Natches was going to have to know about this. If Zeke thought the youngest Mackay cousin would kill him for fooling with his sister, it was nothing compared to what Natches would do if Janey ended up hurt and he’d had no idea there was a threat against her.
“Natches is going to be pissed at you, Zeke,” Alex warned him. “He’ll know you held back on him.”
Zeke shrugged. “It won’t be the first time, will it?” His voice was filled with amusement. “Be careful, though, Alex. Janey’s not the play-around type. She’s been hurt a lot in her young life. There’s no sense in adding to it.”
No. There wasn’t. But damned if he could stay away from her now.
“I know that, Zeke.” He knew it clear to the bottom of his soul.
Zeke nodded and left the truck, leaving Alex to stare up at that damned window as the light went out.
She was going to bed. His body clenched at that thought of it. Did she sleep naked? Somehow, he doubted she did. She was young, a virgin; had she learned how sensual the sheets could feel against her na**d flesh?
He would show her. Show her how erotic it could be to sleep naked, curled against his body, his hands petting her through the night.
He closed his eyes and breathed out roughly. His c**k was pounding in his slacks, fully engorged and torturing him with the need for sex. Not just any sex either. Oh hell now, it had to wait thirty-seven years to get picky and decide it was getting hard for only one woman.
One younger woman.
He was hooked on her kisses, and he had a feeling he was about to get hooked on much more than those perfect sweet lips.
He groaned at that thought. Natches would kill him for sure, but after that kiss earlier, Alex decided, it just might be worth it.
THREE
Alex pulled into the marina parking lot a little after seven the next morning. It was damned cold on the water in February. Those Mackays were frickin’ insane. All three of them were still on the houseboats, all of them with very pregnant wives.
Certi-fucking-fiable. That was all he could think. One of those very pregnant wives was his sister, Crista, and Alex was still ready to blow Dawg’s head off for not having that house ready yet. If it weren’t for the fact that Crista was the one holding things up, he and Dawg would have already fought.
He looked around and saw Ray Mackay’s pickup in front of the marina office, though he knew Ray wasn’t there. He’d called the other man that morning and asked him to meet him at Natches’s.
Shit. This wasn’t going to be easy. Natches had just gotten his sister back, thought she was finally safe and secure, and now this crap. And Janey, Alex knew, hadn’t mentioned a word to her brother.
He stepped out of the pickup, tense, wary. Dealing with the Mackays all at once wasn’t a fun time to be had, and bringing news like this?
He couldn’t get those letters out of his head, though. They were brutal, filthy trash. No wonder Janey was so damned wary, almost frightened, last night. She couldn’t know who was doing this to her; she would suspect everyone, and he couldn’t blame her.
He moved quickly from the parking lot along the docks. As he neared the Nauti Dreams , Natches’s houseboat, the door opened and Natches stepped out. He was still as wild as the wind, Alex thought.
Dressed in jeans and a T-shirt and bare feet. His black hair was mussed, his dark green gaze sharp despite the drowsy look on his face.
“You’re working early, Major,” Natches drawled as Alex stepped onto the boat. “Playing Cranston’s lapdog again?”
Alex sighed. He’d been working with Cranston for years. His team was one of the agent’s favorites to call out for the hairier assignments. Alex had already been called before a review board twice because of the insanity that was Cranston. But damn if the agent didn’t make life interesting.
They called him the Rabid Leprechaun, and Cranston was inordinately pleased with that title. So much so that his agents and Alex’s team worried that he took it a little too seriously. The thing about Cranston that the Mackays never understood, though, was that it wasn’t about the manipulations he conspired to do; for Timothy, it was all about the past and everything he had ever lost. It was about retribution. And in ways, it had been for Alex as well. He understood that. For Alex, though, the thoughts of retribution were melting away beneath thoughts of Janey.
“Not this time, Natches.” He shook his head as he stopped in front of his friend. “We need to talk.”
Natches’s eyes narrowed dangerously before he inclined his head into the houseboat. “Well, we’re all here as you asked. Keep your voice down, though; Chaya’s still sleeping.”
Evidently, all the Mackay women were sleeping. Ray, his son, Rowdy, Dawg, and Natches were waiting, but Crista, Kelly, and Chaya were absent.
He stepped into the wide front room and stared at the men huddled around the table at the side, a pot of coffee between them.
“Alex, good to see you.” Ray Mackay, Rowdy’s father, with his sharp Mackay green eyes and graying black hair, waved him over. “Get a seat, son. We have a cup for you.” He poured coffee into a cup as Alex stepped over to the table.
He didn’t sit down. Neither did Natches.
“Seven in the morning,” Natches commented with a drawl. “Must be trouble.”
“Trouble follows Alex,” Rowdy grunted. Evidently he didn’t like getting up early anymore either.
“So does Cranston,” Dawg commented mockingly. Another less-than-polite Mackay. Hell, they were nicer than this before they decided monogamy was the spice of life.
“No Cranston this time.” Alex pulled the letters from inside his jacket, unfolded them, and handed them to Natches. “I got these last night. They’ve come in the past two months, to Janey.”
Natches took the letters slowly, his gaze locking with Alex’s. He could feel the sense of danger, the ragged, burning fury already building as he stared into the other man’s gray eyes.
When his eyes moved to the letters, his blood began to boil.
Traitor’s whore. Slut. You’re not wanted. Get out of town before you’re carried out in a casket.
Traitor bitches aren’t wanted. You dirtied yourself with daddy and auntie. Did you moan for them? Did you beg like the bitch you are? Take your dirty ass out of town before you’re taken out.
Fucking daddy and auntie isn’t nice, little bitch. Get the f**k out!