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He shook his head as he reached out and drew her to hi her onto his lap

Crista leaned into hi on his shoulder as her arms looped around his neck

He kissed the top of her head before he answered her "The mercenary and his team didn’t have a naave No nah si yet Cole knew your name, but only after Johnny visited in the detention center In the s to be you He had the money and he was free; Cole wasn’t That would have drawn thosethe interrogation Cranston and Natches led after Johnny’s visit We suspect even they weren’t certain exactly who they were dealing with Johnny’s slick like that, Crista He alas I’m just surprised that he could actually kill in cold blood I didn’t expect that out of hi Johnny had disappointed Dawg as well For all Johnny’s faults and his ed to hold out a measure of hope for his other cousin

"He was the one who told Natches’s father about the sharing, ere teenagers," Dawg said then "I thought Dayle had killed hiot to the house with Uncle Ray Natches’s mother had called, calm as hell, and told Ray he needed to come for Natches before Dayle killed hi to beat the hell out of him He was in the hospital for a week and refused to admit his father had done it He still has scars on his back And Johnny cried e confronted him Blubbered like a baby and swore he hadn’tat Dayle because he was always so critical of hi’s voice echoed with that past horror

"Hemused "To this day, I still don’t know But I suspect he kneould happen We all knew not to push Dayle where Natches was concerned He took great pleasure in beating the hell out of him whenever he could justify it"

Crista blinked back her tears

"And your father?" She already knew part of Dawg’s history, had known it even before that first night she had spent with hiently "And I kne to fight back

Natches never fought back, and I never understood why"

"Because of Janey" Crista lifted her head and stared up at Dawg, suddenly suspecting why Natches had never fought back

"Janey?" he asked

"Natches’s sister"

"I knoho Janey is, but what does she have to do with this?"

"Maybe he didn’t fight back because he was afraid Dayle would turn his aggression on Janey

Maybe he was trying to wait until she was old enough to run if she had to"

Janey was a lot younger than Natches, at least ten years younger She would have been ten or eleven when Natches was publicly disowned so long ago

"Maybe," Dawg said thoughtfully before sighing heavily "God help the bastard if he ever hit her, though Natches would ?" she finally asked on a sigh "Push Johnny like that? It could be dangerous"

"Only for Johnny" His voice darkened, sending a shiver up her spine at the danger that filled it

"Mark et aith this He knehat he was doing when he decided to frame you And he should have knoould happen if I ever figured out as going on"

She parted her lips to argue further but found herself instead flat on her back on the bed and staring up at Dawg in surprise

"Enough about Johnny," he growled "And I’ve waited long enough to collect on that little tease by the lake earlier"

"Tease?" she gasped inMackay You weren’t exactly groaning because you didn’t get to come, you know"

"It was a tease, pure and simple" His hand pushed the heot to do was lick that sweet pussy while you drove me insane with your mouth I need more Sweet heaven, Crista I need so much more of you"

Her shirt was pulled slowly from her and tossed to the floor

"Keep your arainst the mattress, above her head, as she had done with him earlier beneath the wind and the sky "Let me unwrap you, Crista My own special present I ood boy at sohtened at the emotion in his voice, at the tenderness in his touch, as he released the catch of her bra and drew it from her as well

His hands cupped her swollen breasts, his thuht of the flushed tips

"Would you have nursed our child?" he asked her, his voice incredibly deep, filled with regret and hunger, pain and longing

"Yes" Crista arched into his touch, feeling her nipples tighten further as his finger and thuripped the pebble-hard tip

"Would you have letover her collarbone as Crista arched to the heated caress

"Yes" Sheher nipples,her wild for the touch of his lips, lips that wereat her flesh as it ca tip