Family Harmony

The Montgomery Family Chronicles - Book Two

by J.J. Massa

Lakon Montgomery tried to avoid Mya Brooks, the beautiful Englishwoman who had the voice of an angel, but he can't resist her. She was destined to be his mate and he is powerless to stop himself. Just when he's getting closer to Mya, his brother and his own primal instincts scare her away. What will Lakon have to do to get her back? Will her family, and his, keep them apart forever? With Mya out of reach, how will Lakon protect Mya from the evil that stalks her?

Excerpt

Prologue

The moon hung low in the purple grey sky and the trilling sound of morning birds seemed almost at odds with the picture it made. Mya could hear the distant rustle of bushes and thought she saw a large animal disappear into the shadows.

“What’re you looking at, pet?”

Mya jerked and clutched her hand to her heart. “You scared the wee out of me, Myles. I thought you were asleep!”

“Nice image,” her brother snarked half-heartedly, shifting to fold his arms behind his head. “We’ll be in Virginia by lunchtime. How’re you holding up?”

“I’m okay, My,” she assured him, rolling onto her back so that the top of her head touched the crown of his. “I just couldn’t stand being cooped up in there anymore. I mean, as long as the bus was parked, why should we stay in it?”

“I’m not arguing with you, love. I’m right here with you, after all. You feeling guilty because his highness passed an edict and we ignored it as usual? ‘S not like it’s the first time.”

He was right of course; just because Lakon Montgomery told them they had to do something or other did not mean she was in agreement with that. After all, what he didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him, right? But she he wasn’t about to be obvious about it. The man was quite forceful, and somewhat threatening, though Mya thought he was attractive, too.

“Hey, we didn’t leave the bus, now did we? We’re still on the bus…”

“I think he said to stay in the bus, pet,” Myles snickered and rolled to his side, propping himself up with one elbow. “But the view really is much better from here on top of it.”

She grinned cheekily over at him, turning over to her side so that she faced the same way he did. “It certainly is. And it’s a good thing he doesn’t know about this, or we’d have to pay extra for it, a pound of flesh at least—instead of him paying us to be here.”

Mya chuckled quietly when Myles reached back and tweaked her nose. With a half-hearted sigh, she pushed herself to her knees and crawled carefully to the edge of the bus. It wasn’t unusual during the frequent state-to-state tours for the drivers to pull the busses off to the side on some deserted highway and declare themselves to be ‘on break’.

The boss, Lakon Montgomery, had told them all that those employees who weren’t bus drivers, or otherwise notified, should stay on board the busses for the few hours they sat still.

Generally, the busses were left idling, or whatever they did to allow power to stay on. Mya really didn’t know all about those things, nor did she care. She could read, go to the bathroom, have air conditioning when it was hot, and those things were nice. But she’d never really liked being contained. So when she was told to stay put, she automatically felt the need to get out. Myles was just the same way, which was no surprise since they were twins.

Because of all the things they had in common, one look was all it took to ensure they were in perfect agreement. As soon as the two were alone, they decided to watch, wait, and see what happened when the bus drivers got out, and then they’d find a way around the constricting new rule. It wasn’t as if this happened every other day. That wasn’t the point.

The first time they’d had what soon became referred to as layovers, each watched from opposite sides of the bus, Myles with the male crew members, Mya with the females. There were three each assigned to their bus, aside from Myles and Mya. It was a pretty large group.

The drivers had milled around, four altogether, and a handful of other people, too, including Lakon Montgomery, the boss. The group of them had walked together around a stand of trees, talking to each other quietly.

After watching for several stops, Mya and Myles determined that the layovers were never longer than four hours, but always as long as three. Also, the stops were always scheduled for late at night, nearly midnight each time.

Nowadays when the busses stopped for a layover, brother and sister now habitually waited twenty or thirty minutes, slipped out their respective windows, and climbed to the roof of the bus to enjoy the night air. A close eye was kept on the time and the twins made sure they were back in their assigned bunks with a half hour or more to spare. So far, they’d never been caught, nor had they seen where the drivers or their companions had disappeared to during these breaks.

The layovers seldom took place on days when it was raining. On the few occasions that there happened to be snow, however, the twins found that it was apparently not a deterrent for the layover. Myles and Mya stayed inside on those nights. It would have been too obvious then to sneak out. There was no fun in thumbing your nose at authority if you were setting yourself up to get caught. And neither of them really wanted to get caught, they simply wanted the freedom of choice. It didn’t have to make sense to anyone besides themselves.

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