Grace’s personality, on the other hand, was like Nick’s. She was warm and funny, and obviously adored her father and older cousin, paying rapt attention to everything they said. Jaymee pursed her lips, her usual cynicism questioning the wisdom of that. The teenager definitely needed some female advice regarding men. She wondered how a little girl grew up without a mother, to whom Grace turned when she needed guidance. Perhaps that was why she had this strange adult attitude, even calling her own father by his name. Jaymee couldn’t imagine calling her father “Bob.” She gazed at Jed again, watching him with a touch of disapproval. He didn’t treat his daughter like one at all, asking her opinions about things her own father would never dream of discussing with her at that age. She shook her head—what a strange twosome.
The two men talked quietly in between measuring and sawing and hammering. Jaymee couldn’t quite make out their conversation over the din, as she showed Grace how to pry the trim boards from the walls. “You don’t need to be too careful,” she said, as she gathered the pieces into a pile. “I’m replacing them with new trim.”
Grace proved surprisingly proficient with a hammer. “This is cool, Jay,” she said, as she used the catspaw to pull the nails out. “Are you going to put some fancy moldings? Perhaps up around the ceiling too? That would look like those antique mansions I see on TV.”
Jaymee smiled. “Good suggestion. Maybe you ought to study architecture or designing when you go to college.”
“I’m going to do something that lets me travel all over the world,” the teenager declared, as she pounded down the protruding nails. “There’s so much out there to see, you know?”
Jaymee’s smile turned wistful. The excitement of youth. She’d forgotten how grand the feeling was. “Yes, so much to see and do,” she murmured in agreement. Just don’t get eaten up by bad wolves, little girl. “So, architecture is an option, then? You get to travel and study all the wonderful ancient buildings.”
“I don’t know anything about building. Actually, I like what you do better.”
Jaymee laughed, startled. “You like roofing better? And how’s that going to be part of your world travels plan?”
Grace wiped her face with a dirty hand, smudging her nose and cheek with dust and dirt. Jaymee grinned. She was looking scruffy again. “What use is staring at those structures if I don’t understand the work and sweat put into its making? I don’t want to admire just the building. That’s boring. I want to look at it and see in my mind how they did it, what the builder did to create it, what the laborers worked with. You know how to appreciate that—you know what it takes to build a house. Foundation and structure. Way cool.”
She stared at the younger girl in astonishment. She’d underestimated her. Grace wasn’t as innocent and wild as she looked. “Well, maybe I’ll hire you as a roofer,” she told her.
“It won’t be way cool when you’re dying up on the roof in the heat, Trouble, especially when General Jay is working your butt off,” drawled Nick from the doorway. He’d peeked in to ask for a drink and overheard the last part of the conversation. “Believe me, it’s way hot.”
Grace grinned. “I know. Jed and I had a good time watching you sweat on the roof while we were resting comfortably in the shadows.”
Jaymee frowned at that revelation. “How long have you been watching Nick?”
“At least three days,” replied Nick, strolling in and grabbing a clean plastic cup from a bin.
“You knew?” Jaymee was perplexed. If he had known, how come he didn’t say anything?
He filled his cup with ice water from the five-gallon cooler. “I had a feeling,” he explained.
“Like I pointed out earlier, you’re obviously out of practice, if you just had a feeling.” Jed said softly. He was lounging against the doorjamb. His shirt, like Nick’s, was off. He was, Jaymee nodded, tanned all over. “We could have cancelled you.”
Nick savored the cold water in his mouth, then swallowed. His blue-gray gaze was steady. “Think so?”
Jed just cocked his head, his own gaze unwavering. “I have the element of surprise on my side. And...you were distracted.”
Jaymee dropped her hammer, deliberately obtaining the two men’s attention. She straightened up to her full height of five feet two inches. “I’m a little tired of being out of the loop,” she said, keeping her voice level, “and I am not a distraction to anybody.”
Nick tossed a cup at Jed’s direction, which his cousin caught without even looking, since his strange light eyes were studying Jaymee. “Is she always so blind about herself?” he asked Nick as he headed for the cooler.
“Only about herself,” Nick answered with a grin. “And, she gets you to give her answers, believe me.”
Jed finished his drink and looked back at Nick. “In that case, you’d better think of a way to keep her. If you don’t, I might go for her myself.”
Nick’s eyes narrowed a fraction. “It isn’t like you to poach, cousin,” he said silkily.
Jed headed towards the door. Jaymee, her mouth hanging open at the exchange, noticed flesh-colored scars criss-crossing his back. Walking back out into the back porch, he said over his shoulder, “I’ll do what it takes to keep you on your toes, cousin. I want your switch to be on all the time.” He disappeared outside.
Nick gave a succinct curse, and strode after Jed. “Dammit, Jed, this isn’t a game…”
The sound of Jed’s saw cut through the rest of Nick’s angry words. Jaymee stared at the open door, then looked at Grace, who had a big, amused grin on her lips.
What was all that about?” she asked. Surely, Jed didn’t say what she thought he said.
Grace arched an eyebrow. “That was testosterone talking.”
Jaymee looked incredulous for a moment, then burst out laughing. “I think it’s dangerous!”
“Quite potent,” agreed Grace. “I don’t think I’ve seen Jed and Kill at each other like that in a long time.”
Somehow, that didn’t sound very comforting. Better change the subject. “Tell me, Grace, why do you call your father by his name, but Nick is sometimes Cousin Kill? It’s strange.”
“Jed--Dad--wants me to,” explained Grace, twirling a pigtail. “Safer, if less people know how we’re related. Kill’s just a cool nickname. His buddies call him that sometimes and I picked it up. He calls me Gracie.”
Jaymee frowned. “This is really serious, isn’t it, this thing with your training and the relationship between your dad and you?"
Grace met her troubled gaze with mocking brown eyes. “Your relationship with Nick is just as serious, you know, Jay.”
“How so?” Jaymee bent and picked up the hammer she’d dropped.
“Why do you think Jed is testing Killian? He wants to see how far he can push him.”
That was enough to make Jaymee paused in mid-pull of a nail. “I think you lost me on that one. Why would Jed be testing Killian?”
“Because he wants to see how important you are to him, silly,” Grace sighed, as if she was wondering at her inexperience with men. “He wants Kill to acknowledge you’re important, like I am to him.”
“Why?” Jaymee wondered whether there would ever be a time when she didn’t have any questions about Nick and his relatives.
“Because it’s going to get you or Killian killed. See? Distraction leads to carelessness, which leads to being possible targets, and right now, Killian is a target, if whoever is after Dad’s unit knows he’s still alive.”
Jaymee saw the logic behind it, but still couldn’t believe she—boring, dependable Jaymee Barrows—could possibly be involved with people who talked about being targets like it was an everyday occurrence. “You mean,” she managed to calmly word out her fears, “since he was a target, then I’d be one too, like you are, because of your relationship to Jed.”
No wonder Nick wanted to leave as soon as possible. She understood it now.
“Yeah, but since they don’t know Kill’s still alive, you’re pretty safe r
ight now,” assured the teenager.
“But Jed doesn’t want Nick’s guard down,” Jaymee ventured a guess.
“Righto, and Kill’s failing the test.”
“How so?”
Grace sighed again. “Jay, you’re really blind. Instead of ignoring Dad just now, Kill is out there fighting with him! Basic evasive tactic for Viruses—submerge when being tested.”
“Wait a minute, wait a minute.” Jaymee threw up her hands in exasperation. “You’re losing me again. First, your father isn’t interested in me, so he isn’t arguing over me. Second, what on earth are ‘viruses,’ is that what you said, ‘viruses’? Third, surely Nick will see through such a stupid test! After all, I just met you two last evening!” That seemed like a century ago.
Grace laughed lightly, obviously amused at something showing in her face. “Maybe Dad likes you more than you think?” she teased.
“What?” Jaymee stared back in consternation. “He wasn’t serious, was he? You told me he was testing Nick, to show him his weakness.”
Grace played with her pigtail as she considered for a moment. “Well,” she said slowly, but her voice still had laughter in it. “I don’t know. Jed doesn’t joke. Actually, Jed always means just about everything he says.” She took the broom out of Jaymee’s hand. “As for the question about Viruses, maybe you ought to ask Nick to explain it to you. Here, I’ll clean up. You can go out and calm the men down, maybe ask more questions.”
She grinned again, a mixture of childish humor and adult observation. Jaymee couldn’t believe a sixteen-year-old, who was also advising her on how to deal with men, was outmaneuvering her. But then, Grace sounded like she knew more about the opposite sex than she would ever get a chance to find out. What did she know about men like Nick and Jed, anyhow? She ran a nervous hand through her tangled curls. She had to take control again, somehow.
“Sorry, girl,” she firmly said. “Jaymee Barrows doesn’t placate testosterone. They want to make fools of themselves, let them. I’ve more important things to do. Come on, you’re going to learn how to strip the doors down to their natural wood.”
This she understood—the certainty of a finished task, the toil behind labor. Not testing and words and arguments. She could never win an argument like that. She eyed Grace thoughtfully. Well, if all the girl got from her father was cerebral food, it was time she was given a chance to enjoy the fruits of hard work. She did seem to enjoy it enough.
“Yeah, let Jed handle cousin Kill,” Grace agreed, putting away the broom. “Do you want to take the door knobs off the doors first?”
Jaymee nodded. “Good thinking. You do that while I get the rest of the tools.” She tossed a last glance at the back door. “We’ll give them an hour, then we’ll break for lunch.”
A chuckle bubbled from Grace. “I like you, Jay. You shoot straight from the hip. Maybe that’s why Dad is after you too. He likes his women tough.”
“For the last time, your father doesn’t have a thing for me!” She needed to steer the conversation off this topic. Grace was too perceptive by far, and was enjoying this too much for a teenager. She muttered under her breath. “I can’t believe this is happening to me.”
“Don’t worry. Jed will make sure Kill growls even more than he does when you’re around.”
Jaymee groaned inwardly. That was all she needed. An angry big wolf to deal with while she was trying to tame him. She groaned again. Did she say ‘tame’? There was no taming a man like Nick. To them, she was just a distraction. That really rubbed the wrong way. What did they think she was—a toothache?
She shrugged. At least Grace had answered her questions, which meant Jed really did like her, enough to allow his daughter to give her information. She frowned. All this mental figuring was getting a tad complicated.
***
Nick didn’t see anything complicated about the situation at all. Someone was intruding in his territory and he did what he knew best—attack before invasion. He’d seen his cousin standing too close to Jaymee and talking quietly. He had noticed the way he looked at her when she wasn’t paying attention.
When Jed put down the saw to examine the length of pine, Nick quietly said, “I don’t need to tell you I don’t appreciate your unusual interest in Jaymee.”
Jed fitted the two-by-six piece of pine board into the empty space where the rotten wood used to be. Not looking up, he advised, “Keep her, or let her go.”
“Or else?” challenged Nick, as he donned his tool belt. He was angry with Jed, something that hadn’t happened for a number of years. His cousin had always challenged him, but never played with his romantic life. Jed had never needed to go after someone else’s woman before, and if he hadn’t realized by now Jaymee was taken, he’d better find out now. There was no way he was going to allow him to even consider Jaymee as fair game.
Jed whacked a six-penny nail into the wood. He glanced up briefly, and mockery glittered in his silver eyes. “Or, I’ll do it for you,” he informed Nick.
Going down on one knee, Nick clenched the half dozen six-penny nails in his hand. “This isn’t going to be one of your head games, Ice.”
His cousin kept nailing, his hammer pounding rhythmically, as he secured the two-by-six. “You aren’t functioning at top level because you’re indecisive. I won’t have any of my unit at risk because you’ve decided to expose your switch, Programmer.”
“No one’s at risk.” Nick’s voice was icy, dead certain.
“As long as you’re this way, everyone you’re with is at risk. Most of all, her. Face it, you can’t think straight where she’s concerned.”
“So you think you can make up my mind for me?”
“No. I’m saying, if you don’t, or won’t, make up your mind, I’ll make up her mind for you. She is, after all, very intriguing.”
Nick leveled a dangerous look at his cousin. “Get to the point. What do you want, Jed?”
The other man slapped the head of the hammer on his palm as he met him eye-to-eye. “Just do your job,” he responded unequivocally, “and you needn’t find out what I want.” His voice was soft, stressing the word ‘what’ with steely delicacy.
“Is that a warning? You’d risk our friendship to have it your way?” Nick tamped down the temper rising inside. A part of him knew what Jed was attempting to do, but he also knew women found his cousin’s dangerous air irresistible. And, the S.O.B. was considered attractive. Would Jaymee find him so?
“Let’s just say I’ll do whatever it takes to minimize loss,” Jed challenged back with calm arrogance.
Nick never underestimated his cousin’s determination. Jed was as lethal as he appeared, as ruthless as they came. He was COS’s number one silent assassin, and his reputation was legendary. He always did what he set out to do, and right now, he was warning Nick he would go after Jaymee himself, if she posed a risk to his men.
“I’ve been careful,” Nick said, deciding the best tactic for the moment was detached assurance. “The risk is minimal.”
“You’ve been lucky. So far. Unlike Diamond. Use your talents, Programmer, that’s all I ask. Write the program, execute the commands, and wrap up all the loose ends. Remove the bugs.”
“She isn’t a mistake.”
“I didn’t say she was the bug.” Jed moved back to the pile of pine boards.
Nick seldom lost in anything, and he especially hated losing to Jed. “Dammit, Jed. Stop probing.”
“It’s my job.”
One probe deserved another. “Do you think I’d let you near her, now that you’ve revealed your intention?” he asked.
Jed only shrugged, absorbed in his work. “Either way, I win. Now you’ll be on your toes at all times, won’t you—cousin?”
Nick cursed peremptorily, knowing Jed had him trapped in this war of words. He resorted to something General Jaymee taught him. He pounded down nails with satisfying savagery.
Big Bad Wolf: Chapter Twelve
Remodeling the old house was Jaymee’s solita
ry project, somewhere she could retreat and do things she enjoyed. She was used to being on her own, taking care of problems by herself.
It was, therefore, a new and pleasant experience to have company helping her. Something stirred inside her as she listened to the sounds of work around. The two men outside obviously didn’t need her supervision, keeping the air filled with the pounding and buzzing of tools and machines. She’d been alone for so long she’d forgotten what friends meant. She now realized how alone she had become these past years, so intent had she been at keeping her father’s business afloat. This was the first time in a long while someone was doing something for her, and she didn’t know whether to laugh or cry over the irony of three relative strangers being so helpful and kind.
As she washed off the brushes she and Grace had used, she studied the two men through the smudgy kitchen window. With the younger girl in the bathroom, she finally had a few moments alone to sort out her thoughts.
Looking at Nick and Jed working outside, Jaymee didn’t doubt any of the recent revelations. The two men worked bareback, and even from this distance, she could make out the muscles that rippled under their sinewy male flesh. These two were in superb shape, looking every bit the trained warriors she now suspected they were. They moved with the easy grace of active people who were used to working together, throwing two-by-fours and tools back and forth as if they’d been at this kind of job for years.
Her gaze was drawn to Nick. Sleek and powerful in a pair of dirty cut-offs, he exuded enough magnetism to give her a mild case of heart palpitation. It never failed every time. She sighed. How could just the sight of bare chest and muscles make her weak like this? She had seen enough half-naked men in her line of work, but that man out there was the only one who gave her bedroom thoughts. She eyed the small masculine buttocks encased in the jeans hugging so temptingly low on his hips. Very energetic bedroom thoughts indeed. She was turning into a sex maniac where this man was concerned.
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