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Alex flipped the envelope around to show his name on the front. “What do you think?”
?
?Bastard!” he snorted.
“Why didn’t you bring this to Janey?” Alex leaned against the table, curious. Natches was fierce in his protection of his sister, but Alex hadn’t seen a lot of interaction between them.
Natches shrugged. “Look, Hickey Man, keeping her ass safe is your job. ” He glowered at Alex’s neck.
“No, it’s her job as well,” Alex pointed out. “She can’t be on guard if she doesn’t know what the hell is going on. If she knows, then she knows to help me protect her. ”
“No shit,” Natches muttered.
Damn Mackays. There wasn’t a one of them that was easy to deal with.
“What do you want from me, Natches?” he asked. “You want me to walk away? Leave her unprotected?”
“What I want isn’t the question. ” Natches shook his head. “Time for me to go. ”
“Why don’t you try talking to your sister, Natches?” Alex asked as he headed for the door. “Is it that hard?”
Natches paused at the door, staring out the window, tense. Angry.
“She doesn’t talk to me,” he finally said. “I get yes. No. Okay. Whatever. I get polite smiles and noncommittal answers. ” He turned back slowly. “Does she talk to you?”
Alex felt it then. The thing he couldn’t put his finger on since staying with her, since touching her.
“She talks to her cat,” he finally admitted. “She doesn’t talk to me. ”
He could hear her mumbling every morning to that damned cat, behind the closed bedroom door after he left her. She snuggled it in the evening, fed the little bastard ground steak, and pampered it so much Alex actually felt a little jealous at times.
Natches grimaced. “Well, hell. I don’t feel so damned pissed off now. At least I’m not alone. ”
Which didn’t make Alex feel any better.
As he opened his lips to return a mocking retort, his cell phone rang. Having checked the number, he answered it quickly.
“You’re calling me,” he murmured, turning away from Natches. “Is everything okay?”
Janey had never called him .
“You know a lot about computers, right?” There was an edge of frustration in her tone.
“A little bit. ” He arched his brows. “What’s wrong?”
“My computer, obviously. ” She sighed heavily. “There are files missing, jumbled. I can’t make sense of half of what’s on here. Can you come look at it? I need to locate my suppliers file and bills I do through my accounting software. It’s messed up, Alex. Bad. ”
“I’ll be right there,” he promised her. “Keep the chair warm for me. ”
There was silence on the line.
“Are you cold?” There was an edge of amusement in her tone, but also confusion.
“I could be. ”
“I’ll turn the heat up,” she promised. “See you soon, Alex. ”
She disconnected the phone as he pulled it back and stared at it with a frown. Hell, she didn’t talk to him or flirt with him. Damned stubborn Mackay female. He glared at Natches.
