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“You’re a fucking menace to society, Natches,” she retorted furiously. “Don’t pull that with me.”
“Hey, that was a lot of years ago.” Natches glared back at her. “I haven’t been a menace to anyone but my wife and child since Bliss was born, I’ll have you know.”
“What do you call torturing me and my sisters?”
“My god-given right as Dawg’s cousin,” he said with a heavy frown, his expression filled with conviction. “And don’t think he wouldn’t do the same if you were my sister. You and your sisters belong to us, just like our kids do. We can torture you all we like. That doesn’t mean we’ll allow anyone else that privilege.”
He was making her crazy. Dawg and Rowdy just sat with their heads lowered, the expression on their faces one of long-suffering patience as Natches demanded attention. Brogan Campbell was watching with narrow-eyed curiosity, while Graham watched with simple, astounded disbelief.
Evidently, he’d just not had enough experience dealing with the three Mackays at once. This was an education for him. And no doubt the death of any chance she might have had at a relationship with him.
“I might as well be your daughter for all the peace I get,” she pointed out, almost shaking in anger now. “Your poor child will likely join a convent just to find some peace.”
Natches’s eyes narrowed on her, the emerald gleaming between his heavy lashes in venomous contempt.
“Oh hell, come on, Lyrica,” he drawled bitterly. “Stop fucking teasing me here. You and I both know I’ll never get that damned lucky.”
The F-bomb? He dared to use a word he knew would have his wife chewing his ass for hours, just to distract her from the situation?
Oh, classic Natches, and she so wasn’t fooled.
“Whoa! Time out here, kids.” Chaya jumped in at that point, her husband’s use of the F-bomb clearly concerning her, just as Natches had anticipated.
“She started it.” Natches turned on his wife, his arm flying out as he pointed a finger at Lyrica as though he were five years old.
Chaya rolled her eyes. “No doubt, sweetheart,” she agreed with placating patience. “Could you put aside the inner child now and let the man out to play again?”
His lips twisted into a little snarl, but his arm lowered as he settled back in his chair with a glare in Lyrica’s direction.
God, could this get any more incredible?
“You know, the three of you are going to cause me to move to Lexington just to get some peace,” she informed them all as she rose from her chair. “I think I’ve had enough Mackay explanations for the night. You’ve exhausted me more than both attempts on my life have managed to do so far.”
It was no more than the truth.
“Well, look on the bright side—I promised not to hit Graham again, even knowing you’re going to be sharing his bed here,” Natches stated sarcastically as she turned to leave. “You have a free pass to be bad for letting him protect you for us.”
She froze.
She heard Graham’s muttered curse and Chaya’s groan clearly, and she tried counting to ten before turning back to Natches.
She made it to five.
“Letting him protect me for you?” She swung around on him furiously. “No, cousin of mine, I don’t have a free pass to any damned thing. Both of us know exactly where it’s going to end, just as we know you’ll wait until all this is over then think you can hit him again just because the danger is gone, then stick your nose right back into my life again. And don’t even bother thinking that I believe this magnanimous gesture toward Graham is anything more than it is. It’s just your own inability to force him out of the situation and your knowledge that I’ll probably only end up doing what both Eve and Piper did and try to hide the fact that I’m sleeping with him from the three of you once it happens.”
Natches just rolled his eyes at her. “You think you know us all so well.” He flicked his fingers at Dawg and Rowdy, and the other two men covered their faces with their hands in defeat as he ignored their hushed orders to just “shut the fuck up, Natches.”
“I know you well enough.” She laughed bitterly. “I know all of you far too well at the moment, that’s for damned sure.” She flicked Chaya a pitying look. “And I can’t say just how much we all appreciate the fact that you at least keep him distracted sometimes, Chaya. You deserve sainthood.”
With that, she turned and stalked from the room, ignoring Natches’s amusement as he laughed at his wife and thanked her for “keeping him distracted.”
Lyrica couldn’t believe their nerve any more than she could believe that they’d refused to share their suspicions with her. Though it shouldn’t have surprised her, she admitted.
Hell, she should have suspected . . .
Perhaps she had suspected, because she hadn’t felt entirely safe since the day she’d left Graham’s home and returned to her apartment. Except for those few times she had been with Graham.
Stalking to his suite, she realized just how close panic was to the surface, and just how very unprepared she was for the danger facing her. And that only increased the risk for everyone involved.
