Max bobbed his head, his eyes amused. “You have things in common, talk, hang out companionably, an assload of chemistry. Check. Got it.”
“I know what you’re thinking.”
Max rolled his tongue along the inside of his cheek. “What am I thinking, Derrick?”
“You’re thinking those are all the qualities a guy needs in a life mate. Except you’re forgetting, I don’t want a life mate. Besides, we hardly know each other. How can you sign on for life when you’ve known each other for three damn weeks?”
“Noted, and don’t forget, you’re asking the guy who did just that—signed on. But here’s something you’re forgetting. You don’t have to know everything about each other right away. Sure, you have to hop in the sack with her in order to keep on living, but afterward, when all the bullshit’s passed, you can get to know each other at your own pace. There’s no rush. The point is, she’s the first woman I’ve ever seen you interact with and actually enjoy the interaction. I’m just sayin’.”
“Well, stop sayin’. I repeat, I don’t want forever. I like playing the field.” Yeahhh. That big field full of women all over Cedar Glen. Just sayin’.
“Check again,” Max agreed with a smug smile.
He sat silently, stuffing some eggs into his mouth to keep from sharing with Max how much he looked forward to seeing Martine at the end of a day. How he thought about her all the time when he wasn’t with her—a first for him and any woman he’d ever even loosely been involved with.
“So ever figure out who the guy that came in here the other day was?” Max asked.
“Nope. Haven’t seen him since either.” And after Martine’s confession, that worried him.
“I made sure everyone’s aware of what happened. The guys in the pack are keeping an eye out, and I’ve tightened up the perimeter around town with extra security just to be safe. We won’t let anything happen to her.”
Derrick nodded, taking a last swallow of his coffee, ignoring the fear that swept over him at the idea of anything happening to Martine. “Appreciate that.”
“So we still haven’t talked about the impossible.”
“The impossible?”
Max’s head dipped in a nod. “Yeah, you know, that part of the curse that says your mating will have an impossible stumbling block?”
Oh. Right. That. “Can’t deal with something we can’t see.”
“Have you given thought to what it might be?”
Was his brother kidding? He’d thought about it day and night. “I’m gonna go with this son of a bitch Escobar.”
“Yeah, the warlock. JC and mom have been doing some research on familiars and warlocks since they heard about what went down with Martine. This magic shit, it’s pretty crazy, Derrick. I don’t know any witches or warlocks to consult, but I’m gonna be honest, it scares the shit out of me.”
“What really worries me is, neither does Martine. If she at least had some basic knowledge of the craft, I’d feel a little more prepared, but she shunned that entire portion of her life.”
“Bet there’s some instructional videos on YouTube,” Max joked.
But Derrick wasn’t laughing. He was beginning to panic. With only a week and a half until the full moon, he felt as if he was going to crawl out of his skin with paranoia. “If only it were that easy.”
“Ever thought about contacting her mother?”
Yeah. He had. Martine would kill him, but if it meant keeping her safe, he’d do it. “She’d probably kill me.”
“Listen. I don’t want to get pushy with you, but I’m not going to lose you. Got that? If I have to, I’ll snoop the hell around and figure out who her mother is and drag the woman back here to help us. She knows the ways of a familiar, right?”
Derrick clenched a fist, dropping his fork. “Martine wasn’t really clear on what she knows. Only that her father was abusive and her mother spent a lot of time keeping her under her father’s radar. He was a real prick.”
Max wiped his mouth, throwing his napkin on the table and leaning back in his chair. “If you think it’ll cause you trouble with Martine, I’ll find her and bring her back myself, but I’m not waiting too much longer for you to shit or get off the pot. If we need to fight fire with fire against this Escobar, if he’s the impossible part of this curse, we need someone who knows something about magic. We need to prepare, Derrick.”
“What about JC’s friend? What was her name? Viv?” JC’s best friend had surprised everyone with her admission the night of Max’s mate, when she’d revealed that she, too, was paranormal. She’d hidden her shifter form from JC almost all their lives. But Viv had been the catalyst to convincing JC shifters truly existed, and the last push needed to ensure JC knew how dire the mate really was.