Colleen and Fiona had slept over. She could hear them moving about in her kitchen while the smell of coffee wafted her way. She reveled in the last few minutes of sleepiness, her covers tucked around her.
Tucked around her? Who had done that? She had a vague memory of someone doing it, but she hadn’t been able to open her eyes. The night had been exhausting and terrifying all rolled into one shit storm. She’d had no idea how she’d done what she’d done.
Donal would have the answers.
Reluctantly, Meg climbed out of bed. She stretched before slipping a big sweatshirt over her t-shirt and pajama bottoms. Yawning, she opened the door to her bedroom. The chatter stopped.
Colleen greeted her with a cheery, “Hey, there.”
Her friends hugged her. Fiona stepped out of her arm and held Meg’s face with her hands. “If you have any doubts about Donal, don’t. He was here most of the night, watching over you.”
“Where is he now?”
“He’s on the roof, I think,” Colleen said.
Meg headed to the door.
“Where are you going?” Fiona said.
“The roof.”
“Wait. Bring him coffee,” Colleen poured two mugs then handed them both to Meg
The sun was just peeking over the horizon when Meg reached the top of her building. Donal perched on the edge of the building, looking out over the city. A man was next to him, but he stopped talking when he looked at Meg.
“I’ll leave you two alone,” he said then disappeared down the steps Meg had just come up.
She reached Donal and her previous determination left her suddenly shy. He shifted on the edge of the roof and her heart went into her throat because she thought he would fall. He put his hand out. She put the mug in it.
“I’ve been sitting on roofs my whole life, Meg. I won’t fall,” he said.
“You tucked me in?” she said.
“Before I left this morning.”
“You stayed all night?”
She held the mug with both hands, not sure what else to do with them. She wanted to touch Donal. Make sure he was real.
“I had to make sure you were okay. Are you?”
She smiled. “I guess as okay as I can be finding out I’m a mythical woodland creature.”
“You’re a beach fairy.”
She nodded, not that that information changed anything. “Is that why I’ve always been drawn to water?”
“Yes.”
“Can you tell me everything?”
Donal gave a hesitant smile back. “I can. Do you need to know it all right now?”
She sighed. No, she didn’t. “No. I would imagine it is a lot take in all at once.” She sipped her coffee, putting off the question she needed to ask him. Steeling herself, she said. “Where will you go now?”
He cocked his head. “I’m not going anywhere.”
Those words warmed her. She didn’t want Donal to go away. She wanted him right here. Well, maybe not on the roof, but in her life.
“The threat isn’t over completely. Or I don’t know that it is over for sure, lass.”
Her heart sank. He was only staying out of duty.
“If there wasn’t a threat?” she said.
He smiled. “Are you asking me if I’d stay?”
She nodded.
He laughed this time, his hand snaking out to take hers. “It is my duty to protect you. It is against the rules for me to love you, but I do.” He shrugged. “I guess these are different times than when I grew up so I’m not going to fight it.”
“Tell me what happened.”
She needed to know more about him before she could truly give her heart away.
He put down the mug then turned to her. “My family were elite gargoyles. We were assigned to protect a specific fairy. Royal fairies, mainly. My father lay with his fairy and got her pregnant. Since the Fairy Queen was unable to mete out punishment to him since he left her realm, she cursed Sean, Declan and I to be gargoyles in stone.”
“What happened to make you animated?”
“You came along. You are the fairy I am supposed to protect.”
“Will the curse return?”
“No. It would have if I hadn’t defeated your goblin.”
She nodded “And you love me?”
He smiled, a twinkle in his eyes. “Aye, lass. With all of my heart.”
She put down her mug then jumped into his arms. Even perched on the edge of the building, she knew he would never let her down. “I love you, too, Donal.”
They sealed their destiny with a kiss.
The End
Fate of a Gargoyle
Book Two
Fate of a Gargoyle
Prologue
In a time when fairies ruled the Earth. And humans were an afterthought.
The waves of the ocean beat against the shore. The blue sky met the gray water in the land of Connaught in what is now County Galway, Ireland.
The Fairy Queen held her wand aloft as she told the three gargoyles their fate.
Sean Foley heard the Fairy Queen’s verdict and he swore to himself. He glanced at his two brothers, Donal and Declan. Their faces reflected his reaction to the fact that the Fairy Queen had cursed them to be turned to stone until the fairy that they were destined to protect came along. If that fairy stayed with them for at least a day, they would take human form again.
“Feck,” he said.
As gargoyles they’d sworn to protect the fae as a whole and some were called to protect a special fairy. Their father had been one of those rare gargoyles, but he’d lain with the fairy and she was now with child. His child. His father was nowhere to be found so the Fairy Queen had passed judgment on his sons.
He glanced across the beach to the stone building that would be their home until such time as a fairy visited them.
“You will know your fairy, but it is up to you to figure out how to be with that fairy for a day,” the Fairy Queen said.
“Feck,” was all Sean could say.
At least he’d be with his brothers.
Chapter One
Colleen Connelly knew her pacing was probably driving her client nuts, but she couldn’t help herself. While she had been questioning her career path, this case would be crucial to the decisions she’d have to make.
Her sensible blue pumps clicked on the marble floor of the United States Courthouse in Philadelphia as she walked back in forth in front of her client, Tony “the fish” Tocci. Charged with three counts of murder and two counts of being an accessory to murder, he had his legs out and crossed at the ankles as if he didn’t have a care in the world.
Her firm did all of the legal work for the Tocci family and Colleen, a rising star in the firm of Ledger, Chart, and Hier, had been given this plum assignment as a reward for her hard work.
“Relax, babe,” Tony said.
Only because she wasn’t facing him, did she roll her eyes. She wasn’t his babe, or anyone else’s. Colleen was a love them and leave them kind of girl. Her meteoric rise in the firm had left her no time or desire for romance.
She wore the prim suits of a defense attorney, but underneath she had wildly striped lingerie. Maybe not sexy, but more in line with her real personality.
She examined her nails before she watched the hands on the clock on the wall move once again without the jury returning a verdict. She’d thought it would only take them an hour, but they were on hour three.
“You can go home,” she said to Tony.
He had a police escort here to take him back to where an anklet awaited him as he was on house arrest. A patrolman stood next to the bench her client occupied as if he had a pole for a spine. His gaze hadn’t moved from a spot on the opposite wall, but she’d bet he hadn’t missed anything that went on.
“Nah. I’ll stay here without my legal jewelry.”
He shifted forward, resting his arms on his thighs, his knees bent. She didn’t want to know what would happen if she hadn’t gotten this man a n
ot guilty verdict. He knew people in high places. He knew people in low places and those were the ones she worried about.
Her body might end up in South Jersey in the Pine Barrens, never to be seen again. This had been the least winnable case and she wondered a few times if her firm had known that and set her up to be the sacrificial lamb. On appeal Tony could say he had incompetent representation.
As if she didn’t have the reputation for winning.
The door to the courtroom opened. The bailiff stuck out his head. “Verdict’s in.”
Colleen swallowed hard then squared her shoulders. She looked at her client. “Shall we?”
Tony motioned for her to go first and she did with the cop bringing up the rear of their impromptu parade. The jury filed in as Colleen stood with her client at the defense table. The judge hurried into the courtroom.
“Jury? Have you reached a verdict?”
The foreman lowered his head to read the note in his hand. “We have, your honor,”
He was a squat man with a tie on that looked to be strangling him. He handed it to the bailiff who turned it over to the judge. The judge read it then nodded. The foreman took his seat again.
“Tony Tocci, the jury finds you guilt on all charges.”
The courtroom erupted into cheering. The men Tony had just been convicted of killing had been popular in their neighborhood in South Philadelphia. The judge banged his gavel.
“Order!”
Colleen looked at her client, but he remained unperturbed by the verdict. Had he been expecting it?
“Don’t fret it, babe.”
Then he did something that Colleen had never expected. Tony “the fish” Tocci snagged her face then kissed her hard right in front of everyone in the courtroom. As his lips met hers, she knew what was going on.
Her firm had thrown her under the bus. No one could have won this case, but it might win on appeal if Tony could argue that his lawyer had slept with him. Her career would be over. When he let go, she was too stunned to even slap him.
“Sentencing will commence two days from now in this courtroom. Take the prisoner away. Court adjourned.”
The gavel bang was the only thing that brought her back to the present. Flashbulbs going off while Tony was kissing her had blinded her. She blinked several times. Tony’s smirk as he was yanked out of the room said it all.
She was screwed.
***
The last place Colleen wanted to be was back in her office. She was pretty sure everyone had heard the verdict and social media had probably made the kiss picture go viral.
Right now she wanted to go home and forget she was a lawyer. A glass of wine and Netflix would be on her agenda. Unless Fi and Meg were available.
She steeled herself before she walked in the front door. If her firm had made her the sacrificial lamb, would they admit it? She doubted it. There must have been a plan in place or had Tony Tocci acted on his own?
Ledger, Chart, and Hier occupied three floors in a building on Chestnut Street, not far from all of the courthouses that they might have trials taking place. The warmth of the day didn’t reach Colleen’s soul as she stood outside the building.
She might as well get this over with. She yanked open the door, waved at the security guard, then punched the elevator button for the fifth floor. When the doors opened on her firm’s office, she strode out as if she owned the place.
She wasn’t going to let them see her sweat or be insecure. Even though the loss had brought out some latent anxiety, she wasn’t going to let anyone cow her. She’d lost a case, but she’d won so many more.
Of course, on the walk over, she’d been questioning her career choice, but no one needed to know that. She would put on a brave face.
She flopped into her office chair. She hadn’t even had a chance to catch her breath before her boss was in her doorway. Carl Hurst was not a formidable man, but held her future in his hands. At least she assumed he did.
He settled himself onto one of her guest chairs, a frown on his face. “A tough one, today.”
“Yes.”
What else was she going to say? She was going to let him lead the conversation. Only answer the questions you’re asked. Don’t ask a question you don’t know the answer to. She’d heard them all and as a trial lawyer she was well-versed in being reticent.
“The picture went viral, but that isn’t my concern,” Carl said.
“No? It’s just my reputation.”
“And the firm’s.”
She cocked her head. “I feel like I’ve been set up.”
He pressed his lips together, but he didn’t give any other outward sign that she was correct. Her sixth sense was telling her she was right.
“We had a meeting before you got here, the partners and me.”
That couldn’t be good. Especially since he wasn’t addressing the idea that this was all planned if she lost. Even if she didn’t rethink being a lawyer, she needed to rethink working for this firm. “Oh?”
“We think you need to take some time off. You’ve been working hard and this case was particularly taxing.”
She straightened in her chair. “Do you think I can’t handle it?”
“We just want you to get some rest. We’ve reassigned your cases. Take a week or two until this blows over.”
“Do you think I’ve done something wrong?” she said. So much for not asking questions she didn’t know the answer to. This whole situation had knocked her off of her lawyer game.
If they didn’t have her back then who did? Who would?
“We have the reputation of the firm to think about.”
She leaned towards him. “Do you think I was actually involved with my client?”
“Colleen. Don’t you think if we thought that, we would fire you? There would be more consequences than a forced vacation.”
“Because you were all in on it. Just in case I blew it. You all knew that Tocci was going to kiss me.”
Carl rose without answering her. “Your vacation is effective immediately.”
“What if I don’t leave?”
“Then we’ll have to revisit the issue of your employment here.”
She saw what he was saying. “So if I take a vacation, lay low, I still have a job? Will my place in this firm change at all?”
“We’ll deal with those issues when you come back,” Carl said.
She leaned forward. “Carl, give me the truth.”
He’d been her mentor, but she could see that he was distancing himself from her. She would do the same thing if she’d done what they thought she did. She hadn’t kissed the man back. She hadn’t been involved with him.
They were covering their butts. They’d been doing that from the beginning. She’d thought it odd that they’d given her this case. Sure, she was a high profile lawyer, at a young age, but she’d often been the face of the firm. She was good lawyer, but not good enough for this case in their eyes.
She’d questioned this assignment from the beginning, feeling out of her depth. If she hadn’t taken the case, she would have been passed over for partner next round. Looks like she would be anyway. It had been a lose/lose situation, but she hadn’t seen it.
She cursed her own arrogance for thinking she could prove herself with this case. She hadn’t proved anything to anyone, least of all herself. She would never be good enough. Just like that little girl in foster care, trying to get adopted, but her outspokenness and attitude had always held her back.
Parents hadn’t wanted a child with problems. Now history was repeating itself in her firm.
“It’s out of my hands, Colleen.”
She sighed. “I’ll go, Carl, but I’m not happy about it.”
“I suspect not, but it is for the best, Colleen.”
He left her pondering what she was going to do with her time off. She didn’t take much vacation. She loved what she did, why should she take a break from it? Packing her briefcase she called Fiona.
“Hey, Fi. You fr
ee for a drink tonight?”
“I was just about to call you. Yeah, I’m free. Your place?”
She tucked the phone under her chin as she spoke. “My place.”
“See you after work,” Fiona said.
At the moment, Colleen wished Meg wasn’t on her honeymoon. It would be nice to have here to commiserate, but she couldn’t deny her friend happiness.
Colleen sighed again and finished packing up her briefcase, hoping she’d figure out what was next in her life.
She’d have to make a plan B if she had no future at this firm.
Or even plan C.
Chapter Two
Fiona arrived at Colleen’s apartment with ice cream and wine.
Colleen hugged her friend tightly. Having no family, friends were important to her.
Fiona returned the hug. “Since Meg is still on her honeymoon, I’ll try to be twice as good a best friend.”
Colleen laughed as she closed the door behind her. She followed Fiona out to the balcony of her penthouse. Fiona took in a breath. “You have the best view of all of us.”
Colleen’s apartment overlooked the Delaware River. She faced New Jersey, but she could live with that. The sight of sailboats and duck boats going by in the summer made it all worthwhile. Fiona flopped into a lounge chair.
“I’ll get some spoons,” Colleen said.
She retrieved two spoons and two wine glasses from her state of the art kitchen. Her bare feet padded across the bamboo floor and back out onto the expansive balcony.
She handed Colleen a pint of rocky road ice cream.
“Thanks Colleen,” Fiona said.
“I forgot the corkscrew,” Colleen said.
“Screw top.”
Colleen sat down next to her not sure about screw top wine. “Is it any good?”
“It was fifty bucks. It better be good,” Fiona said, her green eyes twinkling.
Strangers often took them for sisters because the three of them were green eyed, red haired and chunky. Sometimes, they played along. “That’s an expensive wine for you.”
Fiona twisted off the cap as she shrugged. “I spare no expense for my friends.”
Colleen laughed. Fiona was the most frugal of them all. “What does that boyfriend of yours have to say?”
When Garogyles Love Trilogy Page 8