by Lora Leigh
“Why are you sneaking into my bedroom?”
Dawg’s brow lifted. “Little sister, I wasn’t sneaking. Your door was unlocked.”
“The hell it was.” Struggling with the sheet with one hand to keep it around her, Piper used the other to push her hair back from her face as she glared at Dawg.
She was all too aware of Jed moving to his feet, completely at ease with his nudity and not the least bit ashamed as he collected his clothes. Dawg’s expression tightened, his mood shifting toward that dangerous mark.
“Don’t call me a liar, Piper,” Dawg warned her then. “I said the door was unlocked. Trust me; it was unlocked.”
“I locked that door earlier, Dawg,” she told him, suddenly aware that something simply wasn’t right where his entrance was concerned. “I remember securing it. And neither Jed nor myself has gone out of it since.”
Dawg’s gaze narrowed. “I wasn’t exactly quiet when I pulled in and called out to Mercedes to tell her I was coming around to your room.” His gaze swung to Jed as he laid his shirt across the table before securing the belt on his jeans. “I guess there’s not a chance in hell you heard anything?”
Jed cleared his throat. As he glanced at her, Piper felt her face flushing heatedly.
She knew exactly why they hadn’t heard anything.
“Figures.” Dawg grunted, drawing Piper’s attention back to him. “You’re certain the door was locked?”
Tipping her head to the side, she stared back at him with mocking disbelief. “Really, Dawg?”
They both knew she was certain. Piper was the one often found checking all the doors and windows in the middle of the night, to be certain no one could slip into the suite.
Lifting his hand, he pushed his fingers through his hair in agitation before staring back at her, his celadon gaze filled with concern. “Piper, please God, tell me what’s going on before someone does more than bruise your face.”
She knew that door had been locked, which meant someone had unlocked it at a time when they would have believed she was otherwise occupied.
They were there looking for something.
She just had no idea who or what they were searching for.
TEN
Staring into her brother’s face and seeing the fear and worry for her reflected in his gaze, Piper was forced to admit that her suspicions regarding the attack couldn’t be ignored any longer. There wasn’t so much as a sliver of a chance that the attack in New York had been random, and she knew it.
It hadn’t been an accident that her room was the one a burglar had targeted. She hadn’t been randomly picked out of a crowd and then followed to her room. She wasn’t just a faceless nobody someone had decided to torment.
And the nightmares . . .
Those vague, shadowy horrorscapes she drifted into once she fell asleep couldn’t be ignored either. Just as the unlocked door couldn’t be overlooked. Someone was desperate enough to get to her that they had picked the lock on her patio doors in broad daylight.
Breaking contact with Dawg’s fierce look, she glanced at Jed, and knew he had reached the end of his patience as well. If she didn’t tell her brother now, then he would.
“As you know, I slipped out of town last week.” She sighed in resignation as she stared back at her brother once again. “A friend drove me to Louisville, where I caught a train to New York City to meet with someone interested in my designs. I was getting ready to leave to come home when I asked the front desk to send up a bellhop to help with my luggage. I had bought lots of materials at the fabric stores.” She waved her hand toward her worktable. “It wasn’t the bellhop who arrived. When I opened the door, I got a faceful of fist, and if it hadn’t been for the kids in the adjoining room, the damage would have been much worse.”
Dawg sat down slowly in the chair beside him before wiping his hands carefully over his face.
“I need to get dressed.” She breathed out roughly. “You can question me when I get back.”
Gathering her clothes, she strode quickly to the bathroom and snapped the door closed behind her before leaning against it and dragging in a ragged, fear-filled breath.
She knew she had locked that door.
She remembered locking it, just as she remembered Jed checking those locks when he’d risen from the bed after they had caught their breath.
What if she had been alone and Dawg hadn’t shown up?
What if she had been attacked again? Or one of her sisters, or her mother?
God, what had she managed to draw back to Somerset and her family?
* * *
Dawg stared at the closed bathroom door before turning his gaze on Jed.
The other man was playing with one of the little glass gems Piper was so fond of. She’d bought a shitload of stuff, evidently, while she had been in Manhattan. Enough that she’d not wanted to carry it all herself to the cab.
She had instead opened her door to some bastard pretending to be a bellhop.
“What do you know, Jed?” he finally questioned the other man.
Listening to Jed’s account of the night the kid had called him, and his arrival at the hospital, Dawg had to admit that his gratitude toward the other man was overwhelming.
There was no doubt in his mind that Piper would not have called him or one of their cousins. She was so wary of their protective tendencies, and so certain, according to Jed, that the attack had been random, that she would have never watched her back.
Fortunately, Jed had been watching it for her.
“Did you suspect she would be followed?” Dawg asked when he finished.
“If I had suspected it, she would have called you long before now,” Jed informed him.
Jed turned his head as the bathroom door opened and Piper walked slowly from the room.
It was then that Dawg saw the expression that transformed Jed’s face.
Hell, he’d hoped it hadn’t gone that far.
No, he’d known it had gone that far, he amended as he watched Piper’s gaze meet her lover’s and saw the unconscious devotion that filled her face and eyes as well.
Those two were already so fucking bonded that he doubted even death would separate them. And he was certain neither of them was even fully aware of how deep it went.
* * *
Jed straightened as Piper moved from the bathroom. Intending to reach out for her, he was more than a little surprised when she moved to him instead.
Snagging his arm around her waist and pulling her to him, Jed ignored Dawg’s dark expression and instead gave Piper the silent security he knew she was reaching out for.
“Do you remember anything the attacker said? Anything he did? Any odd scents, or an accent?” Dawg asked her as Jed felt the subtle tremor that raced up her spine.
“He said something.”
Jed tightened at the admission but didn’t berate her. It was the wrong time to do so, with Dawg standing there watching so closely.
It would hurt her to be embarrassed in such a way in front of her brother. And it would embarrass her, at the very least subconsciously.
“What did he say?” Dawg urged as he pulled his cell phone free and, Jed suspected, hit the record feature.
“That’s just it; I don’t remember what he said.” Frustration filled her voice, thickened it and hinted at her inability to make sense of whatever she remembered. “He was demanding something, and I didn’t know what the hell he was talking about.”
Jed rubbed her lower arms gently, forcing himself to hold back the fury burning in his chest.
“You can’t remember a single word?” Dawg questioned her again, his tone smoother than it had been moments ago, less angry, as though he too sensed the effect their anger had on her.
“Something about a car.” She sighed, shaking her head as another tremor raced up her spine. “I just can’t remember, Dawg.”
“I have a few contacts in the city,” Dawg murmured. “And a few spread out through the police department. I’ll make some calls and see what I can find out.”
* * *
“I’m sorry, Dawg.” Guilt was lashing at Piper’s senses now.
Dawg was doing everything he could not to explode, to hide his anger.
Those bright celadon eyes seemed darker than normal, his expression almost haggard, and she realized the past week had been just as hard on him, perhaps, as it had been on her.
“For what?” he asked then.
“I shouldn’t have reacted as I did when you saw my face. I was terrified you’d try to lock me away somewhere, though. You don’t know how scary you get when you’re in protection mode.”
“That’s still a possibility.” He grunted as he leaned back in the chair and crossed his arms over his broad chest.
The black T-shirt he wore stretched across his powerful biceps created an impression of vast strength. “The nightmares have been brutal, Piper.”
And they had been, she knew. The Mackay wives, Christa, Kelly, and Chaya, had arrived the day before and, along with her sisters and mother, berated Piper for refusing to tell any of them what happened.
Christa had told her that Dawg had been awakening from nightmares ever since, certain that Piper was in grave danger, and he had no idea how to protect her.
“I love you, Dawg.” What more could she say? “You, Rowdy, and Natches saved us. But you’ve also smothered us this last year. Smothered us to the point that there’s no privacy at all. And I just couldn’t handle it any longer.”
He leaned forward, his arms dropping from his chest and resting against his knees as he clasped his hands between them.
“Piper, if I ever end up having to bury one of you because I faltered or because I didn’t know one of you was in danger, I don’t know if I would survive the guilt. You’re a Mackay. Your sisters are Mackays. Trouble and danger will always follow the four of you because of the covert jobs you hold. Unless . . .” He gave Jed a long, hard look. “Unless there’s someone strong enough, someone dangerous enough, to deflect it.”
Oh, Jed was strong enough. And he was dangerous enough. . . .
“Perhaps you should teach us properly how to protect ourselves, Dawg. I’m certain you and Jed would like to sleep sometime. And I do like going to the ladies’ room without some hulking male standing outside the stall.”
She shot him a tight, hard smile as irritation flashed in his expression, and Jed’s arms tightened around her.
Dawg could only shake his head. “God, and here I thought you were the least stubborn sister.”
“Just the quietest one,” she amended the thought. “Trust me, Dawg: No matter the impression Eve gave you, neither Lyrica, Zoey, nor myself are willing to live like fugitives or witness protection candidates. You’re going to have to come up with a solution other than some strong, forceful caveman to keep us from attracting trouble.”
“No kidding.” He grunted, rising to his feet. “I’m going to get out of here and make a few phone calls, catch up with Natches and Rowdy, and see what we can figure out.” His gaze sliced to Jed’s. “Make sure she’s either not in this room, or that her locks are secured against anyone determined to get in.”
She felt Jed shift behind her and glanced back.
He was staring at her worktable again, only this time, as he released her, his fingers went to the dark green glass jewels scattered amid the red and clear cut crystals.
“Those will be so pretty on the dress I’m designing.” She sighed.
He rolled several in amid another batch whose color didn’t seem as deep or rich.
“Where did you get them?” He picked a few up before moving across the room and handing them to Dawg.
Piper watched them curiously.
“A craft shop in New York, in the Garment District.” She shrugged, catching Dawg’s eye. “You’ve taken me there before.”
Dawg rose slowly to his feet, his gaze on the pieces of colored glass.
Closing his hand quickly around the stones he held, he flipped the cell phone open again and made a call.
“I need you down here in Piper’s room, ASAP. And if you have a jeweler’s loupe or a strong magnifying glass, bring it with you,” he ordered—Tim, Piper assumed.
She rather doubted he was ordering one of her sisters or her mother down here.
Flipping the phone closed, he moved to the table next to her bed and flipped on the light.
Holding his hand beneath the brightest area of the lamp’s glow, he turned the stones with a finger, studying them carefully.
“What the hell is going on?” Piper whispered as trepidation began to rise inside her.
The panicked feeling that tightened her stomach shortened her breath and left her with the sensation of being unable to fill her lungs.
“Piper.” Dawg lifted his gaze as Timothy rushed into the room, magnifying glass in hand. “These aren’t glass.” Lifting his gaze to Timothy Cranston, he motioned him over. “Tell me what these are.”
Dropping the stones in Timothy’s hand, Dawg stared down at him with a dark glower.
Holding his hand beneath the light, Timothy moved the magnifying glass over his hand and studied the colored objects with a frown.
“Where did you get these?” he asked Dawg, never taking his eyes from his palm.
“Piper brought them home from New York.” The growl in Dawg’s tone was a dangerous rasp. “She says she picked them up at a craft store.”
Timothy didn’t bother to lift his head or his gaze from the magnifying glass.
“She didn’t get these at a craft store,” he murmured. “Where else did you go?”
“What are they?” she questioned him warily.
“Emeralds, rubies, diamonds, and sapphires, Piper. These aren’t pretty crystals and colored glass, sweetheart. Now, tell me where else you went.”
Piper shook her head, swallowing tightly.
Diamonds, emeralds, rubies, and sapphires?
God, no wonder she’d thought they looked so much more brilliant after she got them home than they had when she first picked them out at the craft store.
“I rented a car and drove outside the city for a meeting, but I never had that shopping bag out of the car. When I returned the car, everything had fallen out of the bag to the floor, and the stones I bought were scattered on the back driver’s-side floorboard.”
Timothy jerked his head around to glare at her then.
“A rental car?” he questioned her, his tone icy.
Piper nodded slowly. “It was a rental.”
“What was the name of the agency?” Tim asked.
“Riley’s Rentals.”
Tim nodded slowly before lifting his gaze to Dawg’s. “That’s Genoa property.”
Genoa property.
Piper had heard of the Genoa family and the Mackays’ run-in with them six years ago, just before Piper and her family were brought to Somerset.
The crime family had first butted heads with the Mackays when a family member, the niece of head of the family Rudy Genoa, had come for vengeance against John Walker Jr. and his lover, Sierra Lucas, for a broken engagement.
Marlena and her associate, Gerard Andrews, had been responsible for the half million dollars Rudy Genoa had advanced them to ensure Marlena caught John Walker’s attention and kept it.
Expensive clothes, salons, and an apartment on Park Avenue. She’d been plucked, polished, and perfected—until the night John had learned she was also fucking his friend and fellow attorney, Gerard Andrews. The same ma
n who had assured the Genoa family that if John married Marlena and had a child with her, then the attorney would willingly put his name behind the defense of Genoa family members in court.
“How did they get in my car?” she whispered.
“The Genoa family’s rumored to be bringing jewels, gold, and cash into the States for another family—a Russian crime family they’re trying to build ties with. The Russians are shipping the contraband into Italy, where the Genoa family has ties, and then members of the family are taking over. Homeland Security and the FBI have been trying to figure out exactly how they’ve been doing it. If Riley’s Rentals is involved, then they’re likely shipping them in vehicles that are coming through as cargo. Riley’s has a reputation of shipping vehicles overseas and back again for wealthy clients. No agency has been able to tie them to anything illegal, though, until now.”
“What do we do?” Panic was beginning to edge through her senses as fear began to build.
“We’ll take care of it, Piper.” Jed’s arms tightened around her as Piper felt the fear beginning to overflow her tenuous control.
What had she managed to get herself into? Why had she allowed this to happen? She could have just told Dawg, Jed, and Tim what had happened and they would have figured this out a week ago. Before someone had attempted to break into her room.
“Don’t worry, Piper. We have the contacts to fix this,” Dawg promised her as he turned back to her. “You stay with Jed; Timothy and I will take care of things.”
This wasn’t what she wanted.
“I didn’t want you to have to risk yourself,” she whispered. “None of you. I just wanted to be able to take this meeting without everyone breathing down my neck.”
“You were being protected for a reason, Piper,” Jed stated as Dawg and Tim began to move toward the patio door, where Dawg was pointing out where the lock had been picked.
“For a reason I was never allowed to understand.” Turning, she faced him, her gaze meeting his, irritation flooding her as fear and confusion fueled the panic tightening her stomach. “Maybe, Jed, if something—anything—had been explained to me, then I would have been more prone to listen a little more closely.”