“Yes, he did.”
Finally, Ian’s father faced him, like looking in a mirror, only the mirror showed what Ian would look like at that age. “Sit.”
Ian took the chair in front of the desk, a lower sitting seat than his father’s desk chair. That was deliberate too. Ian sat straight, looked at him right in the eye, and he knew his father noticed.
“So? You’ve had some time to think. Are you ready to take your place with us?”
Without hesitation, Ian said, “Yes, with some conditions.”
“There are no conditions, Ian.”
“Pat is my condition. He’s leaving the FBI and taking a position as my bodyguard, so we can be together. Discretely, as you’ve warned. I don’t want to jump into a loveless marriage right away, either. Give me a few years to get used to the idea of having to pretend to the world I’m something that I’m not.”
Barely a twitch of his lips, but Ian’s father stared, watching him closely. “I’m not used to people making demands on already agreed upon procedures, Ian. This time, however, I think I can make it work. The young lady you’ll be courting is a little young. She’s barely graduating Cornell and will be going on to her Masters in Oxford in the fall.”
He didn’t let it show, but his relief made him feel almost dizzy. “You know who I’ll marry?”
“Yes, Ian. We in the Grail like to keep it in the family, so to speak. Her father is a thirty-second-degree member. With your father being a thirty-third-degree member, it’ll be almost like a royal coupling. It’s been planned since she was born.”
The weight of that hit him, pushing aside the short-lived relief. “My marriage has been planned since I was a baby?”
“Yes, Ian, as was mine, and my father’s before me. When we marry a daughter of a Grail member, we have much less to worry about, as far as our spouses finding out what it is we’re loyal to. It makes for much less fray in the marriage for her to know that she will never come first to her husband.”
It made so much sense then. Knowing that his mother was not Ian Junior’s choice, their seemingly loveless marriage, their cold, polite interactions. “Did you ever love her?”
He set the tips of his fingers together, watching Ian’s every breath. “No. I wanted to, but no, Ian. That may be hard to hear, given she’s your mother but I won’t bask in fairy tales.”
He didn’t know why, but that hurt him to his core. No matter their coldness, they stayed together, which was more than most families had. He thought, under it all, in their private time, maybe they showed a side of themselves Ian never got to see. That they were warm, romantic, in love.
He couldn’t show his hurt. “Well, I guess I’ll know what to expect. Are the conditions acceptable or not?”
A long stare, with little love in it, but less indication of what he was thinking. Finally, when Ian’s father spoke, it shook him, and he knew he couldn’t hide it. “Ian, if you’re trying to do something, something against the Grail, be warned. Your FBI man is nothing. We have better technology than the CIA and NSA combined, and the FBI agents like your friend aren’t trained well enough to watch our dogs.
“Take your money and do what you’re told. For your own safety and that of the people you say you care about. Have your affair with the agent. No one cares what you do behind closed doors as long as it doesn’t hurt the Grail in any way.”
Did he know? Had he known all along that Ian was planning to try to take the Grail down in some way? To break it apart from the inside?
“You won’t hurt him, or you will lose me.”
“Don’t make us hurt him, Ian. He’ll be warned, as will the others he’s been in contact with about the Grail. As long as the message is received and abided by, there will be no more issue.”
Ian’s mind was floundering, and he was suddenly more terrified than the moment he’d had to press the barrel of the gun to his head. “Father…”
There was a change in him, and it was gone in an instant. He’d seen it, however, a flicker of his eyes, a cloud that passed over them. It was almost like sympathy or regret, but he wasn’t sure because it was something he’d never seen from his father.
“How can you be okay with all of it? I get I have to go along, and I’ll do what I have to, to keep Pat safe and anyone else. But…to like it?”
Ian’s father got up and moved around the desk, and Ian’s eyes went to the Grail. It was their family’s Grail. One of the originals, hundreds of years old. When his father died, it would be passed to him, and he’d in turn pass it down to his own son, if he had one. It was the legacy, the destiny of their family. It hit him then, there was no fighting it.
That point was made clearer when he rose from his seat and his father stepped in front of him. “Take care of yourself, Ian. We’ve never…well. We’ve never been the picture book father and son, but I wouldn’t want anything to happen to you.”
His bile rose and he stared at his father, disgusted to his core. “Why? Don’t want our family to lose its precious tie to the Grail?”
Again, that cloud, that flicker of his eyes as he looked away for a split second. Ian spun on his heel and left the room, ignoring the less than urgent call from his mother from the top of the stairs.
“Ian?”
He rushed out of the door of his childhood home, not that he’d ever felt that it was a home and hurried to the car in the drive.
Once inside, Pat asked him how it went, but that was before he really saw him. Then, he was panicked, and got the car into gear, getting them out of there.
“Ian? Honey, talk to me! What the hell happened in there?”
In the most monotone his voice had ever been, he said, “It’s okay, we’re okay to see each other, on the sly.”
“Ian, that wasn’t what I asked you! What the fuck happened in there?”
Still with no emotion, he said, “There’s no use, Pat. There’s no use in trying. They already know what we were up to.”
Pat drove fast, but he still managed to reach for Ian and grab his hand. “It’s okay, honey, we’ll figure all this out.”
“There’s nothing to figure out, Pat. If I want to keep you alive, and everyone else that is involved, I have to stay the course and be a good little Grail member.”
They said nothing more until Pat found a park and made him get out of the car after screeching to a halt barely by the curb. He led Ian up a slope of lawn until they were by a tall elm and he shoved Ian against it.
For a moment, all Ian could think of was the bark of the tree and how it was probably snagging his suitcoat. “Talk to me.”
Ian met his eyes for a second then cut his eyes away, in total shame. “I got you all into something that could get you killed.”
His heart was on fire with pain and he could barely breathe. Pat didn’t ask another question, instead taking Ian into his arms and holding him while he sobbed.
After a minute or two, Pat sunk to the ground and put Ian on his lap, all while still holding him tightly. In his arms, just an hour before, Ian would have felt like anything was possible, but at that moment, all he could think of was what if the Grail saw and didn’t like the PDA? He moved off Pat and got to his feet, brushing off his clothing. “We can’t do that.”
“What? I can’t comfort you?”
“Not in public.”
Pat was on his feet and furious. “What the fuck happened? Ian, if he threatened me, I’m a big boy. I’m not afraid of them.”
“You should be, Pat. He’s right. I was crazy to think I could change anything that’s been going on this long.”
He started back for the car, but Pat caught him and spun him around, grip painful on Ian’s arm. “Ian, he was trying to scare you.”
“Well it worked! I would die, Pat, die! If anything happened to you, or Denny or the friends of yours that sent you to find me! I would fucking die!”
Pat held him again, and this time, Ian let him. He cried until his knees wouldn’t hold him and Pat helped him back to the car. They
drove to the apartment and Pat took him to his room and undressed him, got him into bed and poured him a scotch.
When he was able, he met Pat’s eyes and said, “They’re…they’re going to give you a warning, and anyone else involved.”
“Involved? Like who?”
In a croak, Ian got out, “Everyone.”
Chapter Eleven
Charlie had the day off, but he was back at the house sleeping, under strict orders not to move a muscle until she got back from the playground with the girls.
They were addicted to the sandbox, and Betsy was getting good at pouring her sand perfectly over Martha’s head. Martha never seemed to mind. She closed her eyes on time, so no sand got in them, then she went back to smoothing the sand she was playing with into a nice pie in the plastic pie plate.
Martha was like that, patient to a fault. Betsy, on the other hand, was the terror, always getting into trouble while Martha looked on in consternation. Having their separate personalities emerge as they grew was something Stacy was reveling in, enjoying watching them turn into little people instead of the drooling, crying lumps of babies they’d been.
Stacy wanted kids, but she’d never been a huge fan of babies. She could admit that about herself and not blink. Babies were torturous work, but children were fun and entertaining. She’d rather watch her girls playing than any movie or television show ever made. They had it all, drama, comedy, and even romance, when the little boy that played in the park at the same time they did would come into the sandbox and Martha would make shy smiles his way and Betsy would tackle him and kiss his cheek.
A gentleman came to sit on the bench alongside her, but she barely took notice until he spoke. “Are those twins?”
“Yes,” she said with pride and a little annoyance. It was a stupid question, being they looked exactly alike and were the same age.
“Beautiful girls, really. My mother was a twin. She said it was the best part of her life, having a sister that was the other half of her.”
Stacy glanced over at him, her earlier impression easing. “That’s a beautiful way of looking at it.”
“Like the ego and the id, she said. She was the wild one, and her sister was calm and practical.”
Stacy turned her head, getting a good look at him at last. He was maybe forty, in good shape, shaved head and sharp, squared jaw. Freshly shaved, a little nick on his neck just under his chin still had the blood clotted there, but no one else would notice it.
He wore a windbreaker jacket, though it was a warm day, and the side closest to her was lumpier than it should be, given his trim body.
“What do you want?”
His hand slipped quickly and easily under his jacket and his hand reached out for hers, gripping it so hard, she felt her bones would break. She didn’t flinch, though, or cry out. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. “I need you to forget the name Ian Andrews. I need you to forget you ever heard of the Gilded Grail. If you have that memory loss, your beautiful twins there will live long, healthy lives, never knowing how close they came to dying, because of their parents’ stupidity.”
Stacy’s blood ran cold for exactly half a second, then she became enflamed. “If you touch them, you will be running for the rest of your life.”
“If I touch them, you’ll be watching, and that will be the last thing you and your husband see before I kill you.”
She wrenched her hand away from him, but he didn’t put up a fight. Rising easily, he looked down on her once, winking at her before moving to the girls, bending over them, cooing, “Pretty girls, tell your mother to behave, now.”
Stacy rushed to them, grabbing them both into her arms, glaring at him and spitting, “I’ll fucking kill you.”
“Remember what I said, and you’ll have nothing more to worry about.”
He left, easy gait like he hadn’t a care in the world, which scared Stacy more than his words. His overwhelming confidence in his own words and threats, that meant something to Stacy. The man wasn’t kidding, and he wasn’t bluffing.
Stacy held her daughters to her, Martha quiet and reserved to be in her mother’s tight grasp, but Betsy was squirming to be freed. Stacy was frozen with fear and shaking with fury. They could threaten her all day long, but they threatened her children. The more the fear wore, the more anger assaulted her.
“Ow, Mama!”
She was squeezing them too tight and Betsy made it known. She hurried to gather their toys and get them into the car, which she no longer trusted. She checked over the engine and underneath while she called Charlie, who answered on the sixth ring with a groggy voice.
“Babe?”
“Charlie, come get me. Now. I’m at the park.”
“What’s wrong with the car?”
She didn’t want to say and chance him driving like a maniac to get to them, so she lied, “It won’t start.”
“I’ll be right there, babe. The girls okay?”
That was Charlie, always thinking of his babies. “They’re fine. Don’t you worry about them, baby. They are just fine.”
Chapter Twelve
Steve was hiding in the bathroom behind the door, his heart pounding a mile a minute. Hearing the floorboard creak that he meant to fix a thousand times, he was suddenly glad he had procrastinated.
The door was pushed a little, not enough to give his position away, and once the intruder backed out of the room, Steve grinned.
“If my husband doesn’t come out right this second, I’m cutting him off for a month!”
Steve held his giggle back, barely, and snuck back around the door, creeping up on Matt as Matt slowly went down the hall, looking for him.
As he jumped on Matt’s back, wrapping an arm around his shoulders to hang on, he heard the yelp of fright, then the deep growl as Matt easily shook him off and spun around. “Are you three? Playing hide and seek?”
Steve kissed him hard, laughing in the gesture. “I give in so easily, I thought I’d make you work for it this morning.”
Matt pushed him against the wall in their short hallway, holding his wrists above his head and staring at him seductively. “Playing hard to get? I’ve heard of that. Hmm, could make the capture of my prey more tantalizing. Okay, so after breakfast, you try to say no. I’ll tease you all day long, and if you can resist me, I’ll give you whatever you want in bed tonight.”
That was a deal he couldn’t pass up. He loved his dominant man, gloried at how easily it came for him to take over Steve’s body in all the most delicious ways, but because of that dominance, he always called the shots. Steve didn’t want that opportunity often, because he relished in their sexcapades, but once in a while, to tease Matt and make him beg for it for once would be fun.
“Oh, you are on, Matthew Ricci.”
“Good. Starting now.” He kissed him deep, leaving him against the wall, ready to melt to the floor if Matt wasn’t holding him up. His hands roamed where they would, in all the places Steve liked to be touched, neck, jawline, chest and down to his groin, where Matt kneaded his growing erection slowly. “This is going to be so fun.”
“For you!”
“Yeah? Your point?”
The man was insatiable. For all the years he had waited to lose his virginity, he was damn set on making up for it by not going half a day without being inside his husband. “You are the devil.”
“Yeah, well, I’m so good at it.”
That was the truth. He made Steve crazed with desire every moment of every day. It was a sexual ocean and he drowned in it, and never wanted to come up for air.
Steve made them breakfast, some fruit and bagels, and when they sat down to eat in the little nook, looking out over the garden they’ve been struggling to plant, Steve sipped his coffee, nearly choking on it as Matt’s bare foot made its way to his crotch.
“Matt!”
“I think I said I was going to tease you all day. Do I ever lie?”
Steve’s head fell back and he laughed, “No. Never.”
&
nbsp; “There you go.”
When Steve’s head came back upright, he saw a red spot on Matt’s forehead, and for a moment, was confused.
Then it moved, just a little, when Matt moved. It wasn’t on his face, it was pointed there. A laser sight. “Matt?”
Matt’s brows drew as he leaned in a little pointing to Steve’s face. “What the hell is that on your face?”
Steve moved his hand over his forehead then looked outside as his phone went off, making him jump. Matt seemed to understand what was happening at the same time Steve picked up his phone. “Ricci.”
“Yes, Mr. Ricci. That laser sight on your head and your husband’s? That’s me and a few of my men. We’re here to give you a sample of what your future holds if you don’t forget everything you know about the Andrews family and the Gilded Grail.”
Matt was watching him, then turning to the window and back, ready to jump from his seat, Steve could see. “Who the fuck is this?”
“Someone who’ll be watching.”
The phone call ended, and Steve set the phone on the table, then saw the red spot disappear.
“Who was that? What the hell is going on, Steve?”
“We just received a warning.”
Chapter Thirteen
After Ian was asleep that night, Pat watched him for an hour. He’d tried to go to class, but left halfway in, claiming to be sick still. He’d told his professors he’d been seriously ill, and they believed him. He hated that they were so accommodating, worrying if they gave him any trouble, the school would lose a valuable donor.
He was unsure of what to do for him. Pat had never felt so helpless in his life. As he slept, there was no rest, no peace on his face. Even as he lay in bed, his life haunted him. His future plagued him.
His fear had shaken him all day. Nothing was right, the whole thing a mess. Ian couldn’t go on that way. The Grail would get tired of it and hurt him. The only thing Pat could think of was to try to take him and hide away for the rest of their lives.
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