Celtic Evil: A Fitzgerald Brother Novel: Roarke (14 page)

“No one lays their bloody
hands on him again,” Ryan finished, eyeing his grandmother coolly.
“You hated him. You hated our mother so to get back at Roarke for
not dying you ship him off to a damn hellhole where your mates used
and abused him to their hearts content until the pretty little girl
came along to save him, because you made sure his older brothers
never found out what was going on up there.”

“You ordered the staff here
to destroy any letters either we or Roarke wrote to Kerry,” Ian had
stayed by the door so he could watch the steps in case his older
brother woke up and he could watch outside in case those brothers
needed help. “Not cool.”

Mac could have laughed at
that but right then he struggled on staying calm while also making
certain no attacks came. “You didn’t count on Roarke’s letters
being kept and be glad you didn’t show up last night.”

“Bloody hell, Kerry
wouldn’t have thought twice,” Ryan snorted. “He’d have tossed the
‘may it harm none’ rule out the window and flash fried
her.”

Kathleen faced her four
grandsons with an even look. “You still look at things with basic
eyes. I am looking out for you for the big picture,” she argued,
eyes slitting up to the manor as if searching and took two steps
back when a giant wall slammed down. “Kerrigan! How dare
you!”

“You will not touch him in
any way and if you try I will ruin your precious reputation so
fast,” Kerry warned, jerking a hand toward the car. “Just take your
driver and go back to Waterford.”

“This is my land, my house
and…”

“By the long-set Fitzgerald
rules of succession, no it isn’t.” Mac cut in smoothly as he came
down the steps the rest of the way. “You lost all claim to this
land, the house and the things on it and in it the day our father
married our mother. That’s the way it works and that’s how it’s
always worked. The first son to marry claims the land,
etc.”

Ryan groaned and rolled his
eyes back at Ian. “Saint Mac is now in lawyer mode,” he muttered
darkly, but the younger boy could tell he was teasing.

“Does he do it often?” Ian
asked curiously, seeing Maggie coming down the steps.

“Probably, but I bet it
gets confusing when he starts giving legal advice when he’s playing
medic or vet,” Ryan returned, also seeing the fiery haired reporter
coming down the steps. “Hey, Kerry!” he called suddenly, winking at
Ian. “You better get a girl soon or Mac may be inheriting the house
with his little red-headed reporter.”

Ian stared dumbfounded and saw Maggie freeze
on her way to the kitchen just as Mac turned to throw a glare up at
his smirking brother.

“You will hurt for that,”
he vowed, then saw Kerry’s smile and knew it had been their
brother’s way of breaking up a very dangerous situation.

“Kerry, you can’t possibly…” Kathleen
couldn’t believe this was happening.

Again nodding to the
waiting car, Kerry just stared at her. “Leave and don’t even step
foot on this land again because I will never forget what you
allowed to happen to my brother.”

“I am still your
grandmother, boyos,” still haughty, she lifted her head into the
air and tried on final bout of intimidation but felt the wall of
stone increase.

“No, you aren’t,” Kerry’s
voice was sad as he was raised by a loving mother to honor family
above all else, but he couldn’t ignore this. “Our grandmother would
not have broken us up for personal, selfish reasons and she
wouldn’t have sent a helpless eleven year old boy into a den of
abusive sadists and known what was happening.”

Silence filled the air
until finally, Kathleen eyed each young man before nodding and
stepping in her car, but before the driver shut her door, she
looked back.

“This is a mistake, Kerry,”
she warned coolly. “You, your brothers are making a serious mistake
by shunning me.”

No one spoke as the car
drove off and was well out of sight. Ryan broke the strained air.
“Well, that was always fun before breakfast. What do we do for
lunch?”

“I hope sit down and talk
this through,” Kerry sighed, running a hand through his blond hair
as he turned to face his three brothers. “I was hoping to keep you
out of that.”

“One saint in the family is
enough,” Ryan waved that off, sniffing the air as scents from the
kitchen wafted out to them. “Lord, Deirdre made her famous cinnamon
pancakes. I have died and gone to heaven.”

“No, but you might if you
don’t back off of Maggie,” Mac shot back, following him into the
house. “There is nothing between us.”

Ryan sent one look over his
shoulder and just smirked which made Mac want to slug him right
then, but then he recalled the kiss between them and had to wonder
how true that was.

“You guys go get some
food,” Kerry urged, looking upstairs. “I’ll be in soon.”

“Is this good?” Ian asked,
deciding to let Ryan enter the family dining room first just in
case Maggie was waiting.

Neither Mac nor Ryan had an
answer so they could only shrug and hope Kerry knew how to handle
this best.

Knocking softly, Kerry
waited a full minute before opening the door to his brother’s room.
“Is he still asleep?”

Jessica Hadley had been awake for some time
but had remained with Roarke to shield him as best as she could
from the emotions and voices coming from outside.

Still tired and emotionally weak from the
events of the prior evening, Jessica still looked pale to the
Irishman and he knew that shielding his brother would have taken
its toll on the girl.

“Yeah but he’s starting to
shift like he does usually before waking up,” she yawned, turning
from the window. “So is the wicked witch gone or what?”

“Gone for now but I doubt
if she’ll stay gone,” he sighed, running a hand over the still
burning candle until it went off in a puff. “Da always said his
mother was an obstinate, hard-headed woman. Now I know what he
meant.

“Why don’t you go change,
Jessica?” Kerry suggested. “Your room is next door since I doubted
you or Cam would want him to be alone this soon.”

The girl easily read the
unspoken questions and was glad Kerry wasn’t asking them yet. She
didn’t like leaving Roarke to wake up alone but she also knew his
brother would stay for that and she did want a bath and fresh
clothes before dealing with the day.

“If he wakes up too badly
just yell for Cam,” she told him, hesitating at the door. “Kerry,
despite things he still blames himself.”

“I know, luv,” he assured
her gently, closing his eyes and trying to find a link that had
been dim for fifteen years. “Mac.”

Still shooting Ryan evil
looks and trying to ignore the way Maggie was acting way too sweet,
Mac winced at the sudden voice as it came as a surprise.

“Lower it a little,” he
urged silently, sipping tea with lemon and not letting on. “Is
there trouble?”

“Not yet,” Kerry returned,
pleased his brother was picking up his thoughts more easily. “Ask
Deirdre to prepare Jessica’s drink, be it whatever she chooses,
with something to help her regain some color and
strength.”

Considering this, Mac
understood. “I’ll handle it,” he assured him. “Being linked with
Roarke could cause her issues.”

Kerry knew this as he
watched his younger brother’s eyelids blink a few times before
opening slowly to look around warily, and he could notice his
unease.

“Would it do any good if I said you were
safe?” Kerry asked from where he was standing.

Roarke knew he was safe but
his biggest anxiety was waking up in a strange room and not knowing
where his friend was. Sitting up slowly, he let his senses adjust
to the bedroom before letting them focus on his oldest
brother.

There was a long moment of
silence as the two men just looked at each other until finally
Kerry broke it. “Hello, little brother.”

Knowing this homecoming
would be the hardest on Roarke out of all of them; Kerry was
prepared to give him the time he needed. “Breakfast is probably
ready unless Mac and Ryan have destroyed the dining
room.”

Moving slowly to test his
strength and any injuries, Roarke slowly shifted a look at his
brother. “Where’s Jess?” his tone quiet as it always was when
unsure.

“She went to change clothes then probably
went to breakfast.” Kerry could have looked but didn’t want to take
too much attention off his younger brother.

He could recognize the
signs of Roarke being wary by the way he moved. Kerry tried to
shield his own emotions when he noticed finally that the boy would
not turn his back to the room fully, which would have left him
unprotected from that direction.

“Roarke…” Kerry began but
wasn’t sure how to address this fear or if it should be this
soon.

“I thought I dreamed seeing
Ry last night,” his brother broke in quickly, as if sensing what
was coming. “He said I hurt Jessie, you and Mac at a
hospital.”

Silently giving Ryan a
stern thought, Kerry shook his head but slowly did take a step
forward. “Mac and I were caught off-guard and mainly suffered from
wounded egos.”

“But she’s hurt,” his
brother frowned, still trying to recall those events. “I…can’t
remember that.”

“You won’t,” Kerry replied,
carefully reaching to put a hand on his arm, but stopped when he
caught the tightening body language. “Jessica will be fine and
you’ll see her soon.”

Pushing the fears aside,
Roarke finally looked at him fully. “I’ll be down as soon as I’ve
changed.”

Knowing this was his
brother’s way of asking to be alone, Kerry nodded but paused before
leaving the room. “Mac or Peter will more than likely want to look
at you, and Roarke?”

“Yeah?” looking toward the
door, he saw his older brother’s eyes were serious.

“You really are safe here.”
With that, Kerry closed the door and just hoped he could keep that
promise.

Roarke watched the door
close and waited several seconds before closing his eyes and
leaning his weight on his arms on the dresser. “I haven’t been safe
anywhere,” he whispered to himself.

Accepting that his friends
had done the only thing possible by returning to Ireland still
didn’t make Roarke happy, especially given recent events, yet he
knew eventually he’d have to face his past and hoped his brothers
could.

Looking for his bag, he
quickly pulled his T-shirt off to change it for the denim-blue one
he dug out of the bag; he paused when he saw the scars on his chest
and wondered just how much any of them had learned while he was
out.

“Damn,” he muttered to
himself, pulling himself back and deciding to face the music and go
downstairs.

Deirdre O’Connor had been
brought up in a house with twelve children and had worked in this
house for many years, but as she served breakfast in the family
dining room she was admitting to herself it had been some time
since she’d heard this much noise.

Standing in the doorway
that led to the kitchen, she just watched the goings on with a
small smile.

“An actor? Are you kidding
me?” Ryan was staring at Ian as if he’d grown a second head. “Why
in Finn’s name would you want to be an actor?” he demanded,
motioning with a piece of bacon. “You have above a 4.0 grade
average in all your classes but you only want to be on a bloody
stage.”

“I like being on a stage,”
Ian replied, not taking offense at his older brother’s attitude as
he’d heard it a lot times. “Acting, singing, it’s all performing to
me so I can do that until I get bored then fall back on my
geography knowledge or something.”

Mac buttered toast with
homemade jam even as Ryan was griping. “At least he can fall back
on something,” he muttered then smiled. “How’d the last casino trip
go, Ry?”

“I was at a disadvantage
that night. Evil witches were playing with my karma,” Ryan
countered with a scowl then turned a smile on Maggie. “He’s just
jealous because he never could beat me at cards. Big brother’s
poker face sucks.”

Maggie Cavanaugh nearly laughed at the
playful banter the brothers were going through but managed to keep
a straight face even as Mac was shooting his brother another
look.

“Does it really? Maybe I
could teach him since my poker’s pretty good,” she smiled back at
Ryan but her real look went past him to Mac.

“And he says there’s
nothing there,” Ryan spoke lowly to Ian who was grinning behind his
glass. “Ah, now here’s what a man wants to see first thing in the
morning after a dreary night. Two beautiful women having breakfast
with him, certainly a dream come true.”

Jessica rolled her eyes at
the black-haired gambler as she entered the room after taking some
time to clean up and change. “You flirting this early in the day?”
she asked, accustomed to Ryan Fitzgerald’s casual
flirting.

“It’s never too early to
admire a woman’s beauty, lass,” Ryan smiled, standing as he went
over to take her hand and kiss it lightly; then, because he had
known this girl for years, winked as he gave a quick pull to bring
her into his arms. “You should know that.”