Only the Quiet

by Amanda M. Lee

  “I heard you laugh like morons,” Cormack replied. “Stop making Izzy uncomfortable. If you want to torture your brother later, that’s up to you. Izzy is a guest in my house.”

  I was bolstered by his words, which made me realize I was acting like a timid and immature child. That was not how I saw myself, and it certainly wasn’t how I wanted them to see me. “I’m fine.” I found I didn’t have to force a smile because it readily came. “If they want to torture me, that’s fine. I get how this family works.”

  “I don’t,” Griffin complained. “Why didn’t you yell at all of them the first time I spent the night here?”

  “Because you were a filthy pervert who put your hands on my baby,” Cormack replied without hesitation. “You were different.”

  “Uh-huh.” Griffin didn’t look convinced. “If I hadn’t put my filthy hands on your baby, you wouldn’t be holding my baby right now.”

  Cormack shrugged. “Things worked out in the end. You shouldn’t question my methods.”

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah.”

  I made my way to the omelet bar, my eyes going wide at the various offerings. A chef stood behind the cooking station, a pan in his hand, and patiently waited for me to place an order. “Um ... can I really order an omelet?” I felt as if I’d stumbled into a magical new world.

  “That’s what he’s there for,” Aisling said as she made a move to collect Lily. “I can put her in the bassinet,” she offered. “That way you can eat.”

  “I can eat while holding her.” Cormack refused to relinquish his grandchild. “There’s no reason to get all worked up. She’s perfectly fine.”

  “I’m not getting worked up.” Aisling’s expression reflected amusement as she joined me at the omelet station. “I was just making sure.” I could feel her eyes on me as I perused the breakfast offerings. “You look all ... glow-y,” she said finally. “You must’ve had a good night. Apparently Braden isn’t nearly as bad in bed as all those other girls told me.”

  “Knock it off,” Braden warned, flicking Aisling’s ear as he moved behind her. “You’ll make Izzy feel uncomfortable, and I know that’s not what you want after she cured Lily of that demented crying that was threatening to kill us all.”

  “Oh, I wasn’t trying to make Izzy uncomfortable,” she shot back. “You’re fair game, though.”

  “Nobody is fair game this morning,” Cormack countered. “As much fun as it is to watch you peck at each other like vultures going after a corpse, we actually have a few things to discuss. I spent a few hours going through Peter Washington’s journal last night, and I’m concerned.”

  His tone told me I should pay attention, so I forced my eyes from the omelet station and focused on him. “Do you know what they were doing?”

  “No, but whatever it was, Washington was worried. He had a scientific brain and liked the idea of experimenting. He joined forces with Carroll because he thought they were on the same wavelength. It didn’t take him long to realize that Carroll had a different agenda.”

  “Carroll was obsessed with living forever,” Aisling noted as she pointed toward various items for the cook to add to her omelet. “He’s hardly the first bad guy to have that as the ultimate goal. Most of the ones we’ve dealt with before have revolved around soul walking. Why didn’t he go that route?”

  “Maybe he was smart and realized that he would end up like a wraith if he tried,” Cillian suggested. “I mean ... everyone we know who tried the soul-walking route ended up a certain way. A lot of people tried to be the one to beat the curse and failed.”

  “That’s true,” she mused. “There has to be a hint in that journal.” She pinned her father with a demanding look. “You’re supposed to be the smartest man alive. You must have an idea.”

  Cormack chuckled. “I don’t know any specifics,” he countered. “I think whatever they were doing revolved around the gate.”

  I stilled. “Do you think they crossed the threshold?”

  “No. You can’t survive crossing the threshold.”

  “You’ve mentioned that to me before. The thing is ... we don’t know what happens when you cross. We only know that no one has come back. That could be a voluntary choice. There could be sentries of sorts prohibiting it. It doesn’t necessarily mean that people die when they cross over. The wraith didn’t.”

  “The wraith was already dead,” Cormack argued.

  “No, it wasn’t.” I didn’t see the point of getting into a huge argument, but I figured now was the best time to lay out my hunch. “The whole point of becoming a wraith is to live forever. That’s why people sell their souls to do it. It may only be a half-life, but they’re technically alive.

  “When that wraith crossed over a few weeks ago, it didn’t die,” I continued. “In fact, it managed to somehow return ... and was still alive. We killed it on this side. Not only did it come back, but it also came back with enhanced abilities.”

  Cormack’s gaze was thoughtful as he shifted Lily so her head rested against his chest. The baby was out cold, but he still insisted on holding her. “I guess you have a point,” he said finally. “I never really thought about it that way. To me, you can’t live without a soul. In the basic sense of the word, though, you’re right. That wraith was alive.”

  “And it didn’t die when it crossed over,” I said. “What if Carroll and Washington figured out that you could cross over? What if that somehow played into their plans?”

  “Maybe that explains what happened to Washington, too,” Braden added. “He disappeared. No body was ever found. It was assumed something nefarious happened to him, but we don’t know what that something was. Maybe he’s on the other side of the gate.”

  “We have no way to check that,” Cormack pointed out. “It’s not as if we can poke our heads inside and take a look.”

  “No,” I agreed. “But those ghosts are hanging around for a reason. I keep seeing them. I think they want to communicate.”

  “Can you communicate with them?” Aisling asked. “They don’t talk. I saw them and they didn’t say a word.”

  “I think they’ve been silenced,” I replied. “They can’t talk because someone is stopping them from doing so. They whispered the first time I saw them. I was simply too afraid to ask them questions and missed out on any information they could’ve shared. What if I somehow turn things around and make it so they can talk?”

  “I’m open to that suggestion,” Cormack said. “Do you have any ideas how to pull it off?”

  “No, but I will definitely give it some thought.” I slid my eyes to the cook, who was handing Aisling an omelet. “After I have a big breakfast, of course. I’m starving.”

  “That’s because Braden probably made you do all the work,” Redmond offered. “He’s always been lazy.”

  I smirked as Braden glowered at his brother. In truth, the morning razzing wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be. “And here I thought you were the lazy one,” I teased. “That’s the word on the street.”

  “Oh, see, she’s already fitting in.” Redmond snickered as he leaned back in his chair. “I think Izzy is going to be a lot of fun.”

  Braden slung his arm around my shoulders. “I couldn’t agree more.”

  Twenty-One

  Cormack insisted on driving to Belle Isle with Braden and me — which was a bit of a distraction — but he said he wanted to take another look at the library and talk to Oliver. He didn’t elaborate, so I didn’t press. If he wanted to be more hands-on, I wasn’t going to argue with him. It was getting more and more necessary given the dearth of answers at our disposal.

  When we opened the door to head out, we found an unwelcome face standing on the other side of the door. Angelina, her expression uncertain, had her hand poised to knock and she let out a small gasp when she saw us.

  “Oh, um, hi.”

  “Angelina.” Cormack straightened his shoulders and regarded the woman with a speculative gaze. “I’m almost afraid to ask what you’re doing here. If a
ttacking Aisling is on the menu, I really wish you wouldn’t. She’s not quite up to her normal energy level.”

  “I’m not here for that ... although I hear the baby is really ugly and I wouldn’t mind seeing her. I mean ... who doesn’t love an ugly baby?”

  Cormack narrowed his eyes until they were nothing more than malevolent slits. I’d never seen him look so menacing. Apparently a fight to the death with wraiths was nothing compared to calling his only grandchild ugly. “Lily is the most beautiful baby in the world.”

  “Lily.” Angelina pursed her lips. “I heard Aisling named her after her mother. I haven’t seen Mrs. Grimlock around in a while. How is she?”

  Cormack’s temper was clearly holding by a thread. “She is no longer with us. She’s been gone for quite some time.”

  “She died in a fire,” Braden said pointedly. “She always died in that fire.”

  For a brief moment, Angelina looked as if she was going to put up a fight. Instead, she merely shook her head. “Whatever. You guys are so weird. Speaking of that, I found this and thought you might want to have it.” She handed over a weathered journal, which I took with some trepidation.

  “It was my great-grandfather’s,” she explained. “My great-grandmother received a box of his things when he disappeared. His bosses sent it to her or something, I can’t remember. She shoved it in the attic without looking inside. My mom inherited the house and pretty much ignored the box my entire life. I looked through it after she died, because I was debating about selling the house and I wanted to see what was up there.”

  I flipped open the journal. It was full of page after page of neat scrawl. “I guess guys didn’t find anything wrong with keeping diaries back in the day, huh?”

  “I think, as long as they were considered journals and didn’t require a small key, it was fine,” Braden replied, glancing over my shoulder. “Do you think there’s anything good in there?”

  “I don’t know. It will take a bit of time to go through it.” I lifted my eyes to Angelina. “Are you letting us keep this?”

  She held out her hands and nodded. “I don’t need it. He’s never been much of a consideration for me. I barely liked my great-grandmother, at least what I can remember of her, and my grandmother was no picnic. I never really thought about my great-grandfather until you guys brought him up the other night.”

  “Your great-grandfather disappeared,” Cormack noted. “Was there a police investigation?”

  “I don’t know. I’m assuming there must’ve been. That’s standard procedure, right?”

  “It is now,” Cormack clarified. “Back then I think it was more likely for people to voluntarily go missing. That’s how so many men managed to keep separate families in different towns. There were no online banking or phone memory apps to check up on people.”

  “I’m not sure my great-grandmother would’ve gone that route anyway,” Angelina admitted. “By the time my great-grandfather disappeared, she’d pretty much washed her hands of him. That’s what my mother said anyway. They were embarrassed by his mental issues.”

  “That was the times,” Cormack mused, watching me flip through the journal without making a move to snag it. “Back then, it was better to hide your crazy relatives than try to get them help ... or embrace them.”

  “Oh, just think, if we’d been born forty years before, Aisling would’ve been locked away before I ever met her. Ah, those were the days.”

  Cormack butchered Angelina with a harsh look. “We’re grateful for the journal. Your great-grandfather has come up in an investigation and we need as much information as we can get regarding his actions near the time of his disappearance. That said, you need to leave Aisling alone. She has a lot on her plate. You have no idea how demanding a new baby is.”

  Angelina’s face twisted into something dark. “Right, because no one will ever want to have a baby with me, right? You sound just like my mother. I still hear her all the time, so there’s no reason to add to it.”

  Cormack was taken aback. “I ... you ... .” He looked to Braden for help.

  “I don’t know what to say to her,” he fired back. “I’ve always found her nutty. I don’t want to talk to her any longer than I have to.”

  “Thank you, Braden,” Angelina said dryly. “You’ve always been my least favorite of Aisling’s brothers. Do you want to know why?”

  “Not really.”

  “It’s because you’re just like her,” Angelina continued, not missing a beat. “I even like Aidan and Jerry the Fairy better than you.”

  “That will be enough of that,” Cormack hissed, his icy tone causing me to jolt. He extended a finger directly in front of Angelina’s face. “Young lady, I’ve put up with a lot from you over the years. I told myself you had a terrible role model and no chance of turning out decent because of the way you were raised. That’s no excuse for your constant crap, though.

  “Jerry is a member of this family and he’s no less of a human being because of his sexual orientation,” he continued. “The thing is, I think you know that. I think you even accept it. You still say things like that to get attention because you’re starved for it. Even negative attention will do.”

  Angelina’s jaw worked, but no sound came out.

  “Now, I’m going to suggest you talk to a professional.” Cormack brushed the front of his expensive suit, as if wiping away specks of lint only he could see. “You’re clearly spiraling. That’s why you’re drinking ... and even trying to help us despite the fact that you despise us. You know you need help but don’t know how to find it.”

  He dug in his pocket and came back with a business card. “This is a therapist I think you should make an appointment with. She’ll help you discuss your issues. We’re not equipped to listen to your crap, and I will not put up with another derogatory remark regarding Jerry or Aidan. I’ve had enough.”

  Angelina stared at the card. “Why would you possibly give me this?”

  “Because you need it.”

  “Yeah, but ... no way.” She vehemently shook her head, although I noticed she slipped the card into her pocket rather than tearing it to shreds and throwing it on the ground. “I’m not crazy.”

  “You’re not. You’re often unbalanced, but you’re not crazy.” Cormack cocked his head to the side. “There’s no shame in needing help. You’re alone now. You need help dealing with your new reality.”

  “I don’t need help.” Angelina petulantly stomped her feet against the pavement as she stormed back to her Range Rover. “I’m not crazy and the fact that you would say otherwise shows me that you’re the one who is. I always knew that. Who would have as many kids as you did if you weren’t crazy?”

  Cormack didn’t get a chance to respond because Aisling poked her head through the door. I watched with unveiled interest as she took in each face in turn and absorbed the situation.

  “Hey, whore,” she called out, causing Angelina to jerk up her head and glare. “Two weeks. Kerry Field. Bring your best insults and make sure your fingernails are clipped so I don’t get scabies or something from your nasty scratches.”

  My mouth dropped open. “What the ... ?”

  “Shh.” Braden pressed a finger to his lips and grinned as Angelina perked up.

  “I’ll be there. I just hope you can drag yourself away from that ugly baby long enough to actually hold up your end of the bargain.”

  “Oh, I’ll be there. You don’t have to worry about that. I’ll probably bring your pimp and his baseball bat, so you should definitely worry about that.”

  “My pimp is your father, so I think I’ll be fine. No offense, Mr. Grimlock.” Angelina offered up a haphazard wave as she jerked open her vehicle door. “You’ll be crying by the time I’m finished with you.”

  “That’s what your pimp says to you every night.” Aisling watched her nemesis escape to the road in front of the house with smug satisfaction. When she finally turned to her father, she merely rolled her eyes at his questioning look. “Hey.
I like taking her down. It keeps me young. Sue me.” She shut the door, leaving me to dwell on the interaction.

  “This family is never dull, is it?”

  Cormack grinned. “Welcome to my circus.”

  WE DROPPED CORMACK AND THE new journal on Belle Isle and opted to return to the Duskin School for the Deaf. The only thing I knew with any certainty was that Granger was tied to what had happened at the aquarium ... and Carroll himself seemed to have latched onto the boy. That meant a second conversation was in order, if I could swing it.

  “Do you think your girlfriend will be here?” I asked when we parked in the lot.

  Braden slid me a sidelong look. “Isn’t she in the passenger seat?”

  It was a simple question and yet my cheeks burned all the same. “I ... oh ... .”

  “Too soon? If you don’t want me to refer to you as my girlfriend I guess I can live with that ... for now. How would you like me to refer to you?”

  “Izzy is fine for now,” I said, shaking my head. “That’s not what I meant anyway. I wasn’t trying to get into a deep conversation. I simply wanted to know if you expect to see Kelly again, the secretary who so graciously helped us thanks to your smile.”

  “Oh, she wasn’t looking at my smile.” He winked as he collected my hand and stared at the building. “I’m not sure she’ll be open to helping us given what happened last time. She clearly didn’t understand what was going down ... but she was concerned enough at the end that she couldn’t get rid of us fast enough.”

  “Yeah.” I tugged on my bottom lip as my eyes drifted to the playground. “There are a few kids out there. Is there a monitor watching them?”

  “Why? You don’t plan to kidnap one of them, do you?”

  “Ha, ha.” That was a ludicrous suggestion. “I just want to see if Granger is with them.”

  “How do you plan to get close? I mean ... I’m game. I would really prefer not getting arrested for illegally talking to little kids, though. That might look bad on my record.”

  “Yeah, well, I have a trick for that if you’re interested.”