Read Maddie and Wyn for Free Online

“And by the end of my conversation with her it will be a decision she comes to on her own.”
    Once alone, Wyn slumped against the porch siding and dragged his hands down his face. Fuck. I’m in.
    Now Wyn had to figure out how to set a trap to catch a home invader—Maddie would never go for cameras in her house twenty-four-seven, he already knew it—and get a defensive, guarded, pissed-off woman to forgive him not only for forcing his way into her house but also for so callously bruising her tender heart so many years ago.
    Should be a piece of cake. Wyn’s laugh turned into a groan.
    I’m screwed.
    *
    The second Devlin walked in through the kitchen door, Maddie launched out of her seat at the table and rushed her brother. “I’m not doing it,” she told him. “I’m not letting him move in with me.” At this point, she couldn’t even believe she’d let Wyn take Devlin outside and have a conversation, about her , without her.
    Devlin took Maddie’s hand, guided her to the table, and took a seat across from her. “It’s him,” he began, his demeanor more sober than a nun saying her morning prayers, “or it’s me and Aidan trading off until we get this figured out. Because if you think I’m going to keep this from our brother, and if you think he won’t go even more commando-protector-big-brother on you than Wyn has in his cop mode, you are wrong.”
    Tight lines of cold raced through Maddie’s system, creating havoc. “I’ll get a security system. I’ll get the top one on the market, and I’ll make sure it’s set up to run night and day.”
    Devlin replied, “That’s a nice start, and feel free to do it if you can afford it, but you know that won’t appease Aidan. He already didn’t like the thought of you living out here all alone, no neighbors, so isolated from town—”
    Maddie kicked back in her chair and snorted. “Oh that’s rich, coming from a guy who lives in a cabin in the woods, all open with a wall of windows on one side.”
    His features finally twisting, Devlin threw back in his seat too. “That’s not the same, Maddie, and you know it. He’s there with Ethan, and they’re both big, adult men. You and I can both think it sucks that the world as a whole believes that situation makes them safer from harm than it does you by yourself, but it doesn’t change the perception that women are more vulnerable. Anyone looking for a crime of opportunity or to do someone wrong will choose you to attack over two men in the same situation every day of the week. That’s just life, and until the world changes, we have to deal with what is, not what we want things to be.”
    With every reasonable word Devlin spoke—all of which annoyed Maddie because she knew they were true—she scowled. “You suck,” she told him, knowing he wouldn’t take it personally. He’d gotten his frustrations out with her the same way a thousand times when they’d shared an apartment.
    “Definitely, I do suck. But I can’t deny that after talking to Wyn I’m scared for you.” He glanced up and around, and new tension pulled his face grim. “I look around this kitchen and wonder how often someone has been in here when you weren’t home. Or worse, when you were home.” He reached across the table and engulfed her hand in his, squeezing tight. “I’m trying to stay calm and think rationally about this, but the truth is it’s freaking me out.”
    Maddie tried to buck him up. “It’s just a ghost,” she promised.
    He stiffened and frowned. “Ghosts don’t leave garden gates open, and they don’t eat candy while hiding under a bed.” He laid another hard stare on her, and in the gray shades, so close to her own, lived every bit of honesty and closeness they’d shared as siblings through the course of their lives. “Something’s going on here, Maddie. Something that causes those of us who love you to be legitimately concerned.”
    Because she was so close to Devlin, Maddie didn’t hide the shiver