Five Night Stand (Fox Brothers Book 2) (9 page)

“And than what?”

“Nothing really she left me alone to do whatever vampires do and I escaped.”

“Okay.” Ryan frowned and his customary worry lines formed on his forehead. Max’s story was fishy. It seemed that major parts of the story had been left out but Ryan decided against pressing is brother for more information.

“What did your research turn up?” Max changed the subject.

“I searched local newspapers ten years back and there was nothing out of the ordinary. These recent deaths are completely unusual for this town. They had only had one murder in the last twenty years before these mysterious deaths.”

“How come I’m not surprised? This town is deader than an embalmed corpse.”

“Ryan shrugged his agreement. “What did you find at Patricia’s, you know before Scar kidnapped you?”

“Nothing really.” Max shrugged.

Something was off with Max. Ryan sensed this right away. He didn’t think Max was lying but he did believe that he had omitted a few the events of the day. He was too mentally exhausted to question Max any further.

CHAPTER 9

Max had avoided Ryan and Monica’s little lovey-dovey breakfast time. He ate breakfast in his room and soon fell asleep. He wasn’t sure why he was so tired. He guessed that it might have something to do with being hit in the head. Possibly walking all those miles after he was able to free himself from the ropes Scar tied him up with. Max so too tired to even talk after the long walk back to Patricia Breedlove’s to pick up his truck.

Max walked into the kitchen with a piece of paper in hand. Monica was sitting at the table mulling over bills.

“Where’s Ryan?” Max asked. He heard his brother leave the house but he wanted to be certain.

Monica looked up at him. “He took Cyan for ice cream.”

Max grimaced as he glared at her. He took a seat at the kitchen table across from Monica.

“Look lady. It’s time for you to spill the beans.”

“What beans?”

“Don’t play with me.”

Max slammed a copy of a birth certificate down on the kitchen table. Monica looked down at the document and then back into Max’s angry eyes.

“You went through my things.”

“Not exactly. It doesn’t matter how I got it. Explain this.” Max picked the paper up off the table and waved it in her face.

“What?”

“You know what. I read it.”

“Good for you.” Monica sassed.

“Cyan, Ryan, you are so transparent.” Max cocked his head to the side.

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“That Cyan kid is not your sister’s kid. Look sister, you’re listed on her birth certificate as the mother. I can read.” Max reads off the document. “The mother of one Cyan Riley Breedlove.” Max poked the paper with his finger and then slammed it down on the table.

There is a long uncomfortable silence. Monica’s eyes filled with tears. This seemed to irritate Max.

“Are you kidding me? That dumb bimbo trick doesn’t work on me. Save your tears. Is this my brother’s kid?”

“Yes she is.”

Max stared at her with a firm intensity. “Are you sure?”

“Yes I’m sure.”

“I’m sure you get around. Your skimpy uniform at the bar.”

“Of course I’m sure.”

“I doubt it.”

“My uniform has nothing to do with who I am?”

“You’re a waitress that picked my brother up at a bar and brought him home with you. What did you do? Play scrabble.”

“Do the math, nine months plus two years. Look at my kid. Does she look like me or does she look like Ryan spit her out?”

Max pondered this for all of two seconds. “Just because she’s white doesn’t mean she’s my brothers.”

“She’s Ryan’s daughter.”

“What do you want, a guest spot on Maury Povich?”

“I don’t want anything.”

“This is bullshit. You’re playing my brother.”

“Playing Ryan, I would never do that.”

“What’s your end game?”

“Game. I thought I’d never see Ryan again. Your brother disappeared on me. I was minding my own business when you two showed up.

“And you’re pretty damn bitter about it.”

“Why would I be bitter?”

“Why would you have a baby by a stranger?”

“You’re not a parent. I love my daughter and there’s no way I could hold a grudge with the guy who gave her to me.”

“So when were you going to tell Ryan?”

Monica face drew into a scowl. “I wasn’t.”

“And why is that?”

“I’m not stupid. You guys lie, cheat and steal. You’re criminals, right? When Ryan was here before I saw all the fake I.D.’s. He sleeps with a gun under his pillow. I’m sure Ryan does not want a child. Does he even have time for a kid? Is any man with a trunk full of weapons a good role model?”

Max recognized many valid points in Monica’s words. His face conveyed his thoughts.

“You don’t have the right to keep this secret from him.”

“You don’t have the right to tell me what’s right or wrong when it comes to my daughter.”

“She’s my brother’s daughter also. Or did you forget?”

“Yeah I kind of did forget until he showed up in my town.”

“That’s just so messed up.”

“When I first met your brother, he was this incredibly hot, arrogant, robot.”

“So your point.”

“Now he’s different. I’m not going to burden him by telling him he’s got a kid with some five night stand from some small hick town.”

“Do you really think I’m going to keep this from him? He’s my brother.”

“I know he’s your brother but Max please don’t tell him. It doesn’t do anybody any good.”

“Your logic sucks.”

“It may suck but it’s what is best.”

Max and Monica engage in a silent stare down. Their mutual glare was interrupted when they both heard the car unlocking the front door.

They remained in the kitchen trying to wipe the guilty looks off of their faces. Suddenly Ryan walked into the kitchen carrying Cyan on his hip and in his arms.

“We’re back. We had two cones apiece. This little princess can really eat.” Ryan smiled.

Max and Monica gawked at Ryan with Cyan firmly in his arms. Both their expressions were similar, blank. Max was faced with a decision that he wished he didn’t have to make. Secrets were a burden. Having things out in the open seemed to always be the best way. It was the way Max had been taught to cope with life’s unsavory aspects.

“I’ll take her.” Monica said and hopped up from her chair. She reached outto take her daughter. Cyan ignored her mother’s waiting arms and instantly laid her head down on Ryan’s shoulder.

“I got her.” Ryan said after he noticed the look of disappointment in Monica’s eyes.

Little Cyan reached up and rubbed Ryan’s cheek with her tiny fingers. Cyan’s wide smile revealed two cheek dimples, identical to Ryan’s. Not to mention the little cleft dimple in her chin.

Max now had a very good reason to study the little girls face. She had his brother’s shape of eyes, nose, chin, hair color and smile. Fox DNA. The similarities now all seemed obvious. It was undeniable.

“I guess she likes you.” Max watched curiously as Ryan sat his little niece down on the floor.

Ryan smiled. “I like her too. She’s a cool kid, the coolest.” He looked down at Cyan lovingly. “You want to go get on the swing?”

“Yah swing!” Cyan jumped up and down in front of Ryan. She wanted to be picked up again. He bent to pick the excited little girl up into his arms. Ryan left out the back door with Cyan firmly on his arms.

Monica walked over to the sink. She looked out the kitchen window as Ryan sat Cyan on the swing set in the backyard. Monica turned back to look at Max.

“This is some bull shit.” Max mumbled under his breath.”

“Don’t I know it.” Monica muttered in return.

“I don’t like this one bit. You already got the one kid. Are you being safe?”

“Being safe?”

“Don’t play dumb, contraception.”

Monica rolled her eyes. “Seriously, from a guy with a gun stash.”

“I got my eye on you, Jezebel.

Monica turned her back to Max. She glanced out the window at Ryan and Cyan playing on the swing.

Max had information. He didn’t quite know how to convey it to his brother. Max had been in his fair share of sticky and uncomfortable situations but this was uncharted territory.

He tried to put himself in this peculiar position. Would he want to know he had a child somewhere in the world? He really couldn’t answer his own question. It had only been the two of them for so long. Ryan had been a little off since he had been possessed by Drack’s demon. He really didn’t want to tell his brother anything that might send him over the edge. But Ryan was strong. He lived after Drack’s demon was abstracted from him.

Max had made up his mind. There would be no secrets between him and his brother. He was going to come clean with the information he acquired and let the chips fall where they may. Honesty was the best policy when it came to family.

***

Max avoided Ryan for a few hours. He wasn’t sure how to broach the subject of Cyan’s paternity. It was late and Max wondered why his brother felt so comfortable here at Monica’s place. Could Ryan have some unconscious connection to the little girl?

Max waited until he heard Monica leave the house. She was probably going to see her sister. He couldn’t be sure. He couldn’t believe Monica left Cyan with Ryan. His brother was now babysitting his own daughter.

Ryan decided to go out to the back porch where Ryan was peacefully sitting alone. Max walked out the screen door and turned to see Ryan was sitting in a wicker rocking chair holding a sawed off double barrel shotgun in his lap. He had his ancient machete at his feet.

“Well shit, you are prepared. Are you expecting a threat?”

Ryan looked up at his brother but didn’t respond. Max sat next to him in the spare rocking chair.

“Did you booby trap the front door and the windows?” Ryan asked Max.

“Yeah I took care of it.”

“Wonder why Scarlet didn’t kill you when she had the chance?” Hearing that Scar kidnapped Max had put Ryan on edge.

“She’s a vamp now. Nothing she does is going to make sense to us.” Max half shrugged. He didn’t like where this was going.

There was a brief calming silence. It was the kind of silence that could only be shared between two brothers that grew up together in a world full of chaos and death.

“I don’t trust Scar.”

“Obviously, you’re armed to the teeth.”

“Maybe Scar still cares about you.”

“Maybe but I don’t want to think about that right now.”

“You’re still alive.”

Max ignored Ryan’s assessment of the events that happened while he was tied to a chair in a barn with his vampire ex. Max was hell-bent on changing the subject. He was out here on the back porch to get something off his chest.

“Ryan you got to help me out here. Something has been puzzling me for awhile now.”

“You puzzled.” Ryan sarcastically added. “Sure what’s up?”

“What’s the deal with you and Monica?”

“What?”

“You really like this girl?”

“I don’t know.” Ryan shrugged. “It’s just like we have a connection.”

Max raised an eyebrow. “A connection.”

“I can’t explain it. I would if I could, but I can’t. It’s a feeling I have about her.”

“A feeling?” Max raised a curious brow. “What like a total eclipse of the heart?”

“Make jokes, it’s the same way you felt about Scar.”

Ryan silenced himself as soon as he remembered the pure self-loathing and agony Max felt after he wasn’t able to help Scar. Max was a self-destructive pain in the ass. He was a disaster. It took him so long to come out of his funk. It took him a long time to get over the fact that he couldn’t save Scar.

“Scarlet is done. She’s over. She is a monster.” Max knew he would never be able to confess he had sex with Scar as a vampire and through the intense fear actually enjoyed it. He still hadn’t processed that incident himself. He was going to act like it wasn’t some of the best sex of his life.

“Well she’s a vamp but she spared your life.”

“That doesn’t matter. I can never have a life with Scar but you.” Max stopped speaking before he revealed too much.

“Me what?”

“You seem to like Monica.”

“Max Monica is not the first woman I liked. I’m here now so whatever.” Ryan smirked and frowned.

“She kind of has a kid.”

“Her niece is not her kid and I like Cyan.”

Max twisted his lips. “When did you turn into Mr. Mom?”

Ryan shrugged. He couldn’t help the smile that formed on his lips when he thought about Cyan. “I don’t know about the Mr. Mom thing. Who knew I would be so parental.”