Sex, Lies and Midnight Read Online Free

was a little funny.
    Scary funny, but still enough to make her want to giggle.
    “No,” she said, gathering her scattered composure. “No, that’s okay. Caleb isn’t any kind of threat.”
    At least, not unless he mistakenly suspected her of suddenly having a yen to deal drugs. Her big brother was a badass DEA agent, usually so far undercover he probably didn’t even remember her existence. So why was he calling her? And on the house phone? The house, like the phone and everything else she had here in California, was under the name of Maya DeLongue. So how had he tracked her down?
    And why? Panic shot through her, making her heart race and her ears ring. Worried sick, her mind spun from one horrible scenario to the next. In the half-dozen times she’d heard from her brother since she’d left home seven years previous, he’d always called her cell. Why would he call the house?
    Was he hurt? Had something happened to Dad? To their brother, Gabriel?
    “Did he say when he’d be calling back?” she asked, trying not to sound like she was going to cry. Her dad was indestructible. Superman. He had to be okay. He just had to.
    “No,” Tiffany said, pushing a strand of toast-brown hair off her worry-creased forehead.
    “Caller ID?”
    “Unknown caller.”
    Maya cursed softly. Tiffany’s frown deepened and she started chewing on her thumbnail. “I’m sorry. Should I have pushed him for more information? I didn’t want to give him your cell number, you know, just in case he was a crazy or something.”
    That made her laugh. Caleb, crazy? Oh, yeah, definitely. Maya took a deep breath and shoved both hands through her heavy curls. This was ridiculous. She was overreacting. Christmas was in two weeks. He was probably just calling to wish her a happy holiday, or to see if she’d heard any news of their father.
    Everyone was okay.
    They had to be.
    Because while she might have cut her family so far out of her life that she denied their very existence, didn’t use their name and hadn’t seen any of them in six years, they were still the most important thing in her entire world.
    And, she vowed, if everybody was okay, she was going to kick Caleb’s ass for giving her such a scare.

2
    MAYA SHOT STRAIGHT UP OFF her pillow, her vision obscured by a tangle of hair as she tried to figure out what had woke her.
    The chirping phone answered her question.
    “Hello?” she asked in a sleep-roughened tone. She’d gone to bed in the wee hours after midnight, then tossed and turned while worrying until almost five. She squinted through the dim light, noting that it was now eight. Yuck.
    “Morning, Maya. How was the party?”
    Her smile spread so big she was sure her ears were creasing. He sounded good. Calm, happy even. Not the tone of a man about to share bad news.
    “Caleb, you brat. How’d you find me?”
    “You’re kidding, right?”
    Maya rolled her eyes. “The house isn’t in my name. Shouldn’t that slow your kind down a little?”
    “That’s child’s play for my kind.”
    “So what’s the deal? You lost my cell number and needed to prove you’re not a child?”
    “What? A big brother can’t call his little sister on Christmas?”
    “Christmas isn’t for two weeks, you called last night and I had my yearly call from you back in July. Seriously, what’s going on?”
    Not that Maya cared. She adored her big brother, so any reason to hear from him, barring injury or bad news, was good by her.
    Almost giddy with delight, she plumped one of her half-dozen pillows behind her and pulled the silk sheet high over her Garfield T-shirt. These days Caleb was her only connection with her family. And he made that connection very rarely. So this was a treat to be savored.
    Their middle brother, Gabriel, was like a ghost. He flitted in and out at will to remind them that he existed, but was rarely heard from and even more rarely seen. Unlike Caleb, who flitted because he was undercover DEA, nobody knew what Gabriel did.