Approaching the man, I notice he’s dressed in an expensive-looking suit, holding a small white box.
“Alec,” I say, “ya’ came after all.”
He’s standing half in the shadows, but his jade-green eyes - just like Cormac’s - are fixed on me. “No. I was there for the first wedding. I just wanted to drop this off.” He pushes the box into my hands. If he wasn’t a big, bad crime lord, I’d think he was nervous.
“Thank you.” I carefully open the thick glossy paper and find an exquisite silver necklace. On the pendant, one side shows the MacTavish crest, and on the other, the Taylor coat of arms. “This is beautiful,” I gasp, “I’m putting it on right now.”
Alec’s hand twitches, as if he was about to help me, but he puts his hands in his pockets instead.
“You and I, we’re more alike than you think,” I say, straightening the pendant on my chest.
“Really,” he drawls in that snotty, infuriating tone, “how so?”
“I know what it’s like to feel love and guilt mixed together. How feeling love for someone is like a betrayal. I fought falling in love with Alastair until he took a bullet for me, I realized then that he was capable of kindness and showing love in return.”
He’s staring down at me, brow furrowed like I’m speaking in ancient Latin.
“I know some part of you wants to accept this, the possibility of more family. Of having brothers, and a sister,” I say.
“I can’t,” he says, face creased in agony. “For years, I wanted to wipe out all the men in your family, especially your father.”
“Aye, it’s complicated,” I agree. “It might take a while. Remember though, ya’ didn’t shoot my Da, I mean,ourDa, when you could have. He wants to get to know you. To make amends. Maybe he never can, but eventually, you’ll give him a chance to.”
Running his hand through his rigidly styled hair and frankly, making it look better, he shakes his head. “I can’t-” He walks away from me, and then back. “I can’t.”
“Not now, then. Can ya’ give yourself permission to leave the option open for later? You came here to give me this gift, after all.”
“It’s an apology,” he cuts me off.
“It’s a gift,” I say. “If you can learn to not hate me, maybe ya’ can do the same for the rest of the family.”
“That will be a cold day in hell,” he says.
“You’ve lived long enough to know that anything,anythingcan happen.” Carefully patting his forearm, I’m happy to see he doesn’t recoil from me. “Da will be here. All of us will. When you’re ready.”
“Tell Alastair he’s an arsehole for me,” he says. “I’ll be seeing you back in London.”
Alec disappears in the darkness, and I hear the high whine of a sports car starting up.
“Was that Alec?” Alastair comes up behind me, sliding a protective arm over my shoulders. “He camehere?”
“He wanted to give me a present.” Holding up the pendant so he could admire the finely detailed crests, I give him a kiss. “It’s a beginning, aye?”
“Perhaps so.”
He’s resting his hand on my cleavage, holding the pendant in his palm and I notice his bloody knuckles.
“What have ya’ gone and done! Did ya’ stab my brother?”
“No love, I didn’t stab him,” he says soothingly, kissing my shoulder. “I just broke his nose.”
I can picture it, blood streaming down Cameron’s face and onto his snowy white dress shirt. “It’s not the first punch thrown at a MacTavish wedding,” I sigh, “and likely not the last. But I’m thinking Morana is mighty displeased.”
“She seemed to agree that a punch to the face was better than stabbing him in the chest,” he says.
His body heat radiates through me like he just stoked a fireplace. My cheeks flush and he has a deviant little grin. He’s looking at me like a starving man looks at pie. “Have you had enough celebration, darling?” Oh, he’s got that smug I’m The Man look again.
Giving a little, ecstatic shiver, I nod. “Aye.”
