An exasperated curse sounded behind her.

“Dammit, this doesn’t feel right,” Kevin muttered. “What are you doing?”

“Looking for my mother, evidently,” she muttered, starting down the stairs.

“Get the hell out of the way.” Gently, but firmly, she was pushed aside as the much taller soldier, dressed in fatigues and a T-shirt, moved ahead of her.

Trailing behind him, knowing Dawg and Natches waited below, she was still shocked at how quickly it happened. Before she could blink, Graham had the other man against the wall at the bottom of the stairs, a wicked, too-sharp blade at his throat as Dawg and Natches moved behind him.

“Hello, Davis.” Graham’s voice was cold, hard, his expression savage. “You don’t look near as dead as I heard you were.”

Kevin’s gaze moved to hers, slowly, deliberately as his hard lips quirked just a bit. “Very good, Ms. Mackay,” he murmured. “Very, very good.”

“Where’s my family?” Lyrica kept her voice low, but there was no hiding the anger that filled it.

Frustration flashed in his eyes, savagery shadowing them as he stared back at Graham in sudden fury.

“Where’s my fiancée?” he growled.

—

Where was his fiancée?

What the fuck was going on here?

Graham glanced up the stairs to where Lyrica stood, her gaze thoughtful, her body tense, prepared for whatever else may happen.

“Well, it appears the gang’s all here.” A new voice entered the fray, one that had Graham, Natches, and Dawg turning quickly to face a threat they had never expected.

Jimmy Dorne.

He was leaning against the doorway to the guest living room, cradling one of the short, thick-barreled automatic weapons used by the security company he once worked for.

“Come on now, Lyrica.” He waved her down the stairs. “Come chat with us, before I kill your boyfriend in front of your eyes.”

His blond hair was still cut short, so short he may as well have just shaved it and gotten it over with. Cold, pale blue eyes watched them with amused intent.

Thin lips tilted into a jeering smile as he sniffed in disdain, giving the thick, once-broken bridge of his nose a heavily flared appearance. With flat cheekbones and narrow eyes, he was a man Graham had never been able to trust.

From the corner of his eye Graham could see Lyrica coming down the stairs silently, eyes wide, her face brutally white as she met his gaze.

God help him.

He could feel the rage simmering inside him, building to a force he wasn’t certain he could control. Every instinct, every fucking urge he harbored inside himself was screaming at him to do something, to do something now.

“Dorne,” Davis growled, fury filling his voice as Lyrica came down the last step. “Where is Carmina?”

The question seemed to distract Dorne for the moment, allowing Lyrica to ease in between Graham and Dawg.

Dorne gave a low, jeering laugh before glancing to his side. “Carmina.” He called her name softly.

She stepped from behind him, dressed in the black mission suit she’d worn on the lake. Graham recognized her figure now, and the black, snug suit minus the heavy vest that had disguised her breasts that day.

Graham glanced at Davis. The other man wasn’t an idiot. There were no protestations, no disbelief.

“Why?” The question was simple and to the point. But the sound of his voice displayed the betrayal raging through him. A betrayal Graham was certain wasn’t feigned.

Pouty red lips formed a little sneer as derision filled Carmina’s brown eyes. “You were a means to an end,” she said in answer. “I needed a reason to be here, and we needed someone to take the fall for little Lyrica’s death. It was a simple enough plan until Graham decided to hide her away so effectively.” She stared around the foyer, frowning.

“Why me?” Davis’s question had her watching him for a long, thoughtful moment.

“Because you were the missing link to Betts.” She shrugged. “I knew how easy it would be to make it appear you had killed Lyrica and her family in retaliation for my sister’s death.”

He was shaking his head as she spoke.

“What?” Her eyes narrowed at the smirk pulling at his lips.

“That wasn’t going to happen,” he told her softly.

“And why wouldn’t it happen?” She snarled. “You’re simply pissed I fooled you.”

“That’s true enough. I had no idea Betts even had a sister,” he agreed. “But your plan wouldn’t have worked because after Betts’s death, the rumor of my death was begun so I could track him.” He nodded toward Dorne. “I was part of army intelligence before Betts ever pulled me onto her team. Every time I’ve arrived here, I was on leave from my team and our search for Dorne.”

“How interesting,” she laughed. “But it doesn’t matter either way. The proof of your intent will be found and no one will look further. There will be no one alive to question anyway.”

Graham eased Lyrica slowly behind him as Natches and Dawg drew closer to help shelter her. She was too fragile, he thought helplessly. Too damned easy to hurt.

Too fucking easy to lose, and he hadn’t even told her how imperative it was that he not lose her.

—

Lyrica couldn’t fight them and she didn’t dare risk it as she was slowly, firmly pushed behind the men. It gave her the chance she needed to slip the weapon from the back of her jeans and slide it into the back of Graham’s.

He tensed at the feel of it, and then Kevin Davis was drawing her back as well, placing his body beside Graham’s as the four men created a wall between her and the danger.

“So protective,” Carmina murmured, flicking Dawg a look that assured Lyrica the woman was seriously underestimating not just her brother and cousin but Graham as well. “Too bad you and your cousins are all but old men now. Not hardly in your prime any longer, are you, Dawg? And once we have the four of you nicely bound, you’ll have to trust our tender mercy where she’s concerned, I’m afraid.” She shot Lyrica a mocking little wink.

“I ain’t as good as I once was,” Natches murmured, the line coming from a favorite country music song. “But I’m as good once as I ever was.” Natches was fond of repeating the song’s title line. He may not have the stamina, but he sure as hell had experience.

Carmina sniffed at the reference. “Get them with the others,” she ordered Dorne, the order causing the tension in the air to rise that much further. “I’ll make certain everything’s ready up here, then we’ll take care of them and leave.”

“She orders you?” Graham said mockingly as a frown brewed on Carmina’s smooth brow.

Lyrica could see the other woman’s uncertainty, and her anger. She hadn’t expected the men to arrive. She’d only expected Lyrica.

“Betts was head of the team before.” Dorne chuckled, the lazy unconcern drawing another sharp look from Carmina. “Her sister’s doing a damned fine job of taking her place.”

Carmina was paying close attention to this part of the exchange.

“That’s one way to do it.” Graham nodded.

He was baiting Carmina. Lyrica watched the jealousy and anger filling the other woman’s eyes and felt a frisson of alarm as Carmina looked up at Dorne.

“One way to do what?” Carmina snapped, the South American accent missing now.

“To bring back the dead,” Graham stated softly as Lyrica glimpsed the pitying look he gave the other woman as she watched his profile. “He was in love with Betts. Losing her had to hurt. You’re nothing more than second best, Carmina. You don’t look like a woman who accepts second place to me.”

“Shut the fuck up, Graham,” Dorne snapped before Carmina could speak, though the fury brewing in her eyes assured him he’d struck the right nerve. “Don’t make me pull that little bitch of yours free of you right now. I don’t have the time to hurt her properly. Yet.”

A soft bit of static announced the link becoming active once again.