Finding North (27 page)

Helen nodded.

“
When you get back, we’ll
make a plan to stick it to my dad . . . Um, I’m
going to call him Haemon Jasper from now
on. . .”

“
He was no father,” Troy
said.

“
Right,” Helen said. “But
we can make a plan, right?”

“
Absolutely,” Raz
said.

“
Really mean, right?”
Helen asked.

“
How ’bout really tricky?”
Alex asked.

“
Even better,” Helen said.
“I’m not the mean one. He is.”

“
Right,” Troy
said.

Helen waved her hand in
the webcam and clicked off. Troy hugged Alex and then
Raz.

“
We did it,” Troy said.
There were tears in his eyes.

“
Got her to talk to your
father?” Alex asked.

“
Got her well,” Troy
said.

“
She’s on her way,” Alex
said. “As are you.”

Troy hugged Alex
again.

“
Back to bed,” Alex said.
“That’s an order.”

Troy nodded and left the
kitchen. Raz stood for a moment.

“
It’s really good,” Raz
said.

“
Yeah,” Alex
said.

She went back to the couch
and wrapped up in blankets. Raz took the chair to her left. Lost in
their own thoughts, they were silent for a few minutes.

“
May I ask you something?”
Raz asked.

“
Of course.” Alex sat
up.

His eyes flicked to the
surveillance cameras. She took his hand and led him to the half
bath off the living area. She clicked on the white-noise machine
they’d set up there to muffle any spoken sound. They stood facing
each other with their mouths near each other’s ears.

“
Joshua Peretz?” Raz
asked.

“
Junior,” Alex said. “You
know Senior expired sometime right after 9-11.”

“
Okay,” Raz said.
“Who . . .?”

“
Mammy and the Mister’s
oldest,” Alex said. “Have you met him? He took that name as an
alias right after you were ‘killed’ off.”

“
No, I’ve not met my son,”
Raz smiled.

“
You will tomorrow,” Alex
grinned. “He’s an international lawyer. He works mostly with Max
and Steve’s team. High clearance level. He’ll be there tomorrow to
take possession of the building and then turn it over to
Max.”

Raz nodded.

“
You’ll like him,” Alex
said. “He has white-blond hair . . .”

“
Blond?”

“
He wears it natural,”
Alex said. “It falls in tight curls. He has the Mister’s hazel eyes
and height, with Mammy’s musculature. His skin color is a kind of
warm cocoa. He’s really quite the specimen. He says he’s stopped at
least once a week and asked to model, but that happens to you all
the time, too.”

Raz nodded.

“
I bet all of her children
are gorgeous,” Raz said.

“
They are,” Alex said.
“Have you see Mammy since she lost weight?”

Raz shook his
head.

“
The Mister is home at the
end of this year. Retiring,” Alex said. “They both are. Then it’s
‘Watch out, world.’”

“
Why did
she . . .?” Raz started.

“
She was never actually
that heavy,” Alex said. “Most of it was a kind of
disguise.”

“
I knew it!” Raz said with
a laugh.

“
She has a round face, so
it’s easy to think she’s heavier than she is,” Alex said. “That
said, she’ll be disappointed if you don’t notice that she’s lost
thirty pounds. She’s been working out with her youngest. She’s
teaching him the tricks of her trade.”

Raz shivered at the
thought, and she laughed. He kissed her cheek, and he nodded toward
the door of the half-bath. They returned to their spots on the
couch and chair.

“
Better get your beauty
sleep,” Alex said.

Raz laughed. He was about
to say something when he realized that she was asleep. He nodded to
himself and fell asleep.

FFFFFF

Wednesday
afternoon

May 18 — 2:25 p.m. MDT
(4:25 p.m. EDT)

Denver,
Colorado

“
Cian! Someone’s at the
door!” Eoin said.

He opened the door to a
thin, medium-sized man in an expensive suit. The man had dark hair,
a long beard, and tan skin.

“
Hello,” Eoin
said.

“
I’ve come to take the
children back to their home,” the man said.

“
I see,” Eoin said — and
slammed the door in his face.

Cian came up behind
him.

“
What’s going on?” Cian
asked.

“
That thing that Alex said
would happen when she left the country?” Eoin whispered.

“
Yeah?”

“
They’re here,” Eoin
said.

Cian ran up the stairs to
tell Quince to protect the children.

“
How many?” Jack asked as
he came into the entryway.

“
I saw four,” Eoin said.
“Two at the car, one driver. Just one man at the door.”

There was a knock. Neev
gave Jack a look and went to answer the door.

“
Yes?” Neev
asked.

“
I’ve come to return the
unlawfully obtained children to their rightful home,” the man
said.

“
Have you, now?” Neev
smiled. “What makes you think you’ll be able to do
that?”

“
I come with the authority
of . . .” the man started again.

Neev raised her hand. Cian
and Eoin came out onto the porch behind her. Jack stood in the
doorway.

“
I’d guess you’re a big
deal where you come from,” Neev said.

“
I am the tribal authority
for the lands which belong to . . .” the man
started.

Neev sucked at her teeth
and looked him up and down. She raised her eyebrows and looked at
Jack.

“
You’ve been fighting the
invaders in your country,” Jack said.

The man gave Jack an
assessing look.

“
Just so as you know,
we’re Irish Republicans,” Jack said.

“
We’re not unappreciative
of your struggle,” Cian said.

“
We’ve just been at it a
while longer than you,” Neev said.

She looked at Eoin and
gave him a nod.

“
When they killed our
royalty and tried to breed us out, we murdered them in their
sleep,” Eoin said.

“
When they shipped every
able man or woman of any decent size off to Australia or America,
we got our countrymen to send us money to finance our war,” Neev
said.

“
When they starved us and
left us begging for food, we blew up their food supply,” Cian
said.

“
When they came after us
again, we brought the civil war to their homes,” Eoin
said.

“
You think you can impress
us with your ‘we’re the rightful government’ crap?” Jack asked.
“You’d better think again. Like I said, we’re from the north of
Ireland. We’ve been fighting invaders for almost three thousand
years.”

“
And we’re crazy as all
get out,” Cian said.

“
You want to take our
babbies from us?” Neev asked. “You’d better think
again.”

“
I can pick up the phone
and call an Irish Republican with a child in your country,” Jack
said. “Doesn’t matter what flag they fight for, they’re Irish
first. They’ll go to your house and kill everyone inside just for
the fun.”

“
And if they don’t?” Cian
asked. “If you win this round?”

“
We Irish never forget,”
Eoin said. “Ever. Ask the English. They’ll tell you there’s nothing
more terrifying than an angry Irishman.”

“
Or woman,” Jack
said.

“
We women are completely
mad,” Neev said.

“
Are you threatening me?”
the man asked.

“
We thought you should
know who you’re dealing with,” Cian said.

Neev nodded to Jack and
followed him inside the house. Eoin gave the man a hard look and
went inside.

“
I’m going to call my
brother,” Cian said. “He’s been learning Arabic so that, when you
contacted us, he could negotiate on his son’s behalf.”

“
And this?” the man asked.
“Do I need to warn my family? My children?”

“
No harm done,” Cian said.
“You were just testing the waters and found them full of the
Irish.”

The man gave Cian a curt
nod.

“
My brother will be here
in a half-hour,” Cian said.

“
I will return in a
half-hour,” the man said. “We have important business to discuss.
The boy is the sole heir to all of the land in our valley. The
tribe must decide what to do with it until he is of age to
inherit.”

“
We are aware of that,”
Cian said. “My brother is ready to discuss this matter with
you.”

The man nodded. Cian
turned in place and slammed the door. They huddled on the other
side of the door waiting to see what was next. The rooming house
was fortified for any major form of attack. They heard the
limousine pull away from the curb.

“
Yes!” Jack
said.

They cheered.

“
What just happened?” John
asked, coming down the stairs with Joey. “What are you up
to?”

“
Uh . . .”
Eoin said.

“
You had a visitor,” Cian
smiled.

“
We had to explain a few
things to them,” Jack said.

“
A few things?” John
asked.

Their heads went up and
down in a nod.

“
Let me guess,” John said.
“You had to explain a few things about being Irish.”

They nodded.

“
Lord have mercy,” John
said. “Did you go all the way back to Irish royalty and breeding us
out?”

“
They came the first time
Alex left the country,” Cian said.

“
Did exactly what she said
they would, they did,” Eoin said.

“
You needed us to level
the playing field,” Cian said.

“
You should be grateful,”
Eoin said.

“
Did you give them the
whole grandchildren’s grandchildren bit?” John asked.

“
No, we did not,” Cian
sniffed.

“
You told us not to tell
them that our grandchildren’s grandchildren would hunt them down
for sport,” Eoin said. “And we did not. Doesn’t make it not
true . . .”

John looked at Jack and
then at Neev. They shook their heads.

“
You told them something
else?” John asked.

“
We might have mentioned
the English,” Neev said. “Just in passing.”

John gave a rueful shake
of his head.

“
We’re here to support
you, Johnnie,” Jack said.

“
It sounds like they
left,” John said.

“
He’ll be back,” Cian
said. “He wants to talk about the land.”

John nodded.

“
Just like Alex
told
us!” Eoin said. “I
wouldn’t trust the bugger. I just wouldn’t.”

“
Because you
trust . . .” John raised his eyebrows, and Eoin
gestured to his brother, Jack, Cian, and Neev.

“
I see,” John said. “I
will take your concern under advisement. Now, if you don’t mind,
I’m going to call our lawyer so he can be here when they
arrive.”

“
Good thinking, Johnny,”
Cian nodded.

John scowled at them and
went up the stairs.

“
He took that well,” Eoin
said.

Jack looked from Eoin to
Cian and laughed.

F

Chapter
Twenty

Wednesday night

May 18 — 11:32 p.m. CEST
(3:32 p.m. MDT)

Paris, France

“
Camille,” Ben’s wife
Claire said in a low tone to the child in Alex’s arms.

Alex was standing with Ben
just outside their dining room. During their late dinner, Camille
had gotten out of bed to sit on Alex’s lap. She’d slept for hours.
Alex would have held the child all night, but of course, her mother
wanted Camille back.

“
Maman,” Camille
said.

Not quite awake, the child
turned toward her mother’s voice. Claire lifted the little girl
from Alex’s arms and carried her off to bed.

“
Don’t stay up too late,”
Claire said to Ben in French when she turned on the landing. “I
have an early fitting, so you have the little ones in the
morning.”

Ben nodded. They waited
until Claire closed the hall door before heading downstairs to
Ben’s secure office. Built into the limestone underneath their
Paris home, Ben’s office was part cave, part palace. Alex shivered
in the cool air. She ducked under the crystal chandelier and walked
across antique carpets to the marble fireplace. She built a fire,
while he straightened away everything he didn’t want her to
see.