Beneath the Skin: de La Vega Cats, Book 3 Read Online Free Page B

rest to let your body get rid of it all. Once you’ve rested and are back to one hundred percent, you can go hunting. Don’t give me your grr face, it doesn’t work on me.”
    Kendra nodded and moved between him and the door. His mother shrugged and gave him a little push toward the stairs. “So, you’ll nap and eat before you go back out. Go on up, the bed is made.”
    With a barely restrained sigh, he got up and trudged past his brothers, neither of whom seemed to have a damned bit of control over their wives.
    Renee put a hand to his cheek, and he paused to let her fuss a little before he moved up the stairs and toward his old room to take a nap like a cub for God’s sake. He hid a smile as he gave one last look at them before the stairs curved out of sight. If anyone outside the family ever found out what a total marshmallow he was for the women in his life, his cred would be shot to shit.

Chapter Three
     
    Mia looked up from the counter at the sound of the chimes. Imogene de La Vega came in. Mia only knew this was the former alpha female because she’d long admired the woman’s sense of style when they’d attended the very few jamboree events her parents had allowed over the years.
    Imogene wasn’t the type of female one forgot.
    She shot a quick look to the landing where her father was explaining the difference between two bottles of Malbec to a customer before she headed to intercept Imogene. Hopefully she could handle this before anyone even noticed.
    “I’m looking for Mia Porter.” The expression Imogene wore told Mia the woman knew exactly who she was speaking with.
    “That’s me.”
    Imogene looked her up and down and nodded once. “I’m pleased to meet you.” She held out a hand and Mia took it automatically. She didn’t offer her throat or any other submissive behavior.
    “I’m Imogene de La Vega, and I wanted to come and thank you in person for saving my son’s life. I apologize that it took me three days to get here.”
    Surprised by the visit, Mia nodded. “I imagine your schedule is fairly busy. You’re welcome. I did what anyone else would have. Is he all right?”
    “As you might imagine, or maybe not since you don’t know him very well, but he got some sleep that night he was shot and then got right back to the search for those who shot him. He’s hard to keep down. Even when he was a baby he just never stopped in that gruff, taciturn way he has.” Imogene paused to look Mia over carefully and it made her a tad defensive.
    “Did he find them?”
    Imogene shook her head. “Not yet. But my children are steadfast. Gibson won’t give up until he’s successful. People like those who harmed him can’t understand that. Would you have some time? Perhaps to get some coffee across the way?” She indicated the tiny Cuban coffee stand on the corner.
    “Really, it’s not necessary.” She lowered her voice. “My grandmother will be by later. It would be better if you know”—she paused, trying to find the politest way to put it—“you weren’t here.”
    “It’s been over fifty years. What happened was wrong, but it looks to me like she got a much better deal. She built all this with your grandfather. I think it’s silly to hold a grudge this long. Don’t you?”
    Mia knew she whipped her head a little, but her grandmother had suffered a lifetime’s worth of sorrow at the hands of the de La Vega family and that wasn’t silly. It was fucked up beyond measure, and it had turned her grandmother into a stone-cold bitch who loved her family fiercely.
    “Of course she got the better deal. As for it being silly ? She was an eighteen-year-old girl who within just a few months of her life fell in love, got pregnant, got engaged to the man who fathered her baby…and then she lost the baby, her fiancé left her at the altar and ran off with another woman. And then when he got back, he spent his time spreading the most vicious of gossip about her. She lost everything. Her friends