I looked out the side window because I could feel my cheeks heat. No way was I telling him that had already happened. “Have you heard yourself talk before? No wonder you’re single.”

“You’re the fucking CEO of a billion-dollar company. You eat nails for breakfast. You put up with Macon, solo, for over a decade. I’m not sure if I’m ever going to forgive you for that.”

He paused and I turned to look at him. Bad idea, because the steering wheel was going to have finger dents in it. He looked back at the road, put the blinker on to make a turn just outside of town for the road to the highway.

“We’re not going over this again, are we?” I asked.

“Again? We never went over it. It’s not like you ever ran it by any of us. You’ve always been so uptight.”

I bristled at that and my spine went straight.

“So serious. Now I know why. You got three brothers out of that fucking house. All by yourself. Me wanting a man for you who’s got big enough balls to understand all that and still wants to wrap his arms around you isn’t being a chauvinistic asshole. It’s our turn to protect you.”

“Fine, but why Jed?”

“Because the short amount I’ve met the guy, he can hold his own with you. You need a guy who’s stronger than you.”

That definitely was Jed.

“Maybe he’ll take you bowling or something.”

I laughed at that. “Bowling?”

He looked me over. “Yeah, the shoes might be a problem for you.”

I pursed my lips because I didn’t have a response to that one. He was right. About the stupid bowling shoes and Jed. Jed had done nothing to stifle me. In fact, in a way, he’d liberated me. Set me free from—

The front window shattered. I jumped in surprise. South swore and tugged on the wheel, which had the SUV doing a one-eighty, tires squealing on the wet pavement. Even though I wore my seat belt, my head smacked the side window.

With the windshield being tempered, only a small amount of shards fell on us, but rain came through a hole in the center.

The SUV came to a shuddering stop, then South gunned the engine, speeding off in the opposite direction. A thump hit the back of the vehicle.

“Get down!” South shouted, reaching out and shoving my head down between my legs.

“What’s going on?” I cried, looking up at my brother. I thought he’d been pissed before, but I’d never seen him look like this.

“Someone’s shooting at us,” he snapped as the back window shattered.

11

JED