Twice the Malone by Laylah Roberts

18

Well, this was awkward as fuck.

Beau eyed his brother. There was definitely something going on with him. Scarlett might think it was tiredness or some shit, but he knew Mad. The guy didn’t get tired like normal people. Or if he did, he didn’t let it stop him from doing his duty.

And his first duty was to see to their girl.

Only, he was holding back. Big time. It had to be giving him an ulcer. Or at least gas. Couldn’t be good for you to hold back your true nature like he was.

He was almost acting like a normal person.

He hadn’t told Scarlett off for calling herself stupid.

He hadn’t reacted when she’d very obviously ordered the cheapest item on the lunch menu.

He hadn’t growled at her when she’d refused the bread to go with her soup, despite staring at it hungrily, or said anything about the weight she’d lost.

And now they were back upstairs, and she was yawning her head off, yet determined to go back to her apartment and check on it.

And Maddox was just sitting there. Meaning Beau had to play bad cop. Beau wasn’t good at being the bad cop. He was always the good cop.

So instead of Maddox taking over and throwing out orders, Beau found himself having to cajole her into taking a nap.

“I’ll go over and check out your apartment,” he told her.

She shook her head stubbornly. “It’s my apartment. And I need to talk to the landlord.”

“What you need is to get rid of the black marks under your eyes,” he insisted. “Maddox, have you got something to say?”

“What? Oh, do you need me to drive you?” he asked her politely.

They both gaped at him.

“Maddox, are you all right?” Beau placed the back of his hand over his brother’s forehead.

Maddox slapped his hand away, glaring up at him. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Oh, nothing, just wondering if the apocalypse is coming. Scar needs to take a nap.”

“I thought she wanted to go to her apartment.”

“She does.” Scarlett sent him a triumphant look. Brat. She needed a good spanking. And since he’d asked the doctor, he knew that a light spanking was fine for a pregnant woman as long as she didn’t get too upset. He sent her a look back and she wisely looked a bit worried.

If Maddox knew she was pregnant, he wouldn’t be acting like this.

Then again, he didn’t think Maddox had ever acted like this. Something was up with him. Big time.

Beau didn’t have time for his brother’s shit. He had enough trouble keeping their woman under control. And he could really use Maddox’s help.

* * *

Fuck,he was an asshole.

How could she forgive him so easily? He didn’t deserve her.

Maddox didn’t comment as she climbed out of Beau’s truck herself, and he ignored the glower that Beau sent his way. His twin grabbed hold of her gently, pulling her in to say something in her ear.

No doubt telling her how beautiful she was. How much he wanted her. Maddox should try doing that.

With a frown, he glanced around. This looked like a good neighborhood. “You got mugged here?” He guessed it was possible to get mugged anywhere.

“Ah, no, it’s pretty safe around here,” she told him.

“The neighborhood where she got mugged wasn’t safe at all.” Beau sent her a look. “I should have interfered earlier rather than holding back and then it wouldn’t have happened.”

“You didn’t know I would get mugged, Beau. It’s not your fault.”

“What were you doing in a bad neighborhood. Was it for work?” Maddox asked her.

“Um, no. I got fired.”

He froze and looked over at her. “What?”

“Richard fired me.”

“The dick,” Beau added.

“Total dick,” she agreed.

He felt like he was missing something. But he couldn’t deny feeling relieved that she was no longer working for that asshole. And it was one less barrier to getting her to move out of the city and back to Haven.

What if she didn’t want to move? What then? Could he live in the city? He hated being here, and it had been less than twenty-four hours. What would he do?

Fact was, he hated the city. Didn’t want to live here. He wanted her in Haven where he knew she’d be safe.

But if living here was what she wanted . . . fuck.

“The locks have been changed,” Beau said. “They left a copy with the landlord, who let in the clean-up crew.”

“I’ll buzz the landlord then,” she said. She took a deep breath. “I need to talk to him anyway about the lease. I hope he lets me out of it.”

“He should understand why you can’t live here anymore,” Beau reassured her. “I’ll talk to him.”

“No, this is something I need to do. And I should probably do it on my own.”

“Maddox?” Beau asked.

“Hmm?” he asked. Why did he have a funny feeling about all of this?

“You got something to say about Scar talking to the landlord on her own?” Beau gave him a pointed look.

He opened his mouth to insist that he’d handle the landlord. But then he remembered that he was trying not to be such a controlling jerk.

“I’m sure she has it handled.”

Beau just shook his head.

The landlord opened the door. He and Scarlett walked inside and started quietly talking. Beau blocked his path, his arms crossed over his chest.

“Who are you and what have you done with my brother?”

“What?”

“Did aliens invade your body? Were you probed? You can tell me if you were probed. I promise I won’t even laugh.”

“I wasn’t probed. Jesus.” He scowled at his brother. “What’s wrong with you?”

“Exactly my question for you, brother. What the fuck is up with you?”

“Nothing is up with me.”

She returned with a smile. But he noticed it looked forced. Shit.

“What did he say?” Beau asked.

“Oh, he said that everything is all fine. Shall we go up?”

When they reached her apartment, she used the key the landlord had given her. Inside some packing boxes had been piled up to the left of the living area but otherwise, it was bare.

“Wow, they really tidied everything up. They must have been here all day. I don’t know how you got them to do it on short notice like that.”

“I paid them a bonus,” Beau said, moving over to the boxes. He had his back turned to her, so he didn’t see her wince. But Maddox did.

What was that about? Was she upset Beau paid them a bonus?

“You need to tell me how much I owe you for that.”

He had to bite his tongue so he wouldn’t tell her that she didn’t owe them a cent.

She deserves gentleness. Care. Not to be snapped at. You’ve done enough of that.

Beau shot him a look then sighed. “I’m surrounded by lunatics.”

“What?” she asked, giving him a startled look.

“Nothing. Do you want me to take these boxes somewhere, Snow? They look to be mostly clothes.”

“I suppose I should keep them.”

She didn’t seem like she wanted to keep them, though. She looked kind of ill at the thought.

“No. You’re not keeping them. I bought you new clothes and if you need more, I’ll take you shopping again.”

“That seems so wasteful, though,” she replied. “I’m sure I’ll get over my aversion to them.”

“Snow, you don’t need these anywhere near you. They’ll just remind you of what happened here. Same as staying in this apartment would. You sure the landlord let you out of the lease?”

“It’s all fine.”

That wasn’t a full answer, he noticed.

Keep pushing her, Beau.

But his brother didn’t say anything. Maddox frowned, hesitating. There was obviously something going on with the landlord. Before he could say anything though, Beau was stacking up boxes.

“We’ll take these to the Salvation Army.”

“Okay, that’s a good idea.” She gave him a relieved look and went to grab a box.

“Hey!” Beau said sharply, making her jolt. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Carrying a box downstairs.”

“No way. Maddox and I will carry all the boxes.”

“Beau, don’t be silly, they’re light. I can take one at a time.”

“Nope,” Beau replied.

“I’ll use the elevator.”

“Still nope.”

Okay, this was the most forceful he’d ever seen his brother and it surprised him.

“You can wait up here or in the truck. Those are your two choices. Right, Maddox?”

Both of them turned to look at him. On the one hand, he agreed with his brother wholeheartedly. Why the hell would they let her carry boxes when they were both here and capable?

However, he didn’t want to argue with her.

“I’m sure she’s capable of carrying a box, Beau.”

Both of them stared at him in shock, and instead of looking happy, Scarlett gave him a concerned look.

“Are you all right, Maddox?” she asked.

“Of course. Shall we move these?”

“Yeah, you and I will,” Beau said firmly. “Scarlett, pick up one of those boxes and I will spank your ass even if my alien-probed brother won’t.”

* * *

Something was wrong with Maddox.She watched him worriedly as they entered their room. They’d dropped her clothes off at a Salvation Army store then grabbed a quick dinner before returning to the hotel. They couldn’t stay here forever; the bill was going to be huge. She really needed to sort out what she was going to do.

What she hadn’t told Beau and Maddox was that the landlord would only let her out of her lease if she found someone to take it over, so she was also left paying for that while she found a new tenant.

She was quickly going to burn through her savings.

Maddox walked quietly into the suite. He was subdued. Not himself. He hadn’t once attempted to boss her around or threatened to spank her.

She hadn’t known him long, but it seemed pretty out-of-character.

As he walked into the bathroom, she turned to Beau. “What’s going on?”

“I have no fucking idea,” Beau replied. “But if he doesn’t snap out of it, I’m gonna have to kick his ass. It won’t be pretty. I apologize now that you’ll have to see him cry.”

“Beau, I’m serious.”

“So am I. I don’t know what’s crawled up his ass and turned him into some kind of new-age zombie, but he needs to stop. This isn’t him. I mean, he was going to let you carry one of those boxes.” He folded his arms and scowled at her. “And what was that about, missy?”

She rolled her eyes at him and stared over at the bathroom to make sure the door was shut. “I’m pregnant, not an invalid.”

“You are not supposed to be lifting anything. Try that again and you’re getting your butt reddened. Remember, the doctor said it was fine this early on.”

“I cannot believe you asked her that. I can’t ever go back there.”

“Well, you’re gonna have to. If you don’t think Maddox will want to speak to her once he finds out, then you don’t know him.” He sighed. “Actually, I don’t know how this Maddox will react.”

“I’m scared to tell him.”

“Scared to tell me what?” Maddox asked.

“Oh, um, I . . .” Shoot. Just tell him. “I got fired from my job.”

Maddox gave her a quizzical look. “You told me that already.” He came and sat on the armchair across from where she sat on the sofa with Beau. “Is there something more to it?”

She let out a breath. “After you told me about how Richard tried to blackmail your friends into selling, well, I started to see him in a new light. I talked with Margo about maybe doing some sneaking around and trying to find any evidence of him doing that with other people.”

“Fuck,” Maddox muttered. “Just as well you didn’t.”

“Um, well, that’s the thing. I kind of did.”

There was silence and she peeked up at him, waiting for him to explode. She noticed his jaw was clenched, and his hands were tightly gripping the arms of his chair. But otherwise, he didn’t say anything.

“Snow, what did you do?” Beau asked.

“I overheard this call. I think it was about you, Maddox. Richard was yelling at someone on the phone, saying how he didn’t care how rich his family was, that he wanted dirt on him. How he wanted to make this person pay for crossing him and asking why he even wanted that land.”

“Is that right?” Maddox said darkly, looking to Beau.

“You think he had anything to do with some of our cattle going missing?” Beau asked. “And the other things that have been happening?”

“What things?” she asked.

Beau shook his head. “Nothing for you to worry about, Snow.”

“Beau, tell me.”

“One of our brothers was tailed home by someone who ran him off the road,” Maddox explained.

She sucked in a breath, feeling faint. “What? Do you think whoever he was talking to did that? I should have done some snooping into him earlier. I should have tried to warn you.”

“It’s okay, Snow. You tried your best, we’re the idiots that didn’t come chasing after your ass right away.” Beau drew her close, hugging her against him. Maddox didn’t say anything, and she couldn’t help worrying that he still blamed her for Richard’s actions.

“After that, I decided to do some real snooping around. I waited until I knew he was going away for the weekend and took a look through his office. And I found some stuff. On his computer.”

“What sort of stuff?” Maddox asked.

“Evidence that he’s been using these sorts of threatening tactics for a while to ensure that businesses would fail so he could get them for bottom dollar then he’d build them back up and sell them at a huge profit. Also, I think he’s been gathering evidence to use against people or to bribe them.”

“What sort of evidence?”

“It might be best if I show you.” She stood and walked over to grab the flash drive that she’d left in the bedside drawer. She handed it to Maddox. “It’s all on here. Crap, I don’t have anything you can look at it on though. My laptop was stolen.”

“We should have bought you a new one,” Beau said.

“You’ve bought me enough.” Clothes, underwear, shoes, and a new handbag and wallet were plenty. Not that she had anything to put in her wallet. At least the mugger hadn’t had a chance to use her credit card.

Beau scoffed. “We bought the bare necessities. We didn’t even get a chance to buy you a snap-crotch teddy.”

“I don’t need a snap-crotch teddy.”

“No, but I do.”

“Hmm.” She looked him up and down. “You would look sexy in a silky red one, I agree.”

“Hey, brat! Not for me.”

She giggled as he stood and lunged for her, picking her up and twirling her. Then her head started to spin. “Beau, stop.”

“Shit, sorry, baby.” He gently put her on her feet and held her against him. “You feel all right?”

“Yeah, just got a bit dizzy.” She leaned against him, looking around at Maddox who was standing and heading toward the door.

“Where are you going?”

“I want to go grab a laptop so I can look at this.”

“Now?” It was close to bedtime, and she’d been kind of hoping for . . . well, maybe not a repeat of their first night together but some cuddling at least. It felt like they still had fences to mend between them.

“Yeah, I really want to see what’s on here and I don’t want to use the public computer in the business center. Did you want me to get something?”

“No, thanks. I’m, um, fine.”

He nodded and left. She buried her face in Beau’s chest, feeling tears well.

“Hey, it’s all right. Everything is going to be okay.”

“Something’s wrong with him. He can’t even look me in the eyes.”

“Yeah, he’s definitely acting weird,” Beau agreed.

“I don’t think he wants me anymore,” she whispered her greatest fear.

“What? No, Snow. That’s not it.” Beau tried to draw her away so he could look down at her, but she kept her face buried in his chest. She didn’t want to see the sympathy on his face, to hear him explain away what Maddox was thinking.

“How do you know? He’s acting all distant. He’s barely touched me, he won’t really look at me and he doesn’t seem to want to be around me. He took the first excuse he could to leave.” She burst into tears.

“Aw, baby. Please don’t. You know I can’t take it when you cry. Please stop. Please.”

She shook her head, and he picked her up in his arms, carrying her to the sofa, where he sat with her on his lap, holding her tightly. “What can I do to make it better? The offer to kick his ass is still on the table.”

“No, you can’t force him to want me.”

“Baby, he wants you. The idiot wouldn’t be here if he didn’t. Maddox hates the city. He wouldn’t come here if I was lying on my hospital bed, dying. That’s the truth. He’s here for you. He’s just not himself right now.”

She continued to cry into his chest.

“Stop crying,” he begged. “If you don’t want me to kick his ass, what else can I do?”

“I-I’m f-fine,” she sobbed.

Why can’t I stop crying?

“No, you’re not. I know, I’ll buy you a puppy. Will that make you stop crying?”

“You can’t b-bribe me with a puppy.” The idiot.

“A kitten?”

She shook her head.

“A pony?”

She had to grin. Argh, this was insane. How could she be crying one moment and nearly laughing the next? She leaned back to look up at him. “Beau Malone, don’t tell me this is how you intend to deal with our kids when they cry? You’ll bribe them?”

“Hmm, probably need to start smaller though, huh? Or we’ll be overrun with kittens, puppies, and horses.”

“You cannot bribe our kids.”

“Why not? If it gets them to stop crying then what’s the harm?”

“Um, I don’t know . . . they’ll become spoiled?”

“I was gonna make them pick up the poop. You can’t be spoiled if you’re picking up poop.”

She shook her head. “You’re crazy.”

“And you’re beautiful.”

“Sure I am.” She rolled her eyes.

“You are. You need to learn how to take a compliment, young lady.”

“What should I do, Beau? What’s going on with him?”

“My guess is he thinks he needs to change to keep you or be worthy of you or some such shit. Why is it people can’t just see their own worth like me? I never have self-esteem issues. I mean, who wouldn’t want a catch like me?”

She giggled.

“What’s so funny? I was serious. Brat.” He tickled her until she cried for mercy. She leaned against him tiredly.

“Time for bed, Snow.”

“It’s early. I want to wait for Maddox to come back.”

Beau stood with her in his arms. “Nope. Sleep time. The doctor said to rest when you were tired.”

“I’m going to have to tell him. Soon. I just . . . I couldn’t today. There was so much going on and I just . . . I wanted to make sure he was interested in me for me and not because I’m having his babies.”

“I know I can say it until I’m blue in the face, and you won’t believe me. But he’s here for you. I promise. We just need to shock him into remembering who he is. The dark lord, dum-dum-dum.”

She couldn’t help but laugh at his dramatics.

* * *

She wokeup in the middle of the night, confused about where she was. Someone was wrapped around her back, keeping her warm and safe.

Beau.

She snuggled into him, but she was missing something.

Where was Maddox?

She reached out an arm, expecting to feel him in front of her. But there was no one there. Carefully, she sat up, moving Beau’s arm. He continued to quietly sleep so she slid from the bed. Where was Maddox? She’d intended to wait up for him to return, but she’d fallen asleep almost as soon as her head had hit the pillow.

The door to the living area was partially open. She walked through to find him sitting on the sofa. He’d left one of the side lamps on, so there was a soft light. He’d taken off his boots and rolled up the sleeves of his shirt but otherwise he was dressed exactly as he had been yesterday. A laptop was open on the coffee table. He was slumped against the back of the sofa, sleeping.

Hurt filled her even as she tried to tell herself not to be silly. It didn’t mean anything that he was sleeping on the sofa rather than coming to bed to sleep beside her. Moving to the laptop, she closed it and grabbed a spare blanket from the closet to put over him.

Then she stood there and stared at him. She’d much rather he was in bed with her and Beau, where he belonged.

But she couldn’t force him, and she wouldn’t beg.

You need to talk to him. Tell him about the babies.

Tomorrow.