to look out over a weakly trickling fountain and recovering rose garden in the once dollar-weed-choked side yard. Early morning mist draped the distant tree line, shrouding it as thickly as Max’s contemplations.
“Good thing I wasn’t after your hair, or I’d be wearing it on my belt.”
Max offered a faint smile. “You’re welcome to it.”
“So, it’s that kinda day already.” Cale left it at that. “Didn’t hear the Missus come in last night.” So much for minding his own business. “She workin’?”
“Assume so.” Max should have known better than to hope a curt reply would end Cale’s curiosity.
“And that’s got you worried.” Not a question. “’Cuz of the baby?” After a long silence, Cale answered for himself, “’Course it is. Kendra being here purely scares the hell outta me.” A long pause was followed by a sighed truth. “But damned if I don’t need her. She was right about that. Usually is.” Encouraged by Max’s faint smile, he summed it up for them both. “All we can do is worry and try best we can to keep ’em safe, sometimes in spite of themselves.”
After a long awkward silence, Max ventured, “Heard from your brother?”
“Which one?”
“Colin.”
A slow tension seeped through his guest. “There a reason I should have?”
“Might want to make a casual call.”
Alerted by Max’s tone, Cale jumped up and limped down the length of the covered porch. He pulled out his cell, voice trailing behind him. “Hey. How’s it going? When?” With that sharp question, he went still for a long moment. “On my way. Don’t be stupid. Where else would I be?”
Max stood as the anxious Terriot strode toward him with news that at first didn’t surprise then plainly shocked.
“Mia’s in the hospital. They were in an accident, but it looks like everyone’s gonna be okay.” He drew up to study Max’s expression, his own guarded. “You look damned surprised. What do you know that I don’t?”
What didn’t he know? That’s not the situation Max left behind to return to his regrettably empty bed. So how had it changed from its tragic course?
To fill the pointed silence, Max mentioned, “Your brother was waiting for Rueben Guedry and didn’t want me to say anything until they’d spoken.”
“About?”
“Letting her go naturally.”
A tremendous shock flashed through quickly narrowed eyes. “And you didn’t think I needed to know that?”
“Wasn’t my call to make.”
Cale let that settle in before asking, “Wanna make a trip into town with me?”
Just the excuse Max needed to go after his own answers.
– – –
With a stoic St. Clair at the wheel, Max’s big town car sliced through fog ribbons teasing across the road. In back, Cale continued to explore his worries.
“Accident?”
“No.”
A low curse. “I shouldn’t have let them stay in the city. It’s not like either of them are under the radar. At least Rico has some sense.” A rather amazed snort at that anomaly. “Ideas on who’s behind it?”
“Too many. Silas is narrowing it down.”
“MacCreedy knows? My brother called him?”
“From the scene. He was closest,” Max added to soothe the poorly-hidden injury.
“I thought they were safe.” That tore like a bandage off a raw wound. “They looked to me, and I can’t protect them.”
A humbling admission Max could relate to. And suddenly it became all too clear, like the road ahead as they entered the city. “Protect them by attacking what’s put them in danger.”
Cale’s quick side glance was followed by a wretched truth. “I don’t have the numbers or the resources.”
“But you have friends who do.”
Cale considered that then said simply, “Help me.”
Max had been two-stepping around this moment since Jacques LaRoche had proclaimed their kind had found its king. He hadn’t asked to be, hadn’t wanted that role. He’d done everything he could think of to diminish his part by bringing Nevada and Memphis into talks of solidarity. He wasn’t a leader, he was a follower, always seeking the background, the anonymity of the shadows where he couldn’t be seen or recognized as their Promised One. Now, he had his own small family to care for. What Cale asked of him would put them in jeopardy.
But would any of them be safe if even one was threatened?
With a heavy sigh, Max turned Cale’s request. “Help me protect all of us.”
– – –
Colin Terriot still slumped in the same waiting area chair with a freshly garbed but no less weary Rueben Guedry at his side. He blinked up at his brother in surprise before guilt crowded his stitched brow.
“My king, I’m sorry. I should have—”
“Stop.”