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“Doogan asked you to dinner to force me to do exactly what I did,” he revealed. “Donny heard him invite you to dinner, heard the location and your answer. The bastard let me get three hours out of town before he was good enough to tell me. And I came back for you, by God, because you’re mine! And that’s besides the fact that I’ve never fucking cared for Doogan’s poaching tendencies. Coming back for you was a hell of a lot easier than trying to get out of a murder charge. ”
Eve could feel her insides shaking now as well. She was trembling from the inside out, shaking with the desperate need to deny what he was telling her.
“That doesn’t make sense, Brogan,” she whispered. “How could I be of any use to Homeland Security or to Chatham?”
“Not so much you as your brother and cousins. Doogan wants the Mackays to solve this for him, without his asking. If he has to ask and they solve it, then he owes them major. They solve it because you’re possibly in danger or your lover endangers you, then it’s just a freebie and he doesn’t owe them a damned thing. ”
There had to be more, though. She could feel it, sense he was holding back. But if she didn’t ask the right question, then he wouldn’t tell her. But she knew it wasn’t just a case of pulling her brother and cousins into some conniving bastard’s operation.
Staring back at him, she whispered, “Is everyone in Homeland Security manipulating bastards with nothing better to do than scheme a
nd interfere in innocent people’s lives?”
Brogan shook his head. “Timothy and Doogan are freaks of nature best avoided. ”
“So Chatham Doogan asked me out knowing you would return once you found out about it and then make me your lover?” she asked dubiously. “How could he be so certain it would work?”
“Because he’s a freak of nature,” he repeated. “Men like that can calculate the odds and then find ways to turn the situation to their favor. That’s what Doogan is best at. ”
“All of this just so Dawg, Rowdy, and Natches would help solve a case for him?”
Brogan nodded.
“How are they supposed to accomplish something you’ve not yet managed?” she bit out, her fingers forming fists as offended anger began to surge through her senses.
Brogan’s lips tilted in a smile, more rueful than mocking. “They know this county and the people in it,” he told her. “Even more, they know which rocks to turn over and the heads to knock together to get the answers they need. ”
“And you think they haven’t gotten tired of waiting and are doing it anyway?” she asked in disbelief. “Brogan, this is their home, and they wouldn’t let this go on without helping if they knew about it. ”
He shook his head, his arms dropping from his chest.
“No, Eve, I don’t think that’s what they’re doing,” he said acerbically. “There’s doing what’s required because the director of operations of the Federal Protective Service threatened to imprison you if you stuck your nose in another agency operation. Then there’s active determination to finish the job before something happens to the baby sister you swore you would protect. The first kind of man steps in only when asked to. The second doesn’t wait to be asked. ”
And Dawg wouldn’t wait to be asked if he thought Eve, Piper, Lyrica, or Zoey were in danger.
“And you think Dawg won’t figure it out?” she questioned him harshly. “For God’s sake, Brogan, I promised him I would stay away from you. That I wouldn’t take as a lover the only man he couldn’t bear to see me with. Trust me; Dawg will question me. He’ll want to know why I broke my promise when I’ve never done it before. ”
What had she done to betray her brother?
Disbelief crashed through her system as the reality of it, of the fact that she had done the one thing Dawg, her brother, had asked her not to do. The only thing he had ever asked her not to do.
“He should have never made you promise to stay away from me. ” His brow arched, mockery gleaming in his eyes, but Eve could feel the thread of anger emanating from him.
“You’re a suspected traitor, Brogan,” she reminded him.
“Living in the same house as a former Homeland Security special agent,” he reminded her. “Don’t fool yourself, sweet pea. Dawg Mackay knows a traitor when he’s in the presence of one. Just as he knows an agent when one’s around. ”
Eve stared back at him, hurting, her heart aching so fiercely she reached up to rub at her chest, trying to ease the burning tightness.
He was right. Dawg would have known Brogan was no traitor, so why would he deceive her? Make her believe he suspected Brogan of being exactly that?
“Maybe it’s because everyone else believes you’re one?” she questioned him, her voice rough. “Or maybe it’s because he suspected what your boss is capable of doing. ”
Still, Dawg had led her to believe he, too, suspected Brogan of treason, or acting against his country. And because he had believed it, Eve had questioned her own instincts where Brogan was concerned.
“Tell me, Eve, when you made that promise, did you intend to keep it?” The look in his eyes warned her he wasn’t happy she had given in to Dawg’s demand.
Had she intended to keep it?
