“I’m worried, sis,” he said softly. “This isn’t good. Someone has focused their crazy on you, and I can’t figure out who it is.”

“Obviously someone who respects the hell out of you and Alex.” She flipped her fingers to the letter still lying on the table. “They need someone to hate for what Dayle did. They don’t know me. You were responsible for catching him. They just need to let off some steam.”

“You know better than that,” Natches said.

Alex watched the exchange closely. He could see Natches’s fears, his guilt that Janey was being targeted. Brother and sister both were fighting against a barrier raised between them, one Dayle Mackay had placed there. Natches had taken the beatings until he was twenty, to ensure Dayle never abused Janey. And she knew it. Her guilt was like a cancer eating inside her. Natches had watched out for her from afar, bullied friends into helping him when she went away to school, and generally made himself crazy because Dayle had still managed to hurt her six months before. He hadn’t been able to protect her, and his guilt added to that barrier.

“I know I have to deal with this on my own.” Janey shook her head. “If it gets too bad, then I’ll leave.”

“And when you do, whoever it is will follow you. And there will be no one to protect you,” Alex bit out.

“Is that what you want?”

He thought of the child he’d almost bet she was carrying. His baby. The hell she was leaving.

“You have a better choice?” Janey asked, that damned remote mask of hers slipping into place.

“Exactly what we are doing,” Alex growled. “Whoever it is will mess up. When he does, I’ll be here.”

The look she gave him made him hard as hell. There was the barest flicker in her gaze of heat, of knowledge. She knew exactly what they were doing. Fucking themselves to death if they kept up the

way they were.

“Enough!” Natches snapped. “Enough of the looks, okay?”

“Natches, you seem to have a problem with me having a life. Period.” Janey surprised him. Him and Alex.

There was the barest edge of stress in her voice, just the lightest hint of mockery as she stared back at her brother. “I’m over eighteen, remember?”

“And we both remember how we failed to protect you six months ago,” Alex told her as he rebooted her computer and moved to counter whatever was distorting her programs. “We don’t intend to let that happen again.”

Natches scowled at him. “Yeah, what he said,” he growled, then muttered, “Didn’t ask his opinion, though.”

Janey narrowed her eyes between the two men. “Is this normal?” She finally asked.

“What?” Natches scowled.

“The way you two are bickering?”

“I bicker with Dawg constantly,” Alex told her absently as he worked at the computer. “Crista lets him get away with too much. Someone needs to point it out.”

Natches’s scowl deepened.

“Okay,” Janey said slowly. “Tell you what, I’m going to go to the kitchen and let Desmond know the veggies are definitely a go.” She rose from her seat.

“Janey, why don’t you have the cash to cover the deliveries?” Natches asked softly. “You get a salary as manager.”

“Locked in the computer.” She shrugged.

“She’s lying to you,” Alex stated, frowning at the computer as she whipped her head around to glare at him. He knew her too well.

“Janey.” Natches’s tone was warning. “What’s going on?”

“I had bills to pay. I paid them.” This was a discussion she didn’t want to get into.

“Your apartment is free.” Natches began ticking off her bills. “No car payment; I gave you that car.

Electric, water, et cetera, are in with the restaurant, so that’s covered. Groceries are your main concern.”

He raked his gaze over her. “You’re not exactly eating a lot.”

“Go to hell.” She moved for the door.

“When Alex gets that computer up, I’ll check your salary,” he said lazily. “Maybe we need to discuss what you’re making.”

“I hope you have a daughter,” she muttered, jerking the door open and slamming it behind her as she stalked into the hall.

Natches glowered at the door, then turned to Alex as he chuckled.

“I thought she loved me.” Natches sighed. “I really thought she loved me.”

Alex sat back slowly from the computer. “She’s been hacked. A virus was inserted and all her information wiped from the surface. I think I can retrieve it, but someone knew what they were doing.

This is serious, Natches. Someone wants to destroy her.”

Natches stared back at Alex and breathed in heavily.

“I’ll kill them,” he said softly.

To which Alex replied, “You’ll have to beat me to it.”

SIXTEEN

“You’re going to have to talk to your brother eventually, you know.”

Of course, Alex was waiting on her when she trudged back into the office after making certain everyone

was finished for the night and locking up. It was almost midnight. The late crowd hadn’t dwindled out until after eleven, and the restaurant had stayed busy.

“Did you get my computer fixed?” She ignored his comment about Natches.

“Everything’s running smooth.” He pushed back from the computer. “I even worked up the payments you had listed for today and have everything ready for you to sign. I input your invoices, listed your deliveries, and you should be good to go for the night.” He laid to the side the stack of papers awaiting her signature.

“Regular little secretary, aren’t you?” She eased into a chair, slid her heels from her feet, and stretched her arches.

She was exhausted. She needed another manager. It was obvious she was going to have to open the extra dining room if she wanted to increase profits from the popularity of the restaurant. And the newspaper was refusing to run the ad without Natches’s okay. That pissed her off.

“I try to please,” he drawled, leaning against the table on the other side of the desk.

A minute later, a steaming cup of fresh coffee was at her elbow. Janey stared at the coffee, then up at Alex.

Before she could turn her head, his palm cupped her neck, and the way he did that was too dominant and too sexy for words. Then his lips stole a long, melting, tongue-licking kiss that just about stole her mind.

When he lifted his mouth and moved back, a confident smile on his face, she frowned back at him.

“I’ve detected a pattern here.” She sighed. “You kiss me and give me coffee before you start harassing me.”

“Janey, I never harass you,” he said mockingly. “I merely state my opinions.”

“Well, tonight I don’t want to hear your opinions.” She lifted the cup and sipped, almost moaning at the rich, dark taste. But it still wasn’t as good as his kiss.

She turned back to the computer, going through her accounting program, checking the work he had done that day. Not that she didn’t trust him. She was anal; she admitted it.

He’d of course done everything perfectly.

“Tabitha mentioned you were talking about opening the banquet room for reservations in a few weeks,”

he stated as he poured his own coffee. “You can’t handle it alone.”

No kidding. She almost snorted at that statement.

“I’m not begging Natches to approve a general manager,” she told him with an edge of anger. “The newspaper won’t even run my ad now.”

“Talk to him, Janey,” he stated again. “He thinks you’re going to leave. And that thought is your fault.”

“Staying here might not be an option.” She lifted her shoulders negligently. “Either way, the restaurant needs to stay open. To take advantage of the popularity right now and continue to grow into the future, it needs to maintain a daily reputation. Poor service or shutting it down for a period of time will only destroy any future earnings for it.”

“I have a feeling we both know Natches doesn’t give a damn about this restaurant,” Alex said. “I’m wondering why you do.”

“Income.”

“Bullshit.” His tone was sharp. “Don’t lie to me, Janey. I don’t like it.”

She wanted to know how he knew she was lying, but she refused to ask. She was almost afraid to know.

“I always loved the restaurant,” she finally said, hating to admit to anyone that anything was important to her. “Every time I came here I could see how to make it work. I knew what it needed.” She stared at the computer screen. “And it ate inside me because it was nothing but a means to an end for Dayle. I hated him for that alone.”

The restaurant became a symbol to Janey, and she knew it. Something that could endure with the proper care and staff. Something she could build her life around.

“Does Natches know how you feel?”

She turned and looked at him curiously. “Why do you care? Why are you suddenly so damned concerned about my relationship with my brother?”

“Because he’s going to end up hitting me out of frustration,” he growled. “He can’t figure shit out with you, so it makes him even more pissed that I’m sleeping with you, because he thinks he’s losing the sister he never had a chance to know, before he has a chance to get to know her. It’s a male thing.”

She stared back at him suspiciously. “A male thing?”

He rubbed at his jaw. “I would really hate to have to fight Natches, Janey. But you’re his baby sister.

The baby sister he was never able to be a brother to. He doesn’t know things that brothers think they should know. Now he’s getting even more pissed that I’m sleeping with you, because he thinks I’m coming between the two of you.”

“And this is a male thing?”

“It’s a male thing.” He nodded. “We’re not just possessive over our lovers or wives, but we have this thing about our baby sisters, too. It’s our job to make sure they don’t get hurt. Physically or emotionally.”

“And you’re aware that’s totally asinine, correct?”

He grinned. “Oh yeah, we know that with our heads. But our hearts are another matter. That’s where it’s our baby sister’s responsibility to figure out the problem and fix it.”

Janey bit her lip. Hard. It was that or tell him exactly how ridiculous the whole baby sister/older brother thing sounded.

“So, I’m supposed to what?” she finally asked. “Ask him nicely to let me hire another manager? Beg him, maybe?”

“Or sit down and tell him that restaurant means more to you than some fly-by-night hole-in-the-wall you can walk away from. Because we both know you won’t walk away from it short of death. Be honest about that much, Janey.”

“I would walk away from it before I’d see you or my brother hurt because someone wants to hurt me,”

she stated, staring around the office, thinking about the dining rooms outside. “It’s not worth that.”

“You’re not going anywhere.” He crossed his arms over the white shirt he wore and stared back at her implacably. “Admit it.”

“Why are you harassing me? Go away, Alex.” She turned back to the computer and shut it down. “I have paperwork to do.”

She was lifted from the chair and tossed over his shoulder.

“What are you doing?” she screeched, bracing her hands above his butt and staring down. “Let me down.”

His hand landed on her ass in a quick little slap that had her eyes widening.

“You’re done for the night,” he told her, striding to the door.