Page 121 of Beware of Dog

“I know. But like I said:not now.”

“I can’t believe I’m getting married,” Cass said, and the wonder of it swept over her, as it had been doing all day, in bursts like sea spray, warm and exhilarating.

“Me neither,” Raven said, and shook her head. “How did your mum take it?”

Cass frowned as she thought back on the phone conversation she’d had with her mother earlier today. Emily McElroy had been a next-door sort of beautiful in her heyday, when Devin first seduced her. Hourglass-shaped, hair thick and lustrous, big green eyes, dimples. “God bless her,” Devin had said once, when Cass was about seven, “not a thought between her ears, but she’s damned sweet.” Cass hadn’t understood what that meant until later, but by the time she was old enough to resent the statement, she was also old enough to understand the truth of it.

Her mother wasn’t stupid; she’d never thought that. In fact, she was a terribly good nurse who could rattle off stats and medication dosages in her sleep. But in her personal life, she was the too-trusting, too-sweet sort of friend and girlfriend who got walked all over and didn’t even resent it. Of all Devin’s trysts, Emily was the one who would always welcome him readily back into her home and bed, and never seemed to resent him for his free-wheeling habits.

“Oh,” she’d said, after Cass had carefully explained that she was in love with an American man, and that she was going to marry him in a matter of days. “Oh, well, that’s…that’s wonderful, sweetheart. I’m sure he’s lovely.”

Cass sighed now. “I could tell she was crying. She wants to come.”

“I assumed she would. I told Tommy to make sure she arrives safely.”

“Do you think she’ll like Shep?”

“Well.” Raven shrugged. “She likesDad.”

They both grinned.

A key jangled in the front door lock, and they turned as the guys trooped in from the foyer. Toly led the way, shrugging out of his jacket and cut, his expression neutral, which Cass took as a hopeful sign.

But then Shep charged around him, headed straight for her, his face lined with tension. His dark eyes were big, and worried, forehead stacked with lines.

“You okay?” he asked as he rounded the couch. “Are you—” He paused in the act of bending down, and she didn’t know if he’d meant to kiss her, or pick her up, or cover her with his body like a shield, but he pulled up short when he saw Nat in her arms. “Oh,” he said, at a loss.

She smiled, because she knew he needed her to, but what she wanted to do was wrap her arms around his head and pull it down onto her shoulder. “I’m fine. How’d it go?”

“As good as we could expect,” Toly said, and leaned over the back of the couch, hands cupped and ready.

Cass handed Nat to him, and when he’d straightened, and her arms were empty, Shep crowded in close and put both arms around her waist. Half-hauled her into his lap, heedless of others watching, and hooked his chin on her shoulder. His breath was hot and too-quick against her throat.

“Frank,” she murmured, shifting enough so she could stroke a hand through his thick, helmet-flattened hair. “What is it?”

He squeezed her tight, and then exhaled, and eased up.

Cass swung her legs over so she was sitting properly on his thighs, and could look at his face, which was twisted up with unhappiness. “Shep,” she said, stroking his hair again.

He stared at a snag on her sweatpants; fiddled with it, plucking loose threads between his fingers. “Blackmon paid Tres Diablos to scare your friend.”

She raked her nails along his scalp, and he shivered. “Yeah, we figured that,” she said, gently. He wasvibrating.

“He offered—he offered a bonus if they—got to you.”

“Well. That’s not surprising.” Her breath shivered, though. “They…” She trailed off when he shook his head and refused to meet her gaze.

Got to you, she figured, could mean only one thing, and it was something he didn’t want to voice, and she didn’t want to think about.

She glanced over at Toly, who was cradling Nat and shaking his head, slightly.Don’t make him say it, his look said, brimming with sympathy, and she knew that Shep wasbadlyrattled if even Toly felt sorry for him.

She turned back to Shep; curled a longish piece of hair at his crown around her index finger. “But Mav and Prince reasoned with them, didn’t they?”

Shep sighed, and leaned into the tug of her finger, one arm slinging around her waist and dragging her a few inches closer up his thighs. “Mav paid them. Bought out the contract.”

“He overpaid them,” Toly added. “They have no reason to do anything else. And Mav laid it out very clearly for them what would happen if they touched you.”

Cass nodded, and shivered. “Okay. That’s…that’s good.”

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