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“Perhaps that’s a question you should ask John,” she stated as she stared back at the other woman directly. “Funny, the only proposal I’ve ever heard come from his lips was for another woman. ”
“And I understand you took care of that one right quickly,” Chaya pointed out as the other women looked on in amusement.
“She was cheating on him. ” Sierra narrowed her eyes at the other woman. “Do you have a problem with me, Mrs. Mackay?”
“Only if you intend on breaking John’s heart,” Chaya informed her.
“Then, we may all have a problem with that,” Kelly chimed in.
“And if he breaks mine instead?” she asked. “Excuse me, ladies, but I truly don’t think you have anything to worry about where John’s concerned. He’s a really big boy, and trust me, he takes care of himself very well. ”
She wondered at these new friends of John’s even as she wondered if anyone had cared when he had broken her heart.
“We would care if your heart was broken as well, Sierra,” Christa stated then, drawing Sierra’s attention. “We know John, though. We know how he’s spoken of you over the past year, and we know you’re important to him. Forgive us for being protective. ”
Sierra stared back at her and for a moment wished she had friends such as these four women. Women who might have understood, who might have supported her those months when losing John had hurt so much.
“I have no designs on your friend,” she told them all clearly. “He’s the one that left Boston, not me. Now, I think it might be a rather good idea if we change the subject. ”
John eased away from the open doorway and glanced back at the men who had followed him down from the top deck, intending to move to the office by the quickest route of straight through the room.
Instead, he turned, moved quickly to the side of the houseboat, and made his way to the back.
Son of a bitch, he’d heard the pain in her voice and he hated it, just as he was certain the others had heard as well. He was coming to the conclusion that something more than he remembered had definitely happened that night in Boston when she had come to his apartment.
He knew Sierra. He knew her like he had never known another woman, and
he knew a simple case of him passing out on her wouldn’t have produced this result.
“Boy, you have something to fix with that girl,” Timothy muttered as John pushed open the glass sliding doors off the back deck.
“Let it go, Cranston,” he ordered.
“We’re going to back him this time, John,” Dawg stated, his deep voice quiet, intense. “That girl sounded as lost as a whipped puppy, and you know that’s not going over real well. ”
The four men behind him were protective, especially of women. As John understood it, they always had been, even during their wild, often lascivious pasts.
“Let’s concentrate on finding out who the hell is trying to kill her, then I can concentrate on making damned sure I don’t lose her,” he growled as he turned back to the other six. “Can you give me that much?”
They stared back at him with varying degrees of suspicion.
“We’ll give you that time, JW,” Cranston drawled. “And if she runs back to Boston in tears, then we’ll see just how hard we can kick your damned ass. ”
John didn’t doubt that in the least.
“Here’s what we have,” Dawg stepped in. “There were definitely prints on the shoreline, though someone tried to brush them out. By the position our watcher was sitting in, they were watching your boat, and they were there for a while. One set of prints, definitely male, I’d say about a size ten maybe eleven, it was hard to be sure with the deliberate attempt to erase them. ”
“Ms. Genoa is still in town as well,” Timothy informed him. “She was going into the Mackay Café for lunch as I headed here. ”
“She’s been there every day for the past four days,” Faisal broke in, his tone hushed. “She asks questions about John Walker and if he has a lover, who his friends are, though many simply shrug, and others tell her to ask him herself. ” Faisal was likely one of those “others” if his mocking smile was anything to go by.
“No one knows you have anyone on the boat with you, that I can tell,” Rowdy told him. “There’s no gossip about it at the marina. Most people here really don’t give a damn, but I doubt they’d lie if asked, if they have seen her. ”
John shook his head. “She’s been inside so far. The doctor should be here later this afternoon to check her out, then maybe it would be a good idea to pull out for a while. ”
“Not yet. ” Natches shook his head then. “Dawg and Christa are keeping Bliss for me tonight, Chaya and I are going to do a little midnight hunting. Just keep her inside, keep the curtains pulled, and we’ll do the rest. ”
“I hate this. ” He pushed his fingers restlessly through his hair. “I want to catch the bastard myself, but damn if I want to leave her alone long enough to do it. ”
