Nautier and Wilder by Lora Leigh Read Free Book Online

with it first.”
    Her arms crossed over her breasts as she stared up at him, her expression tight with
     defensiveness as her determination to stand in his way became more than apparent.
    “And you know why I’ve done it,” he reminded her. “Hell, I remember a time when you
     were all for it.”
    Now that those stubborn, independent young women were crying on “mommy’s” shoulder,
     she was backtracking from the protective atmosphere just as quickly as she had agreed
     to it.
    “A year ago.” One hand propped on her rounded hip as she faced him with fiery dark
     eyes. “When there was a chance she was actually in danger. Even you admit there’s
     nothing going on now, no one is watching you or the girls, nor is there any apparent
     backlash from what happened last summer. I believe, Dawg, you can’t let yourself accustom
     to life without that danger. It’s not fair to make the girls live such a life as well.”
    He was not going to allow her to draw him into this argument, not after having this
     exact confrontation with Christa after returning home the night before, furious at
     finding Jed in Piper’s room, and Piper in Jed’s arms. His own wife had been quick
     to rip a strip of his hide, first for not knocking, and second for daring to butt
     his nose into his sisters’ sex lives again.
    He did not want to know his sisters had sex.
    He especially didn’t want to know who they were having sex with.
    “Where’s she at, Mercedes?” He wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction of this argument.
     They’d already been down that road far too many times.
    “I’m not telling you.” Pure stubbornness pulled at her expression.
    As much as those girls looked like they could belong to him or his cousins, Rowdy
     and Natches, he had to admit there were times, like this, when he realized they looked
     just like their mother.
    “Then I’ll have Alex put out an APB on her,” he warned, trepidation beginning to tighten
     the back of his neck.
    Hell, he hadn’t expected levelheaded Piper to be the one to test her safety first.
    “No. You will not. Attempt it. Dare to take this from her, Dawg Mackay, and I promise
     you neither I, my daughters, nor Timothy will ever allow you to forget it.”
    He turned away from her, rubbed at the back of his neck, and grimaced in frustration.
    “I don’t feel good about this,” he muttered as he turned back to her. “Mercedes, I
     don’t feel good about this at all.”
    The anger beginning to brighten her brown eyes dimmed, but he could see the concern
     in them as well.
    “I don’t like it myself,” she admitted quietly. “She didn’t tell me where she was
     going, Dawg; I found out by accident. All she told me was that she had to get away.
     She slipped out in the dead of night because she trusted none of us to allow her the
     freedom she hungers for. Let her have her freedom, before we smother her to death.”
    “A freedom that has the potential to get her killed?” he asked her wearily. “I understand
     the need, Mercedes, more than you know. But you know what nearly happened to Eve last
     summer. If someone targets one of the other girls in retaliation, and there’s no one
     there to protect them, what do we do then?”
    “We pray that doesn’t happen,” she whispered as the concern in her gaze threatened
     to turn to pure fear. “But you also have to understand, Dawg: Piper’s not a liar;
     nor is she one to make decisions such as this rashly. She was driven to it.”
    He had driven her to it. He could hear the accusation in her tone.
    Christa had warned him more than once that the girls were going to rebel against his
     protection and begin making decisions that would only endanger them. He hadn’t believed
     they would do so without first confronting him.
    His sisters were fighters; they weren’t cowards.
    “How can you be certain she’s safe?” he finally asked her worriedly.
    “I can’t, Dawg.” Her smile was gentle, compassionate.