“This way?”
“Are you sure?”
“Can you tell who they are?”
“I don’t see anything.”
It was Jocelyn’s calm but pointed voice that finally cut through the nervous chatter. “How many are there?”
“There are two of them,” I told him.
“And you’re sure they are headed this way?” he asked.
“Yes,” I answered, “but I’m not sure who they are. One I think might be that McGary guy, but the other I’m not sure.”
Damn it, why hadn’t I been paying better attention?
“I’ll bet they followed us,” Bastian said.
“But they are only arriving now?” Alex countered.
“It can’t be a coincidence,” Bastian insisted.
“We can’t be seen here,” Anderson said, “not all of us together like this.”
“What do we do?” Chloe whispered, her hands fidgeting nervously as she looked from face to face.
Jocelyn quickly stepped over to the desk and picked up the Iris, stowing it safely in his inner jacket pocket. “Anderson is right, we can’t be seen here. We will have to find a way to get out without them seeing.”
“They are too close and there is only one road,” I said. “They will see us drive away.”
“She’s right,” Alex agreed, “and even if I hid us, I wouldn’t be able to mask the sounds of our cars.”
“They’d figure it out for sure,” I finished, my heart rate picking up as I felt them growing closer.
“There they are,” Anderson said, pointing toward the window, “coming round the bend, just down the way. We’re running out of time.”
“Everyone away from the windows,” Jocelyn ordered. “Alex, hide the cars.”
Alex glanced out quickly at the three vehicles parked out front. “Done,” he nodded a moment later.
“Good,” Jocelyn said with a short breath. “If they can’t see the cars, then they shouldn’t know that we’re here. We will let them come, wait for them to leave, then we can follow behind.”
“And if they come up here?” Chloe asked, her voice smaller than usual.
“Aye,” Anderson said, “if they are here for the same thing we are, then they’ll end up in the same place we did.”
“I can hide us,” Alex tried to assure them.
“No,” Bastian said, raising a hand, “there is no way that will work.”
“I can handle it,” Alex said through his teeth.
“I’m sure you could keep us hidden to the eye,” Bastian allowed, talking quickly, “but there is only so much you can do. Even if they don’t come up here, what if someone sneezes, or moves even slightly and the floor creaks? Or if, heaven forbid, they do come in here, there is no way we can possibly fit in this room with the addition of two more people without bumping into something or someone.”
“Do you have something better in mind?” Alex asked with a burn in his eyes like I’d never seen before.
“I do,” Bastian nodded, walking quickly to the door. “Are they in sight of the driveway yet?”
“No,” Alex said, squinting out the window, “but nearly.”
“Keep all the cars hidden except mine, I’ll need it,” Bastian said, to which Alex nodded, though I could see his jaw was still locked tight. “I can take care of this,” Bastian continued, turning to Jocelyn, “just wait here and keep watch.” After only a second of hesitation, Jocelyn gave him a nod, followed a moment later by the crunch of tires on the gravel driveway. “Everyone stay out of sight and as silent as possible,” he whispered, then without warning, he looked over at me and took my arm. “Not you,” he said, pulling me out of the corner I was prepared to hide in and taking me with him toward the door. “I need you with me.”
CHAPTER 20
Before I could put my confusion into words, Bastian had towed me out of the room, down the hall and to the stairs.
“Hey,” I whispered sharply, pulling my arm free before he could drag me down the steps. “Do you maybe want to fill me in on what the hell we are about to do?”
“We,” he paused, leaning down the staircase and listening for a moment, “are going to scare them.”
“Scare them? Are you kidding?”
“No,” he said, then hurried quickly down the steps.
I followed behind him as quietly as I could. “Seriously? That is your big plan? Jump out from behind a wall and say ‘boo’?”
“There are many different kinds of fear,” he said as we reached the first floor. “We are simply going to exploit the kind that stems from not wishing to be caught doing something you shouldn’t be.”
“What do you need me for?”
“You are my excuse for being here.”
“What does that–”
“As much as I would love to fight with you,” he cut me off sternly, but still with the shadow of that smirky grin I hated, “there really isn’t time for this at the moment. What do you say we save it for the ride back, and for now you zip it and trust me, hmm?”
I was about to let him have it, but when I heard the sounds of car doors shutting and realized that our visitors had arrived, my rant stuck in my throat. We were out of time, and like it or not, as I had no plan of my own, I knew I was stuck with his. God damn it, why did he always have to be right?
“Ass,” I growled under my breath.
“Thank you,” he said, recognizing the compliance under my fury.
God, what I wouldn’t give to rip that smile right off his face…
“What are we going to do?” I asked, trying to curb my more violent thoughts.
“We just have to let them know we’re here. Ah, good,” he added almost to himself as he stretched to look out one of the windows at the end of the hall where the hood of a green car was just barely visible. “They parked along the side. They won’t have seen my car.”
“OK,” I said, not sure what we were waiting for, “so let’s go confront them.”
I took a step toward the main door, but Bastian stopped me before my foot hit the floor. “No,” he grabbed my shoulder, pulling me back, “not yet. We need to wait for them to come in.”
“You really think they would just break in?”
“Probably. Though as it stands they won’t have to. I didn’t lock the door.”
“Why not?”
“Why would I?”
Mumbles at the door ended our argument, and I held my breath as I heard the handle wiggle then the door gently click open.
“Look here,” a voice said, blowing in through the door with a puff of cool, misty air, “wasn’t even locked.”
“Here we go,” Bastian breathed at my ear. “Act natural and follow my lead.” Then, without giving me the chance to complain or protest, he placed a hand on my back and pushed me forward, wrapping his arm around me in a more-than-just-friends kind of way. My first instinct was to push him away, but as we rounded the staircase and came into view, my nerves got the better of me and I tensed up.
“Mr McGary?” Bastian said, feigning surprise as we approached the two men frozen in the doorway, looking at us the same way one might look down the barrel of a shotgun.
“Bastian,” McGary said, recovering quickly though still visibly on edge. “Do forgive the intrusion…” he paused, blinking a bit too fast. “I was not aware anyone would be here.”
“Yes, well,” Bastian said, perfectly assuming the flippant and haughty demeanor I’d not seen on him since our meeting in the hallway the morning before. “I found it simply horrid that Rebecca had yet to see the sunrise over a proper Irish countryside, and thought she might enjoy a morning away from… the crowds,” he finished with a strange inflection in his voice.
“Ah,” McGary nodded, a reciprocating tone in his own voice. “One does need privacy from time to time.”
“Indeed,” Bastian agreed.
Privacy? What were they…
Then suddenly my brain started assembling all the pieces: the hand around my waist, the excuse to get me away, the privacy comment – were they implying that Bastian and I had come out here…
romantically?
Oh, was he going to get it for this one…
“Again, so sorry to interrupt,” McGary continued. “I simply wished to show Mr Ryan,” he motioned to the other man with him, “your lovely cottage. We were out for a drive and he mentioned that he would like to look for a let this spring.”
Please. He was so full of it…
“Of course, of course,” Bastian said easily. “No trouble at all!”
“We will be on our way,” McGary said, stepping backwards preparing to flee, “and again, do forgive our intrusion.”
“Not at all,” Bastian assured him, “and by all means, do not go on our account.”
McGary turned back with a squint. “Pardon?”
Yeah, pardon?
“Becca and I are due back to Adare for lunch and were just leaving ourselves, so by all means feel free to look around.”
“That is most generous of you, but we couldn’t impose,” Mr Ryan said, speaking for the first time.
Impose… right. Because breaking and entering is fine, but imposing is crossing the line.
“It’s no imposition,” Bastian told them, leading me over to the door. “Just remember to lock up when you leave,” he added, shaking McGary’s hand.
“Well… that is very kind of you, thank you,” McGary answered, obviously shocked.
“It’s nothing,” Bastian assured them, sounding as though he was barely interested. “Are you ready my dear?” he asked, looking at me.
I nodded with my best try at a smile, so lost and confused that I was afraid to speak for fear I’d say something I shouldn’t.
“Good day, Miss Clavish,” Mr McGary said as I turned to go.
I nodded again to both Mr McGary and Mr Ryan, then walked out the door and toward Bastian’s – apparently – lone car in the front drive, hoping my confusion and irritation was somehow reading as simple embarrassment. Bastian said goodbye once more, then jogged up behind me, still a picture of smooth ease. When we got to the car, he reached around me and opened my door, playing the part of the perfect gentleman.
“What are you doing?” I hissed out from between my teeth.
“Trust me.”
He shut the car door behind me, waved one last time at the two men still standing in the doorway of the cottage, then climbed into the driver’s seat and drove us off down the road, not looking back once.
“What was that?” I screamed, the second we turned the bend around the small hill in the meadow. “You just left them there! I thought you were going to scare them, not invite them to stay! What about everyone still hiding upstairs!”
“They won’t go upstairs, I would stake my life on it. Trust me, the only thing they want to do now is get back to Adare as soon after we do as possible, be seen by as many people as possible, and make sure that no one starts talking.”
“You don’t know that!”
“Yes, I do,” he said, entirely confident. “And second, they
were
scared, so as I see it, both missions were accomplished brilliantly.”
“What was the point of scaring them if it wasn’t to make them leave?”
“To make them talk.”
I stared at him blankly. “What?”
“They were just caught trying to break into a house, and narrowly escaped suspicion – or at least so they think. They are now sitting alone – or, again, so they think – in a house with at least five minutes to burn before they can leave. Do you really think they will have nothing to say about the situation?”
“You were setting them up?”
“Let’s just hope it was worth it.”
“Wait,” I said, looking around and realizing that we were getting further and further away from the cottage. “We aren’t actually leaving, are we? Aren’t we going to circle back around or something?”
“Why would we do that?”
Was he serious? “Because there are other people back there that might need our help!”
“They will be fine. I told you, they’re not going to go upstairs.”
“And I told you, you don’t know that!” I snapped. “Turn around.”
“Pardon me?”
“I said turn around, we are going back. There is no way in hell I am just going to leave my family in danger and just hope everything
works out
the way you
think
it will! Now
take me back!
”
Without warning, he slammed on the brakes and yanked the steering wheel, fishtailing us off of the road and onto the grass field that stretched out to our left. We bumped and bounced violently over the rocky dirt field for several dozen yards, until we reached what looked like an abandoned stone barn which behind and then turned off the car.
“What are you doing?” I asked, trying to keep up my fire and not let on that I was a little freaked out.
“I am forcing you to trust me,” he said seriously, his annoying smile gone.
“I told you to take me back.”
“This,” he ignored me, and pointed out to the road we were just on, “is the only road leading to or away from the cottage. There is no other way to get anywhere unless you are on foot. We are going to sit here for five minutes, and I promise you that within that time, McGary and Ryan will come driving by, headed back to Adare, completely unaware that there was anyone in the house with them.”
“And if they don’t?”
“Then I will take you back as fast as this car can go.”
“No, I’m not staying here, they could be in trouble. What if something happens?”
“I think they are all more than capable of taking care of themselves.”
“Well, maybe I’m not willing to risk that!”
“It looks like you don’t have a choice.”
Was that so? I’d show him. I threw the door open and got out, ready to get back on the road and walk if I had to.
“Becca,” he called, coming after me. “Please don’t make me spend the next five minutes porting you back to the car.”
“You can’t keep me here,” I ground out, balling my fists.
“I’m fairly certain that I can.”
I was a breath away from punching him square in the face, wrestling his keys from him, and flooring it back to the cottage… but then I felt something. There were three abilities brushing my mind when a moment ago there had only been Bastian’s. Two new abilities had appeared and were growing stronger by the second – the same way they had when I’d felt them in the cottage. McGary and Ryan.
It was them.
I slowly turned around to face the road, took a few steps forward and looked around the corner of the decaying barn to the road, careful to stay out of sight. McGary and Ryan’s abilities were growing stronger at a rate that told me they were approaching very fast, and before I knew it, the green car I’d caught a glimpse of outside the window of the cottage came barreling down the road, going well above whatever the posted speed limit was. They flew by the barn we were hiding behind without slowing, then raced off into the distance, their abilities growing fainter and fainter as the silhouette of their car faded into the distance until both finally disappeared completely.
I stood staring at the now empty patch of horizon, feeling all my anger and worry drain out of me like water from an unplugged tub. Then, to top off both my relief and my chagrin, I felt several other abilities come into my range – abilities that I knew very well. They approached just as the first two had, though not as quickly, growing stronger and brighter until the white St Brigid’s van came into view with Anderson at the wheel, followed closely by the car we’d taken out, carrying Jocelyn, Alex, and Chloe. They approached, passed, and left, safe and sound, completely unharmed, and totally unaware that I was looking on.
He’d been right; Bastian had been one hundred percent right.
As I watched their cars shrink to dots in the distance, I heard the grass rustle as Bastian stepped up behind me.
“I know these people, Becca,” he said gently. “I know how they think, what they do, who they are. What I know can help you – I can help you – but you have to let me.”
“I am not going to apologize for wanting to be there for them,” I said, quietly, my temper gone. “They’re my family, and my family always comes first.”
“Of course. But had I taken you back and McGary or Ryan had seen you, what then?”
The truth? I probably would have floundered, not come up with a good enough excuse as to why I’d come back, made them suspicious, maybe even have gotten us all caught, and who knows what from there. I didn’t answer him out loud, but I couldn’t help from bowing my head a little.
“Sometimes,” he said, his tone telling me that he knew I understood, “the best way to help someone is to trust that they can handle themselves, and step back.”
“I’m not good at that,” I admitted, turning toward him but keeping my head down.
“I can see that,” he grinned, though for some reason I didn’t find it quite so annoying.
But then how could I be anything but grateful? He’d been right and hadn’t rubbed my nose in it, he’d had a chance to shame me and hadn’t taken it, and had even talked to me gently and with understanding when he could have just as easily scolded or schooled me. I wasn’t about to say anything about it, but that didn’t mean I didn’t appreciate it.
I looked up, matching his cocked eyebrow with one of my own. “Shall we go?” I asked, realizing with a weird sort of relief that the tension which had hovered invisibly between us since the gala had thinned.
“Yes,” he replied, one half of his mouth pulling upwards as we walked back over to his car. “And on the way,” he added as we both opened our doors and got in, “you can do a little explaining of your own, starting with,” he turned the ignition then glanced sideways at me, “what exactly was going on back in Ciaran’s room.”
The majority of the ride back to Adare was spent explaining my ability to a raptly attentive Bastian. Of course he’d already known that I was the one who could use the Iris, but what he hadn’t known was what that meant. I was actually impressed that he’d been able to stand there the whole time we were in Ciaran’s room and watch everything happen without asking even one question – had it been me, I probably wouldn’t have been able to stop asking.
As we rounded a large patch of trees and Adare came into view off in the distance Bastian finally spoke. “So,” he said with a shake of his head, “you can do… everything?”