“Thank you,” Jake said quietly.
“Mind you, you’ll pay for it where Mom is concerned,” Neil added dryly.
“How?” Jake asked warily.
“Well, after seven years of your absence, she’s going to want to spend time with you . . . a lot of it. I suspect she’ll show up and plant herself for a while until she’s reassured everything is okay and her oldest baby boy is her baby again.”
Jake managed not to wince. He loved his mother, always had, even while being afraid of her. But he knew her well enough to know Neil was right. The woman would no doubt head out here from whichever home base—
“Are they coming from Italy?” he asked.
Neil shook his head. “California.”
That made Jake’s eyebrows rise. “Then I’m surprised she didn’t fly out with you.”
“I was in Toronto. Business,” Neil added. “I would have been here sooner, but I was in the middle of a business meeting when Dante called and didn’t call back to find out what was happening until it ended. Then I had to arrange for a flight.”
Jake nodded. It was now two o’clock in the morning. The accident had taken place around five. It was only an hour and a half from Toronto to Ottawa by flight so it must have been an important meeting. That or it had taken quite a while to arrange a plane to bring him here. Either way, Jake had no doubt his brother had got here as quickly as he could.
“I called Mom after I got off the phone with Dante, that was about three hours ago,” Neil said, hesitated, and then added, “She and Dad are on a plane right now, headed this way.”
Jake stiffened at that news, his eyes shooting to his brother. “No.”
Neil nodded, looking almost apologetic.
“Damn,” Jake muttered, glancing to Nicole and worrying about what that might mean. He wasn’t sure she was ready to meet his parents. Good Lord, they’d only met themselves days ago.
“Look on the bright side, you’ll have extra help keeping her safe,” Neil pointed out.
Jake nodded. That would be good, he supposed. Once their flight landed, he’d have his parents and Neil there as well as Dante and Tomasso to help keep Nicole safe and they obviously needed the help. Her soon to be ex would be desperate when he knew this latest attempt had failed.
Thoughts halting, Jake glanced at Neil. “Dante told you about Nicole’s ex?”
“Marguerite did. I’ve been in Toronto for almost a week. I was there when the hot tub incident happened. I was going to drop everything and come out here then, but she cautioned against it. She thought it would be better if Dante and Tomasso came alone.”
Jake smiled crookedly. “She was probably right. I wasn’t really ready to be pulled back into the fold yet, but those two are . . .” He shook his head helplessly. The twins were not generally the talkative sorts to start with, so hadn’t bombarded him with arguments for why he was being an ass. They’d just stood by, strong, silent support while he’d figured it out for himself. Neil would have tried to talk him around and Jake hadn’t been ready for that.
Marguerite was apparently a brilliant strategist, Jake thought, and then glanced to the door as Dante and Tomasso entered.
“We brought you a coffee,” Dante announced, crossing the room and moving around the bed to offer Jake a cup of Tim Horton’s coffee, even as he glanced over to take note of Neil’s presence.
“Sorry, Neil. We didn’t bring you one,” Tomasso said. “Didn’t know you were here.”
“That’s all right. I don’t drink coffee,” Neil said.
“Caffeine makes him bounce off the walls,” Jake told them. Some immortals simply couldn’t handle coffee. Neil was one of those and that was why Jake had avoided coffee since being turned. He’d been afraid he might react the same way. They were half brothers after all. However, it seemed that sensitivity to caffeine came from Neil’s father, because Jake had been drinking coffee since meeting Nicole and hadn’t noticed it affecting him much at all.
Dante nodded and then glanced to Nicole. “How’s she doing? Any change?”
Jake opened the tab of his coffee lid and shook his head. “She hasn’t stirred at all.”
“It’s probably for the best. She’s going to have one hell of a headache when she wakes up. Better to sleep through it,” Dante said.
Jake grunted as he sipped at his coffee. He didn’t mind her sleeping through the headache . . . so long as she woke up. He was very aware that Nicole was a fragile mortal, and mortals had been known to die from head wounds. That thought had him peering at her worriedly. “Maybe I should turn her.”
“She’s fine,” Neil said quietly.
“You can’t turn her,” Tomasso rumbled. “She needs to give permission.”