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“I need some money, Natches. I have several deliveries coming in this morning and no way to pay for them. ”
Alex moved to the computer as her brother glared at her.
“Moving from here isn’t an option,” she told him firmly. “We’ve discussed this. ”
He sat down in the chair across from her. Thank God it wasn’t the one Alex had done her in.
“I’m worried, sis,” he said softly. “This isn’t good. Someone has focused their crazy on you, and I can’t figure out who it is. ”
“Obviously someone who respects the hell out of you and Alex. ” She flipped her fingers to the letter still lying on the table. “They need someone to hate for what Dayle did. They don’t know me. You were responsible for catching him. They just need to let off some steam. ”
“You know better than that,” Natches said.
Alex watched the exchange closely. He could see Natches’s fears, his guilt that Janey was being targeted. Brother and sister both were fighting against a barrier raised between them, one Dayle Mackay had placed there. Natches had taken the beatings until he was twenty, to ensure Dayle never abused Janey. And she knew it. Her guilt was like a cancer eating inside her. Natches had watched out for her from afar, bullied friends into helping him when she went away to school, and generally made himself crazy because Dayle had still managed to hurt her six months before. He hadn’t been able to protect her, and his guilt added to that barrier.
“I know I have to deal with this on my own. ” Janey shook her head. “If it gets too bad, then I’ll leave. ”
“And when you do, whoever it is will follow you. And there will be no one to protect you,” Alex bit out.
“Is that what you want?”
He thought of the child he’d almost bet she was carrying. His baby. The hell she was leaving.
“You have a better choice?” Janey asked, that damned remote mask of hers slipping into place.
“Exactly what we are doing,” Alex growled. “Whoever it is will mess up. When he does, I’ll be here. ”
The look she gave him made him hard as hell. There was the barest flicker in her gaze of heat, of knowledge. She knew exactly what they were doing. Fucking themselves to death if they kept up the
way they were.
“Enough!” Natches snapped. “Enough of the looks, okay?”
“Natches, you seem to have a problem with me having a life. Period. ” Janey surprised him. Him and Alex.
There was the barest edge of stress in her voice, just the lightest hint of mockery as she stared back at her brother. “I’m over eighteen, remember?”
“And we both remember how we failed to protect you six months ago,” Alex told her as he rebooted her computer and moved to counter whatever was distorting her programs. “We don’t intend to let that happen again. ”
Natches scowled at him. “Yeah, what he said,” he growled, then muttered, “Didn’t ask his opinion, though. ”
Janey narrowed her eyes between the two men. “Is this normal?” She finally asked.
“What?” Natches scowled.
“The way you two are bickering?”
“I bicker with Dawg constantly,” Alex told her absently as he worked at the computer. “Crista lets him get away with too much. Someone needs to point it out. ”
Natches’s scowl deepened.
“Okay,” Janey said slowly. “Tell you what, I’m going to go to the kitchen and let Desmond know the veggies are definitely a go. ” She rose from her seat.
“Janey, why don’t you have the cash to cover the deliveries?” Natches asked softly. “You get a salary as manager. ”
“Locked in the computer. ” She shrugged.
“She’s lying to you,” Alex stated, frowning at the computer as she whipped her head around to glare at him. He knew her too well.
