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His and Crista’s

And that thought opened a whole other can of worht now

He knew Natches hadn’t taken Rowdy’s defection froes very well He had waited, anticipated Rowdy’s return and the slow seduction of his fiancée, Kelly When Rowdy had put the skids on that idea, Natches had been downright pissed

Hell, the sharing had been a part of their lives since their first sexual encounter as teenagers

TheBarnes She had been soft and sweet, older,boys to her bed

At the ti fro the teenage Mackay cousins slip into her house, and through thehe had watched the sexual antics they had gotten up to

That first foray into the dark sexuality of a e had come back to haunt them last year when the lady’s son, warped beyond belief by his father’s un raping the girls he claieted Rowdy’s stepsister and the woman that held Rowdy’s heart, Kelly Salyers

The bastard had nearly killed them all before they stopped hi knew that was how he had to be feeling And he ithdrawing Dawg had been feeling it for a while now Natches was drifting away from them; the connection that had held hione now The es, the emotional bond they created, Natches didn’t have that any over it," Natches advised somberly "Let’s play this out and see what the hell happens I have an SOS out to her brother, Alex The overn with backup"

"We’ll play it out" Dawg breathed out roughly before pushing his sunglasses back up his nose

There wasn’t much more they could do Someone else, soa and pray to God they caught the thieves before the Swede pulled in friends or the task force learned she was at the warehouse If that happened, all shit was going to hit the fan

"Look, ation is being handled by those HS

tightwads They won’t call us until soo down anyway We just lie back and keep watch on Miss Crista’s tight little rear, and we’ll do fine"

Dawg’s gaze sharpened on his cousin "I’ll watch her rear"

It ca reply he would have never intended

Natches’s lips quirked e in his eyes He also saw a vague edge of distance settle over the other man’s face as he nodded slowly

"You watch her ass I’ll just watch Whatever" He turned the switch and kicked the Harley’shit the ignition and gunned theto burn inside him It wasn’t supposed to be like this, was it? He, Rowdy, and Natches had been closer than brothers all their lives They had fucked the same wo wasn’t a fool He e of possessiveness had been there, even eight years before Growing up was hell Maturing was even worse Three ht years ago were fading apart and, Dawg admitted, soe of relief

But a part of hi affected worst by thehad never been a gaer to see it For Natches, it was a part of who he was, and losing that connection was starting to affect the otherhadn’t anticipated

Damn, he would have ripped his own ar He and Rowdy had always gone out of their way to protect Natches, even as a kid Andthe way, they had all grown up, though Even Natches To the point that the otheror Rowdy Which explained how Natches had stepped into the role of an assassin that last year he had been in the Marines An assassin the military had been loath to lose when Natches had taken a bullet in the shoulder during a skirmish in Iraq on his off time

Natches had stepped out of the Marines darker, harder, and , and Rowdy had stepped into basic training

Yeah, they had all grown up But sorown up for the better

TEN

She was ly nice desk

Walnut, if she wasn’t mistaken, and rather old with deep drawers on each side The middle drawer had been removed; in its place was a keyboard shelf where the computer keyboard rested

She hadn’t powered up the coathered around the tower that she had been half afraid to turn it on

It didn’t make sense The houseboat was spotless She hadn’t seen soout of place But the office was a war zone Scattered files and papers, miscellaneous receipts

--receipts for God’s sake; how the hell did he pay his taxes?--and a variety of other papers, files, and memos that she knew had to be important

Those scattered on the desk were now neatly filed Of course, that was after she had spent hours straightening out his filing system Not that she was finished with that chore Last year’s files wereroan of effort and collapse into the floor