He frowned at the question. “No . . .”

“Evidently I do,” she cried. “You made me swear I wouldn’t take him as a lover by telling me he was the only man you couldn’t abide my being with. That you believed he was a traitor.” Her breathing hitched as astonishment filled the cousins’ expressions as they turned to Dawg.

“There’s no proof that says he’s not a traitor,” Dawg accused Brogan, his fingers clenching at his sides as his expression turned wrathful and centered on the other man.

Eve shook her head as a sob escaped her. “Momma once told me that even good men had the power to be bad,” she whispered. “And I didn’t believe that of you, Dawg. I really didn’t. I believed there was nothing bad or deceitful in you. That all I had to do was find a man like you and I’d always be safe and loved.”

He reached up and rubbed the back of his neck in agitation.

“Come on, Eve,” he cajoled gently. “I’m not perfect, honey.”

“Ain’t that the truth,” Natches bit out.

“Shut the fuck up, Natches,” Dawg snarled, silencing them all in surprise as he said the hated F-word before turning back to Eve. “Look, I never meant I would disown you or anything else if you broke a promise. I just meant that you know he’s going to hurt you. You know it, if he hasn’t already.” He shot Brogan a look of promised retribution. “That’s all I meant.”

“And you left me feeling like I had betrayed you. Like I was no more than a criminal myself, Dawg, because you couldn’t let me follow my own instincts. You couldn’t let me follow my heart.”

“Dammit, Eve, whatever the hell he’s into could get you killed,” he yelled back at her.

“And that was just too hard to tell me at the time, wasn’t it,” she cried out, furious and hurt, and feeling her heart breaking in two. “You lied to me, Dawg. You may not have said the words, but you still lied.”

Gripping Natches’s keys in her hand, she turned to Brogan, seeing for the first time the heavy, dark emotion that filled his gaze, and feeling something hesitant, something distant shutting that door on what had been forming between them.

His eyes were that unique blue-gray. The color was no longer shifting with emotion, just as his emotions were no longer reaching out to her.

Her lips twisted bitterly as she suddenly felt so bereft, so alone without that connection she’d had for such a few short hours.

Another sob escaped before she forced the others back and quickly dashed the tears from her cheek.

“You should have known I would have never done something so vile,” she whispered for his ears only. “I believed in you, Brogan.” She shook her head bitterly, painfully. “I believed in you.”

Turning away from him, she strode quickly to the front door, glancing back at her brother and her cousins as they stared back at Brogan with the same expression.

Disappointment.

Pushing through the front door, she ran to the car Natches had driven, surprised that he hadn’t driven his truck, hit the automatic lock, and slid inside the low-slung sports car quickly.

She had to adjust her seat so she could reach the gas pedal, but once she did she pushed the start button and felt the throbbing vibration of the powerful little Mercedes before reversing and turning, then sliding the vehicle into drive and roaring away from the cabin.

She should have kept her promise to Dawg, she thought.

She should have never given in to Brogan. She should have never given in to her own needs. If she hadn’t, then perhaps her heart would still be in one unbroken piece.

FIFTEEN

Dawg shook his head as the door slammed behind his sister’s livid form, his gaze locking on Brogan accusingly as the other man stared at the door with a piercing, intent look.

“Man, you are one stupid fucker,” he stated, pitiless. “I could almost feel sorry for you, but you brought every damned bit of it on yourself, and you know it.”

“No.” Brogan shook his head slowly, his gaze still locked on the door.

He was watching the heavy wood panel as though he actually thought Eve would walk back through the doorway at any moment.

“No?” Dawg glanced at his cousins before his gaze moved back to Brogan. “No what?” He looked back to Natches and Rowdy again. “Is he okay?”

Natches gave a brief, amused chuckle as they all watched Brogan take a step toward the door before pulling back almost immediately.

He raked his fingers through his hair.

“Knew better,” he mumbled peevishly as he left a spike of red-gold hair standing on end. “Fucking knew better. She’s a fucking Mackay.”

Dawg actually growled.

Now, that was just damned uncalled-for.

“He’s in love.” Natches snickered behind Dawg.

Dawg glowered back at his cousin. “I already fucking knew that. Thanks for the news flash, cuz.”

“Then why get Eve to promise to stay away from him?” Rowdy was the one who asked that question.

Dawg wished he’d kept his damned mouth shut now.

“Fucking knew better. She’s a Mackay,” Brogan mumbled, drawing their attention back to him as he glared at the door again.

Brogan turned his gaze to the Mackays then.

“It’s your fucking fault,” Brogan accused Dawg. “You son of a bitch, if you had just left her the fuck alone.”

“My fault?” Dawg would have shown him the business end of his fist if Rowdy hadn’t grabbed his arm and pulled him back.

“You.” Brogan’s lips pulled back from his teeth in a snarl. “Why didn’t you stay the fuck out of it?”

“Because she’s my sister, asshole!” he bellowed back at him.

“Someone needs to have a talk with your wife,” Brogan suggested snidely then. “I have a feeling she’d put a stop to your fucking meddling.”

Dawg snorted, though he knew that was way too close to the truth. Behind him, Natches snickered.

“I warned you last year,” Dawg reminded him. “Didn’t I warn you, Brogan? You could step the hell out of what you were doing or you could stay away from my sister; it was your choice.”

Yeah, Rowdy and Natches were both staring at him now as though he were crazy, but Dawg figured Brogan would end up letting the truth slip out of his mouth anyway, so he might as well strike first.

Brogan’s eyes narrowed in contempt before he turned and stalked across the house to the patio room, where he stood with his back to them, obviously staring out into the woods beyond the house.

“What have you done, Dawg?” Rowdy muttered.

Dawg grimaced at the question. “Protected my sister.”

“I wonder how you would react to it if Christa’s brother Alex up and decided to protect his sister in the same way?”

“Kill him.” He shrugged as though he would do just that.

He wouldn’t, but hell, it would be damned close.

“What was the threat?” Rowdy bit out, obviously pissed now. “You had to have had a threat to go with it.”

Dawg shifted uncomfortably beneath his cousin’s glare as he dropped his arms from across his chest and gave the other man a scorching look. “What threat? What do I have to threaten him with?” he muttered.

Brogan turned back to them then, and Dawg wondered whether he had been unlucky enough that the other man had heard the question.

“Dawg, what the fuck did you do?” Rowdy’s no-nonsense tone had him breathing out roughly.

The threat had been a simple one. Dawg still had connections, major connections at the Department of Homeland Security and among the politicians that could make or break a man’s career in law enforcement. Dawg had simply told Brogan that if he was an agent, and if he did care anything about his career, then he’d understand the ramifications of Eve’s heart getting broken.

His father might well be the director of Homeland Security, but that wouldn’t save Brogan’s place in the Federal Protective Service if Dawg wanted him out of there.

Brogan chose that moment to stalk through the house and disappeared into a room up the short hall. The bedroom, no doubt, Dawg thought.

“Maybe I should just tell Kelly what happened today and see if she wants to ask Christa if she knows what’s going on,” Rowdy suggested.

Hell, he was getting tired of this. Every time his two yahoo cousins went blabbing on him, Dawg managed to do without his wife’s tender touch for far too long. At this rate, they were going to cause him to have to just start knocking heads together again instead of trying to be nice about things.

“We didn’t come up here to hurt Eve or piss Brogan off,” Rowdy reminded him as the door slammed behind Brogan with enough force that Dawg swore the windows rattled.

“He’s not going to listen to us right now,” Dawg reminded him testily. “He’s going to be too busy feeling sorry for himself.”

“And whose fault is that?” Natches questioned behind him.

“Would you two stop acting as though this is all my fault?” Dawg questioned them incredulously. “I didn’t do anything.”

“You breathe, Dawg,” Rowdy accused him bluntly. “You breathe. Some days that’s seriously all it takes.”

The bedroom door jerked open so hard it crashed against the inside wall as they turned and stared at Brogan in surprise.

He was carrying two small bags; one was obviously Eve’s.

“Where the hell do you think you’re going?” Dawg inquired sarcastically.

“Wherever she went,” Brogan informed them ruthlessly as he stalked to the door. “Stay as long as you like. There’s nothing here that’s mine.”

“We didn’t show up here to watch you stalk off, asshole,” Dawg called out as they followed close on his heels until he reached Timothy’s pickup.

“No, you accomplished what you showed up to do,” Brogan informed them, keeping his voice calm. He’d caused Eve enough heartache and pain; he wouldn’t compound it by sending her brother and cousins to the hospital. Not unless they forced him to it.

“Well, there was that,” Dawg agreed with a vein of amusement behind the words. “But that’s not the only reason we’re here.”

“I’m already aware someone tried to break into her room.” Thank God for Eli and Jed. Brogan wasn’t certain Doogan would have told him, if it had been left up to him.

“Well, there was that,” Dawg repeated. “But once again, not the only reason we’re here.”

“Then why the fuck are you here, Dawg?” he snarled back, his hand clenching on the truck door to keep from ramming his fist in the other man’s face.

He’d get the first strike, but he doubted he’d leave unscathed. Then Eve would just be pissed as hell at him. And if he did manage to get her to let him touch her again, he’d be too sore to do much.

Dawg chuckled. “You see that look on his face, Rowdy?”

Rowdy grinned, his arms crossed over his chest, the smile amused and mocking.

“That’s the ‘I’d love to try to kick his ass, but if I do, she’s gonna be too pissed and I’m gonna be too sore to love her later’ look.” Natches snickered knowingly. “I’d tell him to join the club, but he’s not quite paid his dues yet; what do you think?”

Rowdy shook his head. “Nah, not yet. We’ll make him wait awhile just for being a prick about us showing up and all.”

“The three of you are fucking insane.” Brogan moved to step into the truck.

“Pull out before we’re finished and I promise you, I’ll make your life such hell that you’ll beg me to let up on you. And I can do it, Brogan. I promise you I can do it.” Arrogant assurance and self-confidence filled Dawg’s expression as well as his voice.