She goes pale. “Simon Davies? The most powerful crime lord in all of Europe and likely the entire world? Simon Davies who was… Sweet baby Jesus do not tell me they were the ones…” She looks around us and whispers the rest. “The ones who killed him?”
“It was an accident, my father said. Davies wasn’t meant to be in that particular mansion that night. They were interrogating a high-ranking member of an Italian theft ring who bargained for his life by telling them his group stole the Queen’s Eye from the museum for Davies. Our fathers got the necklace, but Davies caught them. He recognized them immediately, they’d done business together.”
Isla has her hands over her mouth, her eyes wide and horrified. “They killed him to escape?” she wheezes.
“Aye,” I say gravely. “That had to be the most insane combination of stupidity and good fortune of any crime caper in history.”
“Those fools!” she moans, “If any of the Davies people or their allies knew, both our clans would be wiped off the face of the earth, down to the last second cousin once removed.”
“By whatever combination of luck or magic they made it back to Glasgow and realized the necklace could never be seen. Davies's people would never stop looking for it and finding vengeance for his murder.”
“What did they- Oh, my lord that’s what I was taking, isn’t it?” Isla looks ill, and she shoves her plate of lamb away. “I was lifting the Queen’s Eye. Oh, Papa…”
“You were stealing half of the necklace,” I corrected, “they split the Queen’s Eye in two and each kept a half in a pact to never tell a soul what happened. If they each had half, it would be mutually assured destruction if the secret ever came to light.”
“You know, when I got home from that deeply unpleasant encounter we had at the docks, I told Papa about our run-in and that neither of us would say anything about it, given the large and messy crime scene. I called it ‘mutually assured destruction’ then, and he nearly passed out,” she says, “now I know why. He told me I had to take the item because now that your brother was Chieftain, he didn’t trust that Cormac would keep the pact.”
“Given that the Davies Syndicate is still almost as powerful under Simon’s son’s rule, it would be suicide.” I shook my head.
“There were so many other, smarter ways to handle this,” she sighs, rubbing her forehead. “Wait. Who was the girl they were fighting over?”
Taking her hand, I give it a comforting squeeze. “My mother. Elspeth MacTavish.”
“Papa loved her?” she gasps. “I just… how do I process this? So that’s what ended their friendship.” She looks terribly sad, “Papa didn’t get married until ten years later, to my mother. I know he loved her, very much. But it took him a decade to get over Lady Elspeth.”
Tears trickle down her cheeks. “This is so sad, and stupid, and heartbreaking.”
Scooping her off her chair and onto my lap, I hold her as she cries silently while Edinburgh goes about its business.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
In which Dougal takes Isla for a ride.
Isla…
I’m silent on the flight back to Glasgow.
I know my father was trying to protect me by not telling me what I was taking from the MacTavish estate, but why would he think that Cormac would ever reveal this secret? The Queen’s Eye has been the subject of much speculation since it was taken forty years ago. All this time, it’s been in two pieces held by our clans.
That Dougal was willing to trust me with a secret this deadly… I circle around it in my mind, gingerly poking at the enormity of his trust.
He trusts me.
“I’m going to have to talk to Papa,” I say as we enter the penthouse.
“Why don’t we spend time together tonight,” Dougal suggests. “You can think of how you want to broach this with him, aye?”
He’s leaning against the window in the great room, the weak Scottish sunlight shining through the clouds and lighting up his vivid eyes and huge body. Feeling a weight lift from my shoulders, I nod gratefully.
“Aye. Papa and the conversation is a task for tomorrow. What would you like to do, husband?”
Now, that sly smile makes him look like Lucifer wrapped in a bespoke suit. “Fancy a ride?”
“Oh, you meant this kind of ride.”
That little gem just leaves my mouth without any assistance from my brain and Dougal laughs uproariously. “Well, we can still takethatkind of ride too, sweet girl.”
“Shuddup,” I mumble, making him laugh again.
