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She was still and silent against his chest, though he knew that indomitable will of hers was still firmly in place. She was the strongest person he had ever known in his life, and he wanted nothing more than to allow her to be weak.
And that was the redneck in him, he knew it was. The man who wanted to protect his woman against any and all threats. To be a partner until danger rolled around. But he had chosen a woman who refused to hide from danger.
That courage she possessed terrified him.
“Dayle Mackay is dangerous,” he said softly, staring at the ceiling now, his brow creasing into a frown as he let the memories of his childhood wash over him.
He didn’t do that often. The past was just that, it was the past. When he had met Chaya, seeing her courage and her will to laugh had somehow helped him to dull those memories, but nothing could eradicate them.
“Dayle wanted a carbon copy of himself in a son,” he stated. “A bully without a conscience, and one he could control. He didn’t have much luck with me. I was a smart-mouthed little bastard eaten up with rage. I defied him every chance I had, and I gloried in it, even when he was taking his fists to me. ”
That had been his relationship with the man he refused to call father.
“You’re not facing him alone. ” Her voice was soft, sweet, it was ti
nged with emotion and struck a bolt of feeling inside him that had him closing his eyes against the strength of it.
“There’s no other way to face him, but alone. ” He sighed. “That’s what it’s come down to here, Chay. Just me and Dayle. I’ve avoided him, I’ve put it off. Hell, I should have just killed the son of a bitch before I met you, like I wanted to. But Uncle Ray would have felt as though he failed to raise me right, and Rowdy and Dawg, well, they would have had something to say about it. ”
Not much. But they would have said something, Natches thought.
He should have felt an edge of sorrow, hell, he should have felt guilt over the fact that it would be that easy to kill a man. But Dayle Mackay wasn’t a man—he was a monster.
Yet, he still hadn’t killed him, and Natches was never certain what stopped him from doing it. Maybe because until now, Dayle had never really done anything evil, even though Natches had known he was evil.
And he wasn’t going to kill him now. Not unless Dayle gave him no other choice.
“You can give me the silent treatment until hell freezes over. ” She lifted her head and stared him in the eye. “But you’re not doing this alone. ”
He, Dawg, Rowdy, and Ray had come up with the plan while Chaya slept. Their voices quiet to keep from disturbing her, their minds made up.
Natches knew the one thing Dayle had always wanted from him. Loyalty. It came down to something that simple. From the time Natches had been small, Dayle had been enraged at his affection for Ray and the two cousins he hadn’t even known until they started school together. They had been instantly drawn to each other. And Natches had begun slipping away from his own home and sneaking to Ray’s.
He and Dawg had been fascinated by Ray Mackay’s gentle if sometimes gruff demeanor.
“If you’re with me, he’ll never talk,” he told her, keeping his voice firm, keeping himself strong. “You’re not a part of this, Chaya. There’s no way to make you a part of this. ”
He watched her as she laid her head on his chest, her eyes glittering with tears. And Chaya didn’t cry easily. She didn’t use tears to get her way; she didn’t pull any of the female tricks to force a man’s agreement he had seen over the years from other women.
Kelly, love her heart, she shamelessly used tears whenever she felt Rowdy was being too stubborn. Shamelessly because she and Rowdy both knew what she was doing. It wasn’t a game to her so much as a way to get past Rowdy’s sometimes stubborn mind-set. She was sweet and innocent, and sometimes she didn’t understand the evil that existed in the world. Though he knew she would argue that sentiment.
Crista was stronger, but still, she was so completely female that Natches could only grin at the battles Dawg fought with his wife. She led the big, tough Dawg around with a crook of her finger and managed to get past even his most stubborn decisions. Like running the lumber store himself. Taking responsibility for it. Dawg was turning into a real businessman, courtesy of one little stubborn female.
Chaya, Natches knew, would never be like Kelly and Crista. Not that there was anything wrong with either woman. It was just both of them saw the world as it existed around them; they didn’t know the darkness that existed beneath it. And Dawg and Rowdy would kill anyone that tried to show it to them.
Chaya was different. She knew the evil. She had lived with it. She knew the darkness, because she had spent years navigating it. And she knew him. And because of that, she was going to be hell on his nerves and he knew it.
“You better find a way to make me a part of it,” she stated. “Because you’re not doing it alone. ”
He wanted to grin at the tone of her voice.
Turning her onto her back, he stared into her eyes and laid his palm on her lower stomach.
“Do you know I swore all my life I’d never allow a woman to have my child?” His fingers caressed her belly where he knew their child lay.
“Don’t use that against me, Natches. That’s dirty. ”
He shook his head. “I’m not doing that, Chay; I’m trying to make a point here. ”
