Page 69 of Edge of Danger

He caught her gasp since she was lying right next to him, but he prayed the others hadn’t. She turned her head to stare at him intently. God, he could see the wheels turning in her head.

Moment of truth. Would she back up his legend, or roll on him and give him up to her family? He stared at her grimly in the flickering light, awaiting her next move.

She extended her hand to grab his and give it a squeeze. “Can we please get up off the floor? It’s cold.”

Dammit, what was she going to do? Go along or give him up? He was hoisted to his feet, and to buy time he made a production of brushing himself off. He looked over at her expectantly. This was either going to go very well or very badly in the next few seconds.

Piper took a step closer to him and slipped her hand into the crook of his elbow. “Dad, this is Ian Smith, your new-son-in-law. Ian, meet my father, Joseph Brothers.”

He breathed a partial mental sigh of relief. Now for the second hurdle. Would Daddy Dearest buy it? Brothers stared at him hard, like he was examining the interior of Ian’s soul, for a long minute.

Then, abruptly, Brothers boomed, “Well, let’s quit standing around here and get acquainted!”

Piper’s hand tightened convulsively around his arm. She was as tense as he was. Of course, the nutballs weren’t nearly so likely to blowherhead off with all those shotguns pointed this way. Speaking of which, the shotguns started parking over shoulders and relaxing along thighs. Praise God. For a minute there, he’d thought they were toast.

Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy. He’dknownsomething was weird about Piper and the PHP. His instincts had been shouting it at him from the very beginning, but he’d been so besotted with her in the sack that he’d let sex distract him from digging for the truth.

God, to think he’d almost been done in by a woman. His siblings would laugh their heads off if they ever found out. He’d always been the stoic one. The one who never mixed women and work.

Of course, Piper could still do him in. They weren’t clear of this compound, yet. And they still didn’t know what the PHP guys had to do with the Scientist. Why had Brothers and his partner-in-crime burned Abahdi’s lab down for him?

Piper kept her hand tucked under his arm as they were herded toward the big, central gathering building inside the log fort. Lanterns were lit around the room and embers in the big fireplace stoked to life. Lawn chairs and wooden stools were pulled into a rough circle in front of the hearth.

“Sit, boy. Tell me about yourself,” Brothers ordered.

Jesus. Their legends weren’t built for this kind of personal interrogation. Ian glanced over at Piper for help. Thankfully, she picked up the ball he lobbed into her court.

She laughed a little as she said, “We met at a firing range.”

“Hell of a shooter, your daughter,” Ian added sincerely. “Did you teach her?”

Brothers leaned back in his chair and stroked his mutton chops while studying Ian shrewdly. “I did. What was she shooting?”

Ian glanced sidelong at Piper and caught her infinitesimal nod out of the corner of his eye. “As I recall, it was a modified Sig 550 sniper rig.”

“Still target shooting, are you, Pipes?” Brothers asked.

“I won a couple of competitions last year,” she replied. “Ian’s a decent shot, too.”

He allowed his mental snort to escape his throat. Decent? He was a military sniper, for god’s sake.

“Oh yeah? What do you shoot?” His father-in-law skewered him with a sharp stare.

“Pretty much anything, sir.”

Silence reigned as Brothers scowled at him. The fire crackled gently as the newly added wood started to catch fire.

God, this was awkward. The man was no doubt sitting there picturing all the filthy things Ian was doing to his daughter in bed. Worse, the man would not be wrong. This was exactly why Ian had no interest in getting married for real. His own family was hassle enough. He bloody well didn’t need to inherit more nosy relatives.

“What are your political beliefs?” Brothers fired at him.

Holy shit. Loaded question. “Pretty conservative, I guess. Piper’s told me a little about the Patrick Henry Patriots.”

“She tell you we have horns on our heads and belong in rubber rooms?”

“Not in so many words, sir,” Ian answered dryly.

Brothers laughed heartily. Without warning, though, he waxed serious. Intense. “Why’d you break into my shop, boy?”

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