Dawg could only shake his head. “Timothy and Chaya are right, Natches. As long we’re alive and living here, DHS or some other American alphabet agency is going to play games with us for the simple fact that they know we love our homes, our families, and our country too much to stand back and just protect our own asses. And if they get the urge to demand more from us, they can always threaten our family’s freedom to ensure they get it. We have too much at stake and too much to lose not to do this now, while we have the chance.”
“And you really think Brogan will ensure that it happens?” Rowdy muttered, unconvinced.
“He ensured that he had his own agreement and compensatory package before ever agreeing to work with Timothy Cranston and Chatham Doogan.” He shrugged. “And I know Director Bryce. He wants the gold. He has no idea it’s been found, and that’s been okay until now, because he wants those traitors more. They’ve been a thorn in his side since before DHS existed. I think this is the best chance we have.”
“Think Eve’s going to forgive you for playing these games with her?” Natches asked quietly, compassionately. “You should have talked to us, cuz. Told us what was going on. We work better together, remember?”
Dawg turned away from his cousin’s too-perceptive gaze to stare into the beauty of the mountains for one long moment. When he turned back, he took a shaky breath and said, “If she can’t forgive me, she’ll need you and Rowdy. I couldn’t chance her hating all of us. She’s too much of a Mackay, Natches. Too much pride, too much spirit and fire, and when she hurts, she hurts too deep. I didn’t want her hurting and feeling she didn’t have one of us to come to.”
Natches breathed out roughly and gave his head a hard shake.
“It doesn’t work that way, Dawg.” It was Rowdy that chastised him quietly. “She wouldn’t come to us. She’ll go to our wives. And that’s okay, because that’s what makes them strong. They’ll always have each other, and they’ll never be alone if the unthinkable ever happens and we’re not there anymore. And we have each other, Dawg. Our ladies take care of home and hearth, our babies and our hearts. We keep their lives, their families, friends, and homes safe. We do that together. No more hiding things, you got that?”
“I got that.” He gave a hard, sharp nod of his head.
“What about Eve, Dawg?” Natches asked again.
Dawg knew he wasn’t repeating his earlier question, but that earlier question was all Dawg could consider.
Would Eve forgive him?
Dawg’s lips tightened. Shaking his head, he strode to the dual-cab pickup he’d driven in, and stepped into the driver’s seat without answering.
He didn’t have an answer because he simply didn’t know.
What did he know?
If it were him, he knew he wouldn’t forgive—no matter the reason, the explanation, or the circumstances. He wouldn’t want platitudes and promises of protection. He’d want the trust and the ability to choose his own path and his own protection. And he knew Eve was often far too much like him and his cousins, just as the other girls were.
There was a chance, a very good chance, that she might never forgive any of them.
SIXTEEN
A week later, Eve entered the backyard of Ray and Maria Mackay’s farmhouse and stared around at the gathering of family, relations, and scattered friends.
This year there were nearly a hundred family members who had confirmed attendance at the Mackay family reunion, and it looked as though every one of them had shown up.
The reunion was a yearly endeavor Ray and Maria—Grandpa Ray and Grandma Maria—had begun insisting on the year Rowdy and Kelly had become engaged. As he had explained it to his son and nephews, as children came, they would need traditions. And his “boys”—who comprised his own son as well as his two nephews—well, their children deserved a far better life than their father had had.
Not that Rowdy’s life had been too hard, as Eve heard it. He’d had Ray, and then, once Ray had married Maria, he’d had a mother. The stories she’d heard of Rowdy’s mother had never been pleasant, but there was no doubt Maria had loved Ray’s son.
Just as Ray had taken her daughter, Kelly, in and loved her.
Eve had always found it amusing that Rowdy and Kelly had lived in the same house for so many years and then ended up married.
But Grandpa Ray had bragged that his boy, his Rowdy, hadn’t been base or without honor. When his son had realized he was feeling things for Kelly, Rowdy had moved out. And even before he’d realized he was falling in love with her, Rowdy had made certain he’d taken care of her, his father bragged.
Once Rowdy and Kelly became engaged, Ray had begun the family reunions, even though the first “reunions” were only him, Maria, Kelly, Rowdy, Dawg,
and Natches.
He said kids needed traditions. They needed to know and understand family.
Christmas, New Year’s, church on Easter morning, then the egg hunt before dinner once the girls had been born. Ray made certain each holiday was celebrated for the meaning it was intended by the family, with the family. And every June, there was the Mackay family reunion.
That Saturday, Eve had no choice but to slow down, take a day off, and show up at Grandpa and Grandma’s farm. The reunion had begun as a meal, and had turned into a daylong circus as years had gone by.
It was a day Eve and her family looked forward to every year. And each year it had only grown. With Dayle Mackay, Nadine and her son, Johnny Grace’s, deaths eight years before, the separation of Ray, Dawg, Rowdy, and Natches from their relations had ended. Now, all the Mackay relations and their families had begun showing up. Among them were the Augusts from Madison, Texas—Cade, Brock, and Sam August—along with their wives and children.