Jared (39 page)

Jared poured coffee into a cup and joined Derek at the
table. “When are the rolls going to be done?”

“Three minutes.” Derek was counting.

That meant Caleb would be here in about two and a
half. The man was addicted to Allie’s cinnamon rolls. Even if he did have to
vomit them up afterward because his digestive track no longer appreciated the
food choice. Slade wouldn’t be far behind. There were just some things that
were too nostalgic to give up. Sitting around the table sipping coffee and
eating sweet rolls while discussing the day’s events was one of them.

Right on cue, the door to the back stairs opened.
Caleb stepped through. No sign of their earlier fight on his person. There was,
however, a satisfied look to his expression that had Jared snorting with
disgust.

“Good God, man, the woman’s eight months gone with
child.”

Caleb cast him a wry expression. “Hey, I put up a
fight.”

“If it was anything like the one you put up last night
in the living room,” Derek grinned, “I’d say it hardly counts.”

“It counts.” Caleb opened the oven door and breathed
deeply of the aroma flooding into the room. “Perfect.”

Jared shook his head. “You’ve got to be shortening
your life with that addiction.”

Caleb pulled the rolls from the oven. He tipped the
door closed with his knee. “I’ll chance it.”

The back door opened. Slade strolled in. He had the
harsher features of their uncle, and with the lab coat gone and his hair
falling over his forehead, he looked a lot like the brother Jared had ridden
with in the old days.

Jared watched as Caleb spread icing on the rolls,
putting twice the amount on that Allie did. He barely suppressed a shudder.
There was sweet and then there was sweet. “Go easy on the icing on mine.”

Caleb cocked a brow at him, “Who the hell said you
were getting any?”

Jared arched a brow back at him and took another sip
of his coffee. Hot, strong, and bitter, it would go perfectly with the rolls.
“Who the hell said I wasn’t?”

“Me for one,” Slade declared, dropping into a chair to
the left of Derek.

“Me, too,” Derek tossed in, watching the rolls like a
hawk.

Caleb brought the laden baking sheet over to the
table. He lifted a roll off. Slade sneaked in behind, reaching for the tray.
With image-blurring speed, Caleb snapped around and knocked him back and over.
His chair hit the floor with a resounding clatter. As one, the men glanced at
the interior door.

“I swear if you have that woman down here again,”
Caleb ground out, “I will personally kick your butt from here to Sunday.”

After thirty seconds in which there was no call and no
sign of Allie, the men relaxed.

Slade got up and straightened his chair. “A wife is
supposed to mellow a man,” he informed Caleb as if it were an ancient truth.

“Who said I wasn’t mellow?” He passed the rolls
around. Everyone took two, except Caleb. Allie always cooked a baker’s dozen
and the extra always went to him. A rule Allie had set out early on. One of the
small considerations a wife did for a husband. Jared looked at the second roll.
He grabbed a napkin off the pile in the center of the table and set his second
roll on it. Raisa might like it when she woke up.

Caleb eyed the roll. “For your wife?”

“Yeah.”

Derek sat back in his chair. The wood squeaked under
the big were’s weight. “He’s a goner for sure if he’s forgoing rolls.”

Jared took a bit of his roll, letting the flavor
spread through his mouth. “Maybe.”

Caleb popped the last bite of his pastry into his
mouth. “How much a goner?” The cup he raised to his face hid his expression,
but Jared felt the probe of his brother’s mind.

“All the way gone.” To the point he’d protect Raisa
from anyone who threatened her, even his own brothers.

“Well,” Slade murmured, “that’s going to complicate
things.”

Jared leveled him a look. “Yes, it is.”

“Ease off, Jared. We’re just looking out for you.”

The order came from Caleb.

Jared turned on him, his fangs cutting through his
gums in a feral tingle. “Do you remember what you said when I decided to use
Allie to make you want to live?”

Aggression came off Caleb in a wild arc at the memory.
“I do.”

“Multiply that by two, and you’ll have an idea of
what’s waiting for anyone who threatens Rai.”

“No one’s going to hurt her, Jared.”

“I know.” He put his cup on the table. “She’s got me
to guarantee it.”

“She’s got us, too,” Caleb put in quietly.

“No matter what your suspicions about her?”

“You give me your gut how you feel, and I’ll go on
that.”

Jesus! He would ask that. It was one thing to risk
himself on a hunch, but his brothers?

“For what it’s worth,” Slade put in, “I’d trust your
gut more than cold logic anyway.”

Caleb cut him a look. “And in the old days, so did
you.”

“I’d like to have known him back then,” Derek injected
casually. “Though it’s hard to imagine Jared abandoning logic for anything.”

“He was someone to know for sure.”

“I’m the same person,” Jared told Caleb.

“No, you’re not. You’ve walled off all emotion and
just become a machine.”

“And who the hell’s fault is that?”

“Mine.” Caleb sighed a bone-weary sigh. “And I wish to
hell you’d just blame me like you should and get over it.”

“There’s nothing to blame you for.”

“I’m the one who converted you.”

“You didn’t have a choice.”

Caleb’s fist slammed down on the table. “For the last
time, I did! I didn’t have to convert you. I could have let you die a natural
death, but I didn’t have it in me to let you go. It’s as simple and as selfish
as that.”

“It was that bitch’s fault.”

“No, it wasn’t, and you need to accept that pretty
damn soon.”

“Why?”

“Because things can’t continue the way they are.”

“Why not?”

Caleb opened his mouth and then snapped it shut.
“Because they can’t. We’ve both got wives. I’ve got a child on the way, the
whole damn Renegade coalition is on the verge of shattering, and we just don’t
have time for your delusions anymore.”

“Well.” Jared leaned back in his chair. “I’ve gotten
pretty attached to them.”

Caleb shared a glance with Slade. Jared looked at
Derek, who shrugged, indicating he had no idea what was going on.

Caleb shoved him the extra roll. “I repeat, get over
it.”

Jared took it, tilting it sideways. “What’s this, a
peace offering?”

“Call it whatever you want. Now, tell me, what’s your
gut on Raisa? Can we trust her or not?”

Jared shook his head. Caleb was a stubborn shit. “It’s
not in Raisa to deliberately hurt anyone.” He remembered the way she’d blown
away the Sanctuary were. “At least without cause.”

“Meaning what?”

“Meaning she blew away a were who got the jump on me.”

“I’m liking her more already.” Derek finished off his
roll.

“So am I.” Caleb tapped his fingers on the table, the
aura of command he wore so easily very much in place.

“Why?”

“Because you need a strong woman, otherwise you’ll
walk all over her.”

Raisa was strong. She looked delicate, was more than
comfortable letting him take over any area she didn’t care about, but when it
mattered to her, she had a core of steel. “Then you’re going to love her.”

“Good.”

“Did you find out what her secret is?”

“Yes.” He glanced at Derek. “Do the McClarens stand by
their promise for her protection?”

Derek nodded. “Absolutely.”

“Even if what I say is were business?”

Derek sat up straighter. “What kind of were business?”

“Ascension business.”

“Shit!”

Jared waited for the information to settle before
asking, “Do you still stand by your promise? Does Raisa have the McClarens’
full protection?”

Derek inclined his head. “Yes.”

“And what I’m going to say won’t go any further than
this room?”

Derek nodded. “Yes.”

“Good, because we’ve got a mess on our hands.”

THE knock at the door woke Raisa from a sound sleep.
She reached across the bed for Jared, sensing he wasn’t there long before her
palm hit the empty mattress. The knock came again. She grunted in annoyance.
She rolled out of bed and grabbed her clothes, dragging on her jeans and
picking up her turtleneck. The tattered remains weren’t going to cover
anything. She dropped it back on the floor. She didn’t have another top. She
tugged the coverlet from the foot of the bed and wrapped it around her. Sun
weariness caused her bones to feel like lead, as she headed to the door. She
never did well when the sun was up. She put her hand on the wood frame, half to
test the energy on the other side and half to prop herself up. The energy was
bright, happy, and feminine.

“Who is it?”

“Allie Johnson.”

That’s what she’d thought. Raisa unbarred the door and
opened it, hugging the sheet around her torso. “Hi.”

Allie stood there, a pile of clothes in her hands. She
took in the sheet and jeans. Her lips fought a smile and lost. “The Johnson men
are rough on the wardrobe, aren’t they?”

“Just a bit.”

She held out the clothes. “Then I picked the right
peace offering.”

Raisa looked at the clothes. “I wasn’t aware we were
fighting.”

“I believe in covering all the contingencies, just in
case you hold my husband’s overprotectiveness against me.”

Raisa glanced beyond the overhang. The sun was coming
up. “I wouldn’t do that.”

“Then, why don’t you invite me in before my husband
figures out I’m not tucked up in bed where he left me.”

“So, you’re not supposed to be here?”

Allie shrugged, her ordinary face becoming beautiful
with her irrepressible smile. “I won’t tell if you won’t.”

“I’ve got a bomb in my head.”

“I’ve got a miracle in my stomach. Both are touchy
subjects; which do you want to address first?”

Raisa blinked. “The miracle, definitely.”

“Then in that case, you’ll have to open the door,
because said miracle is killing my back.”

Raisa opened the door and stood back. “Caleb isn’t
going to like you being here.”

“Probably not.”

“He’s going to find out where you are sooner or
later.”

“Let’s hope later.” Allie eased her bulk past. “You
have no idea what it’s like to be cooped up twenty-four-seven with all that
raging testosterone.”

Raisa followed Allie to the living room. Jared’s
testosterone had raged a time or two. “I’ve got an idea.”

Allie handed her the clothes. Raisa had no choice but
to take them. “Uh-huh.” Allie settled her hand on the ledge of her stomach.
“You’ve only had to deal with Jared. Try dealing with all four Johnson brothers
at once and then add on the fanatical protective-ness of the McClarens.” She
shuddered, leaned back and to the side, braced herself on the edge of the
couch, and sort of dropped back onto the cushions and raised her brows. “You
know they’re fanatical about babies, right?”

Allie put the clothes on the arm of the oversize chair
and perched on the edge, catching the sheet before it could slide off. “The
Johnsons?”

“No, the weres. Though I’ve got to admit, the brothers
aren’t too far behind.”

Allie wiggled in the cushions until she got
comfortable. “I don’t suppose there’s any chance of you getting pregnant soon
to take some of the pressure off me?”

“I don’t think so. As far as I know, vampires can’t get
pregnant.”

“So everyone keeps telling me.” She patted her belly
with a grin. “Apparently, the mound didn’t agree.”

“The mound?”

“I won’t let Slade tell Caleb the sex. He kept trying
to trick it out of me, so I came up with a neutral term for the baby.”

Raisa couldn’t help the twitch of her lips. “Can’t he
just get the information himself?”

“He could, but he won’t. It wouldn’t be honorable.”

“The brothers are pretty big on honor.”

Allie nodded. “If they give you their word on
something, it’s as good as gold.” She looked around. “You wouldn’t, by any
chance, have any coffee around, would you?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t had a chance to look around.”

“Would you mind checking?”

“Sure.” She got to her feet and glanced over her
shoulder as she headed to the kitchen. “I thought vampires couldn’t eat.”