Blown (Elemental Series Book 2) (14 page)

They detoured back to the living room, again interrupting the half-hearted conversation in order to let the others know they’d be making a run. It was obvious Lillian and Christopher didn’t think it was the best idea, but neither said anything to suggest they put off their errands, and so the women turned and made their way to the door.

Conversation was strained as Brooke drove to Nate’s—and therefore to Madison’s—home. But Brooke broke the silence as she pulled into the driveway, her eyes immediately landing on the demolished BMW still parked front-and-center. The large boulder was still resting in the middle, looking almost proud. Brooke released a long whistle, saying, “Wow. No wonder you weren’t worried about that guy following you.”

Madison’s lips twitched. She had managed to forget about the smashed car. “Yeah,” she said. “I guess Logan knows how to make a statement, even without saying a word.”

Brooke laughed faintly as she directed the Mustang past Nate’s house and up toward Madison’s. She stopped the car at the end of the gravel drive, pulled the keys from the ignition, and let her eyes take in the sight before her. The ground was black and charred near the front, and the earth had been disturbed just off to the side. There was a fire extinguisher on the ground, discarded. But the angle was wrong for her to really see the rest of the damage.

“You can come in if you want,” Madison offered as she popped open the passenger door and climbed out of the car. “I might be a few minutes.”

“Sure,” Brooke replied, climbing out as well and following her toward the smaller building.

Madison led the way to the door, pausing with her hand only inches from the doorknob. She hadn’t had her keys with her when they’d left, so in theory it was still unlocked.
But what if he stayed in case we came back? Or because his car was destroyed?
Realistically, she imagined that the chances of their enemy sitting in her living room were incredibly slim. But, for a moment, the fear of the possibility was paralyzing. She swallowed, reminding herself that, while she wanted to kill a little time, she also definitely wanted to keep her promise of being there, waiting for him, when Nate got back. So she grabbed the doorknob and turned, relieved when it offered no resistance.

The women filed inside, and as Brooke’s eyes skimmed over the shattered living room window and the glass decorating the floor and couch, she mumbled, “Déjà vu.” Her eyes landed, then, on the shattered fragments of scorched rock that littered the ground, and she asked, “Is that the rock you threw at him? The one he fried?”

“Yeah,” Madison replied, glancing as well toward the fragments. “I only need to grab my purse,” she added after a beat. With a glance toward the window, she said, “I don’t have any idea how I would patch that up, so I’ll just have to let it go for now.”

“Logan knows a window guy,” Brooke offered almost casually. “I’m sure he’ll help when things slow down.”

Madison nodded and carefully made her way to the kitchen. “I guess that makes sense,” she said. Her purse was still resting, seemingly untouched, on the countertop. She pushed the straps aside and rifled through it without lifting it, checking to see if everything was there. She wasn’t overly surprised to see that it was. As she slid the purse over her shoulder she added, “I’ll go grab my car, and then follow you out?”

Brooke inclined her head. “Sure,” she said. The pair turned, then, and exited the building. There was more damage to investigate, but Madison had no desire to do so.

Madison paused this time to lock the front door, knowing her efforts were fairly futile since she had two broken windows, and then turned toward the garage. She froze without taking another step, but it wasn’t until Brooke called out to her that she realized Brooke had spoken. So she pointed with a suddenly-numb finger toward the garage and said, “Look.”

The wide rolling door for the garage was hanging awkwardly to one side and had new black scorch marks on the visible panels. And Madison had a very bad feeling building quickly in the pit of her stomach.

“That can’t be good,” Brooke mumbled, eyes wide.

Madison jerked herself out of her shock and broke into a jog, heading toward the garage. She wasn’t entirely sure what she would find, but whatever it was, she needed to know. Pounding footsteps behind her told her that Brooke was following closely. And then she was standing before the destroyed garage entrance, and her mouth was instantly dry. The first thing she noticed was that Nate’s bike was nearly unrecognizable. It was on its side, curled into an unnatural position, and looked like it had been struck by lightning at least once. It also looked like it might have been crashed into by another—larger—vehicle, and partially run over. The next thing Madison noticed was that her RX-8 was missing.

“Is it bad,” Brooke began, disbelief coloring her voice, “that my first thought is that Nate needs to take a hint. This is the second time they’ve destroyed his bike.”

Madison really wanted to be amused by her words. But she was too busy feeling sick to her stomach. Her laptop had been in the backseat of her car, the result of a habit she had yet to break after being robbed. Her laptop was password protected, but she wasn’t the most imaginative with passwords. And, even more importantly, the enemy had stolen her car. It wasn’t like she had spare cars in a storage locker somewhere, or the extra cash necessary to buy a replacement—especially now that her income had been cut. She had saved up for that car, and taken care of it, intending for that car to last her for a very long time.

But there was nothing to be done about it now. So she took a deep breath, turned to Brooke, and said, “So … can you give me another ride?”

“Of course,” Brooke assured her. She flicked a glance at the garage before asking, “Did you think of any other errands you wanted to run before we head back?”

****

Kirk’s well-traveled luxury SUV pulled to a stop at the curb across the street from Emma’s neighbor. Nate cut the engine and tugged the keys from the ignition as he and his brothers peered through the windows to Emma’s wide, faintly sloped driveway. No vehicles were parked in front, but that didn’t deter them. Emma usually kept her Bentley within the securable confines of the garage. The daylight, and the distance, made it hard to tell if there were any lights on through the few visible front windows of the unassuming two-story home. And for a long moment, no one spoke.

At length, Dean finally released a sigh and reached for the passenger door, saying, “Let’s get this over with.”

Murmured sounds of agreement filled the car and the others quickly followed suit. Once the last door had been shut, Nate made sure to lock his friend’s car before pocketing the keys, and together the quadruplets strode forward. Out of habit, Dean took point, with Logan half a step behind. Nate and Blake followed after them, with Nate trailing ever so slightly. The brothers kept their pace casual and did their best to keep the anger off their faces. The smoother—and the faster—this self-appointed mission went down, the better. When they reached the top of the driveway Dean nodded at his brothers over his shoulder before continuing up the narrowed path to the door, and the others held back, keeping the door, and their brother, in sight. Without missing a beat, Dean lifted his fist and knocked heavily.

For a long moment, nothing happened.

Then there was a shift of blurred motion on the other side of the door, behind the elaborate window, and the door was pulled halfway open. Emma stood on the other side, her eyes narrowed suspiciously as they flicked past Dean to acknowledge the other three. Then her gaze returned to the man before her and she snapped, “What do you want? Are you really here to start something?”

Dean didn’t bother hiding his glare as he replied, “No. We want to talk.”

“Well, I don’t,” Emma retorted, moving to slam the door in his face.

Blake stepped forward, walking halfway to the door, and called, “Wait. We just have a message, and then we’ll go.”

Emma stopped and cut her glare to Blake, asking, “Why should I care about your message?”

Dean spoke up before Blake could respond, saying, “Do you really want to live the rest of your life hunting us from the shadows and avoiding us when you know we’ll be looking for you? Or would you rather have all this crap behind you?”

A light of curiosity was building within her eyes, and Emma slowly asked, “What do you mean?”

Taking over again, Blake explained, “We don’t want to live like this, either. So what if the four of us were to meet you and your family somewhere? We could have it out all at once, winner left standing.”

Emma narrowed her eyes at Blake, his words obviously ringing through her head. “What’s the catch?” she finally asked, suspicion evident in her voice.

“The only catch,” Blake replied honestly, “is that we don’t want to do it in the city. There’s plenty of forest north of here, and that way no innocents have to be hurt.”

She looked away from him, raking her cold glare over Nate and Logan before returning her focus to Blake and asking, “And all four of you had to come out here just for that?”

Again, Dean interrupted Blake’s would-be response. “Yeah, you’ll have to forgive us for not trusting that none of you wouldn’t just decide to strike while you could.”

She glared at him for a long moment, before finally saying, “I’ll pass your message along. Now get the hell off my property.” And then she yanked the door the rest of the way shut with enough force to shake the frame.

“Well,” Nate began as Dean and Blake turned back toward them, “that could’ve gone worse.”

Chapter Eleven

Madison and Brooke were barely finished telling Lillian, Christopher, and Kirk about Nate’s destroyed motorcycle and Madison’s missing car when they heard the front door open. By the time they were on their feet, turning toward the entry, Angela was racing down the stairs to greet them. But it was Christopher who actually asked the question they were all thinking. “How’d it go?”

The brothers gathered in the entrance of the living room and Dean shrugged. “Could’ve been worse,” he said, echoing Nate’s words from earlier.

Elaborating on Dean’s response, Blake said, “Emma was home. She answered the door, and we gave her the message. And she must be an amazing actress, because she had a whole new attitude.”

Nate lifted Kirk’s keys from his pocket, tossed them to him, and added, “Your car made the trip, but it’s a little bit dirty now. Sorry ‘bout that.”

“Dirty?” Kirk repeated, catching the perfectly aimed keys easily.

“While we were out,” Blake explained, “we thought it’d be a good idea to get a feel for the terrain. So we took a little detour after we left Emma’s.”

“So you’re all okay?” Angela asked, still standing on the bottom step, one hand balancing loosely on the banister.

Her brothers all turned reassuring smiles to her and Logan replied, “We’re fine.”

His words broke the invisible spell of tension hanging over the family, and Brooke moved quickly into Blake’s embrace. Madison followed Brooke’s lead, but instead of wrapping her arms around Nate, she slipped her hand into one of his and tugged gently, silently indicating that she wanted to talk to him. He let her lead him down the hall as the rest of his family moved to settle in the living room.

“Is something wrong?” Nate asked as they came to a stop, a note of worry in his voice. He retained his hold on her hand, his thumb rubbing absently along the back of her knuckles.

Turning a pointed look up to him, Madison replied, “This once, I’m going to let the ridiculousness of that question slide.” She paused, tightened her hold on his hand, and leaned up to press a quick kiss to his lips. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

His lips twitched now and Nate tugged his hand free in order to rest both hands on her hips and pull her close as he whispered, “It’s kinda nice to know you were worried.”

Madison pursed her lips and playfully shoved at his shoulder. “Of course I was worried!” she reprimanded quietly. Her expression softened and she let her hands land on his chest as she added, “Actually, there is something you should know. Brooke and I got kind of antsy while you were gone, so I asked her to take me home. I thought I’d look around, maybe pick up my car.”

Nate’s hands tightened over her hips as she spoke, his body tensing. But he stayed silent, attempting to be patient, and let her speak.

“Mostly everything was as we left it,” she continued, studying his face. “But when I went to the garage…. Well, I think the old man was angry about his car. The garage door is destroyed, and my car’s missing. I’m assuming he stole it.” She paused, watching his jaw tighten as he took in a deep breath. She only wished she were done, so that he wouldn’t have to get more upset. “Before he left, though … he destroyed your motorcycle.” Again, apparently.

Surprise was the first expression to settle on his face and he couldn’t stop himself from asking, “He what?”

With a nod, Madison said, “It’s a complete mess. I’m sorry, Nate.”

A tic worked in his jaw for a moment, but at length Nate pulled her against him and wrapped his arms around her, saying, “I’ll get over it. And if I can, I’ll get your car back, too.”

Madison couldn’t help but smile into his shoulder. “That’s sweet, baby, but I’d guess that’s not happening.”

“We’ll see,” Nate replied quietly. “I don’t know how I feel about you running around right now, though,” he added after a minute.

Laughing softly now, Madison eased back enough to look into his eyes and said, “If it makes you feel any better, while we were out we bought some pepper spray. And we bought one for Angela, too.”

Nate blinked at her. A slow, quiet chuckle built in his chest and he said, “Maybe a little.”

Madison smiled at him, curling her fingers into the sides of his shirt, and murmured, “Before we head back … I think you should kiss me.” Hell, she’d take him upstairs and strip him naked if his
entire
family wasn’t gathered and likely waiting on them just down the hall.

He grinned, running one hand up her spine until it was buried in thick, dark auburn hair, and said, “Yes, ma’am.”

****

The brothers decided to take their unexpected downtime to get in a little impromptu training, so everyone gathered out behind the house. Lillian, Christopher, and Kirk were seated at one of the large tables on the porch, angled to watch while staying well out of the way. Brooke, Madison, and Angela were sitting on the steps, as close as they could get without being in the way. The brothers themselves were spread out, facing each other, on the far end of the large backyard. They had been sparring, largely four-on-four, for nearly an hour when Madison’s phone rang.

Angela and Brooke both jumped slightly, startled at the unexpected, muffled sound. They turned curious eyes to Madison as she pulled the phone from her pocket. A concerned frown curved her lips when she realized the caller was her mother. Her mother didn’t usually call until later in the day. With a glance toward Nate—currently dodging a stream of fire in the air—she mouthed an apology to the girls beside her and pushed to her feet. “Hi, Mama,” she said as she put the phone to her ear.

“Madison Price, where in the world are you?” Missy demanded firmly as Madison offered a silent nod to the trio gathered at the table before slipping into the house.

Her mother’s words and tone gave her pause, but before Madison could actually question the unusual greeting she realized why her mother sounded upset. With everything that had happened she hadn’t remembered to call her mother the night before. But her mother knew she’d had a date the previous day, and Madison had promised to call and tell her how it went, so when she had failed to keep her promise her mother had worried. Cringing now, Madison said, “I’m so sorry, Mama, I completely forgot to call! I didn’t mean to worry you.”

Missy was quiet for a moment, digesting her words, before she finally asked, “But you’re okay?”

“Yes, I am,” Madison assured her.

“So why didn’t you call?” Missy pushed, her tone still faintly accusatory.

Madison moved to a nearby loveseat and sank into it. From her angle she could still see a good portion of the yard through the window, and her eyes automatically sought out Nate’s form. “I … kind of got distracted.” She had promised not to tell her mother about Nate’s family secret—unless, of course, diamonds got involved—but how did she explain her forgetfulness without explaining the cause?

“Distracted?” Missy repeated for a beat, before her voice adopted a new, teasing quality and she added, “You mean distracted by your new boyfriend?”

Squeezing her eyes shut for a moment, Madison prayed she wasn’t sending herself straight to hell for the lie she was going to have to tell, and then she replied, “Yeah. I know, it’s no excuse, and I’m really sorry.”

Missy laughed on the other end, her frustration already fading. But when she spoke she maintained her motherly tone long enough to ask, “Madison, tell me you didn’t let him spend the night after the first date?”

“No, Mama.”
Not technically.
“The truth is, I had time to call, I really did. I was just…” She trailed off, not sure of how to say it. If she tried outright lying her mother would know, so she opted to see how the older woman would finish the thought.

“I understand,” Missy assured her, a smile in her voice now. “And, really, what you do is your business these days. I just want you to be smart about it.”

“I haven’t forgotten,” Madison promised.

Missy was speaking again a beat later, asking, “So, tell me about this ‘Nate.’ Is he good-looking? He must be pretty charming to get you on a date. What does he do? How old is he?”

Madison choked on a laugh, habitually rolling her eyes at her mother’s deluge of questions. “He’s my landlord, remember? And I thought I already told you: he’s twenty-two, same as me.”

“Oh, right,” Missy replied, drawing each word out as the memory returned to her. “But you never did tell me much more than that. Do I have to repeat the rest of my questions?”

With a silent sigh, Madison paused to watch Nate redirect Blake’s burst of water into Logan with a well-placed gust of air, and said, “He’s six-foot-two, dark hair, blue eyes, lean build—”

“Madison!” Missy interrupted, clucking her tongue disapprovingly. “Put some
emotion
into it!”

She wasn’t quite able to contain her laughter at her mother’s admonishment. “Well you wanted to know what he looks like,” she teased. But she took a breath and added, “He’s kind of gorgeous, Mama. In fact, I have a picture of him on my phone if you want me to send it to you.”

The pout was evident in Missy’s voice as she said, “You know I hate those kinds of messages. Can’t you email it to me?”

Once again glad her mother couldn’t see her reaction, Madison kept the cringe from her voice and replied, “I … can’t right now. I’m actually at Nate’s parents’ house. They’re having a … family function.”

Missy was silent for several seconds with this latest revelation. And then, her voice having risen noticeably, she cried, “Then why are you talking to me right now? You should be socializing! Just call me back tonight, and email the picture when you have time!” She paused, her voice lowering again, and mumbled, “And I should definitely be working on moving up there … I’d hate to miss the wedding…”

“Mama!” Madison cried, caught completely off guard by the comment. “I don’t know him well enough to marry him!”
Yet,
a traitorous voice whispered in the back of her mind. And she was almost frightened by how much she didn’t disagree with it.

Missy was laughing when Madison tuned back in to the conversation, and her mother said, “Oh, calm down, M. I was just having a little fun with you. Although, technically, I didn’t say anything that wasn’t true. Now you go back to getting to know my potential-future-in-laws, and I’ll talk to you later, okay?”

Knowing better than to continue the argument, Madison released a small sigh and replied, “Okay.”

****

“You know,” Madison began later that night as she climbed into bed beside Nate, “that was kind of fun.”

Quirking a brow, Nate asked, “What was?”

She was unable to hide her grin as she replied, “Watching your little sister wipe the floor with you.”

Nate laughed, rolling his eyes at her teasing. Shortly after Logan had declared that he was going in to work tomorrow Angela had suggested a large game of pool. And despite that they had known better, all four of them had agreed.

“Let me guess,” Madison continued, leaning into his arm now and trailing her fingers up casually, “you let her win, right?”

“I wish,” Nate replied, still laughing. “It used to be Dean who kicked all our butts, but then Angie wanted to learn, so she suckered Dean into teaching her, and he’s regretted it ever since.”

“So is pool not your thing?” Madison teased, now idly drawing circles over his bicep.

Nate’s laugh turned into a grin and he said, “Nope. I’m more of a Frisbee-throwing, kite-flying, kind of guy.”

Madison laughed, her hand stilling, and her eyes twinkled as she said, “Wow; you really missed your calling. You should’ve been a babysitter.”

“Maybe I’m just a lot of fun at picnics,” Nate defended with a chuckle.

“You’re probably still a bigger hit with the prepubescents,” Madison insisted teasingly.

“Oh yeah?” Nate challenged, blue eyes dancing with laughter even as they narrowed in mock anger.

“Yeah,” Madison asserted confidently.

Nate shook his head as if disappointed with her answer, and then he turned, tackling her to the mattress as his fingers danced over her sides and abdomen. “Then I’ll just have to resort to torture!”

Madison half-shrieked with startled laughter the moment he started tickling her. She attempted to gasp in much-needed air between bouts of laughter, but she couldn’t get enough to form any actual words.

“Surrender yet?” Nate asked, once again slipping free of her poor grasp on his wrist. She was quick, but he was slippery.

She gasped again, squirming as much as she could, and finally managed, “N-never!”

“What was that?” Nate teased, leaning a bit closer as if he hadn’t been able to hear her.

Madison grinned and repeated, “Never.” Then she tightened her leg against the back of his knee, throwing off his balance, and flipped them over. She caught his wrists again and pinned them over his head as their eyes met. She was still gasping for breath, straddling him now, and he was still grinning broadly. “You can’t beat me that easily,” she declared.

“Duly noted,” Nate assured her, barely muffling his laughter. He was both amused and turned on, which was a confusing combination.

Satisfied with his answer, Madison loosened her hold on his wrists and let herself slump against him as she regulated her breathing. “You cheat,” she scolded tiredly without lifting her head from his chest.