Chapter 24
“Like what?” Issa challenged, not sure she was ready for more family hits.
But Eagle was never somebody to back off. He watched her quietly. “A mother who may very well have had something to do with either her husband’s or her sons’ deaths.”
It was delivered in a flat tone, like he had left no room for frills or niceties. She sank back in her seat, remembering what she’d learned so far, how she had even had these thoughts too, and said, “Oh.”
She turned to stare moodily out the window. It was as if she visited a foreign country, without the joy of being on holiday. Foreboding filled her; resentment rode on her back. She didn’t want to be here. She didn’t want to be dealing with this. But, at the same time, she was incredibly afraid for Panther. If they’d taken his tooth, what else had they taken? And what had they done to Tiger too?
She remembered her father’s men had been nothing if not direct. They had lived by a strong code, and they were just as likely to jump each other if one broke the code. But, in their own way, they were honest. It was hard to believe any one of them would’ve done this to Panther.
If her mother had known the details of the smuggling operation or the men involved, she hadn’t cared to divulge any of those. Issa had tried having those conversations with her mother for years, for decades, but she’d just shut down. “Any time I asked about my history, about my family, about Ireland, my mother wouldn’t talk to me for days.”
“Did she ever tell you about your brothers?”
“She never mentioned them. Like that part of her life was a hundred percent over, never to be reopened.”
Hawk gave a low whistle. “That’s pretty hard to do. If you loved your children, it’s automatic to talk about them. I know they all died at the same time, but it’s almost instinctive to bring them into a conversation. It gives them life, keeps the memories alive.”
“I think that is what she didn’t want,” Issa said. “She didn’t want to remember them. It was as if she was glad they were gone.” Issa shook her head. “For all I know I was supposed to die too.”
“Why do you say that?” Eagle asked.
She turned to look at him. “That night a hell of a storm blew in. She never once came and checked on me. At the time I knew it was because I had a job to do. I was expected to do it no matter what. But it was hard to stay out there in the darkness. If it wasn’t for Hadrid, I don’t think I would’ve survived.”
“As in, you might’ve died out there,” Eagle asked, “or, as in, it was a terrible night, and you were lonely and cold and miserable?”
“The second. I was sitting on the edge of a cliff, and I had to walk home in the dark. Let me just say that, if I ever have a child, I will never let them go alone out on the edge of a cliff in the dark and ugly weather. I don’t think my safety was ever part of my mother’s thoughts.”
They continued for another ten minutes in silence. The country was harsher than she’d expected. Craggy rocks, hilly sides, green on top, brown on the bottom. Water, so much water in this corner of the world. Then she remembered her father had a boat. Used to move goods up and down the coastline. “I wonder what happened to his boat.”
She explained further to the two men. “I don’t remember seeing any deeds of ownership to the house or boat or any vehicles in my mother’s papers.”
“But you don’t know if they’re in the safe-deposit box or whatever else we came here for.”
“No.” She turned to look at him with a half smile. “Did it ever occur to you how much my world has been impacted by those first two boxes?”
He nodded. “Your world has been one of secrets, misinformation, double dealings, and treachery. Time to clean out the secrets and the poison, so you can move forward as a whole person and leave all that baggage behind.”
She studied him carefully. Then stroked his cheek. “That sounds perfect.”
The vehicle slowed and turned into a driveway, which climbed and twisted and climbed some more. When it finally came to a stop, the headlights showed a ramshackle house sitting on top of the hill. She was riveted.
“This is it,” she said. “This is where I lived.” She opened the car door and stepped out. She walked around to the side, both men rushing to catch up with her as she headed toward the building.
She stood in front and stared, memories cascading through her mind. Liam and Sean running through the house, always busy, always on the go. Her father, Rory, telling the lads to behave. Her mother silent at the stove. Issa frowned. Had her mother always been so quiet? Issa didn’t understand. Even now she didn’t understand who her mother really was. The mystery was less about Issa and more about her mother.
Issa slowly approached the building. It was in a sad state of disrepair. At the top front step the door was propped open with a rock. She stopped and turned to look around. Some of the fog had lifted. Clouds let the blue sky peek through. And she could see for miles. That she remembered. She didn’t want to go into the house. She stood, staring, realizing how much of her life here she had spent outdoors. On the crags, sitting and watching, always staring upward and outward.
Eagle stepped in front of her, his gaze direct and clear. “You okay?”
She gave him the briefest of smiles. “I will be. Thank you for bringing me.”
He studied her for a long moment and gave a clipped nod. “I’ll go in first. You stay here.”
Before she could argue he disappeared into her cabin leaving her with Hawk. When he returned a few minutes later he said, “Let’s go. I want to make sure we get home as fast as possible.”
On that note she slipped past him and stepped inside. She didn’t have good memories or bad memories of this place. She had disconnected memories that made no sense. In a family of mostly men and being so much younger than the rest, she hadn’t found a place for herself easily. Yet she hadn’t felt the back side of her father’s hand either. She somehow felt he loved her, but she didn’t have memories of him carrying her on his shoulders or of his laughter. She did remember his big booming voice. The hard edge to it. There had been a constant stream of people through the house. And he ruled whatever clan he had with an iron fist. But he also held the respect of everyone around. She remembered that. Nobody seemed to argue with him in the house. They came; they spoke and then left. She used to sit up in the crags just over the side of the house and watch people come and go.
She wandered through the small living room, the kitchen, both rooms barely recognizable. Certainly not habitable. “Nobody has lived here since we left, I assume.”
“Not that I could find,” Hawk said.
She crossed to the kitchen window where she used to see her mother standing at the counter, either cooking or washing. And she stared out at what her mother must’ve stared at for many years. “I wonder if she was ever happy.”
“It doesn’t sound like she was. Hopefully when she was younger.”
Issa turned and studied the walls. “Are we expecting to find the other keepsake box here?”
“I’m hoping you can tell us that.” Eagle stood at the doorway, watching her. “She mentioned a deposit box, bank accounts, and the duplicate keepsake box. But finding that last one might be a challenge.”
She shrugged. “Who knows? Depending on where she left it, it might have been thrown away a long time ago. What’s treasure to one is garbage to another.”
She wandered through the downstairs to her parents’ bedroom—the ceiling tiles hanging now, holes in the walls, floorboards scuffed and ruined. She gave it a quick glance, then turned and headed for the stairs. The two men followed silently behind her. There was no light, and it was hard to see. Hawk turned on a flashlight and handed it to her.
She took it gratefully and led the way.
“My brothers had the larger bedrooms.” She walked into the first and took a quick glance around, then headed into Liam’s. Her eldest brother, Ethan, hadn’t been here very often, and, when he was, he bunked with Liam.
Hers was a much smaller room, and, as she stepped inside, waves of remembrance washed over her. “This was mine. I used to sit for hours at a time here, staring out the window.” The window was small, at the peak of the roof. The room was made even smaller with the slanted ceiling, so she could barely stand upright. But, as a child, it would’ve been fine. There was still some kind of a blanket on the floor. She stared at it and wondered. She walked over and picked it up. She smiled. “Hadrid would’ve been after this in a heartbeat.”
“Any chance Hadrid’s alive?” Eagle asked, his voice low and quiet.
She shook her head. “I don’t think so. I’ve spent the last twenty years wondering that. Some falcons live a long time. But I never felt him after that day. I’m pretty sure he was shot and killed.”
Only silence came from the men as she stood for a long moment in the small room. Finally she said, “I have no idea about this keepsake box.”
“What was your favorite place?”
She frowned. “I don’t remember having just one. I had several, depending on the circumstances. Figures that there’d only be a vague reference to the location. Then that was my mother.”
She studied her room. This hadn’t been her favorite place. She turned, gave her brothers’ rooms one more quick cursory look, and then walked down the stairs. She headed outside to the crevice where she used to sit all the time, watching the comings and goings in the house below.
Her mother had to call her over and over again to get her inside. At the time it seemed natural. Normal. Now she wondered why a young child preferred to be outside in the elements rather than inside the family home.
When she got to the spot where she used to sit, she turned and crouched to see what the view was like when she’d been smaller. It was just as wild and wonderful and mysterious as it had been back then. But it had been all she knew.
“Where did you used to sit? Where was your favorite spot here?”
She shot him a hooded gaze. “If she was talking about my favorite place, chances are she was being sarcastic and talking about the one place I loved and yet hated.”
Hawk’s brows raised. “And yet she was your mother?”
She gave him a silent nod and turned, heading to the spot where she’d fallen into the crevice. She didn’t know why anything would be in there. But, in a way, it was also her favorite spot because it was where she had connected with Hadrid. It took a good five minutes at a strong pace to get there. She looked down, realizing it was not that big after all. For a child, yes; for an adult, no. But she’d fallen with her leg caught between the rocks and had not been able to move.
“I fell down here,” she said, motioning toward the opening along the cliff edge. “But, as you can see, nothing is hidden here.”
Hawk and Eagle move forward. Hawk jumped down so he could sit in the spot where she would’ve fallen and study the crevice. He used a flashlight to shine deep inside to see if anything could’ve been wedged in. He shook his head. “I don’t see anything.” He moved toward the opening of the fissure.
“Be careful,” she warned. “It’s slippery. That’s a long way down.”
Eagle jumped down behind him to take a look himself. “How old were you when you were in here?”
“Four?” she said. “I fell in, and I couldn’t get out again.”
“That’s a pretty bad fall for a child so young. What about your parents?” Hawk asked. “Where were they?”
Eagle answered for her. “She was alone most of her childhood. It took hours for anybody to find her.”
Hawk shook his head. “You were pretty young to be left alone.”
“Not in my family. It was only the fittest who survived,” she said shortly.
She turned and studied the area, but her mind wasn’t connecting with her mother’s words and what they meant. She turned to look back at the house, trying to remember what she would’ve done, where she would’ve been the happiest. As she stood here, she thought she saw movement coming up the road. She crouched and whispered, “We have company.”
*
Eagle wrapped his arm around her shoulders and studied the new arrivals. They were still a long way off, but he could see two men. Both of them carried long rifles. He glanced at Hawk. He nodded, hopped up, and disappeared into the mist.
Beside them he could feel Issa shiver. “Take it easy. We were expecting this. We were just hoping to find something first. They will want to know what it is you know.”
“But I don’t know anything.”
He could hear the truth in her voice and the urgency, and knew how close she was to breaking. She’d already been traumatized once. Coming home wasn’t exactly a pleasant experience either. But to be captured now would be an entirely different story.
Still they had no reason to think these particular men were involved.
He grabbed her hand, and together they slowly walked back down. What he didn’t want was be taken by surprise. As he approached the house, he called out, “Hello, what can we do for you?”
Slowly the two figures separated from the wall of the house and stood cradling the weapons across their bodies. One was an old man. “What are you doing here? This is private property.”
Eagle nodded in understanding. “True enough. I brought Issa home to see her old house.”
At her name the two men froze and then turned their gazes on her. “Issa?”
She stopped and stared at them, as if searching to remember who they were. “Yes,” she said quietly. “My mother took me to America not long after everything blew up. This is the first time I’ve come back to Ireland.”
The two men looked at each other and then at her. “You know people have been looking for you for years, don’t you?”
She shook her head. “No, I had no idea. Why?”
The older man stepped forward. “Do you remember me?”
She moved closer so the flashlight would give her more light to discern his face. Then she said, “I’m sorry, no.”
He nodded. “It’s okay, lass. You were young, just a little thing when you left. I’m actually your uncle. Your father was my brother.”
She gasped. “I have family?”
A pained look crossed his features. “Didn’t you know?”
She shook her head. “No. My mother said nobody was left. It was just her and me.”
He scratched his forehead as if perplexed. “I don’t know why she’d do that. You have plenty of family here. Your father was my eldest brother. We have two sisters. You’ve got cousins galore.”
She stared at him. “Then why would my mother tell me they were all gone?”
“She probably just didn’t want you to remember the old country,” the other man said. “It was a painful time for her. It was probably much easier for her to walk away and forget it all.”
Issa nodded.
Eagle watched the exchange, and, although he had worried when he saw the men with the rifles, there was nothing aggressive about their stances. In fact, they looked delighted to see her. “Have other people been hanging around the house?” he asked.
The men shook their heads. “No one’s been here since. After my brother died, everything went to your mother. But she’d lost three sons and her husband, then disappeared.”
Eagle could understand that. So many people put credence in a house being a home, but home was being where your family was. And after Issa’s mom had lost most of her family, she likely felt nothing was left for her here. He put an arm around Issa and told the men, “We’re staying above the pub. We’re only here for a couple days.”
Her uncle chuckled. “That should make you happy. It was your favorite place.”
Hearing the phrase from the letters again, she asked slowly, “It was?”
He nodded. “There’s a little alcove at the top of the stairs. You used to sit in there all the time and wait for your brothers and your father to be done. Your mother was never there. At least not often.”
They slowly wandered back to the vehicle. Her uncle stopped and said, “It would be nice if you could stop by our house to see the rest of the family, although we’re often at the pub too. We never knew what happened to you.”
She smiled at him warmly. “Absolutely. I had no idea anybody was left.”
He nodded bashfully. “Now that you know, it would be nice if you would not be such a stranger.”
Eagle considered himself a good judge of character. But these two men left him cold. He couldn’t decide if they were truly happy to see her or if they had ulterior motives. Their explanation for checking out the property made sense. In any small town anywhere in the world, you’d find a similar attitude with the locals. Strangers poking around on a property that had been empty for a long time usually meant trouble.
Maybe there really was no treasure here. The area was quite depressed. It was hard to say what the economic times were like back then, but he doubted they were any better. Had the smuggling stopped? Maybe a new leader had stepped forward.
The men nodded their heads and slowly started back. But the behavior of the younger man concerned Eagle more. Tall, strong, physically active, almost like a farmhand would be built, there’d been a speculative interest in his gaze. Whether that was at Issa herself for being a beautiful young woman or for her interest in whatever was going on here, there was no doubt her arrival had caused a stir.
And would become that much more when they went to the pub. There was still no sign of Hawk. He’d stepped into the shadows and stayed there. He was very good at that.
Issa walked toward him, looped her arm through his, and said, “We can leave now.”
He slanted her a sideways look. “Are you ready?”
“Yes.” In a low voice she said, “I thought for sure they would have something to say about Panther and Tiger.”
“I’m not sure those men are involved.”
“I hope not. They’re family.”
“But are they?” He squeezed her hand against his body and walked back to the car.
The men were down the road, and they’d have to drive past them. And Eagle didn’t want them to see Hawk. On the other hand, Hawk may have already walked to the pub.
At the car she stopped and asked, “What about Hawk?”
“You never have to worry about Hawk,” Hawk said from behind her. He glanced at Eagle. “You drive. I’ll crouch down in the back as we pass them.”
Eagle nodded.
With him and Issa in the front, and Hawk stretched out in the back, Eagle slowly drove down the road, passing the two men with a hand wave, and carried on to the pub. He didn’t know whether the word had already passed around that Issa was here or if it was normal for the pub to already be bustling by the time they walked in. A staircase going up led to their rooms, letting them avoid the center of activity.
Upstairs Eagle said to her, “Does any of this seem familiar?”
She shrugged. “Not this part. But the alcove is. I remember sitting here, while my dad drank.”
“Was it big enough to hide anything inside it?” Hawk asked.
“I wouldn’t have thought so. Yet it was big enough to hide me most of the time.”
“Any other way to get to it?”
She frowned and thought about it. “I think so. There was a bathroom up top. One of the reasons why I could stay there. Any time I needed, I could go to the washroom.”
“Can you get to that alcove without going through the pub?”
She turned her gaze on him. “Is that an issue?”
“It would be nice to not have everybody see what we’re doing.”
Understanding dawned. She stepped out in the hallway and took a look. “I used to run up and down this hall all the time.” She led them to the far back wall and a second staircase. “This is the one the staff uses.” She walked down a few steps, and there was a small landing. She stepped off to the side of it—a space the size of a broom closet. “This is where I stayed all the time.”
She bent down and peered through the lattice work. She pointed out the noisy pub below. “My dad sat below me. And I was up here.”
“Did you have Hadrid with you?” he asked in a low voice.
She shook her head. “No, Hadrid stayed outside.”
“And did he give warnings?”
She nodded. “Of course. That’s what his job was. It was to keep watch all the time.”
“And you weren’t down there in the main part of the pub because you were the lookout while your dad was meeting with some people?”
She nodded. “He often held his business while I was here. This is where he conducted his meetings.” She bent down lower, her fingers tracing scratches she’d made a long time ago. “I wrote my name here. See?”
He peered closer, and, sure enough, in the wood was her name. “What did you scratch it with?”
She frowned. “I’m not sure. Maybe a nail.”
He watched her work on her memories, dredging up fragments that were so close and yet so far away. He understood how frustrating it must be. “It was a long time ago. Don’t worry about it.” He studied the area, his fingers gently tapping along the walls. “Interesting. Could you have hidden something here?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know what. It’s a pretty small space.”
“What about any of the places up and down the hall? Did you ever go to any of the bedrooms? Or a closet?”
She turned to the closet a few steps up. “That holds the bedding for the guestrooms. I used to go in there and sleep,” she admitted. “But they didn’t like it when I did that.”
Hawk, standing at the top of the stairs, gave her a hard look, turned, and studied the closet beside him. He opened the door and said, “Where did you sleep?”
She pointed to the bottom. “I used to tuck in the back on the floor. It’s deep enough I could stretch out and sleep.”
He squatted down and then started to stand, only froze. Returning to his hands and knees, he pulled out a keepsake box she recognized. It matched the one she had at home. She watched as Hawk backed out slowly.
She gasped. “I know that box. I used to leave notes in there for my friend.”
Hawk straightened and closed the door, taking the box with him, while Eagle motioned her back up the stairs. “To the room, now.”
Safely inside her and Eagle’s room, the three of them stared at the box.
“Surely this couldn’t have been there the whole time?” she said.
“It was in the very back with other larger cardboard boxes. I only noticed it because I recognized the corner as similar to the picture Eagle sent me.”
*
Stefan sat cross-legged on the floor, a blank canvas in front of him. Not on an easel but flat on the floor. He took a deep breath and waited for the energy inside him to calm. He had no idea what he was supposed to paint. He only knew he had a persistent sensation that something was happening. Something bad. And he was supposed to do something about it. But he could help only so many people in the world. His ever-expanding network of skilled energy workers around the world was a miracle in itself. But—as the network increased in size, as they sent out messages far and wide—they got far more responses than they ever thought they’d get.
And it was taxing all of their energies, which he knew was foolish because the universe was full of energy. He should be able to tap into Mother Earth’s core at any time. But, at the moment, something was making extra strong demands. He didn’t know what. He sat for a long moment and then watched as his right hand reached once again for the black pencil.
He groaned. “Humbug, is that you? What’s changed?”
But a different cry was in his ear.
He twisted his head to look out the window. He could see the huge wingspan of a large falcon. But even as he watched the bird out the window, it faded and blended into the window, then separated. From that he could only assume the bird was dead, leaving behind a strong spirit here. Some people referred to these animals as spirit animals. Strong guardians over their human companions. Not companions in the real sense of the word but watching over those connected to them.
Like a psyche trying to return to its living, breathing form.
It reminded Stefan of his earlier experience, his first flight with the animals—or his first flight through a bird’s eye view. What a powerful event that had been. So powerful that his psyche willingly wanted to leave his body behind. Permanently. If it hadn’t been for Maddy, Tabitha, and his beloved Celina … He shook his head. Stay in the present moment, Stefan.
Of course it would be a bird. Everything in his world right now was birds. Feathers were everywhere inside and outside of his house. He could barely take a step without finding yet another one. Celina just smiled and kept sweeping them up. He wasn’t quite so generous. But, at the same time, he knew they were signs. Messages. And he was obviously not getting it. Even though the birds were revealing more breadcrumbs for him to follow.
As he went to draw the owl once again, his hand stopped. Surprised, he realized something else was going on here. He closed his eyes, tilted his head down, and sent out a whisper. “Tell me what you need. Show me what you need.” Then his hand took off, sketching like a madman across the two-foot-by-two-foot canvas in front of him.
He kept his eyes closed, knowing something special was happening. There was a sense of urgency. A sense of panic. He could feel the birds outside alighting, more agitated, their vocals louder, stronger. It was hard to know what was going on. And yet he knew that, if he pushed it, if he opened his eyes and interfered in the process, he’d break the spell, and he’d have to start over again.
Accepting that, he sank deeper into the trance.
He barely heard the door open or his wife approaching, but, when she sat beside him, not touching, just sitting close to him, her whisper was audible. “My God, Stefan.”
Finally his hand dropped. Sore, fatigued, the inside of him squished flat, like run through some kind of a wringer washing machine, he felt a sense of exhaustion both for himself and whoever sent the message. He opened his eyes, and one of the most incredible wildlife pictures sat before him.
In black charcoal on the white canvas was a beautiful falcon soaring high above a craggy cliff. And yet at the same time, in the top corner was, once again, a very small faint owl’s head. Humbug overlooked the whole process, and yet this falcon, the same spirit falcon that he’d seen earlier, soared across his canvas. So majestic, Stefan swallowed. He didn’t understand what was going on, but he did know one thing. He would keep this drawing.
Celina slipped her hand into his. “He’s dead, isn’t he?”
“I don’t think so. But, if he is, he’s got a very strong message to give.”
“How can you tell?”
“Look at his feet.” And, indeed, dangling from his talons were jewels, long strands of brightly colored jewels.
“Necklaces?” She stared at the canvas for a long moment and said in bewilderment, “I don’t understand.”
Stefan sighed. “Neither do I.”