“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 neverpush 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 untilyou'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 alltheir 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 5th
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.
Already she’d lost half of her life. It had flitted through her fingers while she was kept locked up, a toy to be used by rich,powerful, dangerous men. If she didn't want to waste the rest of her life, she had to make the decision that she wanted to live, and make it happen. Maybe she couldn’t have stopped the last thirteen years, she hadn't been in control of herself and her life then, but she was now, and she’d have no one but herself to blame if she wasted the next thirteen years and beyond.
So she had to do this whether she was ready or not.
“How about we go and set up in the study?” Thunder offered. “It’s quiet in there, and you can do a video call.”
“A video call?” It wasn't that she didn't understand what that was, it was just that the idea of seeing her parents and brothers, seeing how much older they were, and realizing her brothers, who had been twelve and sixteen when she was abducted were now fully grown adults, was daunting.