Maia's Magickal Mates [The Double R 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (18 page)

Let Fate have at it.

* * * *

When Thayne finally arrived three hours later, Maia was nice and feeling no pain.

She and Cade sat on the sofa, tipsy and giggling over traded childhood horror stories.

She managed not to spill all her secrets, especially not the one about the bus crash—even though she half suspected he knew something about it already—but she did admit to being a spoiled Daddy’s girl who missed her father something terrible.

“He never got to see me graduate from college.”

“That must have been disappointing for you, baby.”

She turned at the sympathy in his voice and realized her faux pas. Here she went on about her loss when he had lost
both
his parents at a much younger age than her. He’d practically been a baby when they’d died. She at least had had a doting father most of her life, really, and afterward a mother who loved and supported her, even if they didn’t always see eye to eye, especially about Maia’s spiritual choices and gifts.

“Glad to see you two getting along so well.”

Maia and Cade turned to see Thayne standing just inside the front door, stuffing his keys in his pocket with one hand and holding an aromatic bag of what smelled like Chinese food in the other.

“Like a house fire, bro.” Cade stood up from the sofa, hardly staggering at all, nowhere near as bad off as he had been the other night. “Glad you could finally join the party.”

Maia saw Thayne wince at his brother’s dig and actually felt sorry for him. Why, she didn’t know. He’d left them hanging until arriving just now at ten o’clock, when her original date with him had been for eight.

Thayne held up the bag as if it was a peace offering. “I wasn’t sure whether you guys had managed to get the meal done or might still be hungry or…” He paused, sniffing the air and frowning. “What’s burning?”

“The lasagna!” Cade turned and sped to the kitchen.

Maia jumped from the sofa and followed with Thayne hot on her heels.

By the time they got to the kitchen, the smoke alarm pealed its obnoxious warning through the house, too late of course.

Cade stood in front of the open range door waving away the smoke with a dish cloth and coughing into his free hand, his brother’s whole-wheat vegetarian lasagna all but ruined.

Thayne took a broom from the pantry closet to poke off the alarm button overhead. “Good thing I bought dinner.”

“You always were the prepared, organized brother.”

“You say that like there’s something wrong with being prepared and organized.”

“There’s nothing wrong with it. It just sucks all the fun out of life sometimes.”

Thayne glared at his brother, fuming. “Fun that leads to the house almost burning down? You can keep that kind of fun.”

Maia watched in horror as the brothers squared off, heart pounding with the approach of an imminent showdown. She needed to do something to stop them from coming to blows, and quick. She stepped between them, and this was a big mistake, because Thayne decided to take his frustration out on her.

“What were you two so wrapped up in that you forgot all about the food in the oven?”

“I don’t think I like what you’re implying.” Overworked, stressed, or whatever, he had no right to attack her or Cade. “Cade only did what you asked him to.”

“You don’t need to defend me, Maia.”

Thayne seemed to deflate right before their eyes at that, sighing and putting the bag of Chinese food down on the kitchen counter. “You’re both right, and I’m sorry.” He pushed his hands through his hair and released another sigh. “I’d like a chance to make things up to you if we could just talk for a minute in private.”

Maia turned to look at Cade, seeking she wasn’t sure what, approval maybe?

Thayne caught her by the chin and gently drew her face back to him. “We need to talk…alone.”

“If you want to get rid of me, just say so, Thayne.”

“Look, I’ve had a rough twelve hours, and I don’t want to argue.”

“Then don’t.”

“Cade, please.” Maia’s heart melted at the look on Thayne’s face. He looked like he’d been through hell and back. A thought suddenly occurred to her. Curiosity loosened her tongue, and she blurted, “What was the emergency?”

Thayne just looked at her as if bewildered, and Maia prompted, “At the hospital? What type of—?”

“Oh, that!” he said as if snapping out of a trance. “School bus full of kids crashed into a minivan on the thruway, lots of injuries. They sent the most serious victims our way.”

His words sucked all of the air out of the room, and Maia staggered against one of the barstools at the island.

Thayne caught her as she reached out to grab the stool’s wrought-iron back and helped her up into the seat. “Are you okay?”

“I’m…I’m not sure…” She closed her eyes tight, and it all came back to her in a whirlwind of blood-soaked imagery. Maia wasn’t sure anymore if she experienced her memory of the TV news story that reported the freak accident or if she experienced her vision of the accident all over again.

She had woken up early that morning, dreading the coming school trip. She’d seen the bus crash in a vision and knew that people were going to die, just not who. There were several classes and buses from her school going on the trip that day.

Fear made her pace, nervous as a fawn taking its first steps away from the comforting warmth of its mother’s side into the unknown world. She went back and forth in her mind about what to tell her parents, how to get out of going to school without telling them why she was so terrified of going. She’d finally just settled on the cheap but timeworn I’m-not-feeling-well ploy. Since her “illness” fell on the day of a much-touted trip to go apple picking upstate that she had been looking forward to since forever, however, her ruse worked like a charm.

Good for her, but not so good for the kids who had been injured or died that day, a couple of the dead her classmates.

Maia couldn’t help thinking had she been braver, willing to face off with her parents and the school’s censure, that she could have saved her friends and other kids.

She had even considered calling her classmates and telling them directly but couldn’t imagine that would have gone over any better than it would have with her parents or the school authorities.

“Maia?”

She felt Thayne’s hand on her face and glanced up from her haze to see him and his brother hovering around her like worried mother hens.

“She just needs a minute, okay,” Cade said.

Maia understood then that he knew something about the accident.

Thayne turned to him. “I’d really appreciate it if you’d leave us alone to talk, Cade.”

“Let’s see what Maia has to say about that.”

They both turned to her expectantly and waited.

“Oh no you don’t. You’re not going to put this all on me.”

“We just want you to make a choice.”

Was Cade saying what she thought he was saying? Did he want her to make a choice between him and Thayne or a choice between him, Thayne, and her sanity?

She shook her head. “I’m not making a choice.”

“Why not?” Thayne asked, getting into the act.

“Because I don’t want to!” Maia threw up her hands and stood from the barstool.

“You don’t want to, or you can’t?” Thayne rasped.

She looked from him to Cade and back again, swallowing convulsively. “You heard me. I don’t want to make a choice between the two of you.”

“And I want to know why.”

“You know why.” Cade stood beside Maia and put a hand on her shoulder. “Tell him, Maia. He has to know.”

“Yes, Maia. Why don’t you tell me?”

She saw the muscle ticking in Thayne’s sculpted jaw and averted her eyes. She didn’t want to see his face shatter when she finally admitted the truth. “I want you both,” she whispered and raised her glance from the floor just in time to see Thayne gape.

“You—”

“Wants us both. You heard her,” Cade said.

“I heard her, and I don’t believe her.”

“I should have never said anything. I don’t want to come between brothers.”

“You’re not coming between anyone. You’re completing a circle.”

Maia frowned and looked to Thayne for confirmation or at the very least clarification.

“He doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”

“You damn well know I do,” Cade said. “How can you act like I didn’t tell you what Mom and Dad said?”

“I thought your parents were dead.”

“Apparently, Cade had a dream about them the other night and in it they told him…some things.”

Cade quickly elaborated, telling Maia about his dream and dropping yet another one of his famous bombshells.

She stood silently for a long moment then finally flopped back onto the barstool again.

“See what you’ve done,” Thayne said.

“I just told the truth. She needed to know. You, of all people, who puts such a high premium on honesty should understand the reason for full disclosure.”

“I should go,” Maia said.

“No, Maia. You can’t run away from this. You can’t run away from us.”

“He’s right,” Thayne said.

“Oh, so now you two are in agreement?” She didn’t know why she protested so much when she wanted them to see eye to eye, especially about being with her. She wanted this consensus, had been looking forward to it more than anything in the world, like forever.

The phone rang, shattering the quiet.

Thayne crossed the room to grab the receiver of the wall phone. “Don’t go anywhere,” he said before answering the call.

Maia didn’t know if he directed his warning at Cade or her, and she realized he probably meant his words for both of them.

Since she couldn’t hear the other party, she listened to Thayne’s side of the conversation and watched his face. From the sound and look of things, he wasn’t hearing good news.

Maia stood and, along with Cade, crossed the room to close ranks around Thayne, both sensing he needed it.

“Who was it?” Cade asked once Thayne hung up.

“That was Aunt Aura’s lawyer, Mr. Chandler.”

“And? What happened?” Maia asked. She knew people didn’t just call one’s house late at night for idle chitchat or good tidings, especially not people of the official lawyer variety. Something bad must have happened.

“He said Aunt Aura had a stroke. She…she’s dead.”

“What!”

“Oh no.” Maia gasped and put her hand on Thayne’s shoulder. “Are you okay?

“I’m not sure.”

“Damn.” Cade shook his head. “She was like…a mom.”

“For the most part,” Thayne murmured.

Maia felt like an intruder right then, an unneeded third wheel. Yet she couldn’t make herself leave. She wanted to help. She didn’t know how, but she wanted to.

“I’m guessing you guys have to leave soon to arrange the funeral.”

“Aunt Aura was pretty meticulous with making her own arrangements. She preplanned her funeral with a local undertaker, a close friend and a Wiccan who would respect her wishes. All we have to do is show up for the service and the reading of the will.”

“I’d like to go with you, if it’s all right.”

“It’s more than all right.”

Maia glanced at Cade, surprised by his instant response.

Thayne put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed. “Not only is it all right, I think it’s where you belong.”

“Yeah, with us.”

The brothers’ ominous words did little to reassure her, but Maia had already decided she needed to be with them now wherever it took her.

Finally all of Prentice’s determination, patience, and sifting had paid off.

The Malloy brothers had been told of their beloved aunt’s untimely demise. They would soon be on their way to Atoka County, Oklahoma, for the funeral.

Thank the Goddess he could get the hell out of this dusty,
boring
, godforsaken nightmare of a small town and go where some civilization reigned, well, at least as much as it could possibly reign in Oklahoma, and then he could only enjoy it for a short time.

He had to make sure he came back in time for the funeral tomorrow afternoon of course. He couldn’t wait to see the brothers up close and personal.

Prentice fairly salivated at the thought of finally meeting the two men who had made his life a living hell just by existing.

He sneered now at the memory of the family pictures in Aura’s house, many of the tall, dark-haired brothers, so alike in their appearances that they almost looked like twins. He had yet another reason to add to a long, growing list for hating Thayne and Cade Malloy. Even growing up without their parents, they’d had each other to turn to in times of need.

Prentice’s parents had been alive and well to raise him, but they might as well not have been for all the attention they’d paid him. In their emotional absence, who had he had to turn to? Not a brother or even a sister, no. He’d had no one. He’d had to make do and make it through the daily bullying and derogatory and snide remarks all by his lonesome. No big brother to run to for protection or sympathy, no one.