She laughed. “Trust me, if I ever win the lottery, I will buy myself the biggest, baddest SUV they make.”
He noticed the air starting to chill as they drew near An Tèarmann, a soft sea breeze pushing fog in off the ocean. “Are ye chilled, Maddy? Would ye like my shirt?”
She laughed again, anxiously this time. “Keep your shirt on, Killkenny,” she said, her voice husky as she glanced down at their clasped hands. “But if you’re chilly, maybe you should roll down your sleeves,” she finished in a near growl, suddenly picking up her pace.
She stopped when they reached the driveway. “Eve can take me home.”
“I said I would drive you, and I will.”
“But then you’ll be driving back here without anyone accompanying you, and that’s illegal. And it was illegal today, when you came to the home all alone.”
“I’ve decided I don’t like that rule.”
She smiled at that. “And if you don’t like something, you what . . . either ignore it or bash it over the head with your sword?”
He frowned at that. “Ye dare tease me, when you’re walking around with a gun in your purse that weighs as much as a car?”
Still holding his hand, she started walking in the driveway. “I tell you what—while I’m deciding whether or not to . . . grant your favor,” she said thickly, “I will borrow your truck this one time and drive myself home. And that way, it will be at the nursing home for you and Elbridge to use tomorrow.”
“Deal.”
They stopped by the driver’s door of the truck, and William opened it but stopped her from getting in. “Is there anything I can say to help you make your decision?”
There was still enough light from the setting sun for him to see color rise to her cheeks. “If I say yes, you would hold yourself to the same stipulation about not seeing anyone else?”
He grinned. “That’s the thing with possessive men—like dogs, we’re too busy guarding our territory to be sniffing out new ones.”
That brought her color up a notch. “And the gifts would stop?”
His grin vanished. “Aw, lass, I am having such fun shopping on the Internet with Janice.” She tossed her purse across the console with a snort, and William couldn’t help but wince. “Are ye sure there isn’t a bullet in the chamber?”
She climbed into the truck and looked down at him. “I’m pretty sure,” she said with a cheeky grin. But she suddenly sobered. “One more question.”
“What would that be?”
“Will you tell me who you really are?”
“Yes.” He saw her jaw go slack and smiled. “But not today. Or tomorrow.”
“Then when?” she snapped.
“When you’re ready.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“You have my word, Madeline. When you are ready, I will tell you everything.”
She sat there fuming at him for several heartbeats, and then her shoulders slumped. She turned away and reached for the key.
“Another thing ye might wish to think about as you decide tonight,” he said, causing her not to start the truck—though she also didn’t look at him. “And that’s if you are prepared to let your bogeyman boyfriend go.”
She looked at him. “He’s not real, William.”
“Oh, I’m thinking he’s quite real to you, and quite safe, because ye feel he can’t steal your heart—at least not as long as ye have it tucked away in a box under your bed.” He canted his head at her. “I tell ye what; how about that if you do agree to my favor, I give you something I hold equally dear, and you can keep it safe for me?”
“What is it?”
He shook his head. “I’m no more ready to open my box than you are to open yours.” He smiled. “Maybe someday we’ll each work up the courage to finally open them together.” Her shoulders slumped again, and he could see her fatigue. “Go home, Madeline, before ye fall asleep,” he said, moving to close her door.
“William,” she said, although she was looking at the steering wheel and not him. “I-I want to say yes,” she said, her voice whisper-soft.
“I know ye do, lass. And I want very much for you to say yes.”
“But I’m scared.”
“I know that, too. But remember, ye have my word that you’ll not find a safer place than in my arms.” That said, he softly closed the door and stepped back.
She stared out at him, and William gave her a tender smile, then turned away and started walking toward the barn. He heard the truck start behind him and stopped at the door just as Kenzie walked out, obviously also having heard the truck.
“I’m seeing, but I’m having a hard time believing,” Kenzie said. “How did ye get her to change her mind?”
William stared at the taillights disappearing up the road, wondering why the devil himself expected a man to settle for possessing only a woman’s body, when even a fool knew her true value lay in her heart. “It’s simple, really. I just opened the gates of hell and walked in.”
Chapter Fifteen
“I believe I know why they kicked ye out of your war, Huntsman,” William said as Trace walked up behind him. “I’ve guided legions that made less noise than ye do.”
“Would you have preferred I didn’t announce my arrival?” Trace asked with a chuckle, sitting down beside him. “No offense, Killkenny, but I’d rather not have to explain to Maddy why I slit her boyfriend’s throat defending myself.”
William snorted and handed Trace a bottle of the ale he’d bought at a store Elbridge had suggested he stop at. It wasn’t mead, but at least he could stomach it.
Trace took the bottle, held the label up to the moonlight, and also snorted. “You drink this rotgut warm?”
“Half the taste is lost when it’s chilled.”
Trace twisted off the cap and took a sip, made a sound of disgust, and then took a longer swig. “You intend to camp out here every night?”
“I can’t very well camp out in her bed, now can I? Not with her mother and young daughter in the house.”
“I see she’s using your truck.”
“Only until I work up the nerve to give her the new SUV hidden in Kenzie’s barn.”
Trace spit out a mouthful of ale. “Good luck with that. I’m shocked you got her to use your truck even temporarily. You try to give her that SUV, and she’s going to get behind the wheel only long enough to run you over.”
William chuckled, deciding he’d have to ask Mabel what a lottery was, and how he went about having Maddy win one. “So, Huntsman, what did ye think of our . . . target practice this afternoon?”
Trace said nothing at first, staring down at Maddy’s house for quite some time before he spoke. “I’ve spent most of the last ten years in just about every country in this world. You don’t think that’s the first time I’ve seen a hocus-pocus dog-and-pony show, do you? There are witch doctors in the Pacific who not only can light a fire with the tip of their finger, but can also walk across the glowing coals without burning their feet.” He took another swig, gave a small shudder, and glared at William. “As for what Kenzie did next . . . well, he should never do that in front of a man holding a gun.”
William chuckled, and took a sip from his own bottle. “Aye, I was quite surprised the first time he did it in front of me, too. But not nearly as surprised as I was that he showed you some of what he’s just recently mastered.” He sighed. “But it seems modern man has spent the last few centuries trying to distance himself from his true nature, so I suppose it’s not your fault for being skeptical of the magic.”
“That’s wasn’t magic; there has to be sound science behind those tricks.” He looked down at the bottle in his hand. “I could probably figure out how he started the fire, but that panther thing was . . .” He looked over at William. “It takes a lot to rattle me, but I’m still trying to come to terms with what I saw.”
“I have a good friend who’s a scientist,” William said, twisting the cap off another bottle of ale, wondering why anyone would bo
ther buying such wee bottles. “And Camry told me that the line between science and magic is growing thinner with each new discovery and that one day, when it completely disappears, man will realize he’s wasted centuries proving nothing. We are what we are, Huntsman, and it matters not if we like it, only that we accept it.”
“Then what’s the point of even being born?”
“The point is different for everyone, and is rooted in whatever lessons we need to learn—or that we can teach one another.” He grinned over at him. “And I just recently learned that we are our own worst enemies, far more than what’s out there,” he said, sweeping his bottle in an arc to encompass everything around them.
“So you’re saying the wolves that attacked you and Maddy last night aren’t really the enemy, so we really don’t have to worry about them?”
“Hell yes, we need to worry, just as we must deal with the energy that sent them. And that’s the very core of the problem. Our individuality gives us free will, but there are always those who wish to impose their will on the rest of us. Whoever sent those wolves here is after your mermaid, and you, Kenzie, and I are all that are standing between her and untold horror.”
Trace drained the last of his ale, gave another shudder, and shook his head. “I’m having a hard time wrapping my mind around what you’re saying.”
William chuckled again. “Welcome to the magic.” He handed him another bottle, then leaned back on his elbow. “The woman who gave ye the coin came seeking Kenzie, but apparently when she realized you could see her true nature, she decided to ask for your help as well. So while you’re fighting whatever demons got ye kicked out of your war, ye need to decide if you’re also willing to fight hers.”
Trace stared down at the unopened bottle in his hand. “How does one fight something he can’t see and doesn’t know anything about?” he asked softly.
“Ye use whatever weapon ye have at your disposal; sometimes it’s a sword or a gun, and sometimes it’s your smarts,” William said, looking down at the light shining from Maddy’s kitchen window. “And sometimes ye simply fight with all your soul.”
Trace followed William’s line of sight. “Are you in love with my cousin?”
William took another sip and then wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “Nay, I’m not certain I’m capable of loving anyone.”
“Then why are you messing with her?”
William glanced over when he heard the edge in Huntsman’s voice. “Because if there’s even a glimmer of hope that I can love, then I would wish to love Madeline. And if I find that I can’t, then I’ll settle for taking such good care of her that she will feel loved.”
Trace snorted. “Trust me, women know the difference. So what happens if Maddy won’t settle for anything less than love?”
“Then I will let her go . . . before I break her heart.”
Both men turned at the sound of a screen door slamming, and William sat up when Maddy came running out of the house, hiking her purse over her shoulder as she ran down the stairs.
“Sarah! Sarah, where are you?” she shouted, her voice verging on panic as she stopped in the middle of the driveway. “Sarah, answer me! Sarah!”
William sprang to his feet, but before he could take even a step, Trace tackled him to the ground and then quickly ducked to avoid William’s fist. “Sarah crawled out her bedroom window and is chasing fireflies,” he said in a rush.
“And ye did nothing?” William growled, shoving him away.
Trace’s grin slashed in the moonlight. “She actually started calling them like pets, in whispers so her mother wouldn’t hear.”
“Dammit, Sarah, where are you?” Maddy shouted, now in a full-blown panic.
William attempted to jump to his feet, but Trace tackled him again. “Goddammit, Huntsman,” William hissed, this time catching the bastard square on the jaw. Trace rolled away and lunged to his feet, the moonlight glinting off the knife in his hand.
“Sarah!” Patricia also shouted as the screen door slammed again.
“Oh, Sarah!” William heard Maddy cry in relief. “Didn’t you hear me calling you? What are you doing out here? You’re supposed to be in bed!”
While keeping half his attention on Huntsman, William turned to see Maddy drop to her knees and hug her daughter.
“The kid’s almost ten,” Trace said, straightening from his defensive stance. “Maddy used to sneak all the way over to my house at that age to spy on me after her parents had gone to bed. Why do you think I call her Peeps?”
“She didn’t sneak through woods filled with wolves.”
Trace ran his hand along his jaw and then slid his knife into the back of his belt.
William also straightened, suddenly realizing there was a reason the man hadn’t been worried about Sarah. “Who’s with her?” he asked.
“Rick started whining about missing his niece, so I brought him over. It was his idea to climb up to her bedroom and bring her out to catch fireflies.”
William sat back down and picked up his overturned bottle of ale. “You ever interfere in my business with Maddy again, Huntsman, and I will be the one explaining why I killed her cousin.”
“What the . . . why in hell did she bother to bring her purse?” Trace asked, looking down the knoll.
William glanced down to see Maddy sliding the strap of her heavy purse over her shoulder again as she led her daughter back into the house. “Because she has a gun in there big enough to blow a hole the size of my fist in a man.”
Trace gaped at him. “She’s carrying a handgun in her purse?”
“It was a parting gift from her bastard ex-husband, so she could protect herself and Sarah. She claims she has a permit to carry it and that she doesn’t keep a bullet in the chamber.”
“Those were her shell casings we found at the pit. Holy shit, Billy gave her a forty-caliber cannon.” Trace grinned. “She has good aim; she blistered those beer cans.”
“Can ye talk her into carrying something smaller?” William asked, spitting out a piece of dirt he nearly swallowed when he’d swigged down what was left of his ale.
“Why don’t you talk her into a smaller one, since you like buying her things?”
“It appears my gifts unnerve the woman, but she might accept one from you.”
Trace folded his arms over his chest. “Do you want her to have a different gun because you think she needs a different one or because you don’t like that this one is from Kimble?”
“What in hell sort of man gives a woman a gun as a divorce gift?”
Trace grinned. “A stupid man, apparently. He’s lucky she didn’t turn it on him.”
“He knew she wouldn’t. Madeline is too damned softhearted for her own good.”
“Most women are,” Trace said. “It’s in their DNA.”
William snorted. “Then ye haven’t met Kenzie’s sister. That’s one woman I’d hate to see holding a gun in her hand.” He chuckled. “Or, rather, her wing.”
“Excuse me?”
William eyed Trace speculatively. “Fiona Gregor is a red-tailed hawk—as well as a flaming shrew. She’s not all that fond of men, though I suppose she may have good reason. I just don’t like how she’s decided that other than her two brothers, all the rest of us are bastards.”
“What do you mean, she’s a red-tailed hawk?”
“Just that. She died giving birth to her son in the eleventh century, but she showed up here as a hawk soon after Kenzie moved to Midnight Bay. Only she’s been missing almost a week now, and we’re starting to worry about her. Before she disappeared, Fiona wouldn’t let your mermaid out of her sight, and Kenzie fears she’s gone off on her own to deal with whoever is after the pup.”
“The pup?”
“You see a woman swimming in the bay, Huntsman, where everyone else sees only a harbor seal pup.”
Trace was back to gaping again. He suddenly bent over, grabbed another bottle of ale out of the box, twisted off the cap, and downed half of it.
William chuckled. “Getting drunk won’t make it any less confusing, my friend.”
“I never get drunk.”
“Aye, a warrior can’t afford to let down his guard long enough to enjoy some of the simpler pleasures.” William looked toward the house and saw that the downstairs lights had gone off; the only one left on was in Maddy’s bedroom. He wondered if she was right now tucking her heart into a box and sliding it under her bed.
God, he hoped so.
“Wait, you said something about Fiona’s two brothers. Kenzie has a brother?” Trace snorted. “What is he, an elephant?”
William looked back at him and grinned. “Nay, Matt’s a wizard.”
Trace downed the last half of his ale in one swallow.
William took two more bottles out of the box and handed one to him. “Sit down, Huntsman. I believe I promised to tell ye the story of Maddy’s bogeyman boyfriend, and I guess now’s as good a time as any.”
“Are you sure you’ve got everything you need for the weekend?” Maddy asked, stuffing the mail she’d just gotten out of the mailbox into her purse. She glanced over to make sure her daughter’s seat belt was fastened and the airbag was off and finally pulled out of the driveway, already ten minutes late.
Sarah made an impatient noise as she twisted in her seat to look around the truck, apparently tired of getting asked the same question every Friday morning. “I’m only going to be twelve miles away, Mom. And if I forgot anything, Sissy usually has it.”
That’s because Sissy Blake’s only nine years older than you, Maddy wanted to shout. And the spoiled-rotten snot gets whatever she wants, and for some inexplicable reason, she wants your daddy. “I’m sorry I got a little carried away scolding you last night, Sarah, but you scared the dickens out of me when I went to check on you and found your bed empty.”
“Rick put a ladder up to my window and asked me if I wanted to catch fireflies.” Sarah began pushing all the buttons on her door, making her window go up and down and the doors lock and unlock. Then she started adjusting all the vents she could reach, so the air-conditioning blew on her hair. “This is a really nice truck. Is it ours?”
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