filthy little dirt cell in Iraq. The smell of blood and death had filled the cramped area, but there had been Chaya, crouched, a gun in her hand, dressed in her tormentor’s uniform.
Her eyes had been so swollen there had been no way she could have seen out of them. Her feet had been ragged, though he hadn’t known that at the time. She had been so bruised and mauled, he’d seen his own life flash before his eyes. Because he couldn’t have left her, and there hadn’t been a chance he could’ve carried her out of there.
But she had run. There had been no tears, only strength. No excuses, no recriminations. She had fought to live and fought to fight, and it was those qualities that had first stolen his heart.
And he thought he could take that from her now?
“That’s not my job,” he finally murmured.
“It’s your job to protect her, damn it,” Zeke cursed.
And to that, Natches nodded. “It’s my job to watch her back while she does her job. You don’t change what you love, Zeke, or you never loved it to begin with. ”
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