“That’s why you were there?” This time her eyes actually opened and she looked at him. “To get your grandmother’s knife back?”

He swept back her hair again, using his palm in order to feel her forehead. “That and to beat the livin’ daylights outa Larry the guard. He shoved her. She’s no spring chicken, although never tell her I said that. She’d take a switch to me just to show me she’s still spry.”

For the first time she actually smiled. “You really went there to call out one of the guards? It had nothing to do with me or the babies? I knew it. Somehow I just knew that’s what you were doing.”

“Well, Grand-mere did mention the presence of the Rougarou in the swamp and told me she was keepin’ the shotgun handy. I think she did expect me to take care of that as well, but seein’ as how you and the little one turned out to be the swamp monsters, she’ll be happy enough that I just gave the guard a beatin’ and took her knife back.”

“It was a serious beating,” Pepper said. “You weren’t kidding around, and I could tell you were going easy on him.”

“So you were watchin’ me all along,” Wyatt said, giving her a grin that spoke volumes. “Likin’ what you saw. You just had to come here and show me that knife, didn’ you?” Before she could answer he frowned. “You and Nonny didn’ cook this up together, did you? She’s been wantin’ a woman and babies outa us boys for a while now.” He poured suspicion into his voice.

“Now that you say that, she did mention it a time or two that you were hopeless at finding a woman yourself and she was thinking of buying you one of those mail-order brides to help you along your way.” Pepper delivered the revelation with a straight face. “We had a lot of time to talk while she was fixing up the bullet wounds.”

“I wouldn’ put it past her,” Wyatt said, sobering instantly. “Don’ you enter into any conspiracy with that woman. We’ll end up married with ten or fifteen little ones runnin’ around the bayou. If she had her way, this house would be filled with children.”

“She has a good heart. She put out blankets and food when she could have turned the dogs loose on us like everyone else did.”

“Best heart in the bayou,” Wyatt agreed. “She called us home because she thought something was wrong at that compound. A few years back there was a mental institution on that land. Whitney owned it. He had one of his experiments housed there. I think the woman he kept there was supposed to be terminated, but she escaped and now is married to one of the GhostWalkers. The place burned down and the land was sold. I’ll bet Whitney set up a dummy corporation and bought his own property back.”

“I wish I’d known about her. I’ve never been outside other than on carefully supervised field trials.”

“You’re fast. Very fast. How could they contain you?”

She touched her throat with shaking fingers. “They have a shock collar – one that can put you down fast and hard. I could never figure a way to counteract it. And then after… there were the babies. I was introduced to them when I was labeled uncooperative. They broke my heart. Someone had to care about them and love them.”

“Do they love you back?” Wyatt figured if those three little viper babies were going to be in his grandmother’s home, or he had to handle them, he wanted to know if they were little serial killers in the making.

She nodded and winced, her breath catching in her throat.

He knew better than to touch her, but he did it anyway. This woman had a sense of humor, and that along with her knife was skating close to his dream woman. He smoothed back her hair, the pads of his fingers gliding over her forehead. He felt the touch all the way into his gut. “Is it bad again? Do you want another dose?” He glanced at his watch. “We slept for a couple of hours.”

“No. You got me through the worst part. It’s not too bad now. And they aren’t serial killers. They’re wonderful children who need love and guidance. It isn’t their fault that someone cooked them up in a petri dish.” There was definitely a defensive note in her voice.

“Don’ go all commando on me, sugar,” Wyatt cautioned. “You gettin’ all bossy just turns me on, and right now there’s not a damn thing either one of us can do about it. I’m just askin’ questions here, tryin’ to get a sense of how much danger Nonny might be in.”

Those dark eyes searched his face. He felt the impact in the region of his cock, but that didn’t surprise him much. Everything about her was felt in that region.

“The babies don’t know anyone but me. Not like that. They’ve been used for experiments, not nurtured as they should be. There’s only been me.”

“That’s why Ginger tried to bite me, she was tryin’ to protect you, wasn’t she?”

Pepper closed her eyes again, turning her face from him. “Yes. I’m the only one she has – the only one fighting to save them. She knows that. She’s seen death. She knows it’s permanent. She won’t hurt your grandmother, Wyatt. She won’t.”

“I hope not. Ezekiel is sleepin’ on the floor right outside her door. It would kill him to have to hurt a child. He’s a roarin’ tiger when it comes to readin’ from the good book, but he’s a softie for women and children.”

“He’s scary,” Pepper said, her voice back to a thread of sound.