by M. L. Briers
Jake took a step towards her. “Put your mother-voice away, stop fretting over Scott, and realise that he’s my son too, and I’m going to lead Roland on a wild goose chase across the country. Whether it works or not can only be determined by someone turning up in Clearview again, but I’ll do my best for our son.”
“What a speech,” Neal muttered. “Did it take you all night to figure that out?”
“No, I work on the fly,” Jake shot back, but it wasn’t Jake that Neal was paying attention to, Marilyn had rallied in his direction once more, and she didn’t look happy.
“Sometimes you’re funny, and then there are times like these that show that nothing gets by that cast-iron wall you have going on,” Marilyn bit out, and he winced inside.
Neal knew he’d gone too far and reined his emotions back in. He didn’t like Jake, he’d never liked Jake, and if the man fell off the edge of the planet, he wouldn’t care one iota for the not-a-loss to mankind. But he did care about her – and right then Marilyn was on Jake’s side of the fence, and he needed to cool his heels.
Jake was leaving, and he had all the time in the world to win her favour again. “I’ll wait outside while you have your family moment,” he said and excused himself.
Marilyn felt the annoying tap of guilt on her shoulder and hated that feeling, but right now, she was more concerned with her son’s life.
“Whoops,” Claudia said, and that one word grated on Marilyn’s nerves.
“He’s a vampire, Marilyn,” Jake said and snapped her back into defensive mode.
“And my friend, Jake,” she bit out, reprimanding him with her tone, and a look that told him not to push the line any further.
“And this is about our children’s lives…”
“Oh, don’t you dare go there,” she warned him. He hadn’t been thinking about their children when he ran off with the cheerleader, although, he was stepping up now. “Neal has given Scott a place to live where he’ll be safer than if he was here.”
Jake gave a solemn nod of understanding. “I’ll be going,” he said and headed for the front door.
“Jake!” Marilyn called and started after him. He turned in the hallway, and for one long moment, the sight of him there took her back to the life they’d had together.
The life they’d shared hadn’t been all bad, they’d had some very good times in the beginning, and they’d created two beautiful children. But that life was gone now. “Be careful.”
“I have a pack of condoms in my backpack,” he offered back with a cocky smile, and she couldn’t help but laugh. “You be careful.”
Marilyn knew he wasn’t just talking about Scott’s problems. Jake had never liked Neal, and he didn’t trust vampires, and with good cause. But Neal was different, and she’d believe that until her dying day. Now wasn’t the time to have that argument – again – so, she just nodded.
Then Marilyn’s ex-husband was walking out of her life once more, and she felt a strange sense of relief that he was going. It wasn’t just the fact that he was leading danger away from their lives, but that she’d finally gained a sense of closure on her marriage, on her old life, and it was something that she never knew she’d needed.
~
The moment that Jake’s hand wrapped around the cold metal of the car’s handle, he sensed the supernatural in the air and turned his head to find Neal standing beside the car. “There’s no need to say goodbye,” he said, mocking the vampire.
“Five words,” Neal said and waited to make sure the man was taking it in. When Jake raised a curious look, he knew he was listening. “Do not disappoint Marilyn again.”
Jake smiled to himself. “Understood,” he said and yanked open the car door. “Take care of my family.” He dropped his backside into the seat and started the engine, looking up with a smirk at the vampire.
“This isn’t your territory anymore, Jake. You walked away…”
“And you swooped in and marked it,” Jake said, reaching for the door. “I get it. Just don’t screw it up,” he added and yanked the door closed.
Neal watched the car all the way out of sight. Then he turned on his heels and looked back at the house. He was deep in this human drama whether he liked it or not, but Jake’s words found a place within him to rest, and he hoped they didn’t fester into something more permanent.
“I’ve got this,” he muttered to himself.
CHAPTER THIRTY TWO
~
“Ok, do not start cooking,” Claudia announced as she strolled into the kitchen and found Marilyn with her arms full of the basics. “Every time you cook, I put on two pounds, and frankly, my hips are starting to resemble Jessica Rabbit.”
Marilyn offered her a bored look as she bent over the counter and let the contents in her arms spill onto the side in front of her. “If only you had the boobs to match.”
“My boobs are just fine, thank you,” Claudia informed her. “But, if we’re making me into Jessica Rabbit then I wouldn’t say no to her waist.”
“I can think of a few reality TV stars who took a picture of Jessica Rabbit to the plastic surgeon and said; make it so.” Marilyn huffed at the goods in front of her. She didn’t have the heart to bake, maybe she could just wing it with a little more magic and a bottle of wine, but even that might fall flat.
“There should be a law against it…”
“What?”
“Plastic surgeons making people look stupid…”
“There probably is, but it’s big business, so who is going to apply it?” Marilyn walked around the counter and shimmied onto a stool. Then she put her elbows on the counter and rested her chin on her fisted hands.
“Missing Jake already?” Claudia smiled when the only thing to move on her friend was her gaze, and that was piercing.
“Who knew Jake would step up for Scott?” Marilyn was still a little taken aback by that one. For as long as she’d known Jake, he’d never been the type to put someone else in front of himself.
“Let’s hope it lasts,” Claudia said, reaching out and standing the bag of flour upright. “How do you really feel about him leaving?”
Marilyn sat a little straighter. “Oh, I’m pining for him already.” Her tone was as dry as the contents of the bag of flour.
“How do you feel about Jake and Neal butting heads like rutting deer?” Claudia asked, catching her tongue between her teeth and offering Marilyn a wicked smile.
“Rutting deer?” Marilyn offered her a curious look.
“Well, they are both horny little devils,” Claudia said and snickered behind her hand.
Marilyn placed her palms down on the counter and pushed up. She leant in over the counter and put on a big, mocking smile for her friend. “I neither know nor care what they get up to in their free time.”
“Sure, you don’t,” Claudia offered back and watched Marilyn’s fake smile die on her lips. “Now say that like you mean it.”
Marilyn pushed away from the counter and started for the doorway. “How’s Cain today?”
“Well, that’s just a low blow, and deflection doesn’t look good on you, missy!” Claudia called after all. Then she grimaced.
In truth, she hadn’t slept much, even with the alcohol in her system, which should have knocked her out the moment her head hit the pillow; it wasn’t happening. In truth, she’d kept thinking about Cain roaming the grounds like a watch-wolf. He’d probably even marked his damn territory on the trees, but as long as he didn’t pee in the pool, she didn’t much care.
Every time she’d thought of Cain, her brain slammed into gear and that kiss – kisses – hot, tempting, sexy kisses – pinged back and forth in her mind. She’d made a determined effort to think of other things, but she only found her mind wandering right back to Cain again – like an unpaid bill that was on its second reminder, and you couldn’t afford it until the end of the month, it was making her anxious in ways she’d never known before.
Ugh!
Trying to lose herself in Marilyn
’s problems wasn’t going to work for her because her friend wouldn’t play ball. She guessed she could go and see if Sandy or Amber had anything to worry about, but the only person she knew with any real problems was Scott, and his biggest problem had been buried in some unknown location.
Amber had warned her about the mating pull, and she thought she got it now. It was like an itch, a frustratingly annoying itch that was just out of reach to scratch it and make better. Oh, she knew how to make it go away, but she wasn’t ready for that yet.
Claudia scowled unseeing at the wall. Yet? That implied that she would be ready at some point, but she wasn’t entirely sure that was true.
Ready for what? Mating with Cain? What was that really? Sex, making love, and she was sure the man wasn’t going to disappoint in that department, but it was what came after – a life of commitment to one man, a man who would always be there – always – like twenty-four seven always. Was she ready for that?
There it was again, the itch that needed scratching, and now that she’d thought about him she couldn’t stop thinking about him. Life sucked, fate sucked, and he sucked! She could only console herself with the thought that there was only one thing that sucked more – apart from Neal – and that would be to walk away from her one true chance at love.
Claudia knew that one bad relationship back in her teens had changed the course of her life forever where men were concerned or had it? Had fate just made it so that she got to where she needed to be later in life?
It was true that she’d never been the mothering kind, and playing favourite aunt to Marilyn’s kids had been fun while it lasted, but kids twenty-four-seven would have been a big ask when she had itchy feet to move from place to place. She’d lost that wanderlust recently, and she’d planned to stay in town – had that been down to fate as well or had she just run her course?
Dang fate and its sneaky little ways, she thought, as another image of Cain slipped into her mind accompanied by another flutter of anxiety within her. She wasn’t a teenager staring prom night in the face, and this had to stop – but how could it? There was only one way to get over what she was feeling, and that wasn’t an unpleasant thought, just a scary one.
To Claudia, relationships were life’s little land mines that you couldn’t avoid, no matter how hard you tried, but somehow she was going to have to navigate this one so when things did blow up, her heart wasn’t collateral damage.
~
Marilyn hit her internal brakes and screeched to a halt, leaning back and peering into the small study that Jake had used as a home office, and she’d never had a reason to change it into something more useful. Claudia looked up from the old leather-bound book she’d had her nose stuck in and did a double-take as Marilyn cocked just the one eyebrow at her.
“Fine, I admit it, I’m a closet bookworm,” Claudia announced as she folded the book over on itself but kept her finger between the pages so as not to lose her place. “No need to get the stake and matches, I’ll try to do better with my sinful ways.”
Marilyn walked towards her with slow, but purposeful steps and Claudia recognised the look that went with that walk – Marilyn had something on her mind. Claudia was hopeful it was going to be some juicy revelation about her feelings for the vampire, but she somehow doubted it. “I’ve been looking for you…”
“With something to share?” Claudia asked and offered her a small, teasing smile.
“Yes,” Marilyn said and paused as Claudia’s interest piqued. “Your mate is outside wearing away my grass as he paces back and forth…”
Claudia waved a dismissive hand. “Meh, you’re a green-fingered witch, you’ll fix it in no time,” she said and opened up the book.
“I don’t want to fix it; I don’t want him doing it in the first place…”
“Do you have a sprinkler system?” she asked, tipping her head to the side as she recalled something that made her smile. “I once had a man who wouldn’t take no for an answer, and I used my magic to turn on the sprinklers and…”
“No.”
Claudia pouted. It wasn’t what she’d said, but how she’d said it. Marilyn was about to dig her heels in, and when she leant her shoulder against the door frame and folded her arms, Claudia knew that was a bad sign.
“No?” She wasn’t about to make it easy for the woman, where would be the fun in that?
“You’re going to have to go out there and speak to him…”
“Says who?”
“Fate,” Marilyn announced, and that was a pretty damning argument to fight against.
“Or I could just stay here with this frightfully entertaining book and forget that Cain even exists…”
“A long book, is it?”
“I find I take more in if I read s-l-o-w-l-y…”
“That’s not War and Peace, and a word a day still won’t get you out of this hole that you’ve dug for yourself…”
“I’ve dug?” Claudia snorted. “How do you figure?”
“I seem to remember you messing with love in your youth…”
“We,” Claudia said, closing the book and placing it on the small table beside her. “We messed with love, and I don’t see how that’s relevant to this situation.”
“Maybe it’s payback time?” Marilyn held the small smile that threatened to tug her lips wider when Claudia scowled at her.
“And what payback did you get?”
“Hello!” Marilyn slapped her forehead. “Jake!” Claudia grunted and shifted position in the chair just for something to do. “And let me say that between the two of us, your fate seems more palatable than mine.”
Claudia sat up a little straighter in the chair and smirked. “Or maybe Neal is…”
“Out you go,” Marilyn said, pointing back over her shoulder. “Go talk to the wooluf before he damages my lawn.”
“Not going to happen, Lambsy,” Claudia said with a big dollop of relish and an assured nod of her head.
“Oh, really?” Marilyn said, and Claudia offered her a curious look. Marilyn had that look in her eyes like she was about to drop her right in the poop, and Claudia held her breath for the comeback line.
When Marilyn turned on her heels and headed across the hallway, Claudia strained in the chair to watch her go. Her instincts said to run for the hills, but that wouldn’t do her any good because the man she wanted to avoid was right outside and would follow her, plus Marilyn would have won. No, she needed to hold her nerve and trust that her best friend wasn’t about to throw her under the bus.
“Cain!” Marilyn’s voice echoed through the house and into the room where Claudia was sitting like a lamb to the slaughter – and there was the damn bus.
CHAPTER THIRTY THREE
~
Claudia quickly eyed the exits – there was the door to the hallway, which didn’t help her, and a window. That was all she needed, climbing out of the window at her age was less a fast escape and more trial and error.
It seemed that her best friend was about to throw her under the mating bus – rats!
“Come on in, you must be thirsty,” Marilyn voice practically hit her over the head like a sledgehammer. There was no time to come up with a dastardly plan to counteract her friend’s betrayal. She was just going to have to wing and prayer it.
The sound of footsteps coming towards her made Claudia snatch the book from the table and yank it open for want of something to ignore him with.
“Oh, look!” Marilyn said with mock surprise. “It’s Claudia!”
“Shocking,” Claudia muttered, keeping her eyes firmly on the pages she wasn’t reading and could barely see with the red haze of annoyance that blurred her vision. She was already planning for the payback monster to visit her friend – sooner, rather than later.
Marilyn slapped Cain on the back and tried to push him into the room, but the man must have thought it was a trap and she couldn’t budge him. “Well, I just remembered I have errands to run, so Claudia will get you that drink,” she announced, and full-
on pushed him across the threshold and into the lion’s den with a big old nudge of magic. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” she announced, all bright and breezy.
“Well, won’t that be boring,” Claudia bit out and shot a look, and a little magic, at her friend as she retreated across the hallway.
Marilyn tripped over nothing but air, and turned a scowl back on Claudia, only to find the witch smiling with glee. “My house is your house, Cain,” she called back over her shoulder as she snatched up her bag, keys, and slipped her feet into her shoes. “Perhaps you’d like to stay for the night – who knows when I’ll be back.” With that zinger, she slammed the front door shut behind her.
Cain turned to look at Claudia. His brow was furrowed, and his eyes were curious. “Is she always…?”
“Always,” Claudia said, snapping the book shut. “She’s a sneeze away from ending up in the loony bin.”
“So, I should take the invitation as…?” Claudia cocked an eyebrow at him, and he shoved his hands into the front pockets of his jeans. “Do I still get that drink?” he asked, with a cocky smile that made the butterflies start flapping their stupid wings inside of her.
Claudia held one thing to be true – payback by a witch was always a bitch.
~
Marilyn didn’t get three feet from the front door before she walked smack bang into a solid chest. Of course, it was her own fault for not looking where she was going as she half expected Claudia to come running out of the house, chasing her like a madwoman with payback in mind.
She knew payback would be coming – it was just a matter of when.
Marilyn slapped her hands against that chest at the same time as she turned to look up into the grin that said she’d dropped her friend in the frying pan and now she was facing the fire herself. Whoops.