Dez looked at her father. No. The man wasn’t pleased. She tried to pull away from Mace, but he gripped her tighter. Her jacket covered up his hand, but her father was hardly stupid. He knew Mace had her by the tits and that he wasn’t letting her go.
“Having fun with my daughter there, boy?”
“As a matter of fact—”
Before he could finish that particular statement, Dez slammed her elbow in his gut.
She probably hurt her elbow more than his gut, but it surprised him, giving her the chance she needed to pull out of the death grip he had on her tits.
Dez gave her father a warm hug.
He hugged her back. “Merry Christmas, sunshine.”
“You too, Daddy.” She stepped back from him. “Why are you here?” She couldn’t believe for a second her father would miss Christmas dinner with his grandkids. Even for her.
“When your mother couldn’t track you two down, she thought you might try to lie your way out of it.” Dez flinched. Damn. She couldn’t get anything past her mother. The woman always knew what her daughter was up to. Always. “So she decided to move the whole thing here.”
Dez blinked. “Move what here?”
He stepped back and one of her nieces ran up to her. “Aunt Dez, Aunt Dez!”
Dez swallowed the panic that welled in her throat. Oh, this was bad. “Hey, Lucy. How’s my girl?”
The six-year-old wore her Christmas best. The girl’s dress probably cost more than the Desert Eagle Dez had bought herself a few years back. “Good. Is it true what Mommy says?”
“What’s that, honey?”
“That you have issues with men?”
Dez growled. “Well you can tell your mommy to go f—”
“Okay, then!” Mace covered her face with his hand while her father pulled the little girl back into the house.
Once her father removed the little girl to a safe distance, Dez pulled out of Mace’s arms.
“I am so leaving.” Dez tried to push past him but he blocked the doorway with that gorgeous body she had been all ready to have her way with. Damn family!
“You can’t leave. Your family is here for you.”
“That’s why I’m leaving.”
Mace traced her jaw with one big, long finger. “Stay. For me.”
“I’d rather chew glass.”
“But once they’re gone tonight, I have such plans for you and that hot little body of yours.”
Dez bit the inside of her mouth. Damn him. He was using sex to entice her to stay in hell. And fuck but if it wasn’t working. “Oh yeah? Like what?”
He leaned down to her ear and purred. Damn but she loved when he purred.
“I’ve been waiting to bury my head between your thighs all day. To take my tongue and—”
“Hi, little brother.”
Mace’s entire body clenched up. Dez looked over her shoulder and into the eyes of Missy Llewellyn.
Suddenly, she lost all interest in leaving anytime soon.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
“That’s not very Christmas-like, little brother.”
“Stop calling me that.”
Mace couldn’t believe it. Why was she here? For that matter, why were all four of his sisters here? When exactly did hell come to Earth?
Dez turned away from him and leered at Missy. “Well, well. Missy Llewellyn. In my humble abode. I feel blessed.”
“As well you should,” Missy tossed arrogantly.
“How the hell did you even know to come here,” Mace snapped.
“Ah yes. Mrs. MacDermot contacted my secretary and said you’d be having Christmas dinner at her house. She felt since Christmas truly is the time for family, we should join all of you. And how could I turn that offer down?” She scrutinized her brother closely. “Glad to see you’re relatively unscathed after last night’s festivities.”
True. He could kill her, but that might put a damper on the gift-giving portion of the evening.
Missy then turned that penetrating gold gaze at Dez. “Nice outfit, Detective. Going undercover at a fetish club?”
Dez growled. “Why don’t you blow—” Mace wrapped his hand around Dez’s face again. Boy, when she went Bronx, she really went Bronx.
Rachel appeared behind Missy. “What’s the problem, Missy? Afraid your tiny tits couldn’t hold that top up?”
Dez glanced at Mace. He could read her easily now, and the fact that her sister suddenly jumped in to protect her from evil Missy—that might be too much of a shock for his hardened detective.
Missy spun around to glare at Rachel. “Well, I see you can take the girl out of the Bronx but you can’t get the Bronx out of the girl.”
Suddenly Lonnie appeared next to her older sister. “Wow. Look at the lines in your face, Missy. It’s like your bitterness just dug in and stayed.”
Allie, Mace’s second oldest sister, stood next to Missy. “Well, I heard you’d become a prosecutor, Lonnie. It must be really hard to try and convict all your ex-boyfriends.”
Rachel and Lonnie looked at each other while Mace’s two other half-sisters went to stand beside Missy and Allie.
No. This really couldn’t be good.
Dez pulled away from Mace. “I’m gonna go get out of these clothes before any blood gets on ’em.”
She headed up the stairs. The elder MacDermot came back into the room, a toddler in his arms. An old-school Marine, tough as nails, and still sporting his high-and-tight haircut. Marine tattoos on both of his forearms. Pride for his brood, written all over the man’s face. Even though, at the moment, the two sister teams were getting into a rather ugly confrontation that made Mace feel like a fourteen-year-old all over again.
“Those are some tough women.”
Mace nodded. “Sorry about my sisters, sir.”
“No reason to apologize. Dez can’t control Lonnie and Rachel and notice she doesn’t try.”
“That’s cause she’s brilliant.”
Gray eyes with dark green flecks turned to stare at Mace. “Do you really care about my daughter, Llewellyn?”
Barely realizing he did it, Mace’s hands went behind his back. His legs braced apart. Being around the man made him feel like he still needed to report to his C.O. before the night ended. “Yes, sir. More than I’ve cared about anything.”
“Good. Because she’s special. All my daughters are, of course. But Dez…Dez is…”
“I know, sir.” Mace looked him in those eyes that were exactly like his daughter’s. “I really do. I’ve always known.”
MacDermot seemed to relax a bit as he nodded. “Good.” He took in a deep breath, like he’d prepared himself for a fight. “Oh, and could you let Dez know I locked all her guns away in the safe in her closet upstairs.”
Mace winced. They’d both forgotten about the weapons she kept stashed around the house and with kids around…“We forgot.”
“Don’t worry about it. I know each and every place my daughter hides her guns. Hell, I gave her most of ’em.”
The older man gave a big grin, hugging the little boy in his arms tightly and walking back toward the kitchen.
The fight kept growing. This could easily turn ugly. But Mace had other things on his mind. Besides, he’d seen Dez’s mother in action. If things turned bad, he had no doubt the tiny female could and would kick some ass.
Knowing that, Mace went up the stairs after his woman.
Dez tossed the sweatpants and Marine Corp sweatshirt she pulled out of her dresser on top of the closed toilet and looked at herself in the mirror. She shot a man without any warning. Faced off against hyenas and lions. But her family downstairs? That was making her break out in a rash.
Yet the weirdness hadn’t ended. Not only had her entire family taken over the first floor of her house, but she had Missy Llewellyn and her cretin sisters with her.