by Jodi Redford
“None other.”
She turned to Aiden and Jace. “Ooh, guys, you are in for a treat. Raul’s gumbo is like a religious experience.”
Neither brother said anything. They were too busy staring at Raul’s funky ensemble. Finally Jace shook his head. “His oven mitts match his dress.”
Placing a hand in the center of their backs, she urged Aiden and Jace toward her aunt’s spacious Victorian. Leo was staked out on the covered porch, a cigarette dangling from his mouth. She gave him a stern look. “I thought you were quitting.”
His expression turned sheepish. “I am. After all this craziness with you and your aunt dies down.”
Dana’s guilt crept to the forefront when she remembered the sleepless nights Leo had been spending at the restaurant lately—because of her. Before she could say anything, Leo’s scrutiny shifted to Aiden and Jace. He made no effort to conceal the fact he was sizing the brothers up. “These must be the new friends your aunt has been gushing over.”
She detected the note of suspicion in Leo’s voice and hurried to set his mind at rest. More than likely her shacking up with two strange men was testing his protective instincts. She quickly made the introductions and the trio exchanged wary handshakes. Leo’s distrust was to be expected, but Aiden and Jace’s leery behavior threw her for a loop.
Emmaline popped her head through the doorway, breaking the odd tension that’d fallen over the men. “There you are. And you brought food.” She gave the tray a critical inspection. “My niece didn’t make that, did she?”
Dana rolled her eyes. “It’s sliced cheese. How can I mess that up?”
“Hon, you’d find a way.” Emmaline plucked the tray from Jace’s grasp and led everyone inside her house.
The living room was crowded with people snacking on hors d’oeuvres and swilling beers and the occasional glass of wine. Everyone went out of their way to make Aiden and Jace feel welcome. Slowly, the brothers began to let their guard down, and when Jamie the dishwasher engaged them in a heated debate about football she took advantage and snuck off to the kitchen. She found Emmaline sampling some of Raul’s gumbo.
“Aha, caught ya.” Snickering, Dana grabbed a spoon and dunked it inside the bowl clutched against Emmaline’s chest. She inhaled the aroma of thyme and roasted garlic with an appreciative sniff. “Man, I could make a meal just from this stuff.”
“Why do you think I keep that pain-in-the-ass cook around?”
Dana licked the spoon clean and grinned. “Admit it. You’re secretly in love with Raul. Why don’t you just ask him out and be done with it?”
Emmaline made a snorting noise. “Good Lord, it’d be like dating one of my girlfriends.”
“Look at it this way. You could share clothes. You’d be getting a boyfriend and a new wardrobe.”
“Speaking of boyfriends.” Emmaline craned her neck to see around Dana. “Where are the twins?”
“Out in the living room, talking to Jamie.”
“You left them with Wheezer?” Emmaline lowered the bowl of gumbo, her expression aghast. “You know how annoying that kid can be.”
Dana felt a twinge of guilt. True, Jamie the “Wheezer” Douglas tended to be more irritating than a sandpaper thong. Not that she’d ever worn a sandpaper thong. Or wanted to. But she’d desperately needed a break from the constant arousal Aiden and Jace’s presence brought. “I’ll go save them in a couple of minutes.”
Apparently satisfied with the compromise, Emmaline placed her bowl in the sink and bustled to the kitchen table where the buffet had been set up. Leo ambled into the kitchen, the cigarette noticeably absent and a glum expression shadowing his features. Emmaline stopped her fussing with the dishes and patted his arm. “How are you holding up?”
Leo gave a listless shrug and sadness flashed across Emmaline’s countenance. Dana frowned. “What’s going on?”
Emmaline shot her a warning stare, but Leo merely stuffed his big hands in the pockets of his jeans and hung his head, looking like a little boy who’d gotten his butt swatted for misbehaving. “Jane left me.”
“Oh, Leo, I’m so sorry.” Dana hurried across the tiled floor and hugged the burly bartender.
“Yeager is plenty happy she took off, but I… Shit.” A faint sniffle trickled from Leo. Giving her a brief squeeze, he pushed away and put on his manly front. “What am I saying? Hell, I’m happy about it too. Now I don’t have to listen to her bitching about the one time I left the toilet seat up. Or hearing what an insensitive bastard I am because I didn’t remember the anniversary of our first-ever date. Who remembers that shit anyway?”
He turned and glared at the food lined up on the table. “And I can eat whatever I damn well please without her telling me it’s bad for me. I can eat a whole stick of butter if I want to.”
“Uh, you might want to skip doing that,” Dana suggested.
“You know what else?” Leo demanded, apparently on a roll and unconcerned with the dangers of saturated fats. “Now I don’t have to put up with her crabbing about my yearly hunting trip.”
“I didn’t know you hunted.” Dana snatched a piece of cheese from the tray she’d brought and popped the cube into her mouth.
Leo’s dark eyebrows knitted. “Yeah. Your old man was the one who taught me. I thought Emmaline told you.”
They both turned to stare at her aunt. Emmaline’s cheeks had taken on an ashen pallor. “W-why don’t we call everyone in before the grub gets cold?” Not waiting for their response, she bulldozed past them and leaned through the doorway. “Dinner’s on, everyone.”
Dana stared at the colorful pom-poms stitched all over her aunt’s sweater. An uneasy sensation slithered beneath her skin. Emmaline was keeping something from her. Her aunt had always been open with her about everything, so what the hell was going on?
The next two hours dragged by, giving Dana no opportunity to confront her aunt about her suspicions. She tried to relax and enjoy the party but with each passing minute her nerves stretched tighter and tighter. Finally Emmaline escorted the last two stragglers out the door and waved them off.
Aiden lifted from the couch. “We should probably be going too.”
Dana didn’t budge from her position on the loveseat. Instead she lasered her stare into the back of her aunt’s head. “What are you hiding from me?”
A wary stillness washed over Emmaline. She clutched the doorframe, her knuckles rigid. Half expecting her aunt to try for a quick escape into the night, Dana shoved from the loveseat and stalked to the door. “Exactly what kind of hunting did my dad teach Leo?”
“Oh fuck,” Jace groaned from behind her.
His outburst slammed into her with the subtlety of a two-by-four. She swiveled and caught the fast exchange of glances between Aiden and Jace.
Just like that, she knew. The realization that’d slowly been building inside her the past two hours exploded in an ugly mess. “My dad hunted you guys, didn’t he? He was a slayer.”
Jace averted his gaze but she wouldn’t let Aiden off so easily. Storming to the couch, she towered over him, her body shaking with the chaotic emotions whirling inside her. “Answer me, damn it.”
“Yes, he was.”
Oh God. She staggered back a step, the contents of her stomach threatening to make a reappearance on Emmaline’s Chinese rug. A pair of strong arms wrapped around her middle, pulling her onto the couch. Ducking her head, she waited for the queasiness to abate. Her aunt’s footsteps rushing across the carpet sounded like a dull thud in Dana’s eardrums. Emmaline’s weight settled on the cushion and the familiar scent of lilacs drifted to Dana’s nose. Rather than offering its usual comfort, her aunt’s perfume increased Dana’s nausea.
Emmaline’s hand curved around Dana’s knee. “I never meant for you to find out.”
“Don’t you think I had a right to know?” Dana scrubbed furiously at the tears starting to accumulate on her lashes. “God, even Aiden and Jace—who you didn’t even know until a week ago—know more than me.”
“Your aunt didn’t mean to tell us,” Aiden said, stroking her back gently. “When we harassed her about the hunters sitting in La Luna’s bar, the truth kind of came spilling out.”
She gaped at him before swerving her focus to Emmaline. “How many hunters have been hanging around me all this time?”
Emmaline cleared her throat, her cheeks growing pink. “Including Leo—twenty, give or take.”
“Oh my God.” Dana surged to her feet, knocking both Emmaline and Aiden’s hands aside. “Is there anyone in my life who isn’t a hunter?”
“I’m not.” Emmaline’s voice held a quiet hesitancy. “And I don’t think Raul is. At least he’s never mentioned it.”
“Probably only because he can’t find a camouflage dress that flatters his figure,” Dana said, unable to disguise the bitterness that’d crept into her tone. She paced in front of the couch before turning to assess the three people staring at her with obvious worry. It was like she’d been looking at things through the wrong end of a telescope all this time. Suddenly the lens had been flipped and the big picture made clear. Only she didn’t like what she saw. “Why did my dad decide to hunt?”
Emmaline fidgeted with her silver claddagh ring and refused to meet Dana’s eyes, causing the bile to rise again in Dana’s throat.
Dana swallowed, trying to keep down her dinner and her agony. “He did it because of me, didn’t he?”
An answer would have been less damning than the silence surrounding her. The room felt like it was pressing in on her, making it difficult to breathe. “I—I need to go home. Please.”
Aiden and Jace shot to their feet, but Emmaline struggled a bit extricating herself from the cushions. “Hon, you’re still upset. We should talk—”
“You waited twenty-seven years to tell me all this. I think our talk can wait until tomorrow.” Tugging her misery around her like an invisible cloak, Dana stormed out the door.
Dana’s unusual silence during the ride to her house scared the hell out of Aiden. It seemed no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t unlock her from the dark prison of her inner turmoil. The news about her father had hit her hard and he didn’t know how to make it better for her.
The second he shifted into park in front of the garage, Dana scrambled from the vehicle and disappeared inside the house. He started after her but Jace blocked the path.
“Leave her be. She needs space to sort things out.”
Heeding Jace’s advice felt like the toughest thing he’d ever endured. Giving the front stoop a longing glance, he followed Jace inside the tent. They sat across from each other on the mattresses, neither saying anything for a long spell. Aiden’s patience started to buckle and he moved to stand.
“Christ. It’s only been five minutes.”
Aiden thunked back onto the mattress. “Us sitting here doing nothing isn’t helping anything.”
“And you running in there making things worse will?”
“Since you know so goddamn much, how about you come up with a brilliant plan.”
Jace leaned back on his elbows and studied him. “For starters, how about you admit you’re in love with Dana?”
He briefly returned Jace’s penetrating stare before giving up and shifting his attention to his boots. “I did. She wasn’t exactly thrilled with the news.”
“Weird. Most chicks like it when you break out the L word.”
“Does Dana strike you as being like most chicks?”
Jace chuckled. “Good point.”
“She wants a normal life. Something we sure as hell can’t give her. And this business with her father just complicates things more.”
“Do you suppose she sees having a relationship with us as being a slap in his face?”
A thick lump lodged in Aiden’s throat. “What do you think?” He pushed to his feet and walked to the opened tent flap. The house remained dark as a funeral shroud. The analogy seemed fitting because all his hopes and dreams were dying around him.
Chapter Twenty-One
The sound of an engine gunning slapped Aiden from a restless sleep. Fighting his way from the blanket entangling his legs, he hurtled off the mattress. He stumbled outside in time to catch Dana’s Suburban hightailing it down the driveway. “Son of a bitch!”
Racing back inside the tent, he frantically scanned for his set of car keys. He found them still tucked in the pocket of the trousers he’d worn the night before. Palming the keys, he ran to the Navigator. He skidded to a halt when he noticed the flattened front tire. Blinking, he circled the hood and gaped at the flat tire on the passenger side. Footsteps padded behind him and he pivoted.
Jace scruffed a hand through his major case of bed hair. “What’s all the commotion about?”
“She let the air out of the tires,” Aiden said, his voice spiked with disbelief.
Jace shuffled sideways and peered at the ground, apparently just realizing he stood where POC was usually parked. “Dana took off?”
Fury and frustration boiled inside Aiden. He bared his teeth at his brother. “So much for giving her space.”
“How was I supposed to know this would happen?” Jace’s hangdog expression contradicted his defensive tone.
Scared and angry to the point he couldn’t see straight, Aiden stormed inside the tent and searched for his cell phone. Once he located it, he called his roadside assistance provider and gave them Dana’s street address.
“Isn’t Dana supposed to work the Ren fair today? Maybe she’s headed there.”
He shot Jace a doubtful look. “At six thirty in the morning?”
“Okay. What about her aunt’s then?”
That seemed more likely. Too bad he didn’t know how to reach Emmaline. If he was lucky, Dana kept an address book with important phone numbers inside the house. Keeping that hopeful plea forefront in his mind, he loped up the steps to Dana’s door.
Locked, of course. He quickly shifted his hand into a talon and let himself into the house. Jace followed him to Dana’s studio and a quick rifling through Dana’s desk coughed up the prize they’d been searching for. Aiden located Emmaline’s number and dialed her on his cell phone, his fingers shaking so much he messed up twice and had to reenter the information. Emmaline picked up on the third ring and after apologizing for the earliness of his call, Aiden explained the situation.
“I knew she was upset last night,” Emmaline said, her voice cracking. “This is all my fault. I should have told Dana everything instead of trying to protect the memory of her father all these years.”
“You did what you thought was best.” Aiden stared at the fairy painting Dana had started for Jen Landrey. Heaviness anchored in his chest. If Dana didn’t get the chance to finish the painting, he’d never forgive himself. Refusing to dwell on the possibility, he made Emmaline promise to phone him if she heard anything from Dana. His heart hollow, he went outside to wait for the tire repair guy.
It wasn’t until she sped onto the freeway entrance ramp that Dana knew with crystal-clear accuracy where she was headed. Unfortunately, the revelation came to her the same instant she recalled her untended booth at the fair. She panicked for a few seconds until she remembered Tony. Feeling immense guilt for imposing on him on his day off, she fished her cell from her purse and scrolled to his home line. He picked up right away, his voice gravelly with sleep. Her throat tear clogged, she rambled out her request.
“No problem. I’ll get dressed and head over there now.” A pregnant pause came from Tony. “Is everything okay? You sound kind of upset.”
“I’m fine.” God, what a lie. “I just have a lot on my mind right now.”
“You’re not by yourself, are you? You shouldn’t be alone when you’re this agitated.”
She sniffled. “Don’t worry. I’m not at the wrist-slitting stage. Thanks again for watching my booth. I owe you big time.” She ended the call and focused on the road and the traffic whizzing by. Fat gray clouds hung low on the horizon. Pretty fitting accompaniment to her mood.
Ten miles later she spotted the exit sign she needed and took the off ramp. Another four miles past the city limits she spotted the ornate iron gates bracketing the entrance to Shady Acres cemetery. She turned onto the drive and followed it past the chapel and toward the back section of the rolling property. Finding a parking spot near one of the many stately oaks dotting the landscape, she cut the engine. She glanced in the rearview mirror and noticed another vehicle approaching from behind. Goose bumps pricked her skin and the warnings Aiden and Jace had been hammering into her the past several days came roaring back.
The black sedan continued driving past and the air trapped in her lungs released in a rush. Throwing the door open, she climbed outside. The stingiest of breezes rattled through the leaves overhead, bringing with it the smell of roses withering on the nearby gravesites. Hugging her chest tight, she started the long walk to her father’s plot.
Aiden screeched into Fancies’ parking lot, his heart doing a slow plummet. Dana’s Suburban was nowhere in sight. “So much for that.”
“Told you we should have driven out to the fairgrounds.” Jace held up his hands when Aiden speared him with a sizzling glare. “I’m just sayin’.”
“Do me a favor and stop talking out of your ass.”
Jace bristled. “You think you’re the only one scared shitless right now? Think again, bro.”
Aiden leaned back in his seat, the inevitable confrontation he’d been expecting looming like an enormous chasm between them. “Do you love her?”
A suspicious twitch acted up near the scar above Jace’s right eyebrow, but he kept his expression perfectly bland. “What the hell does that have to do with anything?”
“Do you love her?” Aiden repeated stubbornly.
Jace opened his mouth and the twitching went into spastic mode. He snapped his jaw shut and stared out the windshield for a long moment. “I care about her. A lot. And I could probably grow to love her. But I’m not the one she loves. I’m not her mate.”