The fat, evil little leprechaun was interfering in theirlives again in a way they would never recover from. Rowdy couldfeel it.It was like a chill chasing up his spine. It was a premonitionof hell. It was a certainty that perhaps they should have just shothis ass when he interfered the last time.But that last time hadn’t been with one of the Mackays, justa friend, and not an old and dear one at that. The brother of anold and dear friend wasn’t exactly the same.Standing in the marina offi ce and staring out the heavy glassdoor, he wondered what the little bastard was up to this time.His eyes narrowed against the bright summer sun as the fat littlebastard, a.k.a. Timothy Cranston, stood at the open back passengerdoor of the black Ford Excursion, his attention on theoccupants he was obviously speaking to. He was apparently de-bating something with them, Rowdy thought. The tension inCranston’s shoulders was a sure indication that his frustrationlevel was rising.There were times Rowdy and his cousins might like the formerHomeland Security agent, but other times he was moretrouble than he was worth.Rowdy had a feeling he was about to become more troublethan he was worth again.“What the fu—hell is he up to?” Natches murmured as hepaced to the door to stand beside Rowdy.Rowdy didn’t miss the word his cousin had almost used instead.A grin quirking his lips, he slid Natches an amused, knowinglook.“Bliss said the F-word the other day.” Natches sighed indisgust. “Chaya’s of course blaming it on me.”“I never hear it slipping past her lips, I have to admit,” Dawgdrawled from behind them. “Warned you about that, cuz.”Rowdy glanced behind him where his cousin Dawg sat backin the easy chair next to the desk, his long legs stretched out, anewspaper in hand as he read an article on a story he’d been followingfor a few weeks now.He seemed unusually interested in the reporters far-fetchedevidence that there was some conspiracy brewing in the mountainsof Kentucky, West Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvaniawhere homeland militias were concerned. The article was beingwritten by a reporter that had somehow managed to infi ltrateone of those militias.“I’m telling you, it doesn’t slip around Bliss. I don’t want herto hear me talking like that,” Natches bit out in frustration, hisarms crossing over his chest as he glared at each of his cousinsbefore turning back to Cranston.Normally, Rowdy would have agreed, because Natches wasnormally not one to slip up once he put his mind to something.“You say it often enough when you think she’s not around,”Dawg said, glancing around the side of the newspaper.Natches just shook his head.As he caught the tight-lipped scowl on Natches’s face, Rowdyknew it would do little good to argue with cousin over it. He wasconvinced he hadn’t said the word around his daughter, therefore,as far as he was concerned, he hadn’t said it. Until theyactually managed to catch him and point it out, then he’d continueto fi ght against the idea that he’d let it drop. Rowdy wasmore inclined to think it had happened out of Bliss’s sight, justnot out of her hearing. The three of them usually managed tohold back the words they didn’t want their daughters to hear,whether the girls were around or not. They were all too aware ofthe fact that their girls were growing up and prone to be presentwhether they could be seen or not.As far as Rowdy knew, he himself hadn’t said that word sincethe last time he’d suspected Cranston was up to something.It never failed that the F-word slipped out whenever that littlebastard was messing in their lives.Holding his hand up in a “wait” gesture to the driver, Cranstonclosed the passenger door to the Excursion and began walkingquickly to the marina offi ces.He wasn’t as fat as he was the last time they’d seen him,Rowdy noted to himself. Not that he’d been overly round, buthe had been a bit portly.His brown hair was still a little thin in the front, though, cutshort everywhere else and standing on end as the wind whippingoff the lake only made it worse.The tan suit he wore was rumpled and wrinkled, as thoughhe’d slept in it for more than a few days. Beneath the suit, it appearedhe might have been working out just a little.Frowning, Rowdy glanced to Natches, wondering whetherhe’d noticed.Natches wasn’t saying anything if he had.Giving an irritated snort, Natches turned and paced backto the desk and the chairs Rowdy had placed behind it for hiscousins. Cranston’s chair sat all by its lonesome in front of thedesk.Stepping back from the door and crossing his arms overhis chest, Rowdy scowled as Cranston pushed into the offi ce,his hand moving to smooth his hair back rather than running hisfi ngers through the normally disheveled strands.And he looked more harried than usual.If Rowdy wasn’t mistaken, the former Homeland SecuritySpecial Agent in Charge of Investigations looked downright worriedand possibly even a little uncertain.“Rowdy, damned good to see you.” Cranston frowned as hestepped into the offi ce and extended his hand. “You ignored myinvitation to the party last week, by the way.”Shaking his hand, Rowdy raised his brows in surprise. “Thatwas really from you? I couldn’t believe it. I was afraid it was atrick to get us all in one place to kill us at once.”Cranston’s frown turned suspicious, and evidently the innocentsmile Rowdy gave him did nothing to alleviate the suspicion.Cranston’s jaw tightened.Turning to Dawg and Rowdy, he sighed deeply.Dawg was still engrossed in his newspaper, and now Natcheshad a part of it—the comics, no less—and appeared just as involvedin it.“So that’s how it’s going to be?” Cranston muttered, soundingstrangely disappointed.The look he shot Rowdy had a curl of shame rearing its headthat only managed to piss Rowdy off. Hell, he had no reason tofeel ashamed.“What did you expect?” Rowdy asked as he walked to thedesk and took his seat behind it. “Come on, Cranston; we knowyou. When you make one of your infamous requests that we allmeet you together, it means you’re going to pull us into one ofyour schemes, get us shot at, and piss our wives off. We’re notplaying this time.”“Yet here you all are.” Timothy waved his hands out to encompassthe room, that glimmer of somber disappointment stillgleaming in his eyes.“Out of curiosity,” Rowdy assured him as both Dawg andNatches lowered their papers with a snap.The other man sighed –tiredly?— before moving to the desk,though he didn’t sit down.“There’s no scheme,” he assured them, his voice matching theresignation in his brown eyes.“Sure there’s not,” Dawg expressed doubtfully. “You’re stillbreathing; that means there’s a scheme.”“The party was thrown, Dawg”—he singled Dawg out, andit wasn’t missed by any of them, especially Dawg—“to allow youto meet four young women and their mother.”“We’re not bodyguards; nor are we in the market for awoman,” Dawg snapped.At this point, Cranston sat down. Slowly.His brows lowered, his brown eyes darker and fl ickering withwhat Rowdy had always said were the fi res of hell. It was actuallythe green coming out in the dark hazel of his eyes.They just appeared brown until he was pissed.He was pissed now.He watched the three of them silently, his jaw clenched andgranite hard.“At what point have you failed to miss the fact that I amcompletely besotted by your wives and children? And since youacquired those wives and children, at what time have I askedyou to do anything dangerous?” he asked them then, and Rowdyhad to admit he hadn’t expected to hear that edge of some emotionakin to hurt, in the agent’s tone.Dawg and Natches both put their papers aside as Rowdytensed. They’d seen Cranston in a lot of different moods, butthey rarely saw him pissed off at them. And they had certainlynever seen him give the impression that his feelings were hurt.They had seen him pissed at others, often— But he’d neverseemed to care enough about anyone that they could actuallyprick emotions they’d never known he had.“That doesn’t mean you’re not trying to draw us into one ofyour damned operations,” Natches growled, clearly missing thefact that Cranston didn’t get pissed at them for saying no to amission.“Natches.” Rowdy said his name softly, warningly, his gazelocked on the former agent. “Let’s see what he has to say.”“Why?” Dawg grunted. “He’s obviously out to cause trouble.”“Or to alleviate some,” Cranston stated softly, the cool smilethat crossed his lips sending that chill racing up Rowdy’s spineagain.Cranston stood slowly, the expression on his face hinting atnot just anger, but also that inner disappointment that hadRowdy confused as hell. “Had I known this would be my reception,I would have just told you over the phone,” he stated.“Rather than believing we had been friends for the past fouryears.”Rowdy’s shoulders tightened as Cranston focused his completeattention on Dawg.Natches and Dawg had stiffened as well, the undercurrentssuddenly whipping through the room fi nally piercing their suspiciousanger.“Told us what?” Rowdy growled.He knew Cranston. It was too late to repair whatever insulthe’d perceived. Better to just get this meeting over with and fi ndout what the hell was going on.“Three months ago, Homeland Security received an alertfrom the Louisville Offi ce of Vital Statistics,” he stated coolly.“Someone was requesting information on Chandler Mackay’sheirs.”Dawg stiffened further as Rowdy shot him a warning look.They needed to hear what he had to say.“I thought you resigned from Homeland Security,” Natchesreminded him mockingly.Timothy shook his head, his expression pitying. “Son, younever offi cially retire from Homeland Security. One of these daysyou’ll fi gure that out.”“I was never part of it,” Natches reminded him.“No, but Dawg was.” He nodded to Dawg. “And becauseyou’ll stand with him, no matter the danger, that means you’ll bethere to realize it as well.”“Whatever,” Dawg growled. “But DHS and Chandler Mackayare not one and the same. He’s dead, and his heir doesn’t give afuck, remember?”Rowdy’s head whipped to Dawg. Hell, Dawg hadn’t said theword “fuck” since his daughter was still crawling.“I remember.” Cranston nodded. “But tell me, Dawg, wouldyou turn your back on Janey if she needed you?”“Janey is family.” Dawg came out of his chair, causing Rowdyand Natches both to stand with him, as Timothy had always saidthey would do.“So are the four young girls sitting in that vehicle outside,”Cranston stated. “They’re your younger sisters. Four girls, Dawg,still in their teens with no place to go because DHS found theproperty your father bought for them, and because he hadn’tchanged the title over to the mother, they seized the property aswell as the bank accounts their mother was using to help supportthe girls. They’re homeless, without resources, and Mercedesnever allowed the girls to work. She wants them to get an education.Now, are you going to turn your back on them as well? Letme know if you are, so I can have DHS drive them to the nearestcorner and put them and their few belongings out. There mightbe some room left under a bridge somewhere.”Dawg sat down slowly, at the same time Rowdy and Natchesfound themselves sitting as well. Rowdy’s knees felt damnedweak, and his senses in chaos. God only knew what Natches, andeven more so, Dawg, was feeling themselves.Rowdy stared at Cranston, shock warring with the resurgingshame. Hell, they should have known that invitation to dinnerthat they had ignored a few days before—Cranston never inviteda soul to dinner—was more than some ruse.“Chandler Mackay has been dead for thirteen years.” Dawgshook his head, obviously trying to reject the information. “Thatcan’t be possible.”“The youngest girl is sixteen.” Cranston nodded. “Not one ofthem is more than one year younger than the sister born beforeher. When their mother lost the little boy she’d been carrying,the year your father was killed, he never returned to the Texashome he’d bought, though payments on it were sent from a Caymanaccount until DHS was able to shut the account down andtrace the payments. Now, what do I do with them?”Dawg shook his head.“Fine.” Cranston nodded his head. “I’ll tell the driver to takethem to Somerset and drop them off.”He turned to leave.“Wait.” Rowdy stepped forward, desperation and surgingdisbelief making it hard to think. “The Nauti Buoy is empty rightnow. Put them there.”Cranston turned back, his lip curling in a disapproving sneer.“Son, their mother, Mercedes, is as proud as they come. She’s notgoing to just unload her daughters on a bachelor barge and considerherself lucky. If she had been that sort of mother, then Iwould have handled this far differently. She wants to meet you.She wants to be accepted, not pushed to the side until forced tocome begging.”There was something in Cranston’s tone that Rowdy hadnever heard before: an edge of baffl ement as well as respect.There weren’t many people Timothy Cranston respected.From the corner of his eye Rowdy watched a muscle jump inDawg’s jaw.“How old are the girls?” Dawg fi nally snapped.“The eldest girl, Eve, turned nineteen on New Year’s Day.Piper turned eighteen in February. Lyrica turned seventeen inMarch, and little Zoey just turned sixteen this month.” Timothygave them all a hard look. “Hell of an age to live under a bridge,don’t you think? Ever been there, Dawg? Ever seen what it waslike? What it’s going to be like for four teenage girls that I’m bettingmy pensions are still virgins?”They all had. They’d had nightmares for weeks.Timothy sighed heavily. “Their mother, Mercedes, was onlyfourteen when she gave birth to her fi rst child. She would havehad fi ve children if she hadn’t lost the boy she conceived onlyweeks after Zoey was born. Her body was just too weak foranother child. She developed an infection that forced the doctorsto do a hysterectomy. She’s thirty-three years old with fourgirls to raise, and she’s not lazy any day of the week, but neitherdoes she have family and only very few friends. Those friendsare not in a position to help her. The only education she’s hadsince she was fourteen was what she’s taught herself. How doyou go to college with four babies?”Dawg was slowly shaking his head. “She was a baby herself,”he whispered hoarsely, his eyes fi lled with horror. “She was justa baby. Fuck me. God, she’s younger than I am.”She was almost seven years younger than Dawg, and she hadfour children by his father. It was unthinkable, even knowing thedepraved bastard Chandler Mackay had been.It was all Rowdy could think. All any of them could think,he imagined.“He raped a baby,” Dawg’s voice sounded like a wheeze.“Not much more than.” Timothy sighed, the compassion hefelt in this moment making his shoulders droop as he watchedthe four men, wishing he could hide this part from them. “Chandlerbought her from her parents in Guatemala. She was pregnantwith his child when he slipped her into Texas and procuredpapers for her. She knew no English, had no way of supportingherself, and she didn’t have the option of running. If she ran, hetold her the police would fi nd her, and they would then send herback to Guatemala without her babies.”“The babies of a rapist?” Dawg whispered as he stared backat Timothy in shock. “And she stayed?”“She loves those girls, Dawg,” Timothy assured him, the sorrowhe felt at this moment more than he wanted to deal with.“She’s given everything to her daughters, and survived at lessthan poverty level with the funds Chandler had arranged forher to receive along with the few jobs she had working under thetable. He didn’t provide her a car; he didn’t provide her a meansof supporting herself. And he paid others to ensure she didn’tdate, have lovers, or dare to marry. If she attempted to have alover, he promised her, then he would take the children, havethem split up and placed in foster homes, and have Mercedessent back to Guatemala. Then he proceeded to describe to her ingraphic detail a horror story of what American foster familiesdid to the little girls given to them.” He said the last with a sneer.“You can imagine the nightmares he gave her. The one time shedared to assert her independence and attempt to acquire herGED to enable her to acquire a better job, he had her babiesstolen as she slept. She was a month getting them back and theyall still have nightmares of those weeks.”“He was a monster,” Rowdy whispered, his stomach roilingat the thought of what his uncle had done to another innocentchild.“Exactly.” Timothy agreed. “Hell is what she has lived in forquite a while. Then the money that paid the bills was suddenlycut off, the house taken, and with it the vehicle she busted herass for years to buy because she’d been forced to forge Chandler’sname to it to acquire it. She was thrown on the streets andtaken in by one of the Texas-based Homeland Security offi cersthere that that day. The woman called me immediately. She knew9780425245644_NautiTemptress_TX_p1-328.indd 11 9/7/12 7:09 AM12 LORA LEIGH1S1R1LI’d worked the Mackay case here, and that I was still in the area.They’re were ready to fucking deport her, Dawg, and do just asChandler warned her, take her children and put them in fosterhomes. I went after them, had them set up in a safe house until Icould verify everything and run DNA tests on the girls.” Hewouldn’t give any of them a chance to deny the girls or theirmother. “They’re defi nitely Chandler’s daughters,” he told them.“And considering the fact that I made damn certain the majorityof what Chandler had, that I knew of, was very illegally placedin your name and backdated far enough that it couldn’t be taken,I thought perhaps you could help Mercedes and her daughters.Because if you don’t, then she doesn’t have a chance of remainingin the states with those girls.”The fact that he wasn’t so certain that Dawg would helpwasn’t lost on Rowdy.“You said she worked.” Natches looked as dazed as Timothyhad felt as Gillian told him what her life had been.“She did, at a restaurant. She worked cleaning homes, orwhatever she could do and still take her kids, until Eve was oldenough to help with them, allowing her to take on additionalhouse cleaning jobs to provide a little more for her children.”““She couldn’t have made much,” Rowdy whispered. “Notwith four girls to care for.”“She had to have made friends.” Dawg seemed more in shockthan anything.“Would you have, if it meant your children would be placedin foster care if your so called friends or employers ever learnedthe truth of your presence in America, or the life you were beingforced to live?” Timothy asked.“Why keep the kids?” Natches questioned. “She had to havehated Chandler.”“Her daughters are her heart and soul. Never doubt that.”Timothy sighed, wondering whether he had been wrong all theseyears about the honor and integrity of the three men he wasfacing.As he opened his lips to say something more, Rowdy’s gazejerked to the door.Timothy felt his stomach drop as the door was pushed open,and the tiny, delicate little bundle of fi re Zoey Mackay burst intothe offi ce.“They don’t want us, do they?” Pain radiated in her face, hervoice.She could have been Dawg’s daughter, so much did the kidlook like his own kid, Laken: delicate and fragile, long blackhair falling down her back, celadon eyes fi lled with tears, her facesculpted into lines of such beauty it made a grown man want toweep.Timothy rushed to her, bending to one knee as he placed hishands lightly on her fragile shoulders and stared into her eyes.“Zoey, I told you to stay in the vehicle until I fi nished,” Timothyreminded her, his tone gentling.Hell, he couldn’t yell at her; he couldn’t get mad at her. Sheknew the hell her mother and sisters faced if Dawg turned themaway.Dawg rose slowly to his feet, causing her to fl inch as she followedthe movement.“If they wanted us, it wouldn’t take this long,” she accusedhim, her voice rough, big tears fi lling her eyes as she turned backto Timothy. “They would have wanted to meet us by now.”“I was just asking some questions.” Dawg could feel somethinginside his soul bleeding.He hadn’t thought Chandler Mackay could do more to makehim hate him. That it was possible for the bastard to make himdespise him more than he already did.Until he stared at the girl glaring back at him.She looked like an older version of his precious Laken.His baby was only three, and already, her delicate, too fragilebody was forced to keep up with the fi re that burned in hersoul.“What kind of questions can’t we answer?” Zoey proppedher little fi sts on her hips angrily, demanding that he take her intoconsideration, that he make a choice and he make it now.“Zoey, Mr. Mackay and his cousins might have liked a fewminutes to process everything,” Timothy chastised her gently ashe straightened and stared down at her.“And what makes you think Momma has time for him toprocess anything,” she cried out, her voice trembling as the tearsthat fi lled her eyes suddenly spilled down her cheeks as fear andanger fi lled her expression. “He’ll either help us or he won’t.Either way, Momma’s sick again—”Timothy moved.Rushing past the little girl, aware Dawg, Rowdy, and Natcheswere moving quickly to follow behind him, Timothy ran for theExcursion at a run.Racing to the passenger-side door opposite the offi ce he sawthe young Homeland Security agent standing next to MercedesMackay, his expression concerned.“Agent Rickers,” he snapped. “What’s going on?”“Mr. Cranston.” Agent Rickers straightened quickly andmoved back, his young face pale. “She’s weak again, sir. I wastrying to make her more comfortable.”The other girls had moved farther back to the third row ofseats, watching their mother fearfully as she breathed heavily,her pale face reddened, perspiration pouring from it.“Timothy, I’ll be fi ne,” Gillian promised weakly. “You knowhow frightened they get.”But she wouldn’t be fi ne, and Timothy knew it. Not if shedidn’t get the help she needed.“My dear, you should have sent one of the girls for me beforeyou became so ill,” he chastised her as he took the damp cloththe other agent had been using to wipe the perspiration from her.It did little to cool her skin. Few things did when such attacksoccurred. They came with a suddenness that couldn’t be predicted,and often left just as quickly.“Timothy, get her in the offi ce; we’ll call for Doc,” Rowdyordered from the other side of the vehicle.“Come on, Mercedes.” The gentleness in the leprechaun’svoice shocked not just Rowdy, but his cousins as well, though theyoung women in the vehicle didn’t seem surprised at all.Cranston picked her up as though she weighed nothing, andshe had to be three inches taller, at least, than the former agent.Pick her up he did, though, and carried her quickly into theoffi ce, all the girls at his heels.“What’s wrong with her?” Rowdy questioned the older manas he laid her on the offi ce couch, the girls hovering around her.Cranston sighed heavily. “The doctors aren’t certain, but she’srefused to see the specialists she’s been referred to.”“Why?”Cranston’s jaw tightened, a muscle ticking at the side furiously.“No insurance and no money, Rowdy. I told you, onceHomeland Security found that Cayman account two years ago,they’ve had to live on what she had saved and the money shemade working three jobs. She refused to let the girls work.The girls weren’t even aware Mercedes was no longer receivingthe money until DHS showed up at the house and threwthem out.”Rowdy started to say more, but the sight of three concernedwomen moving quickly across the parking lot had a grimacepulling at his lips before he turned to his cousins. “Shopping tripsover,” he announced, nodding toward their wives as they movedpurposefully for the offi ce.“Where the hell were they?” Natches rubbed his jaw in confusion.“My guess, close enough to see why the hell we tried to pushthem into going shopping this morning.” Rowdy sighed. “We’regetting out of practice, boys.”“I thought someone was calling a doctor.” The little powerhousewho had interrupted the meeting earlier stood from whereshe had been kneeling next to her mother.“Zoey, enough,” Mercedes chastised her. “Where are yourmanners?”“They promised, Momma.” Pleading with her eyes, clearlyafraid for her mother’s health.“I sent the text,” Rowdy promised her. “His nurse just textedback.”He handed the girl the phone.“Half an hour.” She murmured the nurse’s reply before handingthe phone back to him and staring up at him with eyes thesame pale, intense green of Dawg’s, yet in this child’s eyes lurkeda deep, haunting fear he knew he’d see in his nightmares.Her celadon eyes were surrounded by a wealth of long, heavyblack lashes, he noticed. She was a beauty already, and keepingthe wild hearts and even wilder men away from her for the restof her life wouldn’t be easy, Rowdy thought in resignation.And there was no doubt she was a Mackay.If he had seen any of the four girls on the street at any time,he would have known he was looking at the daughter of aMackay. The dark looks were simply unmistakable.As Rowdy pushed the phone back into the holster at his side,the door to the offi ce was pushed inward and three concerned,though borderline furious Mackay wives were moving into theroom.Kelly, whose gentle features had matured in the past fi ve yearssince her daughter’s birth, though she still looked far too youngfor her husband Rowdy’s experienced features.Chaya, Natches’s wife, whose brows were drawn into afrown, her brown eyes going between Eve, Piper, Lyrica, andZoey in suspicion before dropping to Mercedes Mackay.But Dawg’s wife, Christa, was stark pale, so white facedDawg moved for her instantly.“No, no, no, no.” He shook his head desperately as her eyesbegan to fi ll with tears. “Oh, hell, no, baby. Sisters. They’re mysisters, not my kids. I swear. Sisters, Christa.”Her gaze moved to him slowly, reluctantly. She frowneddeeply, though her face was still stark white as she slowly shookher head.“This is all Timothy’s fault.” He glared at Timothy beforepointing his fi nger at the not-so-fat little bastard as Timothystared back at him in confusion.“What’s my fault?” Timothy glared back at him, obviouslyoffended by the accusation.The four girls and their mother were staring at him as thoughhe had dropped into the room from outer space, while Rowdyand Natches simply watched him warily.Christa swallowed tightly. “I don’t think they’re your daughters,”she whispered.“Then what’s wrong?” he demanded. “You’re as white as adamned sheet.”She shook her head and turned back to the four girls again.“Oh, my God, Dawg what did Chandler Mackay do? They couldbe, your twins,” she whispered. “As though they were clonedfrom you.”“Oh, God, just shoot me now,” Zoey spat in disgust.“Momma, I don’t think I can ever forgive you.” Eve sighed.“At least it’s him we looked cloned from and not one of theother two,” Lyrica said with a grunt. “That would have sucked.”“It still sucks,” Piper assured her younger sister.“Brats,” Rowdy murmured, though there was no heat in histone; he actually seemed rather amused.“Brats? Try bitches.” Natches grunted, his gaze carefully shuttered,though Dawg could detect the amusement. “And that littleone works at it, too.”“But not very hard.” Zoey slid him an arch, cool look. “If Ihad, trust me, you’d know it.”The girl’s comment had Kelly’s, Christa’s, and Chaya’s gazesmoving then to Timothy. Then they shifted instantly to thewoman stretched out on the couch.Hell, Dawg thought, this woman didn’t look old enough tobe the mother of the four obvious hellions staring back at theMackay wives.“Natches, sweetheart, what’s Cranston doing here?” Chaya,one of Cranston’s former agents, stepped to her husband and lethim pull her close to his side.As she did so, Kelly stepped to Rowdy, while Christa movedto Dawg’s side and gave him a gentle kiss on the cheek. It wasthe look on his face, Rowdy thought, that look of blank devastationin his gaze that had Crista bestowing a kiss to assurehim there was nothing for him to worry about.“It would appear we’ve added to the family,” Natches told hiswife softly. “Meet Dawg’s sisters. I’m certain they’ll introducethemselves as soon as Doc gets here to check out their mother.”Timothy wiped Mercedes face again. Rowdy could havesworn the leprechaun’s hand was shaking.“What did you do, Mercedes?” he asked her gently. “Didn’tyou rest last night?”Mercedes lush lips almost tilted into a smile. “What do youthink, Tim?” she asked, forcing her eyes open.Tim?No one, but no one, had ever been allowed to call TimothyCranston “Tim.”“I think you were up all night pacing and worrying.” Hesighed. “I told you there was nothing to worry about.”“Is there not?” she asked him sorrowfully. “Chandler’s son issuddenly besieged by four young females he knew nothing of,and a sick mother to boot? Ah, Tim, do you not know humannature far better than this?”“I know the Mackays far better than this,” he assured her,praying he was right. “And the Mackays do not turn their backson family.”The look he slid them assured the Mackays that they’d betternot start now.“Is Doc on his way, then?” Christa asked Dawg as his handtightened on her hip, his need to draw her closer evident.“Half hour, his nurse said.”“Twenty minutes then.” She nodded.Dawg watched the young woman; hell, she had four growndaughters and she was younger than he was. He watched her,watched her daughters, and in their eyes he saw pure, raw fear.“Cranston, what do the doctors who have suggested a specialistsay could be wrong with her?” Dawg asked; the low raspof the tone wasn’t lost on the former agent.Cranston swallowed tightly, the action at fi rst almost unnoticed.But the slight fl inch of his facial muscles wasn’t missed byDawg.“They think she could have an advanced form of chemicalpoisoning that’s slowly weakening her lungs. One of the jobs shehad was at an industrial chemical processing plant that’s sincebeen shut down for its unsafe working conditions.” Clearing histhroat of obvious emotion, he lifted his gaze to Dawg’s, and noone missed the plea in his eyes. “The treatments she needs areexpensive—”“Timothy, no.” Pride was evident in Mercedess weak voice asshe laid her hand on his arm. “Let’s not talk of this. Let the girlsand their brother talk.”“Mercedes, I won’t let you lie here and suffer,” he snarled, hisvoice hoarse and fi lled with emotion. “Not any more.”Timothy Cranston was in love.Dawg lifted his gaze from Cranston, only to realize the fourgirls were watching him suspiciously, fearfully. There wasn’t oneof them who didn’t expect him to turn them away.“Doc’s here,” Christa stated as a vehicle pulled up in front ofthe door. “He’s early. He must have already left the offi ce.”Dawg nodded. “Let’s get your mother taken care of,” he toldthe girls. “Once we have her checked out, we’ll talk.” His gazedropped to Cranston’s again before lifting back to the girls. “Buthave no doubt: You’re family. And we stick by family.”“On of you killed your cousin,” the eldest stated. “I heard oneof the agents talking about it after we arrived at Tim’s. Is thathow you take care of family?”She might have resembled Dawg enough to be his kid, but itwas Natches’s emerald eyes she stared at him from.“Eve.” Her mother gasped, obviously shocked by her daughter’srudeness.Dawg just gave Eve a mocking smile as his hand tightened atChrista’s hip once again. “Only those who betray us and have agun trained on the someone we love,” he assured her. “Then, Eve,trust me, it didn’t matter who he was then; Johnny was dead.”Eve’s nostrils fl ared before she fi nally relaxed enough to simplynod her head.“Mackays don’t betray one another.” Cranston tore his gazefrom their mother long enough to stare back at each girl with aglint of steel in his eyes. “Remember that, girls. You stand forwho you are, what you are, and for family. That’s what yourmother’s taught you, and that’s what you live by.”“Only if you stand for us fi rst,” Lyrica spoke up warily.Dawg nodded. “Understandable. And we’ll show you ourgood faith.” He glanced to Natches and Rowdy. Each of his cousinsnodded in turn. “We’ll take care of you and your mother,because you’re family, and that’s what families do. Whatevertreatments your mother needs, whatever care, she’ll have it. Justas you’ll return to school and do your part.”“In return for what?” the other girl asked suspiciously.“In return for being part of the family,” Dawg growled backat her. “I just told you that. Loyalty begins somewhere, and I’llmake that fi rst step. From here on out it’s up to you. But betrayus or yourselves, hurt us, yourselves or another of the family, andyou’ll risk all of it. Come to us, talk to us, and we’ll help you thebest way we can. But you don’t lie to us, you don’t cheat us, andyou don’t dare betray one of us.”What the hell was he supposed to do with four sisters?Each girl nodded before the door opened, heralding the doctorand his nurse. Within an hour an ambulance arrived and,with Cranston riding with her, whisked Mercedes Mackay to thehospital and left four clearly suspicious, frightened, and exhaustedyoung women in his keeping.And Dawg would soon learn, along with Rowdy and Natches,just what they might have to face in another decade or so.With their own daughters.