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Brogan forcibly controlled his grin as he turned back to Dawg. As he started to speak, the door to the marina offices opened and Ray Mackay stood in the doorway. Dawg might be Eve’s brother, but Ray was the acknowledged patriarch of the clan.
“Brogan, son, is Dawg giving you problems?” Ray shot Dawg a warning look.
“Sir, I’ve been trying to ask Dawg to accept my request to marry his sister Eve, but he doesn’t seem too inclined to let me get the words out. ”
Even Ray appeared completely shocked by the request.
“You’re joking,” Dawg said, the look in his eyes nearly dazed as he stared back at Brogan.
“And you’re trying to piss me off,” Brogan decided. “Now, while I’m away from her, I’d like to go to the bank and take my grandmother’s ring out of the safe-deposit box I have there. But it will do no damned good if you refuse the request. ”
“Why?” Dawg was still staring at Brogan as though uncertain whether he should believe him.
Brogan shoved his hands into the back pockets of his jeans to keep them away from Dawg’s throat.
It would be simpler, easier to explain what he wanted, further, he decided.
“My grandmother left me her engagement ring and her and my grandfather’s wedding bands,” he gritted out in irritation. “But I can give them to my fiancée only if a male relative gives permission for her to marry me. ”
Dawg frowned. “She won’t like wearing a ring your first fiancée wore. ”
Yeah, Dawg was just trying to piss him off; that was all it could be.
“Candy never wore my grandmother’s ring,” he snapped. “No other woman has even seen it since my grandmother’s death. Candy had no male relatives to ask, so I couldn’t have done it even if she had known about it. ”
“There are ways around that. ” Natches grinned. “You could still have given it to her. ”
“Dammit, I didn’t want to give it to her,” Brogan snapped furiously before turning back to Dawg. “Yes or no, dammit. And if you say no, I’ll show her the rings and tell her you’re the reason she can’t have them. ”
Dawg’s eyes widened in mocking innocence. “I never said such a thing as no, Brogan. ”
“You didn’t say yes, either. ”
Dawg grinned. “Hell, I didn’t. Did I?”
Brogan took a step toward him, intent on cracking the other man’s jaw on his fist.
“How bad do you want that compensatory package, Dawg?” he asked instead.
“Pretty damned bad. ” Dawg’s eyes narrowed thoughtfully.
“I’ll take that as a yes then. . . . ”
“Well, now, I don’t know about that. . . . ”
“Hell, you have my permission to marry her,” Ray snapped, glaring at Dawg. “You want to see her cry again, moron?” he asked with more playful affection than true anger.
“I was going to give him permission,” Dawg growled as he propped his hands on his hips and stared at his uncle with a fierce frown. “There was no damned sense in making it easy on him. ”
Brogan snorted at the smirk that curled Dawg’s lips then as Brogan glared back at him.
As Brogan opened his lips to say something particularly insulting, Dawg’s expression suddenly creased into one of concern a second before a blaring horn had the rest of them turning quickly. The two-year-old bright blue BMW barreled toward them quickly.
“Samantha,” Brogan shouted her name, sprinting toward the vehicle as it suddenly slammed into another parked car. Racing to the driver’s side, his heart in his throat, he jerked the door open, only just barely catching his baby sister as she toppled from the vehicle.
Mackays were cursing as Brogan caught her in his arms, the sight of her blood matting her hair from a jagged gash in her scalp, a deep puncture to her shoulder, and a slice across the side of her neck that only narrowly missed her jugular. Glimp
sed, but not ignored by Brogan was the sight of her partner, Kraig, in the passenger seat staring unseeingly into the window, half his face blown away.
