Antonio and Sophia exchanged a look.
“Terrible in the same way,” Nikolett amended. “A man who didn’t seem to think of children, his children, as real people.”
Again, not unique since her own father could also be put in that category. She wished she had more evidence to go with this bone-deep certainty.
“Gus told me that his father named him Angus McAngus, and then later admitted it was meant as a joke. He didn’t care about his child enough to give him a real name.”
“Eric’s name is a joke too?” Grigoris asked.
“No,” Eric said without opening his eyes. “Or maybe it was meant to be, but it’s a perfectly normal name. However, my biological father would absolutely have named a child something he thought was stupid.”
“Your father was Scottish?”
“No, he was Swedish.”
“There are a lot of things that don’t add up,” Antonio said slowly, as if reluctant to debunk her theory.
“If he was an illegitimate child, he might resent Eric for being legitimate, and being treated better,” Sophia mused.
“My biological father was a part of my parents’ trinity, but not a part of our lives. He wasn’t the man who raised me.” Eric finally opened his eyes. “He didn’t treat me well, didn’t treat me badly. My parents didn’t let him near me for most of my life.
“From what I do know about him, I wouldn’t be surprised if he had affairs and simply abandoned any children who resulted from those.”
“They have the same blood type,” Regina added. “Nikolett asked me to check just after the crash. I was able to save some still-wet bloody gauze from when Eric broke his nose and sent it to be tested. B negative.”
“A rarer blood type,” Sophia said, “but not conclusive.”
“We’ll need a sample for a DNA test.”
“Getting a sample means getting him in custody.” Eric rose, making his way out of the cell. “We’re already hunting him.” Everyone nodded.
Nikolett arched a brow at him.
Eric sighed. “And someone work on this theory that he’s my long-lost brother because it’s so fucking ridiculous it’s probably true.”
“Any other thoughts on who he might be?” Sophia asked Nikolett. “You have the best instincts when it comes to our current adversary.”
“Thank you for the compliment, but I don’t. I was going to marry him.”
“But you didn’t,” she said simply. “And you were the first one to pose the idea that Angus might be the Spaniard. You were right about that, and I think we should assume you’re right about this. Instead of trying to prove it, we try to disprove it. If no one can definitivelydisprovethat Angus is Eric’s brother, then we move forward with that as our working theory for why he’s targeting Eric.”
Nikolett blinked, shocked that Sophia was willing to base the battle plan on her instincts.
“I still want people searching for him,” Eric said, nudging Nikolett toward the stairs. “Also, we need to get out of here. It’s cold and damp.”
“You’re the one who brought me down here,” she protested as everyone took the hint and headed for the stairs. After herbombshell announcement, Eric had sat down and refused to get up, hence her bringing more people down here for this talk.
“I forgot the old storage rooms and collapsed tunnels make this place too wet and drafty to be usable.” Eric pointed to a half-fallen arch tucked under the stone stairs. “If we seal that up, we might have a working dungeon.”
“You could just get some kink equipment for the bedroom like normal people,” Sophia pointed out.
“It’s not a kink, it’s a relationship strategy,” Eric told her archly.
Nikolett knew she was blushing as they walked single file through the narrow stairwells and halls.
Antonio ignored the byplay. “We need to make a list of things that don’t make sense about the brother theory and try to answer those questions. Like why a Swedish man would give his half-Spanish child a Scottish name.”
“That’s assuming his mother is Spanish,” Regina countered.
