Dawg knew he wasn’t repeating his earlier question, but that earlier question was all Dawg could consider.

Would Eve forgive him?

Dawg’s lips tightened. Shaking his head, he strode to the dual-cab pickup he’d driven in, and stepped into the driver’s seat without answering.

He didn’t have an answer because he simply didn’t know.

What did he know?

If it were him, he knew he wouldn’t forgive—no matter the reason, the explanation, or the circumstances. He wouldn’t want platitudes and promises of protection. He’d want the trust and the ability to choose his own path and his own protection. And he knew Eve was often far too much like him and his cousins, just as the other girls were.

There was a chance, a very good chance, that she might never forgive any of them.

SIXTEEN

A week later, Eve entered the backyard of Ray and Maria Mackay’s farmhouse and stared around at the gathering of family, relations, and scattered friends.

This year there were nearly a hundred family members who had confirmed attendance at the Mackay family reunion, and it looked as though every one of them had shown up.

The reunion was a yearly endeavor Ray and Maria—Grandpa Ray and Grandma Maria—had begun insisting on the year Rowdy and Kelly had become engaged. As he had explained it to his son and nephews, as children came, they would need traditions. And his “boys”—who comprised his own son as well as his two nephews—well, their children deserved a far better life than their father had had.

Not that Rowdy’s life had been too hard, as Eve heard it. He’d had Ray, and then, once Ray had married Maria, he’d had a mother. The stories she’d heard of Rowdy’s mother had never been pleasant, but there was no doubt Maria had loved Ray’s son.

Just as Ray had taken her daughter, Kelly, in and loved her.

Eve had always found it amusing that Rowdy and Kelly had lived in the same house for so many years and then ended up married.

But Grandpa Ray had bragged that his boy, his Rowdy, hadn’t been base or without honor. When his son had realized he was feeling things for Kelly, Rowdy had moved out. And even before he’d realized he was falling in love with her, Rowdy had made certain he’d taken care of her, his father bragged.

Once Rowdy and Kelly became engaged, Ray had begun the family reunions, even though the first “reunions” were only him, Maria, Kelly, Rowdy, Dawg, and Natches.

He said kids needed traditions. They needed to know and understand family.

Christmas, New Year’s, church on Easter morning, then the egg hunt before dinner once the girls had been born. Ray made certain each holiday was celebrated for the meaning it was intended by the family, with the family. And every June, there was the Mackay family reunion.

That Saturday, Eve had no choice but to slow down, take a day off, and show up at Grandpa and Grandma’s farm. The reunion had begun as a meal, and had turned into a daylong circus as years had gone by.

It was a day Eve and her family looked forward to every year. And each year it had only grown. With Dayle Mackay, Nadine and her son, Johnny Grace’s, deaths eight years before, the separation of Ray, Dawg, Rowdy, and Natches from their relations had ended. Now, all the Mackay relations and their families had begun showing up. Among them were the Augusts from Madison, Texas—Cade, Brock, and Sam August—along with their wives and children.

The Mackays and their extended families were just as interesting and just as complicated as Eve had always imagined they were as she grew up. Living in northern Texas, so far away from the brother and cousins her father had told her mother about, Eve had often hungered for news of them. She’d built them up in her mind instead, and at times she could honestly say she hadn’t done them justice.

Grandpa Ray and Grandma Maria, as they insisted they be called, were the grandparents Eve and her sisters had always dreamed of having. From day one, they had accepted Mercedes Mackay and her daughters with such warmth and acceptance that it often seemed her family had come home when they stepped foot in Kentucky.

That first family reunion, Eve and her family had cried. They had never been to such an event; they had never known family. All they’d ever known was one another. Having that tradition and then so many others as well had been a dream come true for them.

And having not just one big brother, but three, had always been so incredible to Eve. Rowdy and Natches never accepted being described or introduced as her cousins. They were her brothers, too, they promised.

Yeah, she had family now, and for the first time, Eve had no idea what to do with them. They were just as intimidating and as controlling as Timothy was rumored to be. They were just sneakier about it than Timothy.

Eve herself had never seen Timothy playing those games with her or her family. Of course, the Mackay sisters had never done anything to cause him to need to investigate them, or for him to have to maneuver them into protecting themselves.

For five years Eve had lived in a dream world that she was now terrified was no more than a lie.

Dawg loved her and her family; she knew that. But he was manipulating and controlling her, and she was suddenly afraid he had been controlling them all along. Especially her, where Brogan was concerned.

As she wandered through the backyard, stopping to talk to cousins, friends, and various Mackay relations, she looked around for Dawg, Rowdy, and Natches.

She found Dawg with Timothy, standing at the oversize barbecue grill, where Timothy was grilling the burgers and hot dogs. Eve couldn’t help but wonder whether she was wrong about the man her mother was in love with, as she had been wrong about Dawg.

Watching them talk, though, she saw Timothy pause and glance up at Dawg disapprovingly. As Dawg continued to talk, Timothy frowned and, without so much as the flicker of an eyelash, froze so completely that Eve knew he was livid. She’d known Timothy long enough that sometimes, unless he was trying to hide what he thought and what he felt, she could detect his anger.

Her gaze moved to Dawg. As she watched, his arms crossed over his broad chest and a scowl darkened his face. Then Timothy shook his head.

Dawg began protesting, and Timothy was ignoring him.

She would love to be the fly on that wall rather than the one watching from afar. Except she doubted Timothy would have discussed her with Dawg if she was close enough to hear.

Eve forced herself to move away.

Dawg once warned her and her sisters of the rules of the Mackay house, so to speak: Don’t betray yourself, your family, or your country, he’d told her. If they could adhere to those few rules, then they would always have family.

For the first time since she’d become a part of his family, she’d lied to him. And she was smart enough to know that part of her anger toward him had a lot to do with the fact that she had broken a promise, and now, she feared, she had risked not just her place with the Mackays, but also her sisters’ and mother’s places.

What Dawg had done was wrong. He’d played her in some way and she knew it. She just wasn’t certain how yet, and that hurt her, just as it risked her trust in him. But never her trust in the fact that he loved her family.

Or he had loved her.

Would she do it again? she wondered as she slipped into the house to find a little privacy for a while.

Eve knew she would.

Brogan had broken her heart, but staying away from him was so impossible that she had forced herself to work until she collapsed into bed around daylight. The less time she spent anywhere close to him, the better.

Not that she had seen him around very often. He seemed to be gone more often than not. Even Jed and Eli hadn’t been around much.

She couldn’t stay busy enough to forget the night and the morning she had spent in his arms, though. The memory of it tormented her. She couldn’t sleep without dreaming of it. She ached for him. She missed him.

And she was beginning to wonder whether perhaps he had lied to her in the worst possible way. Maybe he was one of those men who, once they’d had her, were just finished with a woman.

“Hey, Eve.” Rogue Mayes, a friend of the family and, as Grandpa Mackay liked to call her, his adopted granddaughter, waved at Eve from a table set beneath the huge oak at the side of the yard.

Smiling whether she felt like it or not, Eve moved to the couple and stared at the baby Rogue was holding close to her breast.

Little Ezekiel Mayes Jr. was only three weeks old, and looked impossibly tiny to Eve. He was filling out wonderfully, though. The cap of red fuzz on his head reminded her too much of Brogan’s red hair, while everything else about him was the image of his father.

“How gorgeous.” She breathed out as Rogue handed the baby to her carefully. “I didn’t think I’d ever get a chance to come out and see him.” She sighed.

“Yeah, I did good, huh?” Rogue laughed.

“You did excellent,” Eve assured her as she caressed the baby’s soft, rounded head before turning to the father. “You didn’t do too bad yourself, Sheriff.”

Zeke chuckled at the compliment. “At least you acknowledge that I might have had a hand in him. Your brother and cousins seem to believe immaculate conception occurred.”

“Eh, that’s because they think Rogue’s a sister, too,” she assured him. “And you know all their sisters are pure, sweet, and completely innocent.”

Zeke turned to his wife in surprise. “Has anyone told his sisters that yet? If they have, they’ve completely ignored the concept.”

Eve couldn’t help but laugh at the playful mockery as she handed the baby back to his mother. “He’s gorgeous. He’s going to break hearts right and left when he grows up.”

Rogue beamed in pride, while Zeke’s chest must have puffed out two feet.

As Eve turned to skirt the main part of the yard, she heard her name called out again.

“Auntie Evie. Auntie Evie.” Erin Jansen, Natches’s niece, was running through the yard, a smile covering her face as her long dark hair flew out behind her.

That child was going to have the boys worshiping at her feet, Eve thought as the six-year-old ran to her. Bending, Eve caught her, lifting her as Erin wrapped her arms around her neck for a tight hug.

“I missed you.” Erin beamed as Eve set her back on her feet, then bent down in front of her.

“I missed you too, baby.” Eve grinned as the little girl stared back at her with eyes an odd mix of green and gray. The world would label the color hazel, but there was no way such a tame description could describe it. At any time, there were at least two shades of green playing with the unusually dark gray color.

“I’m gonna go play with Bliss now.” She jumped around like a little Mexican jumping bean on caffeine. “Love you, Auntie Eve.”

“Love you, baby.” Eve smiled back at her, watching as she skipped off, the pretty summer dress she wore bouncing around her.

At that second, the possibility of being pregnant slammed into her so hard, Eve lost her breath.

Pressing her hand to her stomach, she looked around wildly, desperate to escape now, to find someplace to think, to ache in peace.

Someplace where so many people weren’t around her and possibly watching her.

Entering the quiet house, Eve moved through the kitchen, remembering the years that the reunion had been held in the house, and the kitchen had been brimming with people, laughter, and food.

It had quickly outgrown the house, though—so much so that Grandpa Ray and his “boys” had gone in together and built the backyard kitchen, with its huge grill, gas stove, and a sink so big Eve had teased them that it could double as a tub.

The whole thing was built under a massive gazebo-style shelter with a fireplace at one end and sliding windows that allowed the whole interior to be open to the yard in the summer to catch the breeze that rolled out of the mountains. In the winter it could be enclosed and, with the warmth of the fireplace, made a wonderful gathering area.

Moving to the living room and sitting on the sofa, she slipped her sandals from her feet and curled her legs beside her. Resting her head in the corner of the furniture Eve stared into the shadowed room as she closed her eyes and fought her tears.