The Fire Road [Triple Trouble 10] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Read online

  “I’m surprised you can remember that far back,” Gigi bitterly said. “How many women did you knock up over the millennia, you bastard?”

  “I’ve always tried to do my best to—”

  “If you don’t shut up right now,” Gigi said, “I’m going to summon Lina up here to take care of you. And I’d be willing to bet she’d give even your ass a run for your money.”

  “You’d better leave,” Oscar said. “You’re not welcomed here.”

  “I’m sorry,” the older man said before disappearing.

  Blackie held Callie and Elise a little tighter against him as his gaze met Oscar’s.

  “How about once we all calm down,” Blackie said, “I’ll run to the store and pick up some steaks and we grill them. I can drop you by your house to grab your car on the way.”

  Oscar pulled Gigi tighter against his body and kissed the top of her head. “Sounds like a good idea to me, brother.”

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  In her Atlanta hotel room, Aliah waited.

  And waited.

  And waited.

  She checked her phone, checked Carl’s watch, checked her Twitter feed, the USGS feed, CNN.com, and…

  She fumed.

  What the fucking hell?

  She’d paid a lot of goddamned money for that fucking bomb. Well, Carl had, but same thing. Even if Syrena hadn’t come through, the timer still should have gone off by now.

  Finally, fifteen minutes after nothing had apparently happened, she decided to take a look-see. She didn’t want to leave the digital footprint, but she turned on her laptop, logged into her web browser, found the surveillance camera that was attached to the truck stop building, and tapped into its feed.

  That it was still in existence worried her.

  She zoomed in on the truck and realized the back of it stood open, giving her a clear view into the interior of the cargo area.

  Empty.

  “Son of a fucking bitch goddamned motherFUCKING BITCH CUNT WHOREDOGS!” Turning, she kicked the wall, putting a large hole in it with Carl’s foot. “FUCK!”

  Throwing her head back, she let out a howling scream, wishing Carl could shift into cockatrice form so she could storm through the building and kill people.

  What was the worst that could happen? They kill her? It was Carl’s body. She suspected her body still lay back wherever the hell-fuck realm she’d been sent to, alive but unconscious. If Carl’s body died, she’d most likely pop back into her body, based on what she remembered reading from the spell book she no longer had in her possession.

  Somewhere inside his skull, Carl tried to protest that he didn’t want to die, but she ignored him. She’d punch him in the nuts if she wouldn’t feel it, too.

  Having tried that once, she didn’t want to try it again. It hurt like a motherfucker.

  That’s when she realized the laptop was still online. She killed the Wi-Fi connection and slammed it shut, then flipped it over and pulled the battery out of it. She grabbed her shit, hurried out of the room, climbed into the car, and peeled out of there.

  If the bomb hadn’t gone off, and was now missing, that was a serious fucking problem. There hadn’t been any cops around the truck, so it wasn’t like the authorities had found it.

  The guys she’d hired for Florida knew nothing about it. No one knew anything about it, except the guy who’d built it. And she’d been careful not to be followed by him when she’d left him.

  It probably meant Carl’s fucking old hag of a mother had somehow double-crossed her. Not only not setting the bomb off—even though Syrena hadn’t realized that’s what would happen—but somehow figuring it out and then stealing the fucking thing. And disarming it.

  Shitty-ass mother.

  It meant the cunt was still alive. That was an even bigger fucking problem, because now Aliah didn’t know if the woman had gotten any evidence of her own against Aliah.

  Well, against Carl.

  That also meant a double-double cross somewhere, because the bomb’s timer mechanism should have gone off anyway. No way the woman could have gotten out of the blast zone in time.

  So who fucking deactivated it?

  Then, a moment of insight. She pulled over into a parking lot, threw the car into park, and took a walk through Carl’s thoughts. He couldn’t stop her at this point. She’d figured out how to plow right through any barriers he’d tried to erect. The power she’d absorbed from the spell book was in her soul and in her thoughts, not in her body.

  She’d thought maybe he’d somehow, while she was asleep at some point, taken control of his body again and warned the woman, but no.

  He hadn’t.

  He couldn’t.

  He didn’t even know how to do that. Was powerless to do it. It was like she had his essence locked inside a closet within his own brain.

  Well, shit.

  That would have sucked balls, but at least it would have been an easy answer to the question. Carl had no answers to any of her questions.

  Now what the fuck do I do?

  Worse, she had no idea where, down the chain of people she’d gone through to get the device in the first place, the problem lay. She hadn’t told Carl’s mother what was going on—duh—but maybe she’d followed Carl and figured it out. Maybe the guy who’d made it had someone follow Carl and just waited for her to leave it parked there to steal it back.

  She pounded on her steering wheel. “Fuck!”

  Another problem would be not knowing if someone was waiting to take Carl out. Or had been tracking Carl. She hadn’t planned on going to ground this soon. There were still bank accounts she was trying to drain, assets she was trying to liquidate that would be difficult to get rid of once the bomb went off.

  No one would want to buy property or fracking rights in the middle of a radioactive zone.

  Fuck.

  The wolf cunt and her friends had killed off her guys.

  The bomb didn’t go off as planned.

  Nothing was going as planned.

  This was really starting to piss her off.

  PART IV: BACK TO THE CROSSROADS

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Elain curled against Cail in their bed. Five days following losing Baba Yaga, she still felt wrung out, physically and emotionally.

  Not just because of the events at the truck stop in Marston.

  Everything.

  The aftermath of the showdown there on the ranch and the frantic search to shut down the bomb. The growing double burritos of doom. Losing Baba Yaga…

  In a way, Elain felt…lost. The three of them had taken time off as the Triad to recover and regroup. They didn’t know exactly what their next major focus would be, so they were busy sorting through various visions they’d had individually and dealing with loose ends there.

  Elain sensed Lina held growing concerns about Uncle Andel’s health. That he had cancer he hadn’t told anyone else about, and Lina had already seen visions of his funeral.

  And when it would happen.

  Elain needed to work with Lina and Mai on their poofing powers. It was well past time they were independent in that way. They’d let their lack of self-confidence hold them back.

  She didn’t know if it was from revelations she’d had while exploring the cockatrice amulet or what, but Elain had seen what Mai and Lina needed to do.

  First, Elain needed to recover.

  Knowing that Baba Yaga—Jadwiga—had killed herself still overwhelmed her.

  Jadwiga had spent countless years in agony after losing her soul mate, unable to find happiness again. Had she engineered everything that had happened?

  Elain knew yes, in part. She’d taken advantage of what was to happen and helped steer it to her own ends.

  And now, she was free, while the new Triad struggled to accept what had happened and once again move forward.

  Elain snuggled tighter in Cail’s arms, draping a leg over his. Brodey and Ain had insisted on cleaning up from dinner, sending Elain and Cail to b
ed ahead of them.

  Arching her hips against him, she nibbled on his lower lip.

  “I thought you were tired?” he teased.

  “Not too tired for this.”

  He rolled on top of her, his cock easily slipping into her pussy as Elain wrapped her legs around him. He kissed her as she held him, raking her nails up and down his back and drawing a low hiss of pleasure from him.

  “I love you so, so much,” he said through their mate-bond as he kissed her.

  “I love you, too.”

  It was slow, gentle, easy, and so, so sweet. For once no desperation in her, no panic.

  Things would once again happen that needed their attention.

  But not tonight.

  Tonight was for them.

  He varied his strokes, from short, hard ones to long, slow, teasing ones, building her up, rubbing against her clit with every thrust.

  He pressed his forehead against hers. “I’m so close, babe.”

  “Do it.”

  He did, Elain watching, loving the look on his face as he took several more strokes and finally finished deep inside her, coming to rest with his eyes closed, his face at peace.

  Not lingering long, he opened his eyes and smiled at her before crawling down her body and settling between her legs. It only took him a couple of minutes of playful flicking and teasing with his tongue to bring her over. As she lay curled there in his arms, the bedroom door opened and Brodey and Ain walked in.

  “Ah, wearing her out, huh?” Ain teased.

  She smiled and crooked a finger at him. “Always have energy for my boys.”

  Ain crawled into bed with them and she coaxed him into climbing on top of her. “What are you in the mood for, baby?”

  “Easy and fast,” she said.

  With her already well-lubed, Ain’s cock easily slipped into her pussy. As he fucked her, he leaned in, kissing her. “Come for me, baby,” he said through their mate-bond.

  Elain’s body responded, his mouth swallowing her gasping cry as her body orgasmed, coaxing Ain’s cock to follow suit. In minutes, Ain had switched places with Brodey, and he too was kissing her and issuing a silent edict to her to come.

  When she cuddled, sated, between Cail and Brodey, she closed her eyes and then mentally swore.

  She had something to do tonight.

  Right now.

  Fortunately, her men fell asleep quickly, allowing her to throw up a barrier to conceal her movements as she snuck out of bed, cleaned up, and threw on clothes.

  This was something she’d been watching for, and she couldn’t let the moment slip by.

  She walked down to the last bedroom, focused on the energy, and then followed it.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Night had fallen. Oscar brought Gigi a cup of herbal tea where she lay stretched out on their sofa, the TV on but unwatched.

  He worried about her. His usually spirited mate had barely spoken in the past week. He felt desperately glad they’d settled in Maine, near Callie.

  Callie and Blackie had come by to visit every day, both sisters sitting, holding each other and crying as the men headed out to the back porch, Elise in Blackie’s arms.

  So many countless years the three sisters had been together. Maybe not physically, but psychically connected.

  To lose that connection had crushed the two women. Even when the Triad had ended and Gigi and Callie had relinquished their powers, they’d still had that tether.

  And now…

  It was just the two of them, emphasizing to them their mortality.

  Something they truly hadn’t faced until now.

  Then there were the letters, identical ones, short and sweet, mailed by Baba Yaga from New Madrid the day of the showdown. They’d arrived in the mail two days earlier.

  Blackie and Callie had already left from their visit today. Oscar knelt on the floor next to Gigi.

  “Mate, tell me what I can do for you? Please?”

  She sighed. “I wish there was something. How could we not have seen it? All of it? She hid everything from us all those years.”

  On the coffee table lay the letter. Gigi had read it countless times since its arrival.

  Dear Sisters,

  I love you. I always have and always will, but the Ether calls to me. It has for too long. The pain I’ve borne for all this time has broken me in ways I cannot begin to say. It is time for me to move on. My chance for happiness died back then. It doesn’t mean you two can’t find joy in your mates and your families and your lives. Go forth and live, for me. Do not feel guilty, or sad. Rejoice for me that, finally, I am at peace with a chance to live again without pain. Be happy in your lives, for that is the best legacy I can ask for.

  Forgive me for never telling you about our father. I didn’t want knowledge of his part in our lives to taint your deeds. He lost all rights to be our father when he walked away from our mothers.

  The burden is now lifted from you. Relax and enjoy the hard-won peace you rightfully deserve. I see nothing but long lives of happiness ahead of you, outside the occasional skirmish.

  Be at peace, live with love, laugh often, my sweet sisters.

  Blessed Be. Merry Meet and Merry Part and Merry Meet again,

  Jadwiga.

  “I don’t know what to do without her,” Gigi softly said. “I relied on her so, so much in the beginning. I didn’t realize we were sisters by birth. I thought by calling and by power, yes, but I didn’t know.” She stared into his eyes. “How could I not know?”

  “She didn’t want you to know.” He stroked her cheek. “Had she wanted you to know, she would have told you.”

  “All those years. It explains her rage and pain. I thought she was just holding a grudge. I had no idea. I should have known! I knew about archdemons, about their mythos. About their soul mates and pain of losing one!”

  “Love, you cannot blame yourself.” The tears rolling down her cheeks broke his heart. “And she wanted you and Callie to go on and live.” He scooped her up and carried her to their bedroom.

  Taking his time, he slowly undressed her, kissing every inch of her flesh as he went, wanting nothing more than to ease her pain and make her smile. Finally, he felt her responding to him.

  * * * *

  Elain stood on the porch, her eyes closed, senses open. She’d poofed herself there when she’d sensed a shift in the energy up here. She hadn’t known for sure if it’d be Gigi or Callie who’d be the lucky one until tonight.

  Part of her had thought perhaps it might be Lina—which would have been absolutely fucking hysterically funny as well as ironic—but Lina was doggedly determined not to get pregnant again yet.

  As Oscar made love to Gigi inside their house, Elain reached into the spinning force of the Ether and found the energy she’d been looking for. One she’d kept an extremely close eye on for the past week, hoping she’d be able to do this.

  Some people deserved second chances. The life growing within her and Mai was proof of that.

  Ellie was proof of that.

  Especially people who’d spent most of their lives in excruciating pain, be it mental, physical, or both.

  As the time drew closer, Elain plucked the energy from the Ether and then closed it, waiting until the perfect moment to shove it toward her friends. Once she knew she’d accomplished her mission, she closed her eyes, fingered her citrine amulet, and spoke with her mind.

  “Ryan, vado tu appareo.”

  She opened her eyes in his Atlanta condo.

  He didn’t even bother to ask, handing her a perfectly prepared mug of mint tea, as if expecting her.

  “Thank you,” she said as she walked over to the windows.

  He joined her, in his hand a tall glass of amber liquid that, from its smell, she knew held bourbon. Neat.

  Eventually, he spoke. “Thank you,” he quietly said.

  She nodded. “You could have done it yourself.”

  “Not as easily as you. My strength in that way lies in sending sou
ls onward when stuck here.”

  “But you did it before. Not too long ago.” She stared at him.

  “With assistance from Father.” Silence fell again, comfortable, comforting. “Marston,” he said.

  She shrugged.

  “How do you continue to conceal him from Lina?”

  “However I have to,” she quietly said. “I won’t let him die. He’s atoning. I can’t in good conscience let her take him out.”

  “That puts you at odds with her eventually.”

  “I know.”

  He sipped his drink. “They won’t let me interfere. The Elders. The Dodeks. If it’s between you and Lina. I will do everything within my powers to help you, but if it comes down to a duel between the two of you, I will not be allowed to step in.”

  “I know.” She looked at him. “Besides, you’ve got a lot on your plate coming up soon.”

  “Do I even want to know?”

  “I’ve told you some of it.”

  “Can you tell me the rest?”

  “It’s…vague.” She finally met his green gaze. Different than Brodey’s green eyes, but she couldn’t explain how. “I think it means there’s still a lot up in the air. But the stuff I saw before, that’s still going to happen.”

  He let out a breath that sounded like a sigh before taking a sip.

  “You won’t be able to check out,” she quietly said.

  “I know.”

  “He won’t let you. He’s going to keep a closer eye on you now.”

  Ryan nodded. “I figured as much. She was clever, Jadwiga. I always knew she was special, but never in my wildest imagination did I ever dream she’d outsmart Hades.”

  “How did your mother react?”

  He stared out the windows, into the distance. “I haven’t discussed this with her. Knowing her, I’m sure she’s ripped Father a new one.”

  “Why?”

  “For not taking better care of his children.”

  “Even though they weren’t hers?”

  “She’s a mother. Had he cheated on her after they were together, yes. But he didn’t and couldn’t. She did not view any of them as bastards, but as extended family.”