Hell, he hadn’t even kissed her. He’d just pushed her against the damned wall and fucked her like he was dying.

Resting his elbows on his knees, he wiped his hands over his face and tried to make sense of the emotions ripping him apart. This was why he tried to stay away from her. He was damned if he could sort through everything she made him feel, and all the regrets he’d fought to bury when he’d buried his baby girl.

Just the thought of walking away from Zoey tore him apart.

She was too damned innocent, too damned sweet for the likes of him, and he knew it. And still, he hadn’t been able to walk away from her. Hadn’t been able to stay away from her.

And he was beginning to fear that might well be the only way to protect her.

—

Dragging herself out the shower, Zoey quickly dried her hair before braiding it, then pulling on a pair of shorts and a T-shirt to sleep in. She didn’t expect Doogan to be up anytime soon. Hell, she didn’t really expect him to be up at all. He was too busy trying to find all the reasons why he shouldn’t be with her to see all the reasons why he should be. And Zoey could have fought anything or anyone else to be with him, but him. At this point, she wasn’t going to fight him for it.

Leaving the bedroom, she had every intention of dipping into a bottle of wine and turning on some sappy, romantic tearjerker. She made it halfway across the living room when she came to a slow, stomach-churning stop.

“Well, it was hard enough getting in here.” The voice was pleasant enough; the expression was pure evil, though.

Smiling, the emerald-green eyes were like ice, his expression all the more dangerous for the amused derision in his gaze.

“Dawg’s baby sister,” he sneered, the dull gleam of the gun he held on her terrifying. “I had such plans for you and Dawg. Rigsby was so certain that drug would work.” Fury flashed in his gaze. “All he was concerned with was that pact. All I was concerned with was seeing you in prison and Dawg suffering.”

Luther Jennings looked like his father, except for the eyes. The odd brilliancy to the green eyes marked Mackay blood. He had that. The eyes would have actually been pretty, if they weren’t so marred by hatred.

“You look like his daughter.” He stepped fully from the corner of the room where he’d been standing, his head tilted to the side thoughtfully. “I want you to know, that actually made this harder. For some reason, striking at a child revealed a conscience I wasn’t aware I possessed. Though it would have been easier to mess with Laken’s young mind, I guess.”

Zoey could feel the oily, noxious feel of the terror she’d felt that night washing over her now. She remembered his threat to rape Laken, to hurt her.

“You won’t get away with this, Luther,” she warned him, stepping back, trying to get as close as possible to the metal steps leading to the ground floor.

Doogan was still in the gym. He would hear Luther if she could just get him closer to the entrance to the room where she’d left Doogan.

Luther smiled in vicious amusement. “Your boyfriend left. Pissed him off, did you?”

“What are you talking about?” Doogan hadn’t left. He wouldn’t have left her there alone. And even if he’d had to, he would have told her first.

“Chatham Doogan,” he answered, his voice filled with contempt. “He left. I watched him slip from the back entrance. Didn’t he tell you he was leaving?”

He hadn’t.

Why would he leave her alone?

She couldn’t conceive that he’d actually desert her. Or that he’d slip away without even warning her.

“No,” she finally answered, still backing away from Luther. “He didn’t tell me.”

He wouldn’t have done it. That just wasn’t Doogan. He was too protective, and he cared too much for her. He might not love her, but she meant something to him, she knew she did.

“Keep trying to run, little rabbit.” He laughed at her with a low, evil chortle. “There’s no way to escape, you know. The security system won’t work now until I release it. And I won’t release it until I kill you.”

Yeah. Right. Eli had created that security system for her and he’d thought of that. There was a safeguard. A simple, quick release of the locks that had nothing to do with the electronics. It was a safeguard only she and Eli were aware of.

“Just to hurt Dawg.” She shook her head at the knowledge that anyone could be so vicious. So utterly merciless and evil.

“Just to hurt Dawg,” he agreed, hatred flashing across his expression. “Just because he’s the reason my father was killed, the reason my grandfather was killed. If that bitch Chandler Mackay was married to hadn’t been so conniving, then my father and my uncle would have had the inheritance they deserved. It should have belonged to my father.”

The child of an incestuous relationship. Johnny Grace’s parents had been Dawg’s father and his aunt, Nadine Mackay Grace. And after Chandler’s death, she had been her other brother’s lover as well. Some said the two brothers shared her before Chandler died in a fiery vehicle accident.

“That wasn’t Dawg’s fault, nor was it mine,” she tried to point out logically, working her way slowly around the dining room table.

“It was Dawg’s fault my father was killed,” he sneered, watching her carefully, like a jackal moving in for the kill. “Natches killed my father to save Dawg and his whore wife. He didn’t give him a chance to live, didn’t give me a chance to know him.” Rage filled his voice. “He didn’t have to kill him.”

Johnny Grace would have never stopped. Leaving him alive would have ensured that Dawg and Christa faced the same danger later. And possibly Natches and Rowdy as well. Johnny’s hatred was just as deep and just as all-consuming as Luther’s was.

“And who will you blame for killing me, Luther?” she cried, as though fear were getting the better of her. “There’s no one here to brainwash. No one to take the fall for killing me.”

“But you’ll still be dead,” he snarled, his lips drawing back from his teeth, the dark blond of his hair falling over his forehead carelessly as he gave his head an enraged shake. “It doesn’t matter who takes the blame or if no one does. You’ll be dead, Zoey.”

“Because I’m the only one you could get to?” Just a little farther.

She just had to get closer to the end of the table.

Luther laughed at the accusation. “You were easy, I’ll admit. As I said, though, Laken would have been easier, but no challenge. She’s just a child, after all. What challenge would a kid be?”

He lifted the gun, aiming it at her heart. “Stay still, Zoey. Let’s not make this more difficult than it has to be.”

The utter ridiculousness of the statement astounded her.

“What? You want me to make killing me easy for you?” She questioned him incredulously. “Are you serious, Luther?”

He frowned at the question. “I’m actually very serious. There’s no need to make this harder on both of us. You’ll only upset me and cause me to hurt you further. There’s no need for that.”

She blinked back at him. Standing completely still, Zoey tilted her head and frowned back at him. “Were your parents siblings as well? Because that’s completely crazy.”

A dark, heavy flush washed from his neck to his hairline as fury snapped into his gaze and contorted his expression.

“I’m not crazy,” he yelled, his tone defensive, so much so that she guessed she must have hit a nerve. “You didn’t even know who I was. No one knew who I was.”

She had to laugh at that. “Luther, everyone knows who was behind what happened to me last year, just as they know what you tried to do. Did you actually believe Rigsby could make me stay silent about it?”

“No . . .”

“He told every secret the two of you thought you could keep.” Lifting her arms from her sides, she watched his gaze jerk to the movement. “I didn’t forget it, as he told you I would. All his bragging ensured you would fail. Why do you think he tried to kill me?”