Page 38 of His to Keep
I can’t handle this. Not here, not now. Shrugging free of Gio’s grasp, I turn and walk away.
CHAPTER 13
Gio
As Eilidh disappears into the house, I’m torn between a desire to go after her and a need to find out what the fuck is going on. Damiano only had a minute to warn me that Eilidh’s brother was alive and about to land on our doorstep before Alexander arrived. I didn’t have the chance to prepare my wife for the shock she was about to receive. She looked so stricken when Alexander casually strolled up to her with Niamh Donnelly by his side. The Scotswoman at least has the grace to grimace apologetically for crashing my wedding like this.
I’m about to go after Eilidh, to make sure she’s alright when Lorenzo appears from inside the house.
“Ah, Alexander.” His tone is nonchalant, like he somehow expected the other man to be here. “Now I see why the delightful Eilidh is so upset.” He holds up a hand to stop me as I move toward the house. “She expressed a wish to be left alone. I sent Rosalia to keep an eye on her. She will be fine.”
It’s his way of telling me to stay put, a command delivered with a sympathetic smile. Choosing to obey, I stand there as the air thickens with tension.
“Fuck!” I rake my fingers through my hair. “What a fucking mess!”
“I think everyone should come inside and sit down. There are clearly things to discuss.” Lorenzo being diplomatic is a rarity. We all do as he suggests and move indoors. While Niamh and Alexander sit side by side on the sofa, Lorenzo drops onto the leather armchair by the window. Damiano goes to the drinks cabinet and pours Scotch for our unexpected guests while I hover by the open door, the slight breeze on my back doing nothing to cool my temper, which is close to bubbling over.
“Explain how you survived when the rest of your family was killed.” My tone is aggressive, but until I get answers I’m not playing nice.
Niamh is the one who speaks. “Sandy wasn’t in the room when the Drummonds murdered his brothers and sisters. He came back just as they were about to slit his father’s throat.”
Alexander rubs his forehead, a sign the situation still pains him. “My father told me to run, to live, and I did. Some of Drummond’s men came after me. I was shot in the shoulder. The layout of Drummond’s property was unfamiliar to me and in the dark I couldn’t see where I was going. I stumbled over a sheer drop into the Spey.”
“I had a man watching the Drummonds,” Niamh says. “He witnessed what happened to Sandy and we sent out a search party. By some miracle my men found him alive, but he was inbad shape. We got him medical care and gave him a place to stay.”
Again, Niamh calls Alexander by a diminutive form of his name. I take it as a sign of their closeness. She’s fond of him if the way she squeezes his arm in support is any indication.
“That was good of you,” I remark.
“His brother was special to me.” Niamh’s pale pink lips tremble and I get a sense of whatspecialmeans. “His loss hit me hard, so I did what I could to protect someone he loved.”
I respect her decision to step in and take care of Alexander when he was vulnerable. It’s something I could see myself doing.
“Okay, so where have you been all this time?” I ask. “Why resurface now?”
“I had amnesia. For a long time, I didn’t remember my family or what happened that night.”
“And when you did remember? Why didn’t you look for Eilidh? Surely when her body didn’t turn up you wondered if she was still alive?”
“Of course I did, but there was nothing to suggest they spared her. Why would they? I mean, they killed my other sisters.”
It’s a valid point, but the bodies of his parents and other sisters were all found dumped in woodland somewhere in the north of England. When Eilidh wasn’t with them, I can’t believe he didn’t at least consider the possibility she was alive.
“So, when you did get intel that she was alive and being held by Jason fucking Henry, why didn’t you go in for her?”
“Because I wasn’t ready for a fight. I didn’t want to risk launching a mission and fucking up. If Eilidh got caught in the crossfire because I wasn’t prepared, I’d never have forgiven myself.”
“We came up with the idea of sending someone in to gather information about Jason’s setup,” Niamh says. “We knew plenty about the organization when Drummond headed it, but when Jason took over, he changed things. We couldn’t go in blind.”
“Right.” If my sister was being held by an enemy, my brothers and I would go in all guns blazing, but I understand Alexander choosing a more measured approach. I turn to Damiano. “Did you know all this? Were you aware Eilidh’s brother didn’t die that night?”
“Yes.” My cousin is characteristically unapologetic.
“I did too,” Lorenzo admits.
“Fuck! And neither of you thought it was important to tell me this before I agreed to marry Eilidh, before I risked my own neck going in and saving her from Henry?”
Damiano raises an eyebrow, a silent warning about my disrespectful tone of voice. He may be the boss around here, but fuck him if he thinks I’m going to mind my manners with all this shit coming to light.
