“I really have a hard time with the wealth of the Aeterni.”
“We’re not all wealthy, but I’ve been around a very long time and I’ve been fortunate enough for the brewery to do very well over the centuries I’ve owned it. Besides, the cost of shippin’ a computer priority to Ireland from Missouri would’ve been outrageous.”
“Okay, I’ll give you that.” Cass sat up as they came into Keegan’s yard. A horn sounded behind them, and Cass turned to see Tomas wave as he drove his truck on down the road. “He’s not coming in?”
“No, he’s goin’ on to his own home just up the road a bit. He’s been away for more than two weeks. I’m sure he wants to get back and check the place out. He’ll be up to the cabin soon.”
Keegan pushed a button to open the garage door and slid into the only space left in the four car garage. It was the first time she’d been in the garage. When they’d left the other night, Keegan had already pulled the SUV out and parked by the front door. As he turned the Lexus off and closed the garage door, Cass looked around. The other three spaces were occupied by a Model something, she had no idea the letter, that resembled a carriage with tires, an old corvette and a new, late model Maserati. The Model something was red, the rest were black. Somehow that didn’t surprise her.
She hopped out of the SUV and said, “That’s an interesting collection of vehicles.”
Keegan came around and smiled. “The Model A was my very first car, I bought it new in 1903 and the Maserati Quattroporte GTS is my newest addition. The Stingray is my prized baby, though.”
“Oh my God, this is the first time you sound normal.”
Keegan looked at her with a raised eyebrow. “Pardon me?”
“You’re a car guy. Not a normal car guy, I’ll grant you that, because a normal car guy would have restored the two old cars not bought them new, but still.” She walked over to his favorite car and glanced at Keegan wondering if he’d stop her before she put her hand on the Vet. Smiling, she reached for the shiny black paint and just as she’d expected, his hand snaked out and caught her wrist before she could so much as brush the finish.
“You’ll be gettin’ fingerprints on it, luv.” He took the sting out of the words, not that she was stung by them since she’d expected the reaction, by rubbing his thumb over the pulse point on her wrist. Smiling, his dimples fully forming, he bent and gave her a quick kiss. “You did that on purpose.” His dark eyes sparkled with self-awareness.
“Yup.” She looked at his mouth wanting it back.
“I never realized it, but you’re right, I’m a car guy. Or at least with this one car.” He released her wrist and pulled back, his smile widened as he put his hand behind her head and pulled her toward him. “If you really want to stroke somethin’, a mhuirnín, I know just the thing.”
“Wow.” That was it, that was only thing Cass could come up with because there was nothing she wanted to do more than just that. She reached out and brushed his zipper with her fingertips. Just a touch, a promise.
“Mmm.” Keegan stared at her mouth, desire to kiss her plain in his dark eyes. Beethoven’s 5th caused Cass to jump and Keegan swear. Dang, Derian had the worst timing.
“Hold that thought, a mhuirnín, we’ll get back to it in just a moment.” He handed her his keys. “Head on in while I take this. The code is 1214.”
Stepping away from her, he pulled his phone out of his pocket. “Fitzgerald.”
She started toward the door, intending to give him the space he’d asked for.
“How the bloody hell did that happen?”
She hesitated. Key in the lock, she turned back to face him. “Go on, Cassie luv, I’ll be in in a moment. I don’t want you out here, the garage isn’t as secure as the house.” He moved closer to her and held out his hand. She gave him the keys, he unlocked the door and pushed it open. “Lock this, punch in the code to stop it from going off then rearm it.”
“Why?” Stupid question, obviously Derian had told him something that made him think her unsafe. The humor and lightheartedness of moments before was shattered.
“Please, a mhuirnín, I’ll be right in. If you don’t punch in the code all hell is goin’ to break loose.”
She nodded knowing it was no use trying to argue with him. She entered the mud room, punched in the code, then locked the door and rearmed the security panel. She wasn’t a fool, Keegan wasn’t going to be right in. If he were, he would have come in with her.
She set her purse on the table near the door and entered the living area having no idea what to do. She looked at the clock on the wall, it was only three in the afternoon.
Not knowing what else to do, she went to the kitchen and made a pot of coffee, then sat on a stool at the island waiting for it to finish. If Keegan didn’t come back, she had no idea what he expected her to do. She’d seen this area of his home and the bedroom, and knew there were stairs leading up to a loft and she assumed other rooms, the house was too big for there not to be other bedrooms. But she’d never seen a computer or TV and except for the book in Keegan’s bedroom, she hadn’t seen a bookcase.
The coffee pot beeped that it was finished brewing, and Keegan still wasn’t back. Nor had anyone else shown up. Cass got a cup out of the cabinet and filled it with coffee. What had Derian said that put him on alert like that? There was no denying he thought she was in danger just standing in his garage, that was why he’d sent her into the house without him.
A movement passing by the kitchen window caught her attention, and she looked out in time to see Keegan walking toward the front of the house, hugging the siding. Something was happening.
She set her cup down and moved to the front window. Carefully pulling the curtain back, she looked out into the front yard where two black SUV’s were pulling up. Men dressed in black with swords and guns prominently displayed, exited the vehicles. Eight men plus Keegan and Tomas, who’d just walked up to stand beside Keegan, all here to guard her. Keegan shook hands with each of them, and spoke with them momentarily before five of the men along with Tomas broke away and melted, literally melted, into the yard and woods beyond.
The three remaining men and Keegan turned towards the house and started up the walk. Cass wondered if she should pull back, figuring Keegan would be none too happy with her for hanging around looking out windows, but decided her curiosity was too great to move away. Keegan unlocked the door and pushed it open saying, “You might want to punch the code in Cassie luv since you’re closest to the panel.”
Cass smiled as she punched in the code and watched the four men enter, not in the least surprised he knew she was there. Once Keegan locked the door, she reentered the code and turned to meet the men who’d just arrived.
She looked up at the three newcomers standing just inside the door. Not only were they head and shoulders taller than her, there had to be something in the Aeterni gene that had flown right past her on its way to another body because, oh quelle surprise, they were really good looking. One was Native American, his dark brown eyes sharp and assessing. Unlike Micah, he wore his dark hair cut short. One was blond haired, blue eyed, and surfer tanned. Seriously the guy looked like he spent all day on the waves with his broad shoulders and shoulder length hair. The third guy was as brooding as Keegan, except he had brown hair and hazel eyes.
Keegan smiled as he turned toward her. He wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her close. “Do I smell coffee, luv?”
Cass couldn’t prevent her smile. Keegan’s actions were clearly a warning to the others she was taken. Yeah, like these gods of male flesh would care one iota about her, but she leaned into Keegan for a moment anyway as she answered his question. “Yes, it just finished before I saw you walking around the house.”
He pulled away and went to the kitchen. Smiling, she held her hand out to the Native American. She didn’t know why, but she got the impression he was in charge. “Cass Marston, newly inducted into the world of Aeterni.”
The dark eyed giant smiled and took h
er hand. “Gideon Nighthawk, Micah’s partner.”
“Ah, I wondered if Micah had sent you all. You look just like him.” The man raised his eyebrow as he dropped her hand. “No, I don’t mean that you look like him because you’re Native American, I meant you have that same ‘I’m going to stuff my hand down your throat and enjoy it’ look Micah has.”
Gideon laughed and the blond’s lips twitched as though he was trying not to laugh. The dark, broody one slightly raised a chocolate eyebrow, but otherwise didn’t have any reaction.
“If we’re all that obvious, then we’re going to have to change. I sure ‘nuf don’t relish the thought of lookin’ like either Gideon or Micah,” the blond said with a deep southern accent. Okay, not quite what she was expecting. He took her hand and shook it. “Grady Johnson, ma’am.”
“That’s the most normal name I’ve heard yet. How’s that possible?”
Keegan came back with five cups on a tray. He set them down on the coffee table and picked up Cass’ cup handing it to her. “Grady was born in 1950 in Texas.”
“Isn’t that young?”
Grady’s smile was rueful. “There’re one or two Aeterni born every year, so we just keep addin’ to our numbers. Eventually we’ll take over the world.”
“Grady,” the brown hair man said as he took a cup from Keegan and nodded his head in thanks, he had a proper British accent. “I’m sorry, Miss Marston, Grady forgets himself. I’m Devin Morgan.”
“Mr. Morgan, nice to meet you.” She turned to Grady and said, “With only one or two Aeterni born every year and hundreds of thousands of mortals born daily, I don’t think Aeterni stand much of a chance. Do you?”
She sat next to Keegan on the couch as Grady and Gideon took the two chairs and Devin moved to lean against the fireplace.
“Ah, but how many of those mortals die each day, while we just continue on?”
“Not as many as are born, so the population continues to grow,” Cass answered with a smile.
Keegan pulled her up against him as Grady opened his mouth. “No, Grady, please enough.” He shook his head. “Young Aeterni are so difficult to deal with.”
“I couldn’t agree more,” Gideon said as he set his cup on the tray. “Did Derian call you before we got here?”
“Yes, he said Dewhurst has managed to slip through your hands,” Keegan said running his hand under her hair, caressing the back of her neck. His touch eased the growing fear she felt knowing Dewhurst was out there somewhere.
Gideon nodded. “Unfortunately. Apparently, he knew our men were watching him and somehow slipped out of his house. We don’t know how, we had all the exits covered. But when morning came, and there didn’t seem to be a change in the house lights or any visible movement inside the house, the team we had on him moved in. They found the house bare of necessities as well Dewhurst and his bodyguard.”
“We shouldn’t have left him alone in the house that long. We know who and what he is, we should have moved in earlier. Apparently the bastard had an escape route. We’re still trying to find it, but my guess would be a tunnel out of the house. Dewhurst has been around a long time, he knows how to protect himself,” Devin said, his anger apparent even through the lofty accent.
Gideon shook his head. “Our men didn’t know they’d been spotted. There was no reason for Dewhurst to suspect anything was out of the ordinary.”
“It doesn’t take a genius to figure we’d have someone watching his house since he’d already figured out he was being followed. He’s been a member of the Circle since its inception,” Devin said.
Cass took a sip of her coffee, trying to get her fear under control as Keegan looked at Gideon and said, “Why does Micah think he’d come here? Shouldn’t Dewhurst assume we put her in a safe house? I know I was to protect her, but standard procedure is a safe house.”
“Don’t know, Micah knows more than he tells me. He just said we’d be meeting here to protect Cass.” Gideon said.
Devin made a deep, dangerous sound in his throat. “Dewhurst has been becoming more and more irrational for years. We’ve all seen it, but some members of the Circle have just chosen to ignore it.” He shook his head. Unlike his voice, his face was calm, even his eyes. “Don’t say it, I’m not a member of the Circle and I haven’t been around since before Christ, but I’m in a position to observe the Circle, and Dewhurst’s been a bleeding problem for more than a hundred years. Everyone knows it. He should have been removed from the Circle long ago.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Keegan shook his head. “We’ve discussed it in the past, but there’s never been just cause. You can’t remove a member of the Circle of Ghadan because he wants to be left alone. Hell, if that were the case, they would’ve removed me years ago. Dewhurst always sent a representative, and unfortunately, the Circle found that far more acceptable than his presence, so they kept silent.”
“Gentlemen, this has nothing to do with his Circle membership. Which is now a moot point since he’ll be removed, along with the others who walked out. We need to plan our next move,” Gideon said finishing off his coffee and placing his cup on the tray. “Micah, his best trackers and forensic men are at the old cabin. You did a wonderful job on that place, by the way, there’s not much left.”
“I didn’t bloody well torch it. Dewhurst did it in an attempt to get rid me.”
“Ah yes, in that case it’s a good thing you got away with all your parts still attached. Tomas has gone with my men to check out the woods and keep guard. I want you, Devin and myself to check out the areas closer to the house. Since Grady’s a Houston boy and can’t seem to travel through more than a park without getting lost, we’ll leave him in charge of the house. He can stay here with Cassandra.”
“Oh, ha, ha. I have my skills. Just because I think sluggin’ through miles of bug infested trees is tantamount to bein’ boiled alive don’t mean I’m useless. I’m dang good at finding my way through any city.”
“Exactly, you have the street smarts of a gang member. That’s why you’re staying here outside the house.”
Keegan nodded as his hand moved to caress Cass’ shoulders. He was doing a wonderful job trying to release her tension, too bad every word spoken made things worse. These men were preparing to put their lives at risk to keep her safe. That made her so nervous. She didn’t want anything to happen to them just because of her. She couldn’t live with that, but she knew she didn’t have a choice. These guys were going to do what they were trained to do regardless of her feelings. Besides, Dewhurst had betrayed their world as much as he’d destroyed hers.
Keegan pointed at the headset in Gideon’s ear. “Did you bring headsets for everyone, then?”
“Yes, Grady and Devin are listening to our other men just as I am.” He reached into the case he’d brought in, somehow Cass missed he had it with him. He pulled out two headsets and handed them to Keegan. “I want Cassandra to have one as well, that way we can keep in touch with her if she needs us.”
Keegan helped her place the earpiece over the shell of her ear and settled it in place just inside her ear. He looped the transmitter around her neck and attached the microphone to her sweater.
“Okay, this is cool, I feel like a real spy,” she said with a small smile.
Keegan chuckled as he attached his earpiece and mic. “Don’t get used to it, luv.” He looked at Gideon. “I’ll set Cassie up in my office. We have cameras situated all over the property. A number of them are angled to pick up the area directly outside the house. Cassie should be able to clearly see anyone coming or goin’. She can let us know if there’s anything odd and Grady can take care of it before it becomes a threat. There’re also some motion sensors, but not many, we’ve only recently started adding them and we have to be careful where we put them. We’ve found the animals set them off.”
“Animals, yeah, that’s another reason to stay as far away from trees as possible.” Grady said with an exaggerated shudder.
“Grady,” Gideon said
the warning clear.
“Sorry, boss.”
Cass liked Grady, he had an easy natural charm that put her at ease. Maybe it was his youth. Sixty wasn’t very old by any standards. By Aeterni standards, he was practically a baby, and she somehow had a feeling he was frequently treated that way. Although Gideon did seem to appreciate his street smarts.
“Okay, Cassandra, push the button on the transmitter and turn it on.” Once she’d done that, Gideon continued, “Can you hear me, and the others out in the woods talking?”
Gideon sounded like he was talking in stereo, then she heard Tomas report in to Gideon that they’d reached the north quadrant and hadn’t seen anything out of place so far.
“Yes, I heard Tomas, but I don’t hear myself.”
“You won’t hear yourself. When you want us to hear you, push the button on your transmitter. We can leave them on all the time, but with so many out there, it’s easier to turn them on and off. If you don’t want to bother with that, though, it’s okay if you just leave yours on.”
“No, I can turn it on and off. I have a bad tendency to talk to myself when I’m nervous, and I don’t think you guys want to hear me muttering around in here. It’d just distract you.”
Gideon chuckled. “Whatever you’re comfortable with.”
Keegan rose, holding out his hand for Cass. She placed her hand in his warm comforting one and stood next to him. “I’ll take Cassie upstairs and show her how to track the surveillance. There’s more coffee in the kitchen, so help yourselves.”
***
Cass watched the monitors as a black SUV pulled up next to Gideon and company’s vehicles. A dark-haired man, built like the average Aeterni, emerged and approached the house. He moved away from the front door and out of camera range.
She didn’t know who the newcomer was, but his SUV was a carbon copy of the other ones. Most likely he’d been sent to help Grady with guard duty. She shook her head. Poor guy, no one seemed to trust the “kid”.
Leaving Grady to deal with him, she turned her attention to the other monitors, looking for Keegan. She found him walking by a river with ice floating near the shore. She was starting to get an appreciation for how incredibly far Keegan’s property spread across the mountain. She bet he owned as much of the mountain as Bastien did his stretch of woods. Man, these guys really loved their privacy.
Forever Love (Circle of Ghadan Book 1) Page 19