by Donna Grant
“I’ll take you into the main building where Con’s office is,” Cassie said as she looked over her shoulder at him. “Con has done a lot of research on your pub, Mr. Bruce. He’s impressed with what you’ve acquired in Ferness.”
“It’s more than just property,” Charon said as he thought of his men. And Laura.
She really couldn’t be included, but he wouldn’t be standing at Dreagan today without her. Oh, he’d have eventually made his way in, but Laura had done it with finesse.
Cassie nodded as her gaze shifted to Laura. “Yes, he knows of the dedication of Ms. Black. You’re lucky to have such people surrounding you.”
The slight stain of pink that tinged Laura’s cheeks amused him. She was always so surprised when she was given praise. He didn’t understand it, but he liked to see the pleased look in her eyes.
Charon ushered Laura in front of him as Cassie took them on a narrow path. Cassie and Laura walked beneath the wooden arch of flowers, and just as he was about to follow, his gaze was caught by three men.
They had their backs to him, walking away and at an angle, but they stopped him cold in his tracks. Or one man did.
There was something familiar about him, as if Charon should know him, but he couldn’t place who it might be. He needed a closer look.
He took a step toward them when Laura touched his arm. His head snapped to her.
“Charon? What is it?”
“Who are those men?”
Cassie was instantly by his side. “Employees. Is there a problem?”
“Nay. One just looked familiar is all.”
Cassie’s brow was furrowed as she looked at the backs of the retreating men and then to Charon. “Shall I call them over?”
“Doona fash yourself,” Charon said. “After taking so long to get this meeting, the last thing I should do is keep Con waiting.”
With one last look at the place he had seen the men, Charon followed Cassie.
“I’m sorry,” Laura whispered when they were making their way up the stairs to Con’s office.
Charon shrugged off her words. “I doona know what it is about this place.”
“I like it,” she said as she leaned close and smiled. “It’s peaceful.”
“Aye. It is that.”
Cassie turned the corner into a large room where four men stood. Charon noted how Laura stayed close to him. By the appreciative eye the blond man standing a little off by himself was giving her Charon wanted to punch him.
“I hope you enjoyed the tour. I’m Hal Wilson,” said the tall man with black hair and moonlight blue eyes.
“Wilson,” Laura said as she looked from Hal to Cassie.
Cassie smiled. “Yes, he’s my husband.”
Charon gave a nod to Hal. “Your wife is verra proud of Dreagan. I can hear it in every word as she spoke.”
“That’s good to hear,” said the man next to Hal. He had light brown hair and pale brown eyes that watched Charon carefully. “I’m Guy. I’m sure you’ll run into my wife, Elena, around here somewhere.”
Charon held Guy’s gaze until the man closest to Laura, a big brute of a man with short brown hair and gray eyes, spoke to her.
In an instant, Charon’s gaze jerked to him.
As if knowing what he had done, the man simply grinned obnoxiously. “Nice to have you here, Charon. I’m Banan.”
“And your wife?”
Banan laughed easily. “Aye. Jane is probably with Elena looking for one of the kittens that got out of the box this morning.”
Still Charon didn’t relax. He turned to the blond who watched him with a slight mocking smile and black eyes. Charon wasn’t cowed.
He had been tortured with fists and magic alike. Had endured the agony of killing his own father in a fit of rage as he battled the god inside him.
There wasn’t anything that could bend him.
The tension in the room escalated. Charon could sense Laura’s growing unease as she shifted from foot to foot, causing her arm to brush his.
Heat seared through him, and he wanted to reach for her and haul her against him. It wasn’t until the blond’s gaze once more turned to Laura that Charon heard himself growl.
“I’m Laura Black,” she hastily said, and sent him a quick glance as she held out her hand to the blond. “I’m Charon’s assistant.”
Charon hands curled into fists when he watched the man take Laura’s outstretched hand and shake it, his thumb gently rubbing across her skin.
“Nice to finally meet you, Miss Black. Your e-mails were most persistent that we give Mr. Bruce a chance to state why he should carry our brand.”
Laura smiled nervously, her green gaze darting to him. “Charon and I are delighted to be here.”
“Why are we here?” Charon asked before she could say anything else.
The blond lifted a brow. “I see my manners are lacking. I’m Constantine, but everyone calls me Con. As for why you’re here, Mr. Bruce, I thought you knew the reason.”
Charon narrowed his gaze on Con and took a step to the right, putting himself in front of Laura. “What I want to know is why all of a sudden am I here? Why now?”
“Remember I told you that you weren’t the only one guarded, Mr. Bruce,” Cassie reminded him.
Charon wished he had listened to Laura and left her in Ferness. Had he just stepped into a trap? Were those at Dreagan working for Wallace?
Damn, he was such a fool. He’d wanted Laura with him not just because she was good at talking with people and was a good candidate to take over his businesses, but also because he wanted to be with her.
His actions could very well have put her life in danger. The one thing he didn’t want to do.
“Rest assured, Mr. Bruce, we’re your friends,” Con said, as if reading his mind.
Charon stared into the black eyes of Con, but could find no deceit, no matter how deep he looked. There was cockiness, confidence, and arrogance in spades, but no treachery. It helped that he felt not a trace of any Druid magic.
He pulled in a breath and nodded. “Call me Charon.”
“Come,” Con said, and turned on his heel to walk through a doorway behind him.
Hal, Cassie, Guy, and Banan all stayed behind. Charon hadn’t asked what they did, but then again, he didn’t need to. They, along with Con, had the same look about them as the other men Charon had seen around the property.
Con was prepared. But prepared for what?
After they were shown to their seats before the large wooden desk, Con poured three glasses of whisky and handed one to Laura and one to Charon.
“Why do you want to sell Dreagan whisky?” Con asked as he took his seat behind the desk.
Charon swirled the dark amber liquid in the glass and noted the dragons carved into the corners of the desk. “It’s the best. My village may be small, but I like to give my people the best.”
“And,” Laura said with a glance at him, “the tourism plays a vital part in Ferness. It’s close enough to Inverness and Pitlochry that people pass through to see the beauty of Ferness.”
Con nodded and sipped the scotch, his gaze on Charon. “You own quite a bit of Ferness. Seems to have been in your family for … several generations.”
“Aye.” Charon stilled, Con’s words alluding to a deeper meaning. Did Con know what he was? Had the investigation already gone that deep?
“I, too, own quite a bit of land that I inherited from … family.”
Charon turned his head to look out the window to his left. The Highlands rose up around Dreagan at every turn. The sky, cloudless, was like a sea of blue that stretched endlessly across the horizon.
The way Con spoke of it, the slight hesitation told Charon Con not only knew he’d been alive for a long time, but that there might be something similar going on with him.
Warriors couldn’t always recognize other Warriors, but in the centuries Charon had been around, no Warrior had mentioned anything about Con or anyone else at Dreagan.
; “Inheriting land can be beneficial,” Charon finally said.
“And sometimes difficult.”
“Sometimes.” He looked back at Con, wondering what he was alluding to and why. “You have men guarding your land.”
“Just as you do.”
Charon’s nostrils flared in anger. “I see you’ve delved deep in your investigation of me.”
“Perhaps,” Con said with a blasé shrug. “Is that no’ what men in our position do? We have others counting on us. We need to make the right choices.”
Laura put her glass on Con’s desk and stood. “I think that’s my cue.”
Charon sat forward, intending to rise with her until she held up her hand.
“No. It’s time I stepped out so you two can talk properly instead of hiding meanings in your words because you don’t want me to know.”
Charon caught her arm as she turned away. He rose to his feet and looked into her green eyes. “Laura—”
“It’s all right,” she interrupted, and smiled softly.
Her skin felt warm in his hand, smooth. She smelled of cherry blossoms from her soap, and he wanted to lean nearer and breathe it in. “Stay close.”
She pulled away, and he didn’t stop her. It wasn’t until she was out of the office, the door closed behind her, that he turned to Con. He was done beating around the bush.
“What do you know?” Charon demanded.
Con set down his now empty glass. “A lot, actually. But that is no’ why you came. You came because you want to sell my scotch.”
“I’m no’ so sure anymore. I doona like being investigated.”
Con made a sound at the back of his throat. “Charon, we’re no’ your enemy. And doona worry for Miss Black’s safety. There are fewer places on this earth where she could be safer.”
Charon instantly thought of MacLeod Castle. She’d be safe there. “Who are you? Really.”
Con rubbed a hand over his chin. “A potential ally. A friend if you want it.”
“Again, why?”
“I think the name Jason Wallace means something to you.”
Charon squeezed the crystal so hard, the glass shattered in his hand. He put his palms on Con’s desk and leaned toward him. “Is that why I’m here? Did Wallace pay you to trap me? Whatever he’s paying you, I’ll triple it as long as you allow Laura to leave.”
“Nay, I’m no’ working with Wallace,” Con said calmly, and he got to his feet, seemingly unfazed by Charon’s response. “My business is much more vast than most realize. I have my ear to the ground, so to speak, in various places. I know Wallace Mansion has been damaged. Again.”
“No matter what you think you know, you doona know half of it. Stay away from Wallace. He’ll infest everything you have until there’s nothing left.”
Con regarded him quietly for several long minutes. “Wallace isna the man his cousin was. Declan was out in the public eye showing off his wealth and power for all to see. But it’s what he was doing behind the scenes that concerned me.”
“What was that?” Charon would find out all he could from Con and then determine what to do about his knowledge of Jason Wallace.
“Lining other men’s pockets. Declan might be dead, but doona make the mistake of underestimating Jason. Jason might no’ have the good looks of his cousin, but he’s smarter. You Warriors have done a fine job battling the droughs, but Jason Wallace is different.”
Charon straightened, his hands clenched as he took in all of what Con said. The bastard knew he was a Warrior, and he’d known of the droughs. What else did they know?
He wanted to know how Con had discovered what he was, but more important was the information Con had on Wallace. Charon reined in his fury and focused on his nemesis as he walked to the window, where he shoved his hands in his pockets. “We already underestimated Jason. I’m going to make him pay though.”
“Alone?”
“If need be.”
“It’ll be tricky.”
“What do you know of it?” Charon asked. He kept his gaze out the window, but he was watching Con in the glass pane.
The head of Dreagan sighed heavily, his brow furrowed for a moment. “You’ve every reason to be mistrustful. In all the time we’ve been at Dreagan I’ve never invited a Warrior—or anyone, for that matter—into my home and told them what we are.”
Charon waited, his mind racing with possibilities. Yet, he kept coming up empty of just what Con could be.
“I find even now I can no’ actually say it. It’s been a secret too closely guarded. All I’ll tell you—today—is that you’re no’ the only immortal being around.”
Charon placed his hands on the windowsill, his heart pounding in his chest. This he never expected. Some kind of Druid maybe, but another immortal?
“Why tell me now?” Charon asked.
“Because I doona think it can be put off any longer. Things are escalating. There may come a time when we can help each other.”
Charon didn’t hide his grin as he narrowed his gaze at Con’s reflection and the distaste distorting his features. “That was difficult to say. I take it that you doona really think you’ll ever need a Warrior’s help?”
“We’ve been around since the beginning of time. We doona need anyone.”
Charon faced Con and leaned against the window. Now, wasn’t that interesting. “Really?”
Con sighed and drummed his fingers on the desk. “You know how difficult it is to keep a secret. You’ve kept yours a long time, but even now, some of your men know what you are. We’ve kept our secret for thousands of millennia.”
There was so much Charon wanted to ask, but he knew by the set of Con’s jaw that nothing more would be said about it today. If Con was offering to be his ally, then he’d be a fool to turn it down.
“Do I get to sell your whisky or no’?”
Con’s smile was slow as it filled his face. “Aye, Charon, I think you’re just the type of man we want selling our brand.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
University of Edinburgh
Aiden couldn’t believe how much Britt discovered in the time she had been studying the blood. Though he wished things had moved along quicker, he wasn’t going to complain about it as long as the information kept coming.
He finished sending off the latest e-mail to everyone at the castle, explaining that Britt was trying to isolate the property in the Warrior blood to determine why it reacted so violently to the drough blood.
Although Britt had no idea the blood was Warrior and drough, or why it was so important to him. She asked often enough, but so far, Aiden had been able to keep her in the dark.
“I’ve never seen blood do this to other blood before,” Britt said, her face pressed against the microscope lenses.
Again and again, she had tested the drough blood on the Warrior blood. Each time the results were the same. The red and white blood cells instantly began to die off.
Aiden rose from his seat in the lab and walked to look out the window. It had been raining for two days, and didn’t look to be letting up anytime soon.
“Tell me, Aiden, please,” Britt urged.
For two weeks Aiden had spent most of every day with her in the lab. He sat silently staring at her, dreaming about her while she worked. They had shared numerous meals, but all eaten quickly while she looked at her notes or talked about the blood.
All the while he listened, he waited for the times she would look up at him and snare him with her eyes. Those brief moments were enough to last him until the next time.
The more he was around her, the more he wanted her. He’d made sure to “accidentally” touch her as often as he could. Britt always had a ready smile for him, but she had been so involved with her work that he hadn’t been able to decipher if she was as attracted to him as he was her.
Perhaps it was time to find out.
“Let me take you to dinner tonight,” Aiden said as he turned to her.
She blinked, her blue eyes holding a hint
of surprise. She tucked a pencil into her hair, it joining the three others she had stuffed in her loose bun. “Dinner? You want to take me to dinner instead of telling me about the blood?”
“Aye.” Aiden sighed and spun a pencil on the table. “Britt, I keep the information from you to protect you.”
“And to protect your family in case what I find ever gets out in the world.”
“Aye.”
She tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ears. “Do you have that hard a time trusting people?”
“If you knew all I had been through, you’d understand.”
“Then tell me.”
Aiden bit back a laugh. “I admit, it would be easier if I could.”
“But you won’t,” she finished.
He shrugged. “There are people out there who would kill you just for helping me. It’s why we do this in secret, why I ask you no’ to tell anyone what you’re working on.”
“Tell me one thing, then. Is one of those blood samples yours?”
“And if it was?”
She smiled as she slid off the stool and set aside the samples she’d been looking at. “I have a class I can’t miss again.”
Aiden watched as she grabbed her stuff and started for the door. She suddenly stopped and turned to look at him over her shoulder.
“Pick me up at seven.”
He grinned and rocked back on his heels, feeling a bit of happiness for the first time in weeks.
* * *
Laura sat in the kitchen area having tea with Cassie when she heard Charon’s voice. Her heart kicked up a notch when she turned and spotted him on the top landing smiling with Con.
“I think things went well,” Cassie said.
Laura nodded. “I knew they would. Charon can charm anyone when he sets his mind to it.”
“I hope this means we’ll get to see more of you and Charon around Dreagan.”
Laura’s head swiveled back to Cassie. “But I thought Dreagan was more private than that.”
“There are a few clients we invite on a regular basis.”
Why did Laura feel there was so much going on around her without her truly understanding it? She’d felt it from the moment they drove onto Dreagan land, and the sensation grew the longer she was here.
