“No.” her father denied sharply with a clench jaw, attempting to slam the door in her new boyfriend’s face.

“Nuh Uh,” her Uncle Ben grunted, eyeing her date like he was about as welcome as a gnat at a family picnic.

“Nada” her Uncle Diego’s accented voice rejected as his dark eyes sized up the boy in front of them and obviously found him lacking.

“Nope,” her Uncle Nick refuted with a short shake of his head

“No way,” her Uncle Grant offered irritably, eyeing the boy standing at the door evilly.

“Moooooommmmmm,” Devlynn called, glaring at the assembled men in their family.  “All the men are doing their impressions of chauvinistic pigs!  Do something, please,” she urged her mom as Molly Delancy rushed into the foyer followed by her besties Armando, Sami, and Vivian.

Glaring at his wife, Devil shook his head.  “She’s not going, Molly.”

“Yes, she is, Devil,” Molly returned softly, her eyes meeting her husband’s.  “Let that boy inside where it’s warm.”

Shifting to glare at Devlynn’s date, Devil scoffed.  “He’s wearing a coat.  He’s fine.  You’re fine, aren’t you, boy?” he asked his daughter’s nervous-looking escort.

“Uhhh… peachy,” the kid squeaked uncertainly.

“See, he’s fine.” Devil shrugged.  “Besides, he doesn’t need to wait.  He can go home since our daughter is grounded for life.”

Rolling her eyes, Devlynn propped one hand on her hip in a pose that mimicked her mother’s.  “And why’s that?  I’ve done my chores, gotten good grades, and met the age requirement you and Mom gave me for dating.  I’m covered, Dad.”

Eyeing her dress disapprovingly, Devil shook his head.  “Nope, you’re half-naked, and that’s part of the problem!”

“Devil!” Molly yelled, smacking her husband in the gut. “That’s enough.  You know as well as I do that Devlynn’s dress is lovely!”

“Didn’t say it was ugly, woman.” Devil grumbled as he eyed the frock his kid had donned for her night on the town.  It was a frothy confection of lace and tulle that came down to just past her knees.  That was all fine; it was the neckline of the ensemble that bothered him.  That sweetheart neckline just showed entirely too much cleavage.  Unfortunately, his wife had passed along her ample ta-tas to their only child.  It was the only time he’d ever cursed his Molly’s breasts size.  “What I said was there wasn’t enough material at the boobies,” Devil grunted, wincing when Molly’s fist connected a second time with his belly.

“Dad!” Devlynn yelped in outrage as she stomped on his toe with the heel of her shoe.

“Stop it, Dev.  You’re embarrassing our girl,” Molly hissed through her teeth as her eyes flashed dangerously as she gestured at their blushing teenage daughter.  “As you well know, this young man goes to school with Devlynn at Dalton Academy and is an honor student there.  He’s also a devout parishioner at our church.  He’s known Devlynn since pre-school.  He knows her curfew and he knows we have guns if he breaks that curfew.  I know for a fact his granddaddy had a conversation with him about that at Wednesday night services, didn’t he, Tate?” she asked the boy who was nervously shifting from foot to foot on her welcome mat.

“Yes, ma’am.  He assured me God don’t like liars, cheats or teenage boyfriends that are late for curfew.  According to him, God will strike me down if I’m so much as thirty seconds off schedule.”

“God won’t have to do anything at all.  I’ll take care of any curfew infractions, kid, and I promise I won’t be as gentle as your Lord and Savior,” Devil cautioned him in a lethally quiet voice as his dark blue eyes promised grim death if his baby wasn’t returned to him, unharmed and untouched, at exactly 11:00 pm.

“Devil, honey, Tate Dennison is about the safest boy in the state of Georgia for our little girl to go out with tonight.  For heaven’s sake, his daddy – who is an upstanding deacon at our church, I might add – is even chauffeuring them tonight.  Tate could have driven.  He’s 17.  But out of respect for us, he asked his daddy to drive them.  They’re not even gonna be alone for a minute, you fool,” Molly reminded her spouse impatiently.  “Now, hug your daughter and tell her to have a good time at her first dance,” his redheaded she-demon of a wife ordered sternly

Devil felt like he’d swallowed a lemon as he turned to look at his kid.  “I’ll give you a thousand dollars to stay home with your momma and me tonight,” he bargained, watching as his pride and joy scowled at him.

“Pass,” Devlynn declared flatly.

Turning to the prepubescent boy on his doorstep, Devil smiled stiffly.  “What about you, Tate?  Can you be bought?  I’ll give you five thousand dollars, cash money, if you’ll just turn around and get in your daddy’s car and go home.”  

“Dad!” Devlynn gasped.

“Ay, papi!  This is like one of my telenovelas and just as painful to watch,” Devlynn’s Uncle Armando winced as he sympathetically patted her on the back. 

A quick look to his left confirmed to Devil that his daughter might just, indeed, be capable of killing him.  But he had to make sure this guy was worthy of her, didn’t he?  That was his job as a father!

Wavering on his feet, Tate looked from Devil to Devlynn and slowly shook his head.  “I’m sorry, sir.  I’ve been asking Devlynn to go with me on a date for the past three months.  She finally said yes.  I’m not screwing that up… even for you.  Besides, standing your daughter up would tick her off something awful, and she’s a scary force of nature when things don’t go her way, sir.  I’m not jumpin’ into the middle of that Georgia tornado for ANY amount of cash,” the teen explained further.

Looking at Devlynn’s mother, Devil sighed.  “Well, I guess I can sympathize with that.  I’ve been living with my own Georgia tornado for years and it’s not for the faint of heart.  It takes a special kind of man not to get blown over, that’s for sure.”

“Oh, based on the look on your wife’s face, I don’t think you’re gonna have to worry about getting’ blown any time in the near future, Dev,” Sami chortled from her position beside her husband, Ben.

“I think I need a few more miles on my tires before I attempt something that brave, sir,” Tate admitted quickly before Devil could tell Sami to can it.  “I’ll be watching you and taking notes, though,” he added quickly.

Well, hell, Devil thought.  This Tate kid really was a good sport.  “Fine,” he finally consented after staring at the boy for a long minute.  “You can go,” he offered with sagging shoulders as he turned to face his only daughter.   Glancing at the four other men that had lined up to guard his daughter with him, he sighed.  “Fellas, I think we should stand down,” he said as the quartet of uncles visibly relaxed.

“Thank you, Daddy,” Devlynn whispered as she rose on her tiptoes to press a kiss to his cheek.  “I’ll be back before you know it.”

“You better be,” Devil grumbled, hugging his baby to his side as he eyed the Tate kid one last time.  “Eleven o’clock!  Not a single second later, Devlynn, or I release the dogs of war,” he reminded his daughter as he gestured toward her uncles.  “I mean it.”

“We got it, Daddy,” Devlynn assured him as she hurried toward her date, snagging his hand and dragging him down the porch steps.

Stepping onto his wraparound porch and watching as the car that carried his daughter to her first dance disappeared into the distance, Devil felt Molly’s hand slide into his.  “She’ll be back, Daddy,” Molly whispered to him as she leaned her head against his strong shoulder.

“Yeah, for now….but what happens when she doesn’t, Mols?  How do I deal with that when the time comes?  She’s growing up so damn fast.”

“You lean on me.  The same way I intend to lean on you,” she answered quietly, lacing their fingers together.

And while it might not have been the answer he wanted, it was definitely the one he needed to hear.  Squeezing his woman against his side, Devil murmured, “Why don’t you go pour us both a glass of wine?  I’ll be inside in a second.  I just want a couple of minutes to get my head on straight, okay?”

“Sounds good,” Molly agreed with a sweet smile.  “Just don’t stay out here too long brooding.  We’ve got a houseful of family that will be happy to commiserate with you.”

Nodding, Devil waited until Molly had shut the door behind her before he quickly jogged down the front steps, walking quickly to where a tall, lanky guy waited in the shadows of the trees bordering his property.  “Did she see you?” he asked in a low voice as he approached the much younger man.

“Never saw a thing,” Nyx Santino grinned at his uncle.  “My dads don’t even know I’m here,” he chuckled. 

“Keep it that way,” Devil ordered as he shot his nephew a grin.  At twenty years old, the kid was already built like an NFL linebacker.  Both tall and broad, the man had about three inches on Devil and with his olive complexion, piercing cool blue eyes and square jaw, Devil knew the boy wouldn’t have to look very hard for a girl to spend time with.  Knowing that the youth was instead choosing to trail his daughter and make sure she remained safe only made Devil love him more.  Especially since he knew Nyx had lived a shit life up until he’d been adopted.

Armando and Nick had taken Nyx in the year the boy turned thirteen, and Devil had known the moment he laid eyes on the teenager that he was gonna like him.  Quiet, but exceptionally bright, the young kid had grown up on the south side of Atlanta in government housing until his mother died of AIDS.  Since Nyx had never known who his dad was, he’d quickly been shifted into the foster care system.  Nick had met his son while doing some mentoring in the Boys of America program, and something about the kid’s intelligence and dry wit had quickly endeared him to Devil’s second-in-command.  It wasn’t long before Nick’s husband, Mannie, had fallen in love with the intelligent youth, too.  And the rest – as they say - was history. 

Now, nobody that knew Nyx could imagine their life without him in it – including his daughter.  They’d been fast friends from the moment Nyx had joined their wacky family.  Four years older than Devlynn, Nyx had quickly appointed himself her protector, and despite the fact that Devlynn had repeatedly told Nyx she didn’t need a bodyguard, he’d become her guardian angel nonetheless. 

It pissed his kid off to no end, but it made Devil one very happy daddy to know that his baby girl constantly had someone keeping a well-meaning eye on her.

“In spite of having Devlynn’s best interests at heart, I still have a feeling your dads wouldn’t approve of our little business deal if they knew about it.  Armando and Nick are way too above board to stoop to having their kid followed,” he grumbled as he pulled out his wallet and flipped it open.

Waving away the wad of bills his uncle tried to push toward him, Nyx shook his head and grinned.  “You know I’m not taking that cash, Uncle Devil.  Put your money away.  I’m doing this job for free.  Just tell me where this dance is gonna be,” the younger man requested easily.

Frowning, Devil shook his head at the other man.  “Now how the hell are you ever gonna grow your P.I. business if you don’t charge your clients for your services?” he chided his nephew.  From a young age, Nyx had been a pro at obtaining hard-to-find information about people.  Give him his target, a computer and a couple of hours, and his favorite nephew could dig up dirt on virtually anyone.   It was a talent Nyx had cultivated over time, and upon graduating from high school, the boy had quickly opened his own private investigation business with only a little help from his Uncle Devil.   

Devil respected the hell out of the kid’s work ethic.  P.I. by day, part-time college student by night, Nyx Santino burned the candle at both ends to get his degree in two years instead of four.  Now, the intelligent kid was on his way to building his own successful empire.

“Uncle Devil, Devlynn is not a job to me.  She never has been and never will be,” Nyx growled back, his jaw hardening as he glared at the older man.  “She’s special.   Just tell me where to go, okay?”

“The dance is being held at the Marriott in the Gold Ballroom,” Devil replied calmly, shoving his wallet in his back pocket.  “Just make sure that little shit that’s with her behaves himself.  If he puts one foot out of line, handle it.  Don’t worry about bail money either.  I’ll cover it.”

“Bail money won’t be necessary.  It’s only murder if they find a body,” the younger man grinned as he headed for the motorcycle he’d parked underneath the trees.

Watching as Nyx’s motorcycle disappeared in the same direction as the car Devlynn had been in, Devil smiled wildly.  Damn, he really loved that kid.