Torn apart inside. Unable to sleep or eat or care.
“That you’d see we were meant to be together. That you’d find out you wanted me.” There was hurt in his voice. Pain.
That took her breath away. His pain. She could feel it now. Sharp. Terrible. “Of course I wanted you, Mack. We never had a problem with wanting each other. It’s the
Something flickered in the depths of his eyes and her stomach flipped. She caught a glimpse of his anger. Deep. Bone deep. The way he said she was wrapped inside of him. She’d never been afraid of Mack, not even for a small instant. Sometimes the intensity of their lovemaking scared her, but never Mack.
“Work it out with me, Jaimie.”
How could she hold her ground with him? He’d always managed to do this to her. He overwhelmed her and she gave in and nothing changed between them. “I’ll try, Mack,” she whispered, feeling like she was giving him her soul. He found her mouth and took her. That easily. He tasted of male and sex. A sinful pleasure that streaked like lightning through her veins, sizzling, taking her breath. She knew what he meant when he called her an addiction. That was what he was to her. She craved him, the taste and scent of him, the feel of him. His laughter and his strength. He was everything to her. He always would be.
“What am I to you?” she murmured against his mouth.
The words shimmered in her mind. A blanket of resentment. A wealth of possession. She couldn’t find love. If he let himself think it, he didn’t acknowledge it. If he let himself feel it, he refused to show her. Anger. He was so angry. Jaimie pushed at his chest. “We’d better go.”
Mack stepped back away from her, out of the light and into the shadows where she couldn’t see his face. Where she couldn’t see his body tremble or his hands shake. Tiny red dots appeared, clustered over Mack’s heart on his bare chest. A second cluster appeared centered between his eyes. Jaimie gasped and froze. Mack stilled, one hand sliding under his shirt at the small of his back as he looked up. Eight grimfaced men stared at him from across the room, guns drawn and aimed.
“You want to tell me what you’re doing with our sister?” Ethan demanded.
“Because it doesn’t look good from where I’m standing.”
Mack let his breath out. “That’s not funny. I could have shot you.”
“Yeah, well, take your hand out from under that shirt really slow Mack,” Kane said. “Jaimie, you take a step away from him.”
Color swept up Jaimie’s neck and into her face. “Are you all crazy? Put your guns away and stop fooling around.”
“Poor choice of words, Jaimie,” Javier said. “I think there’s been enough fooling around. We aren’t fooling. No one, not even Mack, is going to mess with our sister and get away with it.”
“No one stopped him when we were living together,” Jaimie pointed out, jerking her head up, eyes narrowing dangerously. Her riot of curls went flying in all directions. Usually that was enough to get them all under control, but the guns held rock steady.
“We thought his intentions were honorable back then,” Marc said.
“We just got you back,” Lucas added.
They all nodded in agreement.
Kane indicated for her to move with his gun. “Get away from him, Jaimie. He doesn’t get to lead you on and walk away free.”
“You aren’t going to shoot him,” she said firmly, but she didn’t sound too sure.
“No, but we’re going to beat the hell out of him,” Jacob said. “Go on upstairs while we take care of this.”
“Go on upstairs, Jaimie,” Mack agreed quietly.
“What century are you all living in?” Jaimie demanded. “This isn’t funny. It’s not like any of you…”
“Not with our sister, we don’t,” Javier snapped. “Get away from him, Jaimie. I mean it. Go upstairs.”
“You’re serious.”
“He doesn’t get to touch you unless his intentions are strictly honorable.”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake.” Jaimie stepped in front of Mack. “You’ve all lost your minds.”
Mack put her gently aside. “You can try to beat the crap out of me, boys, but none of you are that good.” He flexed his shoulders.
“Put your weapons up right this minute,” Jaimie demanded. When no one did, she put both hands on her hips, trying to be seen around Mack’s large frame. “This is my house and you’re being disrespectful.”
“He’s being disrespectful,” Kane said.
“For your information, and it’s none of your business, I seduced him, not the other way around. You’re pointing your guns at the wrong person.”
The men looked at one another.
“Is that true, boss?” Lucas asked.
“It fucking doesn’t matter. You all made one hell of a mistake tonight.” Mack’s voice was ice-cold. “You pulled your weapons with Jaimie in the line of fire. You want a piece of me, come get it, but before you do, holster your weapons, and you can all consider that a fucking order.”
His low tone carried throughout the warehouse, a lethal intent none of them could mistake. Silence fell. Guns disappeared.
Jaimie shivered and laid a hand on Mack’s arm, looking up at his face. His jaw was set, his eyes frozen, glittering chips. He wasn’t joking. There was no humor or amusement. The level of tension in the room went up several notches. He moved so fast he was nearly a blur, without warning, launching into action. He went vertical, lashing out with powerful legs in a left, right leg kick, dropping the two men closest to him. Lucas and Marc went down hard, the sound sickening, indicating Mack wasn’t holding much back.
They’d all seen him like this before, usually over Jaimie, and the remaining men tried to scramble out of harm’s way. Mack was already in motion, coming back to the floor and running two steps up the wall and flipping off it, clearing a ten-foot distance, driving Kane, who had been farthest from him, to the floor.
“Mack, back off,” Javier yelled, crouching low, hands up to face the threat coming from up above. “Someone’s going to get hurt.”
Mack was moving across the ceiling like a spider, his speed incredible, dropping into the center of Ethan, Jacob, and Javier, his leg sweeping out in a spin, knocking them all on their butts. Javier stood up slowly, facing him, palm out as if in appeasement, but he was in a good offensive position.
“I’m going to say we deserved that, Mack, but I’m not good at this kind of discipline. Let’s go eat and call it good.”
“Apologize to Jaimie and we’ll call it good,” Mack said.
“I don’t need…” Jaimie trailed off when Mack shot her a look.
“Mack’s right, Jaimie,” Kane said, from the floor. “It was a dumb joke. If one of us had stumbled, you could have been hurt.”
“Killed,” Mack said. “What the hell have I been teaching you all these years?”
“How to kick the crap out of people?” Ethan muttered under his breath.
CHAPTER 11
“What did you say?” Mack demanded.
Ethan shrugged his shoulders. “Nothing, boss. Nothing at all.”
The men turned and started up the stairs, some walking a little gingerly. Jaimie started after them, but Mack caught her arm, preventing her from moving.
“Where’s Paul?” he asked Kane.
“First floor with Brian.” Kane looked closer. “You’re still itching for a fight. We thought you’d be all mellow after…” He broke off when Mack shot him a look.
“You thought wrong.”
Kane sighed. “Brian has Paul under guard and Javier brought his computer as ordered. You want to fill me
