Triple Dog Dare

Chapter Nine

Elain awoke nearly half an hour before the alarm went off at four thirty the next morning. As expected, the previous night’s gymnastics left her slightly achy and bruised, but she wasn’t complaining in the least. She quickly grabbed a shower and dressed and started a pot of coffee while waiting for the others to wake up. She wasn’t looking forward to spending several days away from her men, but she was looking forward to getting to know Lina and her gang.

And her father.

Now that the initial shock of recent revelations was starting to wear off a little, she wouldn’t deny excitement had started creeping in. A chance to not only have new friends and adopted family, but she now had her dad and her mom together in the same place for the first time in her life.

Jesus, I’m a wreck. She fought the urge to burst out laughing, sure everyone else would think she’d gone crazy.

Maybe I have.

For the first leg of the journey, Elain would ride with Carla and Liam. Until they got out of Arcadia, at least, both Elain and Liam would stay out of sight on the backseat. Kael and Zack would leave first, followed by Carla a few minutes later, and then Lina and her men. They would rendezvous outside of Arcadia and proceed to the interstate once they were sure no one had followed them.

Elain hugged and kissed her men before she and Liam crept outside under the cover of darkness and climbed into the backseat of Carla’s rental car. Everything went according to their plan, and they soon hit I-75, certain no one had followed them. When they stopped at the Dade City exit for gas and a bathroom stop for Lina, it was barely daylight.

When they were preparing to load up, Lina snagged Elain’s arm. “Come ride with us for a while. Please? Otherwise, I’m liable to fry these two chumps out of sheer aggravation.”

“Hey,” Jan protested. “What’d we do?”

“You didn’t do anything,” Lina shot back. “It’s just that you’re men and I’m hormonal and it’s your fault I’m as big as a house.”

Carla smiled. “It’s all right, honey. Your father and I don’t mind.”

Elain didn’t miss the pleased glance Carla gave Liam.

When they were back on the road, Elain confronted Lina. “Fess up.”

Lina smiled. “They need alone time. No better bonding time than on a road trip.”

“Is this part of your visions? Did you see something?”

Lina laughed. “No, this was just plain old intuition combined with seriously needing some estrogen backup against these two.” She poked her two men in the shoulders over their seats.

Rick, who was driving, protested. “Hey! That’s not fair. What’d I do?”

“You were born with a penis, that’s what,” Lina shot back.

Elain laughed, but she saw through Lina’s false gruffness. She truly loved her men. “So what can I expect when we get to Maine?” Elain asked.

“You’ll love Lacey,” Lina said. “She’s a real sweetheart. She’s like a grandmother.”

“And she makes wicked-good banana nut bread,” Rick said.

“Yeah, there is that,” Lina agreed. “She’s a damn good cook.”

“I think I gained five pounds during our last visit,” Jan said.

Elain sipped at her coffee to buy her a few minutes. “Have you seen anything happening between my mom and dad with your visions?”

Lina shook her head. “Nothing yet. Doesn’t mean I won’t.”

“Oh.”

Lina laid a hand over Elain’s. Elain immediately felt a wave of tender concern from Lina. “I wish I could give you an answer about that.”

“He’s got the hots for her,” Jan said.

“What?” Elain asked.

Rick nodded. “From what I could see with my own two male eyes,” he said with a glance in the rearview mirror at Lina, “he really likes her.”

“You think so?”

“Elain, please don’t get your hopes up,” Lina said. “Let nature run its course. I know it’s natural to want them to end up together, but don’t be disappointed if it doesn’t happen.”

“Will Lacey be able to tell me anything?”

Lina shrugged. “I don’t know. We’ll have to ask her if she’s had any visions. We’ll be there in a couple of days. Try to enjoy the trip.” She offered up a playful smile. “Admit it, you were jealous when I first walked in and hugged Brodey, weren’t you?”

Why lie? “Yeah. It was like this instinctive wave washed over me. Sorry.”

Lina laughed. “No problem. I would have done the same thing, probably. But seriously, are we okay?”

Elain smiled. “Absolutely. For the first time since I met the guys, I feel like I have a girlfriend I can talk to about all of this.”

“I know what you mean. I have friends, but I can’t talk to any of them about the unusual stuff, you know? I actually lost a couple of friends when they realized I was with both Jan and Rick.”

Elain hadn’t even thought that far ahead in the equation. Not that she had that many friends to worry about. Acquaintances, sure. Coworkers? Lots.

Well, former coworkers.

What Elain hadn’t counted on was not missing work. She had been convinced she would be bored silly and ready to beg Ain to let her get a job by this point.

She wasn’t.

Sure, she’d miss her men over the next couple of days, but the adventure of having her parents and new friends keeping her company, as well as meeting new people, overshadowed that.

The thought of going back to work now was a nearly alien thought. Not that she wanted to lay about, either.

Children…

No, she didn’t need to think about children right now. She needed to think about getting through this new batch of bullshit and the wedding before thinking about starting a family.

Jan and Rick might as well not have been in the car for all the attention Lina and Elain paid them as they bounced from one topic of conversation to the next. By the time they stopped for their next bathroom break, Elain knew she and Lina would likely be friends for life.

Feeling a little guilty that she’d abandoned her mom, Elain walked over to her car as she and Liam got out. “How are you guys doing?” Elain asked.

Carla smiled. “We’re fine, honey. Enjoy your time with Lina.” Elain didn’t miss how Carla glanced at Liam. “Your father and I are talking.”

Elain and Lina spent the next leg of the journey riding with Kael and Zack. Elain quickly discovered she liked both men. By the time they called it a day, they’d made it to Virginia. After agreeing upon a place for dinner, they found a hotel. Elain roomed with her parents, sharing a bed with her mom.

As she closed her eyes and tried to sleep, she couldn’t help the smile on her face.

Marston felt nervous. He’d intended to get closer to the Lyall house, but despite getting there early in the morning, it seemed he’d missed his opportunity. He parked on the road outside their driveway and, using a pair of binoculars, studied the yard again. Three of the cars that had been there yesterday were now gone. And he knew from observation that two of them had belonged to the dragons.

Damn.

Something had happened, but he wasn’t sure what.

He drove back down the road and parked near a convenience store anyone leaving the Lyalls’ had to pass to get into Arcadia. After several hours and spotting no one, he drove past the Lyalls’ property again.

The cars were still gone.

He knew Micah Donovan was holed up there with his new mate. Donovan’s truck hadn’t moved from where it’d been parked for several days. And that was a wolf he didn’t want to mess with any more than he wanted to tangle with the Lyalls.

He followed one of the Lyalls to town when he left the house to run errands. To the feed store, hardware store, groceries. No sign of the Pardie bitch.

Later that afternoon, another of the brothers, he couldn’t tell them apart from a distance, drove into Arcadia and went to a plumbing supply store. Again, no sign of their mate.

He strongly suspected she’d left the property with the dragons. Unfortunately, he had no idea where they went.

Returning to his hotel room, he knew he had to rework his plan, quickly, before Abernathy started crawling down his neck for results.