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* * *
I’ve finished showering and I’m applying makeup when Sin comes into the bathroom and stands behind me. I line my eyes and smudge it, not looking up. “I’m not at all pleased with you. I specifically said you couldn’t meet my father. I explained why and you ignored what I said.”
I knew this was coming. I’ve made a huge problem for myself and now I must fix it. “I’m really sorry. I was going to quietly slip away but I was afraid you’d get angry if you found me gone without a goodbye.”
“I need you to understand that there are boundaries you don’t cross with The Fellowship. I’m pissing all over one of the most important ones by being with you.”
“Do you want me to leave?” I try to look pouty since it seems to have struck his soft spot when I did it before.
“Of course not, but I need you to listen and do as I ask.”
“You should know now I’m not very good at that.”
“Then become good at it.”
“I can do that for you.” I turn and wrap my arms around his shoulders. I kiss him hard so he’ll forget our quarrel.
He nips my bottom lip and pulls back just enough to look at my face. “I think I’ve figured out what you are.”
I watch his eyes for any sign of my cover being blown. “And what have you decided?”
He’s grinning so I relax. “A sorceress. You must be because you’ve enchanted my father.”
I couldn’t ask for better news. “How did I manage that? You were there and heard our conversation. I said nothing of consequence.”
“Despite what you said, or didn’t say, he’s quite taken with you—as am I.” He laughs. “If he wasn’t waiting for us, I’d take you back to bed right now.” He smiles before placing a kiss on the top of my head. “But he is.”
I lift a brow, giving him a seductive look. “He won’t be later.”
“I’ll remember that when we get home.”
* * *
“I’m in the mood for a romantic tale. Tell me more about your American.” My elbow is propped on top of the table. My chin is resting on my palm and I attempt to appear dreamy-eyed.
He’s grinning, as though his head is filled with fond memories. “Oh … it was many years ago.”
I’m not letting it go that easily. I want to hear what he has to say about my mother. “Let me guess. Your American girl came to Edinburgh as a tourist and you had a whirlwind romance before she returned home.”
“No, it was nothing like that.” He shakes his head. “I met her in the US while I was on business.”
“Was your first meeting a romantic one?”
“It was anything but. She was my blackjack dealer. The pretty lass took me for twenty thousand dollars during a span of thirty minutes.”
That can’t be the reason he killed her. If so, she wouldn’t have been having him over at our apartment on her nights off. “Wow, I bet that stung.”
“It was the opposite. She mesmerized me. No other dealer had ever been capable of taking that amount of money from me. I wanted her to come to work for me.”
“But she didn’t?”
“No. She had a daughter she didn’t want to uproot. A beautiful little girl named Stella.” Until the day you yanked me from beneath my bed and pressed a pillow into my face.
“Where do they live? I should look her up when I get home.”
“I wish you could. Amanda and her daughter were murdered eighteen years ago. It’s still an unsolved case.”
I gasp in horror. “That’s terrible.”
I hope Thane loses sleep tonight remembering my mother. I curse him to go mad working out how I can look so much like his lost love. And just when he thinks he has it all sorted, I’ll be there holding the barrel of my gun to his temple. He’s going to die the same way my mother did. It’s only fitting.
Chapter Twelve
Sinclair Breckenridge
Dad drops us at home after lunch and I feel I owe Bleu an explanation for my father’s bizarre behavior—except I don’t have one. I only know he’s completely taken with her. And this is good. It means he isn’t concentrating on her being an outsider, which triggers a thought in my mind. Dad was having an affair with a woman not within the circle of The Fellowship. Did the brothers know or did he keep it secret as I’m doing now?
“I feel like I should apologize for the way my father conducted himself today. I’m not sure why he felt compelled to continually talk of his lover and her daughter. I’m sorry if it made you ill-at-ease.”
“I probably encouraged him with my questions. I shouldn’t have pried, but I truly had no idea there was such a tragedy behind his love affair.”
I remember how Dad would be in a pleasant mood when he came back from his trips to the US. I always assumed it was because business had gone well. Now that I know about this woman he loved, I’m guessing she was the reason. “I remember him grieving for her, the American.”
“How so?”
“He returned from one of his trips and went MIA for days. No one knew where he was—not even Abram. I remember the brothers going crazy. They thought an opposing adversary got to him so he was assumed dead. There was lots of talk but I didn’t know what to believe. I’ve never been so scared in all my life.”
“Where did he go?”
“I never knew. But he was different when he came back. His drive was gone.”
“How old were you when that happened?”
“Nine? Maybe ten?”
Thane was a married man when he was seeing my mom. I don’t like the thought but I have to wonder if she knew he had a wife and children. “You don’t seem upset for your mother.”
“They’ve never cared for each other. She wouldn’t be hurt by his relationship with another woman so why should I be?”
“I guess I thought maybe deep dow
n, she loved him. Women can be that way.”
She’s never met Isobel Breckenridge. “Not my mother. Loving my father would require emotion I don’t think she possesses.”
“Those are strong words to say about one’s parent.”
My mother can be very harsh. It was difficult growing up with her as a mum. “She’s indifferent to all of us—Dad, me, my brother, Mitch. The only person she ever cared for was my sister, Cara.”
“You haven’t mentioned a sister.”
“She’s gone.”
“Oh. I’m sorry to hear that.”
I still nearly become sick every time I think of what happened to my baby sister. “She was five years old when someone came into her room and smothered her. To this day, we don’t know who.” They used her favorite stuffed animal, a leopard-print cat, a gift for her birthday. She loved that thing so much.
Bleu suddenly becomes pale and fidgety. She seems heavily affected by hearing of Cara’s death. “Is child killing a common practice in your world?”
I can’t believe she would even think that. “Never! No one in The Fellowship condones the killing of a child. We aren’t monsters, Bonny. None of us would harm a child. There’s no place for that in my brotherhood.”
“What does The Fellowship value most? Do they hold anything dear?” I don’t care for her tone. It implies she believes we have no feelings or emotions.
“Nothing means more to us than family and loyalty. We have codes concerning both that we don’t break.” Some believe our devotion is misguided because of the things we do and find acceptable, but I don’t question the trust I have in my brotherhood.
“What would you do if you found out a comrade had harmed a child?”
“I’d kill him.” No second thoughts.
“You’d do that even if it was someone you loved dearly?”
She has misjudged me. “We should become clear about one thing. I love no one dearly. But back to your question … I wouldn’t hesitate if the circumstances warranted. It’s my place to carry out swift justice.”
