He was carrying two small bags; one was obviously Eve’s.
“Where the hell do you think you’re going?” Dawg inquired sarcastically.
“Wherever she went,” Brogan informed them ruthlessly as he stalked to the door. “Stay as long as you like. There’s nothing here that’s mine.”
“We didn’t show up here to watch you stalk off, asshole,” Dawg called out as they followed close on his heels until he reached Timothy’s pickup.
“No, you accomplished what you showed up to do,” Brogan informed them, keeping his voice calm. He’d caused Eve enough heartache and pain; he wouldn’t compound it by sending her brother and cousins to the hospital. Not unless they forced him to it.
“Well, there was that,” Dawg agreed with a vein of amusement behind the words. “But that’s not the only reason we’re here.”
“I’m already aware someone tried to break into her room.” Thank God for Eli and Jed. Brogan wasn’t certain Doogan would have told him, if it had been left up to him.
“Well, there was that,” Dawg repeated. “But once again, not the only reason we’re here.”
“Then why the fuck are you here, Dawg?” he snarled back, his hand clenching on the truck door to keep from ramming his fist in the other man’s face.
He’d get the first strike, but he doubted he’d leave unscathed. Then Eve would just be pissed as hell at him. And if he did manage to get her to let him touch her again, he’d be too sore to do much.
Dawg chuckled. “You see that look on his face, Rowdy?”
Rowdy grinned, his arms crossed over his chest, the smile amused and mocking.
“That’s the ‘I’d love to try to kick his ass, but if I do, she’s gonna be too pissed and I’m gonna be too sore to love her later’ look.” Natches snickered knowingly. “I’d tell him to join the club, but he’s not quite paid his dues yet; what do you think?”
Rowdy shook his head. “Nah, not yet. We’ll make him wait awhile just for being a prick about us showing up and all.”
“The three of you are fucking insane.” Brogan moved to step into the truck.
“Pull out before we’re finished and I promise you, I’ll make your life such hell that you’ll beg me to let up on you. And I can do it, Brogan. I promise you I can do it.” Arrogant assurance and self-confidence filled Dawg’s expression as well as his voice.
Brogan gripped the door hard enough that he could feel his knuckles turning white as he glared back at the three men.
“I don’t like your endangering my sister’s life, and if I could have steered her toward some nice, safe, simpleminded little farmer or accountant to ensure her safety, then I would have done it. But you’re what she wants. So I’m trying my damnedest to help you here.”
“You made her promise to stay the hell away from me,” Brogan accused him furiously. “That’s not helping me, Mackay. And that was only after threatening my fucking career if I didn’t stay the hell away from her.”
Rowdy and Natches turned to Dawg incredulously.
Brogan bit back a curse as he just ignored them.
“And I knew damned good and well she wasn’t going to keep that promise.”
The acknowledgment had Brogan narrowing his gaze on the other man.
“Then why do it?”
“Because she’s my sister,” Dawg grumbled irately. “And I needed time to finish what I was doing to protect her before she drew any more attention to the fact that she was most likely the only weakness you had. You weren’t doing anything to keep her out of your bed.”
“But you couldn’t come to me.” Mackay’s arrogance and stubborn independence reminded Brogan of a crazed bull staring at a red flag.
“You’re too close to Doogan. And if you weren’t, then we knew your partners definitely were,” Dawg informed him, his tone hardening. “Until Doogan asks one of us for help, then he’s getting nothing from me that he can use to pull me into his bullshit without a hell of a compensation package, Brogan. You know that bastard as well as I do, and you know damned good and well he’d use us up, then throw us to the wolves when he was finished.”
Brogan had no idea Dawg knew Doogan, let alone that he knew him so well.
“Agreed,” Brogan growled.
“What I’ve done instead is work from where it counts,” Dawg informed him. “That motorcycle touring club is bullshit. A bunch of veterans riding around sightseeing? Give me a fucking break,” he jeered. “I know exactly what it is, what it was started as, and what it will always be now that it’s established. Just as I know there’s not a chance in hell you’re going to be pulled into the inner circle of that group, no matter how long they let you carry that title of ‘leader,’ without our help.”