Dammit. Doogan was trouble by himself. Having him and Zoey in the same place was like throwing a match on gasoline. It was guaranteed to start a fire. Or in this situation, a fucking catastrophe.

He couldn’t just remain silent. He had to find a way to tell her cousins or Graham what Zoey was facing. Before she ended up dead.

—

“So who’s interested in Zoey?” Graham watched his wife, his fascination with her as strong now as it ever had been—no, stronger.

Lyrica laughed at his question. “I really have no idea. She hasn’t told me yet.”

But she would, Graham knew. He, Brogan, and Jed were aware of what Lyrica and her sisters’ brother hadn’t seemed to guess yet. The sisters kept very few secrets from each other. Actually they probably kept no secrets from each other.

“And if she tells you?” he asked curiously, watching her expression closely. “Would you tell me?”

She was at least considering the option, he could tell, as her emerald eyes stared back at him thoughtfully.

Taking a seat at the kitchen table, she cradled their son close to her breast and pursed her lips for a moment before speaking.

“Give me the name of one man you know who is not a criminal, but one you’d kill if he became interested in Kyleene. Unmarried, but completely unsuitable.”

“Doogan,” he growled, remembering the other man’s apparent interest in her other sister, Eve, and Brogan Campbell’s reaction to it during the first days of his relationship with Eve.

Lyrica grimaced at the name. “Fine, as much as I dislike him myself. Doogan. If I told you Zoey was seeing Doogan, would you find a way to tell Dawg or someone who would tell him?”

Graham had to admit she had a point. “Probably,” he sighed. “I know Doogan. He’d break Zoey. Hell, he’d break any woman with a heart.”

“And I wouldn’t want you in a position where you felt you had to look out for her emotional safety,” she sighed. “Besides. Eve, Piper, Zoey, and I swore to each other, unless it was life or death, we’d never tell anyone, even Momma, certain things. So if Zoey is seeing someone, no matter who it is, I can’t tell you. She’s my sister, Graham, and I swore. She kept my interest in you a secret even when Dawg all but interrogated her. If she hadn’t, Dawg would have tried to stand in my way every time Kyleene invited me here to the house.”

And if he had, Graham knew, then Dawg might have kept them apart far longer than Graham’s own ignorance had.

“They just wanted your safety,” he sighed. “Each of you has been at risk for one reason or another. It would kill them if anything happened to any of you.”

The mocking smile she shot him had his brows lifting curiously.

“Rowdy once said if we wanted to have a relationship without interference, then choose a nice, safe man to have a relationship with,” she revealed. “When I told Zoey that last year, she tried them on it. Stanley Kelly, the accountant in town? Remember him?”

Graham grimaced. Stanley was a boring little man but definitely a safe one.

Lyrica laughed at his expression. “Stanley left town for nearly a month when Rowdy informed him he wasn’t good enough for Zoey. When she protested, he laughed and told her to find a man he couldn’t frighten away. Then told her Stanley peed himself that day. Zoey felt horrible. She and Stanley were actually friends. He won’t even speak to her now.” Humor filled her eyes. “Kyleene thinks Dawg and the cousins do all this crap to ensure that the men we’re with love us and will protect us. But Zoey, of all of us, will not tolerate it, Graham. Better yet, she’ll make damned sure they don’t find out until she’s been married a year and ready to have that first child.” Lyrica laughed, then sobered. “That or she’ll just leave us and go far enough away that they can’t interfere, period. And that would break all our hearts.”

He didn’t know about what Zoey would do, but he did know that the Mackays, Timothy Cranston, and several of their friends were definitely involved in manipulating the sisters into the arms of the men they’d chosen for them. And he knew the candidate they had in mind for Zoey didn’t have a hope of keeping up with her.

“Do you think Zoey would actually keep a relationship hidden that long?” She’d be smart to do just that, he thought, amused.

“I hope she doesn’t,” Lyrica revealed with a heavy sigh. “We’ve been keeping the wedding gown Piper finished for her a secret for years. Eve and I both agreed Zoey deserved the only gown Piper would have time to dedicate herself to. And it is a fairy-tale dream. A fairy tale Zoey painted years ago. I’d cry if she didn’t get to wear it.”

The Mackay sisters were hopeless romantics, Graham knew. He just hoped the man Zoey eventually fell in love with would be just as romantic.

Maybe he should have a talk with Billy Ray and his stepbrother, which would effectively keep Eli from Zoey’s vengeance. Billy and Jack Clay were Zoey’s co-conspirators. They gave her a chance to hit that adrenaline high and kept her from getting hurt while she did it. Not that she’d hurt Eli if he told, but she was damned picky about loyalty; Lyrica wasn’t lying about that. Zoey would expect Graham to poke his nose in, though.

“Don’t do it, Graham.” His wife watched him with a knowing, somber gaze. “Don’t put that between me and my sister. If you find out anything and she learns you told anyone but me, then that will always be there between us. If Dawg destroys a relationship that means something to her, she will never forgive her brother. Please, let it go.”

Please.

He let out a hard breath and gave her a slow, accepting nod.

“But.” She grinned. “If you find out who it is by accident before I do, you can tell me. I’ll keep your secrets, hot stuff. You can trust me.”

That was his wife.

God, he loved her . . .

SEVEN

Zoey was in the front garage when Lyrica drove up to the open bay doors. Stepping from her pickup, her sister shot her a chiding smile.

“I want to grow up and be you,” Lyrica laughed as they headed for the steps leading to the second floor of the converted warehouse. “Especially after seeing how totally scared you have Eli of you. I swear, he’s like a grumpy rattler.”

“Eli’s having issues,” Zoey snorted. “And he better keep his mouth shut.”

“Oh, he’ll keep it shut,” Lyrica promised without turning back. “But it’s killing him.” The second Lyrica actually got a look straight at her, Zoey knew there would be no evading her sister’s questions. The bite mark she was sporting at the base of her neck was rivaled only by the one she’d left on Doogan’s neck.

She’d glimpsed the one she left on Doogan before exhaustion dragged her into sleep the night before. The one he’d left on her was just as bad.

Reaching the door, Lyrica stepped through ahead of Zoey, then came to a hard, shocked stop, nearly causing Zoey to plow into her back.

Not that she blamed her sister; Zoey was suddenly rather speechless herself.

Doogan stood in the middle of her kitchen with nothing but a towel secured at his lean hips and the hickey from hell marring the right side of his neck, incredibly close to his jugular vein. He was obviously headed back to her bedroom with a cup of coffee.

His dark hair was damp; sunlight gleamed across the dark strands, picking up lighter highlights that she hadn’t noticed the night before. Tight, taut abs tightened above the towel while the light mat of hair on his chest looked far too inviting.

“Well, hell.” He frowned, his brown eyes cool as his gaze slid from Lyrica to Zoey, regret flickering in his gaze. “I thought you were alone, Zoey. I’m sorry.”

“Oh my God. Oh my God,” Lyrica whispered, waving her hands in front of her face as she stared at him, eyes wide. “Dawg’s gonna have pups when he finds out about this. Doogan, you can’t . . .”