EIGHTEEN
“Rowdy, we’re not going to be able to keep her here.” Dawg moved through the living room, checking the windows and their latches the next afternoon. “Your dad’s security system is good, but it won’t stop a bullet.”
“Don’t know many that will,” Rowdy muttered, tamping down his impatience as he pushed his fingers through his hair and surveyed the living room.
He had been through the rest of the house, just as Dawg and Natches had been over the hill above it. The bastard was hiding there at night, watching the house, and he had a clear shot into every room from one point or another, if one of them messed up and didn’t close the curtains well enough.
And that didn’t change the fact that his dad and Maria were refusing to leave now. As was Kelly.
“He’ll come back at us quick enough to keep us from making headway into security here,” Natches drawled from the entryway. He was in that clearing across from her room last night. I never caught sight of him, but I could feel him. He was out there. And he’s damn good.”
Shit.
“We have to get her out of here, Rowdy,” Dawg reiterated. “Now. My gut is going crazy with this. Whoever the bastard is, he’s lost his damned mind. He won’t care who he kills to get to Kelly.”
“Your place?” Rowdy’s eyes narrowed on Dawg’s expression. He could see the expectation there, the excitement.
Dawg’s house was an underground masterpiece built by his parents. The outside was cement and stone overlaid with roughened wood siding. The windows were extra thick and after Dawg’s return from the Marines, bulletproof. As far as anyone knew, there was only one way in or out. No one knew about the hidden entrance except for the three of them.
Dawg nodded. “It’s the most secure.”
Rowdy braced himself. He could feel the sexual tension beginning to heat up in the room. His cousins had waited years for this. Hell, they all had.
“I’m not sharing her.” The words were out of Rowdy’s mouth before he could stop them.
His head snapped up, his jaw tightening as Dawg and Natches stared back at him in surprise.
“Is that your decision or Kelly’s?” Natches tipped his head to the side and watched him curiously.
Rowdy found the look testing his temper. Natches liked to push and he liked to challenge things just for the hell of it. Rowdy hated the thought of fighting his cousin over something that should have been settled years before, but he would.
“It doesn’t matter whose decision it is.” Rowdy pushed the words past his lips, attempting to contain the anger rising from his cousin’s question. “It’s not happening. We’ll move her to the house, but hands off. Period.”
Dawg sighed heavily, a grimace contorting his expression.
“Now, son of a bitch, how did I know you were going to go and get all dog-eared fucking jealous?” he griped, his green eyes narrowed in irritation. “Hell, Rowdy, talk about blue balls going on here.”
“Talk about too damned bad,” Rowdy muttered as his muscles bunched and flexed beneath his flesh in rising tension. Damn, this shit sucked. As though the possessiveness, the emotions he felt for her were a separate being living within his flesh and bone.
“Hell, we can argue over this later,” Natches finally grumped. “After I take out my mad on that son of a bitch stalking her. Then we can fight over sharing rights.”
“No sharing rights. Period,” Rowdy snapped. The only thing that restrained him from taking his cousins apart limb by limb was the fact that he knew them. They weren’t pissed, at least not yet. But Rowdy admitted he was getting there fast.
And it was his own damned fault. He was mad at himself for letting this situation get out of control, for letting his cousins believe there would be more here than he was able to accept now.
“Chill out, cuz,” Dawg breathed out roughly. “Hell, it would have been nice, but no one’s pushing. Wouldn’t be worth a shit if both of you didn’t want it anyway.”
Rowdy narrowed his eyes on his older cousin. There was a vague restlessness in his voice, and he realized it had been there for a while.
“What the hell do you two think you’re doing? Growing the fuck up?” Natches snapped then, disgust lining his voice and filling his green eyes. “If I wanted to grow up I would have stayed in the fucking Marines.”
Rowdy rolled his eyes. Trust Natches to get to the heart of the matter.
“I guess it was bound to happen eventually,” Dawg sighed. “Come on, let’s get the little troublemaker hid out in the house and see what we can do to make her life a little safer before she takes on the resident grouch here.” He flicked his hand toward Rowdy.
“This falling in love crap obviously sucks,” Natches commented as he turned and headed out of the room. “Remind me to steer clear of it why doncha, guys? God only knows what kind of fool I might end up making of myself if I made that mistake.” His mock shudder had a grin pulling at Rowdy’s lips.
“Careful, Natches, you know what happens when we tempt fate.” How many times had they assured themselves the fun and games would never end. And now look where they were.
“Fate can kiss my ass,” he grumbled. “Better yet, she can suck my dick. I’m footloose and fancy-free, my man. And that’s how I’ll stay.”
Rowdy eyed his cousin warily. There was lightning striking somewhere, he was certain, and at that moment he decided he didn’t want to be anywhere around when Natches finally did manage to fall in love.
“Think about it guys,” he muttered. “Do you think I’d ever be able to touch another woman after Kelly? That she could ever bear the thought of it, even if I could? She’s my life—”
“All this sugar is just going to give me a toothache,” Natches growled as he threw him a dark look. “Get over it already. She would have gone along with it if she had spent awhile between the three of us. She’s a fair-minded person—”
“Well maybe I’m not,” Rowdy bit out, his tone guttural. “Keep pushing me, Natches, and you’re going to get the fight you’re aiming for.”
Rowdy was aware of Dawg watching them both warily, sensing the tension suddenly whipping between Natches and Rowdy.
“None of you are going to fight.”
Rowdy’s head whipped around as Kelly stepped into the room, her gray eyes glittering with temper, her face flushed with it.
She was dressed in a pair of those low-rise jeans he liked so damn well. It was paired with a little cami shirt with tiny straps that flashed abdomen and the belly ring that made his dick jerk in his pants. That curvy little body of hers was going to be the death of him.
Surprisingly, Natches backed down from the look in her eye, not that Rowdy blamed the other man—she looked ready to claw all their eyes out.
“Hell, Kelly, you know us. We fight for the hell of it.” Natches flashed a smile at her, one that gave a hell of a pretense of friendly amusement, if you discounted the darkening of those pale eyes.
“Save it for someone you can convince.” She frowned back at the other man.
Natches grimaced.
“Kelly, you know”—Rowdy leaned against the bar as he watched her—“I can take care of some things myself here.”
She was cute as hell as she watched them with a temper tantrum seething just beneath the surface.
“Where these two are concerned?” She flicked her fingers between Dawg and Natches. “Rowdy, I doubt a whole team of Marines could whip those two in line.”
“Several might have tried though,” Dawg pointed out, his lips twitching in a grin.
She stared between the three of them before her gaze moved back to Rowdy. He could see it in her eyes, she must have caught part of the conversation, but that didn’t mean she liked any of it. He was realizing just how intensely private his little love was, and it shocked him to realize how much that pleased him.
He should have known Kelly would change the rules on him; what surprised him was the fact that she made him like it. It sent a strange little pulse of pride through him, that considering his past, he shouldn’t have felt.
“If you’re making plans concerning my life or my safety,” she said then, crossing her arms beneath the tempting mounds of her breasts, “I think I should be a part of the planning process. Don’t you?”
What had made him think she would accept anything less?
“Now, Kelly,” Natches drawled then. “We can take care of the detail stuff here. You shouldn’t worry your little head about this stuff.”
Rowdy and Dawg both blinked back at the other man, wondering if he’d lost his ever-lovin’ mind. Everyone who knew Kelly knew you simply did not patronize her, period. She was sharp as a whip and had definite ideas on a lot of things. Pig-headed men being one of those things.
Kelly’s eyes narrowed on him. “Just not worry my little head about it?” she asked him gently.
“Kelly…” Rowdy cleared his throat, looking for an excuse for his dim-witted cousin.
“More or less.” Natches’s smile was condescending as Rowdy stared at him in disbelief. When had his cousin decided that women were stupid?
“Kelly, sweetheart, Dad and Maria were supposed to—”
“Don’t try to distract me, Rowdy, it doesn’t work,” she snapped, her dark eyes furious as her stubborn chin lifted, her soft lips tightening in anger as her gaze swung back to Natches.
“Come on, Kelly, we all know Natches can be a knothead,” Dawg sighed. “Let’s not hurt him too bad here. We might need him down the road later to dig ditches or something.”
Natches’s lips lifted in a grin as his light green eyes stayed locked on Kelly. And suddenly, Rowdy knew his game. He almost laughed when his gaze went back to Kelly and rather than seeing furious arousal glittering in her eyes, he only saw the anger.
His little spitfire wasn’t in the least turned on by Natches’s confrontational attitude.
“You know, Natches”—she lifted a hand and surveyed her nails for a second before lifting her gaze back to the other man—“just because I’m not exactly a part of the upper crust of this fine little town doesn’t mean I don’t know its little secrets. Don’t make the mistake of thinking I’m one of those slow-witted little blondes you and Dawg have been snacking on lately. Because I’m not. And neither am I at all interested in taming that bad boy thing you have going on. And as for you.” She turned to Rowdy.
Rowdy lifted his brow curiously. There was the arousal. It glittered just beneath the anger as she raked over his lazy slouch against the bar. “Before making any plans that concern my future, maybe you’ll be good enough to discuss them with me first. If you don’t mind, that is.”
Ouch. The lash of displeasure in her voice actually stung.
“And I think that’s our cue to go,” Dawg stated with a smile as he straightened from where he was leaning against the wall. “Let’s go, Natches.”
“Like hell,” Natches drawled. “Watching her neuter him is way too much fun.”
Rowdy straightened as hurt flashed in Kelly’s eyes as she stared back at the other man. Natches’s tone was bordering snide, and Rowdy was fed up with it.
“Natches, shut the hell up,” he warned softly.
“Why?” Natches asked with apparent joviality. “Hell, Rowdy, I’m taking notes here. Watching you get your dick twisted in a knot like this over her is teaching me what not to do.”
He was going to kill Natches.
“Kelly, ignore that fool,” Dawg drawled then. “He’s just pissed as hell that you’re not twisting his dick, that’s all.”
“And he’s getting ready to get his ass kicked.” Rowdy moved then.
He stalked across the room, ignoring Kelly’s flinch as he pulled her against him, his lips pressing to her forehead as he held her to him, his gaze slicing to Natches in warning.
“We’re just discussing the best place to protect you, baby.” He rubbed his hand down her arm, feeling her tremble against him despite her anger. “No plans are being made without you. I promise.”
“I don’t need to be babied.” She pulled away from him, but the hurt in her voice was easy to hear and Rowdy promised he was going to make Natches pay for that one. “I just thought somehow, plans that included me were my business. Just forget it.”
She turned and stalked from the room as Rowdy turned back to Natches. The minute he heard her moving up the hallway, he jumped for the older man.
“Whoa! Hold on there, boy.” Dawg jumped in front of him, blocking him with his wider body as Rowdy growled in fury. “You know how he gets. Dammit, Rowdy, you start a fight in here and Maria’s gonna kick all our asses.”
“Get the fuck out of my face.” He jabbed his finger over Dawg’s shoulder, glaring back at Natches as his expression darkened with anger. “And so help me God, you treat her like that again and I’ll tear your dick off and feed it to you. You want to be a bastard because you’re not getting what you want, then you take it up with me.”
He knew Natches’s problem, and he knew he should have anticipated it. Dawg and Natches both had waited, just as he had, for Kelly. They had hungered, lusted, expected certain things where her relationship with Rowdy was concerned.
This was his fault. As he jerked away from Dawg, he admitted it was his fault, but he’d be damned if Kelly was going to pay for it with Natches’s surly attitude.
He paced to the bar, pouring a quick drink and kicking it back as he grimaced at the sting. Natches was damned good at pushing buttons, and, Rowdy admitted, Kelly was a sore spot with him. Hell, he should have known years ago that this wasn’t going to work, rather than running from the situation as he had. And he had run. The emotions that damned woman caused to rise inside him threatened his sanity at times.
“I didn’t mean to hurt her.” Natches cleared his throat uncomfortably. “Hell. I didn’t mean anything by it, Rowdy.”
Rowdy lifted his gaze. He was so damned close to fighting Natches that he had to clench his fist to hold onto his control.
“She’s mine, Natches,” he snapped. “I can understand why you’re pissed but if you take it out on her again, you’ll deal with me. You got that?”
“Yeah, I got that.” Natches snorted, though he didn’t sound overly concerned at the prospect. “I’m going to go see if I can find a sign of that bastard while you cool off. Hell, son of a bitch needs to die for fucking shit up like this.”
He stomped from the living room. Seconds later, the door slammed behind him. Rowdy stared back at Dawg then.
“He’ll chill out.” Dawg slapped him on the shoulder as he headed from the room. “You take care of Kelly, and we’ll watch your back. And when Natches’s time comes, we might even watch his.”