“My brother,” the older man interrupted him. “He knew about the clues and the map.”
“I need to be looking out for him, too? Him and the entire Kelly family? Dad, I don’t know if I can handle this on my own.” Mark’s eyes pleaded with his father’s.
“Don’t worry. I’m going to help you however I can. I promise. I’m not going to send my son to save my daughter for me without being a part of it.” Peter placed a hand on Mark’s shoulder reassuringly. “You’re stronger than you think, anyway.”
Mark let out a resigned sigh, but his expression remained determined. “What do I do if I happen to run into him? How’s he going to react to me getting between him and that book?”
“That’s why you need to avoid him if you can,” Peter answered, quickly returning to his stern and serious posturing. “He’s been after that book for a long time, you know.” He redirected his gaze to the floor, as if unable to look his son directly in the eyes. “I honestly think he’d do anything to get his hands on it.”
“Anything?” Mark asked fearfully, an eyebrow raising slightly.
“Yes,” his father replied. “He won’t care if you or Grace or me or anybody in the whole goddamn world is in his way. He’s unstable and absolutely hell-bent on getting that book, and he won’t hesitate to harm you or your sister if he thinks he has to.”
16
Kilian grunted,his eyes snapping open as something hard landed on his stomach.
Rubbing his gritty eyes, he saw his backpack. Grace stood above him with a smirk on her lips. A cup of tea steamed in her hands as she took a sip. Black tea from the smell of it, if he didn’t miss his guess.
He wiped his hands over his face. Despite the sleep, he didn’t feel rested. In fact, it was the complete opposite of the way he had felt yesterday morning. Yet there she stood with her morning tea, looking completely refreshed and absolutely beautiful. Devastatingly so. He was pretty sure that he looked disheveled and rundown. It was how he felt anyways.
“Come on,” she said sweetly. “Get up.”
He picked up his watch. 6:00 AM. “Why? It’s not as if we’re on a tight schedule,” Kilian said gruffly.
“You weren’t this testy yesterday morning,” Grace said. “Didn’t realize you needed sex so much.”
“This has nothing to with sex,” he said, slamming his backpack onto the floor next to him. “I can sleep just fine without having any.”
“Well, you’re definitely not happy this morning,” she said, taking another sip of her tea.
“That is a perfectly good bed,” he said, pointing to the queen she had slept on last night. “That I could have slept on next to you. And I would have been able to get a decent night’s sleep.”
“And I told you we weren’t sleeping together, and I didn’t want to deal with a whiny man who wanted to get laid,” she said, her hands tightening around her mug.
He threw up his hands and stalked to the bathroom.
She followed him and stood in the doorway as he started the shower. “What?” she demanded.
“Yes, I enjoyed having sex with you the other night. And yes, I would like to have a repeat performance. More than one in fact,” he said, spinning to face her. He yanked off his shirt. “But I am not in the habit of begging a woman for sexual favors,” he scowled. “Thought you would have picked up on that when I willingly went along with your plan of me sleeping on the floor.”
He dropped his hands to his belt and Grace’s eyes followed the movement.
“Now get out, I need hot water,” he said as he yanked down his pants and stepped naked into the hot shower. It helped counter the dismal night he had on the floor. He washed up quickly and got out to dry off.
“Why are we up this early?” he asked, in a slightly better mood.
“We need to get back to the Wishing Bridge,” Grace said, and lowered her mug to the coffee table and bit into a small muffin.
“Well, yes,” he said. “I want my car back as well.”
She waved her hand in the air dismissively but said nothing. Finishing her tea, she shoved his backpack at him. He looked at it, then at her, and held up his hands in the age old “Well?” sign.
Grace sighed, “Come on. We really need to get back. I know why we couldn’t find the clue.”
He grabbed his backpack. “What did we miss?”
“We just weren’t looking in the right spot,” she said, shouldering her pack.
