Eye of the Falcon (Psychic Visions #12)(98)
“Drivel? Yeah, honor, respect, a code to live by—you would think that was drivel.” Eagle turned his gaze back to Issa and said, “This is your show.”
She tilted her head. “I know some of you were my father’s friends. Some of you were his enemy. You feared him but were loyal as long as he was there to lead you and so long as you profited by his work. Some of you probably didn’t like his stance when everything blew up. And maybe you even turned on him. For all I know maybe you even killed him.”
At that, there was an angry stirring around her.
She snorted. “Don’t bother telling me that you would never do that because, from all I’ve seen in the last few weeks, not one of you has any honor or any sense of morality left. I don’t know what you’re looking for. I never did.” She looked down at Liam. “Did you have something to do with those girls being trafficked in those casks? Did you convince the others the casks were full of gold and jewels?”
He snorted. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
But his gaze shifted.
She smiled a hard cold calculating smile. “In other words, you did. Were you the one who arranged it? Did you do it in Dad’s name? Hoping he’d never find out, or hoping he wouldn’t give a shit? So what were you hoping to find by kidnapping me? The jewels? The money?”
Several men bound to their feet. “She lies.”
“Really? Are you aware that those six casks held young French girls stolen from their families for the sex trade in Ireland? That’s why my dad stood up and put his foot down. He was a smuggler, but he wasn’t a sex trafficker. And he’d have no part in hurting young women. Remember the code? Remember women and children first? That’s why he took the bullet. He died trying to do the right thing.”
Chapter 30
“The gold, you stupid bitch,” her brother roared. “Where is the gold?”
Issa stared at her brother dumbfounded. “How the hell would I know?”
“Because the last time I saw you, you were stealing all the gold. They were old gold coins. They were rolled up in leather pouches. And he was taking them away one at a time.” His voice increased in volume. “On your goddamn orders.” And, as if a cork had been held in for way too long, then blew its top, he spilled words that seemed to have no end.
She could only stand in shock and horror as his vitriol rolled over her.
“Everything was you. Everything was you and that damn bird. Father was to buy a falcon for me. I’m the one who wanted to go into falconry. But, oh no, no, no. Somehow you and that stupid thing bonded. It became all about you. I never got anything I wanted. It was bad enough that he had his perfect two sons and the third one was just not old enough to be of any real value but was too young to be treated like anything other than a boy. I was still doing a man’s job. But you were just a girl, and you got the incredibly expensive Hadrid. And he should’ve been mine.”
He shook his head. “I didn’t have anything to do with the girls coming over. But I knew all about the gold. I knew all about the valuable cargo. And I was going to make sure I got some for myself. Da promised me that, if I wanted an education, I could have one. But he had also promised me a falcon. And we saw how well that worked out.” His wrath and poisonous tone filled the room.
She shoved her hands in her pockets. “So you blamed a child because a bird preferred her?” she asked in disbelief. “If you knew anything about falconry, then you would know that the bird chose me. I didn’t choose the bird.” She settled into a wider stance and glared at her brother. “What kind of a life did I have? I spent all my time on a cliff, in the dark, alone. And I mean, alone. Nobody was there to work with me. Nobody was there to help me. To make me feel not so terrified. My life was nothing compared to yours. You at least got to go out—anytime, anywhere. You got an education. You got to go to school. I never did.” She snorted. “I was necessary as a lookout.”
“Bullshit,” he roared. “You were never alone. You were mother’s favorite.”
She studied him, and, in a soft voice, she said, “You don’t know, do you?”
He frowned, anger still riding him. He glared at her. “Don’t know what?”
“Mother was never with me. She was always in the house, screwing Angus.”
Gasps of shock rolled through the room. She tilted her head and nodded. “And it never came out at his trial because Mother never stood up for him. She never confessed what she’d done. You know he doesn’t even know if I’m his child or Dad’s?” she said in a conversational tone. She shrugged. “I guess it doesn’t matter much now. But she never once spent time on the hillside with me. How do you think I fell in the crevice in the first place?”
He settled back and looked at her with disgust. “What?”
She nodded. “That’s right. And even that night when everything blew up, I had been sick. I had a fever and a runny nose. I shouldn’t have been out on the cliff side in that stormy weather. I should’ve been in a warm bed. I actually came back to the house to ask Mother to take my place, so I could be inside because I was cold. I couldn’t get warm that night. I came to the house only to find her in bed with Angus. I shouldn’t have been at the house at all, but I didn’t go back out on the crags, so I hid before they saw me. Except Mother did. Angus didn’t though. And then there were shouts and gunshots down below. Mother and Angus both bolted up, got dressed and raced down to the cliffs. Mother went down a different way after Angus, leaving me behind, but I went down too, much slower. Again, I was alone. You were always with the family. I was never with Mother. She had Angus.”