If Ever I Fall: Book 3 of The Six Series (10 page)

“Actually, they didn’t ask me that at all.” He sounded thoughtful over it.

“Oh, aye, to be sure, that will be on the next round then,” I said, hefting a big sigh. “They mean well, but…”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ve been interrogated by better and came out unscathed. Although, my momma could probably give ‘em a run for their money.” He sat forward. Turning, he gave me a toothy smile and winked. “Do you have an extra pillow?”

His question caught me off guard for a minute. After staring at him like an idiot for a few seconds, I pulled myself together and grabbed the other pillow on my bed, handing it to him.

“Thanks,” he said, tossing it on the floor and moving to lie on his stomach.

In what seemed like no time at all, Aiden’s breathing changed to the rhythmic rise and fall of someone fast asleep. He’d tucked one hand under the pillow, giving me a full view of his face.

For the life of me, I couldn’t stop studying every single beautiful feature. The straight line of his nose. The sturdy angle of his jaw. Dark eyelashes that fanned over his cheeks. Soft lips made for kissing.

Sighing, I forced myself to lie back down, close enough to the edge of the bed where I could look at him one last time before I closed my eyes.

Sleep didn’t come to me. Having Aiden on my floor, filling my room with the gentle sounds of his breathing, wasn’t just a distraction—it was almost torture.

Aunt Brenda came to check on me an hour or so later. She spoke in hushed tones as she handed me headache medicine and a glass of water. I drank half the glass and set it down on my nightstand, thinking Aiden might want some when he woke up.

“Poor lad,” she said, peering over the bed where he slept. “I offered him the other guest bedroom, but he turned it down. I guess he felt more comfortable in here with you.”

I rolled my eyes at her. “Maybe he just figured if he escaped up here, that you and Mum would stop pestering him.”

Her fingers pressed against her mouth as her eyes twinkled and her shoulders jiggled.

“I don’t understand what’s so funny about it. He’s in no better shape than I am, and the two of ye went on te stickin’ yer noses where they needn’t be.”

Aunt Brenda’s hand fell away from her mouth. “Careful, lass. He’s a good lad, but he’s still a stranger, aye?”

Disbelief rolled through me. “A stranger ye tried setting me up with.”

“There’s something afoot, Airen. I canna put my finger on it yet, but there’s something about him that he’s no telling us.”

My stomach rolled, but I kept my thoughts to myself as she pegged me with a look that said she really wanted me to pay attention to her gut feeling. Aunt Brenda’s gut feelings were hardly ever wrong.

“Now, mind,” she continued on, unaware of how much she’d unsettled me. “I wouldna let him stay if I thought he was dangerous. And with what’s happened, having a braw lad about the house wouldna come amiss, aye?”

I nodded, darting a look at Aiden on the floor. It was hard to believe he was anything other than a good guy who’d shown up at a very bad time in our lives.

“Here, I brought these up for him,” she said, handing me more headache medicine. “I’ll be back in a little bit te check on ye again.”

I set the pills down beside the glass of water as she left and then curled up on my side, thinking about what she’d said. He was a stranger after all, but one who’d wrapped me in his arms and made me feel safe.

Shifting my pillow under my head, I moved a little closer to the edge of the bed. Aiden hadn’t budged since he’d fallen asleep. I forced myself to look away from him, staring at the spot by my window where he’d been when I woke up.

On the floor was a fairly decent-sized bag, one that didn’t belong to me. Had Aiden brought it with him? If he had, why bring it upstairs to my room?

The answer dawned on me immediately. He brought it up here so that Aunt Brenda and Mum wouldn’t go nosing through his stuff.

Even after Aunt Brenda’s warning, I had a hard time believing Aiden was someone we couldn’t trust. I was sure she knew it too, but with the threat of Uncle Robert, I could hardly blame her for wanting to be careful. She also didn’t know about his gun.

His gun!

Had he stowed it in his bag?

I pushed the covers back and sat up
. It’s an invasion of privacy, Airen,
my conscious told me.
You didn’t care for it too much when Liv went through your stuff and stole your money.

Aye, I’d been pissed. But I wasn’t after stealing anything. I just wanted to have a keek.
And if the roles were reversed?
Would you like it if he went through your stuff?

I batted away the internal nattering and put one foot over the side of the bed. The tips of my toes brushed the carpet as the doorbell rang. Aiden shot up from the floor into a crouch, grabbed his bag, and tossed it on my bed.

Scrambling out of his way, I watched as he slid the zipper in one sharp pull, retrieved the gun inside, and crossed the room to my open door. Both hands were on the gun, pointing it at the floor as he leaned past the doorjamb to listen.

My heart skittered, pumping blood so fast through my body that my vision wavered as I fought to keep a tidal wave of panic from swallowing me.

I heard everything as if the sounds around me were amplified. The sound of the lock sliding. The door creaking open. Aunt Brenda’s voice as she spoke.

Aiden turned back to look at me, sliding his gun under his shirt. “It’s Agent Jackson.”

I blew out an unsteady breath, putting my legs over the side of the bed to stand. Once on my feet, I flicked a nervous glance at Aiden’s bag on my bed and then at him.

“You okay?” he asked, taking a step towards me.

“Are you hiding something from us?” The words left my mouth before I could stop them.

He seemed confused as he asked, “In my bag?”

I hugged my arms against my chest, biting at my lip as I wondered just how in the hell to ask him what I really wanted to know.

“Airen?” He said my name softly as if asking me to look at him. As I did, the stairs squeaked and Aiden stuck his head out.

“There’s a man here by the name of Agent Jackson. He said he spoke to ye this morning.” Mum’s voice held a hint of mistrust as she spoke to Aiden.

“Airen and I were just on our way down,” Aiden answered, beckoning me to join him in the hallway.

He waited there for me even after Mum made her way back down the stairs. I could hear the distinctive squeak of the third step from the bottom as I stopped beside Aiden.

He put his hand out, brushing my hair over my shoulder. “I know I don’t have the right to ask you this, but I’ll ask it anyway. Trust me, Airen. Can you do that?”

“And if I trust ye? Will ye tell me what the hell is going on?” I asked, catching his fingers as they dropped down to his side, squeezing them as if it would keep him rooted to the spot and make him tell me the truth.

Something flashed across his face, but he looked away before I could read into it further. “Let’s go see what Agent Jackson wants.”

I let go of his hand and moved back a step. “If ye want my trust, that’s no the way to go about it, Aiden.” I walked away from him, leaving him to make my way downstairs.

No sooner did my foot land on the next step than Aiden caught me by the wrist, stopping me from going any further. His gaze roamed my face as if he’d find the words he needed to say written on my skin. “It’s important to me to keep you and your family safe. If nothing else, trust me about that.”

He didn’t let go until he moved past me on the stairs and jogged down them.

He’d meant it. I wasn’t sure how I knew it, but I did. He meant it with everything in him, but why?

BY THE TIME I GOT to the bottom of the stairs, Aiden had disappeared into the dining room. I could hear them making small talk as everyone settled in for Agent Jackson’s visit.

“Where’s Airen? I thought she was coming down with ye?” Mum asked, making me pick up the pace before she came looking for me.

I walked into the dining room just as Aiden opened his mouth to answer. “I’m right here.”

Agent Jackson got to his feet. “Nice to see you again, Ms. Campbell,” he said, darting a look back and forth between Aiden and me as if noting something.

Pulling out the chair to his left, he motioned for me to sit. When I did, he and Aiden sat as well.

“Aye, they cracked heads earlier, Agent Jackson.” Aunt Brenda answered the silent question. “Quite literally, I might add.”

Agent Jackson zeroed in on Aiden, a frown forming on his lips. “Was there a problem?”

The question seemed to be directed specifically at Aiden, but he flicked a glance at everyone after a moment, seeking an answer to his question.

Aiden cleared his throat, bringing Agent Jackson’s attention back to him. “There’s no problem, sir. It was an accident—”

I wasn’t sure why I jumped in, but I did because it didn’t seem fair that Aiden be put under the spotlight for something that had clearly been nothing more than a stroke of bad timing on both of our parts. “He was coming in Aunt Brenda’s office—”

“At the same time as she came barreling out,” he added.

“And,
bam
! They fell on the floor like two landed fish,” Aunt Brenda said, smacking her hands together. Amusement shone on her face as she filled in the rest.

Agent Jackson’s brow lifted. “I see.”

“Now that we’ve got that out of the way, can ye tell me who ye are and what yer doing here?” Aunt Brenda asked, putting the spin on not only the mood of the room, but on the conversation itself. It never ceased to amaze me how she could take command of a situation.

Agent Jackson didn’t even seem the slightest ruffled when he answered. “I’m here on behalf of a private sector of the American government to find and detain Robert Anderson, better known in the underground world as Robert de Fleur.”

Mum gasped in shock. “That bloody bastart!”

Agent Jackson leaned forward, his interest peaked. “This is obviously unsettling news to you. What I’d like to know, ma’am, is why?”

I couldn't help but wonder the same thing.

THE
REACTION FROM MINA WAS
startling. Not so much as what she said, but how she said it. For whatever reason, the fact that Robert had used the name de Fleur enraged her. Her cheeks blazed with twin spots of red as her eyes pinched.

Brenda fumed silently beside her, reaching out to take her hand.

“It means nothing, Mina, especially coming from the likes of him.” Brenda made it sound so final, as if it wasn’t anything to discuss.

Grant shot me a brief look, wondering if I knew why she’d had such a strong reaction to the name Robert de Fleur.

Airen missed nothing. Not her mother’s reaction. Not Grant’s subtle look at me. And not the way that Brenda tried to calm the situation by dismissing it.

Sitting up straighter in her chair, Airen leaned in, making sure to look at everyone. “Well, I’d say there are more than a few secrets sitting ‘round this table.”

I fought every instinct I had to keep from fidgeting the way one would if they had something to hide.

She sighed, settling back in her seat, and said, “I’ll go first. Uncle Robert sought me out the week before I left.”

“Why didn’t ye say something, Airen?” Brenda asked, sounding hurt that she had kept it from her.

Airen shrugged. “Because, Auntie, what good would it have done to tell ye? Besides, all he did was introduce himself and say he’d be seeing me.” She paused, waving a dismissive hand. “I just decided it be best to leave before he got the chance.”

Mina slapped her hand against the dining room table. “And now he’s back, threatening to take ye. Ye daft girl. Do ye have no sense? Running off with the threat o’ that man hanging o’er yer head!”

“He wasn’t over my anything! I told ye, he just introduced himself to me and told me he’d be—”

Mina butted in. “Seeing ye. Aye, I ken what ye said, but did ye no think for a single minute how odd it was that he just showed up?”

Grant kept his mouth closed. I knew why too. There was no way he’d interrupt what would be one hell of a family argument. And family arguments, uninterrupted, led to more details in one heated conversation than hours of questioning done by a stranger.

“Of course I did! How could I not? Ye’ve done nothing but keep his existence a complete mystery. I had to go digging te find out about him!” Airen fired back at her mother.

“Why, Airen? Why would you go digging around about him? What good would it do ye te know the vile things he’s done?” Mina’s words warbled as she fought the tears pooling in her eyes.

Grant cleared his throat. “Mrs. Campbell, we have an extensive history on Robert Anderson, but what we’ve never been able to make a connection to is the use of the name de Fleur. What sort of meaning does it have for him?”

Mina snorted, but she remained stoically silent.

Brenda pushed her chair back from the table. “Airen, do ye feel well enough to start some tea? Aiden, be a dear and help her. Mina, I’ll have a word with ye in the living room, please. Agent Jackson, if you would be so kind as to give us a few minutes?”

She addressed everyone without waiting for a reply, expecting all of us to follow along with what she’d said as she left the dining room. Mina and Airen stood at the same time, each making a noise of exasperation.

I went to stand, but Airen put her hand on my shoulder. “I can handle the tea. Besides, ye need the rest if I think she’s going to do what I think she is.”

Airen no sooner disappeared into the kitchen when an argument broke out in the living room. Mina and Brenda either didn’t care that everyone could hear them, or they were too caught up in anger to lower their voices.

“Yer daft!” Mina cried out.

“Oh, and ye think he’ll just go away on his own then?” Brenda replied.

“He’s a dangerous man. Ye ken what he was like as a lad! He’s made his threats before, Brenda. He’ll no get what he wants this time either,” Mina hissed.

“It’s different this time, Mina. This time, he’s threatening Airen!” Brenda’s voice rose.

It grew very silent as Grant and I listened for Mina to answer.

“What? What are ye not saying, Mina?” Brenda sounded shocked.

I had a feeling the next thing to come out of Mina’s mouth would not only floor Brenda, but upset Airen as well.

Airen came back into the dining room with a large tea tray filled with cups, a steaming pot of tea, and all the fixings. “Ye’ll have to excuse them. They have an odd way of talking things out.”

She set them on the table, wiping her hands down her pant legs with a sigh. “I’ll just go and get them.”

I grabbed her arm, halting her as Brenda’s holler boomed throughout the house. “And ye think that changes things?”

Airen jumped as her hand flew up to her throat. “Oh, Mum.” She sagged until she was sitting on the arm of my chair.

Putting my arm around her, I kept her from sliding to the floor. Grant cut me a look of warning, like an adult calling out his son for bringing home a girl he didn’t approve of.

“Ms. Campbell, do you have any idea what they’re talking about?” Grant asked.

Airen’s eyes never left the doorway that led to the living room.

I tightened my hold around her to get her attention. “Airen?”

She turned her widened eyes on me. “Huh?”

“Grant asked if you knew what they were talking about.”

A confused look came over her face. “Grant?”

Oh, shit!
He’d never introduced himself by his full name. “Agent Grant Jackson…” I said, nodding in Grant’s direction.

The scowl on his face smoothed as she turned her head to look at him. “Just an auld quarrel they canna get over.”

Before Grant could ask her anything else, Brenda stormed into the kitchen with arms loaded full of photo albums. “This is a whole lot more serious than I thought, Agent Jackson. And believe me when I tell ye, I’ll do whatever it takes to get the likes o’ him off the streets and out of our lives once and for all.”

Grant stood, taking the heavy load from Brenda and putting it on the table as a white-faced Mina came in and sat down.

“Ladies, I will do everything in my power to do just that,” Grant assured them. “Now, let’s start out with the name de Fleur and work from there, since Mrs. Campbell had such a strong reaction to it.”

“Reaction, aye, but it’s no what you might think,” Brenda answered, going around the table and moving the top two photo albums. Picking up the third one, she flipped the pages open, remaining quiet until she found what she was looking for. When she found it, she set the book down facing Grant.

“A house?” Grant asked, pulling the book closer to him to get a better look.

The photo had been taken in the early 1900s, Brenda told us. Not long after her grandmother had acquired it in a trust left to her from her own mother. As children, Brenda, Mina, and Robert had spent many a summer at that house on the coast of Ireland.

“Not just any house. That house has a history. An auld one,” Brenda replied, pulling the chair out next to Grant and settling in. Her fingers stretched out to slide lovingly beside the old photo. “It’s gone now, but before that, it belonged to my great-great-great-grandmother on my mother’s side. There’s a curse on that land, ye ken?”

Airen huffed beside me. “It’s all stories, aye? The Scottish and the Irish will make up just about anything to keep something interesting.”

Mina, mid-pour of a cup of tea, set the teapot down hard against the table. “Ye shouldna talk so, Airen! Ye ken what has happened in our family because of that house!”

My interest peaked. “What happened?”

Mina waved off my question, picking the teapot up with an unsteady hand.

“Death, Aiden. Death happened to our family,” Brenda answered.

“It’s not cursed. Death happens, Auntie. There’s naught we can do to change that. No one lives forever,” Airen disputed, rolling her eyes with a shake of her head.

Grant tapped the photo album with his thumb and then flipped the page. “The house was close to the water, I’m assuming, but was it rocky cliffside or beach?”

“No cursed? In the first month of our great-great-great-grandmother’s marriage, her first husband was killed on the beach returning home from a shipping venture. She found him halfway down the beach from where his skiff lay overturned in the sand with a knife sticking out of his chest.”

Years later, our great-great-grandmother’s husband went out riding his horse. She watched from the window as the horse reared up, tossing him off. She ran over to where he lay unmoving on the ground, the horse nibbling the grass beside him, and him with a broken neck.”

And let’s not forget our great-grandmother, whose husband was out tending the sheep when a heavy fog rolled in, disorienting him. He ended up walking right off the cliff and fell to his death on the rocks below. If that’s no a curse, then what is?”

“That’s all circumstance, nothing more,” Airen replied back hotly.

“Aye? And what of my grandfather? He just decided to take a swim in the well for fun? And my father? Ye ken what happened to yer granddad,” Brenda said, leaning forward, staring intently at Airen.

Airen rolled her eyes. “The reports showed he was drunk when his car went off the cliff, Auntie. Ye ken it as well as I do.”

“Yet he never drank a drop in his entire life,” Mina answered before Brenda could reply.

“And yer father?” Brenda asked, her voice changing to make the question less harsh.

Mina gasped, bringing her hand up to her mouth.

Airen seemed surprised. “My father died of a heart attack. At home.”

“Did ye ken that yer father had been out to the old house taking measurements? Did ye not know that yer parents were going to be moving ye to Ireland to take over the upkeep of it?”

“Brenda, no!” Mina cried out.

“Ye canna keep it from her anymore. I’ve stayed quiet all these years. I’ll no do it anymore,” Brenda said, giving Mina a stern gaze.

“I think I would have known if my parents were moving us. There would have been boxes and everything else,” Airen said, looking over at Mina for confirmation.

Mina never looked up and never disputed what Brenda had said about the move.

“The day yer father died, he was drawing up new plans for the house. He’d gone out to inspect the roof and the foundation, but there was no saving it. It was also on the day yer father died of a heart attack that the house collapsed in on itself. The House de Fleur is no more. Do ye still think it’s coincidence, lass?”

Airen shot out of her seat. Chest heaving, she pointed her finger between Brenda and Mina. “Ye picked one hell of a time te tell me all o’ this. How could ye?”

She ran out of the room and up the stairs, her door slamming hard in its frame, cracking like a gunshot.

Brenda’s face, tinged in remorse, looked down as she took a few minutes to compose herself.

They were the longest minutes of my life, because all I wanted to do was run up the stairs and check on Airen. Hearing news like that in the midst of strangers was not only unfair, but it was also earth shattering. But I couldn’t do that. I needed to stay and hear the rest of what Brenda hadn’t said. The information about Robert. And I prayed she’d give us something solid to go from, so we could nail the bastard once and for all.

Getting caught up in Airen’s family was never the plan. I had to remember that.

“My apologies, Agent Jackson. But ye have to understand all of it in order to understand it at all,” Brenda said, breaking the silence.

She looked over to where Mina sat, stone faced and just as pale. “Mina, it wasn’t my intention to hurt ye, but she needed to know. She deserved to know.”

Mina’s lips pressed tight, forming a rigid line of white. Seeing she wouldn’t get anywhere with Mina, Brenda turned back to Grant. “It’s a terrible history of the house for sure. And I really don’t know why Robert would choose to use de Fleur as his alias.”

My mind whirled with everything she said. If it were true about all the deaths linked to the house, then someone as mad as Robert de Fleur would feel like the name of it would give him power. Using it was a way of boosting his evilness, if only in his eyes.

“Is, or maybe was, there a history of mental illness in your family?” Grant asked, pulling a notebook and pen from his pocket.