Maggie lifted her coffee and sipped at it asshe contemplated this. “I like the way you think, Aiden Byrne.”
He grinned at her and rose to take her handafter she finished the last of her food. Leading her out of thedonut shop, he walked with her down to the beach. Maggie laughedwhen he spun her across the sand as if they were dancing.
When they returned to his room, his phonerang. He pulled it out of his pocket and glanced at the screen. Herecognized his sister Abby’s number. Turning his phone off, hetossed it onto the bureau. It could all wait until tomorrow, hedecided as he pulled Maggie into his arms.
• • •
The next morning, a knock on the hotel doordrew Aiden’s attention to it. His eyes narrowed as he listened forany indication of who stood on the other side. They’d ordered roomservice last night, but this morning they’d gone out so Maggiecould get coffee and donuts. The housekeepers had come through,cleaned the room, and made the bed while they were out. Rising, hewalked over to the door, put his eye to the peephole, and spottedhis sister Vicky on the other side.
Vicky placed her middle finger against theeyehole. “Open up, asshole.”
“Shit,” he grumbled before turning the locksand pulling the door open. “It’s good to see you too,Victoria.”
“It always is,” she replied as she pushedpast him and strolled into the room.
“What are you doing here?” he asked whenVicky plopped herself onto the chair in the corner.
“I couldn’t resist your jovial companyanymore,” she retorted as she bounced on the cushion. “Comfy.”
“How did you find me and why?”
He hadn’t told anyone where they would bestaying. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust them, it was that he’d beenhoping to avoidthis. He wanted time alone with Maggie, andhe’d checked in often enough to keep them from searching him out,or so he’d assumed.
“When you shut your phone off, you know it’sonly a matter of time before someone in this family hunts you down.We do have the vampire equivalent of a GPS as a brother-in-law, sohunting someone down isn’t difficult.”
“Brian,” he muttered. Brian was the otherreason he hadn’t told anyone where he was. If he stopped checkingin, Brian would be able to locate him. However, it had been lessthan twenty-four hours since he’d spoken with Declan. There was noreason for them to come looking for him.
“Oh, don’t be angry with the oaf,” Vickysaid with a wave of her hand.
Aiden scowled and closed the door. “Whereare Abby and Brian?”
If Vicky was here, then Abby was too.
“Downstairs. Brian’s making sure it’s safebefore coming up. I, on the other hand, was far too eager to meetour newest family member to wait. Where is my future sister-in-law?Are you hiding her somewhere?” Vicky asked as she glanced aroundthe room. “Did you scare her off already?”
“In her room taking a shower,” he replied.When they’d returned to find housekeeping in his room, Maggie hadgone to hers to shower and call Roger again. “And don’t scareher.”
Vicky’s green eyes widened innocently, andshe rested her hand against her chest. “Me?” she asked with aninnocent flutter of her lashes. “I would never!”
“I told her she’s my mate, but not that shehas to turn to complete the bond.”
“Big detail to omit.”
“She’s had enough to deal with recently.We’ll get to that when it’s necessary.”
“From what I’ve seen of you recently, it’snecessary.”
“What do you mean?”
“Oh, come on, Aiden. I’m not blind orstupid. You’ve been walking a fine line for a while. It’s why youjoined up with Ronan, after all.”
He’d believed he’d kept his deteriorationinto madness a secret, but if Vicky noticed, then he’d done apiss-poor job of hiding it. He loved her as much as the rest of hisbrothers and sisters, but Vicky was probably the most self-centeredone in the family. She rarely considered the consequences of heractions.
Unfortunately, she’d almost been killedbecause of that recently, and it had gotten her abused in a way shenever should have been. Self-absorbed she may be, but she was alsoincredibly loving, and that part of her had taken a beating whileshe’d been imprisoned by vampires who fed on her.
Just thinking about finding her in thatwarehouse, chained to a wall with numerous bite marks on her madeAiden want to kill those vampires all over again.
“I didn’t realize you and the others hadnoticed,” he said. He saw no reason to deny her words. All hissiblings may have spent a good portion of their childhoodstorturing each other, but they were also each other’s bestfriends.
