“Hell, Chay, she’s talking about leaving.” He pushed his fingers through his hair roughly. “I’m just getting to know her. I don’t want her to leave.”

Chaya sighed. “Natches, you have to let go eventually. What are you going to do if we eventually have a daughter?”

Chaya was left speechless, lips parted, as Natches swung around and capped his hand over her mouth.

He was pale, honest to God white, around the eyes, with a sick look on his face.

“Don’t say it,” he hissed fiercely, his green eyes bright, terrified. “Don’t say the D word, Chay. You gotta promise me. Promise me. We’re only going to have boys. Swear it, Chay.”

She blinked back at him as he lifted his hand just enough for her to speak. “Swear it. Right now.”

She chided him gently. “Natches, I can’t do that.”

“Don’t tempt fate by talking about it, then,” he growled. “I mean it, Chay. We’re having boys. Just boys.

I understand boys.”

He didn’t feel nearly as vulnerable at the thought of a boy for a child, she knew. The thought of a daughter still had the power to send Natches into a panic.

Chaya sighed. Maybe tonight really wasn’t the night to tell her husband that the tests the doctor had done were definitely showing a girl.

She looked at his face again. No, it wasn’t the time.

“I’ll meet Alex in the morning when he goes to his house,” he said and nodded, turning away from her.

“Not tonight.” He shook his head and groaned. “Hell no, not tonight. Swear to God, if I have to look at that hickey on his neck one more time, I’m going to kill him, Chay.”

“I understand, Natches.” She kept her expression serious, somber, as he swung around her. “Really, honey, I understand.” She held her hand out to him. “Will you come to bed now? I’m lonely.”

His gaze flared; his body tightened instantly.

“I thought you were tired.”

“Natches.” She grinned. “I’m never that tired.”

He took her hand and let her lead him back to their bed. He made love to her. Slow, easy love. And later, when she was drifting off to sleep, he held her in his arms, stared up at the ceiling, and that picture flashed before his eyes again.

God, there were some things an older brother just didn’t need to know.

FIFTEEN

Alex stared at the picture and the note that Natches slapped on his kitchen table the next morning.

“Why the hell aren’t you at the apartment?” Natches bit out. “Whoever’s watching her is close, Alex.”

“She threw me out,” Alex murmured, staring at the image someone’s camera had captured. Janey, locked against him, his hold dominant, appearing forceful. It looked bad. It had been hot as hell when it happened.

“And you’re not covering her ass? You didn’t call any of us?” Natches stomped around the kitchen.

“How do you know she’s safe?”

“I called in backup and told Faisal to keep an eye on her. That boy is hell in a fight, you know.” He stared at the letter, a frown brewing on his brow. “What the fuck is this?” He slapped the paper to the table. “They think she’s somehow corrupting me ?”

“Yeah, go figure,” Natches sneered as he threw him a hostile look.

“And this was waiting in Ray’s truck last night after hours?”

“That’s what I said.” Natches was livid. A livid Natches was not a comfortable sight. “Who’s watching Janey?”

“Tyrell Grayson and Mark Lessing. And as I said, Faisal is inside.” Alex stared at the picture again. “This was taken from across the street, wasn’t it?”

“Good guess, Sherlock,” Natches grunted.

Alex’s lips thinned. “Natches, work with me here.”

“I worked with you when I mistakenly thought you were looking out for Janey, rather than looking for a way into her bed,” he snarled. “Hell, Alex. How would you feel if those were pictures of Crista? What would you have done if you had had photos of the night she spent with Dawg when she was eighteen?

Would you have been a happy little camper?”

Alex clenched his jaw. Hell no. He hadn’t had pictures and he hadn’t been a happy camper.

“Some things a brother doesn’t need to know, or see. Hickeys on her lover’s neck, a man too old for her to begin with. And pictures of him manhandling her.”

“Fuck you,” Alex growled.

“Not in this lifetime, hotshot,” Natches snapped back.

Alex ran his hand over his head. Natches had to be one of the most stubborn, difficult bastards he had ever run across.

Natches was an aggravation. This picture was dangerous.

“I’ve had Tyrell and Mark watching the apartment when I’m gone since the night we found the note in her kitchen. So far, nothing’s happened. No one’s been overly curious, and no one’s been following her.”

“Where is she now?” Natches glared back at him.

“I talked to her just before you arrived. Called her cell phone. She was getting ready to go to the office to get some work done.”

“Your men check the office and restaurant?” Natches’s voice was hard, cold.

Alex nodded at that. “They have a key to the office as well as the apartment. They finished checking it out just before I left. They have surveillance set up on the three entrances and are watching Janey specifically.”

“You brought in two of your men,” Natches growled. “Your gut’s crawling, aint it?”

Yes, it was. It had been for days.

“I’m moving in with her tonight for good,” he told Natches. “There will be no more leaving in the morning. I’ll set up there, keep a better eye on her.”

“Shit.” Natches braced his hands on the counter and stared out the kitchen window. “Hell, Alex. She was supposed to be safe now.”

“She will be.” Alex wouldn’t have it any other way. “She is safe, Natches. And she’s damned careful.

Janey’s no one’s fool. Pay attention to something more than your pride sometime and you’ll see that.”

Tyrell and Mark had noticed it. Staying out of sight, Mark had reported, was becoming increasingly hard.

Janey was sharp, and she watched people, cars. She wasn’t the least bit casual about her own protection.

It was something Alex had noticed as well. That picture was an anomaly. Normally, Janey was very careful about pulling her curtains closed once they entered the apartment. He’d distracted her that night.

“This is bad,” Natches finally said, his voice weary, worried. “This is bad, Alex. Whoever’s doing this is serious.”

“We already assumed that. That’s why we’re seriously watching her, Natches.” He turned to the other man, seeing the tense set of his shoulders. “But if you don’t get off her ass and let her live her own life, when it’s over, she’s going to walk away.”

Natches knew that. Alex knew he knew it. But it bore affirming.

Natches finally shrugged. “You’re still alive.”

“Barely,” Alex grunted as he collected the picture and shoved it into the envelope Natches had handed him. “I’m going to keep this. Check a few things.”

Natches shrugged and turned back to him as Alex picked up the extra bag he had packed that morning.

Clothes, a few extra weapons. He was prepared to move into the apartment that night, despite Janey’s objections.

“You going to show her that picture?” Natches asked, nodding to the envelope.

“Why wouldn’t I?”

Janey deserved to know. It was her life, her protection. She had to know to be on guard.

“You going to tell her where you got it from?” Natches asked.

Alex flipped the envelope around to show his name on the front. “What do you think?”

“Bastard!” he snorted.

“Why didn’t you bring this to Janey?” Alex leaned against the table, curious. Natches was fierce in his protection of his sister, but Alex hadn’t seen a lot of interaction between them.

Natches shrugged. “Look, Hickey Man, keeping her ass safe is your job.” He glowered at Alex’s neck.

“No, it’s her job as well,” Alex pointed out. “She can’t be on guard if she doesn’t know what the hell is going on. If she knows, then she knows to help me protect her.”

“No shit,” Natches muttered.

Damn Mackays. There wasn’t a one of them that was easy to deal with.

“What do you want from me, Natches?” he asked. “You want me to walk away? Leave her unprotected?”

“What I want isn’t the question.” Natches shook his head. “Time for me to go.”

“Why don’t you try talking to your sister, Natches?” Alex asked as he headed for the door. “Is it that hard?”

Natches paused at the door, staring out the window, tense. Angry.

“She doesn’t talk to me,” he finally said. “I get yes. No. Okay. Whatever. I get polite smiles and noncommittal answers.” He turned back slowly. “Does she talk to you?”

Alex felt it then. The thing he couldn’t put his finger on since staying with her, since touching her.

“She talks to her cat,” he finally admitted. “She doesn’t talk to me.”

He could hear her mumbling every morning to that damned cat, behind the closed bedroom door after he left her. She snuggled it in the evening, fed the little bastard ground steak, and pampered it so much Alex actually felt a little jealous at times.

Natches grimaced. “Well, hell. I don’t feel so damned pissed off now. At least I’m not alone.”

Which didn’t make Alex feel any better.

As he opened his lips to return a mocking retort, his cell phone rang. Having checked the number, he answered it quickly.

“You’re calling me,” he murmured, turning away from Natches. “Is everything okay?”

Janey had never called him .

“You know a lot about computers, right?” There was an edge of frustration in her tone.

“A little bit.” He arched his brows. “What’s wrong?”

“My computer, obviously.” She sighed heavily. “There are files missing, jumbled. I can’t make sense of half of what’s on here. Can you come look at it? I need to locate my suppliers file and bills I do through my accounting software. It’s messed up, Alex. Bad.”

“I’ll be right there,” he promised her. “Keep the chair warm for me.”

There was silence on the line.

“Are you cold?” There was an edge of amusement in her tone, but also confusion.

“I could be.”

“I’ll turn the heat up,” she promised. “See you soon, Alex.”

She disconnected the phone as he pulled it back and stared at it with a frown. Hell, she didn’t talk to him or flirt with him. Damned stubborn Mackay female. He glared at Natches.

“Let me guess. Janey?” Natches flicked the phone a brooding look.

“Her computer’s messed up.” He shoved the phone back into its holster before gripping the duffel bag and moving to the door. “I promised her I’d come look at it.”

“Is she going to keep your seat warm for you?” Natches mocked angrily. “Moron.”

“Asshole,” Alex growled back at him, though he couldn’t help the grin that tugged at his lips. “I hope that kid of yours is a girl.”

Natches stopped on the sidewalk. A full, hard stop as Alex turned back to see his pale features.

“Take that back,” he seemed to wheeze.