Chapter 16
Chapter
Sixteen
“I wish we could stay out here forever,” Maya said with a dreamy sigh as they climbed the porch steps.
Thunder felt the same way.
In the forest, surrounded by trees, with the sky spread wide open above them, everything felt so easy.
They’d spent the last twenty-four hours mostly holed up in the treehouse, although he’d made regular trips back to the house for food and blankets.
They’d spent a lot of time talking. Maya had told him most of the details about her time as a sex slave, and he’d spoken more about what life was like for him as a kid.
They’d bonded in a way he hadn't even known was possible. It ran so much deeper than sex, deeper than respect and admiration. It was like finding your other half in the most unexpected and unconventional manner. Nothing about this timing worked, nothing about Maya’s history worked, and yet he knew she felt it too.
“We can go back to the treehouse if you want,” he offered. His team could work on finding ways to track down Dr. Gardner without him, they all understood that Maya needed his support right now.
Hesitating, her gaze moving between the forest behind them and the door in front of them, he knew how badly she wanted to pick the tranquility of the forest. It gave her a temporary reprieve from dealing with her trauma.
While they both knew it couldn’t last forever, it could last for as long as she needed it to.
Just like no one had rushed Indigo when she needed to hide in Voodoo’s room when she first got there, no one would blame Maya for needing to hide in the treehouse they’d only just learned existed.
“No, I don’t want to hide anymore,” she said, straightening her spine, and proving all over again that she was a survivor.
“It wasn't hiding, it was taking a temporary time out,” he reminded her.
The smile she gave him was pure sunshine. “It was hiding, but I can't do that forever. I want to find a way to rebuild my life, and it starts with this. I know it’s just going back inside, but the people there mean a lot to you, and I don’t want them to be mad at me for?—”
“They’re never going to be mad at you for struggling, babydoll.
We’ve all been there, we all struggle, everyone understands.
” If ever there was going to be a group of people qualified to support Maya, this was it.
He and his team had been supporting each other for years now.
Then, over the last few months, their unconventional family had grown, and each time it did, it added another layer to their lives.
Hand in hand, they crossed the porch and stepped inside his home. Their home now, if she wanted it to be anyway.
Voices sounded from the kitchen, and although the hand he held cradled in his trembled slightly, Maya’s steps didn't falter as they headed toward them.
Thunder already believed he respected the hell out of this woman, but she kept raising the bar, making him admire her more.
Facing the things that scared you wasn't easy, and yet Maya kept doing it. After what she’d been through, the whole world must be terrifying, and nobody could blame her if she wanted to spend the rest of her life hiding away.
But she wasn't doing that. She was taking back the reins of her life.
“Morning, Thunder,” Rose greeted him as they stepped into the kitchen. “Morning,” she added to Maya, who tightened her grip on his hand, and he knew that she was rethinking her desire to face her problems head-on rather than hide from them a little longer.
“You can call me Maya. All of you can,” Maya whispered, her voice still a little raspy after so many years without being used, but it was growing stronger, smoother, each time she used it.
If she was worried about people making a big deal out of the fact that she’d started talking again, she shouldn’t have.
There really wasn't a better group of people for her to walk this path with. They’d all, every single one of them, lived through their own version of Hell, and they would back her up, whatever she needed, and follow her lead with no questions asked.
“Want some waffles, Maya?” Cassandra asked, pointing to a plate still stacked high with them sitting on the counter. Mostly empty plates sat in front of each chair at the table, where his team and their partners had obviously shared a late breakfast.
“Yes, please,” Maya replied, and he nudged her toward the table.
“Go sit down, and I’ll get you some.”
She shot him an anxious look, obviously seeking comfort from his presence, but he merely leaned down and touched a kiss to her lips, then gave her another nudge.
He would never push her beyond what she could handle, but she could handle walking a few feet away from him to join his teammates at the table, even if she thought she couldn’t.
“Umm, it wasn't really about my name,” she mumbled as she pulled out a chair and sat down stiffly in it.
“You don’t owe us any explanations,” Steel assured her, very gently for the big man.
“I want to explain,” Maya said. “I should have realized that you wouldn't just wait for me to tell you my name. I guess I just wasn't prepared to hear it after so long. When I heard you talking that day and you said you wanted information from me, I kind of panicked. I don’t have much information to offer, and I was worried about being thrown away. I got it in my head that you were all just pretending to care about me, and would call my parents and send me back home before I was ready.”
The two of them had already talked about this, and he’d assured her that it would never have happened, but Thunder didn't interrupt.
Just dished them both up some food and joined the others at the table.
It would reassure Maya more to hear his team corroborate what he had said, than for him to jump in and offer those reassurances.
“No one was pretending,” Dragon said, his unusual violet eyes meeting Maya’s in an unwavering stare. “And no one would throw you away.”
“Never,” Voodoo added, sounding disgusted with the very notion.
“We knew you were there that day. Voodoo, Lion, and I,” Blade informed her.
“And we made sure you heard everything. You deserve to know everything, no holding back, but I do wish that we’d forced a sit-down talk rather than giving you space.
Then we could have explained that wanting any information you might have isn’t transactional.
It could be helpful, lead us to the man we all want dead, but no one is making you leave here until you're ready.
And if you're never ready, then you never have to leave.”
“That’s what Thunder told me,” she said, shifting her gaze to him and offering him another one of those soft, warm smiles.
“I'm sure he also told you he hopes you’ll decide to stay,” Lion said.
“He did,” Maya agreed.
In fact, they’d spent a lot of time talking about what they both wanted going forward.
There was no way he would hold back, he’d already told her before they had sex that he wanted her forever, and he’d only reiterated that when she’d asked if he’d said that only to make her more comfortable with sex.
He didn't take her doubts personally. After what she’d been through, it would make sense that she doubted everything and everyone, and he knew it would take time to cement her trust.
“Have you thought about talking to your family?” Whitney asked.
“I can't stop thinking about it,” Maya admitted.
“I want them to know I'm safe, but I worry that they’re going to be angry that I didn't reach out to them right away, that I didn't want them to know where I was and wasn't ready to talk to them.
I know they must have suffered as much as I did these last thirteen years, and I feel so bad that I'm making them suffer longer.”
“No one suffered more than you did,” Thunder reminded her. “But I am absolutely positive that they are not angry with you. Worried about you, wanting to hear from you, yes. But not angry. Never angry.”
“Have you talked to them?” she asked.
“I haven’t, but I know Prey contacted them as soon as you gave permission.
Your family knows that while you're safe, you need to heal, and while of course they’re desperate for contact, they understand the need to take this at your pace,” he told her.
“From what I've heard, your disappearance shaped all their lives.
One of your brothers is a cop now, the other is a prosecutor.
Your parents set up a charity in your name to support kids who have been the victims of violent crimes.
They love you now as much as they did back then, but they know that waiting until you're ready is the right thing to do.”
Maya seemed to mull over his words as she started eating one of her waffles, and the rest of them lapsed into silence, giving her time to process this new information.
Given so much time had passed, and Maya was a completely different person than the one she’d been as a teenage girl, it was always going to be hard taking that first step of contact.
When she finished the food on her plate, she carefully set her cutlery down, took a drink of water, and then lifted her gaze to meet his. “Okay,” she announced. “I want to do it. If you're sure they aren't angry with me for not contacting them immediately, then I'm ready to talk to them.”
March 5 th
11:06 A.M.
She wasn't ready to talk to her family.
But Maya was doing it anyway.
The only way her life was going to improve was if she made it better.
Thunder was beside her, her handsome, sexy rock, so steady, the calm in the storm that was her life.
He was someone she could rely on, and she was trying to accept that the rest of his team were on her side as well, but she had to learn to stand on her own two feet.