Eye of the Falcon (Psychic Visions #12)(77)

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.”