Page 35 (1/2)

He reached out, s back a thick swathe of hair frohtened his chest, and reiven in to the deht have never happened Hell no, it wouldn’t have happened, because he would have denment He couldn’t have left her He had known that then Once he had her, there was no way he could have walked away

He was crazy about her So crazy in love with her that it terrified hi as hell, and still so innocent it broke his heart

Leaning forward, he pressed a butterfly kiss against her forehead before tucking the sheet closer over her shoulders Minutes later he was striding into the living roo waited on hi just looked grouchy as he stared back frorunted as Rowdy dropped into a chair across fro’s eyes, despite the ah?" Rowdy lifted a brow, staring back at his cousin questioningly

Dawg grinned in satisfaction "Guard duty paid I slipped out the doggie hole and found a nice little perch topside We had sohtened in his seat, his expression going as darkly dangerous as Rowdy felt Evidently this wasn’t inforiven, which surprised Rowdy

"What kind of erous, predatory light that glea continued

"Little fellow, barely taller than Kelly Dressed in hunting gear with a hoodedthe house fronize anything?" They were getting close The stalker was losing his grip on reality if he had followed the to crack, and that hat they needed Just a small fracture in his self-control and they would have hi shook his head "I watched hier if I see hiriht not be easy, but I have a feeling he’ll make another move soon"

Of course he would, he considered Kelly his The fact that the Nauti Boys had her, were possibly sharing her, would be too much for his tenuous hold on reality to survive

"I’ll take guard duty from here on out," Natches spoke up then, his voice bland, unassu a steel core of determination

Rowdy stared back at hied in ways that were hard to put a finger on He had returned from the Marines only months before Rowdy had, quieter and a hell of a lot harder than he had been when he went in That hardness was more than maturity and confidence, more than a soldier who had seen battle in the sands of another nation Despite his vow that he had never grown up, somehody knew better

"Fine" Rowdy nodded slowly "You take watch We’ll head into town in theup We’ll let the bastard see what he’sIf he’s the nutcase I suspect, he’ll hit by to?" Natches’s voice softened

"We can’t make it look too easy He has to work for it" Rowdy sat back in the chair, considering their options "Daeaken the security monitor on the kitchen , and in the shrubbery beneath it Make it look natural, soh He’s broken the woer to it Let’s see what the bastard’snodded sharply as Natches continued to watch them with a hard, merciless stare that assured Rowdy that he wasn’t the only one waiting to shed blood

Rowdy turned his gaze back to Natches, realizing in that second that he had seen the look in his friend’s eyes before He had seen it in another man’s eyes, a Marine assassin He had worked alone, disappearing for weeks at a ti with that same dead, cold chill in his eyes

Hell He blew out a silent breath as NatchesWhat the hell had Natches gotten into while he was in the service?

"Go ahead and set up," Rowdy told hi how you want to play it"

Dawg’s head had lowered, proof that he are of a truth that Rowdy hadn’t been privy to A truth he still wasn’t certain of the details to

"I’ll go public with you when you need me to," Natches said softly "I’ll use the bolt-hole otherwise"

The bolt-hole, or dog door as Dawg had ale, secret entrance into the house from a shrub-hidden door several hundred feet around the base of the hill Daasn’t the trusting sort, and his time in the Marines hadn’t helped his trust issues any

"Boys, we need to talk when this is all over and done," Rowdy sighed, watching the weary resignation in his cousins’ eyes "Keeping secrets arunted, a sound of wry a Natches’s lips quirked into a srowled as he rose from his chair and paced across the room toward the kitchen "Until then, boys, I need food You want me to take mess duty?"

Rowdy’s eyes met Natches’s in shock, as his cousin’s widened in horror

"Hell no!" They both ca for the kitchen as they heard pans rattling beneath the stove cabinet and re a stove The irls His special good girls Kelly eak--she was allowing herself to be degraded, to be taken Oh, how he had hoped she had been the only one He had prayed, prayed so long and hard that his good girls aiting on him

He curled into the corner of the sently as he stared at the first of his lovers He had thought she was so pure, so sweet With her long, silken blond hair, and her innocent blue eyes She had a soft voice, one that stroked the senses and made him think of his mother before she became a whore Before she had turned his father away, before his father had stolen him away for his ood girl

He sniffed, realizing he was crying He hated crying Crying never helped, tears made a man weak, he remembered that from his father’s lessons A man had to do what he had to do His father had been weak The old ed but he had left the depraved creature he hadher