The Faerie Master (Aaron's Kiss Series) (22 page)

“Yes, dear.
We know.
You’ve been telling us all for the past hour.
Eat your apple dumpling before I do.
It’s been sitting there in front of you long enough.
And I’m still hungry.”

The play between the alpha and his bitch was bordering on hysterical.
Aaron had invited them for dinner when Bradley had told him that he’d had a visitor.

Four rogues had showed up just as breakfast was starting and had broken into the pack house during the monthly breakfast meeting.
They’d barely gotten through the broken down front door when three of them were killed and the fourth was only still alive because Charlie Wolff, Bradley’s grandfather, had stopped them with a loud howl.

“Maybe we outta ask them why they’re here before we go killing them all, don’t you think?
Could help us, gee, I don’t know, know if there are anymore out there just waiting to come in the broken door.
Stupid pups. Back in my day we’d have captured them all four and then had fun torturing them.”

“I know, Grandda. I’ll have a talk with them. We should have better manners when someone comes into my home and tries to kill me.
Next time I’ll have Martha bake up some pies for them to eat along with my throat.”

“No point in getting snarly with me, young man.
You still ain’t too old for me to take out to the woodshed.
I’m just saying that we could get more from a living wolf than a dead one.”

When Aaron had heard this story between Bradley and his grandda he’d laughed for a good twenty minutes.

“You know, you’d do well to beef up your own security, fang face.
And Grandda did have a point. We can’t get information from a dead guy.
If you’re killed then I’m not going to know who to thank.”

Aaron was glad for Bradley’s friendship. Otherwise, he may have had to drain him.
The two of them had been snipping at one another since the beginning.
Aaron hoped they would continue to do so.

“If the two of you are finished we need to talk about this money situation.” Pete sat down as she spoke and tried to take the last dumpling from Airic
,
which got her growled at.
“The bank said that the money is still sitting there.
Cade, does it normally move right away or does he move it later?
Anything you can tell us would be great.”

Pete was perhaps the greatest computer person Aaron knew. She’d been working for Bradley as their online computer security expert since she’d mated with Dominic.
She was also a powerful wood nymph.

“I don’t know anything about the money once I move it.
I try to get my money up front, but lately it’s been difficult. I’d quit the other day when Gabriel hadn’t paid me in a while.
I got a portion of what he owed me in the form of a check.
That’s when he threatened Paul’s family the first time.
Then when he couldn’t contact me this time he kidnapped Paul’s daughter.”

“Wait.
He paid you with a check? Please tell me you still have it.
If we can get the account number off of it then we are that much closer to getting him,” Pete said.

“I don’t know what I did with it.
I could look for you. Maybe it’s in the apartment over the diner.
I could go and get it for you if you’d like.”

Before Aaron could tell her no Shawn jumped up.
Aaron almost felt sorry for Shawn.
He was going to do something very stupid like demand that Cade stay here and he’d go get it. Aaron knew from experience that the women of this generation responded much better to asking than they did demanding.

“You still demand, you arrogant ass.
Why just yesterday you demanded that I not leave the estate.
I don’t need you to do everything for me, you know.”

Aaron smiled when Sara whispered through his mind.
“Yes, you do.
But I certainly made it worth your while to wait for me, didn’t I?
I believe you came seven times before I had my own release.
I tried for eight, but you were simply too tired, you said.”

“Aaron, I came eleven times and that isn’t the point.
A person needs to recuperate when they have that many clim...you are changing the subject.
I want you to stop demanding that I do as you say when you say it.”

“Yes dear. I will give it my best.”
They both knew that he wouldn’t
,
as much as they knew that Shawn would be in trouble as soon as the words for Cade to stay in the house slipped from his mouth.
Cade shimmered with anger in an instant.

“You won’t tell me what to do
,
you overgrown ass. I have a mind and I’m very good at using it. I will go where I want, when I want, and for as long as I want.”
Cade poked Shawn in the chest with each word.

Aaron didn’t want to laugh, he really didn’t, but it was just great to see one of his best friends being brow beaten by his mate. When she had Shawn backed against the wall he growled. Cade didn’t miss a beat and growled right back at him. Her fangs dropped and her eyes turn
ed
. When he laughed again, Cade turned on him.

“You think this is funny?
Why are you all so friggin’ bossy all the time?
Is it because you’re, like, as old as dirt?
I want you all to know this right now. I don’t need any of you to watch over me like I’m some sort of baby.
I was doing just fine, not great, but just fine.”

“Cade, I don’t think what you’re feeling is funny.
It’s that I’ve known Shawn for so long and to see a slip of a woman brow beating him into a corner makes me laugh.
I must admit that I
,
too
,
have a bit of a problem with my arrogance, or so I’ve been told.”
He paused at Sara’s snort.
He would deal with her later.
“But Shawn and I have been around since women were at home with the children.
Where men protected their mates, their families, with all that they were, even giving up their lives for them if necessary.
I’m sure if you give Shawn enough time he’ll be just as relaxed and as easy as I am.”

Another snort, this one from Pete, made him frown at them.
Damn it, he was a changed man.
Just when he was about to continue his explanation of just how he’d changed Pete’s cell phone rang.

“That was the bank. The money is on the move.”

~~~

Cade was sitting in the kitchen when the children came in.
She was so happy to have their laughter that she made them breakfast of whatever they wanted.
Duncan just fussed and told her that she was not supposed to cook now, that Miss Penny would be in shortly.

“I need this, Duncan.
I need to keep busy or I may run screaming out of the house.
I’m sure Miss Penny won’t mind at all.
And I promise that I’ll clean up my mess when I’m done.”

“You will do nothing of the sort, Lady Cade.
I will make sure the kitchen in is pristine condition when you are finished.
I will, however, insist that you must be careful around that washer. Yesterday it took one of her ladyship’s new sweaters and made it the size of one of Miss Lizzy’s dollies.
I believe it to be possessed.”

Cade laughed and kissed Duncan on the cheek.
She really liked this man. He was sweet and endearing.
She wanted to bundle him up in her pocket and pull him out again when she was sad.
She hoped that he never changed.
And she was sure that he wouldn’t.

“Thank you, Lady Cade.
You should strive to not kiss too many males in the future.
Master Shawn is a very jealous man, as all vampires are.
I do believe that he would indeed pull my liver up through my nose and then eat it.” Duncan grinned at her when she stared at him speechless.
“I heard that said on one of the shows I watch.
I cannot imagine the amount of skill it would take to perform such a feat, do you?”

She had to bite her inner cheek hard.
“No. No, I can’t say that I could. I need to go into town, Duncan.
Do you think it would be all right if I got my bike out of the garage?
I won’t be long.
Just long enough to run to the diner and back.”

“Oh no, miss.
You must not anger Master Shawn.
He was quite specific on you staying here today.
He will be most displeased with us both if I allow you to leave.”

“Duncan, I really like you.
But if you go all caveman on me
,
too, I might have to hurt someone.
I’m going into town. You can tell Shawn I made you let me go.”

Cade had had enough of the stupid ordering her around.
Grabbing up her coat she moved to the door and then to her bike.
The closer she got to it, the slower her steps became.

“Damn him all to hell!”
Shawn had taken her tires off.
And not only that, but there was a nice note on the seat addressed to her.

“Stay here.
If I even hear that you left I will beat that cute little bottom of yours until you can’t sit for a week. Love, Shawn.”

Cade crumpled up the note and stood there.
She could go back in the house and ask Duncan to take her to town.
She could hotwire a car in the massive garage and drive herself. But she knew that Aaron would have her arrested for grand larceny if she did that. Or she could walk.
Walking sounded good.
Maybe by the time she got to town and to the diner she’d be cooled off enough to speak to Shawn again.
By the time she got to the end of the drive she was pretty sure that walking wasn’t going to save the arrogant ass from getting a piece of her mind.
And when she was perhaps three miles from town she was positive that he was going to hurt for a few days when she was finished with him.

Cade had a key to the diner so she let herself in.
She loved the smell of the place.
And when she made her way into the diner area she went to the pop machine, got herself a drink, and sat down just to look around and rest.
She didn’t know how many miles it was to here, but her feet hurt and she was exhausted.
Sitting in one of the nine booths around the room she looked around.

The theme was the fifties.
Pictures and posters of rock bands from that era were all over the walls.
Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly graced more than a few posters and concert reminders.
There was even a life-sized cardboard cutout of the King himself from his thinner days.
Behind the counter, high on the wall, was a guitar that Paul had told her was a Fender.
Cade wasn’t sure what the big deal about it was, but everyone who knew anything about music that came in had marveled about the bright blue wonder.

The jukebox in the corner was an antique.
Paul and his wife had gotten it as a wedding gift from one of his friends all those years ago.
With tender care and loving hands the thing worked as well today as it had back in the day.
Cade knew that Paul had been in a band, The Lemon-Aides, and she’d been told that one or two of their forty-fives were behind the glass and bright lights.