Angus (7 page)

“I’ll tell you why. He was too busy thinking about how he was going to shag her with her son around.” Venom dripped from each of Fletcher’s syllables.

That caused all of them to start yelling at once. Confusion reigned as they all argued with each other. It wasn’t uncommon, and he half expected something to end up broken.

“Excuse me,” Phoebe bellowed. It was so out of character for her, that everyone stopped talking and turned to face her. “Lord, you are bloody loud. When you get an argument between your teeth, none of you want to let go.”

“Well, English, we don’t like to back down,” Callum said with a smile.

This earned him an eye roll. “I swear to God, if you call me English one more time, you’ll be sleeping in another bed for the night.”

There was plenty of heckling from all the cousins and Phoebe had to yell again.

When they had finally quieted down, she drew in a deep breath and more than likely said a quick prayer.

“I’m not sure we’ve a problem at all with our newest addition,” she said.

“She hasn’t been truthful with us from the beginning,” Fletcher argued.

“I don’t know if she’s had time to be truthful with us. And what did she know of Angus? Some man shows up with a Scottish accent and then follows her to her apartment, and she isn’t supposed to lie. If it had been me, I would have called the authorities.”

“She didn’t do that, did she? She was packing up to go on the run. Still can’t trust her in my book.”

“I’m not saying to trust her completely, but when you are keeping secrets about the family, can you really blame her?”

“What do you mean?” Angus asked.

“Did you tell her about the family, the curse, and the real reason for going after the jewels?”

Deathly silence greeted that question.

“So, what should I have done, Phoebe? Tell her we are a group of immortal highlanders looking for a jewel? Oh and by the way, we need you to steal it? That would have gotten her here without a problem.”

Angus didn’t even try to hide the sarcasm. His skin was crawling with irritation.

“No. Of course not, but then again, none of you have accepted what you are.”

“What do you mean, love?” Callum asked.

“You all like to pretend there is nothing wrong with you. As if it’s normal for people to live centuries. You tiptoe around it, afraid to say what you are.”

Anger surged before he could think better of it. “What the bloody hell are you talking about, Phoebe?”

Her eyes widened at his tone and he immediately felt like an ass. Phoebe hadn’t grown up in a big family and her social interactions with others had been limited. He sometimes forgot that she wasn’t like them.

“I think you need to think twice about using that tone with Phoebe,” Callum said. He would allow for a lot, but attacking Phoebe was one thing he would kill over. It was a testament to just how tangled up Angus was about the entire situation that he lost his focus.

“I apologize.”

She shrugged and smiled. “I know, and I appreciate it. Some of you are so careful around me…you don’t have to be. I’m made of sterner stuff than that.”

“I willna allow Angus to speak to you that way,” Callum said frowning at him still.

She winked at Angus before saying, “I don’t think I asked.”

When Callum muttered something graphically obscene she just laughed. “No, truly, I don’t mind having people yell at me. Remember, love, it’s one of the things that drew me to you. I like that Angus is comfortable enough to yell at me. Like I am family.”

“Of course you’re family,” Anice said.

Phoebe shook her head. “I’m not sure any of you realize just how cut off you are from the rest of society. You interact, but you don’t truly see yourselves as part of it. It is as if you have no identity.”

Angus shook his head knowing that Phoebe was trying to get to a point. The professor in her made it hard to take a direct route however. Everything was a teaching moment.

“What would we be?”

She smiled as she looked around the room. “You’re Magickal.”

Something buzzed in his ears as he tried to come to terms with what she was saying.

“We aren’t witches. I might have married one…” Callum muttered.

“I’ll take certain things from all of you, but if you call me a witch, Callum, you
will
be sleeping alone. And back to what I was saying, you are Magickal. You’ve lived centuries, and that puts you in the column of being legends.”

“We don’t do potions, love. I’m sure if any of us could, we wouldn’t have been living all this time.”

“I mean that in order to fight Magick, you are going to need Magick. All of you have it within you. Something. And, you, Angus, have brought us a witch.”

He wanted to scream, and then he wanted to leave. The woman was talking in riddles. That’s what love did. She had lost her focus all because she had fallen for his cousin.

“A witch, of course she’s a witch. You sent me there to get her.”

“And you felt a need to bring her and the boy to the house.”

“Yes.  First, you told me to convince her to come, and even if we didn’t need her, thanks to our rooting around about this, we’ve put her in danger.”

“In what way?” Fletcher asked.

“I told Callum, someone broke into her apartment. I think it has to do with her husband.”

“Might be. But you said the guy fell two stories and then got up and walked away. How did he fall out of the apartment?”

“We were fighting and we both fell toward the window, he crashed through the glass.”

But he knew he had been five feet away from the intruder.

“You had help didn’t you, Angus?” Phoebe asked. Before he could answer, there was a sound at the door.

“He did have help. But not what you think.”

*  *  *  *

Maggie was still trying to gather her thoughts when everyone turned to face her. Bloody hell, she should have stayed in her room. It was safer there. Easier to hide from the things she was set to accomplish.

“You’re right. He shouldn’t have brought us here, from your point of view, but I’m not about to leave.” She didn’t want to admit that for the first time in a long time, she felt safe. It was as if she belonged in Scotland. She had always sensed that she still had a lot of Scots in her blood every time she was in the country.

“I think that should be left up to the family,” Fletcher said. He was a pretty man, even when he was snarling at her.

“That man after me was one of many. I had stayed one step in front of them until Angus showed up in my pub. For that, you should have to give us shelter.”

“Why?” Fletcher asked.

The man might be a security expert, but he was being dense at the moment. “Because, I had kept Jack safe all these years, but now, they know what he looks like. They know for sure he exists. Now, his uncle will do anything and everything to get him back.”

“And you expect us to give you sanctuary?” he asked.

“Yes. You owe me.” She said it without hesitation. They did owe her. If they had left her alone, she could have stayed in New York for at least another six months. Now, she was on the run with no new identity and no idea where to go next.

Phoebe moved around the desk and then stepped in front of Angus. She thought she heard him growl, but when she looked at him, he was still giving her that same stony stare.

“Are you sure that’s what they are after?” Phoebe asked.

Maggie nodded. “My husband’s brother, Dylan, would definitely want the ability to control Jack for his own purposes.”

“Riddles. I hate riddles,” Fletcher muttered.

Phoebe shot him a warning look. “Behave.”

“Now, tell me what you mean by he wants Jack?” Angus asked.

Maggie shook her head, apparently afraid to say. Phoebe didn’t need for her to say anything. “He wants the child of two very Magickal parents. I’m correct, right?”

Maggie nodded, sending a prayer of forgiveness to her maker. She wanted to tell them more, but admitting everything might end her sanctuary, and she couldn’t put Jack in that danger.

“So, Ian was Magickal too. I wasn’t sure if it was just you or he was also Magickal. I can understand why his brother would be interested in your son. But to go to this extent. Do you know why?”

“Wait, you’re not going to say I’m crazy to think we’re Magickal?”

Phoebe gave her an understanding smile. “Not too long ago, I would have questioned it, but certain things have made me change my way of looking at the world.”

Callum stirred then, rising from his chair to walk around to stand in front of his desk. “Plus, there’s the way you and your late husband dealt with the robberies. Neither of you had great hacking skills, no technical background, but somehow you got in and out of some of the most secure buildings in Europe with no problem. You probably would have been able to continue on the same path if you hadn’t lost Ian in the last robbery.”

She nodded. “We had said we would quit when we had children, and I hope that I’m right to believing in it. We earned a lot of money over the years and were well set.”

“But that’s gone?” Anice asked. The only female cousin was a beauty to be sure, but she was just as lethal as the others. There was something about all of them, something that told her they were not ordinary humans.

Maggie released a breath as she nodded. “Most of it was tied up with Dylan’s money and much of it disappeared. What little I could get on my hands on ran out a long time ago.”

“He threw his brother’s widow out into the cold? And you were carrying his nephew.”

The lies were getting harder and harder to keep straight, but this half truth was easy to remember. “He blames me for his brother’s death.”

“Why?” Angus asked.

“I usually did the jobs. But I was sick that night, so Ian took my place.”

The silence told her they got the implications. If she had performed that night, she might have survived. Maggie had always been sure if she had worked the job she would have died just like Ian, but Dylan didn’t care about that. He only cared about himself and avenging his brother.

“So, I’ve come all the way to Scotland on a private jet to help you with something. I am assuming it has something to do with jewels. I have to tell you, I can’t help you. Not anymore.”

“Can’t, or won’t?” Angus asked.

“Jack told you the truth. I haven’t used Magick since that night. And without Ian, I’m not sure I could do it anyway.”

“You used it in your apartment. You blew the man out the window.”

She said nothing for a moment. “That was anger and fear. It just burst out of me. Threaten my child and you’re a dead man.”

“Whoa,” Fletcher said, standing and approaching her. “Did you see that?”

Angus nodded.

“What?”

“You don’t wear contacts.”

She shook her head.

“But your eyes were green, in all the older pics we have of you,” Callum said coming from around the desk. “And red hair.”

She shrugged. “I’ve changed a bit. Through my pregnancy, I lost my abilities and my eyes changed. I didn’t think much of it at the time.”

“Your eyes change colors and you don’t think much about it?”

The time after Ian’s death came rushing back to her. The fear, the pain of losing him, and the overwhelming news that she was carrying his child had left her in a daze.

“I had a lot to take care of then. By the time I noticed it, I didn’t think about it. All I was trying to do was keep us alive. Having brown hair and brown eyes made it easier. I couldn’t really use a lot of chemicals during pregnancy. I didn’t want to chance it.”

“But when you got mad, your eyes were blue,” Angus said. “And they were really a dark blue after the attack. I thought I had mistaken it, a trick of the light, but it wasn’t that. The day I saw you in the pub, your hair was dark brown, almost black. But now there are strands of red in it.”

“Of course,” Phoebe said. “It must be connected to your magic.”

“You might be right, but it isn’t something I can even contemplate. I needed space, time to think and now I think we need to leave.”

“Mum,” Jack said from behind her. She turned and found him standing behind the family retainer.

“What are you doing up and out of bed? You need rest.”

He looked up at Belvidore who nodded. Then he approached her. The sadness she saw in his eyes broke her heart.

“It’s time, Mum. You need to start using Magick. If not, you could die. I don’t want you to die.”

Chapter Nine

“I’ve heard that Maggie O’Conner escaped again.”

The words were uttered in a sotto voice but Dylan wasn’t fooled. He knew he was in trouble. He had no idea why the Scot cared one whit about the bitch, but he was obsessed with her.

“She’s here in the UK so I assumed you would be happy with that.”

He waited, listening to the fire crackling behind him. Any other person would look on the scene and think it was somehow relaxing. It wasn’t. Silences often were a precursor to pain. Or worse.

“You should never assume what I would be happy with. Your inability to capture Maggie O’Conner for instance…it displeases me.”

Dylan fought the need to swallow. It would be seen as a weakness. This man had found him, given him the resources he needed to track Maggie O’Conner down. He owed him a lot. It wasn’t a position he liked to be in with anyone. With the Benefactor, it was the worst of positions to be in.

“I apologize.”

The man said nothing, looking at him as if he was trying to decide what to do with the body when he was done with Dylan. Truth was, if he knew for a fact that the man planned to kill him, Dylan would take his own life. He didn’t know how he knew it, but death wouldn’t be easy with him. He was a man who liked to put others in pain, and Dylan was sure that his death would be more than a gunshot.

“Of course, I can give you one more chance. What is the name of the family who brought her here?”

Dylan released a slow breath trying his best not to let the Benefactor know how scared he actually was. He knew Dylan was scared, but if he showed it, he would strike Dylan down. It was a weakness and the Benefactor hated weakness.