Maia's Magickal Mates [The Double R 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Read Free Page A

mother or father.
    He stacked the pillows up behind his head now and leaned back against them, not ready yet to try and go back to sleep. In fact, he remained wide awake.
    A ride would probably be just the medicine he needed to help him clear his mind, but one look at his bedside clock told him it was too early to attempt one and still maintain safety.
    Eight Ball suddenly barked, then growled.
    Thayne knew he hadn’t been going crazy. Someone was in his house.
    He glanced at the large German shepherd standing beside his bed, ears perked up and guard hairs raised. “Go get ’em, boy. Go see who it is.” Thayne untangled his legs from the sheet and slowly slid from the bed. He paused at the threshold of his master bedroom and grabbed the Louisville Slugger leaning against the wall behind the door.
    He followed Eight Ball’s path down the carpeted stairs as silently as possible, glad the house was new enough not to have inordinately creaky steps.
    He could hear his dog barking up a storm at someone. It wasn’t an aggressive bark, however, more a happy bark of greeting as if he recognized the intruder, at least on some level.
    Thayne reached the bottom of the stairs and headed through the great room toward the kitchen, still gripping the baseball bat in both hands just in case. He opened the swinging door and froze just inside it at the welcome sight of his brother sitting at the kitchen island, feeding Eight Ball a piece of leftover broiled bluefish from his hand.
    Cade lifted his glance from the dog to look at the bat before arching a brow at Thayne. “I thought the weapon of choice out here in these parts was a rifle.”
    Thayne set the bat against the wall by the swinging doors. “You could at least warn a guy when you’re going to drop by.”
    “What fun would that be?”
    “Evidently, none.”
    “Besides, I wanted to surprise you.”
    “Well, you did that.”
    “You make it so easy, leaving the key where anyone can find it. Under a rock in the garden, Thayne? Really? Who knew people did trusting things like that in this day and age?”
    “This isn’t LA.”
    “Yeah, tell me about it.”
    Despite them both growing up for the bulk of their lives on a horse ranch with their aunt and uncle, Thayne knew very well of his brother’s disdain for the “simple country life.” He’d survived The Lively Horse Ranch, working hard and doing what he needed to get by before escaping the dust bowl as soon as he reached seventeen and went off to college.
    No matter how much Thayne extolled the virtues of uncluttered “country living,” Cade claimed country life wasn’t for him. It was too quiet and too far away from everything.
    Thayne had tried over the years but couldn’t get his brother to come around. This didn’t stop him from letting Cade know, every chance he got, that there would always remain room for him on his ranch. That was, of course, whenever Cade was ready to settle down, stop running from his problems, and stop abusing his gifts.
    “It’s not abuse. I’m just exploiting the talents that God gave me. You of all people should respect that.”
    Thayne didn’t care what his brother called it. Cade needed to settle down before he burned out.
    He peered at his brother as he moved to take a seat opposite Cade at the island and wondered if Cade had arrived in the wee hours because he had already neared his tipping point. If this was the case, Thayne hoped it wasn’t too late to help.
    Cade returned Thayne’s stare, and Thayne fidgeted beneath his brother’s look. He wondered if Cade could tell he’d just woken up from a nightmare, but before he could say anything to dispel suspicions, Cade beat him to the punch and asked, “Are you all right?”
    “Fine, now that I know a serial killer hasn’t broken into my house.”
    “For a quiet and mature guy, you can be such a drama king.”
    Thayne gave him the finger and reached across the island to pilfer a piece of fish. He enjoyed the taste just as