Snow in Texas (Lean Dogs Legacy #1) (11 page)

Eighteen

Jenny

“Your brother wants me to go somewhere with him,” Colin had said, tugged on his t-shirt and cut, and left her again. Going back to bed hadn’t been an option.

              Jenny had slipped into the sanctuary, showered, readied herself for the day, and was in the kitchen cracking eggs when Darla showed up to make breakfast.

              “Well this is a sight,” Blue’s sister remarked, setting her purse down by the door. “Couldn’t sleep?”

              “Hmm. Something like that.” Jenny picked up the whisk and attacked the big measuring cup of eggs she’d opened.

              Darla stood, one hand on the counter, watching her a moment. “It wouldn’t have anything to do with that big hickey on your neck, would it?”

              Jenny gasped and slapped a hand to the side of her neck.

              Darla laughed. “You finally went for it, huh?”

              “Um…”

              “Can’t say that I blame you.” Darla pulled the bread from the pantry. “He’s a mighty fine piece of man meat.”

              “Darla!”

              “I’m old, but I’ve got eyes.” She smiled and shivered pleasantly. “To be honest, I don’t know how you waited so long.”

              Jenny yanked the elastic from her hair, the heavy blonde locks falling across her neck and covering Colin’s mark. “Let’s not make a big deal out of it.”

              Darla snorted. Then asked, “So how was it?”

              “Darla, just don’t.”

              “What? I’m only curious.”

              Jenny sighed and poured the eggs into the steaming skillet, the hiss loud enough to drown out any further comment.

              She was starting to think she’d made a mistake. She refused to regret the sex – it had been too good and very much needed. But what had she invited by entangling herself with Colin? Candy was a different brother than he had been pre-Riley, pre-abuse, pre-clubhouse cleaning. She was worried, as she added crumbled bacon to the eggs, that she might soon find herself at the altar of a shotgun wedding. Or, at least, the recipient of more flattery and attention than she was emotionally equipped to handle right now.

              Falling into a heavy silence and ignoring Darla’s suggestive looks, she helped make a rib-sticking breakfast of eggs, pancakes, sausage links, toast, fried ham, and potato cakes. All the boys and their finicky appetites and tastes. The clubhouse kitchen had to serve as McDonald’s drive through each morning. They were just laying everything out buffet style along the bar when Candy and Colin returned from their errand, weak dawn sunshine falling through the open door at their feet.

              Jenny didn’t just see Colin enter, but
felt
him, as real as fingers gliding down her back, sliding around and pressing briefly between her legs. A physical reaction, caused by nothing more than his presence…and that was before he caught her eye and smiled, quick and tight, as he followed Candy up to the bar.

              She was struck by the insane urge to sidle up to him, duck beneath his arm and slide her own around his waist. Like she’d done with Riley, as a newlywed, oh so many years ago. Once upon a time she’d been doting and affectionate, and she didn’t realize how much she’d missed that until she saw her new lover now and felt the pull deep in her chest.

              She resisted, though, biting her lip and walking around behind the bar to take the orange juice from the cooler.

              “Where you boys been so early?” Darla asked.

              Candy climbed onto a stool, nodding his thanks as Jenny set a plate and bottle of juice in front of him. “Introducing him to our esteemed president.”

              “Really?” Darla sounded surprised.

              Jenny was more than that; she was shocked. “What?”

              Candy nodded again and spooned eggs onto his plate, deceptively casual. “I thought it was time.” Casual or not, there was deep meaning in his eyes when he looked at her.

              Jenny flicked a glance to Colin – not trusting her stomach to keep from fluttering – and saw that he was watching her, waiting for her reaction. Her stomach did flutter, a little, and she said, “That’s a big step.”

              “Really?” Candy waggled her brows at her. “You wanna talk about big steps?”

              She felt her face warm.

              “Hey,” Colin said in her defense, which was about all a prospect could say.

              “Not judging,” Candy assured, grinning.

              Jenny snorted. “Uh-huh.” She slapped a plate down in front of Colin and said, “I need to leave in about ten minutes.” When both men stared at her, she said, “Work.”

              Colin looked at her, then at the steaming potato cakes. “Do I have time to eat real quick?”

              “You don’t have to come,” she assured. “If Candy’s still insisting on guard dogs” – she rolled her eyes – “I’m sure Fox could–”

              Colin scowled and forked several cakes onto his plate. “
I’m
coming with you.” And a man’s tone didn’t get much more final than that.

~*~

She was leaving the sanctuary, tugging the door shut behind her, purse hiked up on one shoulder, when she ran into something. A wall that hadn’t been there before. A very solid wall, that grabbed her by the arms.

              Okay, not a wall. She smelled him, recognized him with that post-sex sixth sense there was no denying, before she tipped her head back and saw that it was Colin she’d crashed into.

“Shit. Sorry.” Why was she nervous? She smiled to prove that she wasn’t, but knew it was a strained expression. “You ready to go?”

“Yeah. I was coming to get you.” His gaze was trained not on her face, but a little lower, and to the side.

There was something she wanted to say, so she took a deep breath. “Colin, I don’t know what all my brother said to you this morning, but if he was an ass, I’m sorry, I…what are you looking at?” It was distracting, his off-center stare.

“Trying to see something.” His large, golden hand lifted and pushed back her hair. She knew what he had exposed, and imagined the skin beneath the bruise rippled in response to being examined. She shivered.

He grinned, though. “Damn. That’s pretty dark.”

“Yeah.” Her voice grew faint as remembered sensation stirred in her bloodstream. “Darla saw it.”

“Yeah?” He seemed pleased. “Never hurt anybody to see something like that.”

“Colin–”

“Probably some people you know – a certain ATF agent and his brother, maybe – who ought to see it.”

Jenny sucked in a breath. “Can we go?”

His eyes came to her face, finally, dark and intense. “Yeah.” He released her.

But as she walked forward, he hooked a strand of her hair with a finger, let it slide through his grip as she moved away from him.

It was going to be an interesting day.

Nineteen

Colin

It was different now. He’d be the first one to say that sex was just sex, but in this case, it had shifted the balance between Jenny and him. It hadn’t given him more power – nothing could make that possible – but it had given them a whole new axis. What had passed during the night now lay hot and unquestionable between them; the boundaries were slipperier, the personal defenses transparent at best. Before, Colin had watched her move around the restaurant and seen the rigid lines of tension down her back, the shields in her eyes when she happened to look at him – which hadn’t been often, because she’d made a point of avoiding his gaze.

              Now, she shot him frequent glances, where he was reclined back against the wall, nursing tea at a table with a view of the entire small building. The tension he’d come to expect had vanished. At ease with her customers, comfortable in the same old routine of her job, he saw her smile more, saw her blow out a deep breath and massage a kink from her lower back, a show of weakness she hadn’t allowed herself previously.

              He also saw, when she pushed her hair back, the dark shadow of the bite he’d left on the side of her throat, and that made him grin.

              She took her lunch break at eleven-thirty; he watched her untie her apron, stow it and walk toward him with a basket of onion rings. That was when he saw it – not tension, he couldn’t call it that. But a little under-the-skin shiver that reached her eyes as she slid in across from him and met his gaze.

              The onion rings had just come out of the fryer, glistening with grease and pulsing ribbons of steam up into the sunlight.

              “I needed something fatty,” Jenny said. She picked one up, grimaced, and blew on it as it burned her fingers. “Figured you might too.”

              “I’ll never say no to onion rings.” But he didn’t reach for any right away, instead studied her. She had smudges beneath her eyes from physical exhaustion, but she seemed energetic.

              “Okay, you’re going to have to stop that,” she scolded.

              “What?”

              “Looking at me like that.”

              “Like what?”

              She made a face and lowered her voice. “Like you’re imagining me naked.”

              He smiled. “I don’t have to imagine that.”

              “Ugh…”

              “But that’s not what I’m doing.”

              She lifted her brows, inviting him to explain.

              “I just like watching you.”

              She took a bite of onion ring. “God, you’re not some kind of sap, are you?”

              He laughed and grabbed a ring from the basket. “Uh,
no
.”

              “So why are you
looking
at me?”

              He thought he saw fear and doubt in the quick flicker of her gaze. Riley, the fucker, hadn’t admired her, hadn’t doted on her, hadn’t complimented her. So he said, “Because you’re beautiful.”

              She blushed madly, and said, “You’re an idiot,” in a pleased, sweet voice.

              “No, sweetheart. I’m Cajun. We Frenchies don’t have a problem telling our women they’re damn gorgeous.”

              Her blush deepened, and she bit into another onion ring. “Stop,” she said, softly, but that wasn’t what she wanted at all.

              “No.”

              “Colin…” She met his eyes, hers full of softness and warmth. Yes, she was soft, in the feminine heart of her. Women were tough as nails…and melty as butter when you loved them and showed them affection. Men couldn’t hope to be as dynamic as them; men ought to treat them better, in order to reap the rewards.

              It struck him, suddenly, that he’d been a real shithead with most of the half-girlfriends and one night stands in his past life. Why was it different with Jenny? He had to acknowledge that there was something special in the works.
“I think you’re falling in love with my sister,”
Candy had said.

              “Jen,” he said, growing serious.

              “Hmm?”

              “I meant what I said before. About not hurting you.” He gave her a meaningful look and hoped she read his sincerity. “I ain’t perfect. Probably not even good. But I will look after you.”

              She smiled, eyes still soft. “You
are
a sap.” When he started to protest, she said, quietly, urgently, “I like it. Please be a sap. I’ve never had that before.”

~*~

Jenny had to work until five. And despite the diversion of watching her take orders, by four, he was bored out of his mind. His eyes glazed and at half-mast, he saw Jenny as blurred around the edges, movements fuzzing into her surroundings.

              Colin didn’t realize there was a man standing beside his table until the guy spoke, and then he jerked.

              It was a young, scrawny man who reminded him a little of Pup the prospect: dark hair that needed introduced to a brush, edging of pimples along his jaw, that uninspired slack-jawed look of youth today. He wore a greasy white apron, and Colin thought he must work here, back in the kitchen.

              “You’re Jenny’s boyfriend?” he was asking.

              Colin shook his head to clear the fuzziness. “Uh…what?”

              The kid scratched at his pimples. “You’re Jenny’s boyfriend?”

              Colin had a feeling Jenny wasn’t ready for labels yet, but in this scenario, he decided a straightforward, simple answer would be best. “Yeah.” He folded his arms and leaned back in his chair, more than a little proud. “I am.”

              The guy stared at him, eyes glassy. High, Colin guessed. “She don’t ever bring boyfriends around.”

              Feeling prouder, Colin said, “I ‘spect she hasn’t had one worth bringing around before.”

              The kid frowned. “Why do you always sit in here? You can’t talk to her at home?”

              This could go bad fast. In a friendly voice, he said, “That’s not your business, is it?”

              The frown deepened. “You’re a foreigner, ain’t you?”

              Jesus. “Uh, no. I’m from New Orleans.”

              A squint to go with the frown, as the brain child tried to recall where that was.

              “You know. N’awlins. In Louisiana.” When no comprehension registered, Colin said, “Christ, man, it borders
this
state.” He rolled his eyes. “I’m part French, alright? Born and raised in the
USA
,” he said with emphasis. It occurred to him he didn’t have to explain himself to this dumbass, and he scowled, frustrated. “Look, if you don’t have anything to say–”

              “Jenny got her ex-husband locked up, you know,” the kid said, startling Colin into brief silence.

              “What?”

              Movement at the door caught his attention; someone coming in just ahead of the dinner crowd. He caught a glimpse of blue, and then the greasy cook spoke again.

              “She’s got a bad reputation for getting guys locked up.” He punctuated the statement with a sniff, dashing a hand under his nose.

              Someone walking, heading toward the counter.

              Colin leaned forward and planted his hands on the table, relishing the way the young man’s eyes went to them, widening when he saw their size. “Okay, I’m gonna say this once.” His voice was hard and heavy, nothing like the voice of the man who had raised him. Maybe this was Remy Lécuyer’s voice. Mercy’s voice. Oh, the irony. “Jenny’s ex was a violent asshole who got what he deserved. I’m not having a conversation about it. Shut up, and walk away. Now.”

              A man at the counter. A man…

              “Shit!” Colin leapt to his feet and shoved the fry cook to the side. The kid made an alarmed sound and crashed into a neighboring table.

              Colin didn’t care. He charged the front counter, just as Agent Riley, in plainclothes, took a grip on Jenny’s arm, cranked it behind her back until she yelped, and hustled her down the back hallway.

              Colin chased them at a dead run. A waitress stepped from the break room, and he shouldered her out of the way; he’d apologize later. She hollered. He kept going.

              The back door opened with a bright flare of sunlight, Jenny’s face limned in gold, her mouth open as she protested. She was fighting, wriggling, struggling.

              Colin hit the door before it shut, drew the gun Fox had given him, and said, “Let go of her, asshole, before I spray your brains across the pavement.”

              Riley froze, half-turning toward Colin. He had a gun on his hip, but no badge that was visible.

              Jenny’s eyes rolled toward him, white-rimmed and frightened.

              In his mind, Colin saw himself closing the distance and curling one of his big hands around Agent Riley’s throat. He imagined the man’s eyes popping; his ineffectual fingers scrabbling at his own.

              But he held his ground, gun level and unwavering. Breath heaving in and out of his lungs.

              “You got a hearing problem?” he asked. “I said to let go of her.”

              Riley kept a grip on Jenny’s arm, but met Colin’s gaze. His own was hard…but not hard enough. He hadn’t expected resistance. Colin saw a fast flicker of doubt, maybe even fear in his eyes.

              “This is official federal business, son,” Riley said. “Don’t get involved.”

              “That’s the biggest load of horseshit I ever heard.
Sir
,” Colin fired back. “You arresting her? Taking her in for questioning? Nobody strong-arms an unarmed woman on
official federal business
. This is personal as all hell. So I’ll say it again: Get your hands off her, or I’ll blow your fucking head off.”

              “Colin,” Jenny said, voice strained. Like she was trying to warn him away.

              Fuck that.

              “Step away, Agent Riley.”

              Face red and furious, the agent shoved Jenny loose, hands balling into fists as he turned fully toward Colin. “You just made a huge goddamn mistake–”

              Colin inhaled, inflated his chest, and took one giant step toward the man, leading with the gun.

              Riley’s teeth clicked shut.

              “Explain yourself,” Colin said, “and do it quick. I’ve got an itchy trigger finger, and we’ve got no witnesses.”

              The agent’s jaw set. He fumed, in a visual way, hands grasping. But he said, “I have every right to question Miss Snow about her brother and his club.”

              Colin flashed him a nasty grin. “Nah. You don’t. Get gone.” He gestured with the gun. “Go.”

              Nothing happened.

              “One,” Colin said. “Two…”

              With a growl, Riley took off, charging around the side of the building.

              Colin followed him with the gun’s muzzle. Waited for him to change his mind, to return, to come back with his own gun…

              “Oh God,” Jenny whispered. “Colin…”

              He moved before he was aware of it, caught her against his chest, one arm banded around her. “Baby,” he said, dropping his face into her hair, breathing the heady scent of her shampoo as his eyes lingered at the corner of the building.

              Her arms stole around him and squeezed tight. She shook all over.

              His grip tightened on her. He wanted to wrap around her, enfold her. “It’s okay,” he said. “You’re okay.”

~*~

Jenny

Her hand shook as she raised the glass to her lips. Whatever. She took a long slug of wine and the glass rattled again, as she set it on the bar top.

              “Are you fucking kidding me?” Candy asked.

              Colin answered him: “I wish I was. He said he had business with her.” His dark, gorgeous gaze turned on her. “Any ideas?”

              She shook her head. “No.”

              “He was gonna drag her off to some precinct and try and grill her about us,” Candy said with a snarl.

              “Okay, say that’s true,” Colin said. “Why do that now? Couldn’t he have come after you guys whenever he wanted to?”

              “Yeah, but he isn’t driving this. His brother is.”

              Jenny closed her eyes and tuned them out. She didn’t need to hear the explanation; it was an all-too-familiar nightmare coming to fruition. Jud Riley wasn’t the sort of man to forgive a slight, and what Candy had done to him went leagues beyond that. For revenge and bloodlust alone, he would want to attack the Dogs, and first he would regather his scattered posse of idiots – check – and then use his dirty cop brother in any capacity he could – double check.