Maggie leaned back on the barstool and shook her head. The Red Sox were getting their asses handed to them. Granted, it was only spring training, but she still wanted a win, especially against the Yankees.

“Damn it,” she muttered and finished off her whiskey.

“I don’t get this game at all,” Vicky said from beside her.

“I was alive when the first major league game played, and I still don’t get it,” Brian said. The bartender gave him a startled look. “What?” Brian demanded of the young man.

Vicky laughed, and Abby rested her hand on Brian’s forearm as the bartender backed away. “He’s kidding,” Abby said and smiled at the bartender, who made the mistake of smiling back at her. The scowl on Brian’s face sent the man scurrying away.

“Way to go, Grumpy. Now he’s never going to come back.” Vicky looked morosely into her nearly empty margarita glass.

“That would be awful,” Maggie agreed.

She’d need a lot of whiskey to get through this ball game if it continued this way. Not to mention, she’d had this awful empty pit inside her since Aiden left shortly after Brian made his revelation. He’d been gone all day.

At first, Aiden stated he would stay with her, but she knew he wanted to be involved in destroying the Savages who attacked him, so she’d told him to leave. Then, he’d insisted on taking her with him. However, she was still adjusting to meeting these three and being the focus of speculation; she was not in the mood to have a whole lot more vampires scrutinizing her.

When Brian offered to stay and watch over her, Maggie vehemently refused a babysitter, but eventually, she’d conceded to staying with the three of them, for Aiden. As soon as the bar opened, Vicky dragged them all down here. She’d immediately started plying Maggie with alcohol and questions about her life.

Normally, Maggie would have felt resentful of the near inquisition, but Vicky’s affable nature made it easier to handle. As did the fact the twins were excited about getting to know her better because they loved Aiden and expected Maggie to remain in his life.

Vicky finished her drink and lifted the glass in the air before beckoning the cute bartender toward her with a crook of her finger. “Ignore the grumpy Gus!”

The bartender glanced warily at Brian before returning. Maggie finished her drink and slid the glass next to Vicky’s as she returned her attention to the TV.

“You know,” Vicky said when their drinks were refilled and the bartender left again, “for a human, you sure can handle your alcohol.”

Maggie looked at her in surprise. “Didn’t Aiden tell you?”

“All I got out of him before you arrived was you’re a paramedic.” Vicky propped her chin on her hand and fluttered her lashes. “So, tell me, what did my brother leave out?”

Abby leaned forward to look around her sister at Maggie. After a few seconds, Brian leaned forward to stare at her too.

Maggie fiddled with her glass as she contemplated the question. Was she ready to share her past with them? But then, what difference did it make? It’s not like they were going to run around blabbing the information to everyone they encountered, they couldn’t use the knowledge against her, and she wasn’t ashamed of her history. She despised how she’d come into existence, but it was part of her, and she liked who she was.

“My father was a vampire,” Maggie stated.

Four eyebrows shot up in an identical look of astonishment before Vicky and Abby glanced at each other. “Interesting,” Brian murmured.

“Who was he?” Abby asked.

“I don’t know,” Maggie replied more crisply than she’d intended. She sensed their rabid curiosity, but none of them questioned her further. “I have to go to the bathroom.”

Rising from her stool, she walked across the restaurant to the bathrooms. The doors faced the bar, so it would be easy to spot someone if they tried to follow her in and there was only one exit.

Maggie went into the stall and re-emerged to wash her hands and face. She stared at her reflection in the mirror over the sink, noting the strain in the corners of her eyes and around her mouth. Pulling her phone out of her pocket, she checked it to make sure she hadn’t somehow missed something from Aiden. Still nothing. She returned the phone to her pocket.

Her heart twisted as fresh concern for him coursed through her. Aiden had assured her he’d be safe, but she couldn’t stop worrying about him when she knew what those Savages were capable of doing. Absently, she scratched at her arms as her skin seemed to stretch too thin over her bones.

“Get it together,” she muttered at her reflection. “He’s okay and you will not be this dependent on someone else.”

Taking a deep breath, she threw her shoulders back and strolled out of the bathroom. Vicky had her hands in the air as she cheered loudly. The dozen or so people gathered around the bar were all giving her the death stare.

Vicky went from happy to confused as she gazed at the irritated patrons. Maggie craned her head to see the TV before scowling at Vicky too.

“What?” Vicky demanded of her. “They hit the ball over the wall, and the men are running around the, ah… the square thingies.”

Maggie gawked at Vicky as she glanced at the TV to confirm all the men were indeed running around the square thingies because the Yankees’ batter had hit a grand slam. Then, she hated herself for calling them square thingies even if it had only been mentally.

“Have you never seen a baseball game before?” Maggie asked.

“Not willingly, and I certainly didn’t pay attention to it,” Vicky replied as she lowered the arms she’d raised while cheering.

Abby nodded, and Brian snorted as he folded his arms over his chest.

“I swear you vamps really do live in caves,” Maggie muttered. “You’re cheering for the wrong team. We don’t want those men to hit it over the wall.” She felt like an idiot for describing a home run in such a way, but it was easier.

“Oh,” Vicky said.

“Also, they’re not square thingies, they’re bases, and if I see you cheering for the Yankees again, I’ll stake you myself.”

Vicky blinked at her before laughing. “Alrighty then, no rooting for the guys with the stripes.”

“We’ll stick to the drinks,” Abby said and nudged Vicky’s glass with her finger.

“Good plan,” Vicky declared and cheerfully lifted her margarita. “So, Maggie, while you were gone, we got to wondering what your views on weddings are? Yay or nay on a ceremony? Our family is a little unconventional after all, so we’re perfectly okay with a nay, but we do all enjoy a good party.”

Maggie had been swinging onto her barstool as Vicky spoke. She nearly fell off before she could sit on it. She gawked at Vicky as she settled herself unsteadily on the seat. “I’m not going to the bathroom again.”

“That’s a good idea,” Brian told her. “Next time, you’ll be engaged before you return.”

* * *

“Carha,” Aiden greeted as he stepped into the room where he’d spent a fair amount of time and shed a lot of his blood.

Chained to the posts, a naked man stood before him with his head tipped back to gaze at the ceiling. Red marks marred his back, but they were already fading. The man moaned as the other woman in the room, who was kneeling before him, gripped his ass and drew his cock deeper into her mouth. Neither of them acknowledged his arrival.

Standing behind the man, Carha’s arm fell before she could strike him again. “How did you get in here?” she demanded.

“I have my ways,” Aiden replied.

“Brutus was instructed to keep you out.”

“He was, but he didn’t obey.”

“Get out!” Carha commanded and lifted her hand to bounce the end of the crop against her palm.

In the beginning, a crop had been enough to keep his baser impulses under control, but that hadn’t lasted long. However, Aiden was unable to stop his visceral reaction to the sight of that crop as the flesh on his back tingled and his balls tightened.

Away from Maggie, he found himself thirsting for the pain again. He should have gone to her or at least called her before coming here. However, he didn’t want Maggie tainted by this, and unreasonably he’d felt that talking to her on the phone while coming here, would somehow stain her. Now, the demon part of his DNA was rolling toward the forefront once more as it sought to be released.

Carha spun and swung toward the man with her crop. When it whacked his back, the man shouted and jerked against his chains. Judging by the other marks on him and his reaction to this blow, it was far harder than he was accustomed to being struck.

“What the fuck?” the man shouted, and his head turned toward Carha. He froze when he spotted Aiden standing in the doorway. “I didn’t sign up for any weird voyeur shit!”

“You’re getting sucked off while I watch,” Carha retorted.

“I’m not paying for a man to watch.”

Carha hit him with the crop again, and the man jerked against his chains. “Enough, Carha,” Aiden commanded.

“I bet you wish this was you,” she purred to Aiden as she stroked the man’s flesh with the crop before hitting him harder.

The crack of the crop mingled with the man’s cry. Aiden kept his face impassive, refusing to give Carha the satisfaction of seeing his craving for pain, but need churned within him.

Carha circled to the front of the man. She placed her foot on the side of the kneeling woman and shoved her out of the way. The woman cried out and scampered into a corner. Her gaze darted to Aiden before she rose and started gathering her things.

“Are you already done with that piece of ass you brought in here the other night?” Carha inquired as she trailed the whip over the man’s cheek.

Drawing on the lingering taste of Maggie’s blood on his tongue, Aiden kept himself restrained from attacking. He intended to take Carha alive.

“Look, Carha—”

Whatever the man had been about to say was silenced by the blow Carha delivered to his face. His head snapped to the side, and his legs gave out. The blood spurting from his mouth sprayed the floor. Shouting obscenities, the man struggled to regain his feet, but Carha’s next blow dropped him to his knees.

“Enough!” Aiden commanded.

The woman gave up on trying to dress and fled the room. The startled squeak she released in the hallway drew Carha’s attention. Red blazed through Carha’s eyes as she gazed behind him to where Saxon and Declan stood in the hall. Ronan, Killean, and Lucien were in the club, working their way through the patrons and employees to see what they might know about Carha’s extracurricular activities.

Carha hit the man again before turning and fleeing toward the back of the room. “She’s running!” Aiden shouted before chasing after her, though he had no idea where she hoped to go as she barreled straight at the wall.

A foot from the wall, she stopped and stomped her foot on something. Hinges squeaked and then Carha fell through the floor. Aiden skidded to a stop next to the trapdoor Carha had vanished through.

“Shit,” Aiden muttered as he gazed into the black pit.

The dim, reddish glow of the room did little to illuminate what lay below. It could be a deathtrap waiting to spring on him. He never would have hesitated to follow Carha to his possible death before, but he remained standing over the hole. Maggie.

He had her to live for now, but they weren’t bonded yet. She cared for him, he knew, but she could move on from this, and if he didn’t stop Carha, then the hunt for him and Maggie might never end. He couldn’t let Declan and Saxon do this on their own either, and if he didn’t move now, Carha would get away.

Wind buffeted his hair and clothes as he plunged into the hole behind Carha.