** spoiler alert ** Dawg and Crista... 8 + years earlier, before the marines, they had attraction and Crista was overwhelmed and scared - knowing the rumors of the Rowdy boys and they penchant for sharing women... scared for the strength of her her attraction for him... his parents died in a car accident & he had been drunk, driven off the road, and 18 year old Crista found him, brought him back to his houseboat... and he proceeded to make love to her - take her virginity, and take her fully - and after round 3, when he talked about sharing her with his cousins, she got scared - and she left him whild he slept... and when they run into each other later, he did not remember having sex with her... and she was pregnant - and she left town for boston with two of her brother's recently released gay marines, and lived with them for 8 years... miscarrying the baby at 3 months... she did not forget Dawg...

and for 8 years Dawg had dreams of Crista, of making love with Crista... and a year ago she moved back into town and took a job as a waitress at the diner... and Dawg has been flirting with her, and she has been turning him away...

until she heads for a warehouse one night because she has a message her roommates have sent her some of the things ... and once there, she is in trouble... stolen missles are to be handed off and Homeland Security (including deputized exmarines Dawg, Rowdy, & naches) are there to stop it... and Naches recognizes her, and sends Dawg to her - she is hiding behind boxes and about to be shot by one of the theives who is demanding from her to know where the money is... Dawg takes care of him, and takes Crista out a back door, and to his truck... he knows there is something wrong with her being there and he feels he must protect her so as soon as possible he takes her out ...

and then he proceeds to blackmail - she goes home with him or he turns her over to the police for arrest... and she, of course, takes going home with him... and... as he makes love to her, he realizes his dreams were more than dreams - and he starts to remember the truth... and she makes it clear she will not be shared... and Dawg realizes he has no desire to share her... which cuts Natches a bit...

and the ops = 6 missles were stolen, local somerset people are involved, half has been paid (a million dollars) and a woman, who looks just like Crista appears to be in charge... a break in at the Dawg's lumber yard finds money and evidence planted to implicate Crista (naches removes it before the police get there)... and when they make it look like Crista left town, someone representing themselves as Crista with ID & looks, visits the men arrested at the warehouse - again to implicate Crista...

and it ends up to be Johnny... The Mackays... grandpa was a cruel man... he had 3 sons and 1 daughter - one son, Ray, was good - the other 3 bad... each of the 3 brothers had a son - Ray had Rowdy, Dayle had Naches, and # 3 (who died when Dawg was 20)... the two bad brothers had incestual relations with the sister = and the sister had a son via Dawg's father (hence his half brother) Jonathan... Jonathan always followed the other cousins around, and tattled on them, leading to beatings for Dawg & naches - naches got it the worst... when Ray realized what his brothers were doing, he did his very best to help the boys, and was more of a father to the two nephews than their own father... (and of course, from book one, we learn that 16 year old cousins were taken in by the local widow one summer, who taught them how to work together to please a woman - something they practiced until they joined the Marines)...

Dawg lost half of his inheritance to Jonathan and his aunt in a court battle, when they challenged the will (the only thng Dawg's mother did to protect him - or he would have lost all of his inheritance) with letters his dad wrote to the aunt disappointed in his son, and extolling his nephew Jonathan (actually his son, but not claimed)... and Jonathan (under someone else's 'command') brokered the deal to steal the missles - and he had made friends with Crista (who lived near his bakery), and had access to her house, so he took her clothes and wore a wig, and posed as her - setting her up to take the fall, to hide his involvement, and to hurt Dawg...

And Crista and Dawg let down their personal walls, open up to one another, Crista finally confides all to him about what happened that night - her surrender, her fear of losing herself in him and his dominance - and that she might not have been able to say no if he had asked to be with his cousins too... and Dawg confides that he dreamedof her (and the reality is so much better)... and that he is his heart, and cannot live without her - he is not letting her go... and shows her the home he began building when she returned to town, in the mountains...

and Crista, with her business degree, is inserting herself into his business, and he's letting her... but then she is taken... by Jonathan's boyfriend... but she is reassured when she realizes they are following her... and Jonathan kills his lover, and goes to shoot Crista (thinking that all will think the mastermind & flunky killed each other, leaving him in the clear), and Natches kills him (sniper in the marines)...