Zeb
Janelle gets all meek until we get into the house and she meets Zayna for the first time. She doesn’t seem to like Ruger, which I don’t mind, but Zayna puts her at ease. I don’t want to send her too far out of my sight, because while I’m happy that Zayna relaxes her, I don’t want Janelle getting any crazy ideas about escaping or disappearing with a wild woman like Zayna Blackwood. You have to be a special case to marry Ruger, and I don’t trust her anymore than I trust my murderous cousin.
I can scent him the same way a dangerous wolf can detect another. Zayna heads to the kitchen to fix coffee while Janelle and I sit on Ruger’s old-fashioned plaid couch. He’s always hated modern things, much preferring vintage restored items in every place he’s lived ever since he was a kid. Janelle sits close to me and I wish I could pull her up onto my lap or better yet, put her in my pocket where my cousin couldn’t see her.
He probably already knows that I have feelings for her, and that feels like too much vulnerability for me to expose to a man who knows how to hunt like this one.
“I heard you got into trouble and had to get Gideon’s help.”
“Yup. Fucking nightmare. We good to go to the rez tomorrow?”
Ruger nods. “Oske bitched at me, told me to remind you to be on time.”
“I didn’t serve this country to have my ability to show up on time questioned by a degenerate like her.”
“I said almost the same thing,” Ruger says. His eyes flicker over to Janelle, and I can’t help but worry.
“How did you meet Zebulon?”
“We met at a bar,” I answer quickly. Ruger’s expression doesn’t change, but I know him enough to know that I pissed him off by answering.
“Janelle? Do you mind answering my question?”
“Like he said, we met at a bar.”
My hand moves over to her thigh possessively. If Ruger notices, he doesn’t react visibly.
“That’s all it took for you to follow him out West?”
“Zeb helped me out with some trouble.”
“You sleeping with him?” Ruger asks.
“Hey!” I snap at him, ready to pull my gun out if necessary. What type of fucking question is that? My sharp voice attracts attention from Zayna, who steps into the living room holding a full coffee pot with one hand on the handle and her other hand balancing the bottom of the pot against a thick, handwoven oven mitt.
“Is everything good here?”
“Bring those coffee mugs, baby,” Ruger says, the corner of his lip twitching. “Everything is just fine.”
Zayna reappears within a few seconds. I sense she doesn’t want to leave Ruger with us alone. I don’t need some woman keeping the peace to defend me. I can handle Ruger just fine. He’s more quick-tempered than he might let on. He’s effective, so that tends not to matter, but having trigger-happy emotions doesn’t always serve a man’s best interests. I can keep my cool.
But that doesn’t mean I’ll let him make strange comments towards Janelle.
“We are not sleeping together,” Janelle says, glaring at me in some strange way. “You have nothing to worry about.”
Ruger chuckles. “So he’s letting you ride for free then?”
“We’re friends,” Janelle says. “Zeb’s a good friend.”
Zayna hands Janelle a cup of coffee with a smile and gives me mine with a straight face. I offer up a polite thank you and make sure Janelle enjoys her first sip before I take mine. I hope she’s not up all night listening to nonsense and trivialities from Zayna. It’s not like I don’t like Zayna. I just don’t trust anybody around Janelle. And I don’t want her scared.
“I bet he is,” Ruger says. “I’ve never seen him make friends with a black woman before.”
“Ruger,” Zayna chimes in. “What are you getting at?”
Her voice is calm, like a first-grade teacher who reallywantsto box your ears in, but knows that she can’t for a variety of reasons aside from the illegality.
“He brought this woman all the way from Boston. Could be trafficking her to sell over the border. Remember how I found your ass?”
